…
The Western media was apoplectic about Russia!Trump!Hillary! but apparently missed the real game. Behind the scenes, the Russians were feeding the eco-gullibles “Frack-hate” campaigns in the UK and elsewhere in the hope of curbing the threat Fracking posed to Russian gas exports. It’s paying off — British people are buying Russian gas.
Did the Russians capture Victoria and South Australia? Who knows. The ABC won’t ask, and environmentalists won’t tell. Possibly Putin didn’t need to bother — we’re pretty good at destroying our export industries ourselves.
Before we’d even had a debate here in Australia, everyone “knew” fracking was bad.
h/t to GWPF which has a whole string of stories.
Green Russian Anti-Fraking Campaign paying off: Britain becomes more dependent on Putin’s Gas
David Sheppard, Financial Times, 14/03/18
Half of Britain’s imports of liquefied natural gas so far this year have come from Russia, illustrating how UK households have started sending more money to Moscow after Vladimir Putin made boosting exports of the super-cooled fuel a priority.
The background —Russia’s War on Fracking
Tom Rogan, National Review Online, Feb 2015
Today, Russia is waging another active-measures campaign. But this time Russia’s target is fracking. The facts are clear. Fracking, which is revolutionizing energy politics, offers a cheap, new source of global power. But that’s not all. In offering Europe independence from Russian energy exports, fracking poses a direct challenge to Russia. Because Putin depends for revenue on his oil and natural gas-exports, fracking’s cheaper alternative presents him with a big problem. Indeed, lower oil prices are already driving Russia’s economy into recession.
Facing this threat, Russian intelligence has implemented a three-pronged strategy.
First, Russia has ramped up covert payments to environmental groups in the West. By supporting well-intentioned environmentalists with hard cash (often without their knowledge), Russian intelligence gains Western mouthpieces to petition Western audiences in its favor. Based on Russia’s prior record, we can also assume that Putin has funneled money through intermediaries to sympathetic Western politicians.
Second, the Russian SVR (CIA equivalent) has directed its spies to gather intelligence on the American energy industry….
Finally, Russian intelligence’s biggest cover operation — its RT “news” outlet — is undertaking a massive propaganda campaign against fracking….
Even earlier — apparently Russia tested out the idea in Romania in 2014
Protesters appeared out of nowhere
Romanian officials including the prime minister say that the struggle over fracking in Europe does feature a Goliath, but it is the Russian company Gazprom, not the American Chevron.
Vlasa Mircia, the mayor of this destitute village in eastern Romania, thought he had struck it rich when the American energy giant Chevron showed up here last year and leased a plot of land he owned for exploratory shale gas drilling.
But the encounter between big business and rural Romania quickly turned into a nightmare. The village became a magnet for activists from across the country opposed to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Violent clashes broke out between the police and protesters. The mayor, one of the few locals who sided openly with Chevron, was run out of town, reviled as a corrupt sellout in what activists presented as a David versus Goliath struggle between impoverished farmers and corporate America.
“I was really shocked,” recalled the mayor, … “We never had protesters here and suddenly they were everywhere.”
Before Romania, it was Bulgaria
Austin Yack, National Review, July 2017
In 2012, Bulgaria issued a shale-gas license to Chevron. Immediately, activists pounced, peddling hyperbolic warnings that fracking pollutes drinking water. (In reality, the practice carries a minimal risk of groundwater pollution when done properly.) Protests erupted, and the Bulgarian government caved, banning fracking entirely. Gazprom, Russia’s state-run energy company, proceeded to give the Bulgarian government a 20 percent discount for signing a ten-year contract for the provision of natural gas.
Members of the Sierra Club were clueless about where the money came from:
According to the reports, entities connected to the Russian government are using a shell company registered in Bermuda, Klein Ltd. (Klein), to funnel tens of millions of dollars to a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) private foundation, the Sea Change Foundation (Sea Change). This money appears to move in the form of anonymous donations. Sea Change then passes the money originating in Russia to various U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations such as the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, and others. These funds are dispersed as grants that will be used to execute a political agenda driven by Russian entities. The purpose of this circuitous exchange of foreign funds is to shield the source of the money.
— Rep. Lamar Smith and Randy Weber
And were the environmentalists concerned that they were being used as useful idiots by the Russians. Are we kidding? They’re in so deep the greens think they are using the Russians.;-)
And the ABC/BBC/etc will enlighten them any day…
Ruairi
In the West, when it comes to end fracking,
Certain groups will not be found lacking,
If it means the destruction,
Of cheap fuel production,
The Left and the Greens give it backing.
–Ruairi
h/t Pat
“And were the environmentalists concerned that they were being used as useful idiots by the Russians. Are we kidding? They’re in so deep the greens think they are using the Russians.;-)”
See this article:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/09/29/did_russia_promote_anti_fracking_campaigns_in_the_u_s.html
It concludes:
It’s also unclear whether such interference would fall under the purview of Smith’s committee, or any committee at all. Or if this could even be categorized as a crime. In the case of a commodity like oil, which can be bought, sold, promoted, and protested, it’ll be difficult to parse whether anti-fossil fuels ads are dangerous propaganda—or just digital ads. Whatever could be said of those ads could likely also be said of the United States’ own pro-fossil fuels ads, like the American Petroleum Institute’s controversial 2017 Super Bowl commercial, which run regularly without drawing Congressional ire. And while Smith’s letters suggest that many members of Congress severely underestimate the ardent anti-fossil fuel sentiments held by real Americans, it’s hilarious that he thinks anti-fossil fuel sentiment is the result of Russian click farms, rather than genuine (and valid) concern about the extraction method’s environmental side effects, from earthquakes to greenhouse gas emissions.
In other words, this does not seem to be a Russian meddling scandal that demands the time and attention of our governing bodies. Instead of attempting to assess whether Russia has tried to influence sentiment about an inherently porous, capitalistic, propaganda-fueled energy market, Congress should focus its efforts toward understanding whether the country hijacked our sovereignty.
82
No, not a crime. Just trying to promote disinformation to get an advantage. Exactly as was done with the anti-Neutron Bomb campaign decades earlier. And similar to placing FB ads and fake stories to sow discord and disinformation. That’s the point.
40
Wait until they find out that the reason for the nerve agent attack on Britain was probably because the Russians suspected that Sergei Skripal was investigating evidence that Putin was funding anti fracking green groups, militant environmentalists and social media trolling to whip up hysteria to stop energy production in the USA, UK and worldwide. The Russians were also using social media to support anti-fracking politicians and the Scottish National Party (who have now banned fracking in Scotland).
The result of the Russian hyped anti-energy campaigns in the West has been that energy production has transferred from the UK to Russia so emissions have actually increased!
Putin and his gangsters make their billions from energy production so for them the stakes are high,
30
Not through choice, I should add. It’s thanks to those environmental activists, who are determined to stop us becoming self-sufficient. And they are doing it by making it nigh-on impossible to carry out even exploration of shale gas, let alone operating commercial wells. I hope they’ll be satisfied when we are all freezing, after Russia restricts supplies to Europe, and they in turn restrict them to the UK (as punishment for Brexit)…
310
Yes, this hole gas thing stinks!
GeoffW
160
And just a little thought on conspiracy theory; the only ones who will do good out of all this are perhaps the shale gas companys in UK. The anti-Russian sentiment sweeping the country means that they (the shale gas companys) will now have open slather to proceed with fracking. Lot of money there for someone . . think about it. Anything is possible in this ‘McMafia world’
GeoffW
11
It will backfire on the Ruskies, once the russian gas is all used, up, the Brits can then use theirs.
So the russians make a few bucks, big deal, the Brits can run off thier own gas if they want to, they are just choosing not to right now.
I think if push came to shove, the eco nuts would be told to shut up and sit down….
50
They wouldn’t be told, they would be forced to. Britain is very good at doing that when it wants to. Look at the coal miners, look at the Luddites.
40
But the Poms, like Aust, don’t seem to have a Thatcher or Trump just now.
Doug
90
So very true. There is virtually nobody of any use in Parliament that would be any better.
20
“Once the gas is allusen d up…” By then they will have a good nuclear alternative.
Doug
20
Russia is a very very big place, with a lot (to put mildly) of gas.
20
Steve, the Russians have more gas than one can point the proverbial stick at. They will not run out any time soon.
Uk does have gas reserves of their own but they face great opposition from the luny left.
GeoffW
50
Exactly. Russia gives us something of value, we give the value in cash. So what? Now if fracking can give me cheaper gas, great – then I am richer. But exports do not and cannot make me richer.
20
Don’t forget in 2014 it was Russian backed Ukrainian separatists during a conflict to secure Russian gas supply pipelines to Europe that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 killing all 298 on board with 27 Australians amongst them.
154
That’s the story you’ve been fed, anyway.
12
MH17 was a false-flag. Obvious. The fact that they force the Australian Federal Police to clam up at the inquest says it all.
“AUSTRALIAN POLICE, DUTCH PROSECUTORS BREAK WITH DUTCH SAFETY BOARD AT FIRST CORONER’S COURT INQUEST ON MH17 CRASH”
http://johnhelmer.net/australian-police-dutch-prosecutors-break-with-dutch-safety-board-at-first-coroners-court-inquest-on-mh17-crash/
It goes without saying that the fact that the UK is unable to produce any evidence whatsoever that events in Salisbury have anything to do with the Russian government suggests that this is another false flag.
The Russians are even being prevented from visiting with their medical experts the Russian daughter of the double-spy. That is totally contrary to civilised procedures.
11
Given what has happened today –expulsion of the Russian diplomats etc. wouldn’t be a “surprise” if Putin turned off the gas tap to the UK? I’d be surprised if PM May knew much about how dependent the UK is on Russian gas as she doesn’t seem that clued up on the how the EU is trying dictate and bully the UK over Brexit.
180
Britain has huge reserves of natural gas available for fracking. In particular, across the North of England, there is the huge Bowland formation, which even at a 10% recovery rate could meet all of the UK’s current requirements for at least 40 years. Yet Green activists try to nobble any attempt at extraction through spurious claims in the courts, in public enquiries, false propaganda and (most of all) through noisy demonstrations, with the camps causing more damage to the local environment that the extraction ever would.
An example of the false claims is from Friends of the Earth. They made the mistake in a leaflet delivered to local residents of an exploratory fracking site of trying to raise funds. By so doing it brought them under the auspices of the Advertising Standards Authority, a watchdog who would come down on a business who would claim wearings its aftershave would be a feminine aphrodisiac, or (more relevantly) a fast food implying that a competitor’s burgers included horsemeat. The ASA got agreement from the FoE not to repeat the claims made (after many months of time wasting by FoE), unless they can find evidence to support the claims. This did not include the falacious claim that UK gas production will affect climate change. (Note – even if the you believe the climate hype, UK production of gas will make a fraction of 1% difference to global emissions) The FoE misrepresented the ruling, which led to ASA Chief Executive Guy Parker taking the highly unusual step of issuing a rebuttal. FoE still make misleading claims on its website when talking about the risks of climate change and water contamination. But, by not quantify the risks in anyway, it cannot be held to be misleading in the same way the UK National Lottery advertising claims “if you don’t by a ticket you won’t win” are not misleading.
40
I would like to be credited with a wee bit of sarcasm from the freezing Soviet republic of Scotland.
In order to punish the Russians for their (alleged) involvement in a recent poisoning in England of a Russian double agent and his unfortunate daughter, Maggie May is going to stop buying Russian gas.
As we are expecting another beast from the east any day and we will probably run out of home heating, this should be a lesson to Putin.
This is how stupid politicians are here.
Oh and Enguland are threatening to withdraw from the world cup in Russia. Wot a shame!
361
Your anti-English bias is showing strongly ya bug-eyed, beetle-browed tartan throwback!
At least we qualified for it. Jockland as ever failed yet again. So, no change there then.
30
It is a sobering moment for those of us with the misfortune to be English to see the overwhelming support that
your anti English rant has inspired , Mr Healey. More green thumbs than I have seen for a long time.
Hatred to the North of us , hatred (EU) to the South of us , virtual warfare from the East.
I feel like an Israeli and strangely receive comfort from that comparison.
40
The Russians always were good chess players . .
Checkmate or shalemate?
GeoffW
260
Useful idiots indeed. What UK, Bulgaria, etc. need to do is have their police trace the money as Jo indicates here and then explain to the greens what has happened. It may nor do any good as these greens/leftists don’t want to listen. But they must try. Once a country becomes dependent upon Russia, there will be a steep price to pay. PM Minister May will not be able to chastise Putin as in the recent spy poisonings of Russians in the UK. If she would do this once the UK is dependent on Russian gas, then it might get very cold in the UK winter, and she may have no choice but give in to save her people dependent upon Russian gas.
Having greens/leftists determine policies in a country is always a disaster to that country.
280
Serious Warning to Brits- ‘Don’t Feed the Bear’
GeoffW
160
It must have been thirty odd years ago I was told that our local professional dissenters were funded by the Chinese government.
20
Does Russian involvement explain Alan Jones’ anti-fracking stance?
121
During the NSW Hunter Valley roadside gatherings of anti-fracking protestors I often drove past a group outside of Gloucester and on reflection they did look something like Russian peasants.
173
What do “Russian peasants” look like?
41
The protestors outside Gloucester.
142
I think you’ll find that a Russian “peasant” is very different to the Greenpeace/FOE idiots at Gloucester, or anywhere else for that matter. Whilst they may look similar, the Russkies have to cope with REAL poverty and long harsh winters, whereas the local “idiots” live in comfortable fossil fuel heated homes, and drive to their protests in shiny new cars. All supported by welfare payments the rest of us have to contribute to.
Not that I’m in any way bitter, you understand…
40
Dave,
I’m not bitter either.
It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
10
“a group outside of Gloucester”
70
Basket weaving Gloucester fringe dwellers.
https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/coal-seam-gas/agl-new-ceo/stop-fracking-in-gloucester
70
Behind and leading most ratbag protest groups is Union-Soros GetUp.
“Knitting Nannas” and other fools who do not understand that our standard of living is: It’s The Economy, Stupid.
92
Knitting Nannies say “Niet Niet Niet”.
81
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/14/essay-on-the-abandonment-of-logic/#comment-2764850
30
Usually they have large gold chains and Nike trainers -similar to Middle Eastern migrants.
GeoffW
80
Mind you I should like a gold chain myself.
GeoffW
20
The anti-fracking meme is just another reactionary reaction reiterated by reactionists.
Think of stop the Franklin, stop Adani, close Pine Gap, stop offshore drilling, stop logging, stop woodchipping, no more nukes, save the reef, save the whales etc..etc…
How about lower taxes, lower company tax, reduce legislation, reduce government, reinforce separation of powers, careful vetting of immigrants, reduce the national debt, SCRAP 18C!
280
Russian peasants demand an apology. They, at least, have a brain and common sense necessary to survive the harsh Russian winters.
70
An empty vodka bottle and some beetroot peel were found in the trash near Jones’ residence. A white substance in the same trash was almost certainly sour cream. Also, a spraycan marked Mortein which could easily be converted to administer a nerve agent developed in Uzbekistan last century.
But, as Jo says, no motive, since Australia doesn’t need incentives to destroy its industries. It’s what we do for fun. Anyway, we’re moving into a service economy, whatever that is. Sure sounds good. As a toff, I like to be served.
190
A Service Industry economy means you basically produce nothing that could keep your population alive if cut off from the rest of the world……
Ironically, if we had to do such a thing in the future, most of the experience would come from 70 year olds who have already retired…..kids of a Dads Army economic reboot….
130
Cut off from the rest of the world, imagine, the blank stares into blank screens, the confused looks at coffee machines, the anticipation of movement by public transport passengers, the rediscovery of fire, of sticks, of stone, the crouched fear and fascination at the base of the featureless black monolith…..sorry a bit dramatic, apoloigies to Arthur C. Clarke.
110
Case of fear more the enemy within than the one at the gate.
See the war on energy for what it is, politicians and leftist medja,
compliant with radical activists wearing the mask of environmentalism,
condemning wealthy democracies to energy insecurity. It’s a fifth column.
https://www.thegwpf.com/environmentalists-war-on-fossil-fuels-is-helping-vladimir-putin/
230
I would go further and say that the 60s and 70s called and they want their cold war back.
Those of us that lived and studied through that time can see the western military industrial complex, aided by the 5 eyes, is flexing its muscles again and ‘reds under the bed’ – McCarthyism – has always been a good ploy to get the people worked up.
Much, if not all, of the things listed were industrial espionage and not really anything to do with the state. Even the attack on the Russian double (tipple??)agent could well be a leveling of scores by the mafia and nothing to do with the Russian state yet it has been a good excuse for Mrs. May to coverup her problems with BREXIT and the lack of power from unreliables.
176
Crazy stories need to be made up to keep eyes off the cold and the energy shortages. Yes every now and then there is something that does not really suit blaming on climate change. Cold that was blamed on the Arctic being warm cannot continue that way when the Arctic suddenly chills down. Mr Putin is the second choice for a distracting noise.
Lack of warm to blame. If this reanalyzer works the Arctic is now 1.8 C degrees below average.
http://pamola.um.maine.edu/wx_frames/gfs/ds/gfs_nh-sat3_t2anom_1-day.png
110
There is no doubt the United States want the cold war back.Looking back the last 50 years there is much that is unsavoury about U.S foreign policy.I’m glad they’ve ruled out political assassinations in the last 20 years.
73
What about Alabamaside?
10
Did you mean Arkanside? That’s the bodies left behind by the Clintons.
60
The Industrial Military Complex is your friend.
Well… it is my friend at least. Other people I can’t vouch for and the Industrial Military Complex may want to park a large fully tracked armoured vehicle in the middle of what used to be your office building.
Defence is a productive industry. Embracing the IMC would in all likely hood produce more jobs and a better (cleaner) way of life than embracing Renewables. Remember that the difference between an endangered animal and lunch is all a matter of starvation, as is the difference between old growth forest and a warming fire to prevent fatal freezing. Paradoxical as it may sound, the best way to protect the environment is to ensure your society is wealthy and comfortable.
120
Most of you no doubt have seen Canada’s brainless simpleton of a Prime Minister in action recently. His trip to India is only a recent and not the worst example of his stupidity. Leadnow Tides Canada and Sierra Club Canada contributed a lot towards his election and various protests against new pipelines here in Canada. Russia and various far left US groups and the main funders of these orgs. They not only meddle in our economy but directly in our democracy.
91
Around that area.
“Justin from Canada Talks About His Confidence Defeating President Trump Over NAFTA…”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/14/justin-from-canada-talks-about-his-confidence-defeating-president-trump-over-nafta/#comments
And the comments!
50
In Canada, a few media sources are starting to wake up to what some of us have suspected for some time. Foreign activists and foreign activist financing is working to cripple our fossil fuel industry and destabilizing interprovincial relations in the process. Suspects include others besides Russia. The main focus is to prevent or delay Canadian oil and Natural gas from reaching International markets. Considering the size of the trade and position of Canada with the second largest reserves of oil in the world, this is a very inexpensive method of reducing the competition. http://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns/
200
In Canada, it is pretty well documented that foreign money and foreign activists are involved in pipeline protests. It is not just some half-baked conspiracy theory. https://goo.gl/hwTwVo I have no idea if the same is happening in Australia, but it does not hurt to be vigilant. Russia is only mentioned because it is one country that does not have investments in Alberta oilsands and Canada would compete for some of the same Asian markets if we could get the oil there. However, there are American individuals and corporations that could also potentially benefit. Opec countries would have motives as well.
150
Rocky, our Communist trade unionists during WW2 actively refused to load ships to supply troops fighting overseas.
I am not a supporter of war in any form, it does however show you what youre dealing with.
130
Quick! Look under your bed! Is that a dust bunny or a Russian spy? Articles without evidence. Sounds SO familiar. Considering Europe is stabbing the Russians in the back every chance they get, it would be appropriate if they just did what the ecoloons want anyway, and turn off the valves heading west. It would be interesting to see how well the “russophobes” would handle it. Sad that people can be good neighbors and always be blamed for every stupid thing that Europe does to itself.
169
Good neighbours?!? Bwahaha.
121
A bad neighbor would say piss off, freeze your damn asses. Too bad you never made it out of the MSM brainwashing deal. It doesn’t matter if the Russians can make money by selling you gas. You will never get enough from fracking to make more than a marginal difference for a short period of time. But that’s okay, the imperialist British ideas will always say rule Britannia, no matter what happens. I’ll wait to see you join Greece and Spain, and at the rate your brain dead politicians are going, even though I am 74 years old, I should live to see it happen. Don’t worry, even with fracking, the US won’t be far behind. a 1st world nation produces most of what it needs, not imports it, so we can both sing those fine lyrics, “Baby, let me follow you down.”
14
It is a bit like both sides of the cold war lost but it still continues although most pawns have made it too the other side or died.
31
Brits import Russian gas so it could get even colder.
(And coal I believe)
GeoffW
60
That’s a dead dissident or two,not a conspiracy.
11
Europe annexed Crimea? Europe started wars in Georgia and Abkhanazia? Europe imprisons journalists and political opponents? Europe kills dissidents abroad? Europe supports Assad in return for military bases? Europe sent missiles (that shot down a Malaysian airliner) to eastern Ukraine to support separatists? Europe is spending over 5% of GDP rearming?
Absurd.
40
Phoenix44:
The Crimea was Russian for over a hundred years but was given to the Ukraine by Krushchev in return for party support. It contained the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Russia wanted to keep that out of Ukrainian control.
They had reasons to be angry with The Ukraine (and historically for the reverse) about the overthrow of an elected President (OK a corrupt and dictatorial one, but still elected), about the frequent thieving of gas by the Ukrainians and by the sudden move after the revolution to support the west. That removed a buffer zone between the EU and Russia. Don’t forget, and I am sure that the Russians haven’t that they had a lot of problems with Germans (and german allies) in 1941-45. It isn’t the Russians who keep pointing out the predominant position of Germany in the EU. Every time there is a dominant power in Europe they wind up invading Russia (Sweden, France, Germany WW1 and WW2) so a little paranoia is understandable.
41
It isn’t just the Greens that have delusions of grandeur while being used. It is more widespread than that. Let me spell out an overview past just the Greens.
Major monopoly style is very prevalent, including in America. It is basically a two-tier system where power-money elites design monopoly control and set goals across the whole earth. While veiling their moves on the board of life from the people they also spin their practices behind facades. E.g., the facades of socialism, global, constitutional democracy, communism—these are toyed with, but the real intent is power-money elite control and manipulation, and at this point in history the two-tier system appears to be their favorite mode. That is, they still need to fool a lot of people through things like lip-service to some ideal or other.
A U.S. Constitution as well as basic statesmanship, honesty and culture are not at root in this monopoly power-money elite mode. Mother nature as well exhibits comprehensive design, deeply anchored and coordinating universally, something that real scientists are on to. In these cases the dynamic strength is not from deception, cleverness, hidden gimmicks. In these ways freedom, justice and truth have a real chance to overcome the odds of the tyrannic and ignorant ones.
30
I guess anybody critically viewing everything since WW2 would have to see super power politics in terms of resources & energy.
Particularly in the period since 911, what Brzezinski & Zelikow presciently called “this generation’s Pearl Harbour”, US Foreign Policy has been about controlling the World’s energy.
The Arab Spring, Syrian Plumbing , the Qatar/Iran offshore gas field & lately the East Med offshore gas field are all part of the game.
People get sent off to fight wars, GameBoy Drone pilots acquire “collateral” damage, politicians grandstand & get photo ops for instant distribution to YOUR Fondle Slab & “the needle returns to the start of the song…………………..”
51
Yeah… no. Not really.
9/11, far from being ‘this generation’s Pearl Harbor’ is more ‘this generation’s Moon Landing’. It is something everyone of the correct age remembers and has stories about. (mine involves utterly failing a job interview the morning after and recovering by saying that I had been up all night watching the news and was currently still a bit in shock. Got hired.)
What it has not been is a massive call to arms that united the ‘West’ against a culture that openly and shamelessly regards us as immoral, corrupt and who would very happily see us destroyed. Pearl Harbor led directly to US active involvement in WW2 and the destruction of both German and Japan as military powers. The end of this war then lead to the Baby Boom where returning service men and women, knowing now first hand what they had to live for, decided to move forward in a positive way.
(or at least in most parts of the Western World. In the UK they moved to the NHS and cities with a monochrome colour pallet.)
9/11, our Moon Landing, has been a call to cliché. It has become a rallying point for everyone for everything. An attempt at a call to arms for those seeking to defend their ways of life and Example A for those seeking to blame the Evils of the West for all the suffering in the world.
Also people should get sent off to fight wars. The alternative is to keep them home to fight wars. If you must fight a war you should always try and do it in someone else’s garden. Pragmatic. Parabellum.
40
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a030399newpearlharbor
10
“9-11/Israel did it”
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it
Any of you guys are civil/structural engineers? or airline pilots?
I thought so.
02
https://www.vicnews.com/opinion/b-c-views-protest-industry-prepares-for-war-against-alberta-oil/
I KEEP LOSING MY COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD. Perhaps the Russians have hacked in. It is pretty well documented that foreign protesters and foreign financing are involved in pipeline protests. It is not some half-baked conspiracy theory. Russia is only one suspect because of possible motives. Canada would compete for a portion of the Asian market if we could get the product there. There are many more possible suspects, including American interests. Many others, including China, would not be suspected because of their investments in our oilsands
70
In the West, when it comes to end fracking,
Certain groups will not be found lacking,
If it means the destruction,
Of cheap fuel production,
The Left and the Greens give it backing.
240
BTW, the above link is to Victoria News in Canada, in case I have inadvertently confused anyone.
30
Gazprom takes over Europe.
https://www.ft.com/content/7b86f4be-f08e-11e7-b220-857e26d1aca4
30
Its behind a paywall, here is a similar version.
https://www.reuters.com/article/gazprom-europe/update-1-russias-gazprom-buoyant-over-its-position-in-europe-idUSL8N1PP21K
50
Interesting to note that one nation is anti fracking and the meme has also infiltrated into some groups who would be considered right wing , I have friends who are anti green but also anti fracking and when pressed on why it’s almost ideological.
131
It seems so many traditional landusers in my district are against fracking though many aren’t. There is an almost comical incongruity with farmers standing next to eco-zombies, transgenders etc. Show me your genital piercing and I’ll show you mine.
61
We even had a DLP Senator here J. Madigan who despite being a CAGW sceptic (he gave an opening speech at Lord Monckton’s last visit) was ans I believe still anti-fracking because of his close ties to the rural sector.
Even if you present people with the real history of Fracking and prove the USA was increasing its energy independence through Fracking during the Obama administration they will still hold firm to fearful beliefs, the Facking myths have indeed become urban ones.
141
OT but I like to keep an eye on this: at 0755 central standard time, SA wind farms are producing a massive 58MW. A bit early for small solar to contribute much. SA is drawing from NSW which is drawing from Qld, the state that has almost no dependence on wind.
100
30MW from battery storage, that can’t last too long and then the extra power needed to recharge it.
90
One thing at a time
20
More info from Canada;
http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/joe-oliver-yet-more-proof-foreign-radicals-yes-radicals-are-sabotaging-canadas-economy
40
This is the first paragraph of that article which BTW is written by Joe Oliver, a former minister of finance for Canada “The latest proof is in, although the facts have been obvious for many years. Foreigners are financing and organizing opposition in Canada to natural resource development, part of an anti-fossil-fuel campaign that is costing our economy an estimated $15 billion this year, due to lack of access to international markets, and much more in lost capital investments.”
70
Every energy mess and manipulation about the world makes one thing look stellar: Australia’s massive and accessible black coal reserves, lined up neatly down our populated east coast. It really would take a well-funded War on Coal (Sierra Club again, taking millions from Chesapeake and Big Oil) to make us so blind to reason. Even then, you have to wonder how it could work on us. (Oh, yeah, I forgot about the slave media.)
The world brawls over oil, gas, cobalt, lithium, rare earths and just about anything energy-related that isn’t coal. We, the coal-rich Aussies, obediently buy into every brawl (even using our aircraft in Syria to help out secret buddies with a name like a certain Egyptian goddess).
Starting yesterday, Australia’s domestic coal usage needs to be extended, improved and modernised. Coal is the new black. Coal is the new sheep’s back. We might still get dragged into the world’s wars and woes…but at least they’ll have to drag us.
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Yes pick up where we left off, coal to nuclear to thorium to……? isn’t that how technology advances?
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The full quote about Australia being the lucky country, which kind of keeps things in perspective – I love the “surprise” part of the comment, made me think if a rabbit in the headlights….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country
The title of Horne’s book comes from the opening words of the book’s last chapter:
“Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.[2]”
Horne’s statement was an indictment of 1960s Australia. His intent was to comment that, while other industrialized nations created wealth using “clever” means such as technology and other innovations, Australia did not. Rather, Australia’s economic prosperity was largely derived from its rich natural resources and immigration. Horne observed that Australia “showed less enterprise than almost any other prosperous industrial society.”[3]
In his 1976 follow-up book, Death of the Lucky Country, Horne clarified what he had meant when he first coined the term:
“When I invented the phrase in 1964 to describe Australia, I said: ‘Australia is a lucky country run by second rate people who share its luck.’ I didn’t mean that it had a lot of material resources … I had in mind the idea of Australia as a [British] derived society whose prosperity in the great age of manufacturing came from the luck of its historical origins … In the lucky style we have never ‘earned’ our democracy. We simply went along with some British habits.”
In the decades following his book’s publication, Horne became critical of the “lucky country” phrase being used as a term of endearment for Australia. He commented, “I have had to sit through the most appalling rubbish as successive generations misapplied this phrase.”
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Australia till recently has been an inventive and industrious country unlucky in being nagged by second-rate intellectuals (aka Public Intellectuals, Australian of the Year, Living National Treasures etc) like Donald Horne. Or Timmy. Or Heavy Metals Garnaut.
How one can get “lucky” cast down on the other side of the world to everything known is something never explained. Starting with the miracle of Elizabeth Macarthur, there is an awful lot of this “luck” to explain. But I guess that’s why we have The Conversation.
To think we might have been where Argentina is today if we’d only gone in harder on the culture!
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The only thing currently “lucky” about Australia is whether or not we’ll be “lucky” enough to survive the ‘Regulatory Class’ a term I believe first coined by Dr David Evans.
120
What Donald Horne said is still relevant, our politicians lack vision and I’ll add that the Westminster system is a failure.
Of course this is set to change under a Labor government.
10
Interesting comment but was that sarcasm?
30
Nooo-oo-ooo, of course it wasn’t. You know el gordo: shoots straight from the lip every time. 🙂
30
Bill will join Beijing’s Belt and Road, then it’ll be all over bar the shouting.
20
Actually replying to el gordo whose post below has no reply link… You mean Sam Dastyari was actually inside Bill’s tent all along?
30
this is the limit of the nesting depth eh!
30
Dastyari was caught short by foreign largesse and paid the price for being politically naive.
Bill and Penny want to sign up to Beijing’s B and R because of the nation building infrastructure on offer and jobs galore.
Turnbull has been told by Washington that its not on, so the next election will have a strategic element.
20
A quick conversation in the office about the eco-snowflakes trying to ban internal combustion engined car sales from 2030 onwards was met with shaking of heads, followed by “youre kidding, right?…” or words similar.
The general consensus was electric shopping trolleys might be great in western european cities with no real distances, but in Oz with towns an average 100 km apart and places like QLD & WA which is 1000’s of km long and rugged conditions, not to mention road trains moving cattle & fuel etc, means electric anything is dumb, and totally unworkable.
That said, the loopy eco-powers-that-be want to use Agenda 21 to empty the countryside pretty much of people, and force most people into cites.
I think a movement lock down is where its all going. Removing petrol cars is removing freedom by stopping people leaving these cities or really travelleing.
Herding people into cities locks our location down, use of credit cards controls our movement, what we do, where we go.
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This is the thing. They want to force people to live according to a proscribed way. One way of doing that is by making it too expensive to live any other way than the proscribed way. Obama was pursuing policy to make fossil fuels very expensive, but the fracking revolution changed the whole ball game.
40
Must have been frustrating for Horne to think he owned the English language, and have other people appropriating his personal words.
31
Spain!America!
Here it is.Solar minimum.Must have some gas if we are to have any hope.
Geoffrey.
30
Russia is not getting rich. It is getting armed.
60
I met a former USSR military engineer who explained the factory where he worked was several football fields in length by many bays wide and the assembly line included armoured vehicles, tanks, canon and other military hardware.
The production never stopped.
32
Actually they are already very well armed – they are just getting better at it. The Russians are eager to maintain a strong military force to combat any threat that might eventuate no matter who it is. Anyone who thinks they are a spent force must be living under a rock.
50
Russians are always updating and trying to match America ,they have some capabilities that the yanks don’t but when it comes down to it I don’t think they will ever pick a fight they know they can’t win and to a lesser degree same with China.
20
You guys are way overblowing the Russian military threat. Russia simply does not have the economy to build or maintain the military you seem to think they have or are building though I can understand why because of the BS that is published in the general inflating their capabilities. Putin yearns for Russia to return to the status of a real superpower but simply does not have the economic means to realize his dream so he bluffs. He maintains his nuclear triad but the strongest leg of that three legged stool are the ICBMs and intermediate range stuff. They still have not fielded a real equivalent to either the B2 or even the B1 bombers. And though they are second best when it comes to the subs they are still far behind the US in both quantity and quality. What you see is a hard shell. Their Army maintains and equips several Divisions and their Special Operations at world class standards but the majority of the force is substandard in equipment and training. The training and equipment of the US National Guard is much superior to that of the bulk of their regular Army units. Nine out of ten of their conscripts serve their mandatory time and get out ASAP because the conditions are so miserable. Esprit de Corps can make up for some deficiencies but they have none in the bulk of their Army and for now it seems the only thing that would change that would be a real threat to Mother Russia. What you see in action and on display from any of their services are their best which are in no way indicative of the sub par status of the whole.
The PRC is the real threat of an emerging and hostile Super Power. They have the financial means and have greatly increased their investment in all branches in their military over the last few years and have been working hard to not only improve their equipment but to greatly improve the quality of their personnel. They fully intend to retake Formosa and dominate SE Asia indirectly if not directly by control of the seas of the vicinity and to build a Navy that can project real power globally as the US does now.
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“It’s outrageous that foreign billionaires are trying to subvert our democracy – the govt must act!!!!!!”
“OK, foreign money funnelled info GetUp and watermelon ‘charities’ who are political actors must comply with political donation disclosure rules.”
“NOT LIKE THAT!!!!!!! “
70
And union donations too as the seed capital for GetUp came also from the AWU when Bill Shorten was a senior executive there, and the unions also donate to the ALP and the Greens.
When Labor governments are in office they approved “grants” applied for by unions (rubber stamp approval) who in turn donate that taxpayer’s monies to the ALP and Greens.
In a book about his working life as a senior Treasury official Dr Des Moore explained that this “money laundering” during the years 1983 to 1996 was close to $100 million.
Don’t forget that unions are also the owners of businesses including industry superannuation funds and through the funds have access to many public company boardrooms where they exercise influence.
The political donation disclosure rules must be tightened and unions deriving profit from business investments should be taxed at the com[any tax rate.
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Is there any side of main stream politics that wouldn’t take a dirty dollar in donations ?
30
It did. Last year it passed a law outlawing foreign influence and meddling in the Australian economy and politics. It may not have been signed off by the GG yet, but whoever or whatever it is will no doubt get around to it. One day.
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8 Mar: NationalReview: Todd Myers: The Media Are Lending Their Credibility to Eco-Terrorists
They justify firebombing and vandalism because the perpetrators support worthy causes.
Even after 18 years working in Seattle environmental politics, I am still amazed how often reporters celebrate eco-terrorists. Or, as one Seattle-area environmental activist called them, “eco-patriots.”
Those were the words of Paul Kennard in the spring of 2001 after eco-terrorists firebombed the University of Washington. The arsonists claimed the university was studying genetic engineering (it wasn’t) and deserved to be attacked. Writing to local newspapers, Kennard was upset that the firebombers were called “eco-terrorists.” This, he argued, did not reflect the “broader perspective of the issues.” He felt the term “eco-patriots” was more appropriate…
Kennard is, and has been for many years, a geomorphologist working at the Mount Rainier National Park. What’s more, the Seattle Times considers him a credible source on climate change, citing him in a recent piece on shrinking glaciers…
These memories came back to me recently when the New York Times Magazine published a long piece about a group of environmental activists who face prison time for sabotaging an oil pipeline. The headline quotes one activist bravely declaring, “I’m just more afraid of climate change than I am of prison.”
The language used by the reporter is wistful. Describing the moment Michael Foster prepared to shut off the pipeline, the Times reporter gushes, “What Foster didn’t expect was that once he’d broken through the chain-link fence, he would be briefly overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he was about to do. He faced away from the biting wind, and allowed himself to cry.”
The photo accompanying the piece shows five members of the group standing next to a creek, looking off into the distance like an indie-rock album cover. In many ways, the media treat them like rock stars…
There are many examples of the media’s romance with environmental extremism…
Sadly, this trend is unlikely to change. Environmental reporters are often activists themselves…READ ON
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/media-environmental-journalists-excuse-eco-terrorism/
14 Mar: BellingenCourier-Sun: Janene Carey: Determined to stop Adani
(initially published as Locking on to save the planet)
Alternatives Bookshop (Bellingen) owner John Ross may seem like a shy and gentle man, but actually he’s a climate change warrior.
On Tuesday March 13 he fronted Bowen Magistrates Court in Queensland charged with trespassing, refusing an order to move on, and interfering with the operation of a port.
He pleaded guilty and was fined $8000 but no conviction was recorded.
John’s been arrested before – in September, for a sit-in at Adani’s Townsville office; and he’s locked-on before – in 2015, while protesting against the Maules Creek coal mine near Narrabri.
The 69-year-old has also spent at least three decades being “a pillar of the community”, as the rather lenient Townsville magistrate he faced after last year’s sit-in remarked.
And he’s utterly convinced that allowing coal mining to continue would be “an unconscionable betrayal of future generations”.
Along with three other protesters from the Coffs Coast and a Townsville schoolteacher, John broke into Adani’s Abbot Point Terminal before dawn on January 18 and fastened his arm to a coal conveyor…
He isn’t at liberty to disclose how they managed their entry, but he does say it took longer than they expected, and it was an anxiety-provoking and exhausting process, so lying down and locking-on came as something of a relief.
The group effectively stopped operations at the terminal for seven hours and gained ***widespread media attention for Frontline Action on Coal’s non-violent, direct action campaign to stymie development of Adani’s proposed mega mine in the Galilee Basin…
“We simply can’t afford to open up the Galilee Basin and still hope to go anywhere near maintaining a carbon budget that confines climate change to two degrees. It’s a massive, massive mine, and it would be adding massively to carbon pollution, at a time when renewables are technically and financially superior.”
John chooses to take action to avert climate chaos, even if it means annoying the police and putting his own body in harm’s way…
Alongside John Ross in Bowen Magistrates Court yesterday were 13 other activists involved in multiple non-violent direct actions against Adani.
The sum total of their fines was a hefty $79,500.
Magistrate Simon Young noted that each of the activists had made substantial contributions to the community through their volunteer work and that their “commitment to social justice” enhanced their communities.
He said while the activists showed great insight into the issues surrounding fossil fuel expansions, civil disobedience was not the only option available to them, and they had crossed the line of acceptable protest…
“The movement to stop coal is growing and I felt really well supported at today’s court case,” he said. “I’m more determined than ever to find ways to push for stronger action on climate change.”
Prior to the court case, the Coffs Coast Climate Action Group organised a fundraising campaign to raise $16,000, as a fine of $4000 for each protester had been expected.
Overnight, as news that the outcome was twice as bad filtered across social media, the total raised went from $8,500 to $10,120.
The group plans another big fundraising concert to cover the rest and support the ongoing campaign.
To chip in, go to LINK
https://www.bellingencourier.com.au/story/5283096/a-hefty-fine-for-trying-to-avert-disaster/
a reminder how theirABC deals with anti-coal activists:
Oct 2017: ABC Triple J: “I wanted to stop the mine”: Jonathan Moylan and the $300 million hoax
Jonathan Moylan was camping in the Leard State Forest in Northwestern New South Wales in early 2013 when he got a call from the Washington Post.
“[They said] ‘did you know, that your media release resulted in a 9% drop in Whitehaven’s share price?’ And I thought, hmmm… this could get interesting. And that’s when I started to get nervous,” the 29-year-old anti-coal activist remembers, almost five years on.
He’s revisiting the Maules Creek mine for the new ABC podcast How Do You Sleep At Night?…
Ben Cubby was environment editor for the Sydney Morning Herald at the time and the first to respond to Moylan’s press release.
“Obviously the ears pricked up. I rang up and had a chat to a person who I later found out was Jonathan Moylan.”
Moylan says he “did a pretty good impersonation of a bank manager” and Cubby agrees.
“He was very convincing on the phone. it was an intriguing phone conversation because what they were saying was surprising, but it didn’t initially cross my mind that he was pretending to be someone else.”…
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/jono-moylan/9010874
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“Finally, Russian intelligence’s biggest cover operation — its RT “news” outlet — is undertaking a massive propaganda campaign against fracking….”
Heh.
I have access to RT – both the standard international one, and the USA version.
As Lee Camp, host of Redacted Tonight – a left-leaning political satire news and current affairs show – says: “Where Americans in America reporting on American news are classed as ‘foreign agents'”.
They also have Larry King and Jesse Ventura with their own shows.
RT is the only foreign government owned news agency that has been required to register as a foreign agent in the USA – our own ABC, the BBC, French, German etc equivalents didn’t have to register as “foreign agents”.
Pretty much every shows host will/has said that no-one tells them what to report on, what to say, or how much time to spend on any particular story. They also don’t have any restrictions due to corporate sponsorship (unlike most of the MSM). They respond to “attacks” on themselves by airing facts that those attacking them either don’t know or don’t reveal, then basically say “you decide who’s right”. For instance, with Russia-gate, they revealed that Facebook and Twitter activity that matched a “Russia” profile and was political in nature, represented less than 1% of Facebook comments and less then 1% of tweets regarding the election – and that these were not particularly biased one way or the other (D vs R supporters were about equal).
In all honesty, I place more faith in news stories on RT than on any of the MSM outlets. Do they have a pro-russia bias? Of course – just as the ABC should have a pro-Australian bias, the BBC a pro-British bias etc. Perfectly normal. And RT follows the “old school” ABC/BBC reporting and seems relatively unbiased if taken with the view it is originating in Russia (so more euro or asian centric than US centric) and has Russian interests at heart (so they will defend Russian interests especially when they feel it is mis-reported by the MSM).
81
Similar comments re RT in an earlier Chiefio thread
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comment in moderation re: 8 Mar: NationalReview: Todd Myers: The Media Are Lending Their Credibility to Eco-Terrorists
20
This might wobble the gas market a bit
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/obliquity-not-stable-massive-historic-climate-change/
“Well, doesn’t that make CO2 look like a piker… “
30
Very interesting Ian.
21
I don’t understand what the fuss is all about. It’s as if for the first time ever someone has uncovered a propaganda campaign by a nation for the express purpose to benefit its self. Oh Whoopie Doo! Every other country, including the US has been doing the same thing since year dot. What would be real news is if a nation admitted to as such and compensated the rest of the world for their evil ways. Now of course that would send that country broke instantly, which is one of many reasons why it will never happen. Alliteratively, the other side being fed the propaganda was awake and took appropriate action. That’s not going to happen either for a different reason; most people are asleep, non-thinkers and/or gullible.
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Have you observed a mob of sheep?
21
Yes I have but not one where they all followed each other over the cliff, as the West is about to do despite what, if any, evil plans Russia has in mind. Rather than worrying about them we should be more concerned about our own government and the alternative government, both of which are leading us over the cliff.
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Good observation.
40
We do need to acknowledge and focus on the problem of our own government.
By comparison, La Russ is a small issue.
10
Yes. And it would have made mustering a lot easier if they acted in what is presumed as the conventional manner.
As one old hand said
“A sheep’s first ambition is to get away from you.
If you block that its next is to die on you”
41
the writer of Reuters’ piece below:
Wikipedia: Agnia Grigas: Grigas is known as the author of The New Geopolitics of Natural Gas (Harvard University Press, 2017), Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Politics of Energy and Memory Between the Baltic States and Russia (Ashgate, 2013). Grigas holds a Doctorate in International Relations from the University of Oxford. She is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC…
In 2002 Grigas graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University…
In 2002, Grigas started her career as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase in London where she worked on Eurobond issuance for corporations and governments…
15 Mar: Reuters: Agnia Grigas: Commentary: How to derail Russia’s energy war
(Agnia Grigas is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. The opinions expressed here are her own)
As another energy conflict is erupting between Russia and Ukraine, Moscow seeks to start construction of the second branch of the Nord Stream pipeline to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany. While the European Union countries remain divided, the United States needs to maintain its consistent and principled position to reduce Europe’s over-dependence on Russian natural gas…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel disagrees with Morawiecki, saying that Nord Stream 2 is an economic project that poses no danger to energy diversification. German business interests see economic benefits if the country becomes a key European gas distribution hub for Russian gas. Likewise, Germany wants to ensure its gas supply as it is phasing out nuclear power…
It would challenge nearly two decades of Brussels’ efforts of trying to boost EU energy security by offering alternatives to Russian gas, such as pursuing the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline to bring Caspian gas to Europe, investing in LNG import terminals and pipeline interconnections, and increasing reliance on renewables, as well as supporting Ukraine and maintaining unity vis-à-vis Moscow…
American sanctions against Nord Stream 2 would not be easy to implement given the resistance from countries like Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and France. German support for future Russia sanctions is crucial, but getting Merkel to agree to add Nord Stream 2 to these measures seems unlikely. Instead, Washington should push Brussels to take a harder look at Nord Stream 2’s compliance with EU energy policy…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grigas-energy-column/commentary-how-to-derail-russias-energy-war-idUSKCN1GR045
13 Mar: Bloomberg: Germany’s Energy Giants Place Opposing Bets in $27 Billion Deal
By Anna Hirtenstein and Rachel Morison; With assistance by Brian Parkin, and Anna Shiryaevskaya
At RWE, CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz is building up his power-generation capacity, which at 40 gigawatts makes the company Germany’s biggest producer. To date, RWE is most reliant on nuclear and coal plants, with lignite, which is the the most polluting form of fossil fuel, making the biggest chunk.
The Innogy deal brings RWE 8 gigawatts of renewable power plants and another 1.5 gigawatts of clean energy under construction, exposing it to the quickest growing forms of generation…
The mix will allow RWE’s fleet of fossil fuel generation to provide back-up when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining…
“RWE will continue to be the safety net of the energy transition,” Schmitz said. “Our flexible generation fleet provides stability for an energy system that has to digest an increasing amount of volatile feed-ins of wind and solar power.”…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-13/germany-s-energy-giants-place-opposing-bets-in-27-billion-deal
30
wind and solar won’t cut it!
13 Mar: BloombergNewEnergyFinance: Liebreich: Beyond Three Thirds, The Road to Deep Decarbonization
By Michael Liebreich
In my BNEF Summit keynote in London last September, I talked about how far clean energy and transport had come over the last fifteen years. Where renewable energy used to be dismissed as “alternative”, I talked about the “new orthodoxy” of what I called the Three-Third World: by 2040 one third of global electricity will be generated from wind and solar; one third of vehicles on the road will be electric; and the world’s economy will produce one third more GDP from every unit of energy.
The fact that we are on track for the Three-Third World is quite extraordinary. It certainly outstrips my expectations when I founded New Energy Finance in 2004. And it is probably unstoppable: wind, solar and battery costs will continue to fall faster than any mainstream energy forecasters expect, and there is nothing that makes me think President Donald Trump will succeed in his attempts to revive coal.
As I sat down at the beginning of March to write this piece, the “Beast from the East” brought a prolonged blast of cold air from Siberia to the U.K., blanketing the country in snow, with temperatures well below freezing. This doesn’t happen very often, perhaps once or twice every decade, but it’s a real challenge for anyone thinking about the future of energy. Any solution for deep decarbonization of the U.K. economy has to be able to take the Beast from the East in its stride…
However, anywhere north of around 40 degrees latitude, while solar power may generate affordable power in summer, its output drops dramatically in winter. The solar panels on my roof in London produce one thirteenth of the power in December that they produce in June. You can love domestic solar power as much as you want, but you cannot suggest it will do much to meet the UK’s winter heating load. Of course you could suggest importing solar from Southern Europe or Africa on a vast scale via HVDC connections, but then you have to account for the cost of high-voltage DC links and explain in a grown-up way how to deal with the resilience risk…
What about wind? Its output rises in winter, broadly in line with heating loads – but wind can suffer lulls lasting several weeks, and they can occur at times of low temperatures. Coupling batteries with wind is not like coupling them with solar. For all the growth in battery installations that BNEF is forecasting, the total volume of grid-connected batteries by 2030 will be sufficient to meet the world’s power needs for just 7.5 minutes; add the batteries of every electric car and light truck, and you could meet a few hours of electrical supply – not days, not weeks, not months. And that’s just comparing against electrical loads – and remember the U.K.’s heating loads can be up to six times higher…READ ALL
https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-beyond-three-thirds-road-deep-decarbonization/
a solution? not really:
14 Mar: Guardian: Damian Carrington: Rain or shine: new solar cell captures energy from raindrops
New device is designed to prevent power output plummeting when the sun isn’t shining – but practical application is still some years off
Solar power installation is soaring globally thanks to costs plunging 90% in the past decade, making it the cheapest electricity in many parts of the world. But the power output can plummet under grey skies and researchers are working to squeeze even more electricity from panels.
The new device, demonstrated in a laboratory at Soochow University in China, places two transparent polymer layers on top of a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell. When raindrops fall on to the layers and then roll off, the friction generates a static electricity charge.
“Our device can always generate electricity in any daytime weather,” said Baoquan Sun, at Soochow University. “In addition, this device even provides electricity at night if there is rain.”
Other researchers have recently created similar devices on solar panels, known as triboelectric nanogenerators (Tengs), but the new design is significantly simpler and more efficient as one of the polymer layers acts as the electrode for both the Teng and the solar cell.
“Due to our unique device design, it becomes a lightweight device,” said Sun, whose team’s work is published in the journal ACS Nano (LINK). “In future, we are exploring integrating these into mobile and flexible devices, such as electronic clothes. However, the output power efficiency needs to be further improved before practical application.”
Sun said the field was developing fast and expects to produce a prototype product in three to five years…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/13/rain-or-shine-new-solar-cell-captures-energy-from-raindrops
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13 Mar: SolarPowerPortal: Liam Stoker: Shadow chancellor rebukes government for ‘destruction’ of UK solar industry
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has strongly rebuked the government for its treatment of the domestic solar industry
McDonnell, responding to chancellor Philip Hammond’s spring statement, said that the government had “single-handedly destroyed our solar industry”, adding that 12,000 jobs were lost as a result of cuts to subsidies.
His comments are perhaps the strongest condemnation of the Conservative’s stance on solar from a Labour front bencher to date and prompted jeers from across the House…
Those cuts have had significant effects on the domestic solar industry. Deployment under the feed-in tariff remains around 80% lower under the new regime and ground-mount solar installations have ground to a halt…
And McDonnell’s figures on job losses are likely to be even more severe than the 12,000 he mentioned today…
https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/shadow_chancellor_rebukes_government_for_destruction_of_uk_solar_industry
13 Mar: Reuters: Krishna N. Das: India’s solar financing may have peaked for now at $10 billion in 2017: consultancy
India’s solar industry more than doubled its fund raising to $10 billion in 2017, clean energy consultancy Mercom said, but activity is likely to slow this year as New Delhi plans to slap high tariffs on imports.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of raising India’s solar power generation to 100 gigawatt (GW) by 2022, five times current levels. The government says India will need to raise at least $125 billion to reach its goal of generating 175 GW of energy from all renewable sources in five years.
New large-scale and rooftop solar installations in India jumped to 9.63 GW last year, compared with the addition of 4.31 GW in 2016, Mercom said, but predicted additional installations will fall by 22 percent to 7.5 GW this year.
“The lower forecast reflects a smaller pipeline of projects scheduled for commissioning in 2018,” Mercom said. “Auction activity was not very robust in 2017 and though there was a surge in activity at the end of the year, most of the projects that were tendered are not likely to be commissioned until 2019.”
Mercom called a proposal by India’s safety watchdog to impose a 70 percent duty on imports of solar equipment from China and some other countries, to protect domestic manufacturers, as an “unexpected and aggressive recommendation that has brought the industry to a standstill”…
Reuters also reported in January that solar modules worth more than $150 million were stuck at various Indian ports due to a dispute over their classification and the import tax applicable to them…
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-india-solar/indias-solar-financing-may-have-peaked-for-now-at-10-billion-in-2017-consultancy-idUKKCN1GP1FB
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The cost has dropped by 90% and they still want subsidies.
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14 Mar: TheNationalScotland: Scottish wind-turbine maker collapses amid ‘Westminster cuts’ to renewables
by Kirsteen Paterson
A WIND turbine maker has collapsed citing international competition – and Westminster support cuts to the renewables industry.
Gaia-Wind, which celebrated the roll-out of its 1000th device from Glasgow last April, has appointed a provisional liquidator.
The company moved its operations to Scotland from Denmark seven years ago and had clients in countries including Tonga, Australia and Italy…
A statement released by Michael Reid of Meston Reid and Co said cuts to renewables pushed through by Westminster in 2015, including the end of the main subsidies for onshore wind, had created problems for the company…
“Although a business plan at the end of 2017 provided a practical basis for survival, recent drastic cuts in Italian and Japanese government support for small scale wind turbines lead to dramatic reduction in the immediate order pipeline in those markets. Faced with these challenging circumstances in each of its main market areas, the board reached the unfortunate decision that the company had no option but to cease trading.” …
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16084267.Scottish_wind_turbine_maker_collapses_amid__Westminster_cuts__to_renewables/
50
One down… So many more to get rid of.
90
So telling isn’t it an industry that’s non essential not able to survive without subsidies and government kick backs .
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14 Mar: WeatherChannel: Brian Donnegan: Will Erie, Pennsylvania, Reach 200 Inches of Snow, Surpassing the All-Time Snowiest Winter in Buffalo, New York?
Erie, Pennsylvania, has already shattered its seasonal snow record of 152.1 inches by more than 3 feet, and now it’s threatening the all-time snowiest winter ever recorded by its snowy neighbor, Buffalo, New York, some 80 miles to the northeast…
Through Tuesday, Erie had recorded 188.6 inches of snow this winter season. Buffalo’s snowiest winter on record occurred 41 years ago, when 199.4 inches piled up during the winter of 1976-77…
That 199.4-inch seasonal total in Buffalo is a modern record for U.S. cities with a population of at least 100,000, the Buffalo News reported, citing data from Patrick DeCoursey of the Golden Snow Globe National Snow Contest.
Erie is now less than a foot away from tying that record, and more snow is likely in the days ahead…
An average winter in Erie brings 100.9 inches of snow. If the city reaches 200 inches in the weeks ahead, it would essentially be double the average…
Keep in mind that smaller U.S. cities with a population of less than 100,000 have received more than 200 inches of snow in a season. In fact, Marquette, Michigan, averages 203.6 inches of snow each winter. It received as much as 319.8 inches during the winter of 2001-02.
There will likely be several chances of snow over the next week or two, as colder-than-average temperatures and a stormy weather pattern are expected to remain in place in the East, according to some longer-range forecasts…
https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2018-03-14-erie-pennsylvania-nearing-200-inches-snow-buffalo-new-york-record
13 Mar: InsideClimateNews: Bob Berwyn: Warm Arctic? Expect Northeast Blizzards: What 7 Decades of Weather Data Show
When Arctic temperatures spike, extreme winter weather is 2 to 4 times more likely in Boston and New York, while the West tends to be warmer, a new study shows.
Citing disruptive storms like Snowzilla (2016), Snowmaggedon (2010) and Snowpocalypse (2009), the climate scientists wrote that “heavy snowfalls are generally more frequent since 1990, and in many cities the most extreme snowfalls have occurred primarily during recent decades.”
Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, links the increased frequency of extreme winter storms with the rapid and persistent warming of the Arctic since around 1990…
Jennifer Francis, a Rutgers University climate researcher and co-author of the study, said that while the study doesn’t show causation, the pattern they found reinforces other studies showing that the declining temperature contrast between the Arctic and the mid-latitudes leads to a wavier jet stream that disrupts normal weather patterns…
But it’s still uncertain exactly where the dips and ridges will occur in any given period. “As we’ve seen this winter, a persistent cold spell can be replaced with a heat wave,” she said.
The persistent pattern that has been in place in recent weeks has caused this month’s parade of “bomb cyclones” along the East Coast, said Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not involved in the new study. These persistent patterns are exactly the sort of behavior we expect to see with very warm Arctic conditions, he said.
Related research by Mann and others has shown that amplified Arctic warming may be having similar effects in the summer by causing stagnant weather patterns that have contributed to extreme heat waves, droughts and floods in Europe and North America in recent decades…
Purely observational studies can’t always account for all the variable dynamics in the climate system, though. As global temperatures rise, other changes are also having an impact on increasing snowfall in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, including warmer ocean temperatures and stronger coastal storms, Mann noted…
The results are “literally off-the-charts more robust than previous studies,” said co-author Judah Cohen, a scientist at MIT and director of seasonal forecasting with AER, a weather risk assessment company.
“We see how disruptive to our infrastructure severe winter storms can be with the three deep nor’easters in less than two weeks. This paper obviously advises that governments and companies should not plan for diminishing severe winter weather just yet,” Cohen said.
Cohen and Francis also said the data suggest that changes in the tropical oceans are less of a factor affecting mid-latitude extreme weather than previous research showed…
This winter, parts of central Eurasia have stayed much colder than average for weeks at a time, Moscow was slammed with record snows, and Western Europe was visited by the “Beast from the East,” delivering 10-foot snow drifts in Ireland and other places that rarely see a flake…
The impacts also ripple through indigenous communities in the Arctic, like the Norwegian island of Svalbard and northern Alaska.
On the warm side of the pattern, those areas have been experiencing climate impacts like rain-on-snow events that make it hard for caribou and muskoxen to feed, as well as severe erosion along coasts where there’s an unusual absence of winter sea ice.
“Bizarre winter weather is always disruptive to people and ecosystems, be it persistent cold, frequent snow storms, drought, low snow packs, and even heat waves,” Francis said. “Many flora and fauna depend on regular temperature and precipitation cycles, and when those are disrupted over a prolonged period, we often see a variety of species that struggle.”…
The links between Arctic warming and extreme winters are another symptom of dangerous climate disruption, Francis said…
“Decision-makers and individuals must prepare for disruptions to what used to be ‘normal.’ Extremes are likely to increase in frequency owing to a number of climate-change-related effects,” she concluded.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13032018/global-warming-weather-data-winter-storms-arctic-sea-ice-jet-streams-ocean-temperature
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More Humpty Dumpty climate science – Climate Change means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less!
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The ABC have so thoroughly and idiotically embraced Soviet ideology, they actually emblazon their “Equity and Diversity Plan 2018” with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics emblematic hammer and sickle.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwQckWk9KHM. 7:10 onward
It’s utterly amazing that the Australian tax-payer pay for this kraptitude! The numb-nuts reporter who interviewed University of Toronto Professor of Psychology, Jordan B Peterson clearly had no idea. He’d probably have had no idea if the manual had been emblazoned with the swastika.
See dumbed down Australian youth and comic book journalism in action. It’s as nationally demeaning as it is personally nauseating.
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Was the hammer and sickle emblem put there purposely to get a rise?
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Clint. Suspect it was done up for the show. i.e the interview with Jordan. As Jordan said in the interview, though somewhat unrelated, “If he’d known that he wouldn’t have turned up for the interview.” Some things aren’t funny.
Doug
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Clint – I had no idea who the abc guy was, but realised it was a mock cover.
did some checking. he is comedian Tom Ballard, who was on Triple J for years.
from search results, mocking Trump is one of his specialties (surprise).
check his Twitter page for lots more ABC employees working with him on his TV program, and who are presumably also being paid for by the the taxpayers!
Twitter: Tom Ballard, Krazy Komedian. Host of @tonightly, every weeknight at 9pm on @ABC_Comedy. Politics podcast…
https://twitter.com/tomcballard?lang=en
glad I found the following promo for My Kitchen Rules (have never watched it), which kept being played while I was watching tennis on Ch7 a while back. it’s about “the Russians are coming” and, at the beginning and end, the hammer and sickle replace the “K” in “MKR”.
doesn’t Seven know the difference between the Soviet flag and the Russian flag?
Daily Mail: VIDEO PROMO 1min: Meet the two Russian contestants coming to MKR in 2018
The Russians are coming
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-1585984/Meet-two-Russian-contestants-coming-MKR-2018.html
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And Ms May is talking up a storm about her strong-arm tactics of expulging 23 Russkies for “attacks on British soil”. Seems Putin can call the shots about how much she can rattle her sabre even now…
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Morocco!G.
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[snow!]
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People talk about the Russian Mafia but as far as I can tell the Russian government is the real criminal enterprise threat. The water melons are their mostly unwitting ground troops much like the Iranians we see shouting “death to America” and our legacy media their propagandists. During WW II in the US most conservatives and all the communists were both isolationists in the US until Hitler invaded Russia, then the communists did a 180, just as they did in the UK.
Wednesday the teacher organized a national school walkout for gun control took place here. The kids out there screaming, among other things, they want certain firearms limited to sales to people 21 years of age or older. Funny thing is none of those kids seem to have learned the history that 18 year olds in the US got the vote because of the argument that a person could be drafted to fight in war (Vietnam) but could not vote because they weren’t 21 years old! I bet not 1 in 1,000 of them know that the NRA was formed by Civil War veterans which had been appalled at the poor marksmanship of many of the recruits in that war and decided to do something about it. Now those kids think they want their own right to bear arms restricted. It really is mind boggling. In the end I think this will all blow over but the left, who of course organized the walkout and other gun grabbing stuff, will pay a political price. New memberships in the NRA has skyrocketed and a large proportion of those joining are youths.
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It’s just more of the same old – people who don’t like something want it banned.
Except when it’s something they like, say abortion. Then protesting about that being banned is evil.
Guns kill people but abortion is choice.
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People kill people. The firearm is just one type of weapon used by them.
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when I replied to Clint above, I was actually ready to post the following, which is very much in the same vein.
12 Mar: Guardian: Climate change is a disaster foretold, just like the first world war
by Jeff Sparrow
The warnings about an unfolding climate catastrophe are getting more desperate, yet the march to destruction continues
The devastation of the first world war eventually engendered a wave of revolt from a populace appalled at the carnage their politicians had wrought.
Climate change has not yet spurred an equivalent of the mutinies in France or the revolution in Petrograd or the uprising in Berlin.
Yet Labor’s appalling equivocation over the Adani mine – a piece of environmental vandalism for which there can be no justification – illustrates the urgency with which we need a new and different type of politics.
The stakes could not be higher. Lamps are going out all over the natural world … and no one will ever see them lit again.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/climate-change-is-a-disaster-foretold-just-like-the-first-world-war
Guardian: 106 articles by Sparrow
bio: Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor and broadcaster, and an Honorary Fellow at Victoria University.
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jeff-sparrow
Guardian could have told readers much more:
Wikipedia: Jeff Sparrow
Jeff Sparrow is an Australian leftwing writer, editor and former socialist activist based in Melbourne, Victoria… He is also the author of Communism: A Love Story…
As a student activist and member of the Trotskyist group, the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), Sparrow was one of the Austudy Five, controversially arrested after a protest in 1992. He was expelled from the ISO in 1995 and helped found the splinter organisation, Socialist Alternative (SA). After leaving SA, he was involved for some years in the group Civil Rights Defence…
His work has appeared in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Overland, Arena, Meanjin and other print publications; he contributes regularly to Crikey, ABC The Drum Unleashed…ETC
ABC: 5 long pages of Jeff Sparrow articles, going back to 2009.
he is identified as:
Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor and broadcaster, and an Honorary Fellow at Victoria University
http://www.abc.net.au/news/jeff-sparrow/27902?page=1
yet Joanne Nova cannot get five minutes on taxpayer-funded ABC? shut it down.
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behind paywall:
14 Mar: UK Times: Emily Gosden: Green Investment Bank sale to Macquarie ‘deeply regrettable’
The government’s sale of the Green Investment Bank to Macquarie was “deeply regrettable” and did not get the best possible return for taxpayers, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.
Last year’s £2.3 billion deal prioritised “reducing the level of debt in the public sector” over the delivery of green objectives, MPs on the public accounts committee said…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/green-investment-bank-sale-to-macquarie-deeply-regrettable-hbh76m6zs
14 Mar: BusinessGreen: James Murray: ‘A misjudgement’: Official report slams government privatisation of Green Investment Bank
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of MPs has today slammed the government’s handling of the Green Investment Bank (GIB), accusing Ministers of failing to adequately assess the bank’s performance and not doing enough to ensure the institution remains focused on its core environmental mission.
Echoing criticism from environmental groups and a cross-party coalition of MPs who had previously accused Ministers of mishandling the August 2017 sale of the GIB to infrastructure banking giant Macquarie Group, the PAC said the government was guilty of “a misjudgement” in its failure to secure more assurances that the bank will continue to invest in UK low carbon infrastructure and higher risk, early stage clean technologies…
“The Green Investment Bank has been and continues to be a pioneering green investor, admired and replicated across the world,” said Mark Dooley, global head of green energy at Macquarie Capital and board member for UK GIG. “We have ambitious growth plans focused on financing the next generation of green energy projects, at home in the UK and in international markets, supporting the global transition to green energy.”…
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP, deputy chair of the PAC: “The manner in which it was sold off is therefore deeply regrettable. Government did not carry out a full assessment of the Bank’s impact before deciding to sell, nor did it secure adequate assurance over the Bank’s future role. This was a UK initiative but the rebranded Green Investment Group is not bound to invest in the UK’s energy policy at all, nor to invest in the kind of technologies that support its climate objectives.”…
Ed Matthew at think tank E3G, which last year argued against the privatisation, reiterated warnings the sale of the bank could hamper the UK’s wider decarbonisation efforts.
“The UK has to go zero carbon within 25 years to help keep our world safe from the threat of catastrophic climate change,” he said. “This report confirms our worst fears that this ground-breaking institution, a world first, was axed for short term gain and without properly assessing either its transformational impact or untapped potential. It was economic vandalism of the first order by a Treasury that had spent 200 years fighting the principle of a public bank. They wanted to kill it before it was even established. They got their way and we will all be poorer for it.”
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3028399/a-misjudgement-official-report-slams-government-privatisation-of-green-investment-bank
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14 Mar: Bloomberg: New Jersey’s Budget Would Raise Taxes on Almost Everything
by Elise Young
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy proposed taxing online-room booking, ride-sharing, marijuana, e-cigarettes and Internet transactions along with raising taxes on millionaires and retail sales to fund a record $37.4 billion budget that would boost spending on schools, pensions and mass transit…
https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/2018/03/13/new-jersey-s-new-budget-aims-to-raise-taxes-on-almost-everything
not mentioned by Bloomberg:
16 Feb: AtlanticCityPost: Assembly passes two climate-related bills
by MICHELLE BRUNETTI
The state Assembly passed two bills this week that aim to curb air pollution.
The bills requiring the state to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, which upholds the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, now go to the Senate.
Bill A1212, which passed 48-24, requires the state to participate in RGGI. It also creates the Global Warming Solutions Fund and dedicates all proceeds from RGGI’s greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading to the fund…
“States sell emission allowances through auctions and invest proceeds in energy efficiency, renewable energy and other consumer benefit programs,” the website says. “These programs are spurring innovation in the clean energy economy and creating green jobs in the RGGI states.”
Ratepayers ultimately pay for the allowances.
“In order to get to 100 percent renewable, we must make sure that carbon pays its true cost to the environment and society. This is why we need to go back into RGGI with a carbon tax,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
Bill A1929, which passed 49-23, requires the state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, which now has 13 members, including New York, California and Puerto Rico…
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/assembly-passes-two-climate-related-bills/article_9abcee27-b519-5c7c-ada8-99ad481bd591.html
1 Mar: Heartland: Governor Pushes New Jersey to Rejoin Greenhouse Gas Initiative
By Bonner R. Cohen
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/governor-pushes-new-jersey-to-rejoin-greenhouse-gas-initiative
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There is no reason why we shouldn’t be fracking, assuming appropriate environmental studies have been done with respect to water table. I wrote an article on the related technology of horizontal drilling in Silicon Chip magazine July 2016.
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2016/July?res=nonflash
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Great graph on the well construction for fracking hope this link works .
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/07/false-fact-checking-from-factcheck-org-more-false-claims-about-fracking/
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Why anyone with even a smattering of knowledge of the world energy production and consumption would ever think Putin would try to get anyone other than Hillary to win the Presidency was and still is simple ridiculous.
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Ha ha ha ha ha! that’s the thing about a coerced mixed economy. Foreigners can turn your initiation-of-force lobbyists into a dangerous fifth column serving outside interests. Even Switzerland is now in the hands of a looter government bent on shutting down its reactors. The reunification of Germany was actually another Anschluss absorbing the Western part into an Ecological National Socialist Fourth Reich bent on banning those nasty R. Buckminster Fuller “energy slaves” and replacing them with the real thing. To Altrurians, of course, any such realization would be the worst sort of thoughtcrime!
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I am not buying the whole Russia bashing blame game . Certainly they have
pulled some stunts but which countries haven’t ? The Russia narrative in the USA is a deflection /diversion strategy to buy time
for the Clintons and senior FBI / DOJ people to hid behind despite being caught
in a criminal effort to unseat Trump .
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Amber this is serious, they know where the nerve agent came from and Putin is being reckless.
The reason the UN banned its use should be obvious, its possible to kill every human in a large city and still leave the infrastructure in place.
This makes nuclear war redundant.
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I’m disappointed to see this ritual Russia-bashing here. It’s the sort of thing I expect from Julie Bishop and the American crazies she sucks up to. I thought Jo had more sense.
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Nice sarcasm.
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Very interesting. I must confess to being a Greenie when it comes to fracking. Not because I don’t love the technology as such. But because our resource allocation system is so unsound it creates a gold rush mentality. Or at least a debt financed mentality wherein you have to charge in as fast as you can … get the gas moving at huge pace in order to pay back the loans you had to take out for auction prices and overlapping methods of getting your property rights. So you trample the farmer who owns the land. You trample the concerns of the community who are worried about their water being polluted. To me its all about too much taxes on retained earnings, which ought not be there at all …. and insufficiently high royalties. Which ought to be high enough to induce a very patient approach.
Its like that joke that was on the movie COLOURS. The old cop tells a young cop about an old bull talking to a young bull. To transmute it somewhat …. Someone might say … lets run down to that hill over there and frak some of those resources. But an older fellow might say … if there was no tax on retained earnings, and very high royalties … He might say … No no lets walk over there …. talk to the farmer ….. take it slowly …. bring everything up in the most cost-effective way we can …. And eventually we are going to frak all of those resources. I’m just saying that our resource allocation is terrible. Its leaves all the value to the financier dead-weight loss. If it was no taxes other than really high royalties then most of the value would be sitting on our humble taxpayers plate. Not to the usurers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQAKDbq0hI
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