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Midweek Unthreaded
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9.2 out of 10 based on 11 ratings
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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
The nerds have the numbers on precious metals investments on the ASX
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Wot… am I the first to post in here? Amazing for a long time lurker.
Just listening to their ABC and the useful idiots have publicised “The Everest” which I had never heard of and have no interest in by making a fuss about projecting some images for 10 minutes on the Sydney Opera House that most people in Australia would never see. Can’t help laughing!
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The cafe latte set think its vulgar.
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Saw a new expression yesterday “Soy Boy.”
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Real men drink full cream milk.
‘The idea is that if you drink dairy-free milk alternatives, you are obviously weak and feminine (based on the thinking that soy products increase men’s oestrogen levels, even though this hasn’t been scientifically proven).’
The Independent
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I was brought up on full cream milk direct from the cow! Much better and healthier.
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There is talk that almond and soy drinks are not milk, just a clever advertising gimmick which has proven very lucrative. The fellow on Landline (ABC) is leading the charge to force them to stop referring to their products as milk.
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Not sure if it is still so but in Joh’s day you couldn’t sell peanut “butter” in Qld. Had to be peanut paste.
And I believe soy is dangerous. If you want to grow painful man b00bs drink a couple of ltrs a day.
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el gordo, I have sheep, cows and an almond tree, the sheep and cows have plenty of milk but I can not find tits on the almond tree.
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Coral calcium from the Reef might be the calcium breakthrough we all need ok. That being said, maybe there are studies being done that might find a process to convert coral skeletons into a milk substitute loaded with calcium. And creamy too!
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_calcium#cite_note-jaroff-1
“Health claims
“Coral calcium has been promoted as an alternative treatment or cure for a number of health conditions, often as part “of an alkaline diet, by Robert Barefoot and others; Barefoot coauthored a book called The Calcium Factor, and marketed “coral calcium supplements with infomercials
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Well the Reef is Dead(tm), so we may as well dig it up and convert it into something useful 😛
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Mudcrab
Double benefit – cement and an unobstructed deep water channel
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They forget that its foundations are firmly on a lottery
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Yes, the irony of the snowflakes’ outrage is wonderful.
The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million.
Gambling funded its construction.
All those snowflakes’ parents and friends had the opportunity to fund its construction but, like lefties everywhere, they had short arms and long pockets.
So, after an unsuccessful public fund-raising campaign, the Opera House Lottery was established.
Lottery Number 1 went on sale in November 1957. Gamblers paid for it.
Each ticket cost £5 (A$10) and first prize was £100,000 (A$200,000). The last Opera House Lottery was drawn in September 1986. Over A$105,000,000 was raised by these lotteries; an amount in excess of the final construction cost.
Interestingly, Chinese New Year is celebrated at the Opera House with its roof sails lit in red. The Chinese are great gamblers.
And, its sails were again lit up to celebrate marriage equality.
No problems with any of that.
Greenies have climbed all over the sails whinging about their usual rubbish, unfurling banners and causing damage to the roof. The snowflakes are all cool with that. Hypocrites all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQxdWG-Qt5g
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It has become popular to voice disdain, protest, aggrievement, and emotional distress at almost anything traditional, religious, conservative, or anti-left progressive.
How dare we race horses
How dare we enjoy a beer with male friends.
How dare we not care about some future world 100 years in the future.
How dare we not solve the plight of every homeless person
How dare we not accommodate every extreme religious idea
How dare we not compost
How dare we eat meat and fish
How dare we respect our parents
How dare we not want double electric bills
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TS
Re enjoying beer
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/10/06/so-much-winning-2/
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Indeed. Horse racing is as old as our colony.
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I have a smple question for those PC-loving weenies who would try and lord over us –
Who died and made you lot King?
And as you arent the King, you can get lost. Period.
Now excuse me while I have a beer with my mates, a big fat steak and go for a yippee run in my V8….
There is this great scene in “Grand Torino” where he stops a group of young punks from hassling this young guy & girl. He pulls up and just sneers at them and grunts. Nothing had to be said…..it was as clear as day what was meant.
Perfect analogy for how the climate noddies should be handled….
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Do Australian politicians have a spine?
Can Australia recover from the current burdens, associated with The Global Warming Myth, that are embedded in our nation’s backbone?
Can the investment? of innocent unionists superannuation in Renewables be dealt with.
Maybe, since it was done by their Union Masters who had two bites of the cherry, it will have to be written off when renewables subsidies are removed to save the larger population?
Will the thousands of university graduates with significant components of warmerism in their Degrees be given a refund and re~education?
Or, maybe our politicians don’t have spine?
An interesting year ahead.
KK
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Morrison is not strong enough on any policies, not yet anyway. Look at the immigration issue. He has completely lost the plot there. Morrison needs to grow a real spine on a number of fronts, and do it fast.
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We have six months to manifest the right outcome at the election.
The weather has returned to normal, spring storms sweep the country and there are signs that climate has changed back to its old ways.
In my neck of the political woods the agrarian socialists and coal miners are standing shoulder to shoulder in anticipation of a stunning victory next year. In the bush I see Sky News taking the place of ABC news and propaganda.
Morrison is using Malcolm’s old seat as a test of electoral sentiment, let’s run with coal and create a clear difference from the accepted paradigm. This is heresy.
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If Murdock is serious about keeping Shoten out of the Lodge, and steering the Right towards sensible economic policies re power generation, Paris etc, he would do well to make SKYE News available on Free To Air Television in Metropolitan areas as well as the Regionals.
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I agree, its dynamite for the consensus, the fabric of society torn to shreds by satire. Cameron and Dean are channelling this blog.
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Pinning down Morrison when he has to appease a broad section is hard.Got to be all things to all people.Of course, He who defends everything,defends nothing. Immigration may be the issue that he can win on and that is cutting it back with a slasher.We’re too far behind on infrastructure as it is. Is he tough-minded enough?
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Morrison is a pragmatist and generally liked by the electorate, who trust him to make the right decision on energy.
Decentralisation on a grand scale, getting people out of the capital cities into satellite cities, requires coal fired power stations. Its a big picture item, which should win him the election.
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Not a big deal either way, but to me the question is ….
…where do you draw the line ?
If 10 mins advertising horse racing is acceptable… ( gambling ?, ..well there is a problem itself !)
What if it was 10 hours , or all month ?
What if it was advertising Bunderberg rum ?, or dogy Johns Car spares ?,….. constantly ?
So is it content or time based ?
Art maybe,..Commercial advertising ….slippery slope to Bogansville. !
Of course the Opera House is a very desireable “platform” for any advertising….but that is not its function, ..There are plenty of billboards, public screens , TV etc for that.
Just because it has been used for advertising in the past is no reason that it has to continue in the future.
Some one has to draw the line, or commercial pressure will give us what they want, and Politicians are no better for this type of decision..(too many commercial links)
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Oops !….that was a reply to #1…
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Considering the Opera house was built with Lottery money and has been used for advertising sporting events and even a phone brand I can’t see why a horse race would have been any different .
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just an amazing new trend out of Sydney, pretty soon Opera Houses in Paris, London, Moscow and Milan will be showing McDonalds adverts. Cool! and they say Australia is falling behind, pffft!
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The Eiffel Tower has already been used for advertising, long ago.
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Exactly Peter. The Eiffel Tower had Citroen emblazoned on it in thousands of lights for many years until the power bill got too great. The way people are carrying on you would think that the horses and jockeys were being painted onto the opera house permanently instead of a 10 minute light show. There have been numerous commercial uses of the opera house and its forecourt over many years. This is just one more.
I also love how all the interstate gurus seem to think they have a stake in the question — the opera house was paid for by the taxes of the people of NSW plus the takings of the Opera House Lottery that ran from the about 1957 until 1986 in NSW. Gambling paid for the damned thing, but the elites that want to be seen at the opera don’t want to foot the bill for running their pretentious folly. I like it as an icon, but let the opera house pay its way a bit more.
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The Eiffel Tower was originally built as a temporary entrance for the World fair.
Its use as an advertising hoarding was purely a commercial arrangement .
Would we be comfortable with FORD spelld out on the Opera Sails for months or years…or evn a hour ?
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Point 1: The Eiffel tower was already the most beloved and recognisable French icon when it was used by Citroen for 9 years of advertising commencing in 1925 fully 39 years into its life. The fact that it was originally intended to be demolished after the World Fair is an irrelevance. The public loved their tower and yet it was still used for 9 years of light show advertising in one of the world’s great centres of art. How do you account for that Chad? It’s good enough for Paris but it’s not good enough for Sydney?
Point 2: I would have zero problem with a FORD advertising light show for an hour. They can do it for an hour every night if they wish as far as I’m concerned.
Point 3: If an expensive, publicly owned entertainment venue is not to have an adjunct role as a generator of commercial revenue, where is the money to maintain and run it to come from? Perhaps you would prefer $5,000 ticket prices to see the ballet and the opera, based on the widely recognised user-pays principle? The elite patrons of the opera house want to have their cake and eat it too — keep the opera house pure and free of that nasty commercialism and let the plebs pay for it out of their taxes. I suggest that the elites pay up or shut up.
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So, no limits for you then beowulf ?
Yes , i suspect that without the Citroen support, the E Tower may have had a few financial issues.
Maybe they could have wrapped it in paper , a smoke stack at the top , and called it a “Gauloises” !
I also suspect you dont live within eyeshot of the Opera House ?
…or buy tickets for its performances very often, ?….otherwise you may think the user is already paying !
It was not intended as an advertising hoarding, and just because it is possible to use it that was, and had been used that way, does not mean it should be exploited for that purpose.
Maybe we should have a referendum of Sydney residents to see what the majority of publicc would prefer ?
Paris, the French have much to admire, but also plenty of traits and customs etc that i would not want to see in Sydney
( crap coffee for a start !)
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I agree with all your comment.
Public facilities should be free of advertising.
On another tack, the use of all public facilities for advertising or pushing of specific agendas needs more scrutiny.
In particular the ABC’s chronic Global Warming bent, Australian schools having to teach very poorly designed gender indoctrination and the misuse of universities for political ends.
We need to put our energies into moving forward instead of trapping the population in endless victimhood and expressions of grievance.
We can do better.
KK
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“What if it was advertising Bunderberg rum ?”
I’ve never seen Bundaberg Rum here in Northern Ohio USA but our local Grocery Store has started carrying Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Root Beer. They are excellent (non-alcoholic) brewed drinks.
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I like their Ginger Beer.
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These days its hard to find good Ginger Beer in the US, but Bundaberg Ginger Beer reminds me of the good Ginger Beer my parents would buy us as a treat when I was young. I’m glad Bundaberg exports it to the US.
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Same company but you need to try the real thing. Bundaberg is in one of Australia’s main sugar producing districts.
The Bundaberg distillery was struck by lightning in 1936 which set off a massive blaze visible 50km away. There were 63 vats each with 10,000 gallons to fuel the fire. Even the adjacent river was aflame. The alcohol in the water killed thousands of fish up to 60lb in weight which the locals eagerly scooped up. Took them 3 years to rebuild the plant.
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I’d love to give Bundaberg Rum a try, but after a quick Internet search it appears that they are unable and/or unwilling to sell it in the US. I guess I’ll have to stick to Ginger Beer.
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Get a couple into you.Then grab your mate by the throat.
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Yep Glen.
It’s a pirates’ drop.
Yo ho ho!
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And a bottle of rum!
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IIRC translation if needed root beer = sars
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Moderation? Cause must be outside the usual suspects!
O/T on drinks available – rum from The Hoochery in Kununurra is now available via Dan Murphys
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I could never get into sarsparilla or sassi as some would call it.
Chinotto, on the other hand, I can drink any time. It’s got a strange bitter flavour and is supposed to be made from a unique type of Orange.
KK
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Sasparilla or sasi.
Moderation?
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The entire production of Bundy Rum is sold in Australia and New Zealand. Also certain types of licquor rum can only be purchased at the distillery in Bundaberg.
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9 Oct: Daily Caller: Michael Bastasch: US Supreme Court Rejects Appeals Of Brett Kavanaugh Opinion Striking Down An Obama-Era Global Warming Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected attempts to appeal a lower court decision issued in 2017 striking down Obama-era global warming policies. The lower court’s ruling was written by the newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The justices privately made the decision to not rehear the case ***before Kavanaugh joined the high court Tuesday, Reuters reported. Kavanaugh was officially sworn in as an associate justice at the White House on Monday night…
“Here, EPA has tried to jam a square peg into a round hole” by trying to regulate HFCs without approval from Congress, Kavanaugh ruled, adding that “[c]limate change is not a blank check for the President.”…
The Natural Resources Defense Council and major manufacturers, including Honeywell International, appealed Kavanaugh’s decision to the Supreme Court. ***Had the court taken up the case, Kavanaugh would have sat out.
Honeywell International and other companies wanted EPA to phase out HFCs because they were already developing products with alternative chemicals. Regulations on HFCs would give those companies a competitive edge by restricting competing products.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court not to hear the case since it’s reconsidering HFC regulations and agrees with Kavanaugh’s 2017 decision.
Democrats cited Kavanaugh’s HFC decision as one of the reasons he should not be confirmed to the high court…
“Replacing Kennedy with Kavanaugh would swing the Court to a new, hard-right majority that would rule against curbing greenhouse gases for years — maybe decades — that we can’t afford to waste on inaction,” former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in September.
“It’s urgent that we act to curb climate change — and Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court could make progress virtually impossible,” Clinton said.
However, the high court decided not to hear appeals to the HFC decision ***before Kavanaugh joined the court on Tuesday
https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/09/supreme-court-kavanaugh-appeals-global-warming-obama/
yes, Reuters reported the decision was made before Kavanaugh joined the court, but they didn’t exactly make that clear from the start. it waits until paragraph 8 to impart that bit of info:
9 Oct: Reuters: U.S. top court rebuffs appeal of Kavanaugh ruling nixing climate rule
by Lawrence Hurley
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside appeals of a 2017 lower court ruling by its newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, that struck down an environmental rule imposed under former President Barack Obama regulating a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change…
Tuesday marks Kavanaugh’s first day on the court…
Kavanaugh has a long history of skepticism toward environmental regulations, especially those concerning air pollution…
***If the high court had agreed to hear the case, Kavanaugh would not have participated.
***The decision not to hear the case was made privately by the justices before Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-environment/u-s-top-court-rebuffs-appeal-of-kavanaugh-ruling-nixing-climate-rule-idUSKCN1MJ1OC
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so how has the FakeNewsMSM been reporting this story?
9 Oct: Daily Beast: Kavanaugh and Supreme Court to Planet: Drop Dead
Within a day of a frightening UN warning about global warming, the Court lets stand an anti-EPA written by then-Judge Kavanaugh.
by Jay Michaelson
(EVIL-LOOKING PIC OF KAVANAUGH)
In the same week that the world’s scientists declared global climate disruption has reached a “point of no return”, the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Trump administration all agreed to do nothing about it…
For anyone waiting for the impact now-Justice Kavanaugh will have on the Supreme Court, you need wait no longer. While Kavanaugh was not involved in the decision to dismiss this case, it is his opinion is now the law of the land — and is it a disaster for the environment…
David Doniger, who had argued the case for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said…BLAH BLAH
The regulation in question dates back to the good old days when the EPA accepted the global consensus of climate scientists that manmade gas emissions are causing the earth’s atmosphere to trap more heat – a phenomenon that, among other things, enabled life on earth to develop 2.5 billion years ago, but which is now causing the Earth’s climate to warm at a breakneck pace unlike anything in the history of the planet…
The irony, of course, is that the Supreme Court’s dismissal of this appeal came one day after the IPCC’s terrifying report, which was a clarion call for collective action to limit global warming to 1.5°C above 1990 levels, rather than allow it to increase by 2°C…
Yet the Republican party, which now controls all three branches of the federal government despite representing a minority of the country’s population, has been totally captured by the fossil fuel industry, which has created a world of fake science – created, incidentally, by the same company that once peddled fake science for the tobacco industry. For a Republican even to question this heresy is now grounds for condemnation…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kavanaugh-and-supreme-court-to-planet-drop-dead
BTW it’s not like the Supreme Court just takes up every case!
Mar 2018: ThoughtCo: How Do Cases Reach the Supreme Court?
by Robert Longley
Unlike all of the lower federal courts, the U.S. Supreme Court alone gets to decide which cases it will hear. In fact, while almost 8,000 new cases are now filed with the U.S. Supreme Court every year, only about 80 are actually heard and decided by the Court…
The Supreme Court will consider only cases for which at least four of the nine justices vote to grant a “writ of certiorari,” a decision by the Supreme Court to hear an appeal from a lower court…
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-do-cases-reach-supreme-court-4113827
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A reminder;
https://www.investors.com/climate-change-scare-tool-to-destroy-capitalism/
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So ask how Australian politicians get away with ignoring constitutional law allowing UN treaties to be implemented here?
http://asheepnomore.net/2016/03/15/the-un-have-unveiled-their-master-plan-for-the-next-12-years-its-terrifying/#arvlbdata
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Was the recent Slowdown caused by the super El Nino of 1998?
If you take the GISTEMP temperature series, and replace the 1998 temperature anomaly with a new value, that is spot on the trend line, does the Slowdown disappear.
Warning – the results of this article will be shocking, for some people.
https://agree-to-disagree.com/was-the-slowdown-caused-by-1998
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Gee, aye don’t know; do you?
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what is it this time?
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11:36 am
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The more recent El Nino was stronger.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_September_2018_v6.jpg
The reason we have remained up on this high plateau is a lack of strong La Nina.
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That isbasically it. Not enough cloud generated by a long easterly drift.(Trade winds)
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ATM we have an interesting synoptic set-up.Doesn’t quite look like a el Nino setup. Let’s see what manifests over the next few weeks. BoM could not be wrong,surely..
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BoM is in Alert mode.
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Well, if you take out the 2016 El Niño too you would still get a level trend, I would think? Fiddling with historical figures should be left to the BOM, not amateurs like us.
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You cannot explain the total prediction failure of climate models by quoting an observed event which the computer models cannot predict. That’s illogical and past silly. The models are wrong. When they are complete enough to actually predict and model El Nino and La Nina, perhaps try again to at least model the past correctly?
If you cannot explain the past, you cannot predict the future. Possibly the biggest problem is that the weather is so totally tied to water and the ocean temperatures. If you cannot predict those accurately, forget about predicting the weather. The atmosphere is 1/400th of the weight of the mobile heat stores we call oceans and evaporation and clouds alone can have a massive effect on everything.
I am still puzzled that the high local ocean temperatures which have caused coral bleaching can be blamed entirely on CO2. Why isn’t it just another unexplained and unpredictable water surface temperature variation, like El Nino and La Nina? Still, 7 1/2 tons of gold to friends of Malcolm and Lucy seems only fair.
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I see climate zombies … UN climate zombies …
2018: “A second pathway emphasises the need for changing our consumption patterns—eating less meat …”
https://phys.org/news/2018-10-climate-chaos-unprecedented.html
Wait. What?
“In 2006, the United Nations concluded that the livestock industry was a big contributor to climate change.
Outside groups reacted to the U.N.’s claims by launching efforts to slow global warming by getting the public to go meatless one day a week, as way of lowering demand for livestock products.
(Prof.) Mitloehner convinced the U.N. to recant its claim in 2010.”
https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/prof-debunks-flatulence-as-major-cause-of-global-warming/article_1c6c9c5e-2dbb-11e2-9e51-0019bb2963f4.html
Die zombie, die!
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Tell the World Wildlife Fund and others that a massive culling of wild animals is needed.
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The WWF operate animal sanctuaries in many countries and what happens when they end up with too many animals in a particular reserve ? They cull of course but this is something that they would rather never be made public of course .
You seem to have a red thumb friend Dennis , did you mention Coal or Trump lately ?
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Make that 10,037 …
“Biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate with more than 10,000 species disappearing each year.”
— Opening speech at the opening session of the 48th Plenary of the IPCC by Jian Liu (UN Environment’s Chief Scientist), 1 October 2018.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/session48/IPCC_OP_48UNEP.pdf
The thought of 37 new spider species might send shivers down most people’s spines, but for spider expert Robert Whyte, it is exciting.
Scientists and volunteers discover new spider species in biodiverse Queensland national park
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-28/new-spider-species-found-cooloola-coast/10312042
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“10,000 species disappearing each year.” I think she should get a paleogeology lesson about the mas extinctions. 10000 per year? sounds a bit of a exaggeration, probably included (or not) malria mosquitos…
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They’ve got the message and started with black rhino
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One reference of many
https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Historic-blunder-black-rhino-deaths-Kenya/1056-4735492-jmqe1jz/index.html
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To warmists, climate-change is all about,
With more and less of wind, sun, rain and drought.
It’s proper, that when CO2 is taxed,
That those who don’t agree, should have it axed.
Now more and more vast acreage must be found,
As each windmill needs swathes of windy ground.
To grow a spine and spurn UN’s coal-hate,
Could save Australia ere it is too late.
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‘To grow a spine and spurn UN’s coal-hate,
Could save Australia ere it is too late.’
Yep.In a nutshell.
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crazy talk:
9 Oct: Bloomberg: The End of Coal Could Be Closer Than It Looks
Despite a pessimistic forecast, it’s possible to meet consumption-cut targets on the current path.
By David Fickling
(David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian)
The world’s electrical utilities need to reduce coal consumption by at least 60 percent over the two decades through 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change that could occur with more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced Monday…
Thanks to expansions in China and India, BNEF expects coal-fired generation to keep rising until 2027…
Even Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which tends to be more optimistic than other analysts (and more accurate) about the speed of energy transition, expects coal-fired generation to increase by 10 percent over the period. Hold on though. Is it really such a stretch?…
Across Europe and the U.S., the decline in coal output recently has averaged close to 5 percent a year. If the world as a whole can reach 7 percent a year, it would be on track to meet the IPCC’s 2030 target.
The conventional wisdom is that this isn’t possible, as rising demand from emerging economies, led by China and India, overwhelms the switch from fossil fuels in richer countries. That may underestimate the changing economics of energy generation, though.
Cheap at the Price
Based on unsubsidized, levelized costs, it’s already cheaper to build renewables than coal in most major markets…
For one thing, it assumes that Asian countries will continue to build new coal-fired plants at a rapid rate, even though renewables are already the cheaper option in India and heading that way in China and Southeast Asia. For another, the falling cost and rising penetration of wind and solar is so recent that we’re only just starting to see how they damage the business models of conventional generators…
Thanks to the deflation of recent years, renewables already produce energy at a lower cost than thermal power plants. That causes the overall price of wholesale electricity to fall, reducing a conventional plant’s revenue per megawatt-hour. When this drops below the generator’s operating costs, the only away to avoid losing money is to switch off altogether. As a result, capacity factors — the share of time when the plant is on and producing electricity — decline as well, further undermining returns…
The shift from an always-on “baseload” demand profile to a peaks-and-troughs one like this carries its own problems. The act of ramping up and down consumes fuel and causes the physical plant to wear out faster. Absent expensive refurbishments, that could take a decade off the 40- to 50-year life of a coal plant — and banks will get progressively less likely to fund long-term refurbs as wind and solar further damage the economics of fossil power…
Researchers at the Australian National University this year modeled the effect of this sort of scenario on that country’s generation mix. Assuming that the cost of renewables continues to evolve in line with current trends, they found the average retirement age of coal plants falls to 30 years from 50 years. As a result, coal-powered generation drops by about 70 percent between 2020 and 2030…
It’s not hard to produce comparable results for China’s more modern coal fleet, whose fate will be the decisive influence over electricity-related emissions in the coming decades. Let’s assume the addition of net new generation stops in 2020; that plant life reduces to 30 years from 40 years; and that capacity factors gradually fall from the current 50 percent to 35 percent, still well above the levels of the U.K.’s coal generators in recent years. The effect of those operating changes alone reduces coal-fired electricity output in 2030 by about 40 percent relative to the higher scenario.
Of course, that’s not enough — but it’s also not an outrageously challenging scenario. Factor in a price on carbon (the European Union’s emissions certificates are one of the best-performing commodities this year) or other robust government intervention and the decline would be much faster…
At present, while new renewables are cheaper than new coal almost everywhere in the world, it’s still usually more profitable to run existing thermal generators than to decommission them and build replacement wind and solar instead…
The mainstream view is still that we can’t decarbonize our electricity system fast enough to meet the IPCC’s targets. But a decade ago, the current situation of plateauing demand for coal and car fuel and cratering renewables costs looked equally outlandish. Given the way the world’s energy market has changed in recent years, it’s a good idea to never say never.
(This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners)
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-09/the-end-of-coal-could-be-closer-than-it-looks
reminders:
4 Oct: Bloomberg: China’s Funding for Coal Draws Scrutiny as Climate Concern Grows
Asian nations are biggest backers of new fossil fuel plants as scientists weigh call for much stricter limits
By Jeremy Hodges; With assistance by Chisaki Watanabe
China, India, Japan and the Philippines rank among the biggest investors in the 1,380 coal plants under construction or development worldwide, according to a study (LINK) by the German pressure group Urgewald released Thursday.
The findings add to evidence that Asian companies, often backed by taxpayer money, are stepping up funding for the technology blamed for global warming…
“Every coal plant that goes online puts a new stumbling block between us and the Paris goals,” said Heffa Schuecking, director of Urgewald.
Fossil Fuel Backers
World’s top 10 developers of coal power by megawatts planned
LIST
If they’re all installed, they would add 672 gigawatts to the global fleet of coal plants, an increase of a third, the group said…
24 Sept: Bloomberg: China Is Adding More Coal Capacity
The projected expansion contrasts with government announcements of cutting unwanted and inefficient mines
by Jing Yang; With assistance by Aibing Guo, and Ben Sharples
For all its talk about cutting coal mining capacity, China actually plans to add more.
The world’s biggest producer and user of the fuel may see net annual capacity additions of as much as ***400 million tons by 2020, according to estimates from analysts including Wood Mackenzie Ltd. That’s about ***10 percent of its current capacity and almost as much as Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter, sells each year.
VIDEO: 15min20secs: 8 Oct: BBC Newsnight: Why we’re heading for a ‘climate catastrophe’
from opening report by Chris Cook, Policy Editor, Newsnight:
Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy, Oxford Uni:
It’s about making the Chinese leadership, the India leadership, many of the African leaders, decide to move away from coal and, unfortunately, that’s quite expensive for these countries, and the real issue is whether, and who, is prepared to pay the substantive cost of a fast switch out of this most pernicious form of fossil fuel…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06nb972
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Do any of these green forcasts factor in the fact that whilst some coal generation will be phased out,..much of it will be replaced by Gas fueled generation ? Just as CA, SA and Germany, etc have done.
So those CO2 reductions may not work out as they expect.
20
This is what happens when the Left are in control:
70
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/thredbo.shtml
Thredbo, NSW today: snow lowering to 1,500 metres with below-zero temperatures overnight. The IPCC states with 95% con-fidence it’s all YOUR fault Australia!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/368334/cold-snap-to-bring-snow-to-low-levels-in-south-island
Hang on… the new settled con-sensus is now that it’s OUR fault!
Scored my first badge of honour yesterday by being banned from a furry-left site here in NZ I’ll simply refer to as the Daily Slog. Having occasionally contributed a little light-hearted scientific reality to their gnashing & wailing & flailing snowflake comments section – which always resulted in a torrent of name-calling and accusations of being ‘payed’ by the oil industry and something about burying my head in the sand and ostriches and a river in Egypt – I provided a link to the UAH’s September Global Temp Anomaly for September and enquired why they were so upset about a tiny, miniscule, barely-perceptible fraction of a degree… 0.14˚C. And that was that!
Then again, it could’ve been my suggestion to stock up on coal & wood & warm clothes as the
cold snapfreezing wave of snow was about to drop temperatures even further…161
Good work Greg, still it hurts when they throw you out in the street and lock the door.
Anyway, its all grist to the mill, look at the synoptic for the coming week, where is the Klimatariat’s global warming signal?
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic
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The standout feature is the high pressure stuck in the gap, bringing cool moist winds to Queensland.
40
But wait, theres more…..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-09/bom-declares-el-nino-alert/10356724
This country needs more lerts…..
“The Bureau of Meteorology has just upped the chance of an El Nino this year, meaning there is now three times the normal risk of the climate driver associated with hot and dry conditions happening this year.
Senior climatologist Robyn Duell said it had been a slow boil.
“We’ve been hovering at an El Nino watch for a long time going ‘Will it? Won’t it?'” she said.
But Ms Duell said in the past three weeks staff had seen a little bit of a kick in the eastern Pacific Ocean temperatures, which was finally showing up in the winds.
“We’ve seen a response in the atmosphere. That’s why we’ve raised our alert up from a watch to an alert,” she said.”
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OS, I was reading some of your Bureau’s chicken entrails / predictions today about how Australia’s southeast (and southwest of WA) is going to be ‘dry’ this October, along with the obligatory ‘warmer than average’ junk. Yet on their rainfall link today, http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/flood/?ref=dropdown , the only ‘wet’ places – and somewhat ‘cooler than average’ – are… you guessed it (as well as SE QLD too). Your met guys are as flimflam as ours. Then again, it is ‘only weather’ I guess; so enjoy all that fresh, lovely, liquid dihydrogen monoxide falling from the sky – before it’s banned too!
P.S. Cheers, el gordo, but me no hurt, me thinks it’s a hoot! What took ’em so long…
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I take exception to that Greg ! Our Bureau is much worse than yours .
70
Come now boys! Let’s not have an argument about which is worse.
While we are at it, though, I’ll throw in the Met Office!
50
Audit them all.
God will know his own.
50
It can’t be snow because we’ve been told numerous times that snow will no longer fall because of the warming.
90
Snow was to be a ‘thing of the past’ by 2010, I think the year was.
50
It’s not snow you poor deluded souls it’s frozen Di Hydrogen Monoxide .
40
Dr Penny Whetton.
Another failed CSIRO non-scientist:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-05-28/global-warming-to-shorten-ski-season-csiro/2450790
Where’s Penny now?
She’s not worth tuppence as a forecaster. As a greenie? Gold.
20
behind paywall, but it seems both these summaries are for the same piece:
Time to part ways with flawed Paris Agreement
Daily Telegraph-14 hours ago
IF you bothered actually to read the Paris climate Agreement you would find in the preamble such boiler plate political correctness as to disqualify the entire climate alarm project…
Time to part ways with flawed Paris Agreement
RENDEZVIEW: The IPCC’s hysterical report is the latest case of crying wolf on climate change, and its recommendations will ensure our economic destruction. Our hand has been forced, writes Miranda Devine.
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very funny:
9 Oct: TimBlairBlog: END OF THE WORLD NOW SCHEDULED FOR 2030
Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is annoyed that profitable newspapers couldn’t care less about the UN’s latest doom prediction:
NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGES…RUSBRIDGER TWEET…
Just a theory, but perhaps newspapers have lost interest in climate death forecasts following previous claims that global warming’s tipping point would arrive in 2002, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2026, 2029 or 2046.
Just a theory.
UPDATE. Pious tax-funded Paul (Barry ABC) is also upset:
BARRY TWEET
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/end-of-the-world-now-scheduled-for-2030/news-story/6a71834ce381d25978dc08ad016af06d
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Tipping point..hot as Venus! by what ever date you care to name. = “The Gore syndrome”.
30
9 Oct: Deutsche Welle: Climate change: EU to seek stricter car emissions cut by 2030
A day after the UN warned the world was “running out time” on climate change, EU ministers have battled over the extent of emission cuts on carmakers. Germany is concerned more ambitious cuts would be bad for business.
by ap, jcg/cmk (dpa, Reuters, AFP)
Fifteen countries and the EU climate commissioner, Miguel Arias Canete, had called on the bloc to bring its emissions reductions goal in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord, but that proposal was rejected by Eastern European countries…
Several countries sought a 40 percent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by new cars and vans, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last weekand well above the 30 percent the European Commission had recommended. Tuesday’s deal of a 35 percent reduction falls below the Paris agreement’s goal…
Germany, which has large auto sector, backed an EU executive proposal for a 30 percent reduction in vehicle emissions by 2030, compared with 2021 levels. Berlin has warned that if targets are set too high it would hurt exports and threaten jobs…
The transport sector is the only major industry in the EU in which greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.
Tuesday’s meeting also adopted the EU’s position at COP24, the UN climate summit to be held in December in Katowice, Poland.
https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-eu-to-seek-stricter-car-emissions-cut-by-2030/a-45819132
9 Oct: Reuters: EU nations agree to seek 35 percent CO2 cut on cars by 2030
by Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels
European Union nations, voicing concern over a U.N. report on global warming, agreed on Tuesday to seek a 35 percent cut in car emissions by 2030, as Germany warned that overly challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs.
Torn between reducing pollution and preserving industry competitiveness, EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg talked for more than 13 hours until nearly midnight to reach a compromise over what 2030 carbon dioxide limits to impose on Europe’s powerful carmakers…
Climate campaigners say Germany has still not learned to be tougher on the auto industry…
Germany, with the backing of eastern European nations, had held a blocking minority among the 28 nations against the more ambitious targets, EU sources said…
But a last-minute amendment helped ease concerns among poorer member states over the new rules, which also create a crediting system encouraging carmakers to raise sales of electric cars.
It would allow for a different accounting in countries where the current market penetration of zero- and low-emissions vehicles is less than 60 percent below the average in the bloc…
Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere this summer have fueled concerns climate change is gathering pace, leading some countries to call for emissions to be cut at a faster rate than planned.
But a call by the EU’s climate commissioner and 15 EU nations for the bloc to increase its pledge to cut emissions by 45 percent under the Paris accord has met with resistance…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-autos-emissions/eu-nations-spar-over-cars-emissions-climate-goals-idUSKCN1MJ027
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“Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere this summer..” = fake data [totally contrary to actual data posted on iceagenow.]
” the UN warned the world was “running out time” on climate change” = major panic among EU ministers. [headless chicken syndrome]
“The transport sector is the only major industry in the EU in which greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.” = fake information made to scare of people from buying petrol cars.
“But a call by the EU’s climate commissioner and 15 EU nations for the bloc to increase its pledge to cut emissions by 45 percent under the Paris accord has met with resistance…” maybe just maybe someone has some sense..wait and see.
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Even if anthropogenic global warming were real (it isn’t) the periods of natural warming such as the Minoan Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Climate Optimum have been highly productive times for civilisation. Warming is something to be celebrated, not feared!
It’s too bad we are coming to the end of a rare interglacial and there is unlikely to be any warming to celebrate for perhaps 100,000 years.
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Their ABC (Australia) just never fails to disappoint. On ABC-RN someone was being interviewed about ancient Rome and they mentioned “Nero’s Pleasure Palace” and the sleaze bag interviewer couldn’t help but add the snide remark “just like Trump Tower”.
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And with political precedents like The Clintons they may be in danger of hurting their own if and when the area of examination is widened.
KK
60
KK
BUT!
“Hillary Clinton says sexual assault allegations against Bill “are different” ”
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/10/hillary-clinton-says-sexual-assault-allegations-against-bill-are-different.html
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9 Oct: Daily Mail: Director-general Tony Hall says BBC will not start airing ‘one-sided arguments’ despite being slammed for not challenging Nigel Lawson’s false claims over climate change
By Daily Mail Reporter
The BBC will not give in to pressure to omit views felt to be ‘beyond the pale’, director-general Tony Hall said last night.
The Corporation was found to have breached its editorial guidelines last year by ‘not sufficiently challenging’ climate change sceptic Nigel Lawson on Radio 4’s Today programme…
But Lord Hall said the BBC would not start airing ‘one-sided arguments’ to appease the majority. He told the Society of Editors: ‘Our impartiality does not mean we strike some sort of false balance, but that we reflect all contributions to a debate.
‘So no equivalence between the climate change sceptic and the overwhelming consensus of scientific opinion. But no exclusion of viewpoints because they’re generally felt to be beyond the pale.’…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6254867/Director-general-Tony-Hall-says-BBC-dissenting-voices-airtime.html
8 Oct: BBC Media Centre: Tony Hall’s speech to the Society of Editors
The 2018 Bob Satchwell Address, speech by the Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall to the Society of Editors.
Fake News
First, it’s nigh-on impossible to talk about free speech without mentioning the F-word. Fake… because ‘Fake News’ is the phenomenon of our time.
The term was coined to describe the internet phenomenon of a cascade of plausible, but baseless, online stories churned out from a small, single town in Macedonia. It was, for a time, almost literally a cottage industry. But the phrase started to become mainstream as it was deployed in the 2016 Presidential campaign, where it turned into surely one of the most memorable election slogans of all time. To many journalists watching the early stages of the Presidential race it might have seemed like an act of desperation to dismiss palpably accurate stories from some of America’s most reliable media as being complete fabrications. But constant repetition of the slogan over – and over – and over again – worked.
And now the term fake news is used worldwide. It’s the weapon of choice for repressive regimes everywhere – used by the Kremlin to dismiss the Salisbury Novichok attacks, and by powerful lobbies who counter objective facts with the assertion that they’re all made up.
The Fake News tag has given street cred to mass disbelief. That doesn’t just threaten journalism everywhere. It threatens people everywhere. For democratic government to be legitimate it needs not just the consent of the people, but their informed consent. We cannot allow the fake to drive out the fair…
Political pressures
Of course, there are many threats to freedom of expression. Fake news may be the latest – but the threat of political interference looms even larger for many of our colleagues the world over…
Our impartiality does not mean that we strike some sort of false balance – but that we reflect all contributions to a debate, and give each of them their due weight. So no equivalence between the climate change sceptic – and the overwhelming consensus of scientific opinion. But no exclusion of viewpoints because they’re generally felt to be beyond the pale. We won’t give in to pressure to silence dissenting voices – nor allow those voices to be seen as mainstream…
The BBC going forward
I’ve talked about some of the pressures we have in common, and about some of the pressures that apply uniquely to public service broadcasting.
So how do I see the BBC going forward in its purpose of informing our democracy and the wider world and countering the cries of Fake News?…
First of all, I want us to focus on the quality of the evidence. And to tell audiences where there is an overwhelming consensus based on evidence and expert analysis of it. Of course, we must reflect contrary opinions, but I want us to show a proper degree of scepticism when there is a strong body of evidence that points to the contrary…
I don’t believe you enlighten people by allotting equal airtime to well-evidenced argument on the one hand, and to unsubstantiated assertion on the other. An astronaut who has gazed down on the curvature of our Earth from outer space needs to be taken more seriously than some guy with a blog who still maintains that it’s flat. There are objective facts, and then there are theories, some but not all of which may turn out to have credibility…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/speeches/2018/tony-hall-soe
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Xinjiang update: http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/2508814541.html
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10/01/an-internment-camp-for-10-million-uyghurs
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What will Australia’s climate be like in the next Ice Age?
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Tasmania ?
20
Don’t know but I look forward to seeing all of the Atlantises exposed when the seas drop 130 metres.
KK
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Then we can walk to PNG
50
This is a satellite view of the previous 100,000 years and I think Lake Carpentaria would have been a good spot to camp, not too far away from the Denisovans over at Cape York.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/10/03/2044960.htm
20
When the sea levels drop an area of land will be exposed of 10 million square miles or about 3 times the area of Australia. There will be some excellent archeological opportunities to examine Ice Age civilisations from 10,000 years ago and before.
50
many coral reefs will have to be moved to new aquariums or other planets
10
Only sure thing is that there will be some leeches at JCU wanting more money to study it and link it to AGW.
00
BBC Radio 4 Today program with John Humphrys.
Guests:
Jim Skea (Scottish academic, Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy, member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the British government’s Committee on Climate Change);
(from 4min14sec) Barry Gardiner (Labour’s shadow minister for international climate change);
David Shukman;
Mary Robinson;
David Hone, Shell Oil (for instance, right now in China, they are implementing an economy-wide emissions trading system, which will more rapidly back out(?) coal etc)
AUDIO: 25min10sec: BBC Radio 4 Today: Tackling climate change
Mary Robinson, former Irish President and UN Special Envoy for Climate, warns that future generations “face an existential threat” from climate change. Her comments come as world leading scientists published a stark report on global warming calling for urgent and far-reaching action.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06n8m8g
MSM is reporting outrage. here is iNews, a newspaper owned and published by Johnston Press, which also publishes the Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman:
8 Oct: iNews UK: ‘Beyond playing devil’s advocate!’: John Humphrys criticised for ‘unhelpful’ climate change interview
“Can I just say John, this is really a very foolish argument.”
by Albert Evans
BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys faced a barrage of criticism for a fiery interview with Labour shadow energy minister Barry Gardiner , who accused the presenter of pursuing a ‘foolish argument.‘ The veteran radio presenter was criticised for his line of questioning, when he clashed with Mr Gardiner over how renewable energy is funded after also fumbling climate change statistics…
Mr Humphrys pressed the Labour front-bencher on the cost of his plans to increase the amount of renewable energy and limit emissions. When Mr Gardiner tried to point out that subsidies are paid for by energy firms and consumers, the BBC presenter said: “Well it’s always, in the end, public money because it’s subsidised isn’t it?”
The Labour frontbencher replied: “Of course, that’s not true if you look at subsidies to fossil fuels…” to which Mr Humphrys asked: “You’re not suggesting that wind has not been subsidised massively over the years?”
Mr Gardiner said: “What I am suggesting, if you look at the subsidies to fossil fuels, both nationally and globally, you will see they are far, far greater than the subsidies to renewables. Can I just say John, this is really a very foolish argument, to talk about subsidies and how much is going to cost.”
“Not if you’re a taxpayer it isn’t,” Humphrys said.
Rachel Kennerly, climate change campaigner at Friends of the Earth told i: “The scale of transformation needed to stop runaway climate change will require us all to work together. So, it’s deeply unhelpful to have a prominent public figure react to the essential actions needed to avert a crisis as infeasible or fantastical.
“Claiming that the UK Government is on track to limit temperature rising goes far beyond playing devil’s advocate, when the government is actively supporting fracking for more oil and gas rather than leading the way to a future powered by renewables.”
Others on Twitter criticised the interviewer who was a trending topic in the UK on Monday morning.
Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley told i:“It’s a real shame that the Today programme didn’t think to have a Green voice on to help John Humphreys get his facts right this morning: a 1.5 per cent increase is not the same as a 1.5 degree increase.
“However, it’s encouraging to see that the BBC have stopped entertaining the views of climate change deniers and seem to accept the issue as settled science.”
The BBC recently issued its staff with updated guidelines on reporting on climate change after criticism of its coverage on the issue for unduly elevating the views of climate change sceptics whose views are rejected by the vast majority of the scientific community.
A spokesperson for the Today Programme told i “The interview questioned how Labour would fund their proposals surrounding climate change and how they planned to reach the latest proposed targets.
“At no point did John Humphrys challenge or undermine the suggestion that action was needed and Today dedicated a significant portion of the programme, including the 08:10 interview, exploring the story whilst hearing from a range of voices about the need for action and what form that might take.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/climate-change-john-humphrys-bbc-radio-4-today-programme/
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8 Oct: UK Mirror: Dan Bloom: Labour’s Barry Gardiner accuses BBC host of ‘pettifogging over pennies’ in grumpy on-air clash
Labour’s Barry Gardiner blasted Radio 4’s John Humphrys for daring to ask how much taxpayers might spend on Labour’s green energy “revolution”
Mr Gardiner trumped(sic) Labour’s plan to create 400,000 green jobs by 2030 as a UN-backed report warned the world has just 11 years to stop catastrophic climate change.
He said Labour would build 7,500 offshore and 6,000 onshore wind turbines and reverse Tory cuts to generous subsidies for solar panels.
Yet he also insisted: “It doesn’t cost the government.”…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/labours-barry-gardiner-accuses-bbc-13382361
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Back-Up Needed
‘AGL and Origin warn a surge of wind and solar risk a new wave of power volatility because of a lack of firm back-up.’ Oz
60
9 Oct: UK Times: Households face higher energy bills in bid to avoid climate catastrophe
by Ben Webster
Households may face higher energy bills under proposals being considered by the government to meet a far tougher greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.
Ministers will order the Committee on Climate Change to examine how Britain should respond to the dire warnings published yesterday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the impact of exceeding 1.5C of global warming.
The UN body said rising seas would destroy coastal communities, coral reefs would disappear and floods and droughts would intensify unless global emissions were almost halved by 2030.
The committee, which advises the government on its climate targets, will consider the implications and feasibility of setting a new target of “net zero” emissions by 2050…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/da76f7a2-cb40-11e8-bde6-fae32479843d
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The World Health Organisation reckons farming wind is dangerous.
‘With recognition by the WHO of potential health impacts finally, the outlook for wind farm developers is looking increasingly fraught.’ Oz
Chronic ill health caused by these monsters must be remedied, I see a class action coming up.
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9 Oct: Electricity Info: from Financial Times: Germany: Germany’s reliance on lignite, which accounts for more than a fifth of annual power generation, is a key reason why the country is struggling to lower its emissions of carbon dioxide and other polluting gases…
The regime has gone through reforms and adjustments, but the overall cost to taxpayers and energy consumers has been considerable: over the past eight years the total renewables surcharge has been €165bn. The regime also released a flood of private investment: over the past decade, investors have poured more than $250bn into the German renewables sector, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The bulk of private investment has come from funds, co-operatives and individual owners of homes and land.
The surge did not, however, achieve a serious cut in emissions: according to data from the Federal Environment Agency, Europe’s largest economy blasted out 905m tonnes of greenhouse gases last year, a level almost unchanged from that eight years ago.
Since 1990, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 28 per cent, but the bulk of that reduction came courtesy of the co llapse of East German industry after reunification…
Aside from the continuing challenge posed by lignite, experts point in particular to the transport and industrial sectors as key laggards. Among environmental activists, admiration for Berlin’s leadership role in climate diplomacy and renewable energies has given way to a more sober assessment.
At last year’s UN climate change conference in Bonn, more than 25 countries and regions around the world pledged to phase out coal by 2030. Germany’s absence from the list was branded “embarrassing” by the World Wide Fund for Nature, one of several groups to take aim at Berlin’s stance.
The next blow came a few months later, when Angela Merkel’s new coalition government scrapped the country’s medium-term climate goals. Germany had committed itself to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, with 1990 serving as the benchmark. Scientists and activists had long warned that the 40 per cent goal was moving out of reach without drastic government action. But it soon became clear that such drastic action – for example, a speedier shutdown of heavily polluting power plants – would have required a degree of political will that none of the partners in Ms Merkel’s government could muster…
http://electricityinfo.org/news/germany-62/
10
8 Oct: Guardian: Energy sector’s carbon emissions to grow for second year running
IEA head says growth in renewables needs to be paired with coal plant closures
by Adam Vaughan
Carbon emissions from the energy sector are on track to grow for the second year running, in a major blow to hopes the world might have turned the corner on tackling climate change.
Preliminary analysis by the world’s energy watchdog shows the industry’s emissions have continued to rise in 2018, suggesting that an increase last year was not a one-off…
Dr Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told the Guardian: “When I look at the first nine months of data, I expect in 2018 carbon emissions will increase once again. This is definitely worrying news for our climate goals. We need to see a steep decline in emissions. We are not seeing even flat emissions.”…
The IEA would not say exactly how much emissions were up this year, as it will not publish official figures until March 2019, but confirmed they had definitely risen to a historic high so far…
Birol said the growing carbon pollution was a result of the global economy driving coal, oil and gas use. “Energy efficiency improvements and renewables are not good enough to reverse that,” he added…
A new report (LINK) by the IEA, published on Monday, predicted that renewables will grow rapidly in the next five years. Wind, solar and other renewable sources are expected to grow their share of global electricity generation from 25% in 2017 to 30% by 2023.
Solar in particular is projected to make huge strides over the five years, accounting for as much new capacity as all other renewable power technologies combined. In 2023, China is expected to have 40% of the world’s solar power capacity.
But Birol made clear that the growth in renewables had to be accompanied by coal plant closures in Asia if dangerous climate change is to be avoided…
“If there are no early [coal power station] retirements, more than two-thirds of the emissions [in 2040] are already determined today. Unfortunately a big chunk of the problem in my view is the coal in Asia.”
The IEA’s annual renewables report shows China and the EU will be the two biggest leaders on renewables in coming years.
While the watchdog does not name Donald Trump and his rolling back of Barack Obama’s green energy blueprint, it cites US tax, trade and energy plan changes as causing “downside forecast uncertainties”.
Asked if the US was slipping behind because of Trump, Birol said: “Instead of blaming somebody I will say it is the result of a good policy in the EU…
But prospects for the UK were revised downwards.
The country is expected to increase its renewable electricity capacity more than a quarter by 2023, driven largely by new offshore windfarms. Solar has an incredibly cloudy outlook, with total new additions by 2023 expected to be around half what the UK installed in a single year in 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/energy-sector-carbon-emissions-grow-second-year-climate-change-coal
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the communist/socialist Morning Star:
6 Oct: Morning Star: Labour’s vision for a smarter, cleaner future
With the IPPC issuing devastating predictions about global warming, it’s Corbyn’s plan for a greener Britain that we need, says ALAN SIMPSON
IF there are seminal moments in politics, Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the 2018 Labour conference will go down as one of them. This was when the planet took centre stage.
From the Kerala floods to the Saddleworth moorland fires and from California to Scandinavia, 2018 has been a roller coaster of extreme weather events.
This is the shape of things to come, but it took Corbyn to make “one-planet economics” the centrepiece of tomorrow’s politics.
This couldn’t have come at a better moment. The Conservatives are tearing themselves apart, with their crazies loving every moment…
The IPCC now warns that the 1.5°C global warming limit will be breached not in 2100 but by 2040…
But at the Tory conference, who cared? Delegates queued to see Boris Johnson strut his “Trump without the intellect” impersonation as a leadership alternative to Theresa May’s “Thatcher without the compassion.” Comedy as tragedy ruled supreme…
In practical terms, Britain will have to cut its carbon emissions in half within the coming decade, then do so again in the decade that follows and the one after that…
The next government will have to deliver carbon reductions of 15 per cent per year…
As Oxfam has pointed out, half of today’s global CO2 emissions come from the lifestyles of the richest 10 per cent.
In Britain, if the richest 10 per cent had their emissions cut to the level of the average EU citizen it would cut UK carbon emissions by 30 per cent.
Not a bad place to start…
Over the next couple of years electric vehicles will become cheaper than fossil fuel vehicles. Smart towns and cities are already talking of whole networks of recharging points, linked to solar roofs, local wind turbines or smart grids…
Science tells us we are now at the edge. We can embrace the Corbyn vision of a smarter, cleaner, more secure and equitable future or just “shop till we drop” with the Tories. The choice is still ours … but only just.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour%E2%80%99s-vision-smarter-cleaner-future
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9 Oct: WUWT: @EricHolthaus – new IPCC report calls for ‘…rigorous backing to systematically dismantle capitalism’
by Anthony Watts
From “the stupid, it burns” department comes this very revealing statement (h/t to Dr. Roger Piekle Sr.) from Eric Holthaus, who’s apparently a socialist cheerleader…
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/09/ericholthaus-new-ipcc-report-calls-for-rigorous-backing-to-systematically-dismantle-capitalism/
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El Nino Alert and IOD trending positive, on track for a warm dry end to the year.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/
If there is a full blown El Nino this year then Ian Wilson deserves a mention in dispatches. Just sayin …..
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‘There is a possibility of an El Nino starting in 2018 that is a part of a continuing 9.05-year sequence for the starting dates of El Ninos:
1982.3 / 1991.4 / (2000.4) / 2009.5 / 2018.5 [with a half sequence at 1986.9]
‘These El Ninos belong to those that start when the line-of-apse of the lunar orbit points towards the Sun at the times of Summer and Winter Solstices.’
Ian Wilson
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8 Oct: ClimateDepot: Marc Morano: UN scientist claims Trump ‘poses the single greatest threat’ to Earth’s climate
A former UN lead author of the United Nations climate reports, Dr. Michael Mann, has ramped up the stakes of the new “dire” UN climate change report by claiming the “latest [UN] report underscores the danger that [President] Donald Trump poses to the planet.”
The UN report “makes clear we need to reduce emissions dramatically, vastly exceeding our Paris targets. Yet Trump probably poses the single greatest threat to meeting those targets,” Mann, a Penn State professor, told ThinkProgress on October 8…
But, even before the 2016 presidential election, Mann warned that Trump was a “threat to the planet,” whose future “could quite literally lie in the balance.” Mann has been at the center of controversy over his Hockey Stick temperature graph and his involvement in the Climategate scandal…
http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/10/08/un-scientist-claims-trump-poses-the-single-greatest-threat-to-earths-climate/
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Pat
Reckon that he’s just peed off that someone looks to be challenging his status as that?
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10 Oct: SMH: ‘I haven’t left anger yet’: NEG architect slams policy ‘anarchy’
By Cole Latimer & Peter Hannam
The ditching of the National Energy Guarantee by the Morrison government has been replaced by policy “anarchy”, says Kerry Schott, the head of the body set up to develop and implement the plan.
In scathing comments at The Australian Financial Review’s energy summit in Sydney on Monday, Dr Schott said she remained bitter over the dumping of the signature energy plan when Malcolm Turnbull was deposed as prime minister in late August.
“I’m still going through the stages of grief, and I haven’t left anger yet,” Dr Schott, head of the Energy Security Board, told the gathering. “I characterise the general state of affairs right now as anarchy.”
Dr Schott said it was “a bit premature” to describe the entire policy as dead because one arm of it – dealing with grid reliability – was still being prepared for approval by federal and state energy ministers. Legislation would then proceed to the South Australian parliament for approval when it’s ready, she said…
“While the NEG wasn’t necessarily the greatest way to do things, it did complement reliability and emissions together,” Dr Schott said…
“Since politicians in Canberra can’t seem to agree about what to do with emissions, and it truly does make managing the transition difficult if they can’t – and they can’t – what we have to do is work out what we do about that,” Dr Schott said.
***”We’ve got to manage [the industry transition] carefully otherwise we will find this is a very costly exercise,” she said…
Federal Labor remains committed to the NEG, a position reiterated by climate spokesman Mark Butler at the summit on Tuesday…
Frank Calabria, chief executive of Origin Energy, one of the big three power producers and retailers, told the meeting that debate over energy policy had been “fractious”.
“We were so close on the NEG, and this alone is no mean feat,” Mr Calabria said. “Industry recognises that to go back to the drawing board [on the NEG] is the wrong thing to do right now.”…
Separately, Dr Schott rejected the idea of a royal commission into the sector, saying “I don’t believe it is needed”.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/i-haven-t-left-anger-yet-energy-chief-schott-slams-policy-anarchy-20181010-p508s1.html
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Spygate updates:
9 Oct: Sara Carter: Former Top FBI Lawyer Testified that Rosenstein “Seriously” Considered Secretly Recording Trump
Baker also told Congress that Mother Jones journalist David Corn also provided the FBI with a version of an anti-Trump dossier…
***However, Rosenstein is set to give his deposition to lawmakers on Oct. 11 regarding the information published in the New York Times story, along with the information recently provided by Baker, several congressional lawmakers confirmed to SaraACarter.com…
Last week, SaraACarter.com revealed that Baker also met with the Democratic party’s top lawyer, Michael Sussmann, to discuss the ongoing investigation by the bureau into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Russia…
The information exposes the bureau’s failure to inform the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that the evidence used to spy on Page was partisan and unverified, lawmakers told this news outlet. It further reveals the extensive role and close connection Sussmann, a cybersecurity and national security lawyer with Perkins Coie, had with the now-embattled research firm, Fusion GPS.
The Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton Campaign retained Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie law firm during the 2016 election.
https://saraacarter.com/former-top-fbi-lawyer-testified-that-rosenstein-seriously-considered-secretly-recording-trump/
9 Oct: The Hill: Former FBI lawyer: Plot to record, remove Trump not a joke
by John Solomon
And my sources also confirm that Baker admitted he received a version of the Steele dossier from left-leaning reporter David Corn of Mother Jones magazine, and then forwarded it to Strzok’s team. Corn says that occurred in November 2016, right after the election.
That transaction is significant for two reasons. First, at the time, Steele had just been fired from the FBI probe for leaking to the media and he wasn’t supposed to be further assisting the probe. So Corn essentially acted as a back door to allow information to continue to flow
Secondly, the FBI was using the news media as an investigative source outside the normal chain of evidence…
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/410447-former-fbi-lawyer-plot-to-record-remove-trump-not-a-joke
Youtube: 7min53sec: Youtube: Bombshell Reports Raise New Concerns About Rosenstein
FBI’s former top lawyer tells Congress that top officials were serious about secretly recording Trump; panel weighs in on ‘Hannity.’ Sean Hannity, Gregg Jarrett, Sara Carter, John Solomon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2LvYZBJJ6s
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Scream , Whinge , Whine and tantrum do what they like but remove Trump at their own peril ,the only true people’s president they have had in years that is there for the battler and the forgotten states .
Yes he has an ego but being rich he is obviously not there for the money he is there to make America great again and judging by employment figures he has done that , stopped the demonisation of coal fired power and set up the Supreme Court for the better .
If we had a PM with half the spine of Trump we would still have a car industry and our power debate would be over .
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another twist:
10 Oct: Washington Examiner: Kelly Cohen: Rosenstein, GOP meeting not happening this week: ‘We have many questions’
House Republicans and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not meet this week to talk about a report that he tried to organize a coup attempt against President Trump, further inflaming tensions between the two sides even as Trump appears to have made his peace with Rosenstein.
Several press reports speculated that GOP lawmakers and Rosenstein would meet Thursday, but a House Judiciary Committee aide told the Washington Examiner that the committee has yet to confirm a date
“We have many questions for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and expect answers to those questions,” the aide said. “Nevertheless, we will continue to provide updates as we have them.”…
A source on the committee said Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the Trump-Russia dossier, will also be interviewed, as well as Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr…
Rank-and-file Republicans are not letting go, and some were angry that the tentative Thursday hearing would not happen. Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted Wednesday that he had flown from Florida to Washington to speak to Rosenstein on Thursday.
“Chairman Goodlatte has been playing ‘hide and seek’ with some of us on the interview scheduling for several weeks now,” the Florida Republican tweeted.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., called for Rosenstein to be subpoenaed to make him appear before the committees.
“Rosenstein has again failed to cooperate with congressional leaders. The Judiciary Committee must now subpoena him to appear. His obstinance should not be rewarded with more delays,” said Biggs, who accused Rosenstein of “stonewalling” their investigation…
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/rosenstein-gop-meeting-not-happening-this-week-we-have-many-questions
00
extraordinary exposure of the Deep State:
45min50sec to 51min30sec: Kristin Fisher, Fox, on Rosenstein refusal to come in for questioning, “until terms are set”. questioning of FBI Director, Christopher Wray, on why redacted docs have not been produced. Wray: “in many cases, we’re talking about situations that involve foreign partner relationships, tradecraft and all kinds of other things we need to be very careful about protecting”. Devin Nunes interview:
Youtube: Sean Hannity, Fox – 10 Oct 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELqQ09JizZg
below the WaPo article (based on anonymous sources) mentioned in the video.
the coup plotters arguing amongst themselves over who should go.
did Rosenstein leak this to WaPo, some are asking?
as WaPo has reported so little on this story, the article makes little sense, except to continue legitimising the Mueller investigation:
10 Oct: LMT Online: Rosenstein-McCabe feud dates to standoff in front of Mueller
by Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Rosenstein-McCabe-feud-dates-to-standoff-in-front-13297588.php
00
The big problem we have in Australia is that voters seem fixated on personalities rather than policy. As Campbell Newman discovered try to fix the problems and lose office because he was considered arrogant. Obviously compulsory voting is mainly responsible for the fix we find ourselves in.
I fear that Shorten and his cabal of cretins will completely destroy what is left of our industry.
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“The Deplorables. Global momentum”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/10/10/the-deplorables-5/
20
And then there’s Finkel and his hydrogen advocacy; eliminating the post of Chief Scientist is looking attractive to me.
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wouldnt like to confuse the value of the post with the value of the incumbent
00
Re Datagate
I note that the AMA in in full cry support of the IPCC report findings.
I wonder if they would endorse their members prescribing drugs with a similar dodgy data record?
60
There are a bunch of anaesthetists who want various highly useful anaesthetic gases banned or restricted in their use because they believe they are incredibly powerful “greenhouse” gases.
60
Anaesthetists fer Cli-Sci-Save-the-Planet-and-Dark-Ages-
Suffering.’Hold ‘im down ‘n bite on this.
30
Why would midicos believe they are immune from austerity? As we go dark and cull our herds they will have their MRIs culled and without petrochemicals their medicine chests will have some empty shelves.
40
The Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space in 2012. Its companion Voyager 2 is in the process of doing so. Both spacecraft are still returning data and will likely continue to do so until 2025 when their nuclear fuel will be so decayed there will be insufficient power to run spacecraft systems and they will “go dark” after 48 years in space, continously returning science data. When I last checked the DSN website the power level of the radio signal being returned by V1 was 5.7 x 10^-19 watts on 9 Oct at Goldstone and on 8 Oct V2 was returning 1.4 x 10^-14 watts into Canberra.
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Mostly excellent video on the Little Ice Age although at the very end not sufficiently sceptical about AGW but better treatment than most.
https://youtu.be/vZFXZ0bATyc
00
accidentally flipped to the worst channel on Foxtel – Sky UK – in a break at the cricket, and found them gleefully reporting the following, yet there’s no way Sky UK – or Sky Australia – would ever report on most of the extraordinary Spygate revelations!
10 Oct: Sky News UK: Ex-MI6 spy’s veiled swipe at Donald Trump revealed
Christopher Steele says it is hard to speak “unpalatable truths to power” as he features on Vanity Fair’s influential people list
By Deborah Haynes
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer behind the Russia dossier on Donald Trump, has broken 18 months of silence with a veiled swipe at the US president.
He has written about the importance of speaking “truths to power”, a possible reference to the allegations he made about collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin in the run-up to the US presidential election two years ago.
Sky News has seen the text of an email written by Mr Steele to the editor of Vanity Fair after he was chosen to feature on its list of the 100 most influential people in the media, politics, entertainment and finance.
The 54-year-old wrote: “In these strange and troubling times, it is hard to speak unpalatable truths to power, but I believe we all still have a duty to do so.
“I salute those on your list, and otherwise, who have had the courage to speak out over the last year, often at great personal cost.
“At a time when governance is so distorted and one-sided, as I believe it currently is in the United States, the media has a key role to play in holding it accountable.”
Mr Steele enters the at-times lighthearted list at number 38. He is the only named British national on the American-dominated countdown.
Topping the chart is Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who is leading a special inquiry into Russia.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is at number six, while singer Beyonce is at number eight.
Mr Trump did not make the list…
But his entry onto the New Establishment List by Vanity Fair appears to have spurred him to make the new remarks in an email to the magazine’s editor-in-chief Radhika Jones.
“I was surprised and honoured, particularly as a Brit, to be included” in the list, his message continued.
“I find myself in the company of many talented and distinguished people, although I personally would not accord such accolades to some of the other foreign nationals included in the list!”…
The former intelligence officer indicated he is unable to travel to the US at a time of deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats over the Russia probe.
“In more normal times, I would have welcomed the opportunity to join you at your New Establishment Summit in the US this week,” Mr Steele wrote.
“Sadly, in the present legal and political situation I am unable to do so, but I sincerely hope and trust that these circumstances will change soon.”
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-dossier-author-christopher-steele-breaks-18-month-silence-11522468
what a load of BS from start to finish.
20
for the record – says everything about the state of the FakeNewsMSM;
1 Oct: Vanity Fair: The 2018 New Establishment List
This year’s New Establishment list attempts to reconcile the revolutionary fluctuations in the zeitgeist, and contextualize them in a firmament, if only for a fleeting moment.
Reporting by Nick Bilton, Maya Kosoff, Joe Pompeo, Gabriel Sherman, William D. Cohan, Abigail Tracy, Emily Jane Fox, Bess Levin, Tina Nguyen, Claire Landsbaum, Ben Landy, Krista Smith, Anna Lisa Raya, Joy Press, Rebecca Keegan, and Yohana Desta
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/new-establishment-2018-list
00
“In the Absolutely Most Predictable Scientific Finding Ever, Solar Roads Are Found to Suck”
https://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2018/10/in-the-absolutely-most-predictable-scientific-finding-ever-solar-roads-are-found-to-suck.html
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Not mentioned there but traffic must shade the solar cells?
If so the yield of electricity ought to be somewhat inversely proportional to the amount of traffic?
40
I reckon rubber, oil, grime and scratches which disperse light all take their toll.
20
Bolt has promised an interview with ScoMo tomorrow night. Promises something different.
10
Hmm. The AEC have been busy again, it seems. For over thirty years I have lived in the electorate known as LaTrobe. One Jason Wood has been the Member here for a bit. Won his seat under Howard, lost it in the Ruddslide, won it back with Abbott. Copped some serious opprobrium locally for siding with Turncoat in 2015. Saw the light, well at least the light that shone on the writing on the wall, last August. Thought we had got him trained. Now, it seems, I am in Casey, with some poltroon named Smith, who sided with Turncoat at every ballot.
Now what do I do? Anyone familiar with the area would know that this is not a simple redrawing of boundaries. This is a major shift in demographics, with the CFA issue front and centre. How is it that unelected bureaucrats can play the system in this way? This will most likely mean that Labor will win both Casey and LaTrobe, both of which are currently Liberal. I smell deceit.
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