Fake News Lesson: How to turn the views of a minority into National Headlines
Yesterday’s ABC headline tells the world that Australian company directors have started to “care” about climate change. What the ABC don’t mention is that only 17% of them actually ticked the box saying they think the Government should make “climate change” the top long term priority. While more directors were concerned about climate change than any other single issue, most directors thought other things were more important.
For every director who said the government should put climate change at number one, there were more than three who didn’t want that.
The Australian Institute of Directors surveys its 43,000 members every six months on lots of questions. In this round 1,252 members took part and answered something like 40 questions. Only 39% put “climate change” in the top five “long term” issues. So 61% of respondents didn’t think climate change even ranked in the top five issues facing the nation in the long run. Are they all skeptics?
The ABC also forgot to mention that in the short term, company directors wanted the government to fix Energy Policy.
This is what non-stop agitprop looks like
First: The loaded headline
Why Australian company directors have started caring about climate change
Nassim Khadem
Step 2: Frame this as a mass movement. Mention big numbers.
For the first time Australian company directors have nominated climate change as the number one issue they want the federal government to address in the long term, according to a survey of more than 1,200 company directors.
Step 3: Mention big numbers again. Then say the survey demonstrates something that was not even asked.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors’ (AICD) biannual Director Sentiment Index — based on a survey of 1,252 public and private company directors undertaken between September 13 and 27 — shows directors are heeding warnings from regulators about the risks of climate change and the fact that they may, in future, be held liable for failing to act.
It’s handy if you can spook other company directors into the impression that lots of other directors are afraid of being sued.
Step 4: Interview someone who has a conflict of interest and don’t mention the conflict.
Regulators including the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) are among those that have spoken out about the threats of climate change and the risks to companies.
Dr Katherine Woodthorpe, chairman of start-up Fishburners and who until recently was a non-executive director on the board at Sirtex Medical, said company directors were not just being influenced by regulator warnings, but also a push from investors to act.
The ABC apparently forgot to mention Dr Katherine Woodthorpe is Chairman, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre. She’s also a Non-Exec Director of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, at least according to their website. Both of these groups get less funds if Australians think that weather control with wind turbines is worthless voodoo.
Imagine the outrage if Sky News interviewed the Chair of a coal plant and told you their former employment, but not their current one?
Given the amount of money poured into unreliable energy in this country it would be amazing if there weren’t 200 renewables directors or friends among the 43,000 members. Of those who answered questions — 3% work in the energy sector, 8% for a public sector/government body, and 34% for a non-profit entity.
Only 17% of directors said Climate was a top issue (for someone else to solve)
Directors could pick five issues, but 60% didn’t even put a number on “climate change”.
Click to enlarge. (People could rate 5 things, so the percentages add up to a lot more than 100%)
The top short term issue needing care is Energy Policy
If it served the ABC’s purpose, they could have headlined the story “Company Directors think Government top issue is Energy Policy”.
Then they could have interviewed directors who were moving their plants to get away from nightmare electricity prices. The whole story would have had an opposite meaning. Such is the power of The Editor. Why do we give this power to unaccountable non-independent bureaucrats?
Click to enlarge.
Australians are paying for Labor-Green advertising disguised as “independent” journalism.
Tired of the self-serving Fake News? If you can help support me, together we can push back. (Paypal, or direct).
Thank you!
Hat tip to David B and George.
REFERENCE
Australian Institute of Company Directors Sentiment Index for the second half of 2018. Full 87 page PDF is available.
I was one of the Directors filling that in, and aside from putting Energy at #1 and not ranking climate at all, I found a Comment box where I could elaborate somewhat on where the AICD should be putting its efforts 🙂
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The fact is that of course company directors care about climate change, it would be stupid not to care about something that 40% of your customers and shareholders care about. It doesn’t matter that it’s a minority issue, it doesn’t even matter that it’s all bunkum, it still has potential to weigh on reputation and therefore the balance sheet.
Ask instead whether the company directors want this distracting pointless issue to go away.
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The people that knowingly skew information for any ideal embraced by the left do not and will never have any empathy for those of differing opinions, the blunt reality of what eventuates when people of a free will mindset tolerate those of a collectivism one is etched throughout recent history.
When that history is deliberately altered or repressed from the teachings of future generations the mechanisms of any leftist political system is already in motion, the ABC has in effect become the centralised news outlet for the nation or at lest sees or wishes it will become so.
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If more people in corporate and other areas dared to speak their mind on how they really thought; backing those thoughts with the evidence that they have clearly assessed and which is freely available, then this entire boondoggle would start unravelling sooner rather than later.
Good corporate governance means assessing everything, especially the risks involved. Even if board believes that humans are contributing to warming, they have to assess the risks to the organisation; what could happen, the likelihood of something happening, the impact if something does happen.
These are risks that directly affect the organisation, its performance and its shareholder responsibilities, not Joe Blogs in Tuvalu. Unless the corporate plan specifically states that the company must look after the interests of Joe Blogs in Tuvalu, it should not enter into any decision making process.
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Any company director needs to be hard headed and look at facts, not fabricated un-scienctific nonsense like climate change.
If I was an investor, there is no way I could trust a company leadership that was easily swayed by emotion and foolishness.
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I am not 20 metres under water as they told me while they called me a denier
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The problem is that the climate change risk is not physical, it’s reputational, risks of left green boycotts and bad press if they say the truth, that it doesn’t matter. Samsung can’t say for example that climate change is good for them because they will sell more airconditioners even though it’s true (assuming it global warming actually happens).
This is why this issue is on the mind of directors, customer opinion of them and the risk of shareholder revolts due to green left shareholders are significant risks. One must pay lip service to the green religion in order to mitigate those risks
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Surely by now every Australian has a Kilogram of salt on hand to take with any & generally all of the ABC news announcements. I, for one used to watch ABC, not for news or anything
Ike that, but to keep up to date on their blatant nonsense. Over the past 6 months however I cannot watch their complete swings & roundabouts to lefty propaganda & half truths, or should that be rephrased as halfl lies!
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Since sky news commenced on WIN I haven’t tuned in to the ABC at all.
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Sky news has been informative and although conservative based allow the lefties to have their say , which shows the complete bias of the ABC in particular.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHhZFOAeohg&feature=em-uploademail
Questions About the Mail Bomber
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Very clumsy and childish Left wing ploy.
Saul Alynski always advocated to carry out what was desired, then blame your opposition for it.
I dont know who masterminded this adventure into stupidity, but its backfired spectacularly ( like the clumsy mexican “caravan” funded by Soros et al ) and will only harden the resolve of conservatives even further against the Communists in Australia and the USA.
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I’m not convinced that the current stock market instability isn’t due to Soros/Bloomberg ET al trying to influence the election.
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Thanks Kevin,
My vague sense of political nastiness is greatly strengthened. Lots of good questions and some facts I’d not seen before. And at just 6 minutes nice and succintly put.
Cheers
Dave B
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Thank you for that link, Kevin. I’ve been highly suspicious of the motives behind these mail bombs, but Mr Watson takes it much further than I had.
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The extreme left has now become a cancer in western civilization.
The ABC has become their primary propaganda unit.
The battle lines have been drawn.
It is now a battle between totalarian green rule which will have uniform poverty and misery for the masses or freedom to pursue realscience, prosperity, good will to all and working with natural laws to enhance all humanity.
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We Crossed The Line
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The crossing of the Rubicon….
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The pseudo Marxist consortium in Canberra (the Establishment) is not extreme left, which can be found in Beijing.
‘….uniform poverty and misery ….’
North Korea is typical, but that is now becoming a thing of the past as socialism with Chinese characteristics eliminates world poverty with their belt and road extravaganza.
Under Labor and green slime we’ll morph into socialism with Australian characteristics.
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I’m beginning to think Australian ABC news and American CNN news are two acronyms for the same entity.
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Yep, a proper grid collapse might ruin a wee bit more than just your whole day.
Anarchy is a total bitch for any business model reliant on a stable society .
Even the Wentworth Doctor’s wives would have trouble re-stocking the cellar.
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Around this area
“The DIY Nonsense Detector Kit: How to differentiate science from psychobabble.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/25/207291/
And
“PUSHBACK: climate alarmists get sued over false statements”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/25/pushback-climate-alarmists-get-sued-over-false-statements/
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Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How Much?
How Many?
Context?
= The Old reporting guidelines.
How can this story be manipulated to forward the agenda?
= The New “reporting” guidelines.
The old Russian Joke redux:
They pretend to tell us the news.
We pretend to believe them.
Many liberals live in cities.
They live in high rise buildings.
Climate controlled.
They shop in malls.
Climate controlled.
They ride in fancy cars.
Climate controlled , heck, different temperatures for each seat.
How strange is it the the people least exposed to the climate, and consuming the most energy to protect themselves from it,
seem to fear climate change the most, and want to reduce energy use to solve the problem.
Comedy, Satire, or Farce? you decide.
Sending ten bombs that can’t explode and are designed for high visibility at the target.
Same question.
Its hard not to suspect the same mindset.
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Only recently a builder who has many friends who work in air conditioned buildings commented to me that he has often responded to their “global warming” comments that if they worked outdoors like he does they might realise the hoax based on misleading weather reports etc.
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“They live in high rise buildings.
Climate controlled….etc…”
And then along comes Hurricane ‘XYZ’ and boooom!
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One of the reasons its even that high is the AICD, Australian institute of Company Directors, pushes it like crazy through its courses and seminars and now there is a push to say directors have a duty of care to be doing something about climate change or they will be held accountable. I am not joking so if you have a legal threat held to your head as a director what are you going to say?
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I note that Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Photios is involved, one of the climate change pusher former PM’s operatives;
http://morningmail.org/92213-2/#more-92213
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Michael Smith News has reported that the Liberal how to vote pamphlet for Wentworth left off No. 10 so voters who used that guide voted informally.
Close to 5,000 voters did that and the independent candidate who had a Labor staffer campaign manager will probably win the seat by a thousand or so votes.
Dirty tricks department Black Hand HQ?
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It would make a very good court case…..against the alarmists that is…..
They fear it going to court, and they need to back off, or it will…and it will all then come out on the wash….
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Oh look…
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/author/gregclimatecouncil-org-au/
“Greg Bourne
Contributor
Greg Bourne has worked at the nexus of climate change, energy business and policy for over 30 years. With BP he lived and worked in the UK, Middle East, USA, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, China, Venezuela and Australia. For two years he was Special Adviser on Energy and Transport to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He returned to Australia in 1999 as Regional President, BP Australasia and worked with business and governments on the Climate Change agenda.
Greg was CEO WWF Australia for six years and later a non-executive director of Carnegie Wave Energy. He is the former Chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the environment and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Australia for services to international business.”
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Just clarifying my previous posts here, in googling the AICD, it was interesting to see just in the first 100 google search results, that there were at least 2 AICD Fellows who seem to be interested in the climate change space…..
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A real Climate Change researcher would have culled the survey and found 97% of company directors were most concerned about Climate Change. You just have to find criteria to exclude those who disagree. Those ambivalent could be counted as very concerned but silent. Perhaps they could have hired John Cook (Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, Australia). He does an amazing job of extracting the desired results from any survey. All you have to do is eliminate 97% of the respondents. In his case, all the meteorologists who by definition know nothing about climate.
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The survey is of course settled.
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Only 2.9% of Directors responded to the survey and only 17% ( or 0.49% overall) thought Climate Change was most important.
The approach seems familiar. Wasn’t there a survey which reported (a minority response) of 3160 (of which 85% were somewhat favourable) which was culled (and culled) until only 75 out of 77 were worth mentioning (and mentioning) as 97% in favour?
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Yes, that was the Cook survey. Started with 10,000 people. Kept cutting down the numbers until he found those who published most on the subject, which coincided with those who are really making a living from it.
The same with company directors. How many of those motivated to respond should have recused themselves as having a vested interest. Possibly many of them. Companies like AGL are making billions from Climate Change. Now they are talking about closing Loy Yang ten years early. Next year they will talk about closing Loy Yang 20 years early.
Sounds a lot better than closing a brand new clean modern power plant which is the major plant for Australia. Too bad it runs on coal. We can rent diesels and import diesel, as is done in Tasmania and South Australia. No less CO2 but not coal. Every coal plant which closes pushes power prices higher and higher, as if that was a secret or not obvious.
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Consider
“Further to this, the Australian Petrol Statistics cites Australia as having only 17 days’ worth of diesel fuel, 20 days of aviation fuel and 23 days of unleaded petrol in reserve in case of emergency.”
So we are dumping our coal, which is free and plentiful to switch to dependence on diesel.
“In fact, 70% of crude and condensate production comes from the Carnarvon basin in Western Australia. But we choose to export 75% of our crude production”. “Much of the oil is processed in South Korea, China and Singapore and is then shipped to Australia as diesel, aviation fuel and petrol.”
Of course no one would think of not supplying Australia. Our governments are forcing us out of coal for other reasons. We will soon be totally dependent on other countries for oil, gas, diesel and electricity. Even our own as our gas goes to Singapore first.
In whose interests are the governments acting as they shut down our free coal power? An embargo on Australian ports, even a refusal to supply and we would not only have no petrol, we would not have any electricity. We could always send a submarine, which also runs on diesel.
All to save the world’s climates? Now pull the other leg. Mugs.
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Our gas is shipped to Singapore first, to avoid embargoes by the MMA union. It is then shipped back to us.
All above board really. We import our own gas from Singapore.
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Seriously, who really thinks South Australia and Tasmania have switched to diesel to reduce carbon dioxide. There is no reduction expected.
The bogey man of Climate Change is invoked every time while our costs soar, electricity company profits soar and we become as dependent as Saudi Arabia on imports, even importing our own electricity as diesel while we are the biggest coal exporter in the world, prohibited from using it ourselves. Billions are flowing overseas, for nothing at all.
Underneath it all is the RET, shutting down coal production and crippling gas and diesel and petrol power generation too. The world’s biggest carbon tax, $200 a ton for coal, $400 a ton for gas.
This is bordering on insanity.
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Your benchmark for the perception of insanity has become corrupted, TdeF – perhaps by living among the insane for too long.
It IS insanity.
We have an escalating number of examples of it here in NZ.
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OT but the Victoriastan up coming election has the two wannabe glorious leaders promise to reduce the price of electricity via different methods .
None of them is by reducing the massive tax put on coal by Herr Andrews or building a replacement coal fired power station at Hazelwood .
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Of course not…to be part of the Team, you need to be signed up to The Cause….
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The fact is there is nothing anyone can do to change the climate, whether you believe in their CAGW or not.
Here’s Lomborg’s 2018 update on where our energy comes from and it’s not fra-dulent S&W energy. In fact the S&W idiocy generates just 0.8% of the world’s energy.
Germany has tried the hardest to increase S&W for decades and are now extending their brown coal mines to enhance the reliability of their grid.
Their flirtation with the S&W idiocy has been a disaster and cost them 100s of billions $ for no change to temp by 2040 or 2100.
Meanwhile China, India and non OECD emissions continue to soar and OECD emissions continue to flatline. IOW all pain for ZERO gain.
And the poorest people in the OECD countries are the ones who suffer the most. And no change to the climate at all.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/where-do-we-get-most-of-our-energy-hint-not-renewables/
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Continued destruction/depopulation of the poorer (countries) for Agenda 2030 (was 2021).
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Shows pathetic desperation when alarmists talk up suing people for failing to act on climate change.
I’d like to see the actual wording of the question about climate change in this survey.
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Statistics don’t lie……
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Much.
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Filing Cabinet 3 drawers …
Lies
Da*n lies
Statistics
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Jo, you have done a good job on this article..So I don’t need to go there..What else to say then ?
Well what about this journalist herself ? I went & looked at her Facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/nassimkhademjournalist/
She mentions that she just joined the ABC from Fairfax. She also lists all the stories she has done there over the years…. And there are a lot of them..In fact a constant ‘churn’ of stories.. On a who;e range of issue from tax law, the ATO, BHP and the ATO,treatment of the aged in care. But consistently she writes about tax issues…Which I guess is her area of speciality…
But the issue of Climate, whether it is changing, and whether the change is caused by humans is definitely not her area ofexpertise….
I guess now she is at the ABC, she will have to reinvent herself as a journalist to make the ABC’s ideological pre-occupations.
Sighhhhhh !
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A PS : I also tried to check out Nassim Khaddam via the ABC’s own search engine..I got nowhere at all. Pretty useless in fact…But a Google did fine.
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no sooner had the UK Press Association (& others, of course) picked up this non-story:
YouTuber locks himself in greenhouse to raise awareness of climate change
Scientist Kurtis Baute is sealing himself inside the biodome for three days with 200 plants for oxygen by Press Associaton
BT.com 24 Oct 2018
than it was all over with tweets from admirers etc:
Irish Independent: Scientist seals in airtight biodome aborts experiment early due to CO2 levels
By Edd Dracott, Press Association
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/scientist-sealed-in-airtight-biodome-aborts-experiment-early-due-to-co2-levels-37459485.html
BBC gives it plenty of space:
25 Oct: BBC: Kurtis Baute: Scientist leaves airtight dome after 15 hours
A self-styled “whimsical scientist” who locked himself in an airtight dome with 200 plants to raise awareness of climate change has ended his experiment.
Canadian Kurtis Baute entered the 3m (10ft) by 3m cube – which was wrapped in heavy-duty plastic – at midnight on Tuesday in British Columbia.
But he was forced to call a halt after 15 hours as CO2 levels rose.
He thanked fans and described the experience as a “huge success”…
He tweeted throughout his time in the dome under the hashtag #KurtisInAJar.
The air humans breathe out has more CO2 in it than the air we inhale, which meant that CO2 levels inside the dome rose as the experiment continued. When the level hits 10%, people can suffer brain damage, fall into a coma, or die.
Mr Baute had hoped that the plants, which use sunlight to convert CO2 into oxygen during photosynthesis, would help to regulate levels in the dome.
But he said earlier on Wednesday that cloudy weather meant the plants were not receiving sufficient sunlight. He ended the experiment after CO2 levels reached his “abort values” – the figure at which it was deemed unsafe…
Although he had initially planned to remain in the dome for three days, he later changed his mission to staying inside safely for as long as possible…
He said that while humanity is pumping CO2 into Earth’s atmosphere at a dangerous rate, there are plenty of steps we can take to limit the damage, including:
1. “Eat less meat”..blah blah
2. “Drive less”…
3. “Start a conversation about this”…
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45965027
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no defense of a free press from Edd Dracott and The Press Association, or Reason (whose Eric Boehm spouts anti-Trump nonsense on 2GB, like most of the overseas correspondents 2GB uses):
TWEET: Edd Dracott, Press Association:
Proud of my work today
23 Oct 2018
LINK to:
23 Oct: Irish Independent: Watch Alex Jones scream at a pile of poo on the street for some reason
The right-wing broadcaster was filmed outside a rally held by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in Texas.
by Edd Dracott, Press Association
Twitter announced on Tuesday that accounts linked to the US right-wing conspiracy theorist and his show Infowars have been removed due to violations of its abusive behaviour policy – but the 44-year-old showed no signs of going easy on the defenceless mound…
The video was taken by Reason journalist Elizabeth Nolan Brown outside a rally being held by US President Donald Trump and Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas ahead of the forthcoming mid-term elections on November 6…
In the clip, Jones appears to be addressing the faecal matter as if it were Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat who is challenging Mr Cruz for his Texas Senate seat at the election on November 6…
The radio show host was also filmed shouting with a megaphone at protesters who had set up a giant inflatable of the Trump-baby balloon – which famously flew above London during the US president’s state visit to the UK…
Other tech companies such as PayPal, YouTube, Apple and Spotify, have also limited or banned Jones’s activities on their sites.
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/watch-alex-jones-scream-at-a-pile-of-poo-on-the-street-for-some-reason-37449864.html
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He saw that movie about the Moon.
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He locked himself in a small plastic glass house with 200 hundred plants at MIDNIGHT !
He’s a dopey scientist ! How come he does not know that plants do not photosynthesize at night without sunlight ? he should have tried this out starting in the early morning and made sure the plants got plenty of sunlight too. No wonder he had to leave early after 15 hours. Stupid bastard !
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So if the S&W idiocy doesn’t produce any measurable change by 2040 or 2100 we have to ask -why are we hurting the poorest and most vulnerable of our people this way.
If you’re wealthy or even modestly well off you won’t notice the difference or you too can invest in this fra-dulent S&W con and force the poor to pay even more of their pension etc for ZERO change.
Here’s the IEA data for the world’s TOTAL energy and Lomborg calculates that just O.8% of the BIO +S&W total is generated by S&W.
The maths required is from the first grade ,so why is this obvious calculation so difficult that their ABC+MSM and nearly every Govt on the planet hasn’t the ability understand it?
Are they really that stupid because the maths required couldn’t be easier to understand?
https://www.iea.org/stats/WebGraphs/WORLD4.pdf
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Sorry above should say GEO+ S&W not BIO.
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isn’t this below Roger Harrabin’s station?
24 Oct: BBC: Young couples ‘trapped in car dependency’
By Roger Harrabin
Intriguingly, the research by a new green group – Transport for New Homes – has been backed by a motoring group, the RAC Foundation…
Jenny Raggett, researcher at Transport for New Homes, said: “We were appalled to find so many new housing developments built around the car with residents driving for almost every journey…
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45956792
more MSM PR for Uber:
24 Oct: EveningStandardUK: Carl Mortished: The car giants have lost their sex appeal in the electric war
According to the Department for Transport, interest in getting a driving licence peaked among the very young during the mid-Nineties, when 48% of 17- to 20-year-olds held a licence. By 2014, the proportion had fallen to 29%, and men seem to be losing interest faster than women. Between 2008 and 2014, almost a fifth fewer men (of all ages) took a driving test, and the numbers of women fell by 14%.
Explanations are not hard to find: driving lessons are expensive, young people are hard up, and incomes have been static for a decade. The young spend so much of their wages on lodging that the cost of buying and running a motor is beyond their reach. Just consider the insurance: more than £2000 a year average annual premium if you are under 25.
Uber has stepped into the breach to provide (relatively) low-cost chauffeur services for non-driving youth who don’t have a licensed car-owning parent in residence…
Uber is working with Toyota which is investing $500 million (£385 million) in a driverless taxi fleet, but the firm suffered a setback last year when one of the prototypes killed a pedestrian…
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/carl-mortished-the-car-giants-have-lost-their-sex-appeal-in-the-electric-war-a3970351.html
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cute…
25 Oct: WUWT: Anthony Watts: PUSHBACK: climate alarmists get sued over false statements
ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL SUING TOM STEYER, ENERGY GROUP FOR ‘DEMONSTRABLY FALSE’ STATEMENTS
By Jason Hopkins, Daily Caller
Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against Tom Steyer and a renewable energy campaign he supports for launching, what Brnovich claims, is a defamatory campaign against him.
Filed on Wednesday, the lawsuit names Steyer and Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona as defendants. Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona — which has benefited from millions of dollars in donations from Steyer — is campaigning to require Arizona electric utility companies derive half their power from renewable energy sources by 2030. The ballot proposal is officially known as Proposition 127…READ ON
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/25/pushback-climate-alarmists-get-sued-over-false-statements/
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“rizona electric utility companies derive half their power from renewable energy sources by 2030. ”
50% by 2030..where does that ring a bell? hmmm. seen it before, Queensland I wonder?
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Youtube: 6min23sec: 25 Oct: Questions About the Mail Bomber
by Paul Joseph Watson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHhZFOAeohg&app=desktop
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Hellary says, you dont have to be civil to Republicans … presumably she will be civil once you have them under your feet, subdued….and she is Glorious Leader…
Is it just me that finds that just a bit disturbing if you realize this us far left mindset at work.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/10/heidi-heitkamp-calls-out-hillary-clinton-saying-democrats-cannot-be-civil-with-republicans/
“Hillary Clinton says Democrats cannot be civil with Republicans who want “to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” And, she added in her interview with CNN, civility in the United States will begin only when the Democratic Party wins back control of Congress.
But at least one member of her own party disagrees.
“That’s ridiculous,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a red-state Democrat who has billed herself as a moderate, told CNN. “I can’t imagine how you get anything done if you don’t bring civility back into politics, and that goes for both sides.”
Maybe she just wants it all her own way….which would be a dictatorship perhaps?
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More disturbing when you realise the Greens and Labor here blame Trump and his influence for the pipe bombs .
12
Well yes, which is straight out of the Saul Alynski’s Communist play book of blaming your opponents for what you do/have done…..
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5 Oct: Fast Company: Michael Grothaus: Uber and Lyft are offering free rides to the polls on election day
Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has announced that on November 6, 2018, the company will partner with ***#VoteTogether and ***Democracy Works to provide free rides to the polls…
Uber will also be inserting a “Get to the Polls” button inside its app on Election Day that will allow anyone to quickly find their polling place and book a ride to it as well as partnering with ***When We All Vote to provide users with easy-to-use voter registration tools…
Uber follows Lyft, who in August also offered 50% discounts and free rides to the polls on Election Day to those ***in underserved communities that face significant obstacles to transportation. As Lyft pointed out in a blog post, an estimated 15 million people were registered but didn’t vote in 2016 because of transportation issues.
24 Oct: TheVerge: Andrew J. Hawkins: Uber is offering $10 off rides to polling locations on Election Day
Go on and take a free ride
Uber announced on Wednesday that it would offer $10 discounts on rides to the polls on Election Day. The promotion, which will be available nationwide in the US, applies only to a single ride on the most affordable Uber option available in their city…
Riders can’t get discounts on rides back from their polling place, only to it…
The ride-hail company will also partner with two GOTV organizations, #VoteTogether and Democracy Works, to provide free rides in certain communities. #VoteTogether is doing free rides up to $7 on the cheapest option to and from the polls. Democracy Works is going to repurpose the promo that Uber is extending to everyone. Uber will also help register riders and drivers to vote by sharing voter registration information through the app…
9 Oct: CNN: Lyft hires Obama administration’s top transportation official
By Matt McFarland
Anthony Foxx, former President Obama’s secretary of the Department of Transportation from 2013-2017, will serve as Lyft’s chief policy officer and advisor to its co-founders…
Foxx is the second prominent Obama official to join Lyft. Former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was named to the company’s board last year…
InfluenceWatch: Democracy Fund
Since early 2016, (eBay’s Pierre) Omidyar and groups associated with the Democracy Fund have been funders of opponents of the campaign and administration of President Donald Trump…
Democracy Fund makes grants to a number of classes of organizations. They include liberal-leaning journalism outfits, most notably the publisher of controversial “fact-checking” website Politifact…
Democracy Fund has also funded ***Democracy Works, an online voter registration support group which partnered with the left-wing media website Mic during the 2016 election…
19 Jul: Vox: Michelle Obama may not want to be your president, but she still wants you to vote
The former first lady launched an initiative on July 19 to encourage young people to head to the polls.
By Jennie Neufeld
According to a report by Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere, the former first lady is launching a nonpartisan voter registration initiative called ***When We All Vote…
5 Sept: PR Newswire: Civic Nation Launches ***#VoteTogether With 140 Partners And More Than 500 Celebrations To Change The Culture Of Voting
SOURCE: Civic Nation
Launch includes partnership with MTV to encourage individuals to host #VoteTogether events in their community and apply for a chance to win a $1,000 grant
In addition to MTV, the program is launching with the support of partners, including: This Bar Saves Lives which is providing in-kind donations to events; Florida Civic Engagement Table, Virginia Civic Engagement Table, Mile 22, and Civic TN which are state partners; All Americans Vote, Students Learn Students Vote, ALL IN, United State of Women, Creative Artists Agency, Tumblr, Hillel International, DoSomething.org, and When We All Vote which are national partners…
#VoteTogether’s campaign to make voting more celebratory is based on research conducted in 2016 and 2017 by Civic Nation and Columbia University political science professor, Donald P. Green…
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/civic-nation-launches-votetogether-with-140-partners-and-more-than-500-celebrations-to-change-the-culture-of-voting-300707219.html
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Interesting warning in the business section of the Australian. An insurance company is directing more attention the damage done by ‘climate change’. What they mean is that the risk of property damage from weather is increasing.
Sure, that’s because with air conditioning and people moving to enjoy warm leisurely tropical living and consequent increasing populations in high risk coastal areas and far more expensive housing and infrastructure, the commercial damage done by people changing climates is increasing rapidly. This is not the same as man made climate change, but it sounds concerned and public spirited when insurance companies and banks are getting a bad name for ripoffs. Like Climate Change.
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a perfect match:
original headline: California Gov. Jerry Brown TO LEAD Doomsday Clock group (SEE URL BELOW); changed to “JOINS”:
26 Oct: Daily Mail: AP: California Gov. Jerry Brown joins Doomsday Clock group
Brown’s new role with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will ensure he stays relevant on the global topics he cares most about when he leaves office in January after two separate stints as California governor starting in the 1970s…
Brown, known for thinking big and talking bluntly about threats to human existence, has taken on an outsize role on the global stage as President Donald Trump recedes from U.S. commitments on climate change and, most recently, the nuclear treaty with Russia…
As executive chairman of the Bulletin, Brown will preside over the group’s three boards – a governing board, a science and security board and an editorial board. It’s a new role created just for Brown, and he’ll focus on generating global urgency around nuclear and other threats…
***”We really see him as a global ambassador for the issues that we work on – manmade existential threats, nuclear, climate, disruptive technology,” said Rachel Bronson, the group’s president and chief executive.
(This story and headline have been corrected to show Brown is joining the organization, not leading it)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6317111/California-Gov-Jerry-Brown-lead-Doomsday-Clock-group.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
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I wonder if the clock is adjusted for daylight savings ?
10
The art of surveying corporates lies in persuading the turkeys to vote for Christmas with the vague promise that they’ll be the last ones plucked. (CEOs get paid millions just to go away. Sandwich shop proprietors get paid for sandwiches only. Why not survey those blokes?)
Meanwhile, go to seventh-from-bottom of this long list and ask yourselves if Australia can do any more with its coal apart from sending ever greater quantities to the countries who use much more of it than we do…and who make all our stuff.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
Relax. It’s just a dodgy statistic, like all statistics…but it shows we’re really trying our hardest to shoot off a foot for Gaia.
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keeping in mind:
25 Oct: EpochTimes: End of Mueller Probe in Sight, With No Evidence of Trump Collusion Found So Far
By Jeff Carlson
“Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation,” Bloomberg reported on Oct. 17, citing two U.S. officials, and adding that “[Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein has made it clear that he wants Mueller to wrap up the investigation as expeditiously as possible.”
As a further indication of an investigative wind-down, four of Mueller’s prosecutors have left the special counsel’s office in recent months…READ ON
https://www.theepochtimes.com/end-in-sight-for-mueller-probe-with-no-evidence-of-trump-collusion-found-so-far_2699718.html
how low can NYT go?
25 Oct: Daily Caller: New York Times Publishes Trump Assassination Fantasy After Asking Fiction Writers To Imagine End To Mueller Investigation
by Evie Fordham
The New York Times published a short story about assassinating President Donald Trump Tuesday just one day before “potential explosive devices” showed up at the addresses of multiple political figures…
The New York Times asked novelists “to conjure possible outcomes” to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election for a Tuesday piece.
English thriller novelist Zoë Sharp wrote the short story, titled “How It Ends,” about a Russian assassin on a suicide mission who receives help from a Secret Service agent to kill Trump. A character who is working with the Russians in the story implies that Trump “was handpicked at the highest possible level” and must be silenced…
The story also contains what appears to be an allusion to Fox News…
Sharp said she was honored that her story was one of five chosen by The New York Times in a Tweet Wednesday…
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to The New York Times but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/25/nyt-trump-assassination-fiction/
TWEETS: TO ZOE SHARP FROM POLLY DYMOCK:
@authorzoesharp I just laughed out loud at your NYT short story – much needed relief!
ZOE SHARP: Thanks, Polly, that was my aim in writing it :))
24 Oct 2018
https://twitter.com/authorzoesharp/status/1055151236058660865
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25 Oct: The Hill: Olivia Beavers: Conservatives say Papadopoulos testimony reinforces belief of no collusion
House Republicans say George Papadopoulos’s closed-door testimony before lawmakers on Thursday has reinforced their views that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential race…
“It really stretches credibility to figure out why the FBI opened this high profile investigation into potential collusion between a presidential campaign and the Russian government that centers around a person who has to this day never been to Russia and who to this day has never knowingly talked to anyone with the Russian government,” Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) told reporters amid the interview.
“What we are finding is we have George Papadopoulos, the person who was supposedly the whole reason why we have this Russia collusion investigation going on, and yet he’s never knowingly met with a Russian government official, he’s never traveled to Russia,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a Trump ally who is one of the DOJ and FBI’s fiercest critics…
Meadows also told reporters after the interview concluded that he has asked the committee to make some referrals to the DOJ, stating that certain information that Papadopoulos gave them should be examined further.
“The facts are astounding that we would allow this type of investigation to be embarked upon without any real solid foundation of collusion,” Meadows added, describing Papadopoulos as having very “limited” involvement with the Trump campaign.
Meadows in particular expressed “concern” after Papapopoulos offered two new names of officials tied to the U.S. government or other foreign governments who interacted with him during the election.
***“Two new names came up today,” Meadows said in part. “Their connections to the U.S. government or foreign governments is of key concern to a number of us that are asking questions.”
Ratcliffe also said that Papadopoulos’ interview has reinforced his view — one that is held by a group of House Republicans — that federal officials abused federal surveillance powers out of what they claim is spite towards Trump.
“I think there are material facts in classified documents that I’ve seen that were not disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). There’s an obligation that the government has to disclose all material facts. Some of those material facts related to George Papadopoulos,” Ratcliffe told reporters…
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/413227-papadopoulos-testifies-before-gop-panels-about-time-on-trump
TWEET: George Papadopoulos: I repeat:James Clapper is currently in Australia colluding with their government to cover both his and Alexander Downer’s involvement in the most profound, and illegal, spying operation against an American and the presidential campaign he worked for in history. Bad look Australia
24 October 2018
TWEET: George Papadopoulos: James Clapper is in Australia shortly before my testimony to cover his tracks and try to come up with a story that covers Alexander Downer’s involvement in a spying operation against an American and opposition presidential campaign.
24 October 2018
TWEET: George Papadopoulos: Wonder why James Clapper has been hanging out in Australia the last month.
24 October 2018
more to come.
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Australia National University, Canberra: Facts and fears: Hard truths from a life in intelligence
Speakers
The Hon James R Clapper AO; Dates & times Thu 4 Oct 2018, 6–7pm
THIS EVENT IS BOOKED OUT
At this Australian launch of his recent book Facts and Fears, James Clapper will discuss the growing threat of cyberattacks, his relationships with presidents and Congress, and the truth about Russia’s role in the presidential election. He will describe, in the wake of Snowden and WikiLeaks, his efforts to make intelligence more transparent and push back against the suspicion that Americans’ private lives are subject to surveillance. He will also detail what it was like living through Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and seeing how the foundations of American democracy were – and continue to be – undermined by a foreign power, which led him to break with his instincts honed through more than five decades in the intelligence profession to share his inside experience…
He is visiting Canberra as Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University.
LINK – more information about this event
The National Security College is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Government and The Australian National University.
http://www.anu.edu.au/events/facts-and-fears-hard-truths-from-a-life-in-intelligence
TWEET: (The Asia and the Pacific Policy Society) PolicyForum: Will Russia try to influence the outcomes of the American mid-term elections? How will new technologies change the way intelligence collection is carried out? Don’t miss this #natsecpod with the former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
18 October 2018
https://twitter.com/APPSPolicyForum/status/1053157550688952322
AUDIO: 46min-plus: National Security Podcast: Facts and Fears with James Clapper
The National Security Podcast
Episode summary: On this episode of the National Security Podcast, we hear from James Clapper about the changing nature of intelligence collection, trust in government, Donald Trump, and conspiracy theories.
Why is President Trump espousing his love for dictators? How will new technologies and citizen investigations change the way intelligence collection is carried out? Are conspiracy theories a bit of fun or are they a serious challenge for trust in government? Does James Clapper watch spy movies?
On this episode of the National Security Podcast Chris Farnham has a wide ranging discussion with the former US Director of National Intelligence and visiting Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, hosted by the ANU National Security College.
LISTEN (LINK)
https://nsc.crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/podcasts/audio/13238/national-security-podcast-facts-and-fears-james-clapper
21 March 2017: ANU: Former US Director of National Intelligence joins ANU
One of the world’s most respected figures in intelligence and security will join The Australian National University (ANU) as visiting Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor.
James R Clapper AO, the former US Director of National Intelligence, will commence in June with an initial four-week term at the National Security College at Crawford School that will include public lectures on key global and national security issues including the future of Australia’s alliance with the United States.
Mr Clapper will engage with policymakers and security practitioners, as well as academics, students and private sector partners in the College’s work on issues such as cyber security and analysing future strategic challenges.
He will also take part in the ANU Crawford Australian Leadership Forum, the nation’s pre-eminent dialogue of academics, parliamentarians and business leaders.
“I’m looking forward very much to being involved with The Australian National University,” Mr Clapper said.
“I have tremendous respect and affection for Australia as an ally of the United States. I have long appreciated Australia’s distinct insights on security issues and I look forward to engaging more closely with thinking in Canberra.”
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt AC said the University was privileged to host Jim Clapper as part of its commitment to the highest levels of engagement with the world’s critical policy challenges.
The Head of the ANU National Security College, Professor Rory Medcalf, said that hosting global figures like Jim Clapper was an important way for the College to contribute to the quality of Australian policy-making in an uncertain world…
https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/9439/former-us-director-national-intelligence-joins-anu
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despite “opponents” being in the opening Photo caption, as well as having a sub-heading in the text, I cannot see any opponents named or quoted! am I wrong?
26 Oct: ABC: As power prices surge, Victorians are embracing solar — and it’s causing problems
By state political reporter Stephanie Anderson
PHOTO CAPTION: Opponents of renewable energy have seized on infrastructure issues to criticise the growth in wind and solar
Mr McCarthy said the uptake had surprised a lot of people.
“Even two years ago, it wouldn’t have made economic sense for a manufacturer in Dandenong to install a large-scale solar system,” he said.
“The return [on investment] would have been 10 or 11 years.
“But the fast drop in the cost of solar — and the fact that power costs have gone up faster than anyone could have predicted — means the return is now more like four or five years.”
His company, Gippsland Solar, is bracing for even more demand, driven by the Victorian Government’s billion-dollar renewable energy package for solar panels, hot-water systems and batteries.
Its target is to put solar panels on an extra 650,000 homes in a decade.
That would triple the amount of photo-voltaic (PV) solar power in Victoria.
And that comes with risks, according to Tony Wood, the director of energy policy at think-tank Grattan Institute…
Victoria’s energy grid simply wasn’t designed to cope with a system where each house can feed its own electricity back into the network.
“It actually does hurt the stability of the grid,” said Audrey Ziebelman, from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
“We’ve identified already areas that we’re worried about,” she told the ABC’s RN Breakfast program, “particularly in the mid-afternoon where there’s very low demand.”…
Six new wind and solar farms have been backed by Victoria’s Government, with an aim they will start generating power by 2020.
But the farms are located in the state’s north and west, where transmission lines are thin and can’t handle more power coming into the system…
Plans for the state’s largest solar farm, at Kiamal, near Mildura, stalled earlier this year because of capacity issues…
It’s added a massive machine, known as a synchronous condenser, to the project. It can balance the energy output and protect the grid.
The downside is it’s a hugely expensive piece of equipment.
So expensive, in fact, that its manufacturer offered to absorb some of the cost in order to help the Kiamal project go ahead.
“We’ve had to go to a lot of lengths, extraordinary lengths, to get this project over the line,” Total Eren’s Michael Vawser said.
“There’s so many renewable energy projects being built, it’s just increasing the complexity of every connection in the market, and we’ve sort of hit the perfect storm, in a way, with our project.”…
Electric cars and the thirst for power
Opponents of renewable energy have seized on infrastructure issues to criticise the growth in wind and solar.
But Mark Wakeham, from advocacy group Environment Victoria, believes the fears are overstated.
“I think people will start changing the way they use energy and there’ll be a lot more use of energy when the sun is shining and the solar resource is really strong,” he said…
Mr Wood agreed electric vehicles would be a game changer, but was less optimistic about how they would fit into the system.
“If tens of thousands of people drive their electric vehicles home in the evening and plug them in, that’s an even bigger load than air conditioners,” he said.
“So what you need to be able to do is give those people the incentive or structure so that they don’t plug all their cars in at the same time to be recharged…
Apartment dwellers subsidise solar-powered homes…
The Victorian Greens have called for transmission lines to be upgraded to allow for increased renewable energy generation…
How governments manage these challenges of infrastructure and access to ***cheaper electricity will be a politically-charged question for whoever takes power…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/victorias-renewable-energy-boom-could-burn-electricity-market/10405210
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26 Oct: ABC: Victoria’s biggest solar farm under construction amid debate over lost agricultural land
ABC Mildura-Swan Hill By Simon Galletta and Matt Tribe
French energy giant, Total Eren is behind the $300m, 256-megawatt Kiamal solar farm on a more than 500-hectare property at Ouyen, south of Mildura.
Once built, the Kiamal farm’s 720,000 solar panels will (SOMETIMES?) generate enough energy to power more than 133,000 homes…
Three solar developments proposed near Mildura, totalling $30m, drew more than 100 objections from nearby residents and were recently knocked back during a robust council meeting.
Mildura councillor Simon Clemence voted against the proposals, arguing they would take away prime farming land.
“The significance of irrigated horticultural land in Mildura can’t be overstated,” Mildura councillor Simon Clemence said.
“We’ve been directed by the state to protect … agricultural land.”
He said while the council was fully supportive of renewable energies, it had to be on suitable land.
Proposed developer and PowerVault director Steve Timmis criticised the council’s decision.
“For the last eight years Mildura has tried to position itself as the solar capital of Australia … (but) decisions like this sends a message loud and clear that that’s blatantly not the case,” Mr Timmis said…
A lack of guidelines from the State Government saw the Greater Shepparton City Council ill-equipped to approve four projects, at Tallygaroopna, Lemnos, Tatura East and Congupna, passing the task onto the Government to consider.
Following community consultations, an independent planning panel assessed the applications.
The Congupna project was approved as a result of the panel hearing, but a decision on the Tallygaroopna, Lemnos and Tatura East solar farms, which all reside on irrigated land, has been deferred until further strategic work is completed.
The Government has now released draft guidelines for future big solar farm developments in Victoria, that will be open for comment until March, 2019…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/victoria-biggest-solar-farm-underway-amid-agriculture-debate/10428558
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Read this one this morning and realised no big deal they will just copy what they do in SA and cut wind power back to bugger all while solar is producing .
10
“and cut wind power back to bugger all”
But pay the wind power scammers anyway.
That doesn’t happen when coal is forced to reduce their RELIABLE output.
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The so-and-so’s are building a solar farm on prime Murray river flat farm country at Wunyu, just south of Tocumwal. Passed the sign at a side road…prime land!
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26 Oct: ABC: Great Barrier Reef LIKELY to be hit with another mass bleaching this summer, forecast shows
By national environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak
The Great Barrier Reef COULD BE hit with severe coral bleaching and death this summer as the result of another large underwater heatwave, according to a tentative long-term forecast by one of the world’s most-respected science agencies…
According to the forecast by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), by March next year the entire reef has a 60 per cent chance of being subject to “bleaching alert level one”, where bleaching is likely…
If widespread bleaching happens in 2019, it would be the third event in four years.
A situation like that wasn’t predicted to happen regularly until the second half of this century…
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said the bleaching in 2016 and 2017 had reduced the ability of the reef to recover.
By killing so much of the coral, there is less larvae being produced and fewer stable surfaces for it to grow on.
“Killing coral has really reduced the ability of the reef to produce offspring,” he said…
The now very regular bleaching, driven by climate change, puts the entire reef at risk, according to Professor Hoegh-Guldberg.
He said the continued existence of the Great Barrier Reef as a coral-dominated system depended on a balance between two factors: the events that damage coral, and its rate of recovery.
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said they’ve been well-balanced in the past…
But lots of things could happen, including cyclones…
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg added: “All of us have research sites that we’ve been working on.
“With or without funding, many of us will be … jumping in the water and trying to figure out how bad this is.”…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/great-barrier-reef-likely-hit-by-another-bleaching-this-summer/10428298
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So if the reef is going to die next year, stop wasting money. If the water is already too warm over all 2,300 kms, then it is doomed. Professor Hoegh-Guldberg, if you get too alarmist, Australia can’t fix global warming, so then you are out of a job.
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BS all the way to the (funding) bank, literally.
Where are the actual real world data that prove their wild claims?
10
Morrison is finished with Turnbull’s duplicity and is going to build coal fired power stations just for spite.
30
25 Oct: USA Today: Donald Trump’s ‘nationalism’ isn’t racist or wrong, it’s what America needs right now
by James S. Robbins, Opinion columnist
(James S. Robbins, a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors and author of “Erasing America: Losing Our Future by Destroying Our Past,” has taught at the National Defense University and the Marine Corps University and served as a special assistant in the office of the secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration)
You know America is in trouble when the president is viciously slammed simply for saying good things about the country.
Appeals to the inherent goodness and manifest greatness of America used to be a staple of political oratory. It was so commonplace that it was entirely noncontroversial. Love of country was taken for granted.
But when President Donald Trump described himself as a “nationalist” at a rally in Texas, it set off a firestorm of criticism. Nationalism is now the new “n-word.” CNN’s Jim Acosta pathetically insinuated the president was making a secret appeal to racism. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace invoked her History Channel-based education to tie in Nazi appeals to German nationalism, while perhaps being unaware that the Nazis also were ardent socialists. Maybe she missed that program.
This predictable progressive panic is baseless and tiresome. It is a willful misunderstanding of what Trump means when he says nationalist. The president framed the term against “globalist,” which in his words is “a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly not caring about the country so much.” …READ ON
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/10/25/donald-trump-nationalist-racist-patriotism-unity-progressives-america-column/1749803002/
in the USA, taxpayer-funded Zoe looks up a dictionary:
26 Oct: ABC: Donald Trump’s words mattered in a week in which bombs were sent to Democrats, CNN
By Washington bureau chief Zoe Daniel
What is nationalism?
According to Merriam-Webster, it’s “loyalty and devotion to a nation”, and especially, “a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others…”.
Patriotism, Merriam-Webster goes on, is similar, “but it does not necessarily imply an attitude of superiority”.
Examples of nationalism in a sentence:
•”The war was caused by nationalism and greed.”
•”Nazism’s almost epic nationalism appealed to downtrodden Germans still suffering the humiliation of being defeated in World War I.”
So, what is it that has me reading the dictionary?…
TWEET: The Hill: President Trump: “You know what I am, I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist.”…
We know President Donald Trump can be fast and loose with language. Did he mean that he’s a patriot without understanding the implications of the word nationalist? Or was he deliberately amping the extreme right portion of his base ahead of midterm elections in less than a fortnight?…
Back to ‘nationalism’, the division is being fanned by a toxic immigration debate which, again, is being amped up by the President ahead of the midterms to mobilise voters who want tighter borders…
ENDS WITH CNN TWEET:
Katie Hinman, Exec producer, CNN:
via @KateBennett_DC, please enjoy a very DC Halloween display: “Mar-a-La-Ghost”, replete with RIPs for departed White House staffers.
24 Oct 2018
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/donald-trumps-words-mattered-this-week/10432112
Zoe – don’t freak out!
Wikipedia: Vincent “Ċensu” Tabone; Political party, Nationalist Party.
Tabone was elected to the Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party in 1961. He later served as the party’s Secretary General (1962–1972) and as Deputy Leader (1972–1977). Tabone was first elected to Parliament in 1966 and subsequently served as a Member of Parliament for the Sliema, St. Julian’s, Msida, and Gzira areas for 23 years… In 1988, he brought another motion before the UN, calling for the world’s climate to be declared the common heritage of mankind:
24 Oct: ClimateChangeNews: Time capsule: 30 years ago, Malta put climate on the UN agenda
When Vincent “Ċensu” Tabone raised the “urgent need to conserve climate in the interests of mankind”, few predicted how fraught the issue would become
By Megan Darby
Malta’s foreign minister was the first to put climate change on the agenda at the UN General Assembly on this day, 30 years ago…
Tabone’s intervention led to a UN resolution that December, recognising climate change as a “common concern” requiring “timely action”. It asked the newly conceived Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to advise on the state of climate science and response strategies…
But the process started that day did eventually, in 2015, yield an international pact that most of the world – don’t mention the US, or indeed Brazil – is committed to.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/10/24/time-capsule-30-years-ago-malta-put-climate-un-agenda/
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Zoe Daniel is not an Australian. And definitely not a nationalist.
She’s just a global citizen who happens to be employed by the ABC and have an Australian passport…And would probably prefer an UN one if she could get it.
All of which makes her irrelevant for 99% of Australians…
Until you psoted your comment here I had not even read the story…
As for Trump, of course he is a Nationalist a US Nationalist…So what ? If he was not a nationalist he would not be fit to be the president of the USA…
It’s the Globalist ideology which is abnornal.
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Listening to the Abc on the radio while cooking on the BBQ ,they were bagging Morrison because of the drought policy’s announced today and getting all the usual nut jobs ringing in but one who got the short shrift made my ears prick up .
He was a farmer who followed the long range forecasts of Indigo Jones and his teachings and was prepared for the current drought by destocking and buying in fodder and grain while it was cheap .
The old guy started to bag BOM but was cut off for daring to question CAGW .
20
Comment in moderation (themes are the breaks).
Also noted was Labor’s dummy spit that the government never mentioned dangerous global warming caused by what else .
And no mention of a carbon tax , although there are hints that there is money for dams and maybe a northern solution .
20
How can the con merchants get away with telling porkies to the Aussie electorate?
The news tonight showed the PM’s drought summit in Canberra and a number of people claimed that droughts are increasing around Australia.
This is completely wrong and OZ is a much wetter place today than the period 1895 to 1970, yet we were told the opposite by the news services .
Why do they do this, because the data for rainfall clearly shows this is wrong?
Here’s the BOM anomaly graph 1900 to 2017 showing much more rainfall after 1970.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi?graph=rranom&area=aus&season=0112&ave_yr=8
And here’s NSW showing Rainfall 1900 to 2017. 1895 on was also in terrible drought, so NSW had much less rainfall from 1895 to 1949.
Note the positive IOD effect showing up in the recent Millenium drought in NSW. But nothing to do with higher Co2 emissions at all. Vic suffered more from the Mill drought because of the long positive IOD in NW Australia.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi?graph=rranom&area=nsw&season=0112&ave_yr=8
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Part of what we’re fighting Neville , trolls say we bash the ABC and other MSM but when they come up with garbage like this constantly it can only be for one reason and that’s to deceive the listener / Viewer into believing the world is coming to an end unless we get out of fossil fuel .
10
And while we are bashing the ABC they do give us plenty of ammo .
Despite the headline no , same sex penguins can’t have babies .
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/same-sex-penguins-couple-become-parents/10434774
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ABC bashing? Did you do it against a brick wall before writing this?
The headline says “parents”. Not even the body text says they can, “have babies”.
I’m assuming you are male Robert. A male who was never a female? You can also be a parent even though you cannot have babies.
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BoM’s Dr Peter Stone, 2018 drought summit:
It has been an unusually warm year; the third warmest Jan-Oct for Australia; 1.3 degrees Celsius above average.
The gold and silver went to 2013 and 2017.
Wait. What?
2013- hottest, 2017- hot, 2018 – warm.
Looks like it is not getting hotter, otherwise, bronze, silver & gold would be in reverse!
via sky news, twitter: https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/1055604607093624832
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“2013- hottest, 2017- hot, 2018 – warm.”
Sounds like a COOLING trend to me 😉
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Please note this from the main post.
Jo gives me a forum to post my views and I want to give something back.
If you feel the same please consider buying Chocolate (ie donation).
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Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 62% of company directors do not care about an ageing population
Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 65% of company directors do not care about an energy policy
Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 65% of company directors do not care about an taxation reform
Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 66% of company directors do not care about infrastructure
Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 67% of company directors do not care about an international competitiveness
Something watch -Watch: Beyond fake headlines — 71% of company directors do not care about education
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Only 17 percent think climate change is of concern, which is extraordinary. Obviously they ignore the Klimatariat’s doomsday lingo.
‘The bureau’s climate outlook for November to January, released on Friday, says there is an 80% chance temperatures will be higher than average for most of the mainland.
“You don’t often see odds that high,” said Dr Andrew Watkins, the bureau’s manager of long-range forecasts. “It’s astounding honestly.”
Guardian
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Except that on long range forecasts from the bom their record is that the actual is anti correlated with their forecast IE if they forecast hot, expect cold.
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excellent summary:
24 Oct: Epoch Times: How the Russia Collusion Story Revealed a Scandal to Obstruct President Trump
By Sharyl Attkisson
(Sharyl Attkisson is the New York Times bestselling author of “Stonewalled,” a five-time Emmy Award winner, and the host of Sinclair’s national investigative television program “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.” She is a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and has reported nationally for CBS News, PBS, and CNN)
Taken together in context, the evidence points to two important findings. First, U.S. government insiders, colluding with numerous foreign citizens and governments, conspired to interfere in the 2016 election. Second, after the election, these figures conspired to undermine, oust, and perhaps even frame Trump and some of his associates.
The methods used, according to factual accounts and witnesses, include collusion with reporters and politicians, leaks to the press, and paid political-opposition research. Officials in the intelligence community were involved in the effort, which included the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), domestic and foreign informants or spies, and electronic surveillance.
Highlights of ‘Collusion Against Trump’ Evidence
Here are a few highlights among the hundreds of bits of supporting information:…READ ON
https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-the-russia-collusion-story-revealed-a-scandal-to-obstruct-president-trump_2697180.html
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25 Oct: Twitchy: HERE we go! NBC News’ Chuck Todd wondering if Avenatti & Swetnick were ‘misleading our reporters’ about Kavanaugh
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley referred both Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick “to the DOJ for a possible criminal probe over allegations of false statements to Congress regarding Brett Kavanaugh.”…
The mainstream media breathlessly reported Swetnick’s claim during the Kavanaugh confirmation process, but now the backpedal begins…
The wheels look to have just about fallen off Julie Swetnick’s unsubstantiated allegation, but NBC News political director and “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd appears to be prepared to claim the media to be a victim in all this…
TWEET: Chuck Todd, NBC: Was this an intentional attempt to mislead our reporters? Evidence points that way…
READ ON
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2018/10/25/here-we-go-nbc-news-chuck-todd-wondering-if-avenatti-swetnick-were-misleading-our-reporters-about-kavanaugh/
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25 Oct: Newsbusters: Lefty SPLC, Soros Foundations Build Coalition to Ban ‘Hate Speech’ Online
By Corinne Weaver
The anti-conservative hate group, Southern Poverty Law Center, wants to censor people it disagrees with and it’s asking the top social media companies to help.
On Thursday, October 25, the liberal organization announced that it had formed a coalition with five other groups to encourage the prohibition of so-called “hate speech” online. SPLC partnered with four George Soros funded organizations: the Center for American Progress, Color of Change, Free Press and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as well as the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
The groups called for restricting a wide range of content, video, advertising, fundraising and domain/website services. The restrictions even cover “targeting an individual or group based on their actual or perceived race.” Those activities even limit actions users may take “whether online or offline.”
The SPLC has marked conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council, ACT for America, American Family Association, and Alliance Defending Freedom as hate groups. The group has also targeted conservative and classical liberal individuals for hate speech, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Christina Hoff Sommers…
In the 11-page report (LINK), the SPLC and its partners wrote several recommendations for corporate companies in social media. The report stated, “Using the service to engage in hateful activities on the service or to facilitate hateful activities off the service shall be grounds for terminating the service for a user.” The SPLC warns that government actors should not be allowed to flag content on social media, since apparently that falls under free speech limitations.
Center for American Progress, Color of Change, and Free Press are all given major donations from liberal billionaire George Soros on a regular basis. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is part of the non-profit Alliance for Justice, which is a coalition of 100 organizations. This coalition is also funded by Soros…
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/techwatch/corinne-weaver/2018/10/25/lefty-splc-soros-foundations-build-coalition-ban-hate
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am reminded of BBC Click this week:
the Fake News segment begins at 19min 30sec.
AUDIO: 26min29sec: 24 Oct: BBC Click: Migrant Caravan Communications
Presenter: Gareth Mitchell with Ghislaine Boddington
(fake news segment features author & journalist David Vaughan)
The role of fake news in starting World War II. How the Nazis conned the allies into allowing them to invade Czechoslovakia, with a very modern sounding deception.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cswhf0
paraphrasing – at the end:
Ghislaine: British Govt has said it wants to stop using “fake news”, in strategy documents at least; reverting to “misinformation” and “disinformation”. we’re still seeing continued misuse by powerful people to manipulate us in whatever directions they want it to happen at that point in time.
Gareth: yes, that phrase has been weaponised….by both right and left.
Gareth: I’m reminded of some coverage we did earlier this year on ***Resistance Radio station B92 in Yugoslavia. they pioneered internet streaming in Milosevic’s time.
Ghislaine Boddington: creating a resistance. with interactive social media today, you don’t have to storm the radio station; you can join in straight away, say this is not true. if we want to go sorry, this isn’t right, we can. Gareth Mitchell: we can.
***Wikipedia: B92
Founded in 1989 as radio station, it was a rare outlet for Western news and information in FR Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milošević, and was a force behind many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the turbulent 1990s…
The radio station originally went on the air in 1989 ***with financial help from the Soros Foundation and USAID…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B92
Ghislaine is not keen on democracy:
TWEET: Ghislaine Boddington, Click: I walked together with 1000s, I walked in protest to Brexit + how it shuts down freedoms for our future generations – it felt so sad, like a huge communal bereavement – Brexit is tragic for our future! #PeoplesMarch #collaboration #freedom #inclusivity
LINK: BBC: Marchers call for ‘people’s vote on Brexit’
20 Oct 2018
https://twitter.com/GBoddington/status/1053656280081022977
TWEET: 24 Oct: Ghislaine Boddington: European parliament approves sweeping ban on single-use plastics
LINK Guardian: European parliament approves sweeping ban on single-use plastics
Proposal passes 571-53, with Labour MEPs demanding UK mirror EU action after Brexit
by Arthur Neslen in Brussels
Under the proposed directive, items such as plastic straws, cotton swabs, disposable plastic plates and cutlery would be banned by 2021, and 90% of plastic bottle recycled by 2025…
EU states still have to back the directive before it becomes law, but commission sources said they were optimistic that action would continue to move quickly.
“We hope to have a vote in the European council in November,” one told the Guardian. “If all goes well, we could have it in law by the end of the year.”…
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Giles knows how to spin it (the Govt does too!):
26 Oct: RenewEconomy: Coalition votes down COAG push to keep climate on energy policy agenda
by Giles Parkinson
The federal Coalition government – backed by conservative states – has taken the extraordinary step of voting down a push to have climate change considered as part of the framing of the country’s energy policy agenda.
The ACT government proposed at the COAG energy ministers meeting in Sydney on Friday working to develop a suitable greenhouse gas emissions reduction mechanism for the electricity sector…
But it was knocked back along party lines. The ACT won support from labor states – Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia – but NSW, South Australia and Tasmania supported the federal Coalition’s decision to keep climate out of energy policy.
“It is very disappointing. All we were doing is asking for options to be put on the table,” ACT minister Shane Rattenbury told reporters after the meeting.
Queensland energy minister Anthony Lynham was equally damming:
“It is unfathomable that, in 2018, Australia does not have a credible emissions reduction framework, despite stakeholders across the spectrum united in their desire for one. The Commonwealth is clearly dominated by climate change deniers.’’
Rattenbury said in a statement that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector must be core work of the energy council if Australia is to genuinely address climate change, and to ensure electricity reliability and reduce power prices.
“One of the great ironies is that taking action on climate change, and supporting more renewable energy, will help to bring down power prices. The federal government won’t be able to fulfil its promise of affordable power bills unless it takes its head out of the sand and deals with emissions.”
The ACT’s request echoes the call this week from a wide range of Australian stakeholders for the COAG Energy Council to address emissions as an essential part of achieving cost reductions. These included doctors, a coalition of business, energy and consumer groups, and also a recognition by company directors that climate change should be a major focus for boards.
Asked about the vote at the conclusion of the COAG meeting, held at a hotel near Sydney Airport, federal energy minister Angus Taylor cited the success of the renewable energy target, a policy mechanism he tried for years to kill.
“We are going to see a 250 per cent increase in wind and solar in the National Electricity Market in the next three years …. That is $15 billion in new renewables, wind and solar, and the result that is that we will see sharp reductions in emissions.
“That is why we will meet … the Paris climate targets … in a canter.” It should be noted, what that actually means is that the electricity sector will meet its share, but not the whole economy. Official data shows economy-wide emissions heading in the opposite direction.
It should also be noted that government officials this week told Senate Estimates that there was no doubt that the influx of wind and solar had, and would continue to bring down prices from where they would otherwise be, as this exchange revealed:
Senator KENEALLY: Would it be correct to say that a large reason for this fall is the expected impact of investment in renewable energy that we’ve seen under the Renewable Energy Target?
Rob Heferen (deputy secretary, energy): Yes, clearly. The extra supply coming online reduces the wholesale price. It isn’t necessarily a linear approach as we’ve seen in the past, where the new investment comes in and the wholesale price goes down, and then we saw the situation where both the Northern Power Station and Hazelwood closed, and then the wholesale price went back up again. It seems now that the wholesale price is back on its way down.
Senator KENEALLY: The government does point out that the electricity sector will meet its 26 per cent emissions reduction target on 2005 levels by 2030 and most of that will, in fact, be met in the early 2020s. What contribution has the RET made to meeting this target?
Heferen: The minister’s been very clear that the 26 per cent below 2005 level will be met in the National Electricity Market, not the electricity sector more broadly. So, when he speaks, he will be talking about the NEM.
The ACT proposal made to COAG was simple enough, if a little provocative to a government that does not want to know about emissions, despite the latest by-election result in Wentworth and the loss by Liberals of two seats in the last two months to independents championing action on climate…READ ON
https://reneweconomy.com.au/coalition-votes-down-coag-push-to-keep-climate-on-energy-policy-agenda-16324/
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If Victoria could manage a change to Liberal then a federal Shorten government would be snookered on RET increase by the Liberal states. Still hope of no change to the RET. No chance that it will be abandoned.
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There is only one word applicable to this madness:
S T O P.
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CAGW-infested media getting a little over-excited!
26 Oct: ClimateChangeNews: Bolsonaro says Brazil will stay in the Paris Agreement
Ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, the frontrunner has said he will stay in the UN climate pact, as long as it does not threaten Brazilian sovereignty
By Megan Darby
“Let’s put on paper that the Triple A isn’t in play and neither is the independence of any indigenous land, and I’ll uphold the Paris Agreement,” he said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, as reported by Reuters (LINK)…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/10/26/bolsonaro-says-brazil-will-stay-paris-agreement/
25 Oct: Bloomberg: Bolsonaro Says Brazil Wouldn’t Quit Paris Climate Deal If He Wins
By Kariny Leal
Frontrunner in presidential election criticises the agreement
Candidate wants guarantees on indigenous land, Amazon region
Brazil’s leading presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, said that he intends to keep the country in the Paris Climate Agreement despite his reservations about the deal.
Speaking at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro this Thursday, Bolsonaro said he wants guarantees ensuring Brazilian sovereignty over indigenous land and the so-called “triple A” region — a strip of land that runs from the Andes to the Atlantic, passing through the Amazon rain forest. The candidate defended that might exist discussions in the “backstage” of this deal around those regions. “Could we run the risk of losing our Amazon in the Paris Accord? You have the answer,” he said…
25 Oct: TWEET: Vincent Bevins, WaPo: Well that’s weird. Bolsonaro now says he is NOT going to pull Brazil out of the Paris agreement LINK Reuters
TWEET: Vincent Bevins, WaPo: Small update – Folha reporter @phillctw
says that Reuters story may not fully reflect just how ambiguous Bolsonaro was being – his willingness to stay may depend on some concessions or modifications to the agreement which aren’t even possible…
REPLY: Phillippe Watanabe (Brazilian journalist): He didn’t say that he will not pull Brazil out of Paris Agreement (PA). He criticized PA (Paris Agreement) and talk about some conditions for Brazil to stay (including some that don’t even are part of the agreement)…
https://twitter.com/Vinncent/status/1055573601884270594?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
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lots of activity in the past hour, on his testimony to Congressmen yesterday:
Twitter: George Papadopolous
https://twitter.com/georgepapa19?lang=en
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Nordhaus not scary enough for Linden:
25 Oct: LA Times: The economics Nobel went to a guy who enabled climate change denial and delay
By Eugene Linden
(Eugene Linden is the author of “Winds of Change: Climate, Weather and the Destruction of Civilizations”)
It has been a scary month in climate science. Hurricane Michael and a frightening report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underlined the potential costs of human-caused global warming. Then to add insult to injury, William Nordhaus won the economics Nobel Prize.
Nordhaus was recognized for his work developing a model to guide policymakers on how best to address the costs and benefits of limiting greenhouse gases. That’s a noble goal, but Nordhaus’ work has no more helped to defuse the threat of global warming than Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Germany prevented World War II. Rather, Nordhaus’ low-ball estimates of the costs of future climate change and high-ball estimates of the costs of containing the threat contributed to a lost decade in the fight against climate change, lending intellectual legitimacy to denial and delay.
In Nordhaus’ 1993 paper, “Rolling the ‘Dice’: An Optimal Transition Path for Controlling Greenhouse Gases,” he wrote: “A growing body of evidence has pointed to the likelihood that greenhouse warming will have only a modest economic impact in industrial countries, while progress to cut [greenhouse gases] will impose substantial costs.” How modest? Nordhaus estimated that a 3 degrees Celsius warming would cost the U.S. economy a miniscule one-quarter percent of national income. He admitted that unmeasured and unquantifiable variables might affect that prediction, but in his view, they might only bring the cost up to about 1% of national income…READ ON
https://web.archive.org/web/20181025144533/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-linden-nobel-economics-mistake-20181025-story.html
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22 Oct: BBC: Anti-plastic focus ‘dangerous distraction’ from climate change
The anti-plastic “fervour” sweeping across the UK is weakening the fight against climate change, the founder of an organic food company has said.
Guy Singh-Watson, a prominent green entrepreneur and campaigner, said more focus should be put on cutting carbon…
He said: “The fervour – the almost religious fervour – of some of our customers in (being) anti-plastic can actually create problems.
“Plastic is not in itself an evil material, it is the fact that we use so much of it.
“The biggest environmental challenge facing our planet is climate change – and anything that distracts attention from that is potentially dangerous.”…
Alyssa Gilbert, director of policy at Imperial College’s Grantham Institute, which works on climate change and environmental action, said the popularity of the plastics issue proved there was enthusiasm for tackling environmental problems.
“The public have been mobilised and engaged in thinking about their relationship to the environment, and that’s an amazing thing,” she said.
But she agreed the wrong approach to cutting plastic use could be counter-productive.
Some plastic – such as wrapped cucumbers – helped to combat food waste, which in turn contributes to carbon emissions, she said…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45942814
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It is indeed a complex world we live in.
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How many of the 17% and how many of the ~40% gave their true thoughts or were just telling what they thought was wanting to be heard? I would bet only a smaller portion.
The truth of such things is that PR requires business and industry leaders to pay lip service to green concerns and nothing more. This does no translate to meaningful changes in action.
Outside of the rather minority green bubble nobody really cares much, and not everybody inside the green bubble does either.
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Well put Dave.
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Thank you.
Another damning post that won’t make it to Media Watch.
The national “without bias or agenda” broadcaster seems to have become more brazen since outcome of Wentworth by-election and its internal management implosion.
IMO cultural reform (ha, ha) should be measured by a simple test: the day when YOU gets your own show/slot on the billion dollar behemoth’s radio/TV schedule.
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