JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
This is the best blog on the internet.
242
Yes, I agree !!!
92
/\ /\
/ “.-‘”‘-.” \
; _ _ ; And Global Warming Contour Maps are
; (o) (o)_;_ the best graphs on the internet.
\ = Y = (,,,)
: .-. | -, You can see them at this site:
.(_____/ ;
.\_ (LC) ‘ ; https://agree-to-disagree.com
/ ) ,
;—‘ ; P.S. Have a look at the Robot-Train
; ; contour maps.
. __ . , __ .
(,,,) (,,,)
20
For something completely different.
‘China is set to participate for the first time in Australia’s premier multilateral naval war games, Exercise Kakadu.’ Oz
11
I guess that means the Chinese won’t have to deploy a spy ship off the coast of their Australian trading partner then . . . like last year.
As for the pink nail polish: it’s still one step ahead of the stiletto heels worn by David Morrison, former Chief of Army, Ozzie of the Year. What a disgrace.
111
China might outgun us but in a cat fight look out!
30
How appropriate. They can play the “Red Team”.
00
Is the Australian fleet composed of sail ships?
00
And the Australians will be identifiable by the colour of their fingernails. Will there be pink stars on the Naval Australian flag? Will many Australian sailors be presenting with sea sickness when it’s really nausea resulting from ADF gender related policies.
121
Do you think we shouldn’t have naval exercises with our biggest trading partner?
11
At risk of this sounding like an oxymoron el gordo “yes I don’t”.
90
Yes, we have no bananas.
40
Correct.
40
Or as the Papuan New Guinean soldiers that I served with half a century ago would have replied, “Yesa”. Meaning no. Unlike most of our MSM journalists of today they understood the proper use of a double negative. (just an aside)
40
Or a double positive.
20
On the subcontinent there is a tendency for the population to wobble their heads to mean yes, but to an Australian eye it appears to be no.
00
Vietnamese has a similar structure.
To avoid offence they put a yes before the No.
So,
Yes is : Yes, correct.
No is. : Yes, No.
KK
20
To avoid confrontation a passive aggressive strategy is required, I practice it regularly.
20
Yes a passive aggressive strategy works. I find many on the left looking like stunned mullets when I use that approach.
10
Oz Boganese has the same structure: yeah, nah!
40
Its a bit like deja vu when you feel like this happened before
00
Better to ‘Jaw Jaw than War War’. I’m not too sure about joint exercises though, despite giving you a green thumb. I wonder about security issues. Or don’t we have any?
31
There is a term I luv: “Something, nothing”. Would that have come from PNG?
20
Interesting, I seem to recall that from a long time ago, but can’t remember the context.
10
Yeah no, Aus has no security Annie !
20
Malcolm Turnbull has plenty of Naval exercises. They all involve gazing.
90
🙂
And when he looks up, there’s always a smirk on his face like: “You fools, have I dudded you all, biggly”.
He even likes to mock Trump.
KK
30
But to be up the top of the pile, you must sign up to “The Cause”….regardless how weird it is….
Its a form of public forelock tugging to The Elite..or a form of punishment through humiliation….
10
Warm English summer found to be anomalous.
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/28/this-warm-summer-is-not-what-climate-change-looks-like/
30
A warm summer is anomalous.
A mild summer is anonymous.
40
So…Turnbull and Frydenberg offered $443.8 million to a small NGO with a board full of corporate heavies. To do, you know, stuff. For the Reef, as you do. No tender process or application, as you don’t.
That’s not $400,000 without tender or application. Or $40,000. Hell, that wouldn’t cover what the corporate bosses pay to belong to the board of this NGO. (Six full-time staff at the time of the offer, but 55 board members.)
Nope. It’s $443.8 million.
Sometimes I think we complicate the nature and motives of these people. Yes, they do their Bilderberg gig as a priority. They weren’t put there to worry whether children will have enough threepenny pieces for this year’s Christmas pudding.
But some of what they get up to is just plain old…what’s the expression I’m looking for? In the words of the managing director of the NGO, there was an “opportunity to form a partnership”. Yes, that’s the expression I’m looking for.
With the red gang getting ready to ride into Dodge the blue gang is forming as many partnerships as it can, and not begging too many pardons.
The awful thing is, I don’t think it will be long before the citizens of Dodge wish the blue gang was still in town. And they really loathe the blue gang.
140
The truckloads of gold bullion (7 tons in fact) will have been wisely spent when in just a few years the reef recovers naturally from a purely natural event while university types furious study it. Pity the poor workers who have to pay their taxes so others can go scuba diving in paradise on salaries, but it’s for a good cause. You wonder where the JCU researchers go for holidays?
100
Before anyone gets their feet wet there will have to be feasibility studies, environmental reports, administration, oversight, consultancies, advisories, media, advertising, insurance, accounting, corporate structuring, legals, lobbies, liasons, EO assessors, gender and neuro-linguistic experts, trucks, boats, cars, business psychologists, motivational speakers, gigs for Timmy, furnishers, decorators, business class flights…and places to park all that money waiting to save the reef. Maybe those board members can help out with expertise and suggestions. $443.8m is a lot of money. It’s a quarter of the cost of a Franco-Adelaidian submarine!
And, as with Franco-Adelaidian subs, you never know what new costs could pop up. It’s like when Melbourne’s dry desal needed to keep Mick Gatto’s cranes on the premises in case…well, in case they needed cranes.
60
My bad. $443.8m is a quarter of the cost of a very expensive submarine. But a Franco-Adelaidian will set you back more than twelve times that amount. (I have relative working on one preliminary aspect of the Franco-Adelaidians. He seems in despair.)
I know I’ve said it before and I hate to harp…but it is now August 1 2018 and Mal, Josh and Ben Ean Julie are still there. People, this can only end one way.
90
Badly.
60
Mosomoso,
I am afraid you may have to book yourself in for re-education.
The ‘Correct’ comparison unit for spending is no longer the submarine, it is Polish, Nail, Pink.
So… more or less… For that money we could paint about 8.8 billion pinkies!
10
Enough for the entire human population of the planet with some to spare for repair work!
31
Now Barnaby Joyce has no influence on policy, he is publicly attacking Turnbull’s electricity policies and tax breaks for big business?
Where has he been for the last three years?
It’s a little like Mein Kampf. Turnbull always made it quite clear that he was Labor.
Malcolm always made it clear the Nationals were a waste of space, but Joyce backed Turnbull’s takeover of the Liberal party and by his inaction, the Liberal National party and the Nationals. What was his deal? Did Malcolm set him up? Now Joyce too has been pushed out of power he is now saying a LNP primary vote of 30% is not enough to win government in Queensland? Really?
It’s not only misleader Malcolm Turnbull, its the Black Hand of conspirators and the compliant Nationals under a silent Joyce which brought the country to the highest electricity prices in the world.
As if Malcolm cares. He has wrecked the Liberals, disenfranchised the Nationals and Liberal Nationals and shown Labor how a real Labor leader leads, destroyed the Liberals from within.
A legend in his own lunchtime with no real policies, Malcolm could care less who wins the next election. He has fulfilled his destiny as the most popular leader of the worst government in a tight contest between himself, Rudd, Gillard.
At the same time he has built up endless public service organizations, borrowed $500Billion, closed down manufacturing, crippled electricity and flooded the country with people who will all vote Labor for more handouts. He is a dream opponent for Shorten because he is not an opponent at all. The only problem for Shorten is that unlike previous conservative Liberal governments, Turnbull is leaving a mountain of debt. Plus an NBN and Snowy II. $70Billion for nothing.
It’s not about carbon. It’s about power and gaming the system. You can deceive all of the people all of the time.
King Malcolm’s glorious reign would be complete if he could only get rid of Abbott, throw him out of Turnbull’s Liberals. You can almost hear “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?”
240
Turnbull’s greatest fear is a backbench revolt, that he and Bishop and Payne and friends spend their last days on the backbench in an Abbott government. Even worse, that Abbott should snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and undo his Emissions Intensity Scheme and open door immigration policy. He would immediately resign, as would his co-conspirators. He would also want his $1.75Million back, go home and sulk.
150
Alas and alack, too true TdeF. Great Southern Land heading
south into regions of thick-ribbed ice.
80
Possibly, the best result, would be for the Nationals to leave the coalition, and buddy up with AC, and maybe all the disgruntled back benchers in the Libs as well!
Then Captain Harborside Mansion will look behind himself, and look at who is following the leader?
Why, no-one! And be left high and dry.
Maybe then, we could have a new, and formidable, conservative force! One with a voice of difference to that of Wee Willy Shortstuff!
40
More furious agreement on our favourite web site.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/butler-lambasts-pathetic-emissions-target-silly-pursuit-of-coal-76649/
Does Mark Bultler really beleive what he is saying, or even s it politics as usual.
20
Barnaby on the NEG.
“If we go down that path then forget it, I’m out, see you later, good bye,” Joyce told Sky News on Tuesday evening.
“That’s just nut-case stuff. I mean we are sick of having all these caveats placed on us by green groups, by well-intentioned, well-paid people in Giorgio Armani suits, sitting back and pontificating about the world, and then leaving the bill [for taxpayers].
“No, we are not paying the bill for that. Those days are over,” he said.
Guardian
100
The only surprise is that Joyce has discovered backbone and moral principles after he helped push Abbott out of power and then found himself on the backbench too, betrayed by the very man he put in power? Another who had no idea he had resident rights in New Zealand. He is as culpable as Bishop and Pyne. There is an ethics vacuum in our politicians.
220
I wonder where ethics has much sway really, I doubt politics is that different from the culture it sits in. Its an interesting concept that people discuss and sometimes even get educated about. How often it actually drives behaviour vs self interest and ego fluffing is something else.
30
Barnaby didn’t help with the coup, its a different party and the Nats couldn’t do anything but tag along behind the new broom.
Its different now, the Coalition backbench ginger group is intent on changing energy policy or topple the PM, whatever it takes to get rid of the green slime.
111
Do you really think they have the numbers? If they do then what are they waiting for? If they don’t the only thing they can do is leave the party and join ACP or ON and force an election to let the people decide, which is the far more democratic approach.
70
They have the numbers and are waiting for the appropriate parliamentary moment.
10
How do you know? You have inside info? I do hope you are right.
30
There are sitting weeks this month.
My understanding is that everyone needs to be in the same room for a formal leadership spill and parliament hasn’t sat since June 28.
So… August 13… We can hope. 😀
30
How is that going to work if the Nationals are not allowed to be part of the spill? The only way I can see the spill happening is if enough Liberals got together and caused it, and I haven’t seen any evidence of that being possible going by the numbers. The Nationals could force an election but I doubt they have the guts to do that. I wish they did just to prove they have the courage of their convictions to stand up and be counted – that’s assuming their convictions are not misplaced and are instead just serfs for Turnbull.
10
Peter its about the NEG and how many Liberals in the full party room decide not to sign off on it, most of the Nats have already rejected it on principle.
The ginger group have nothing to lose and everything to gain, we demand new coal fired power stations.
41
‘Tony Abbott has attacked the final design of the PM’s signature energy policy, labelling claims it will reduce prices as “wrong”.
‘Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly says farmers will be forced to cull their animals under the Paris agreement.’
Oz
32
The NEG is a dead duck, unless all the states sign on.
Daniel Andrews wont sign up on principal, unless it supports wind and solar, ie, unicorn farts and fairy dust!
51
“its a different party”. So? It’s a coalition government.
“couldn’t do anything but tag along behind the new broom”
Really? Without the Nationals, Malcolm could not form government. Barnaby could have forced an election at any time. He was never powerless. I doubt the people who vote National want to hear that their representatives have no say in government or who leads the coalition as Prime Minister.
50
Not to mention Barnaby betrayed his own constituents (farmers in particular) by allowing Turnbull to introduce various anti-national policies to hurt them as though Turnbull belonged to a the Greens party. It would be hard to imagine how the Greens could have done much worse and get away with it but Turnbull and his cohorts, including the Nationals have achieved that with spades.
50
Keep in mind all politicians are ignorant on climate change, so I’m grateful that the heretics are finally all lumped together on the back bench.
The push to change the NEG policy and allow new coal fired power stations, is a slap in the face for Turnbull. Deputy leaders have a responsibility to maintain Coalition solidarity and keep divisive comments out of the MSM, so its fortuitous indeed that Barnaby is free to lead the charge.
30
Cory isn’t ignorant. He took a stand and left the Liberal Party. Let’s see if the so called ginger group makes a move and changes things. I see than Nationals MP George Christensen is on a mining industry-funded mission to get the Japanese government to build new coal-fired power stations in Australia. All we need now is the rest of the Nationals, state and federal to back that and demand the NEG be formulated to promote such a move, and if necessary warn Turnbull if he doesn’t comply there will be hell to pay with a new election sprung on him.
70
Nats are not allowed into the lib party room, let alone vote.
30
It is not a Liberal government. The Liberals could have formed government on their own, under Abbott. Under Turnbull, he could not have a single person cross the floor for a vote of confidence. The Nationals can bring it down any time they wish. If they are too gutless to get any respect or have any influence, that is nothing to do with reality.
50
‘….their representatives have no say in government or who leads the coalition as Prime Minister.’
If the Nationals break with the Coalition they would be a useless rump, so all we want is a change of Coalition policy on energy.
The Greens have already penetrated the National Farmers Federation, which means we need to move quickly and save the Coalition or it’ll be crash and burn.
30
THat’s the only way the Nationals can stop the rot and turn things back the way things should be. They need to grow a spine and demand Turnbull scrap the RET schemes or else smash the coalition, form some sort of arrangement with the ACP and ON to share the same policies going to the next election and let the people decide. I doubt the Nats have the courage to do it but that’s our only hope, unless there are enough Libs with the courage to eject Turnbull to try and save the party.
20
‘The PM’s centrepiece energy policy faces an 11th-hour threat from dissatisfied Coalition MPs who’ve attacked new modelling.’
Oz August 2
01
Where was he when he was in the game to stop the renewables madness? He is a two-faced hypocrite.
60
Cory put solar on his roof.
10
What do you mean? Doesn’t make any sense.
10
Anyone with solar has caved in to the dark side.
We have to forget the past and go from here, the next few weeks will be telling.
10
If people want to put solar panels on their roofs that’s their business. The problem is RETs. It has to be abolished.
20
When any of us decide (for financial reasons) on rooftop solar we are selling our soul to the devil, the RET will remain until we can prove CO2 does not cause global warming.
01
So did I! And? Nothing to do with virtue signalling. Pragmatic choice to try and keep my power bills under the lid!
41
‘…try and keep my power bills under the lid!’
Are you happy with the arrangement?
01
Well, a local TV weatherman just went ahead and said it today:” This is not the hottest July on record. Not the second, the third, or fourth.” (and that is probably an adjusted record) Every year when presented with extreme seasonal weather events, such as heat waves, cold snaps, brush fires, hurricanes …. people tend to exclaim: “I can’t remember anything like this!” So good on that man for pointing to recorded facts instead of trying to whip up an emotional response to further an agenda.
120
“I can’t remember anything like this!” In England, the last hotter summer was 1976, but that was 42 years ago so you would have to be fifty to remember it. The fact that there was a hotter summer so long ago does destroy the idea of Global Warming and alleged phenomenon in a 1 degree movement in an average which in truth is hardly detectectable day to day. Be afraid. Something almost noticeable may happen. Send money.
92
The fifth hottest summer in England was this year.
The fourth hottest summer in England was 2003
The third hottest was in 1976
The second hottest was in 1911
The hottest summer in England was 1846.
Plot them out for “proof” that rising CO2 causes cooling.
Obvious statistical nonsense but fully in line with green practice.
20
I remember it well and it was longer, hotter and drier than this year.
1983 was another very hot dry summer, albeit not quite as much as this or ’76 when i was one of the lucky few going in and out of London in a car with air conditioning. In ’83 I had the top down and windscreen flat on the land rover all of the time for 6-7 weeks or more.
But None of these has been as hot as the UK temperature records set in the 1930s…. nearly half a century before ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Climate Change’ were invented.
21
I hope Channel Nine gives Fairfax journalists time to ponder on their blatant warmest bias.
‘ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes heatwave expert Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick said while it was not clear-cut, there was cause for concern.
“At this stage, we are heading towards an El Nino summer, so we are more likely to have hotter and more extreme weather, that’s quite clear,” she said.
“We can’t use what is going on in the northern hemisphere as an actual prediction of what might happen in the southern hemisphere summer.
“But looking at the climate drivers and what has been going on in our own weather in the last three or so months, it is gearing up towards a warmer summer.
“We should certainly be worried, particularly in the long term we can expect to see more summers like the one being experienced by the northern hemisphere more often anywhere across the globe.”
Weatherzone
50
‘ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes’! Says it all, doesn’t it? Ha ha ha!
92
Yes, the moment someone pompously calls themselves a “Centre of Excellence” the alarm bells go off. It carries as much weight as “Peoples Democratic Republic of _____(insert dictatorship here)_____”.
You instantly know it has nothing to do with the people, democracy or excellence.
80
Never fear Annie, it’s possible that after the first two comments on this thread Jo may be tempted to rename her blog;
“The Jonova Centre of Excellence
in
REBELLION and FIGHTBACK”.
KK
21
Establishments that really are excellent have no need to brag about it…
20
“ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes”.
Nope. Not biting. I’ve fallen for these Onion pranks before. What next? Will the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes have its own heatwave expert called Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick? And then they get you to try and say Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick ten times real fast? (You always ends up saying “kerkins”.)
Nah. Fool me once.
40
Momoso @ # 10.2
The heat waves I knew when I was young weren’t called Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick but were called simple names like Marilyn and Anita [ ekberg ] and Gina and Brigitte !
20
Is it for ‘climate extremes’ or ‘Climate Extremists” ???
20
‘ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes’
That would make sense only if they were talking about other planets in our solar system. Our planet is not suffering anything like a climate extreme so that centre is a total waste of money and time if it’s only concerned about earth.
60
el gordo –
on Fairfax Weatherzone website, but credited at the bottom to ABC.
1 Aug: ABC: BOM weather: Hottest July on record for southern Queensland prompts warnings of more to come
By Shelley Lloyd
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-01/qld-weather-temperatures-break-records-july-maximums/10056288
the writer:
Shelley Lloyd has worked as a broadcaster in commercial and public radio and television for more than 25 years. She has reported on both state and federal politics in Brisbane and Canberra. Shelley has presented numerous programs, including the ABC’s Country Hour. For many years, she was involved in the recruitment, training and mentoring of ABC regional reporters in Queensland. Currently, Shelley presents the ABC’s statewide morning news bulletins in Queensland and is a keen photographer
20
Remind me….weren’t Queenslanders whinging about how chilly they’ve felt things lately?
31
Its like saying my street had it hottest month ever this July. Cretinous.
31
Gatton beat a record set in 1940 by 0.3C. This morning it was -1.3C .
That’s about 8C below average. Will that get a mention.
10
Eucalyptus trees were mentioned yesterday and worldwide they are widespread commercial crop. Vast numbers of the trees have also been planted in Israel because the Ottomans cut down most of the trees and the Israelis have been replanting them since 1948. Eucalyptus do extremely well in Israel due to a similar climate to Australia. Naturally, native species are planted as well.
Some years ago the eucalyptus trees started dying because somehow a gall wasp was introduced from Australia which went out of control because of no natural predators. A joint effort between the Israelis and the CSIRO eventually found two parasitic wasps in Northern Australia that kill the gall wasp which bought the problem under control. One of those wasps is named after someone I know, Joe Krycer, the species being Selitrichodes kryceri, so I am one of the few people who knows someone who has an insect named after them!
More of the story can be seen at the link below. Israelis are now helping out other countries as the gall wasp problem spreads worldwide.
https://www.israel21c.org/israel-presents-eucalyptus-researchers-with-tree-saving-solution/
90
Ferial cats, ferial dogs, brumbies, wild goats, rabbit plagues, CANE TOADS, ferial pigs, fire ants, water buffalos and God knows how many other imports have had significant negative impact in Australia!
Good to see we are exporting controls not just the pests!!
30
California might start to treat eucalypts the same as they are treating plastic straws (the latest scourge of civilization)..
30
Well there’s the problem, Plastic Straws (Polyproplenus Suckius)have no natural predators in the wild.
If only we could engineer a predator we could release it into the wild and the straw problem would go away.
We could call the programme Kollecting All Irresponsible Junk Universally, or KAIJU.
What could possibly go wrong? 😀
50
Straw toads?
30
Sounds like one of those b grade horror/scifi movies
10
The Nova Wildcat is deadly to straw men, or a Spitz crossed water dog?
Cry plastic and let slip the dogs of straw!
20
🙂
10
Not everybody’s happy about Australia’s wildlife exports. The folks on Australia’s east island aren’t very happy about us exporting our possums there. And the folks in Japan are very upset when they spot a redback.
20
Well the NZers have sent their share of wild animals in this direction.
20
Are you allowed to say that?
I’m currently in Wellington for a few days and can’t detect any global warming.
KK
00
Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern to visit NZ
It will be interesting to see the reaction in NZ compared to the mad acts by the left and the upper echelons of the police here in Australia.
50
Good one PeterS.
I posted the following vid (Rowan Dean, Lauren Southern) on Weekend Unthreaded as a follow up to my earlier comment on TdeF’s thoughts.
A must watch. So apologies for posting it here again. It is a very good discussion around the issues.
https://youtu.be/7TizniY5ULw
40
Yes I watched it live at the time. She is spot on on every single point she made. Truth often hurts so many people. Yet she is attacked by the the MSM, left and upper echelons of the police. We now know where they all stand – and they are certainly not to protect the Western culture but to destroy it.
60
I am most impressed with Lauren and have watched several of her youtube clips.
She is very smart, articulate and knows her stuff. One thing worth noting is that she looks at her questioner and listens carefully and then answers. It is a commendable attribute sadly missing these days.
If the LNP are to drag themselves out of their malaise they need to find a few home grown young ladies with her skills (and beliefs) and put them up as candidates. Graham
60
Won’t play and a message appears:
The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement.
20
Shut down. Copyright infringement. That means it was worth watching.
40
Yep. Certainly was.
Just like Andrei Nekrasov’s “the magnitsky act – behind the scenes”.
Free speech is in trouble. Make no mistake.
30
It was indeed. I’d like to have watched it again. Lauren is highly intelligent and articulate. Free speech is very much coming under attack.
20
I just hope Jacinda does not bite them.
10
Funny (to me) video on youtube, with Southern and Molyneux sitting on a park bench talking about “the trouble with Lakemba” Ah, Lakemba , people are at last interested in you.
10
When they could just have easily stopped closing coal mines …
Weather explained: east coast drought
01/08/2018|3min
Drought conditions are ravaging the eastern region of Australia, but just how dry is it out on our farms?
Sky News Weather Meteorologist Tristan Meyers has the answer.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_5816287904001
GREENS leader Bob Brown says the coal mining industry should foot the bill for the floods because it helped cause them.
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/coal-miners-to-blame-for-queensland-floods-says-australian-greens-leader-bob-brown/news-story/cbfe12042fa9c4149ea3c10524f57344
20
NSW electricity supply is likely to be squeezed even further in the next few weeks if they throw the switch and start up the Kernell Desal plant to protect water supplies.
The Desal plant has a heavy power demand, ..it has previously been called a “Electricity Bottleing Plant ” …of about 56 MW continuous..
Once switched on (first time since it was commissioned 6 years ago) ..it will run non stop 24/7 for several months, ..even if it rains the day after it starts ! due to contractual terms.
Originally it was claimed that it will run on 100% RE power,..so we will have to see how that goes on those nights when there is little wind …
…maybe they will use some of that hydro power ?…ahh but no, that is in short supply also .
100
Hydro power to run a desal plant, I just had the biggest belly laugh. Thanks
80
Me too!
11
Use coal generated electricity to pump water uphill so that you can make electricity to make water out of water.
Yep. That works.
50
That really makes sense (not sure to whom though…another Ha ha ha! moment).
11
It’s coming to get us – the dreaded dihydrogen oxide.
40
The Victoriastan desal plant has only been used once as well, when the state government purchased about $27 million worth of water for no apparent reason. It costs $1.8 million per day to lay idle. There are questions about the level of boron in the water (if it produces).
This and most other Australian desal plants make unreliables appear like they were properly thought out.
https://amp.smh.com.au/opinion/questions-linger-over-health-risk-from-desal-plant-water-20160526-gp47oi.html
https://amp.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/desal-plant-leaks-18-million-a-day/news-story/ee5a0728f9b259d9c72b1549fc460db8
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-12/no-need-for-27m-water-order-from-victorias-desalination-plant/7588704
31
The WA desal plants actually work well and contribute significantly to Perth’s water supply. Without them we were quickly draining our underground supplies, and the taste of summer water was foul.
30
Can someone here help me please ,with facts, to refute a claim that renewables ”create ” jobs.I have read in the past, somewhere ,that for every job in renewables we lose 5 jobs somewhere else.Any help appreciated.
30
I’m sure someone can find somewhere on the web to support any argument you wish to make about anything.
49
Yes I’m sure that’s correct Gee Aye.
However, the question reflects the extent to which green-left and neo-Marxist thinking has pervaded perceptions of what an economy is all about.
It’s not the responsibility of a economy to create jobs. Jobs (labour) is a factor of production. An input. Along with land, capital and entrepreneurship. Inputs need to be used efficiently to optimize the utilization of productive capacity.
Green energy production is not competitive without massive subsidies. Accordingly, it reduces the efficiency of the economy and wastes scarce national resources.
I note that even you are not prepared to offer The Sting any help with his/her quest. Why is that?
50
Gee Aye, they’re a bit tough on you, three red thumbs for stating the bleeding obvious.
31
Well, I didn’t waste my time giving him one.
However, I’m still waiting for him to answer my question.
30
OK… I assume the Sting is just as able to trawl the new as I am.
10
Yes. Of course.
However, he came here and asked for views on the subject.
You don’t have one?
That’d be a first.
Or is it something else? Such as you knowing the truth of the matter but still wanting to subvert it?
10
he asked for something to support a view he already holds. Nothing in his comment suggests he wanted to hear views.
10
Not like you to hold back.
Is the evidence is against you?
00
One reason unreliables give the illusion of creating jobs is that they are inefficient and labour intensive to run and maintain. You have a lot of small plant spread over wide areas and producing very little useful electricity in comparison to one compact real power station in one single place and which has predictable behaviour whereby downtime can be easily scheduled.
71
They certainly create jobs in China (solar panel manufacturing). .
.and Denmark/Germany (wind Turbine manufacturing ),
…and a few hundred construction jobs as the farms are installed.
But , the ongoing permanent jobs in Australia are very few (10-20) for each solar or wind farm.
Contrast that to the workforce employed at a coal generator and all the upstream jobs in mining , mining services, coal transport, etc etc.
50
Statistics from Spain I think, for every greens job created 3 jobs were lost in other parts of the economy
61
Job creation is a big furphy. Almost anything can create jobs, including wars, terrorism and burglars, none of which are desirable outcomes.
20
King Juan Carlos University; Madrid Spain;
“Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources”
https://instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf
The study was done in 2009 and therefore is a bit dated on its prices and costs but the basic premise of Job losses versus jobs created at a ratio of around a minimum of 2.2 jobs lost in the wider economy for every job created in renewable energy holds.
The UK figure I understand is given as closer to 3 to 4 jobs lost in its economy for every renewable job created.
And have a look at the eye glazing job losses for every green Mw installed of renewable energy in Spain.
.
The green /renewable energy industry went absolutely berserk when this study came out and has done everything in its power to try and destroy the study and the reputation of the researchers who did the hard yards in researching all the detail and data.
There is a similar study kicking around in the UK which I haven’t located but which came up with similar results to the Spanish study re employment and economic costs to society of renewable energy.
The 30 plus billion dollars Government deficit due to the renewable energy industry in Spain, arose and was accumulated by the government because the politicians weren’t quite game to put the full costs onto the consumer and weren’t game or were too stupid to place various limits on both the installation and the costs of renewable energy in Spain.
The upshot being in around 2015 or there abouts the Spanish government dropped the boom big time on the Spanish renewable energy industry with the elimination of some subsidies and the servere cutting back of other subsidies in an endeavour to get some economic and sustainable budgetary sense back into the system.
The result was a string of bankruptcies in Spanish renewable energy compoanes plus a string of international court cases by renewable energy outfits against the Spanish government to get their subsidies back .
The ruling of the courts in some cases being subsidies are something granted by the government and as the government has thus granted those subsidies, the government is perfectly entitled to remove those same subsidies if and when it so desires.
A lot of the Spanish renewable industry , particularly the domestic type solar panel, micro hydro of which there was a lot in Spain, some single turbine set ups and a number of spanish only renewable energy corporations basically were bankrupted or found themselves with a thirty or forty year repayment program for their renewable energy installations.
11
That was well worth the read ROM. Thanks. I hope the Sting finds it enlightening.
Then there’s the German experience as well. “From Solar Valley to Death Valley”. P Gosselin. (31 July 2018).
http://notrickszone.com/2018/07/31/from-solar-valley-to-death-valley-how-germanys-solar-industry-imploded-german-autos-next-to-go/
Gosselin’s paper demonstrates how scarce national resources are wasted and the process of capital formation is destroyed by the green-left and neo-Marxists’ economic sabotage.
20
The red was a mis hit.
01
Thanks .
00
Ha! Another Greentard fail. When Walid Aly and Green Labor are behind the plastic bag ban you know it was never a good idea!
Coles backs down on plastic bag ban
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-01/free-plastic-bags-at-coles-continues/10060066
31
I have already seen a couple of those new Coles reusable plastic bags blowing in the wind on the streets. I can only imagine it will get much worse over time and cause a lot more environmental damage in Australia than the so called single-use bags we used to be given for free. To me at least it’s proof the whole thing is a scam and it was only ever about the money and possibly virtue signalling.
61
This is just the most visible of the idiotic ideas and fatwahs from the Looney PC brigade.
If only they had jobs to go to, none of this would be happening.
KK
31
They do have a job – their assigned job is to destroy the West in any which way they can.
11
Did anyone notice the person in the pic carrying that umbrella in such a dangerous fashion. Amazing that people don’t think of children’s eyes and other damage that can be done to anyone nearby. I have drawn attention to this dangerous habit in the past and just get the usual gormless gape in response 🙁
22
be careful you don’t destroy the west
24
I won’t as I’m on the side of the West in spite of some of its failings.
21
Annie,
The harm from umbrellas is miniscule compared with the damage that could be inflicted by a plastic bag or a plastic straw.
20
Silly me to think otherwise 😉
30
“… green groups are concerned that these [new bags] will end up in the ocean”
Well, of course they are – they’re greenies. they care about some micro-frog that no-one in the real world has ever seen, and will protest it’s destruction by the builders of their “renewable energy” resources. Same as birds vs windmills.
If they REALLY cared, they would have noticed that 90+% of plastic that ends up in the oceans come from 10 rivers – 8 in Asia and 2 in Africa. These all come from 3rd world countries with no waste disposal systems in place, let alone regulation of same.
That’s the way guys – spend 90% of your energy on <10% of the problem, just because the ones you are hitting for it are the only ones likely to care enough to make a change. Looking for your car keys only under the street lights…
82
Easily refuted. I just googled “greenpeace third world plastic” and got several hundred specific articles and reports on the issue you claim “greenies” do not notice. If I swapped in other organisations for “greenpeace” I’m certain I’d find many more.
What you object to, I suspect, is that because of local media focus and local action groups influencing different organisations where you live, you are directly affected by something and you are not a person to ever admit that you might have some responsibility for soiling your own nest and the nest that all your friends and relatives have to live in. Changing your ways is an admission of being wrong.
27
Kneel,
You have been given the spray, you were Wong, so just accept it and go quietly.
When you are being guided by someone who potentially has a BhP in Ethical Social Discombobulation you are required to aceed to the substance of that action forthwith.
KK
40
urban dictionary tells me that bhp is the mining company, brake horse power and various uses of your anus and rectum though with words starting with b and h
15
I forgot where the P can also be another word for cat
15
Meanwhile, back in the jungle:
Plastic guns OK, plastic straws BAD.
30
Plastic guns are illegal under other statutes as they are undetectable by most metal detectors.
People making guns are legion, however…a good garage machine shop will do fine and parts are readily
available. Loading one’s own bullets is also considered a hobby by many. Gun nonsense in the US is reaching its biennial peak
as our midterm elections approach. Railing against a 3D plastic gun is great campaign fodder, especially if the other side is riding a good economy and relatively effective governance. Plastic guns, plastic straws, plastic bags….there’s a pattern here. And plastic is made from OIL. No reason to be serious on the campaign trail…. you know, schools, health care, defense….when you have plastic.
A cynic might say plastic thoughts from plastic people, but I never would.
40
25 Jul: St. Louis Post Dispatch: Trump steel tariffs bring hope, prosperity back to Granite City
By Peter Navarro
(Peter Navarro is a White House trade and manufacturing policy adviser)
Hiding in plain sight in a suburb of St. Louis is one of the great success stories of President Donald J. Trump’s tough trade policies. This is the rebirth of the Granite City steelworks, idled in 2015 — along with about 2,000 steelworkers — under a drowning flood of subsidized foreign imports…
As President Trump correctly noted upon signing the steel tariffs on March 8, “Without steel, you don’t have a country.”…
On the same day the steel tariff was announced, U.S. Steel’s Chief Executive Officer Dave Burritt promised to immediately restart one of two blast furnaces along with its steel-making facilities at Granite City. Just last month, Burritt announced the reopening of the second blast furnace by October, promising more great jobs at great wages in a community that had been decimated by the plant’s idling…
For example, beyond Granite City, in the steel industry, we have borne witness to a $500 million expansion and the reopening of a seamless pipe mill in Baytown, Texas. We have seen the return of at least 1,000 workers as a result of a restart of an idled mill in Lorain, Ohio, and the building of a new rebar micro mill in Frostproof, Fla…
In the aluminum industry, new or restarted aluminum smelters are firing up in places like New Madrid, Mo.; Hawesville, Ky.; and Warrick, Ind. New or restarted aluminum rolling mills or extrusion facilities are likewise in evidence in places like Ashland, Guthrie and Lewisport, Ky.; Huntingdon, Tenn.; Trenton, Ohio; and Goose Creek, S.C…
Together, these tariff-catalyzed — and tax-cut assisted — investments will add billions of dollars in new investment, millions of metric tons of aluminum and steel production, and thousands of jobs to the national economy — while helping to build up our manufacturing base and shore up gaps in our defense industrial base. This is an economy experiencing rapid growth, historically low unemployment (particularly among blacks and Hispanics) and rising wages…
The abiding fact here is that America has some of the lowest tariffs and non-tariff barriers in the world, and all that has gotten us are threats to our national security from a flood of imports and a more than half-trillion-dollar trade deficit every year that transfers our wealth, jobs and factories to foreign lands.
President Trump’s trade policies are putting an end to this globalist insanity…
The broader goal is a world where trade is fair, balanced and reciprocal; and American businesses and workers will win because they will finally compete on a level playing field.
https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/trump-steel-tariffs-bring-hope-prosperity-back-to-granite-city/article_9cb5e1a2-78c0-5c39-b245-7b1cded7ac5f.html
rest of the following is a jumbled mess, claiming all reductions in production are related to pollution/emissions targets:
31 Jul: Reuters: FACTBOX-Chinese cities scramble to enforce production cuts, smog curbs
by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason
(Adds Changzhou order) BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) – China’s cities are scrambling to implement production curbs in heavy industry, in a bid to cut emissions as part of Beijing’s intensified anti-pollution campaign. The city of Changzhou recently issued a draft plan ordering steel mills, chemical makers and cement producers to shut down or cut production by as much as 50 percent by Aug.3 at the latest until probably the end of this year…READ ON
http://news.trust.org//item/20180731012232-0gsaw/
30
Canberra! Are you reading?
“CASE DISMISSED – Federal Judge puts the final nail in the coffin of California’ ‘Global Warming Lawsuit’ against oil companies”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/07/31/case-dismissed-federal-judge-puts-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-california-global-warming-lawsuit-against-oil-companies/
70
This is a Very strange turn of events.
It seems to Herald a turning point in social attitudes that reflects the potential return of Sanity to the world.
KK
20
Strange you should say that KK!
I’ve began to wonder if the same potential political earthquake is showing some very deep rumblings of late.
then Americans elected Trump, a business man who does things his own way and the miasmatic political swamp was not amused.
Trudea in Canada, a poster child for the most miasmic Canadian and international political swamps is in deep political dodo after such a promising start [ sic]
Macron in France seems to going the same way.
Victor Orban in Hungrary is going down Trumps path and the hell with the old politics
Conte and Silvani in italy are taking on the EU with unsupportable illegal North African immigration hitting Italy very hard but the arrogant Junker of the EU and Merkel in Germany just keep on keeping on with the same old very bad and getting worse immigration policies.
The word is that Merkel may not make xmas as Germany’s chancellor but will be replaced as the germans have had enough of the old politics.
May in England looks like she has lost the plot or at least if she remains will sell the poms down the EU river on Brexit so she will probably go to be replaced by Boris which will make english politics real interesting.
Then Swedes have had a gutsfull of illegal immigration and the EU refusing to do anything about border protection so a right wing leader is due to be elected there as well after decades of the center left governments..
.
Trump being a real estate wheeler / dealer is probably a very good judge of what he can get away with and what he can gain after he sits down with the opposing player and gets some eyes ball to eye ball contact and a strong and very astute summing up of his oppositions strength and weaknesses.
Something he had to have as a natural gift to be a successful real estate shark amongst all those other great white real estate sharks.
All of which makes his one on one meetings with leaders such as Putin and Kim and Xi of other opposing outfits very valuable to the american power structure .
I strongly suspect that very few washington denizens of its miasmatic swamp will ever understand that Trump’s modus operandi is so totally different to their mentality in negotiating.
And his methods and personality and the going about in getting it his way might be far superior and much,much quicker and far more advantageous to america than theirs.
Even the chinese are now beginning to back down rather a long way and want to negotiate on the whole tariff thing that Trump imposed unilaterally on Chinese goods flooding onto the USA and on which they were going to take Trump on
It is now likely that other non political but high profile business people will become increasingly willing to throw their hat into the ring when it comes to electionsds both in the presidential USA type of government and in the Cabinet type democracies that we have here in Australia.
40
Change for the better?
Anything would be better than the mess the world was in before Brexit and Trumpit.
What we want now in Australia is a TurnExit followed by a Negexit.
We want the corrupted Electricity system closed down; Elexit and all the middle men removed.
Electricity availability at cost price is what Australians expect when by contrast, what we have is a market that Don Corleone would have been proud to own.
KK
01
comment in moderation re: 25 Jul: St. Louis Post Dispatch: Trump steel tariffs bring hope, prosperity back to Granite City
31 Jul: Reuters: Australian politicians urge Japan to invest in coal-fired power Down Under
by Sonali Paul; Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo
The trip, paid for by an Australian coal industry fund, is being led by members of parliament who are battling Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a new clean energy policy as they look to keep the country’s abundant coal resources in the generation mix.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan, a coal industry supporter, has given the group a letter asking Japanese companies to invest in new high efficiency-low emission (HELE) coal-fired power stations in Australia.
“We’re asking the world leaders in clean-coal technology in Japan to consider investing here,” George Christensen, one of the members of parliament on the trip, said in a statement…
Canavan’s letter refers to a recent report by Australia’s competition regulator on steps needed to bring down energy prices, which said the government should play a role as a power buyer of last resort to help new projects line up financing…
Others on the trip included three Liberals and two opposition Labor politicians…
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL4N1UR3RD
***note some ambiguity! is Frydenberg saying RE advocates are spreading a “myth” that wind & solar still needed subsidies? resign Frydenberg & Turnbull:
1 Aug: AFR: Ben Potter: Josh Frydenberg warns coal-loving colleagues: It’s over
Energy Josh Frydenberg has warned colleagues flirting with coal fired power plants as a solution to Australia’s electricity problems that they will run up against the reality of a “carbon-constrained environment”.
Mr Frydenberg told an Australian Clean Energy Summit dinner that extreme views on both the left and right had frustrated attempts to forge a durable solution to energy and climate policy.
That included some renewables advocates propagating a myth that Australia could “decarbonise overnight” ***and that wind and solar energy still required subsides despite rapid falls in costs.
But he reserved his sharpest criticism for colleagues still advocating for the construction of new coal-fired power stations, an option no large energy company or investor will touch because of the high cost relative to wind and solar, and the risk that future carbon policies will “strand” the asset long before its 50 year life has expired…
The antics of the Turnbull government’s anti-renewable energy dissidents are frustrating Mr Frydenberg’s efforts to persuade Labor states to back the government’s National Energy Guarantee…
***”There are some companies representing people or investments with more than $80 trillion worth of assets who are now asking for more climate change related disclosure in their documents,” Mr Frydenberg told the dinner.
“Banks are actually factoring that into their financing decisions because when you’re building a generation asset you’re thinking beyond one political cycle two political cycles you’re thinking decades ahead.
Funds say ‘no’ to coal
“And so we have to factor in a carbon constrained future. And that’s why the Prime Minister and I think it’s so important to integrate energy and climate policy.”…
***This year the $65 billion UniSuper and QSuper, the former Queensland government workers’ retirement fund with about $80 billion, joined the global Climate Action 100+ group of fund managers dedicated to pressuring listed companies to reduce their carbon risk, tipping the Australian funds backing the push over $1 trillion.
Globally $US30 trillion ($41 trillion) back the push to cleaner energy and lower carbon.
https://www.afr.com/news/josh-frydenberg-warns-coalloving-colleagues-its-over-20180731-h13ehr
20
Frydenberg warns coal-loving colleagues: It’s over…
31 Jul: InterMountain News: War Over
Pence points out coal production is up
Vice President Mike Pence’s observation Thursday in Wheeling that “the war on coal is over” gained him — and President Donald Trump — a well-deserved round of applause.
Speaking during an event that focused on tax reform, Pence reminded those in the audience at Oglebay Park’s Wilson Lodge that progress has been made in rolling back unnecessary regulations, too.
Mountain State residents are well aware of former President Barack Obama’s war on coal and affordable electricity. Trump is keeping his promise to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency.
That is producing results, Pence said Thursday. Coal production in our state last year was 16 percent higher than in 2016, he explained.
Though Pence didn’t mention it, thousands of families have felt the effects of the cease-fire in the war on coal. Mining and logging employment in West Virginia (unfortunately, neither state nor federal agencies separate the two) totaled about 23,000 in June. That was an increase of about 2,300 since Trump took office…
But much more remains to be done.
Obama’s war affected more than the coal industry. It also has an impact on electricity prices, because the coal industry the former president wanted to destroy supplies the lowest-cost, more dependable generating fuel available.
Obama-era incentives for utilities to shut down coal-fired power plants were embraced by many companies. That, too, needs to be reversed…
http://www.theintermountain.com/opinion/editorials/2018/07/war-over/
20
On a Telegraph report of the vanishing of 88% of an Emperor Penguin Colony on Ils des Cochons (47South, Pig Island), the claim is that in a ‘recent helicopter flyover’ the area of bare earth which indicates the size of the colony has shrunk.
The very odd thing is that if you go to Google Earth and pull up their photograph from 11/23/2011 on historical imagery 46°05’14.90″ S 50°15’59.13″ E, it is identical to their recent helicopter shot?
As no one has been on the island since 1982, you would think the ‘helicopter’ might have had a better shot than a Google satellite image. They might have even photographed some penguins.
Very suspiciously like the missing 250,000 caribou of Canada, found in a nearby valley.
Ecologists, finding problems at your expense. Clearly Climate Change.
90
Single use plastic bags, revisited.
I hear Coles is giving away “reusable” plastic bags, free and for an indefinite time. So Coles gives away heavier, dearer plastic bags to save the environment from the “single use” items and it’s OK because it says “reusable” on them.
Please tell me I’m dreaming!
100
Sorry David #16, Missed it.
20
The free bags were never “single use” and we all knew it. They had a multitude of uses. It was a classic example of the Left taking command of the language for their own nefarious ends. And only Leftards were too stupid so as not to be able to imagine secondary uses of the bags such as bin liners etc..
42
And the bin liners that we now have to use are non-biodegradable, whereas the single-use bags were biodegradable.
42
Hanrahan,
Aren’t we innovative. Next thing we’ll find something wrong with the wheel and prevent that from being used.
We did that with coal fired power generation.
31
31 Jul: World Coal: QRC welcomes new Japanese investments for coal-fired plants in Australia
by Stephanie Roker
Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane has welcomed action from the Federal Government to encourage new investment from Japan in advanced coal-fired power plants in Australia.
“It’s common sense to make full use of our vast energy resources, including high quality coal to run high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) power plants,” Macfarlane said.
“And Queensland is the ideal place to build one. We have access to the best energy resources for a diverse energy mix that is affordable and reliable.
“Queensland’s high quality coal is already being exported to other countries in our region for use in advanced coal-fired power plants including Japan, China and Korea. It makes economic sense to use those resources here in Australia too.”
Thousands of HELE units are already in use or under construction around the world.
Macfarlane stated: “Queensland is Australia’s energy super power, with our extensive reserves of high quality coal, gas and renewable resources. Our gas resources are already keeping the lights on in the southern states, including in Victoria where gas development is banned. And we export electricity from our fleet of coal-fired power stations to NSW and Victoria to help power the national grid.
“Building a new HELE coal-fired power plant in Queensland makes sense to further strengthen energy security for all Australians. We encourage the Commonwealth and all states and territories to finalise the National Energy Guarantee, which is technology neutral and will provide investment certainty for all types of power generation.”
https://www.worldcoal.com/power/31072018/qrc-welcomes-new-japanese-investments-for-coal-fired-plants-in-australia/
31 Jul: FinancialExpressIndia: PTI:: Coal India to procure mining equipments worth $2 billion through global tender over next 3 years
The Coal India has decided to procure mining equipments worth USD two billion through global tender over the next three years to ramp up coal production to meet the growing demand.
The Coal India has set a target of producing 630 million tonnes in 2018-19 and one billion tonne in the next three to four years…
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/coal-india-to-procure-mining-equipments-worth-2-billion-through-global-tender-over-next-3-years/1264321/
31
31 Jul: World Coal: Russia’s coal exports and production are on the up
by Stephanie Roker
Russian coal production reached 210 million tonnes in the first half, up by over 5% on the year, on strong exports and higher domestic demand, data from state-run energy information agency CDU TEK show…
Output is expected to further increase in the second half, reaching about 420 million tonnes this year, up by 3% from 2017 and exceeding the Russian energy ministry’s earlier forecast of 410 million tonnes for 2018…
https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/31072018/russias-coal-exports-and-production-are-on-the-up/
30 Jul: Wired: Eric Niler: If Germany Can’t Quit Coal, Can Anyone Else?
Sometime next month, underground miners will dig Germany’s last ton of black coal, load it onto a conveyor belt, and whisk it a mile to the surface of the Ibbenbüren mining facility. From there, the high-energy anthracite will be tossed into a high-combustion chamber in an adjacent power plant, where it will be converted into electricity to light up this northwest corner of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state.
It’s been a good run at the Ibbenbüren mine. Some of the original elevators are a century old, and some machinery dates from its heyday in the 1960s, when more than 10,000 workers punched the clock here. But now, after 500 years of mining in this coal-producing region, the last shift is almost over…
It would seem like a major step toward Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent of 1990 totals by 2020. But German utilities just can’t seem to quit burning coal. Some power plants are switching to cheaper imported black coal from the United States, Russia, or Colombia. And at the same time, Germany is also digging more lignite, or brown coal. Lignite is 50 percent water and yields much less energy than the shiny black anthracite. But lignite is easy to bulldoze from massive strip mines that dot Germany’s northwest and eastern border with Poland. Among Europe’s power plants, Germany’s brown coal stations constitute six out of 10 of the worst polluters…
So if super-green Germany—with its massive wind and solar farms, advanced technology and industrious mindset—can’t quit its love affair with coal, can anyone else on the planet? Right now, the answer is a bit muddled.
That’s why a “coal commission” of politicians, experts, energy industry representatives and green groups is meeting this summer in Berlin to chart Germany’s rocky path to a carbon-free economy…
Germany’s appetite for cheap brown lignite coal is nowhere more apparent that the village of Keyenberg, about an hour north of Cologne. It’s one of seven villages being gobbled up by the massive Rheinisch mine that is Europe’s largest. More than 20,000 people have been relocated to new settlements as the huge pit approaches, but some residents remain—like 73-year old Kathi Winzen, who is holding out along with 27 family members in a brick farmhouse and compound that dates back to the 18th century.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Winzen through a translator. “We will have to decide to relocate, but I’ve always lived in the village. It’s sad that all this will disappear, but what can you do?”…
Keyenberg has been in the crosshairs of the mining operation for the past 30 years, enduring a of slow-motion squeeze. It’s the same with Germany, squeezed by its desire to operate its muscular economy on green energy, but unable to quit its cheap supply of fossil fuels.
https://www.wired.com/story/if-germany-cant-quit-coal-can-anyone-else/
10
31 Jul: Daily Mail: The carbon (dioxide) ‘leak’ from the Southern Ocean that may have warmed the planet for 11,000 years and paved the way for human civilization
•Increase in ocean circulation in the area triggered the ‘leak’ of gas
•Increase in the Southern Ocean’s upwelling could be responsible for stabilizing the climate of the Holocene, 10,000 years before the Industrial Revolution
•Findings could also have implications for predicting global warming
•Could change predictions for ocean circulation and atmospheric carbon dioxide
By Mark Prigg
The warmth of that period was stabilized by a gradual rise in global carbon dioxide levels, so understanding the reason for that rise is of great interest, said Daniel Sigman, the Dusenbury Professor of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton…
Now, an international collaboration led by scientists from Princeton and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry point to an increase in Southern Ocean upwelling.
Their research appears in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
‘We think we may have found the answer,’ said Sigman…
‘Danny brings an entirely new slant to a long-standing question,’ said Wallace Broecker, the Newberry Professor of Geology at Columbia University, who was not involved in this research…
The findings about ocean changes could also have implications for predicting how global warming will affect ocean circulation and how much atmospheric carbon dioxide will rise due to fossil fuel burning…
‘In this context, the 20 ppm increase observed during the Holocene may seem small,’ said Sigman.
‘However, scientists think that this small but significant rise played a key role in preventing progressive cooling over the Holocene, which may have facilitated the development of complex human civilizations.’…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6007857/Carbon-leak-Southern-Ocean-warmed-planet-11-000-years.html
30 Jul: Phys.org: Princeton University: Carbon ‘leak’ may have warmed the planet for 11,000 years, encouraging human civilization
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-carbon-leak-planet-years-human.html
20
31 Jul: TheAge: Nicole Hasham: Don’t forget the ‘big picture’ says man who could kill energy plan
When ministers meet next week to unpick the knots in Australia’s latest energy plan, the ACT’s Shane Rattenbury will be thinking past the political tangle before him.
Of course Australia badly needs to end the time-wasting climate policy wars. Yes, power bills are hurting households, and a large chunk of our electricity supply rests with a suite of rickety coal-fired power plants soon due to retire.
But the stakes are unthinkably high in the world’s big gamble with climate change, and Mr Rattenbury is not convinced the government’s proposed National Energy Guarantee is Australia’s best bet…
“Getting involved in the minutiae [of debating the policy], it’s very easy to lose sight of the big picture,” the territory’s Climate Change Minister said.
“It is important to reflect on that when you are sitting there under pressure [and people are] saying ‘you’ve got to agree to this’. But we’ve all got our global-citizen responsibility as well.”…
The ACT is concerned that renewable energy generation it contracts in other states would not count towards its own targets – forcing it to buy more renewable energy elsewhere…
But Mr Rattenbury says jurisdictions doing relatively little to encourage renewable energy, such as NSW, will be allowed to “coast along” on the efforts of others.
“That’s bad for the energy market in the long term. We need an orderly transition to the clean energy future,” he said, adding that this was crucial to maintain reliability as coal-fired plants closed…
“I’m optimistic because I believe as a species we are capable of doing this,” he said. “But I do worry about the politics and self-interest.”
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/don-t-forget-the-big-picture-says-man-who-could-kill-energy-plan-20180731-p4zun6.html
10
Listening to podcast yesterday and there was reference to a recent outstanding development in AI. Apparently they’ve come up with a female sex robot that says “no” !
40
I’m sure they can program it to say no when it means yes 🙂
30
Will there be a recorded permission app?
10
The permission will be as follows, with a lawyer, as per “Cherry 2000”.
https://youtu.be/urS8GmwmeWQ
00
I wonder if you can wear out the software on one of those?
Of course any robot will say no if you keep pushing its buttons…….
10
Yes, it is called a Rattenbury (see pat No. 25 above).
00
NEG
National Poverty Guarantee
http://stopturnbull.com/national-poverty-guarantee-2017-2018/
50
You might also like to read about why President Trump probably doesn’t like our PM
http://stopturnbull.com/how-turnbulls-anti-trump-scheming-demonstrates-his-contempt-for-australia/
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I didn’t think it possible to despise MT more than I already did, but I find that I do after reading all that.
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I started following the website from Part 2 and while I had knowledge of quite a lot reported I was still surprised by many items.
http://www.stopturnbull.com
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In May last year the two met on the USS Intrepid to mark the 75th of the Coral Sea battle [I was two weeks old then], things were quite cordial and I was hopeful of better things, but Turnbull never fails to disappoint.
20
try this: http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/07/in-heart-of-struggle-we-stand.html http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/07/let-arrows-from-heart-of-saint-germain.html
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At WUWT Monckton et al by math and experiment have derived a figure for climate sensitivity of 1.17K for a doubling of CO2 including all feedbacks or “amplifications”.
The paper they have submitted has apparently elicited some scathing reviews from reviewers within the CC™ establishment.
I would have no idea of the worth of the paper but the reaction of the reviewers appears to be at least partly a reaction to an outsider presuming to enter the ‘holy of holies’.
Monckton is a maverick but in the history of science established theories have often been overturned by mavericks.
I was recently reading the story of the development of asepsis and the life of Ignaz Semmelweis who first noticed that when he required doctors to wash their hands in chlorine prior to delivery, the rate of puerperal fever dropped dramatically.
In the mid-1800s surgeons would often go from dissecting corpses to operating on patients without even washing their hands as infection was thought to be transmitted through the air as miasma.
Semmelweis’s struggle to have his ideas adopted was vigorously resisted by the profession and he was eventually committed to an asylum were he soon died, or was murdered.
I’m not of course suggesting that might happen to Christopher Monckton but science establishments can be pretty ruthless.
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Monckton’s paper was within his purview. He is a mathematician and the paper was a critique on the math. A “climate scientist” is a jack of all trades, master of none. If they were true to their calling they would take critiques of their work by SPECIALISTS quite seriously.
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True to their calling. Climate model simulations versus satellite
and balloon obs, 1979 – 2014. Oh dear!
http://media.al.com/news_huntsville_impact/photo/christy-chart-378a82c81b59f099.jpg
10
“More proof Turnbull’s NEG sham is not about lowering power bills”
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/08/more-proof-turnbulls-neg-sham-is-not-about-lowering-power-bills.html
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”
nold
July 31, 2018 at 9:22 pm
The Dunning-Kruger explained in song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdnH19KsVVc
”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/07/31/is-justin-trudeau-living-in-an-alternate-reality/#comment-1134673
10
Deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie said ‘the Nationals would continue to pursue their policy of decentralisation. This was not just a matter of moving government agencies to the bush but also encouraging internal migration from Sydney and Melbourne, and “strategic regional immigration policies” to encourage new migrants to regional areas.’
Guardian
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this story is not being reported properly. emphasis is on who founded the Foundation:
1 Aug: SMH: Peter Hannam: Secretive Great Barrier Reef Foundation reveals four founding leaders
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the charity controversially granted $443 million by the Turnbull government to co-ordinate reef research, has finally bowed to pressure to reveal the names of its four founding members.
The not-for-profit group, which is under scrutiny in a Senate inquiry, on Wednesday revealed its four founders in late 1999 to be Sir Sydney Schubert, Sir Ian McFarlane, John B Reid and David Windsor
The disclosure confirms speculation, reported by Fairfax Media in May, that the late Sir Ian, a Queensland shale oil developer, had been among the founders. The organisation has previously declined to reveal its founders, and three of its directors have been unavailable to give evidence (LINK) to the inquiry.
Of the others, late Sir Sydney was a prominent Queensland public servant and a founding director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
The authority is one of the government agencies, along with the CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, that now has to submit proposals to the foundation for research funds.
Mr Reid has been described as the last of the family dynasty to run James Hardie, the company behind one of Australia’s biggest asbestos producers.
Mr Windsor has been previously named as a founding manager director of the foundation…
Attending the original meeting to form the charity was John Schubert, who currently serves as the foundation’s chair.
***A spokesman for the group said Mr Schubert and Sir Sydney were unrelated…
The foundation’s funding arrangements have come under scrutiny for the lack of a tender for the grant, which was delivered in full in the May budget and included in the 2017-18 financial year.
The foundation, which had just six full-time employees at the time of the grant’s announcement, is expected to collect at least $22.5 million of the funds in payments for its operations.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/secretive-great-barrier-reef-foundation-reveals-four-founding-leaders-20180801-p4zuwb.html
1 Aug: Guardian: No environment officials at Turnbull meeting about $443m reef grant to tiny charity
Revealed: Great Barrier Reef Foundation founders had links to resources industry
by Lisa Cox
The charity, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, has also confirmed that its founders were wealthy businessmen and philanthropists with links to the resources industry, and one was a senior public servant in the Bjelke-Petersen government…
She (WHO?) said Sir Sydney Schubert resigned in 2001 and the other three founding directors resigned in 2004. John Schubert became the foundation’s chairman in 2004…
Guardian Australia put questions to the prime minister’s office.
The prime minister’s office passed the queries on to Frydenberg’s office, which responded that it was not unusual for ministers to meet stakeholders without departmental officials present.
A statement released on behalf of Frydenberg said the government was committed to building the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef “recognising not only its environmental characteristics but also the 64,000 jobs it supports”.
“Our record-breaking $500m investment in the Great Barrier Reef is a new investment, building on and directly supporting the intensive work already underway through the $2bn Reef 2050 Plan,” he said.
“To help protect the reef and drive further philanthropic and corporate support, the Coalition government has made available $444m in this year’s budget for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to spend over six years.”…
Frydenberg said the foundation would work closely with the Department of Environment and Energy, the Queensland government and expert institutions such as GBRMPA and the Australian Institute of Marine Science to deliver projects.
“The partnership with the foundation has been established through a grant agreement and the foundation will be required to report to the Department of the Environment and Energy on grant activities,” he said.
“The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is a highly respected philanthropic organisation with a strong fundraising track record and history of successful partnerships with a range of sectors and has strong governance and accountability mechanisms.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/01/no-environment-officials-at-turnbull-meeting-about-443m-reef-grant-to-tiny-charity
for the record:
Wikipedia: Sydney Schubert (1928 – 2015): In 2017, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority posthumously honoured Schubert by naming a reef near Lizard Island as the Sir Sydney Schubert Reef. This was done to recognise Schubert as being one of its founding members who is credited as helping steer the fledgling organisation through its inception in the mid 1970’s.
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it wasn’t difficult to find info on John Schubert:
Garvan Institute: Media Release 01 May 2013: John Schubert becomes Chairman of Garvan
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research is delighted to announce the appointment this week of Dr John Schubert AO to its Board by the Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, and his subsequent election by the Board as its Chair.
John Schubert is a past president of the Business Council of Australia and a former chairman of the Commonwealth Bank, a position he held from 2004 until his retirement in 2010. In 2001 he was appointed to the Qantas Airways Limited Board, holding the position until October 2012. In April, he retired as chairman of the biotechnology company G2 Therapies Ltd.
From 2000-2003, John was a director of Hanson plc, and from 2002-2004 he was chairman of Worley Group Limited. From 1993-2000 he was the Pioneer International Limited Managing Director and CEO.
A keen snorkeler and supporter of action to protect our environment, John has been a director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation since 2001 and its chairman since 2004. He is also a director of BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc…
https://www.garvan.org.au/news-events/news/john-schubert-becomes-chairman-of-garvan
more stuff worth noting on Keneally’s main Twitter page, tho it’s just a few labor/green types doing the piling on:
31 Jul: Tweets: Kristina Keneally
The Prime Minister’s ‘private meeting’ with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, when he offered them $444m of public funding, was more private than first thought. It now turns out that there were no public servants present. Just Turnbull, Frydenberg & GBRF Chair Dr John Schubert…
8h ago: The Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Dr John Schubert, has previously declined 4 dates offered to him to appear before the Senate Inquiry…
https://twitter.com/KKeneally/status/1024495980467482625
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Welcome to Josh Frydenberg’s home page
(SCROLL DOWN)
International media interest in Great Barrier Reef investment
The Turnbull Government’s record-breaking $500 million investment in the Great Barrier Reef immediately received international media interest, demonstrating not only the value of the Reef, but also the significance of the investment.
In the days following the announcement, I spoke live from Melbourne with Singapore-based Sharanjit Leyl on BBC World News and London-based Dotun Adebayo on BBC Radio 5 live as well as Los Angeles-based Cyril Vanier on CNN.
You can watch the CNN interview here…
(SCROLL DOWN)
Announcement of largest ever single investment in the Great Barrier Reef
On 29 April, alongside Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, Assistant Minister for the Environment Melissa Price and new Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker, I announced the largest ever single investment – $500 million – in the protection and restoration of the Great Barrier Reef…
***At the announcement, we were pleased to be joined by Great Barrier Reef Foundation Chair John Schubert, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) Chair and CEO Russell Reichelt, Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, Reef 2050 Advisory Committee Chair Penny Wensley, Reef 2050 Independent Expert Panel Chair Ian Chubb, Traditional Owner Dwayne Fraser and Reef Guardians Katie and Molly.
http://www.joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/Default.aspx?pageNo=4
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Fairfax/Guardian surely could have focused more on some of the Foundation’s connections below. so easy to find online.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation – Corporate Partners
Research supporters:
(includes Australian Govt, BHP, Google, Qld Govt, Rio Tinto etc)
Foundation supporters:
(Deloitte, Google, NAB, KPMG, PWC etc)
https://www.barrierreef.org/our-partners/corporate-partners
Great Barrier Reef Foundation – Chairman’s Panel
Dr John Schubert AO, Chairman
AECOM – Todd Battley, Chief Executive, Australia New Zealand
Affirmative Investment Management – Stephen Fitzgerald, Co-Founder and Chairman
AGL – Andrew Vesey, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Allens – Richard Spurio, Managing Partner
Amcor Limited – Ron Delia, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Aurizon – Andrew Harding, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Ausenco Limited – Zimi Meka, Chief Executive Officer
Australian Institute of Marine Science – Dr Paul Hardisty, Chief Executive Officer
Bank of Queensland – Jon Sutton, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
BHP – Andrew Mackenzie, Chief Executive Officer
BHP – Ken MacKenzie, Chairman
Boeing Australia & South Pacific – Maureen Dougherty, President
Boral Limited – Mike Kane, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Brisbane Airport Corporation – Gert-Jan de Graaff, Chief Executive Officer
Cleanaway – Vik Bansal, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director
ConocoPhillips Australia – Wendy King, President – Australia East
Commonwealth Bank – Matt Comyn, Chief Executive Officer
CSIRO – Dr Larry Marshall, Chief Executive
David Turner
Deloitte Australia – Cindy Hook, Chief Executive Officer
Deutsche Bank – Anthony Miller, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Downer Group – Grant Fenn, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Flight Centre Limited – Graham Turner, Managing Director
GE Australia – Max York, Chief Executive Officer
Google Australia & New Zealand – Jason Pellegrino, Chief Executive Officer
Grant King
Great Barrier Reef Foundation International Scientific Advisory Committee, Dr Paul Greenfield AO
GWA Group Limited – Tim Salt, Managing Director
Jacques Nasser AC
James Cook University – Sandra Harding, Vice Chancellor and President
John Grill AO
J.P. Morgan – Paul Uren, Chief Executive Officer Australian and New Zealand
Korn Ferry – Katie Lahey, Executive Chairman
Lendlease – Steve McCann, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director
Leo Burnett Australia – Melinda Geertz, Chief Executive Officer
Macquarie Group – Nicholas Moore, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Morgans Financial Limited – Brian Sheahan, Executive Chairman
Mulpha Australia Limited – Seng-Huang Lee, Executive Chairman
National Australia Bank – Andrew Thorburn, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer
Orica Limited – Alberto Calderon, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Peabody Energy – George Schuller, President – Australia
Phillip Strachan
Port of Brisbane – Jeremy Maycock, Chairman
PwC – Luke Sayers, Chief Executive Officer
PwC Strategy& – Tim Jackson, Managing Director Asia Pacific
Qantas Airways Limited – Alan Joyce AO, Chief Executive Officer
QBE – Patrick Regan, Group Chief Executive Officer
Rio Tinto – Stephen McIntosh, Group Executive Growth and Innovation
Shell – Tony Nunan, Managing Director
Suncorp – Michael Cameron, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer
Superloop – Bevan Slattery, Chief Executive Officer
Telstra – John Mullen, Chairman
The Star Entertainment Group – John O’Neill AO, Chairman
University of Queensland – Professor Peter Høj, Vice Chancellor
Wesfarmers Limited – Rob Scott, Managing Director
Worley Parsons – Andrew Wood, Chief Executive Officer
https://www.barrierreef.org/our-partners/chairmans-panel
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Great Barrier Reef Foundation – Research Collaborators
(includes ANU, CSIRO, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, JCU, QUT, Uni of Qld, ETC)
https://www.barrierreef.org/our-partners/research-partners
2009: Courier Mail: Terry McCrann: Why BHP picked Jac Nasser and not John Schubert
There are two big problems with the idea of Schubert as BHPB chairman. Indeed, the very fact that he was in contention right up the very last – secret – ballot last week raises some troubling concerns about the BHPB board.
To say nothing of how many votes he might actually have got – something neither we nor even the BHPB board itself is supposed to know.
Last December the Commonwealth Bank made a real mess of a $2 billion institutional share placement…ETC
Schubert spent almost his entire working life at Exxon – which not to put too fine a point on it, has a passing association with hyrdrocarbons and the production of that dreadful pollutant carbon dioxide. Indeed, quite possibly the biggest such association in the world.
But since leaving Exxon and subsequently Pioneer Concrete – which also pumps the old molecule or billion of CO2 – Schubert seems to have ‘got religion’. You can guess which one.
And no one better ‘gets religion’ more voraciously than an ex-sinner. Schubert chairs the Great Barrier Reef Foundation – whose “research vision and framework are specifically focussed on the threat climate change poses to the Reef,” according to its website.
And which goes on to say: “whilst emissions mitigation is critical to the preservation of the Reef…”
And which “emissions” might they be, I wonder? Could they be the ones that BHPB’s entire’ business is about creating? Either here or mostly somewhere else in the world, where nevertheless they will still find their way back to destroy the reef?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong in Schubert finding religion on the reef, so to speak. But I’m guessing that BHPB shareholders would be better served by having as chairman someone who didn’t believe it was the corporate equivalent of original sin.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/why-bhp-picked-jac-nasser-and-not-john-schubert/news-story/a465ee9979566b4ff11538f4c1725d0b?sv=9a77414a90c00f86746fc5a00c44f919
2011: Heroes of the Reef
by Sue White
John Schubert is best known as a banking executive, but he sees himself “as a world citizen before a banker or anything else.” As Chairman of the Commonwealth Bank, a director of Qantas, and a member of the Business Council of Australia, Schubert is one of Australia’s best-connected businessmen. It is a network that is serving him well in his passionate pursuit of action to protect Australia’s world-famous Great Barrier Reef.
There, he is galvanising a coalition of farmers, environmentalists and other like-minded world citizens to work together for the benefit of the World Heritage-listed icon…
Having been involved with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation for almost a decade, Schubert says the biggest danger to its future is increasingly obvious. “When I first got involved there were numerous major threats to the reef, including water quality, overfishing, shipping, and unco-ordinated coastal development. But over the last four or five years it’s been recognised the major threat is climate change. The urgency of doing something has become even greater,” he says…
With Schubert at the helm, the Foundation aims to channel its funding (millions of dollars to date) towards what they believe are the most pressing threats.
“Reefs need time to adapt to changes like warmer waters. If change was happening slowly corals up north would gradually migrate south when the temperatures became too hot, but at the rate of climate change there’s no time for this adaptation. One project we’re funding is looking if it’s possible to speed up migration of coral to the south to help the reef adapt,” says Schubert…
https://www.australiaunlimited.com/Environment/heroes-of-the-reef
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oops…add BoM to the Foundation’s Research Collaborators.
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Be careful when government uses the word “investment”. As in “Florida invests in 34,873 public servants with salaries over 100,000 per year”. Note: these people are exempt from contributing to income disparity, because government employees are an ‘investment’ don’t ya know.
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all over the MSM:
31 Jul: EveningStandardUK: Heatwave deaths in UK ‘to soar if climate change continues’
by Tom Powell
Scientists estimated an average of 540 people dying per year in Britain as a result of heatwaves between 1971 and 2020.
With unrestricted emissions, that figure is expected to quadruple to 2,160 per year in the period 2031 to 2080…
Study author Dr Antonio Gasparrini, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “Several countries around the globe are currently experiencing deadly heatwaves which, since 2000, have thought to have been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, including the regions of Europe and Russia…
He said the “good news” was that loss of life would be greatly reduced under scenarios that met the Paris Agreement target of limiting the post-industrial rise in global temperature to 1.5C.
Columbia faced the biggest threat from heatwave deaths, according to the research – a potential increase of 2,000 per cent between the two periods studied.
The Philippines and Brazil were the next two most vulnerable countries…
Lead scientist Dr Yuming Guo, from Monash University in Australia, said: “Future heatwaves will be more frequent, more intense and will last much longer…
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/heatwave-deaths-in-uk-to-soar-by-thousands-if-climate-change-continues-a3900841.html
a zillion authors:
31 Jul: PLOS Medicine: Quantifying excess deaths related to heatwaves under climate change scenarios: A multicountry time series modelling study
Methods and findings
We collected historical daily time series of mean temperature and mortality for all causes or nonexternal causes, in periods ranging from January 1, 1984, to December 31, 2015, in 412 communities within 20 countries/regions. We estimated heatwave–mortality associations through a two-stage time series design. Current and future daily mean temperature series were projected under four scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions from 1971–2099, with five general circulation models. We projected excess mortality in relation to heatwaves in the future under each scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, with two assumptions for adaptation (no adaptation and hypothetical adaptation) and three scenarios of population change (high variant, median variant, and low variant). Results show that, if there is no adaptation, heatwave-related excess mortality is expected to increase the most in tropical and subtropical countries/regions (close to the equator), while European countries and the United States will have smaller percent increases in heatwave-related excess mortality…ETC
Funding: YG was supported by the Career Development Fellowship of Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1107107); AG and FS were supported by the Medical Research Council-UK (MR/M022625/1); SL was supported by the Early Career Fellowship of Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1109193), and Seed Funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE)–Centre for Air quality and health Research and evaluation (CAR) (APP1030259); AT was supported by the Ministry of Education of Spain (PRX17/00705); JJKJ and NRIR were supported by the Research Council for Health, Academy of Finland (266314); MH, YLG, YH, and HKi were supported by the Global Research Laboratory (K21004000001-10A0500-00710) through the National Research Foundation of Korea; YH was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-14) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan; YLG was supported by the National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan (NHRI-EM-106-SP03); and MLB was supported by a US Environmental Protection Agency Assistance Agreement awarded to Yale University (83587101). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002629
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amazing how quickly this nonsense gets media coverage:
1 Aug: Reuters: Kate Kelland: Study sees dramatic rise in heatwave deaths by 2080
Deaths caused by heatwaves could increase dramatically in tropical and subtropical regions, the study found, followed closely by Australia, Europe and the United States.
Published in the journal PLOS Medicine, the study’s results suggest stricter mitigation policies should be applied to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because lower greenhouse gas emissions are linked with fewer deaths due to heatwaves…
The results found that compared with the period 1971 to 2020 and under the extreme scenario, the Philippines would suffer 12 times more excess deaths caused by heatwaves in 2031 to 2080.
Under the same scenario, Australia and the United States could face five times more excess deaths, with Britain potentially seeing four times more excess deaths from heatwaves in the same period…
***The researchers note that their work had some limitations, since it could model only relatively simple assumptions of how countries may or may not adapt climate policies.
The findings “should therefore be interpreted as potential impacts under hypothetical scenarios, and not as projections of (the) future,” they said in a statement
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heatwaves/study-sees-dramatic-rise-in-heatwave-deaths-by-2080-idUSKBN1KL2N7
***3 writers to beef up this non-story:
1 Aug: UK Times: Heatwave makes a comeback (if you’re in the south, at least)
***by Ben Webster, Kat Lay & Gurpreet Narwan
The heatwave is returning after the weekend deluge and the temperature may reach 30C in the south on Friday, according to the Met Office.
The heat began to build again yesterday, reaching a peak of 26C in Charlwood, Surrey, and will go on increasing for the next few days. However, there will be a split between the north and south, with rain today in Northern Ireland, Scotland and northwest England, where temperatures will remain “in the high teens to low 20s”.
The weekend will be dry and sunny for all areas but the hottest weather will be south of a line from Bristol to London, where it could reach 31C.
Luke Miall, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “As we head through the middle part of of this week we are going to start to see high pressure…
1 Aug: UK Express: UK weather forecast: Heatwave to return in FULL FORCE after last of wet weather STRIKES
LARGE swathes of the UK are set to bask in sunshine and rising temperatures as the heatwave sets in once more, but rain and cloud will dampen summer spirits across northern regions.
By Matthew Robinson
Commenting on the conditions, Met Office meteorologist Luke Miall said: “For many, Wednesday is set to be a pretty decent day, with a lot of sunshine around and some patchy cloud bubbling up through the afternoon.
“For those in the sunshine, conditions will be warming up with temperatures doing fairly well.
“We could see 24 or 25 degrees across the south-east, so it will feel very pleasant indeed.”…
Mr Miall also warned the UK’s heatwave is set to return in full force by the end of the week, sending thermometers soaring to 30 or 31 degrees by Friday and into the weekend…
—
following is really all sweet, young Luke has to say on his Twitter feed:
Tweet: Luke Miall, Met Office: After more #hot and #sunny weather – good news we could see 30°C later this week in the south @metoffice
30 July 2018
https://twitter.com/LukeMiall/status/1023973246511800323
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31 Jul: MetroUK: Global study predicts the terrifying rise in heatwave deaths by 2080
by Jeff Parsons
In the most extreme cases, temperatures in cities like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will soar. This in turn will cause a 471% increase in deaths related to heatwaves when compared to the period of 1971 to 2010.
Researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia devised a model that analysed heatwaves in 412 communities across 20 countries from the years 2031 to 2080…
1 Aug: Daily Mail: Blistering heatwaves induced by global warming will cause up to 52,000 people to DIE by 2080
•The worst case scenario is a 471 per cent spike in heatwave-induced deaths
•Tropical and subtropical regions will be worst affected, researchers found
•The report is the first global study to predict future heatwave-related deaths
By Joe Pinkstone and Phoebe Weston
***The study comes as many countries around the world have been affected by severe heatwaves, leaving thousands dead and tens of thousands more suffering from heatstroke-related illnesses…
If the Australia government cannot put effort into reducing the impacts of heatwaves more people will die because of heatwaves in the future, Professor Guo warned…
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1 Aug: Reuters: Chinese most at risk of death from deadly heatwaves, study says
by Isabelle Gerretsen
Deadly heatwaves could kill people working outdoors within hours in China’s most populous, agricultural region by 2100 as a result of climate change, scientists said on Tuesday.
The North China Plain, home to 400 million people, faces the greatest risk to human life from rising temperatures of any location on earth, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said in the journal Nature Communications.
“Climate change is going to trigger deadly heatwaves,” lead researcher Elfatih Eltahir told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“The intensity of those heatwaves means that survival of humans would be questionable.” …
About 1.1 billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are at risk from a lack of air conditioning and refrigeration to keep them cool and to preserve food and medicines as temperatures rise, a study said this month.
31 Jul: Independent: Josh Gabbatiss: Large area of China could soon be virtually uninhabitable as deadly heatwaves become more intense, scientists warn
Research adds to body of evidence showing heat-related deaths around world will increase dramatically in coming decades
The research is the latest in a series conducted by the MIT team, with their other studies focusing on deadly heatwaves striking the Persian Gulf and South Asia.
The report comes as yet another study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, predicts deaths resulting from severe heatwaves will spike dramatically in tropical regions over the next 60 years…
31 Jul: ClimateChangeNews: New Chinese-led development banks missing the point on climate
Both less than five years old, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Brics Bank are failing to back sustainable development models
By Robert Soutar
From Pakistan to Panama, a steady stream of countries from the Global South have endorsed China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promoting connectivity since its launch in 2013.
The trend continued this week as Senegal and Rwanda inked deals under the BRI banner during President Xi Jinping’s tour of the African continent…
Yet there are few guarantees that finance issued by Chinese-led institutions for new projects will steer countries towards a path of sustainable development.
China finances development projects mostly through the China Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China, which have been criticised for their lack of transparency and support for mostly “dirty” energy…
Two new China-led multilateral banks are also tasked with supplying finance for infrastructure overseas – the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB, or Brics Bank) – albeit on a much smaller scale…
Lu added that despite their “profound potential” to create better models of sustainable development, these new lenders have failed ***to take inspiration from western-dominated financial institutions’ social and environmental policies and have fallen short of the standards of their peers.
Despite insisting that the NDB supports sustainability, Kundapur Vaman Kamath, the bank’s president has failed to rule out investing in high carbon-emitting energy sources, such as coal…
This article is republished from Diálogo Chino
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/31/new-chinese-led-development-banks-missing-point-climate/
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The media have recently been giving us the impression that we are descending into a CO2 driven hell of our own making. I live in England, and thought a that a look at the Central England Temperature record (CET) would be of interest. For those who don’t know, it’s the oldest existing temperature record.
Let’s remind ourselves that in December 2010, here we had the lowest temperature for that month in 120 years. It was -0.7 Celsius, and -0.8 in 1890.
Now for the heat.
The years 1975 and 1976 were regarded as good summers over here – that is to say, hot and dry as opposed to cold, windy and miserable.
Let’s have a look at 1976 compared with 2018 so far.
To keep things tidy, I’m simply going to list the temperatures in degrees Celsius sequentially from January to July.
For 1976: 5.9 4.5 4.8 8.1 12.1 17.0 18.7
For 2018: 5.3 2.9 4.9 9.8 13.2 16.1 19.1
I’ve been trawling through the record to see which year had the hottest of each month.
Jan of 1916 shows 7.5C, February of 1779 7.9C, March of 2017 8.7C, April of 1865 10.6C, May of 1833 15.1C, June of 1846 18.2C, July of 2006 19.7C, August of 1997 18.9C, September of 1729 16.6C, October of 2001 13.3C, November of 1818 and 2015 tie at 9.5C, and finally we have December of 2015 at 9.7C.
In case my weary brain has missed something, here’s a link to the CET – I’ve tested it just now, and it works.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cetml1659on.dat
What is striking is the frequency of yearly averages above 10C around since around the mid 1990s.
Is this a real finding, or due to say, a change in instrumentation? This seems very odd.
Subjectively, the weather hasn’t changed over the years – and I’m nearly 70 years old. This year we’ve had an exceptionally warm summer, but we’ve had them before.
The temperatures listed suggest nothing new or sinister, yet the hysterical media coverage is unbelievable.
Nothing new there either.
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Carbon 500:
The hysteria is from the AGW gullibles who realise they are losing and are desperately trying to maintain momentum towards their goal. They are doomed to failure as the next few decades will be cooler thanks to a quiet sun.
Watch out for a repeat of the 1970’s The Coming Ice Age scare.
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1 Aug: Guardian: Was this the heatwave that finally ended climate denial?
by Michael McCarthy
The blazing summer of 2018 has led to a shift in tone from some rightwing sceptics who can no longer deny the obvious.
It’s not always easy to recognise a historical tipping point when you see one, but I believe I spotted one when I walked into my local newsagent last Wednesday and saw the front page of the Sun. Over a map of the world which was coloured bright scarlet, the splash headline screamed: “THE WORLD’S ON FIRE”. Britain’s biggest-selling daily newspaper was not mincing its words. The subheading on the left-hand side proclaimed “PLANET GRIPPED BY KILLER HEATWAVE”, while the right-hand one announced: “HUNDREDS DIE IN EUROPE AND JAPAN”. And if you were wondering what the cause of all this might be, the accompanying news report carried a quote – just the one – from Len Shaffrey, professor of climate science at Reading University, who said: “Global temperatures are increasing due to climate change. The global rise in temperatures means the probability that an extreme heatwave will occur is also increasing.”
I nearly choked on my KitKat when I read that. Is this really the Sun? The shoutiest outlet belonging to Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who famously characterised climate change as “alarmist nonsense”? Is something happening here?…
Let us at once say that it will take a lot more to puncture that bubble in the United States, where unabashed and brazen denial of the overwhelming scientific evidence for global warming is an article of faith not just with Donald Trump, but with the Republican party as a whole…
Who knows? Maybe Murdoch will order a different tone to be set in the Sun next week. But I still think it marks a tipping point, when observation begins to replace prediction in the headlines, and the start of a process that will eventually throw the perverted ideology of climate denial into the dustbin of history – where it belongs.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/01/heatwave-climate-denial-summer-2018-sceptics
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I notice that Christopher Monckton of Brenchley has gone back to basics to reveal an elementary flaw in the climate calculations as use by cAGW science™.
https://youtu.be/kcxcZ8LEm2A
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Would somebody be willing educate a Yank and tell me who the ” Ginger Group” is, what they stand for and why they are called the “Ginger Group”?
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RicDre it’s new to me too but…
“Ginger group” from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_group basically says it’s a bunch of activists within or outside a political organisation (or other group). Their main aim is to ‘ginger-up’, aka spice-up, any debates or conversations.
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Once again we are being “told” by Josh and the ESB that the NEG will reduce our electricity bills by $300 per year in 20/21 as wholesale prices will drop from $85/Mwhr to $50/MWhr (and that’s actually before the NEG is implemented), rising to $550 per year by 2030.
But can anyone explain the monthly variation in wholesale prices and the variations by State in what is supposedly the NEM (National Electricity Market excl WA/NT)?
For example, per AEMO, monthly average prices by State for June/July in $/MWhr, and average 2017/18 prices.
NSW 101/75 avge 75
Qld 80/69 avge 69
SA 106/106 avge 98
Tas 74/45 avge 87
Vic 94/70 avge 92
How does anyone “model” that?
Will more wind/solar coming onstream in the next two years create more surplus capacity and force all generators to accept lower prices?
One of the latest wind farms is Stockyard Hill that began constrction in May 2018. 149 towers, 530 MW nameplate capacity, 180 metre tip height, 30 staff. Includes construction of a 75-Kilometre long transmission line. But amongst all the key facts they present, capital cost is hidden away, finally found it: $700 million. “This very competitive wind farm is being built as a result of the Australian Government’s successful Renewable Energy Target and the long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Origin Energy.” What price is needed to get a return on $700 million.
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Some weird figures there. The nominal capacity split among 149 towers = 3.69MW (nominal).
Workng on a CF of 30% your answers are
Payback time
3 years…… $185.40
4 years ……$145
5 years…….$121
That is calculated by dividing the Capital cost (no interest added) by the expected generation, and then adding $24 per MWh as the operating cost (as reported by Infigen). On this basis even a 10 year capital payback would require slightly over $72 /MWh, and given that the experience in the UK is that turbines require extensive maintenance after an average of 9 years I cannot see anybody even thinking of that time span.
And Interest at 3% would add $14.5 per MWh onto the cost for the first year.
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Thanks Graeme. And don’t forget depreciation. Writing off the investment over 25 years gives a charge of $28 million per year. If future prices are to believed, then by 2021 the wholesale price is supposed to be only $50/Mwhr, so that gives gross revenue of $70 million per year. Deduct operating costs and depreciation, net income $18 million per year. Therefore those investors are heavily dependent on subsidies.
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At a Capacity Factor (CF) of 30%, in theory you would need at least five 530Mw wind farms to produce the same amount of electricity as one 1000Mw coal fired power station (CFPS) with a CF of 90%. Five Stockyard Hills are going to cost $3.5 Billion dollars. How much for a 1000Mw CFPS with double the life span?
Also, a CFPS runs 24/7 all year round. Why is the necessary gas, hydro, whatever, back-up required for renewables never included in the costs?
Our country is being run by drunken morons. Nobody could be this silly if they were sober.
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Did Stockyard Hill pay for the 75 km transmission line, or did the state govt provide that?
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Is this the next new mandate?
https://theconversation.com/apartments-rarely-come-with-access-to-charging-stations-but-electric-vehicles-need-them-100296?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosgenerate&stream=top-stories
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Perth weather 02Aug2018 : Snow falls at Bluff Knoll as cold front knocks out power to WA homes
Winter snow at Bluff Knoll? Why does this not surprise me? To my northern hemisphere eye, used to looking at the glacial features of the English Lake District, the land forms of Bluff Knoll WA and in particular the string of oval shaped of what I assume to be salt pans lying to the south (See here on Google Maps) look to be relict glacial features.
Has any published work been done on the geomorphology of this area south of Bluff Knoll with a focus on glacial features and the possible presence of terminal glacial moraines associated with these salt pans? (their local names please anyone?)
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Snow on Bluff Knoll is not unusual in winter. Around 2003 snow covered the entire countryside from near Esperance through to near Albany for a couple of days, which was unusual. And I can recall that it snowed once in Perth, I think around 1960, for 20 minutes in a northern suburb. I remember seeing the pictures of Perth’s snowball throwing in the local paper.
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Correction for the Perth snowfall: This was 1956, and the recorded snowfalls were confined to the Perth hills and further north of Perth, not in Perth or its suburbs. But is does snow, quite regularly, in the South of WA during winter.
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Ignore red.
Fat finger
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If you want to see an unusual geologic feature in WA, use Google Earth to look at the undersea radiating lines all zeroing in on Perth. A gent working in geology told me that they were fault lines.
He also told me that the same rock found in the SW capes is also found on the coast of India, apparently evidence of the original land link.
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Hi Graeme
Thanks for posting. Your geologist friend is right about the rocks of Perth WA being linked to the rocks of India (and also those of Antarctica). This is part of the evidence for the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana that existed before the formation of the modern Indian & Southern Oceans.
Imagine a Southern Ocean as small and as narrow as the modern Red Sea and you will get the idea of the influence of sea floor spreading (the modern explanation for continental drift) in making the oceans grow wider between the continental fragments of Australia, Antarctica & India.
However I have a different explanation for the lines pointing to Perth on the seabed map of Google Earth. Unlike satellite images from space, the seabed has to be measured from the ocean surface. I believe that many of these lines on the map represent the tacks of the survey ships that sailed out of the port of Fremantle mapping the seafloor. Some of the tracks are narrow and represent single vertical depth measurements. Other tracks are wide and record the swath of the side-scan sonar used to make the soundings.
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This is an image:
https://i2.wp.com/agree-to-disagree.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/RATPAC-Stratosphere.png
This is a link:
https://agree-to-disagree.com/
The end.
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