When wowsers banned alcohol in the US, the price of beer rose sevenfold. Nick Cater points at rising coal share prices and ponders that the Green divestment plan to reduce coal use works just as well as prohibition did. Divestment shrinks capital inflow to coal mines, so there are fewer new mines, and less coal available. But people still want just as much coal as they ever did, so the price of coal goes up instead of down. Good news for coal investors. Too bad about those on the poverty line. Put some more dung in the barbie…..
.The Financial Times. (paywalled)
Once again Green economics amounts to Wish Fairy Declarations. The first Law of Free Markets is Supply and Demand. The Greens might have changed the “supply” slightly (temporarily, and only in some countries) but demand hasn’t changed, so supply will rebound.
To help the poor afford coal the only ethical thing to do is invest in coal mining:
Nick Cater, The Australian
History is unlikely to be kind to them. Coercive attempts to stop the use of fossil fuels are delivering the same perverse economic consequences as the attempts to close down American saloon bars in the 1920s. The consumers pay more for a substance they choose not to live without, while the producers count the profits.
A report released last week by international financial analysts Redburn predicts a similar result from the activist-driven campaign against fossil fuel companies.
The attempt to starve coal producers of capital has impeded their attempts to build new coal mines but it hasn’t got in the way of profits. The price of coal has risen to a six-year high, which is good news for the coal business but bad news if you’re living in, say, India’s Bihar state, where three out of four households don’t have electricity.
“Energy prices will need rise to the level at which the marginal consumer of fossil fuels is incentivised not to be a consumer,” Redburn reports. “In other words, the 1 to 2 billion people on the planet with zero or unreliable access to modern energy would remain priced out of the market.”
Guide to being ethical — do NOT what the Greens do:
Redburn’s analysts turn the tables on so-called ethical investors by forcing them to confront the consequences of fossil fuel divestment, a phenomenon that has swept university campuses, shareholder meetings and boardrooms, much as anti-alcohol mania did a century ago.
“Given the pernicious consequences of energy undersupply, we would go so far as to argue that the socially responsible investor has a duty to ensure capital is available to the fossil fuel industry, for as long as it is needed,” they write.
One pities those who may have taken their financial advice from Choice, which in 2014 seized on a dismal report from the Australia Institute to predict that fossil fuel shares were heading south.
Very well said, Nick Cater in The Australian (may be paywalled).
REFERENCE The Redburn Report (paywalled? )
Now we have one religion promoting another and recommending disvestment:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/11/11/climate-change-biggest-risk-companies-face-churchs-adam-matthews/
90
I wonder how those banks, companies etc (and shareholders) feel now about following the advice, or is it demands, of that other religion to divest from coal? And have the boards acted in the best interests of the shareholders, which is their legal duty?
120
Does anyone believe that Green investors are not GREEDY? Its just annoying because they lie about it.
120
A foole & his money,
be soone at debate:
which after with sorow,
repents him to late.
Or, in modern English:
Fools and their money are easily parted.
Take a look at the solar, wind, biogas, biofuel, geothermal and wave companies identified in this list and make a comparison for yourself of just how bad green companies have been for investors. Most of them are gone. Delisted by the ASX. Their investors have lost their shirts.
http://grenum.com/au/asx-listed-green-companies/
PS. You’ll need some patience dealing with the ASX website. 🙁
50
Mind you, taking investment advice from the Church of England is a quick way to lose money. They will commend you for not hoarding up riches on Earth if that consoles you.
170
“They will commend you for not hoarding up riches on Earth if that consoles you.”
The very reverse of what Jesus taught in the Parable of The Talents
In short, the two servants who doubled the sums of money entrusted to them were commended for their prudence, whereas the one who did nothing was castigated.
Not only are the various churches guilty of tolerating child abuse in their midst, but distort the teachings of the one they purport to revere.
Perverse lot!
120
The Truth.
The two larger Churches are near the point that made Jesus feel unhappy two thousand years ago.
Back then the Jerusalem church deferred to the occupying forces whoever they may have been: the Romans?
Gods word was also fitted in.
Today’s churches, even the smaller, more independent entities, pay homage to the god of global warming and other PC causes simply because they appear popular.
Churches in search of the Truth, on behalf of their congregations have the resources to independently evaluate the Truth or otherwise of the “causes” that they identify with.
That they don’t bother, and take the short cut, says everything needed. A bit like a dog chasing its own tail.
I feel uneasy in that after all of the Wars we are still no closer to being in a better more civilised world and are faced with the reality that very few have reached a point of emotional independence where they can act independently of church or government.
When 97% are followers it’s easy to see why we have the political shambles that currently passes for civilization.
KK
121
Sadly, a lot of people believe the agw/cc bunk because so many of the church hierarchy have fallen for it and push it. My husband and I are ‘heretics’ because we don’t follow church ‘teaching’ (well, supposed teaching) on this nonsense. We prefer to find out the truth, as far as we are able. He has been screamed at for his pains, trying to get people to think for themselves. Happily, there are those around who also try to think for themselves independantly so we are not alone.
It’s always the greenie big mouths who shout the loudest and longest. The rest of us have real life to live.
170
The problem with the C of E is that it functions effectively as a part of the Executive branch of Govt.
An Establishmnet church means its part of the Establishment.
So whatever the Executive decrees as “good” the church will obediently follow.
It seems, from your experience over multiple posts over some time and observed here, that surviving as an indepenedlty thinking individual may no longer be possible.
50
Ironically, the Church is founded on individuals who confronted the establishment,starting with Jesus himself. Think of the Apostles, people like Nicholas Ridley, Charles Wesley, even Cranmer (eventually). Those of us who are prepared to seek and speak the truth will not normally be “preferred” but in the end, if, for example,we shave regularly, will be able to look ourselves the mirror.
20
Here is a link to Paul Driessen’s article on this topic from 3 1/2 years ago.
I’m posting the WUWT link with 102 comments; the original at cfact dot org has only a few – and the site doesn’t seem to work well, is slow – or both. He has articles on a site called Townhall. The most recent is titled: “”What’s Next for U.S. Climate and Energy Policies?”
Paul Driessen
Eliminating fossil fuels from investment portfolios hurts colleges, workers and poor families
150
I also posted that article at my home site at the following link.
Divestment Ethics And Realities
Tony.
60
Who cares about a family, when the world is going up in flames /sarc
10
I don’t think we can expect rational thought from any of the greens – they don’t do rational or thought they just emote.
If they were forced to think through their ideological knee jerk responses their heads would likely explode.
210
The greens are the the cancer within western civilization.
They don’t have constructive policies.
Everything they expouse is for the destruction of western civilization.
ISIS is like a heart attack.
The greens are far more insidious.
70
Here is my prediction for the starting date for the next El Nino event:
http://astroclimateconnection.blogspot.com/2018/11/predicting-start-of-next-el-nino-event.html
81
Ian the current moderate El Nino hasn’t ‘coupled’, because of its lateness presumably, so all things being equal your hypothesis is still on track for a strong El Nino next year.
80
One does not have to be a climate scientist to know when the next “dry” will come along, you don’t need graphs either, just a good memory…. with a dash of commonsense. I guess putting a “label” ( El Nino) on the dry cycle is all part of the scare & propaganda campaign.
These dry periods are part of the natural cycle & return at periods of generally 11 years, the intensity also varies.
The government of the day when the last “dry” eased off in 2008/ 2009 had the perfect opportunity to start planning infrastructure to mitigate the consequences of drought but pigs will fly before commonsense prevails!!
170
Graham its bigger than you imagine, El Nino is an enigma and solving the riddle is extremely important for forecasting. Its to do with the moon, but you already knew that.
On the question of infrastructure, governments are restrained by the political cycle, which doesn’t give them enough time to do anything. A five year plan might be best.
If a Beijing shelf company said they will build a pipeline system from the northern dams into the Murray Darling Basin for a very reasonable price, to eradicate drought forever, do you think its a good idea?
60
UNEP Divestment was successful aligned with virtue signalling “ethical” investment. From municipal authorities to the fund managers the charge to be seen to be virtuous became a stampede, never mind the financial or established historical sequelae.
It was always clear that this was a lemming phenomena.
To those still at the top of the cliff, go the spoils.
80
Thought this 9 minute film by James Corbett might be of interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeprAcjPX3c
“As The Corbett Report community notes, lemmings jumping from cliffs is a figment of Walt Disney’s imagination, not a real phenomenon. So how else has our perception of the world been shaped by the media?”
90
Almost as bad as the fake propaganda film “An Inconvenient Truth”. The lemmings story was not true. The Walt Disney wilderness documentary on suicidal cliff jumping lemmings was entirely faked. Now that’s disappointing.
One planted science story I found was that carrots were good for your eyes. After the war, parents would chop up carrots for their own children to help in their studies and exams.
In fact it was British propaganda to hide the fact that British night fighter pilots had air to air radar to locate German night bombers. The story goes Douglas Bader was involved in selling this to school children and so the wider community. In reality unless you have a carotene deficiency, carrots do nothing for vision.
Propaganda became fact by repetition and plausibility and a voice from authority. Who would otherwise think Al Gore was a scientist who could actually add and multiply? Or our own science fiction writer Tim Flannery?
150
Fascinating.
Still, as a metaphor it robustly serves its purpose much as ‘the moon is made of cheese‘ or ‘pigs might fly‘ or ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow‘, and so on ad nauseam.
40
There is so much ‘faux science’ that has been taught through the ages, it would fill a ‘science’ library!
40
We’ll know it’s irretrievably bad if someone starts talking about phlogiston.
60
Perhaps the low-info Greens think the copper just jumps out of the ground and morphs into a planet saving car …
Electric cars need four times as much copper as standard cars:
Think copper: https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/think-big/copper?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=BrandQ1&utm_content=ImageCard
170
‘Electric cars need four times as much copper as standard cars:’ along with windmill generators, including rare earths.
70
Vote with your feet and $s if possible. Also many superfunds these days provide for direct investment in shares. Whitehaven is in the ASX200, which is often one of the constraints. The “transition” to renewable energy being the nonsense that it is coal will still be in strong demand for a very long time. Biggest risk is probably sovereign risk from a Labor government overdoing its virtue signalling and screwing up exports.
120
Coal exports increased year on year under Rudd/Gillard/Rudd, despite their AGW rantings.
Bill Shorten, is hampered by both an intellectual and personality vacuum, but even he can’t be so stupid as to blatantly kill off one of the key money-makers for this country…can he?
70
Oh the hypocrisy by Eco colonialists,Yep put stickers on your fossil fuel driven car like “leave it in the ground” or “no Adani coal mine” then check your Facebook comments on your iPhone
powered by a lithium battery that is now destroying the Solar Uyuni the earth’s biggest salt lake
.Never mind that Indian children and their parents don’t have access to electricity but will
suffer respiratory illness and probably die from burning dung in their stoves .Yep this self
sanctimonious religion of the high church of Greenism gives no thought to -cost benefit analysis
or to the idea of unintended consequences!!! Yep it’s all about look at me I’m no fossil fuel
sinner but rather I’m a virtuous clean living disciple of this high Church.Meanwhile back in the
real world places like Bautou in Inner Mongolia they are refining Neodmyium to help make
this religions “crucifixes” or should I say windmills -never mind that it has destroyed that farming communities and caused cancer and other diseases by the hideous acid /radioactive tailing lakes
that have been produced in the process .No this sick concept of “getting out of coal” and transitioning to to clean wind energy has had no side effects apart from destroying endangered
species like bald eagles and bats -or that it can cause cardiovascular disease by infrasound
No this is done all in the name of saving the planet (from what ???) by stopping climate
Change (for who???) change as their green God directed them through the bicycle powered internet -bless their little Green tinged souls.
Cheers Mike Reed
350
Nature will give them (green eco fascists) a big boot in the rear end someday, probably sooner than they expect.
They wont stop anything, cold or hot.
60
The naughty part of me hopes to see them get their come-uppance…let’s hope I live long enough to witness it! 😉
50
Annie!
https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/09/to-err-is-human/
30
Willis E. is exactly right there. I’m also a ‘standard-issue humanoid’ as he puts it, wanting to do the right thing but sometimes finding it hard not to wish certain people did find out the deserved result of their wrong-doing! 🙂
50
I’m looking forward to that too, Annie.
Then I’ll be able to use the ultimate putdown: I told you so! 🙂
50
Hi Annie,
So those Christian values you espouse are disposable when required.
Good for you.
11
No, GL, they are not at all disposable. It’s just that humans cannot always live up to them much as they would like to. I certainly don’t drop them just to suit myself…they are a standard to aim for.
01
You said you were happy to see them get their come-uppance.
You should be praying for their salvation.
How will you plead when God charges you with hypocrisy?
Cheers.
00
The “save the planet” stickers are like eco-shaming-deflecting camo….
Its a bit like a sleight of hand to make you ignore they are doing the very thing they rail against…..that and huge mansions and gulfstream jets they use to “save the planet”…..
40
I read this comment this morning, went to lunch with my visiting daughter and then on the way back had exactly that experience at a petrol station.
There in front of me is a ute with a large election billboard standing in the tray. The key message was “supporting jobs for local people”
On the truck, a sticker on one side “Stop Adani” I guess jobs in Nth Qld dont count as local?
A sticker on the other side “Make Australia Solar” Some jobs doing once off installs of fully imported product maybe? No jobs for Hazelwood or Playford employees.
All while the driver is pumping diesel into the ute to continue driving the rolling billboard around in circles. Coal bad but diesel good seems to be the logic. OK for us to drive around for the hell of it but not for people in India to have first world power.
The hypocrisy ran deep in that one
91
Sorry-take my cheers and put it at the end of my comment I’m
still cheery but immensely saddened by this Green Faith.
Mike R
120
And don’t forget the droughts.
How many BoM permanent droughts have been broken by the investment in coal mines …
Coal miners to blame for Queensland floods, says Australian Greens leader Bob Brown
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/coal-miners-to-blame-for-queensland-floods-says-australian-greens-leader-bob-brown/news-story/cbfe12042fa9c4149ea3c10524f57344
It’s 97% ‘science’ that the honourable Bob Brown cites. Own it.
140
Does anyone listen to Bob Brown?
20
Australian coal exports set new record in 2017
https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/australian-coal-exports-set-new-record-in-2017/
If coal is profitable then money will find a way.
120
‘To help the poor afford coal the only ethical thing to do is invest in coal mining’
So yesterday. Doncha know, communism has moved on from helping the poor, to being a change agent for Gaia.
130
Green Blob zombies drive around in fossil fuelled powered cars with “stop investing in coal” stickers.
Then drive to their fossil fuel powered house smug that they are living green by virtue signalling..and nothing else..
A friend of mine stopped at a tent with Green members handing out leaflets and asked the young woman why coal is bad..she looked confused and could not answer.He was directed to their leader…he politely asked a few simple questions..all he got was a blank look and gibberish for answers.. 🙂
130
Gibberish?
That’s Green speak normal.
120
The irony is CO2 is a minor player, if at all, and the real human contributer to climate change is being essentially ignored. The good news is it is self limiting, the bad effects of it can be ameliorated, and lessons learned might even lead to reduction of the devastating effects of the coming LIA2 and/or even glaciation.
110
Its a nice tidy answer though. The faithfull like nice simplistic answers and silver bullet solutions. Stuff that fits neatly into a street march chant. They only view things superficially and never question or think through the edicts handed down from their Gods.
They also apparently dont look around much and observe the world if and when they travel outside the Chai Latte belt, or have any sense of history. Everything that happened “before their time” isnt worth knowing and the freedom and infrastructure that they enjoy today (and take for granted) apparently fell from the sky 20 something years ago.
90
As Forrest Gump says – it just happens.
20
In the late sixties I was an avid reader of MAD magazine at the time of Woodstock. There was one cartoon strip of hippies with placards demonstrating against pollution. The final picture was them all piling into dozens of gas guzzlers all belching smoke.
80
used to collect the magazines and paperbacks back then, loved the artwork and the humour
30
CO2 is not even a bit player in temperature variation, but does wonders for the vegetation.
‘…devastating effects of the coming LIA2 and/or even glaciation.’
Lets get real, the next glacial max will happen in 100,000 years, whereas a mini ice age is a reasonable assumption. Still, we can’t sell that. We could say the next 20 years will be cooler than the previous 60 years, which is why we need to build three new coal fired power stations.
What do you think of this approach? Give me a climate forecast for the coming decades and I’ll work with that.
61
As cooling progresses, SSTs will fall and CO2 will redissolve in the oceans, which means atmospheric CO2 will fall and the IPCC et al, aka The Gullibles, will proclaim Paris a Great Success.
You’re right about needing new coal-fired power stations. As cooling progresses, new power generation, and I mean real power stations will need to be constructed. Enough of these 17th century and USS (Ultra Small Scale) inefficient technologies, with their attached Enivronmental Vandalism. Wind may be “free” but it’s too free, with no useful discipline nor control: no consistency, poor energy density, absent when needed and only there when not wanted, &c, &c, &c. The craziness of it can only be that of the thoughtless and stupid Greens: Wind generation as presently executed is murderous: it kills the apex predators, laying the landscape open to the ravages of vermin whose life cycles the apex predators control—Environmental Vandalism of the worst sort and a direct threat to our food supplies.
Coal-powered stations have to be built first and as the Liquid Fuel Reactors become available, nuclear can take over. Note: not those hideously expensive ultra dangerous high-pressure water-cooled potential bombs! The LFTRs should be coming on stream in a just a few years: about 4 or 5 years now. Everyone has Thorium. It’s everywhere. But the technology is still nascent so that’s why proven Coal has to be first.
Coal and Cobalt (and Manganese) are good investments. There’s plenty of coal, there’s plenty of demand but not enough production. A good little speculative earner. Cobalt: there’s huge and strongly growing demand, low reserves, and it’s difficult to extract and refine, so the price is rising: USD 2000.00/t in 2016, and on the London Metals Exchange at present: USD 50,000.00/t. As the world struggles to “decarbonize” to placate these stupid Greens, it’s going to rise further. These metals form the cathodic structures of EV and Grid batteries. Manganese has been tested and made to work in place of Cobalt in the lab. It’s also more plentiful so watch it, too.
80
“As cooling progresses, SSTs will fall”
What a demotion – recall what SSTs used to be
40
SST is a long way off from 19th century cooling, so getting back to those levels would take a century.
https://bobtisdale.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/figure-14.png
20
Looking at the graph we can see a possible mechanism, the Gleissberg Cycle in 1910.
30
SST’s in the context of my comment = Sea Surface Temperatures.
SST’s — Super Sonic Transports — barely got off the ground to be able to fall: the physix and politix stuffed them thoroughly. These SST’s = SBMs. SBMs = Sonic Boom Manufacturers. They would have turned out to be, eventually, almost as much of a health hazard as the 21st Century’s version of `17th Century Technology’s‘ Infra Sound Waves or ISWs.
Forty years of weak sun from 2020 will return the temperatures of the 1940s, another 30 years to return to the middle of the 19th century. We don’t really know what the sun will do after 2040 … some are projecting the next 200 years to be cold, or colder, some think Warming won’t stop right out to 2100. I don’t: everything follows our Star’s cycles; the last few NH winters haven’t been exactly warm …
None of us can predict exactly what the new Magnetic Pole instability is going to induce. We’ve had our magnetic field reduce by 15% already—by 5%, or one third of that, over just the last decade. The Laschamp event of 41000 years ago occurred during—or caused—great cooling.
The Institute of Propaganda for Climate Catastrophe is still looking the wrong way :-).
Talk about unprepared. Of course, they’re desperate: all their stuff has to implemented before it really is too late!
40
Looking too far forward will only confuse the masses, so I suggest we concentrate on the next two decades.
‘The recent extended minimum of solar and geomagnetic variability (XSM) mirrors the XSMs in the 19th and 20th centuries: 1810–1830 and 1900–1910.’
Joan Feynman and A. Ruzmaikin
20
We tend to think the atmosphere cools and oceans follow, but it maybe the reverse.
The large variation in outgoing energy due to variable ocean and atmospheric circulation, primarily in the Pacific, according to Robert Ellison.
https://watertechbyrie.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/ceres_ebaf-toa_ed4-0_anom_toa_net_flux-all-sky_march-2000tomarch-20181-e1541971587826.png
20
I suspect trying to feed starving children will occupy most parents lives at that point, the Church of the CAGW will be told to get lost…
10
“SST’s — Super Sonic Transports — barely got off the ground to be able to fall: the physix and politix stuffed them thoroughly”
Stanley Hooker in “Not much of an engineer”
mentions that at flat chat Concorde was around 43% fuel efficient
10
I went to a Liberty Conference in Sydney earlier this year.
There were two presentation on Nuclear Energy.
I was a bit surprised when Dr Mark Ho, President of the Australian Nuclear Association said he thought that the Pressurized Water Reactor(PWR), was still the way to go. He explained some of the advantages of the PWR. The water moderates the nuclear fuel and if pure is fairly inert. Molten Salt reactors seem to have a number of technical problems which have not yet been solved, especially the fact that they dissolve the reactor vessel.
When reduced to the size of small nuclear reactors (SMRs). the PWRs have a great safety record.
So maybe; ” Note: not those hideously expensive ultra dangerous high-pressure water-cooled potential bombs!“, is a bit over the top.
I think that Nuclear Now is an important issue. Therefore I would like to see promotion of SMR’s, a proven technology (ie US Navy).
50
That’s been solved: make 7 reactors vessels, bury them in the ground and run the plant using the first reactor vessel. After 7 years, move the fuel to the second reactor vessel. When you reach number 6 reactor vessel, bury another 7 alongside and at the end of 49 years, transfer the fuel, rip up the first plant and continue for another 49 years on reactor vessel 2-1 – 2.7, and repeat. The first plant, if highly reactive, can be recycled … as fuel in the second (see below).
The submarine reactors you’re proposing can be well cooled: the Sub is buried in the ocean so no coolant problems—unlike Fukushima and Chernobyl. The fuel is still standard uranium rods. They hollow out and lose efficiency which means they will have to be withdrawn and replaced every few years. The old rods will have to be sent off for reprocessing—basically fuel rod re-manufacturing which is a monopoly activity for which monopoly prices are charged—very expensive. Waste is very long term and so far has to be buried. Deep, and very long term. They are breeder reactors and produce weapons-grade materials. So you have storage, transport, re-manufacturing and waste product disposal costs for highly long-term radioactive material so far. Expensive. Weapons grade materials make them terrorist targets—also expensive security.
On the other hand: LFTRs are thermally self-regulating, can burn anything radioactive including old fuel rods and old reactor vessels down to non-radioactive `ash,’ and do not produce weapons-grade material. Much safer all round than SMRs…
I’ll stay with LFTRs thanks.
00
Converting coal to diesel fuel may be the next step. Warren Buffet 🙂 is already investing in coal.
https://www.energyandcapital.com/report/the-new-era-of-coal-investing/153
80
It makes good sense, as does building nuclear power stations for Australia’s future electricity supply.
100
It has been done a long time ago but surprisingly could not find any mention of it in your linked to article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol
Google SASOL and MOSSGAS.
Sasol converts coal to fuels and chemicals and Mossgas converts offshore gas to liquid fuels.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920586101004710
40
Those articles are interesting: they’re all about processes and product, but not price.
20
but, but diesel being banned, evil, must not use
50
[…] of greens to block investment in coal mines. Despite? More likely because of! Something to do with supply and demand I suppose. Ask the […]
10
The warmists and Greens coalesced,
To make governments coal-mines divest,
Faking ‘carbon’ emission,
For their great prohibition,
When in truth it’s to cripple the West.
160
Superb, Ruari.
30
The coal divestment activists are the same groups that lobbied the removal of supermarket plastic bags earlier this year. A carefully coordinated global campaign out of Europe, with Australian offshoots of FOE, Greenpeace and others, all dutifully taking their orders from the European hierarchy.
The immediate capitulation of Woolworths and Coles to this campaign resulted nothing more than virtue signalling, but what looks like permanently lower sales, with Woolworths share price underperforming the market. Did the Woolworths and Coles boards discharge their directors duties properly before introducing these bans?
110
About 40 years ago when working in Switzerland the supermarkets all sold thick plastic bags with a notice on the bottom that no obnoxious or poisonous gasses would be emitted by burning (it was printed in English as well).
Much of the garbage was incinerated in industrial incinerators.
80
more than virtue signalling , they converted a cost into an income
my local country supermarket only sells $1 polyprop shopping bags, nice little earner in a touristy area where all the campers come in for supplies
50
Those bags are either a hideous pukey shade of lime green or bright orange…both of which are colours I loathe!
40
The alternative shopping bags have two main discouraging features other than colours: they require regular laundry and they have a tiny capacity. Load them up and they fall apart.
So-called Single Use Plastic Bags have a major redeeming feature: open them properly and interiors are sterile.
I remember from childhood watching a grocer’s great fist going into a paper bag to spread it open, after handling money—one of the filthiest, unhygienic items known to mankind. And people wondered how some diaorrhea’s and intestinal illnesses used to get into and pass through the population! Many of those died out with the increase in plastic bags as packaging at point of sale.
I like my Plastic Bags. They always get at least two uses:
use 1 = carry home item(s) purchased,
use 2 = carry out rubbish from use 1. 🙂
70
Hence my insistance on washing all bought fruit and veg. Like my mother, I can almost visualise the germs and pesticides, etc. 🙁
20
Re. plastic bags: I have quite a stash of them against the time they are fully banned!
If I depart this planet too soon, our children will have an amusing/horrifying/annoying time sorting out my collection.
30
atta girl!. As do I. Fruit and veges can be dropped on the floor and it’s just picked up and put back. Yuk! So I wash all mine too.
… so you wouldn’t be interested in any more? Thought not.
I find my stash particularly useful. They make great gloves for picking up the dog’s leavings and similar material (reuse after that reuse us never considered!).
00
Here in europe Brexit is creating the ideal opportunity to reopen english coal mining after the brits freeing themselves from the yoke of the brussels burocracy and nixing the thatcherite stupidities . The future is looking bright for the british islanders if the final hurdle will be overtaken : the innocuous green philosophy , which will be dead in the water after the coming very bad winter in the northern hemisphere . Hurray for british anthracite , the coal that kept us warm during the last century .
140
British (especially Welsh) anthracite….wonderful stuff.
90
There would have to be discoveries of significant lodes to make it profitable. Up to Maggie’s temper tantrum the UK mines were basically at the stage of scraping the last inch off the mine’s walls …
It’s all bin dug up.
00
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/update/fossil_fuel_stocks.php#tabs_stocks2-1
Coal stockpiles are like money in the bank. Secure energy supply.
80
From:eolss sample chapter
Tens of Millions of tons of stockpiled coal in the US alone is energy security batteries and hydro can only dream of. Wake up Australia.
110
I think that the perspective is a little parochial.
My own ‘grok’ moment on human caused climate change came in 2016 when i was living in the Philippines with my Filipina fiance..
The level of poverty was staggering; the need for electricity to alleviate it was also so in my face..So I looked at how the demand for power was being met..In 2016 the were 16 more coal fired power stations being built or approved….The coal is mined in Indonesian Borneo and taken by huge barges from there to wherever it’s needed; eg 17 million people Manila !
I came home to Oz in July 2016 to read about how we were closing a coal fired power in the Latrobe valley and had just closed one at port Augusta ….
Here in Oz, dominated by Greenist ideology we close coal fired power plants so we can feel holy & virtuous about saving the planet… And meanwhile in the real world they are building coal fired power plants in the hundreds…-Recent estimate 190 of them – mostly in China & India….
There is NO divestment happening in those countries…..Duh ?
Doing my own reading and thinking over the 2 years since, it’s become bloody obvious that humanity has almost no causative role in Climate change.The climate on this planet changes due to a range of natural factors..And human produced CO2 is a bit player….
140
The fundamental lie is that CO2 levels are man made. There is no basis for that. You can prove there is very little man made CO2 in the air.
Consider that for every invisible CO2 molecule released by burning fossil fuel, combustion also releases a H2O water molecule into the air. Does anyone believe the amount of water in the air is rising because of fossil fuels? Are there clouds of steam over cities or highways? No, that would be silly.
We all know water falls as rain, flows into rivers and goes back to the ocean from where it came. Exactly like CO2.
However the Green doomsayers tell us CO2 is trapped and so CO2 levels are rising and heating the atmosphere. Of course the obvious explanation for rising CO2 is slightly increased solar activity heating the ocean surface and releasing more CO2. However somehow the warmer air is now heating the ocean and bleaching the Great Barrier Reef and causing bushfires, things which have never happened before. Scientists say.
So we are told what is not true. The amounts of money and number of people involved in this lie are beyond counting. Then it is also only one side of politics which pushes man made Global Warming, proof that it is political science, consensus science, progressive socialist science. There is no part of it which is real science. There never was.
All the massively destructive political movements including the French Revolution, the Russian revolution, Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s Red Revolution as supposed to be the evil work of one man. No. It was the evil work of millions and millions of opportunists. You don’t need conspiracy theories when you have Climate Change. How many people work in the industry now? Do they believe it? Does it matter whether they do?
121
Now you have Pope Francis, the Catholic leader whose predecessors refused to denounce Hitler or Stalin or Mao now telling the world that communism is good and Climate Change is the equal of nuclear war.
How would the 20th century have gone if the pope had said Germany and Russia, both overwhelmingly Christian countries were evil empires run by evil men? It never happened.
As for Macron demanding an army to fight America, on the anniversary of the end of WW1, it beggars belief. He and Merkel won’t pay their fair share of NATO.
The two countries which invaded and devastated most of Europe but mainly Russia are claiming to be victims and declaring the United States as their enemy and Nationalistic? Man made climate Change, real or not, is not the equal of nuclear war. How mad can it get?
130
But who takes France seriously?
Macaron is just another ex-bank employee given the gig of running the declining Fraco-sphere caliphate
/sarc
20
Good reading. Good perspective.
10
and VietNam,
and the Philipines
and Thailand
and Malysia
and Indonesia … and Indonesia …
there are now around 1600 coal burners either being built, slated for building and being considered for building. The Future is Coal Power.
00
Take advantage of the politics. Options do that
I’d consider a call option on coal at a low price, then a put option on coal when the blighters blink at a high price.
Its always about the money. Make some. Stiff the bints.
That would be me. You aren’t me. You ought do as you see fit.
It would be somewhat funny though. Bleed them at their own game.
Might be fun.
40
Hi Lance,
The federal government has authorised very fast trading here in Australia and it’s not unusual to see fluctuations in share prices of 15% on a routine basis.
Sure the US AU exchange rate does move but it’s still hard to believe that the sharemarket swings are about real time valuations, and not Skimming by professionals.
They are getting us through Superannuation funds, a gold mine for the skimmers and through electricity rorting.
Climate Change hysteria is the enabler for the electricity scam.
I don’t see much to admire in modern Government.
KK
70
“In other words, the 1 to 2 billion people on the planet with zero or unreliable access to modern energy would remain priced out of the market.” THAT is the ‘plan’ eliminate them (the dirty half not the elite).
60
I leave it to others to try to make sense of these pieces:
12 Nov: AFR: The economic truth of coal mines
by Richard Denniss
(Richard Denniss is chief economist for The Australia Institute)
https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/the-economic-truth-of-coal-mines-20181112-h17s9w
12 Nov: RenewEconomy: Victoria Coalition’s bizarre plan to support coal and “24/7” power does not add up
by Sophie Vorrath & Giles Parkinson
https://reneweconomy.com.au/victoria-coalitions-bizarre-plan-to-support-coal-and-24-7-power-does-not-add-up-53026/
40
12 Nov: PowerEngineering: India Fuels Power Mix with 8 Percent Rise in Coal Imports
By Staff and Wire Reports
India imported 134.5 million metric tonnes of coal in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, an 8 percent increase over the same period of last year, according to mjunction services…
Coal accounts for nearly 75 percent of Indian power generation…
12 Nov: Bloomberg: South Africa Defends Use of Coal as It Seeks Progress on Climate
By Anna Hirtenstein, Mathew Carr, and Brian Parkin
“With the Germans, they can say ‘We’re moving from driving a Corolla to a BMW,’ while we are still trying to get the bicycle,” said Thembisile Majola, in an interview in London. “They’re talking about different technologies, we’re talking about access.”…
???Meanwhile, economic costs and deaths from storms, floods, landslides and forest fires mount around the world…
Last week in the U.S. midterms, a ballot to install a carbon price in Washington State failed. In Canada, Ontario province backed out of its carbon market. Coal-and-gas-rich Australia earlier this year ousted its prime minister as he attempted to beef up climate policy.
In Germany, a government-established commission that’s been running this year to decide coal’s fate in Europe’s biggest economy could make a decision around the time of the climate talks…
Some poorer nations argue that they shouldn’t have to bear an equal amount of the cost and should still be allowed to prioritize economic growth over pollution reduction…
A key element of the Paris agreement that was signed in 2015 by nearly 200 nations was the promise for the developed world to transfer $100 billion a year by 2020 to the developing world to support them in transitioning their energy, industrial and agriculture systems. South Africa is looking for progress on that goal…
“You are not going to say cut off coal and what you cook with is not my business — I need to say what I’m replacing it with when I say cut down on the coal,” Majola said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-12/south-africa-defends-use-of-coal-as-it-seeks-progress-on-climate
12 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: German finance ministry rejects own party’s carbon price plan
Plan being developed by SPD environment minister would ‘increase the burden on citizens’ said finance ministry, which is controlled by the same party
By Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s finance ministry, led by social democrat (SPD) Olaf Scholz, has rejected environment minister Svenja Schulze’s (also SPD) plan to work on a national price on CO₂ emissions in Germany, which would include sectors such as heating and transport.
“There are no considerations to introduce a CO2 tax or a new CO2 price and to increase the burden on citizens,” said finance ministry spokesperson Dennis Kolberg at a government press conference…
The parliamentary group of chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance has also rejected Schulze’s plan…
Germany’s federal state environment ministers, however, called on the federal government to draw up a proposal in line with constitutional and European law on how CO₂-intensive fossil fuels can be made more expensive and, in return, electricity produced from renewable sources can be made cheaper…
It was “tactically unwise” for Schulze not to coordinate her initiative for a price on CO2 emissions better with finance minister and party colleague Olaf Scholz, wrote Jan Drebes in an opinion piece in Rheinische Post…
“It is difficult to communicate that an SPD minister of all people is now striking out against consumers while her party is still reluctant to send a clear message to the coal industry,” said Drebes.
30
At some point, a long way in the future, atmospheric CO2 will decline. Maybe the devil will make a return as the epitome of all things evil. There are no longer natural disaster but, rather, just increasing CO2 caused evil.
CO2 is already carrying the blame for the very recent wild fires in California. The 200 years of forest mismanagement barely gets a mention. The sad fact is that Californian’s are spending massive sums of money on intermittent power generation in the vain hope of reducing CO2 while watching their forests deteriorate through poor management practices. In fact, one of the driving forces to allow forest inventory to dramatically increase over the last two decades is the objective of carbon sequestering – how is that working out!
90
Except by POTUS DJT
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/11/politics/california-wildfires-trump-tweets/index.html
40
What is missing is that some trees, notably pine trees and gum trees both reproduce by fire. Both are filled with flammable resin. Both take advantage of the devastation they cause. Pine cones open on extreme heat and release their seeds. Gum trees were imported from Australia in the 1880s, as they were to Spain, Greece and even Israel and Jordan. With them came bush fires!
Trees are lovely. To live in a forest of pine or gum trees is suicidal.
30
A brilliant last line.
If you have not witnessed a fire rampaging through gums, you are not qualified to talk about the problem.
10
first, note the headline and opening line on ABC’s “Just In” page:
Renewables ***overtake fossil fuels in new power generation: IEA
Renewable energy has surpassed fossil fuels worldwide as the main source of new electricity generation, ***while demand for coal is likely to slump if nations meet their emissions reduction targets, according to the International Energy Agency.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/
both have been changed.
and that’s before you get to the rest of the deceptive text. this would all sound very impressive to the ABC audience no doubt! read all:
13 Nov: ABC: Renewables ***overtaking fossil fuels in new power generation: International Energy Agency
By Stephen Long
Renewable energy has surpassed fossil fuels worldwide as the main source of new electricity generation, the latest report from the International Energy Agency has found…
In an interview with the ABC, a senior IEA official said that Australia can go much further in the deployment of renewable energy.
“If you ask the question ‘can you power 100 per cent of the Australian economy on wind and solar?’, with the current state of this technology the answer is no,” IEA chief economist Laszlo Varro told the ABC.
“Rephrase the question as ‘can you increase the share of wind and solar if you do your homework in improving the system?’ and the answer is definitely yes.”…
Coal still ‘the backbone’ of many countries in Asia
He reaffirmed that the market for seaborne, or export, thermal coal used in power generation would slump dramatically under the IEA’s ‘sustainable development scenario’…
“The growth of renewables should not obscure the fact that about 330 GW of new fossil-fuelled power plants are also under construction (approximately 300 GW of which is anticipated to start operation by 2020),” the IEA report noted.
“Coal additions represent the largest share, about 90 per cent of new coal-fired capacity under construction worldwide are deployed in Asia-Pacific, including 62 GW in China, 50 GW in India and 30 GW in Southeast Asia.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/international-energy-agency-world-energy-outlook-2018/10491734
40
13 Nov: ABC: ‘Popular and hard working’ Victorian worker dies after explosion at power station
ABC Gippsland By Emma Field and Robert French
Updated 13 minutes ago
The man, in his 50s, was flown to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital with severe burns to his upper and lower body after a high-voltage circuit breaker exploded.
The power station’s owner, Energy Australia, said in a statement the man was a “popular and hard working employee” from the Latrobe Valley, who had been with the company for 30 years…
“[He] was a great worker with us [and] was involved in preparing some high voltage supplies for service,” Mr Pearson said.
“Something has gone wrong in the process, but as a consequence he has been badly burned.”
Worksafe and Energy Safe Victoria are investigating.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/victorian-worker-dies-after-explosion-at-power-station/10492914
20
headline & opening line on ABC “Just In” page:
How emergency services are battling changing ***climate conditions
Attributing individual events to climate change is complex, but observing the overall trend is not. As fire seasons lengthen and flooding worsens, emergency services are having to find ways to adapt…
13 Nov: ABC: Fighting climate change: How emergency services are battling ***changing conditions
ABC Weather By Kate Doyle
California has been battling the most destructive fires in its history and the death toll is rising.
Meanwhile in Australia, there was a heat event recently that smashed early season temperature records in the south-east, and fires threatened Canberra.
It is still spring.
Attributing individual events to climate change is complex, but observing the overall trend is not…
Because of climate change, fires are getting more intense and fire seasons are extending to the point where the northern and southern hemisphere fire seasons are overlapping…
Climate change is a reality emergency services are dealing with, and fire is not the only problem, with warming oceans resulting in heavier rain and the potential for increased flooding.
Tasmanian Fire Service chief officer Chris Arnold does not back away from the issue.
“We have to look at what the impact of climate change is in the community and how we’re going to change our strategies and our tactics, and then ultimately invest in new approaches to deal with climate change,” he said.
Mr Arnold is involved with an emergency services climate change initiative to research and respond to climate change issues in the sector.
“Certainly we have been aware of climate change coming and the Bureau of Meteorology has long been warning of those impacts. The next thing to decide is what do you do about that?” he said…
CHART Australian annual mean temperature anomaly 1910- 2017
Bad fire seasons are becoming the norm
Bureau of Meteorology climate services manager David Jones said the impacts of climate change were already being felt in Australia.
“In southern Australia we’ve seen rising temperatures and declining rainfall and that’s increasing the fire danger, particularly in states like Victoria, parts of New South Wales, western New South Wales, southern New South Wales, across south-west WA,” he said.
Dr Jones said in Victoria there had been about a 50 per cent increase in the forest fire danger index season severity.
“When you look at the past, we would get a bad fire season maybe once every 10 years or thereabouts,” he said.
“Now the norm is actually a bad fire season.”…
Not just fire that is an issue
Dr Jones said the changing climate was not just impacting fires — the ice is melting and the warming ocean is expanding, impacting on flooding.
“What we’re seeing is a quite general increase in sea level. It’s about 4 millimetres a year at the moment, 3–4 millimetres, and it’s going on year on year. It’s actually starting to add up,” he said.
A few centimetres could change how natural disasters play out.
“For example, earlier in the year in Brisbane, we saw floods on perfectly fine sunny days and that was because of these higher sea levels,” Dr Jones said.
Warmer oceans can also lead to heavier rain, especially when combined with a warmer atmosphere.
“The amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold increases by nearly 10 per cent for each degree of global warming,” Dr Jones said.
When it comes to climate, nothing happens in isolation
“The other thing we’re noticing with the heating globe is that the things that caused these disasters also have other cascading and coalescing events,” Dr Heemstra said.
For example, fires during heatwaves can stress electricity supply…
How bad could it get?
Most climate modelling focuses on how the averages are going to change over time.
“The thing that we’re missing out of the climate models is they don’t really look at the extremes, and that is where we operate in the emergency services space,” Dr Heemstra said.
“We actually need to do some more work looking at the amplitude or the amount which those extreme events vary from those averages, stay the same, or will that actually increase.”
According to Dr Heemstra, there needs to be an investment in projecting the extremes so we can better understand the sort of challenges we might face because of climate change.
Dr Jones’s data demonstrates that things are already different from how they were in the past.
“What it means is really the past can no longer tell you the limits of what you can see,” he said.
“So you start to have to prepare for events which are perhaps beyond what you’re seen before, perhaps starting to really test your imagination.”
For Dr Jones it is not about hope or options. As a scientist he studies these things objectively.
“We study really to make people’s life better … enable them to take the opportunities that climate change will present, but also adapt so the impacts of climate change are less bad.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/how-emergency-services-are-battling-changing-climate-conditions/10255856
20
12 Nov: Front Page: Matthew Vadum: Why Trump is Right on California Wildfires
How “green policies” are burning the Golden State to a crisp.
Years ago environmentalist lobbies ideologically opposed to economic growth put the screws to California’s once-thriving wood-harvesting industry. New federal and state regulations came into effect make it increasingly difficult for the industry to operate.
“As a result, timber industry employment gradually collapsed, falling in 2017 to half of what it was 20 years earlier, with imports from Canada, China, and other nations filling domestic need,” Chuck DeVore, Vice President of National Initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, writes at Forbes.
As timber harvesting permit fees rose and environmental regulations intensified, industry employees left the field and “[t]he combustible fuel load in the forest predictably soared,” according to DeVore. “No longer were forest management professionals clearing brush and thinning trees.”
With all that kindling piling up on forest floors, today’s devastating wildfires were not hard to foresee.
Back in 2005 experts were predicting “larger, more devastating fires—fires so hot that they sterilized the soil, making regrowth difficult and altering the landscape,” DeVore writes. They saw the rise of “fires that increasingly threatened lives and homes as they became hotter and more difficult to bring under control.”
“Federal lands have not been managed for decades, threatening adjacent private forests, while federal funds designated for forest maintenance have been “borrowed” for fire suppression expenses,” DeVore writes. “The policies frequently reduce the economic value of the forest to zero. And, with no intrinsic worth remaining, interest in maintaining the forest declined, and with it, resources to reduce the fuel load.”
Two decades ago there used to be an orderly burning of wood waste –including brush and smaller trees cleared by thinning efforts— from timber operations, DeVore adds. That waste fed “renewable biomass powered electric generating plants across the length of the state,” but taxpayer-subsidized solar power coupled with California’s air-quality regulations and less wood waste to use forced biomass generators to shut down.
“What used to be burned safely in power generators is now burned in catastrophic fires,” he writes. “Including the growing capture and use of landfill methane as a fuel, California’s biomass energy generation last year was 22% lower than it was 25 years before.”
Outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) pigheadedly blames global warming for the fires but as Cato Institute meteorologist Ryan Maue noted on Twitter back on Aug. 5…READ ON
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271927/why-trump-right-california-wildfires-matthew-vadum
8 Aug: Daily Caller: Michael Bastasch: Decades Of Mismanagement Turned US Forests Into ‘Slow-Motion Time Bombs’
•Wildfire experts say poor management, not global warming, is the major reason behind worsening wildfires.
•Forester Bob Zybach warned decades ago that environmental regulations and less logging would make fires worse.
•The Trump administration is doing more active management of lands, but is it enough?
Zybach also doesn’t buy that global warming is exacerbating fires. Through his research, Zybach analyzed thousands of official documents, reports and first-hand accounts of wildfire activity going back hundreds of years. His conclusion: wildfire season hasn’t changed much.
“To say there’s been another change, other than management, is just grasping at straws,” Zybach said…
Since most fires are ignited by humans, the more people in fire-prone areas the higher the risk.
“This is a people problem,” said U.S. Geological Survey fire expert Jon Keeley. “What’s changing is not the fires themselves but the fact that we have more and more people at risk.”…
https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/08/mismanagement-forests-time-bombs/
2014: NationalGeographic: Overwhelming Cause of California Wildfires: Humans
As blazes continue around San Diego, can humans do more to prevent future fires?
By Warren Cornwall
Unlike remote parts of the world where natural events like lightning strikes are prime sources of wildfires, in southern California, such fires are almost always started by people. Ninety-five percent have a human cause, according to Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency.
The situation may worsen in the face of expected population growth…
“The probability of fires is increasing because people are increasing,” said the U.S. Geological Survey’s Jon Keeley, who has spent years studying the history of California wildfires…
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140517-san-marcos-wildfires-california-weather/
12 Nov: Breitbart: Jerry Brown Blames Climate Change for California Wildfires
by Joel B. Pollak
According to the Associated Press (LINK), Brown, described as an “evangelist” for climate change, also blamed climate change deniers for the deadly fires, saying they were responsible for the deaths of California residents.
“Managing all the forests in everywhere we can does not stop climate change,” he said. “And those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness in the coming years.”…
60
Wild fires in CA vs Polar bears.
‘There are too many polar bears in parts of Nunavut and climate change hasn’t yet affected any of them, says a draft management plan from the territorial government that contradicts much of conventional scientific thinking.’
https://www.iceagenow.info/nunavuts-polar-bear-population-unaffected-by-climate-change/
‘Claim: Global Warming has increased U.S. Wildfires. ‘
‘Wildfires are in the news almost every late summer and fall. The National Interagency Fire Center has recorded the number of fires and acreage affected since 1985. This data show the number of fires trending down slightly, ‘,,’ so it can be reasoned that most of the damage from wild fires in California is a result of increased population not Global Warming. ‘
icecap.us
70
Highly relevant pieces.
10
13 Nov: ABC: Melbourne weather: How winds from the north and west create ‘change days’
ABC Science By science reporter Belinda Smith
Updated about 4 hours ago
Adelaide also experiences these so-called “change days”, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte said.
But Melbourne has a few characteristics that make it more prone to them, particularly this time of year.
“And they’re often our busiest days,” Mr Delamotte said, of his work at the BOM.
“We have to deal with things like heat and fires and thunderstorms, all in a couple of hours.”…
To help predict the weather, the Bureau of Meteorology relies on a few different computer models, but they don’t always come up with the same forecast.
Change days’ unpredictable nature can also have a considerable effect on the maximum temperature of the day.
“If it arrives a couple of hours later, that could mean the maximum temperature is a lot higher,” Mr Delamotte said.
“If it arrives early, it could mean the maximum temperature is a lot lower.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-11-13/melbourne-weather-rain-bureau-of-meteorology-change-days-storms/10481242
40
Mr Delamotte does seem to be stating the obvious there!
50
In other words predicting the weather is nothing more than a guess made with the help of millions of dollars worth of computers and software .
50
Fake official data ??
Im beginning to become very skeptical about some official data (nothing new there you say !)
Latest headlines from various sources are quoting that the UK has now reduced its CO2 emmissions by over 40% compared to 1990 levels.
Now , considering that the majority of any reduction has been made in the electricity generating industry by shutting coal generators , and replacing them with wind, solar and GAS !..and that there has been little change in transport, or agriculture, industry (cement manufacturing) etc …i find it hard to believe that a 40% reduction could be achieved from coal reduction /substution in the power sector alone ?…..especially if Gas has increased in use.
60
Sounds like they are fudging, I would need to check the source.
Some people still aren’t happy, rent a crowd will soon be out of fashion.
https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/climate-change-protesters-blockade-government-energy-department/
60
What about investing in nuclear? Oh no, not even on the agenda in Australia.
As of November 28, 2016, 450 nuclear power plant units with an installed electric net capacity of about 392 GW are in operation in 31 countries, and 60 plants with an installed capacity of 60 GW are in 16 countries under construction. For comparison, Australia’s electricity demand is about 30 GW.
And coal? China plans to increase its coal-fired power plants to almost 1,100 GW, which is over three times the coal-fired capacity of the United States. Since 2000, the world has doubled its coal-fired power capacity to 2,000 GW after explosive growth in China and India. Another 200 GW is being built and 450 GW is planned.
90
There is good nuclear (safer) technology reactors, all the bad press is from the old designs, still used in USA and Japan.
50
Good perspective.
It suggests that we need to concentrate on coal fired and install at least one modern nuclear plant to experiment with.
Future proofing.
The recent collapse of Renewables in China and Germany suggests that our wind and solar programs must be discontinued and sent back to CSIRO for development and only released from that prison when they can be shown to be viable.
Mr. Morrison, are you going to save Australia’s future or are you going to play politics and destroy us?
KK
50
Scott Adams provides a useful discussion of climate change at 53:45 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6vfW39wqhE&t=569s
20
13 Nov: ABC: Would you like your super to build roads and housing? It’s the way of the future, expert says
7.30 By Madeleine Morris
In 2030 Australia’s pot of superannuation money will hit around $6 trillion, and the man known to some as the ‘godfather of superannuation’ believes that money could be doing so much more.
“Clearly there is opportunity for more and more of that money, for a lot more than we currently spend, to be spent right here in Australia, creating a great future for this country,” Garry Weaven told 7.30.
Mr Weaven is the chair of IFM Investors, which manages $113 billion worth of superannuation money for 27 Australian industry superannuation funds.
He is retiring in December after a career that began at the ACTU in the 1980s making the case for compulsory super, before various leading roles in the union-backed industry funds sector.
His parting wish, which comes at the end of a watershed year for superannuation, is for super to be used not just to benefit retirees, but also to build infrastructure, water services, ***renewable energy and social housing…
Governments of whatever persuasion, state and federal, [could] engage with the superannuation industry in a very forthright, transparent and open way about how more of that money can be put to work for the long-term benefit of Australians,” he said.
“For a triple bottom line result in terms of great returns, that’s an absolute imperative for us … for great sustainable outcomes in terms of social outcomes, environmental outcomes as well.”…
He believes governments, businesses and super funds should collaborate to achieve agreed social and ***environmental projects, with all the country’s super funds offered a chance to invest, with good returns a prerequisite.
“There’s a clear role for government,” he told 7.30.
“I mean, our biggest trading partner and soon to be the world’s biggest economy (China) is a command economy. If we want to compete in that world we’re going to have to get a lot smarter, it seems to me.”…
But John Daley of the Grattan Institute says that is just not how the world works, or how investment should work.
“We don’t run our country as some kind of happy utopian cooperative between big business, government and superannuation funds, where they all kind of get into some smoky room and decide where the money will be spent,” he said.
Dr Martin Fahy, chief executive of the Australian Superannuation Funds Association, is also cautious about moving beyond the current case-by-case infrastructure investment arrangement…
However, governments overseas are starting to use pension funds as partners not only for infrastructure, but also for social outcomes.
Six of Denmark’s biggest pension funds have invested in a new 671 million euros investment fund set up and administered by the Danish government to help meet the ***UN’s Sustainable Development Goals…
Mr Weaven believes Australians are ready for a similar sort of collaboration here.
“I think a lot of people are interested in nation building and want Australia to be a really great nation that fulfils its objectives, economic, ***environmental and social,” he said…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/would-you-like-your-super-to-build-roads-and-housing/10490380
20
Wikipedia: IFM Investors
IFM Investors is an Australian investment management company that specialises in Debt Investments, Infrastructure, Listed Equities and Private Equity. The company is owned by 27 major not-for-profit Australian pension funds. IFM Investors has fiduciary responsibility in managing the retirement savings of over 11 million Australians. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, IFM Investors also has offices in a number of other countries…
IFM Investors has been a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) since 2008 and has a Group Corporate Environmental, Social & Government Policy that determines its approach to the governance of investee entities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFM_Investors
10
AUDIO: 7min: 16 Jul: KQED (Public Broadcasting Service): Science: Why California’s Best Strategy Against Wildfire Is Hardly Ever Used
by Molly Peterson
With climate change, wildfires threaten disaster and chaos in more California communities, more often. But experts say it’s possible to avoid catastrophic harm to human and forest health by setting planned burns before human error, lightning or arson choose when fires start.
“Putting prescribed fire back out on the landscape at a pace and scale to get real work done and to actually make a difference is a high priority,” says Cal Fire chief Ken Pimlott. “It really is, and it’s going to take a lot of effort.”
In a February report, the watchdog Little Hoover Commission (LINK) concluded that the way California landowners have collectively managed forests is an “unprecedented catastrophe.” In May, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order to improve forest management, and with it, a dramatic change.
Now Pimlott says that Cal Fire intends to triple the amount of prescribed fire on lands the state controls…
That’s a small step toward addressing a major deficit. According to the commission’s report, an area the size of Maryland—including state, private and federal land—needs maintenance or planned fire to become healthier…READ ON
https://www.kqed.org/science/1927354/controlled-burns-can-help-solve-californias-fire-problem-so-why-arent-there-more-of-them
20
hmmm!
13 Nov: Armstrong Economics: Goldman Sachs – Preparing for Waterfall Event?
by Martin Armstrong
The rumor mill has been hot concerning Malaysia and Goldman Sachs for the past two years. As it was turning into a criminal investigation Lyod Blankfein coincidently decided to step down at age 63…
Was it really a coincidence that Blankfein stepped down which appeared to be running for the exit door and then within three months the news breaks that he was deeply involved in the corruption scandal in Malaysia. As Bloomberg wrote: “Years before Goldman Sachs Group Inc. arranged bond deals now at the heart of globe-spanning corruption probes, the firm’s then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein personally helped forge ties with Malaysia and its new sovereign wealth fund, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”…
Trump himself better stay alert for this could be the key that might even ensure the decline and fall of the Democrats and the rise of third-party activity into 2024. The number of politicians who have been for sale around the world allegedly to Goldman Sachs may even be beyond count. Don’t forget, Goldman went as far as to instruct staff they were NOT ALLOWED to donate to Trump. Mueller was also on the paid-speaking circuit in recent years and paid by none other than Goldman Sachs. Hillary got $675,000 for three speeches at Goldman Sachs. It has been known that Hillary got $22 million in speaking fees that were all to buy “influence” in government. She has NEVER been prosecuted for obvious bribes.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/corruption/goldman-sachs-preparing-for-waterfall-event/
70
Pat,
Who would have thought that “money” and politics could be so intimately mixed.
This is hillarious.
It will be interesting to trace the influence of Golden Sacks worldwide.
Perhaps they have even been for a trip to Australia?
KK
50
Yeah but won’t we be hearing “too big to fail” all over again?
50
This was meant to have been in reply to Pat @ 11:98 pm
20