‘Gender-Equal Snow Ploughing’ Plunges Stockholm into Chaos

Politicians in Stockholm said the policy of “gender-equal” snow removal has failed after the weather brought Sweden’s capital to a standstill last week, with hospitals reporting a fourfold increase in broken bones.

The city switched to a “feminist” system of clearing snow last winter but last week’s burst of snow, which threw the city into chaos, has cast doubt on its effectiveness.

Hundreds of thousands of people were affected, with the majority of bus routes put out of service and commuters having to wait in queues for several hours.

Previously, fresh snowfalls were cleared first from main roads and by areas like construction sites before being removed from pavements and cycle lanes. As men are more likely to drive and women more likely to travel on foot, more women slipped on the ice which led to complaints that the system was sexist.

Vice-mayor of Stockholm, the Green Party’s Daniel Helldén, admitted that “equality snow removal” had failed the city, and apologised to residents who had injured themselves as a result.

When the Red-Green coalition, comprising politicians from the Social Democratic Party, Green Party, Left Party, and Feminist Initiative, were elected to City Hall in 2014 the introduction of a “feminist” snow clearance was high on the agenda.

But police last week said the system is so bad, with ambulances unable to make their way along Stockholm’s roads, it posed a danger to society. Officer Fredrik Ståhle branded the conditions for drivers in the city “deplorable”.

Opposition vice-mayor Cecilia Brinck called the concept of “gender-equal” snow removal “a little silly”. The Moderate party politician said despite the promise that feminist snow-clearing would make life better for women, its implementation made the weather “bad for everyone”.

Per Ossmer and Martin Westmont from the Sweden Democrats said that the city’s snow clearance plan should not be “characterised by a feminist perspective”.

Speaking for the populist party in a piece for Stockholm Direkt, the pair advised that politicians prioritise delivering an effective transport system over investing “considerable resources” in “gender certifying” various services.

Met Office pledges reliable weather forecasts with supercomputer – Telegraph

Weather forecasts will become far more accurate, the Met Office has promised after it announced a new £97 million ‘supercomputer’ that it suggested will even bring an end to getting caught in the rain without an umbrella.

The Met Office said that from September it will be able to give forecasts six days ahead instead of the current four and calculate temperatures for the next 24 hours with up to 90 per cent accuracy. Currently, it can only do so for 12 hours.

Using one of the world’s most powerful computers — paid for by the government — scientists will analyse data once an hour, rather than every six hours, to give the most accurate predictions so far.

The Met Office hopes it will improve the forecasting of extreme events such as the floods at Boscastle in 2004 or the Somerset Level deluge last winter. “We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Rob Varley, the chief executive at the Met Office.

The Met Office has faced criticism in the past for its inaccurate forecasts, such as when Michael Fish wrongly dismissed the 1987 hurricane that killed 19 people.

 

Climate change PROVED to be ‘nothing but a lie’, claims top meteorologist – Patriot Rising

http://patriotrising.com/2014/10/22/climate-change-proved-nothing-lie-claims-top-meteorologist/

THE debate about climate change is finished – because it has been categorically proved NOT to exist, one of the world’s leading meteorologists has claimed.

Climate change has been ‘disproved’ and polar ice is ‘increasing’ [ AP]

John Coleman, who co-founded the Weather Channel, shocked academics by insisting the theory of man-made climate change was no longer scientifically credible.

Instead, what ‘little evidence’ there is for rising global temperatures points to a ‘natural phenomenon’ within a developing eco-system.

In an open letter attacking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he wrote: “The ocean is not rising significantly.

“The polar ice is increasing, not melting away. Polar Bears are increasing in number.

“Heat waves have actually diminished, not increased. There is not an uptick in the number or strength of storms (in fact storms are diminishing).

“I have studied this topic seriously for years. It has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid.”

via Climate change PROVED to be ‘nothing but a lie’, claims top meteorologist – Patriot Rising.

Tony Abbott adviser calls for Bureau of Meteorology ‘warming’ inquiry | Australia news | theguardian.com

Maurice Newman, the prime minister’s business adviser, has called for a government-funded review of the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) to “dispel suspicions of a warming bias” in its temperature record-keeping.

Newman, who has repeatedly questioned the findings of mainstream climate science, wrote in an opinion piece for the Australian that the bureau needed to be investigated over allegations of “temperature manipulation.”

The Australian has run a series of articles questioning data “homogenisation” techniques used by the bureau when collating temperature records. The bureau measures temperatures at nearly 800 sites across Australia.

The newspaper has published the views of Jennifer Marohasy, a climate science sceptic, who has claimed the BoM has “corrupted the official temperature records” by adjusting data and moving the location of temperature monitors to make it appear that Australia is warming.

via Tony Abbott adviser calls for Bureau of Meteorology ‘warming’ inquiry | Australia news | theguardian.com.