France (with nukes) and Germany (with a huge renewables component) used to forge ahead with climate panic in the EU while the Eastern block (like Poland, with more coal and less cash) reliably pushes back against it. But France is pushing everyone to meet the new sacred 1.5C target with the big Carbon-Neutral-By-2050 plan. It’s a target so wildly ambitious even Germany has pulled the pin on yet another fantasy deadline like the last ones it failed to meet. This is despite (or rather, because of) renewables overtaking coal in Germany in January. The more unreliables a nation has the more inefficient their whole grid is, and the more it costs to save each ton of carbon. Every extra wind turbine is more expensive at reducing CO2 than the last.
The EU Council has just released its summit statement— basically saying yes to all the IPCC favourite pet visions but not putting any dates on it. With no dates, it’s a meaningless wishlist.
But hey, it’s only the planet at stake, it’s not like there is a deadline that matters anyway eh?
The GWPF Calls it “Over” for the EU’s big carbon-neutral-by-2050 target
March 20: Tomorrow, the 28 leaders of EU countries are set to adopt a new strategy on action to combat climate change. In light of the student protests spreading across Europe and the world, many leaders in the West had wanted to strengthen the strategy. But this has been fiercely resisted by Eastern European countries led by Poland.
According to a leaked draft of the strategy, Poland is blocking an idea for the EU to commit to climate neutrality by 2050.
Forbes: Merkel May Kill Ambitious EU Climate Plan Tomorrow
Germany has broken ranks with other Western countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands who support a call by the European Commission to meet the 2050 goal. The Commission put forward the plan last year.
That tomorrow has quietly come…
Look at the different futures picked by Germany and France. Germany generates around 15% of energy from nuclear power, and 30% from the unreliables. France has more nukes than anyone else in the world — around 75% and cheaper electricity than Germany (and Australia).
Is this how Paris will go? The memes all stay the same just the dates wander quietly away…
UPDATE: it’s hard to get excited. Long term targets are meaningless to politicians anyhow. If Merkel cares, it shows how insanely expensive the plan was.
Quietly?
Isn’t there an EU election coming up soon?
I am sure Mr Farage will have some fun with it!
170
See the result of the Dutch election.
Politicians hate vote losing policies, so this is the start of a backdown which will continue long after the EU elections.
There will be lots of face saving gestures, such as the Dutch decision to go gas free by 2050, but these are intended to keep the Green minded on-side until they have lost most of their support. (Nothing will lose support for the Greens faster than the general public finding out what the forthcoming costs are).
250
Precisely.
A major rejig in May of the EU away from its current trajectory of becoming a proto-global soviet appears as inevitable as the consequences of its policies and their resultant ensuing social chaos of open borders, cultural desecration, economic and energy insecurity, political correctness, constraint of free speech, on-line censorship and the whole raft of meddling, regulating, controlling, oppression that is often termed in typical Orwellian acronym, the “NWO.”
Instead, it is about to become the OWO.
170
What the heck is carbon neutrality anyway? What does that mean? Carbon is completely apolitical and cannot be for, against or just present when a bill is voted on. 😉
60
Carbon neutrality as I understand it Roy, refers to the settled politics (soon to be unsettled), of notional CO2 sinks v anthropogenic CO2 output, that trivial minuscule anthropogenic output whose “footprint” in the theoretical spectra of globull warming is invisible and indistinguishable from the business as usual noise.
When the bullschitt equals the political accord, it is referred to as “neutral.” Consider it similar to the cancelling effect of 180deg phase interference physics.
Personally I loathe the politicised word ‘carbon’, once a unique terrestrial and galactic element that one appreciated for its marvellous allotropes and basis for aliphatic and aromatic chemistry, now suffering under an MSM dumbed down politicised definition, and forced to cross-dress into a CO2 molecule, that elegant life giving collaboration of a single carbon and two oxygen atoms that have been demonised, martyred and will eventually be canonised when the scientific heathen and illiterati are finally purged from civilised discourse.
Then again, ‘carbon’ might equally well be taken to mean ‘people’ … the political illiterati wouldn’t know the difference, well, except they happen to be UN Global Migration Compact maegrantissimi.
110
Carbon = people = Soylent Green
40
Sinks, sources, political nonsense. As I suspected, it’s political slight of hand,is it not?
Here in the states the long awaited — or dreaded — Mueller report has at last been delivered to the Attorney General and from Mueller himself comes the statement that no more indictments are going to come out of his “witch hunt”.
And there you have it whether it’s carbon or the president of the united states. No evidence exists that either one did anything wrong. Especially, there is no evidence that either one did what their respective accusers alleged. But will that be the end of it? NO! Because you see, in both cases the alleged crime is political.
A. In theory Trump’s contacts with Russians could have been a sellout to Putin. And still could be but just well hidden. I wonder if the Trump haters appreciate his ability to form bonds that matter with that segment of America that is still working to keep the country running. They may have shot themselves not just in the foot but in the head.
B. In theory carbon could be selling out the whole Earth, though to whom I cannot imagine, and the damage is just well hidden by that most clever of elements known as C on the periodic table. I wonder if those carbon haters realize that without carbon’s ability to form complex bonds with oxygen, hydrogen and many other elements this would be a dead planet. Only one element can do that and it’s carbon. It’s carbon that is the key to life and if anything we should worship it not vilify it. Those same Americans who support Trump are waking up to the carbon hoax and when they realize their power many a political and big money head will roll.
But the accusers will try to keep the two issues going by hook or by crook because they have no other reason to get up in he morning.
The dishonest of this world have good reason to rejoice in the fact that I have no police or prosecutorial power because if I did, they would all be toast as fast as I could round them up. If you fall in category A or B above and the people become wide awake you better have a head start running.
50
There is one thing I take pleasure in this morning. Both carbon and Trump have handled their hour of trial masterfully. Both have won. But they dare not let down their vigilance because winners always accumulate enemies.
50
Something else to take pleasure in is Trump signing the Executive Order re free speech on campuses. Pity he can’t do the same thing to Silicon Valley.
10
It’s nice to sign an executive order but most schools are private property where the Supreme court has already said they can impose such restrictions. I doubt that the court had such draconian restrictions in mind as those now in force when the ruling was handed down but I think Trump might have trouble enforcing his order. We probably will need to wait just a few weeks to see the suits being filed in Federal Courts.
The whole world is acting like children. Why should the President of the United States need to issue an executive order to ensure that the First Amendment is left intact on college campuses?
10
He shouldn’t need to. But nobody else is doing anything about it. My understanding is that Federal research funding is at stake here. Am I wrong?
00
At least for some of them you may be right. And that might be the leverage he’s looking for to force them to change.
Two things here:
1. I really don’t know which schools do federally funded research but we hand out money too generously so it could be every private college in America.
2. I’m not a fan of the federal government holding money over a state’s head by saying if you do this our way then you can get x dollars for it, otherwise no money.
So I don’t particularly like that method here either. It effectively creates an unconstitutional federal interference in something that belongs to the states to decide. But there may be grounds for civil suit based on denial of a constitutionally guaranteed right. But there’s that prior court ruling to contend with.
We only need wait and see. The knees will start to jerk shortly.
00
By the way Latus, your explanation is a masterful amalgam of nonsense and fact. You should run for political office. With your clarity of understanding how could you lose?
😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉
20
🙂 🙂 🙂
KarbonKeith
20
Latus,
That’s Huge.
I’m going to print that out and re-read it with a glass of matured CO2 based liquid moderated with one ice cube.
KK
10
Almost all life on Earth is carbon based. So carbon neutrality by 2050 in EU would be the extinction of all life within EU by 2050? Some good arguments here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ1gqIAKdgA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2YINdVyzY9WIZZ_rwuzmVNfTG5o0dOZnOPvoD8QEUAhvkvIIz_5S2MzRU
20
Gee Santa,
Only “Almost all”? What earth-bound one is not carbon based?
Cheers,
Dave B
10
Do We know ALL LIFE ON Earth?
“Carbon is a key component of all known life on Earth, representing approximately 45-50% of all dry biomass.[1] Complex molecules are made up of carbon bonded with other elements, especially oxygen and hydrogen and frequently also with nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Carbon is abundant on Earth. It is also lightweight and relatively small in size, making it easier for enzymes to manipulate carbon molecules.[citation needed] It is frequently assumed in astrobiology that if life exists elsewhere in the universe, it will also be carbon-based.[2][3] Critics refer to this assumption as carbon chauvinism.[4] “
00
The Europeans will know how to fiddle and skirt the rules without spoiling the ambiance at climate conferences. I think they call that sophistication. The Chinese will make definite statements about a definite date by which they will have a definite date for a definite statement (applause!). The Yanks like to be first in but also first out with expensive fads.
But Skippy the Convict will take it all seriously…and they still won’t applaud us at climate conferences.
Better get Abbott back in, tin ear and all. You never know. He has a vote or two in him. Forget the surf club and fire brigade this time, make every photo involve a coal pit or a coal loader or a coal conveyor or a coal plant. If he can get up, the Posh Left will have someone to really hate again, and the average punter will have a chance of keeping his lights on. Win-win.
310
The outcome of the Oz Fed election in May will determine whether Abbott returns as Opposition leader.
170
The outcome of the Oz Fed election in May will determine whether Abbott returns
68
If the ginger group hold their seats in a Coalition rout, then Tony and Barnaby will return as Opposition leaders.
90
as in the Ginger Ninja NOT the Ginger Whinger?
Speaking of which does anybody know where Malcolm Roberts is?
40
As in what planet??
47
“As in what planet??”
Planet Earth.
Perhaps phloop will visit sometime from planet La-La!
Eat more beans for your propulsion, phloop ?
oh wait.. that would cause CH4.. can’t have that..
How will he ever get here ?????
01
While I’m not a huge Tony fan, it interests me to see how mention of Abbott around the net sends GeeUp into pink alert.
They may not do much when you consider all the millions they soak while getting free service from their foot-sloggers, but the higher-up GeeUppers do have the resources to do lots of homework where it counts so they can direct their stunts to the best effect.
While belittling Abbott, they seem to fear him a bit. I guess that’s because he has more than a few votes in him. Interesting.
I never lecture people at poll booths, but a pamphlet lady asked me on the way out who I thought would win. I said I had no idea…but I wanted coal to win. Then I copped the lecture.
150
Ah..the Left.
Stupid is as stupid does….
30
What The People should be doing instead is marching into Parliament and give those Socialist freeloaders an Icelandic shove out the door where rocks may rain down on them from Heaven.
10
YES!!! 🙂
46
And the fakery continues.. Phloops defence mechanism against his paranoia.
21
Morrison is going to pull a rabbit out of the hat, which means Abbott maybe given a junior portfolio in the new Coalition government.
20
It certainly looks like Labor are expected to win. Is it me, or has there been a sudden increase in TV adds for Generac automatic generators?
Seems Labor’s announced policies appear to some as indicating a sales opportunity.
Incidentally I notice a number of negative comments on said product, although I can’t say if they are reasonable or not.
00
Eventually the term ‘Carbon’ will mean what those that wish absolute rule want it to mean and “Carbon life form neutralisation” will be a necessary step to save the planet.
111
Well, that just means everything then eh..? Let them lead by example – or be forced, I don’t care. Ready the popcorn.. 🙂
10
What’s the difference between ‘carbon neutrality’ and ‘zero carbon’ that Australia wants to achieve?
80
“This week Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott played the reality card on Labor’s 45-50 per cent targets for emissions and renewables: “We don’t have a plan to do this.
How are we going to do this? If it’s economy wide, what is the mechanism by which we (Labor) are going to do this? Is it a cap and trade system? Is it the national energy guarantee? Is it a base-loading credit system? Are we going to exempt the trade-exposed sector?
Are we going to allow the ‘carry over’ for Kyoto?
I think the Australian people are entitled to understand how these things will be achieved. This is the history of the problem – people say stuff, then they try to implement it and everyone goes ‘Oh, hang on, we didn’t mean for those jobs to be gone’ – now we’ll have to have a compensation scheme. Then we stop and then we go backwards and then we make no progress. This is the history.”
Yet nothing Westacott said – policy realities that must be faced by any Shorten government – impinge on the current climate change mantras that dominate our public debate. Just listen to the independent progressives crusading on climate change in leafy Liberal seats to grasp how much this debate has regressed over the past 15 years.
They talk endlessly about saving the planet and the urgency for Australia to do more, as though the policy and political obstacles of the past 15 years never happened….”
The Weekend Australian
Paul Kelly
120
Given that many of us deplorables are already having to cope and adjust lifestyles due to policies implemented by climate worriers in government, I wonder how those in the ‘leafy suburbs’ will cope when such things begin to impact them as well?
130
They won’t cope that’s the point, when the situation becomes dire the designers of collapse will either offer or enact a solution.
A21 sustainable development supporters give a figure of 90-95% global population reduction or 100-500 million left, how that goal is reached can be seen through test cases from the recent past, world wars, disease, financial crashes, the people still have a choice to stop this they just don’t know it.
The collapse of any great civilisation is the architect of its own demise.
82
You overlooked the promotion of wholesale abortion as a women’s health issue, rather than the Left’s preferred method of population reduction.
20
Yes the list is comprehensive, just thinking about it is depressing but necessary to find a way out.
11
“While Labor has not outlined the finer details of its climate change or workplace relations policies, or the date its changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax will start, Mr Shorten said they would be provided before the election”. Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full – says Bill to his Union masters.
130
If I was prime minister I would run the government like a union said Bill Shorten.
100
You mean like “If you want to complain, I’ll send some THUGS around to sort you out”
101
M . Williamson is out & would probably slide right into a an office managers job………
40
Life and Death.
10
Somewhat o/t
“An endorsement by Rush Limbaugh -‘Watts Up With That? It’s a cool little website’”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/22/an-endorsement-by-rush-limbaugh-watts-up-with-that-its-a-cool-little-website/
Progress IMO.
What odds will we see Jo quoted by The Age/SMH?
130
Fossil Fuels Are Good For U.S. National Security, New Study Reports.
What a pity there is no such reporting in Australia, where our economy and security is going to be further decimated by unreliable “renewables”. Our pathetic pollies are pandering to pious pagans and now pubescents.
110
Distant targets are something of a political freebie, so I think Germany’s reluctance may be due to the rapid rise of its own new populist party. (Note that populist is lefty code for Conservative.) The Dutch miracle is just the latest part of a broad new wave of skepticism. Bring it on!
When will Australia get the Right stuff?
180
Unfortunately Dave, Aussies being of “The Right Stuff” ended sometime after Vietnam and it’s a distant memory becoming ever more distant being pushed by gimme-gimme Millennials. I bet NZ gets their own back on past jokes by pointing out we act like sheep.
10
CLIMATE EMERGENCY ?
A local SA Labor Party member, is pushing for the Adelaide Hills Council to pass some motion about a ‘Climate Emergency’.
All part of the campaign to elect a Labor government in 2019, no doubt.
But this country of ours has always had an erratic climate. When the first Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove in 1788, Australia was in the midst of dry hot Summer. Fresh water had to be rationed from the “Tank stream” because there was so little water.
Our changeable climate is written into our Australian consciousness Lieth. And has been for generations.
Its also in our poetry. Here is a famous example:
“I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze …
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly. ”
Dorothea Mackeller ~ 1902
That’s our climate.
Greenists need to get used to it.
333
A red thumb !
Bugger some silly bugger doesn’t like Australian poetry ?
192
What they REALLY don’t like is being shown/told is that the current Australian climate…..
IS WELL WITHIN HISTORIC NORMS OF VARIABILITY
252
Andy, hardly anyone in the general public thinks scientifically.
So the phrase ” Within historic norms of variability” does not compute for most folks.
But the poetry resonates.
141
Unfortunately autistic, affectless Swedish schoolgirls with expressionless stares commanding immediate “panic” resonate with the masses. Irrational children as oracles!
Stunning how many of the young Climateers are young women of similar look. Makes one wonder if autism can be induced in susceptible personalities by applying the frightners.
https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2019-4/artikel/wir-basteln-uns-eine-klima-ikone-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-4-2019.html (Use Google translate)
62
She doesn’t resonate with me or I suspect the general public.
But she is lovely ‘news fodder’ for the media.
For the media it doesn’t matter that her message is dopey.
Meanwhile being an autistic child, she is ‘protected’.
it’s un PC to actually criticise her.
Even so we’ll pay no attention !
32
Sweden is undergoing a renaissance from the Right. I anticipate some substantial changes in that notably swampy bog.
10
Bill
Probably a fan of poetry by Beto – which (IMO) is no threat to Shakespeare
30
My favourite poem and something the watermelons hate – reality .
92
:
I love a sunburnt country,
I have a new refrain,
A land of politicians,
were the youth have gone insane,
They march to change the climate,
but don’t like climate change!
150
Bill,
There is a petition going in Woodside for the Adelaide Hill Council to do something about the Nairne road intersection with Onkaparinga Road and T junction with Tiers Road.
This was a ‘hot’ topic 15 years ago when I moved here and the Council fought tooth and nail to prevent any action (except at the cost of others) and they are still refusing to do anything now. There was a Meeting last month in which the Council officers outlined the future plans for the town. I left after 2 hours of waffle as I could see nothing at all happening (save a few trees being planted). Those who sat out the whole 3.5 hours felt the same.
Suffice to say most of the Council members are less useful than the average bureaucrat.
20
Some questions
How many windmills does it take to stop Climate Change?
Do we have enough?
The world is not warming, so has Global Warming stopped?
If global warming has stopped and CO2 has kept growing, how can CO2 be responsible for warming?
How does Global Warming produce Climate Change if the world is not warming?
How does global Warming make bushfires more frequent?
Is +1C in an average over 100 years significant? Why?
When will the rapid sea rise start? We have been waiting for 100 years. From photographs, nothing has happened. From memory, nothing at all.
When will we have to abandon the world’s cities because they are underwater?
If melting ice makes the sea go up, why don’t the cities drown every year?
When will teachers stop telling children things which are obviously not true.
When will we stop having to pay windmill owners billions in cash just to exist and not for electricity. The City of Canberra has on their books $37Million in cashable credits as the owner of windmills bought with public money. Can we have the money back please? Yes, the people who do not live in Canberra.
232
A comment on your question about the rapid sea rise.
Several years ago I read an article about the predicted sea rises in the Herald Sun. It was buried somewhere in the middle, not front page news like a temperature increase would. The writer said if the sea was rising the increase would show on tidal gauges around the coast, but the tidal gauges showed no increase
162
Having lived most of my life near the beach, at most a few metres above high tide, I would have noticed. I walk the dogs along the beach and the sea wall has been there forever. Built by ab*riginals perhaps. Nothing has changed. Still opportunistic insurance companies increased premiums massively because they argued we were in an area to be inundated soon. Total rubbish.
When will councils accept that coastlines change but the seas are obviously not rising fast enough to be of any concern. More likely the intensity of habitation is raising land levels, as is the silting of estuaries. Perhaps the Dutch should migrate before they drown? Or is it more made up rubbish, like carbon neutrality and cow farts.
102
TdeF:
I suggest that a query to your insurance Company about obtaining money under false pretences might bring some results. Probably you will be ignored but…it could arrouse some apprehension and some thoughts on avoiding embarrassing court cases. They might decide to offer you a rebate as a loyal customer.
20
… so the installer of the tidal gauge forgot to nail them to the rock wall and they’re all rising with the sea level.
C’mon Maptram, get with it!
By the way, if you have some shoreline property you want to sell off quickly, I’m interested, but I can’t offer you much. Sea Level Rise, you see?
30
While the Fremantle tide gauge (it’s been been there for a very long time) shows an average SLR of 1.3 mm/year, I think what is more important is that the RATE of SLR has NOT increased.
20
There’s no LEGAL definition of “income” in any tax legislation – none. Income doesn’t mean DOLLARS (yeh this -> “$” silly thing that used to mean silver dollars but no longer exists) until YOU AGREE IT DOES (by filing returns and writing out amounts using “$” symbol but without “Sum Certain” etc). Nowhere in any tax legislation is “income” legally defined as dollars. Write to the Tax Office and demand they show where in what Act and Section “income” is legally defined as anything. You’ll get back 2 pages of BS waffle without an answer. Think about it.
10
as expected, a Friday news dump:
22 Mar: Breitbart: Special Counsel Delivers Mueller Report to Attorney General Barr
by Joshua Caplan; The Associated Press contributed to this report
President Trump’s initial reaction to news of the report’s delivery is that he is “glad it’s over,” according to sources close to ABC News…
However, the delivery of the report does mean the investigation has concluded without any public charges of a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Russia, or of obstruction by the president. Further, the Associated Press’ Zeke Miller reports Mueller is not recommending any further indictments…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/22/special-counsel-delivers-mueller-report-to-attorney-general-barr/
time for the real investigation to begin:
Amazon: The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump
#1 New York Times bestseller
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett reveals the real story behind Hillary Clinton’s deep state collaborators in government and exposes their nefarious actions during and after the 2016 election.
The Russia Hoax reveals how persons within the FBI and Barack Obama’s Justice Department worked improperly to help elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
When this suspected effort failed, those same people appear to have pursued a contrived investigation of President Trump in an attempt to undo the election results and remove him as president.
The evidence suggests that partisans within the FBI and the Department of Justice, driven by personal animus and a misplaced sense of political righteousness, surreptitiously acted to subvert electoral democracy in our country…
https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Hoax-Illicit-Hillary-Clinton/dp/0062872745
80
it’s being reported that Hannity/Fox has been told to stop calling Sara Carter an “investigative reporter”! lol. Murdoch has been protecting Five Eyes collusion in Spygate – even pulling Fox News off cable in the UK – and his media outlets, other than Fox, have not even reported on the revelations of the past 2 years, much less interviewed Carter or Solomon.
it’s also being reported that Fox has stopped shows other than Hannity from having Sara Carter on. this is a woman who, along with Solomon, should be shoo-ins for Pulitzer Prizes!
Sara is re-tweeting:
TWEET: Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C:
Remember: as FBI and DOJ officials sought to surveil the Trump campaign through a FISA, they were well aware of anti-Trump bias involved with their ‘pivotal’ sources. They knew. But they proceeded anyway.
They were determined to target Trump. LINK
22 Mar 2019
https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/status/1109166553973616640
TWEET: Sidney Powell, Attorney 500+ fed appeals:
To understand #MuellerReport you must first read the book at http://LicensedToLie.com ! 5star #nonfiction #National #bestseller…LINK
22 Mar 2019
https://twitter.com/SidneyPowell1/status/1109126182031761408
21 Mar: The Hill: John Solomon: As Russia collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges
After nearly three years and millions of tax dollars, the Trump-Russia collusion probe is about to be resolved. Emerging in its place is newly unearthed evidence suggesting another foreign effort to influence the 2016 election — this time, in favor of the Democrats.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor divulged in an interview aired Wednesday on Hill.TV that he has opened an investigation into whether his country’s law enforcement apparatus intentionally leaked financial records during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign about then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in an effort to sway the election in favor of Hillary Clinton…READ ALL
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435029-as-russia-collusion-fades-ukrainian-plot-to-help-clinton-emerges
VIDEO: 22 Mar: Breitbart: Peter Schweizer: China Buying Off Joe Biden Through His Son
by Trent Baker
Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Peter Schweizer, author of “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” discussed questionable dealings involving Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and foreign money.
Schweizer told host Laura Ingraham it is “crystal clear” that China was “buying off” Joe Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, through his son.
“In December of 2013, Hunter Biden flies on Air Force 2 to Beijing, China, with his father. His father meets with Chinese officials, he’s very soft on Beijing. The most important thing that happens happens 10 days after they return. And that’s when Hunter Biden’s small, private equity firm called Rosemont Seneca Partners gets a $1 billion private equity deal with the Chinese government, not with the Chinese corporation, with the government. And what people need to realize is Hunter Biden has no background in China, he has no background in private equity, the deal he got in the Shanghai free-trade zone, nobody else had. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Blackstone, nobody had this deal.”…
Schweizer added that “this is the tip of the iceberg” of what was “going on while Joe Biden is vice president steering foreign policy.”…
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/03/22/schweizer-china-buying-off-joe-biden-through-his-son/
21 Mar: Newsbusters: Media Ignore Hunter Biden’s Ties to China
by Ryan Foley
Ingraham pointed out that the media and the left have spent the past two years accusing President Trump of being bought off by the Russians and yet the same media haven’t shown the same interest in the Biden family’s ties to China and other shady foreign government officials.
***Ingraham concluded the segment by noting the “stunning lack of curiosity on the part of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Washington Post, New York Times.”
Based on the media’s almost cheerleader-like coverage of Biden’s possible presidential run, it makes perfect sense why this story “just gets buried,” as Ingraham put it.
NBC’s Chuck Todd got all excited over the weekend that Biden “keeps leaving these Easter Eggs and dropping these hints about whether or not he may run.” And earlier in the month, NBC News White House Correspondent Kristen Welker had expressed her excitement about “the former Vice President dropping his strongest hints yet about a presidential run.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle is below. Click “expand” to read more…
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/ryan-foley/2019/03/21/media-ignore-hunter-bidens-ties-china
World leaders tell Biden: We need you
Politico-20 Mar 2019
Obama donors prepare to power Biden’s campaign
Politico – 22 Mar 2019
This time, Biden would enter the race as a respected party elder and an heir to the Obama legacy…
Joe Biden’s not so secret weapon: Barack Obama
CNN – 9 Mar 2019
What these polls do indicate is that the 2020 Democratic nominee is likely to be someone who can best say they are continuing the legacy of the Obama administration and building on its success.
The former vice president for Obama has a good claim to the Obama mantle, and it’s a big reason why Biden is a formidable 2020 candidate…
00
sad to say, Sara Carter was not described by Hannity or on screen as “Investigative reporter” on Hannity today.
00
followup to Mueller report comment is in moderation.
VIDEO: 2min48sec: 22 Mar: Fox News: Newly obtained texts between Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page reveal that they mocked President Trump
Fox News obtained texts between former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page revealing that the two shared derogatory blogs about Trump and mocked former Congressman Trey Gowdy; Catherine Herridge reports.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6017031631001#sp=show-clips
22 Mar: Fox News: FBI clashed with DOJ over potential ‘bias’ of source for surveillance warrant: McCabe-Page texts
By Gregg Re, Catherine Herridge
Newly obtained texts between Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page reveal that they mocked President Trump
Just nine days before the FBI applied for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil a top Trump campaign aide, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had “continued concerns” about the “possible bias” of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal text messages obtained by Fox News…
The 2016 messages, sent between former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, also reveal that bureau brass circulated at least two anti-Trump blog articles, including a Lawfare blog post sent shortly after Election Day that called Trump possibly “among the major threats to the security of the country.”
Another article, sent by Page in July 2016 as the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into Russian election interference was kicking off, flatly called Trump a “useful idiot” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Page told McCabe that then-FBI Director James Comey had “surely” read that piece. Both articles were authored in whole or part by Benjamin Wittes, a Comey friend…
But perhaps the most significant Page-McCabe communications made plain the DOJ’s worries that the FISA application to surveil Trump aide Carter Page was based on a potentially biased source — and underscored the FBI’s desire to press on…
In its warrant application, the FBI assured the FISA court on numerous occasions that other sources independently corroborated Steele’s claims but did not clearly state that Steele worked for a firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign…
Carter Page has not been charged with any wrongdoing despite more than a year of federal surveillance, and he has since sued numerous actors — including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) — for defamation related to claims that he worked with Russia…READ ON
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-clashed-doj-biased-fisa-source-texts-mccabe-page
60
Is this thread a fizzer?
All the angst, money, coercion and threat over a concept that should have been canned a decade ago.
There’s absolutely no scientific concept that supports the active CO2 idea behind this.
Time for truth and honesty to front up and tell it like it is.
There are two reasons why this thing has lasted so long.
1. Control.
and
2. Money.
152
It always serves to point out the non-problem of the failed politically correct hypothesis of global warming and CO2.
The trouble is as you know, telling the institutionalised institutional lie often enough for long enough eventually gets most to accept it (whether or not they believe it).
However, the cost of failing to dispatch this lie to the anus of history is devastating and priceless.
We cannot fail. If we do, there may be no one to reveal the lie.
40
When the old people pass away the big lie should theoretically become intrenched, but that is unlikely to happen because temperatures are about to fall.
Empirical evidence on a platter.
20
The falling temperatures will blamed on climate variability or some such and the proles will believe it because of the instilled belief system of the state, sorry but to avoid this future the battle for sanity has to be won now.
11
Falling temperatures instead will be blatantly fabricated as proof that their draconian measures are working and that more money needed for more research on a superstition they continue to lie is proven. But then on the other foot, is their blatant lie that rising temperatures are proof that their measures are working and more money etc etc.
I’m sure people aren’t THAT stupid to fall for this trap time and time again, but then back in the days of the Inquisition, people accused of witchcraft were thrown into rivers and if they floated, it was said the waters rejected them as a witch. But if they drowned, well..
I suggest that if bureaucrats and self-proclaimed “scientists” want to profit off middle-age superstition, they better be aware of the rules.
20
22 Mar: MediaIte: ‘Kill or Be Killed’: Inside the Ad Boycotts and Power Transfers Shaping the New Fox News
by Aidan McLaughlin
“The left” demands “total conformity,” Carlson bellowed. “Since the day we went on the air, they’ve been working hard to kill this show.”
A network staffer who spoke to Mediaite agreed: “The left’s attacks aren’t in good faith,” the staffer said. “Kill or be killed.”
This week, Rupert Murdoch kicked off a new era for the network he founded: the $71.3 billion sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney was finalized, leaving behind a new, smaller company, Fox Corporation, home to Murdoch’s remaining assets. The highly profitable remains, to be run by Rupert’s son Lachlan, include Fox News — which generates more than $1 billion annual profits — as well as Fox Business, Fox Sports and the Fox broadcast network.
Fox News insists that boycotts are not a serious threat to the network, pointing to robust growth in advertising revenue year over year.
Whether revenues come from luxury car ads or My Pillow, Fox News remains the top-rated and most profitable network in cable news…
Others are pushed from news to opinion by network brass. Gregg Jarrett, who worked for 15 years as a Fox News anchor, was stripped of the title in 2017 and made a legal analyst, because his commentary “went off the deep end” of reporting the news, one senior network source said. The change did wonders for his career. Now free to opine on Hannity without editorial restrictions, Jarrett’s 2018 book on the “deep state” (WHY NOT NAME THE BOOK, MEDIAITE?) vaulted to the top of the New York Times best-seller list, demonstrating the incentives for making the move to opinion — particularly of the pro-Trump variety…
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/inside-the-ad-boycotts-non-apologies-and-transfer-of-power-shaping-the-new-fox-news/
20 Mar: Bolt Blog: SLEEPING GIANTS EXPOSED. HOW WE LAUGHED
I said Sleeping Giants, hounding advertisers to try to kill my Sky News show, was pretending to be vastly bigger on the Internet than they really were.
Today they finally stepped out into the daylight to run two monster protests against Sky and News Corp, with the help of GetUp! and the Greens.
What a fiasco. I hope advertisers were watching…
VIDEO
Alex McKinnon is a journalist with the Saturday Paper. When he can suggest some 24 protesters are a blow-away crowd, his bosses should be very cautious in fact-checking anything else he writes:
TWEET: Alex McKinnon: (protest) Getting underway now. Absolutely blown away by this turnout
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/sleeping-giant-exposed-how-we-laughed/news-story/11dccf1585fc00fbb1757c7138f22162
10
TWITTER: George Papadopolous:
46m ago: The timing for my book release on Monday couldn’t have come at a better moment! A pamphlet on who to hit back.
LINK Amazon: Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump Hardcover
Deep State Target is the only firsthand account that proves the attempted sabotage of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by American and international intelligence services, from former Trump advisor George Papadopoulos―whose global network, clandestine meetings about Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails, and rift with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions made him the first target of Spygate, the Mueller Investigation, and the Russian Collusion Hoax…
American and allied intelligence services set out to destroy a Trump presidency before it even started. An energy policy consultant working for the insurgent campaign, Papadopoulos encountered a rogues’ gallery of infamous figures employed by agents from the US, Britain, and Australia. Here, he gives the play-by-play of how operatives like Professor Joseph Mifsud, Sergei Millian, Alexander Downer, and Stefan Halper worked to invent a Russian conspiracy that would irreparably damage the Trump administration.
Papadopoulos was there: In secret meetings across the globe, on city streets being tailed by agents, watching Jeff Sessions make false statements under oath about a strategy session he attended, and ultimately being interrogated by Mueller’s team and agreeing to a guilty plea.
Deep State Target is a shocking account of international spy games and a disturbing eyewitness report on a secret double government―the Deep State―intent on destroying lives and a presidency.
5h ago: Alexander Downer and Joseph Mifsud were two nobodies trying to play with the big boys in America and preserve their vested interests in a Clinton presidency. Both got burned by the same intel community they sought to act as assets for when targeting the Trump team.
https://twitter.com/georgepapa19?lang=en
30
TWEET: Kimberley Strassel, WSJ:
“Special counsel is not recommending any further indictments.” Assuming this is true, I wonder when Americans can expect an apology from all those who spent two years getting it breathlessly, abjectly and irresponsibly wrong.
LINK WSJ
22 Mar 2019
from near top of 885 replies:
Forget the apology, justice must be served either criminally or civilly… every single one who was involved in the conspiracy…
63M+ voters are furious. We want indictments of EVERY ONE who acted against &/or falsely defamed our duly elected President @realDonaldTrump & EVERY ONE who were fully informed of the hoax all along & did nothing. Guilt by aiding & abetting criminals & traitors. Prosecute!…
PLEASE Stop saying the Media was WRONG… They were complicit…
https://twitter.com/KimStrassel/status/1109221370771042306
80
This link does not work
The GWPF Calls it “Over” for the EU’s big carbon-neutral-by-2050 target
And I could not find the story on the GWPF site.
310
I’m surprised that I was the only one to find this out. Show how much everyone else read the post
38
Not surprised you were incompetent.
73
So you accuse me of incompetence, are you going to offer the same comment to JoNova? After all, the link was broken
47
YAWN.
Do you FEEEEEL like the VICTIM again, pfutz.
Perhaps you bring it on yourself ! 😉
10
Vraiment, une Grande Te^te
30
Aww.. Boo hoo.. I already read it on WattsUp, so go there if you want an education.
50
https://www.thegwpf.com/
pfutz incompetence, yet again.
112
Link works ok here
20
This link does not work
And you immediately let Jo know, I hope.
And I could not find the story on the GWPF site.
And yet, there it is.
I’m surprised that I was the only one to find this out.
For me, Jo’s summary of the item’s content provided sufficient information, pro tem. Perhaps for others too?
Show how much everyone else read the post
Best read aloud with a Benny Hill faux Japanese accent.
30
“Tweet others as you want to be Tweeted” seen on a Salvation Army notice board.
Also applies to blog comments.
80
TWEET: Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept:
The Mueller investigation is complete and this is a simple fact that will never go away: not one single American was charged, indicted or convicted for conspiring with Russia to influence the 2016 election – not even a low-level volunteer. The number is zero.
22 Mar 2019
Greenwald 4h ago: Compare what cable hosts (let’s leave them unnamed) & Democratic operatives spent two years claiming this would lead to – the imprisonment of Don, Jr., Jared, even Trump on conspiracy-with-Russia charges – to what it actually produced. A huge media reckoning is owed…
Greenwald 4h ago: Are we now ready to rid ourselves of the thrilling espionage fantasy that Trump is controlled by Putin and the Kremlin using blackmail? There’s no way Robert Mueller would have gone 18 months without telling anyone about this if it were true, right? How could that be justified?
Greenwald 2h ago: The desperate attempts to salvage something from this debacle by the Mueller dead-enders are just sad. Yes, the public hasn’t read the Mueller report. But we *know* he ended his investigation without indicting a single American for conspiring with Russia to influence the election.
Greenwald 1h ago: So many in the media devoted endless airtame & print & pixels misleading people to believe Mueller was coming to arrest & prosecute Trump, Jr, Kushner & so many others for conspiring with Russia over the election & obstruction. None of that happened. You can’t pretend it away.
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1109201503418490880
pure rubbish:
23 Mar: ABC: Robert Mueller’s Russia-Trump probe is big and complicated, but these are the threads tying it together
Russia, If You’re Listening By Matt Bevan
Updated 48 minutes ago
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign for President and its connections to Russia has become so broad and complex that people following it closely are running out of red string and space on their giant conspiracy walls.
But all conspiracy walls have focal points. Spots where heaps of red string all tie together into a big wad. Significant moments which changed the course of the alleged conspiracy, and investigation.
Here are eight of the big ones to keep an eye on when Mr Mueller’s report is released.
(FINAL LINE) Several Trump associates are set to serve prison time for lying to investigators, but it’s still unclear whether anything they were trying to hide amounts to a conspiracy against the United States.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-23/key-moments-in-muellers-trump-russia-investigation/10846424
full of crazy pieces:
23 Mar: ABC: Robert Mueller submits report into Russian interference in Donald Trump’s election
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-23/robert-mueller-submits-report-into-russian-interference-in-2016/10932630
garbage:
23 Mar: ABC: Trump’s presidency has been dogged by Mueller. Here are the key figures in the Russia probe
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-23/robert-mueller-russia-investigation-key-players/10679256
ABC has every call for the report to be made public, except for one (at least from what I saw in a quick scan of all the pieces):
16 Mar: The Hill: Trump: I told Republicans to vote for ‘transparency’ in releasing Mueller report
By Rachel Frazin
President Trump said Saturday that he told Republican leadership to vote in favor of releasing special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated report, saying that transparency “makes us all look good.”
“On the recent non-binding vote (420-0) in Congress about releasing the Mueller Report, I told leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency,” he tweeted. “Makes us all look good and doesn’t matter. Play along with the game!”…
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/434386-trump-i-told-republicans-to-vote-for-transparency-in-releasing
40
22 Mar: Washington Examiner: Byron York: Five things that didn’t happen in the Mueller investigation
At this point, it is not possible to say what is in the report. But even at this early moment, it is possible to note some things did not happen during the Mueller investigation.
1. Mueller did not indict Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, or other people whose purported legal jeopardy was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
2. Mueller did not charge anyone in the Trump campaign or circle with conspiring with Russia to fix the 2016 election, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
3. Mueller did not subpoena the president, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
4. The president did not fire Mueller, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
5. The president did not interfere with the Mueller investigation, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year. In his letter to Congress, Barr noted the requirement that he notify lawmakers if top Justice Department officials ever interfered with the Mueller investigation. “There were no such instances,” Barr wrote.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-five-things-that-didnt-happen-in-the-mueller-investigation
132
Another red thumb Pat !
By some idiot who does not like the facts !
83
The enormity of the problem facing Germany to get beyond 30% from intermittents is clear if anyone cares to look at the numbers.
Germany has a total of 100GW of installed wind and solar capacity. That plant generated 157TWh, which is 29.2% of their consumption. If there was infinite storage or other countries willing to supply their shortfall and take their excess as it occurred (as other states do for South Australia) then the installed capacity to produce 100% of consumption needs to be 342GW. The average demand is 62GW.
The problem becomes obvious when it is realised that the maximum demand in Europe is 550GW. So when the wind blows and sun shines in Germany it could supply most of Europe with electricity. However this would preclude most other countries in Europe using intermittents for generation and we already have the UK, Spain and others using the same strategy. Essentially relying on the good graces of neighbouring countries to buffer their intermittents.
The current situation has a limited life and it is clear there needs to be truly astronomical investment in storage to keep the dream alive.
The cost of storage is so high that the lowest cost option requires massive overbuild of around 3-fold in the generation. So that means Germany would need in excess of 1TW of generation to meet its average load of 62GW. They currently have 10% of what is required in terms of generation and next to no storage.
Germany has done the easy part and are imposing their filthy, low value power onto neighbouring states, while requiring their neighbours to meet every shortfall. They are a huge burden on the EU community. Neighbours are surely waking to this situation.
150
See the difference yet again.
The first bolded total is the Nameplate, and that second bolded total is the actual power delivered by all that renewable power in total.
So, that is at an average Capacity Factor for BOTH wind and solar combined of 17.91%, and that’s for BOTH of them.
So, here you have 100GW (100,000MW) of Nameplate and it delivers the equivalent of only 17.9GW of that overall total.
And you wonder why I harp on about this very important differentiation.
Here in Australia, we have 5661MW Nameplate for wind and 2532MW Nameplate for solar plants, for an all up total nameplate for both wind plus solar of around 8200MW. The total generated power for both for a year gives their combined Capacity Factor at 23.5%, (which is better than Germany) so they deliver their power at an equivalence of 1925MW, for a yearly total generated power of 16.875TWH, and that’s just slightly less than the total power generated in the same year by Bayswater. (17TWH)
Tony.
150
So, do the big polluting coal fired plants work at nameplate?
412
Yes they do, on a very reliable basis.
Looking at last 24 hours in Vic, Yallourn 1 ran at 362 MW steadily, nameplate 360 MW, same as Y3, while Y2 was shutdown.
In NSW, Bayswater 1 ran at nameplate capacity of 660 MW for most of the day, dropping back to 490 MW at times of low demand.
Wonderful wacky wind in Vic varied from 200-1200 MW while in NSW it varied from 100-400 MW completely unresponsive to demand.
So two old coal stations in Vic delivered more power than 1740 MW nameplate wind in Vic across the 24 hours, and one Bayswater generator delivered way more than 1500 MW of nameplate wind in NSW.
160
Robber you forgot to mention “reliably” and on demand 24/7
80
Ye wind turbines not so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVHzfUWul2Y
30
Well yes, they do in fact.
Look at just this one image here at this link.
It shows all ten Units in Victoria currently in operation. One Unit is off line for maintenance, Yallourn W, Unit 2, and you can see that at left with the pink colour showing zero, the output from that off line Unit.
The Nameplate for the nine Units on line is 4300MW, so they are currently delivering their power above the total nameplate.
You’ll also note that it is a virtual straight line across the graph, and in Victoria, this has been the case since Hazelwood went out of action, after its 53 years of operation, with every Unit available delivering power either at or above their Nameplate.
Regularly, on a daily basis in fact the whole coal fired fleet in Australia ramps up and down, and at peak power time on virtually every day, every coal fired Unit on line in their totality manage between 92 and 98% of their combined Nameplate. A few Units, like the older ones at Liddell are restricted to 80% of their Nameplate, but in the main, they all make Nameplate on an every day basis.
And look, let me apologise in advance here as I know you don’t need to know any of this as your main concentration (and I feel sure you’ll tell us) was not on this fact, but on the word ‘polluding’.
Tony.
90
Same day, yesterday (22nd March) and this is the graph for EVERY wind plant in Australia, shown at this link.
Here I have the mouse hovered over the minimum output for wind power, 524MW. That’s at a Capacity Factor of 9.26%, and at that time, wind power was delivering around 2.2% of what was required to run the Country.
THIS is the future that the people who you place your faith in have for all of us here in Australia.
Hey, even I know that this is just one point in time, but if this is the main part of electrical power generation into the future, what do you propose that Australia does at times like this?
Tony.
100
Tony, and Robber. If I understand your comments correctly, dirty coal can run at nameplate, and can do so for extended periods. However, It does not always run at nameplate, but can ramp up or down if required. So very like renewables in that respect. The big difference is that if the energy supply for renewables is interrupted, they would not be able to make even the lower operational output that they typically produce. Mind you, if the supply of coal was interrupted for a long enough period, the same would apply to plants depending on that particular energy source.
212
Oh Tony, please stop laughing.
Tony.
120
Peter, renewables CANNOT ramp up and down when required, only coal energy can do that. So in NO way are renewables like coal energy.
110
“So very like renewables in that respect.”
WALOFR !!!
The only “renewable” that can ramp up and down at request is hydro.
You are a living LIE, pfutz. !!
71
Fitz.. Does Green Blob pay you a few cents every time you spam the words “dirty” and “coal”..? Maybe you simply ignore the fact we’re just putting back into the atmosphere what the Carboniferous era 350M years ago sequestered as coal. If plants die because you’re being paid to profit from Socialist lies, so does every herbivore, carnivore, insect and so do you.
Plants are WAY smarter than you Fitz.
61
Even the slugs that eat the plants are way smarter than puddle-pfutz.
I still don’t know where puddle-pfutz gets this bizarre PARANOIA about CO2.
Its not as though there is any actual science to back up its brain-washed delusional CO2 derangement.
51
“Mind you, if the supply of coal was interrupted for a long enough period, the same would apply to plants depending on that particular energy source.”
By the year 2320 (or thereabouts) when coal becomes a bit scarce we may have other energy sources…and Tony may have stopped laughing by then.
Tony, stop laughing!
50
It’s really a good thing where Peter Fitzroy writes things like this. He thinks he’s having a bit of fun here by writing what he did, just aimlessly trolling for a bite, but all it does is reinforce the fact that even when shown conclusively that renewables will never be the equal of coal fired power at any level, he still prefers to believe what his people tell him to believe. And yet, there it is in hard copy, not able to be taken back, or argued that this was not his intent, or that his emphasis was on something else, or that there was a spelling mistake, or that he was distracted by Britney Spears, or that we have funny names, so can’t be taken seriously, or that …..
No, what made me laugh is that I knew he was just having a jolly jape.
Tony.
60
Firstly, they are not polluting unless you accept that you are a pollutant, generating CO2 right now. You are made entirely from things made from CO2. You are a carbon lifeform. Accept it. When dried, you burn like a log of wood.
Then there is no distinction for coal/gas/oil. Their generation capacity is exactly what is required, not that desired. The sun does not shine at night and the wind does not blow all the time. Neither wind nor solar can deliver what is desired, when required, let alone what they can at maximum in those rare optimum conditions.
Replaceables are what you have to use when you cannot get access to fossil fuel. As in India, the place comes to a stop when the wind stops. Could you really live like that?
90
If anything I have written is wrong, please correct me.
70
Just off the top of my head – S02, N02, Mercury, Fly Ash, PM10. All contributing to worse health outcomes in the Hunter.
28
There is no SO2, PM10, Fly ash. Scrubbers fixed that. Years ago, the last century.
Even sulphur is removed from fuels these days.
NO2, you are talking ‘Green’ diesel which is being used to replace coal power in South Australian and Tasmania. Why that is cleaner than coal is beyond science. Maybe Volkswagen could explain it to you. Nothing is cleaner than coal.
As for nuclear having no emissions, who’s kidding now?
So it’s down to CO2 being pollution as you stated. ” big polluting coal ”
Please explain why CO2 is pollution and if it is, why you are not the personification of pollution?
120
Peter, can you please advise, or better still, provide a link to the health report that referred to this health issue in the Hunter. There was a Latrobe Valley report written by an activist that has been discredited by the local health experts, but I’m not aware of any similar health report for the Hunter.
70
“All contributing to worse health outcomes in the Hunter.”
ZERO-EVIDENCE pfutz strike out again!!
41
TdeF
I have worked in the nuclear industry,
including as a Health Physics Surveyor, monitoring emissions from a nuclear reactor.
In a normal working water moderated reactor, what emissions are you alluding too?
If you are talking accidents, which you did not state, all radiological emissions combined from power reactors accidents pales into insignificance when compared to the emissions from atmosphere bomb tests done by Britain in Australia, let alone of over 108 Megatons of atmosphere tests done by the US on the Marshall Islands.
50
TdeF
Ignore that comment by Medicens Sans Frontiers.
I
The biggest health issues in the region mentioned are:
Smoking cigarettes
and
Drinking Alcohol.
KK
60
Technically I’m mostly water.
28
Mostly something yes but it’s not water .
62
When dry, you burn like wood. Water does not burn.
41
With what colour flame will this hypothetical desiccated person burn? Principally sodium yellow is my guess.
00
It’s been said “there’s something in the water” sadly for you this doesn’t apply.
42
Its a runny, stinky brown water.. and you are full of it.
42
But Fitz, they do with over 90% reliability. Their overall capacity factor will be lower but that includes scheduled maintenance, and when a gen-set is under maintenance no one expects anything the next day. Other operators know of the shortfall and take up the slack. Who knows 24 hrs in advance when a cold front will blow in and solar goes to near zero? That is a bigger shortfall than would happen when a single generator trips. That crystal ball has not not been invented.
Generators are mechanical devices so ergo subject to failure. If one trips with a major failure, other generators will take over if the grid is well run with “spinning reserve”.
Coal, gas and hydro can run a cheap, reliable grid. Why do you want to stuff it up?
40
Capacity factor of coal plants (2015-16)
NSW 61%
QLD 67%
Vic 81%
WA 56%
SA 63%
https://www.energycouncil.com.au/analysis/capacity-factors-understanding-the-misunderstood/
00
Has everybody had enough doomsday yet?
Nice little cartoon by Haynes.
https://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/payn_c16427020190321120100.jpg
Given their size difference, it’s obviously a great example of “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”!
On a similar theme to today’s topic was Matt Ridley’s column from Feb 2017:
Each comrade was expected to make a noble sacrifice *cough* for the glory of the green revolution *cough*.
Just as the emissions limitation fever was birthed in politics and not in science, we should expect that the same CO2 regulations will be dismantled by contrary political pressure and not by the scientific evidence that has already been available for decades. It’s surely no random co-incidence that this new apparent reluctance by Germany for the neutrality target has occurred in the presence of not only pressure from a coal-producing country like Poland but also rising domestic electricity prices and a slowly rising tide of Euroskepticism across the continent. Take the case of astrophysicist Nir Shaviv last December (my bolding):
There’s more details in his blog post of the objections he received from carbophobic (or frigiphilic??) scientists on the panel and how he responded. It’s a case of science not getting a look-in until doom-mongers exit stage left and newly-elected politicians open the door. Further Euroskeptic party gains are predicted which, if it is borne out by the May 2019 election results, will mean that the carbon dioxide molecule may yet get its day in court and a fair hearing in 2020.
100
Watched the Andrew Bolt interview of Richard Di-Natale yesterday. Frankly Di-Natale’s completely unhinged (and he’s an Australian Senator, passing law). After that performance it’s clear D-Natale’s a disingenuous pathological liar, he couldn’t help himself, he was overflowing with raw hatred and total contempt for any view other than his own.
After seeing that I’d say the chances of getting the Greens to see any kind of rational or proportionate sense due to the failure of all of their absurd prophetic claims and the complete failure of their ideological drivel regarding magic new-energee blah-blah is apparently about zero. Openness and reason is not part of the fundamentalist melange-of-dodgy-memes of his pseudo-religion’s zealotry.
No matter what occurs with real-politics, and with regard to a public electoral rejection of the green’s insane nonsense, they’ll bash on with the sheep-jumping-over-nothing routine regardless. It occurs to me after seeing that interview that one of the great unrecognized contributions as to why there’s a Greens Party within the Senate today, is because courts sectioning crazy people to public psyche-wards for treatment was closed-down during the late 1980s and early 1990s. So now they’re out and about and Di-Natale appointed himself “Dear Leader” of the nut-case party. Di-Natale’s tirade simply demonstrated that further attempts at informed discussions with the Greens is pointless, they’re unhinged and beyond the pale.
171
All Green party members are now Greenist Ideology converts.
So too are many Labor party members.
Greenists do not see the facts that contradict their ideology.
So we must work is as many ways as possible to ensure they are confronted by the facts
103
WXcycles:
The same thought has ( about where did the insane go?) has occurred to me quite a few times, with usually the same conclusion.
10
22 Mar: Guardian: Labour members launch Green New Deal inspired by US activists
Grassroots group calls on party to commit to decarbonising UK economy within a decade
by Matthew Taylor
The group, inspired by the success of the Sunrise Movement and the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the US, is calling on Labour to commit to radical action to decarbonise the UK economy within a decade.
A spokesperson for the group, called Labour for a Green New Deal, said: “Climate change is fundamentally about class, because it means chaos for the many while the few profit.
“We’re starting a campaign to put the labour movement at the forefront of a green transformation in Britain, and to build grassroots support for a Green New Deal within the Labour party.”
The campaign is calling for a region-specific green jobs guarantee, a significant expansion of public ownership and democratic control of industry, as well as mass investment in public infrastructure.
Last year, the shadow business secretary, ***Rebecca Long-Bailey, told the Guardian a future Labour government would oversee an economic revolution to tackle the climate crisis, using the full power of the state to decarbonise the economy and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in struggling towns and cities.
The group intends to put pressure on the party to fulfil those pledges in the run-up to the Labour conference in September. It is mobilising support through local party and trade union branches and said members in more than 70 constituency Labour parties are signed up.
Leading members of the group recently met Zack Exley, an adviser to Ocasio-Cortez and a co-founder of the progressive group the Justice Democrats, to learn from the success of the Green New Deal campaign in the US…
They are also in discussions with founding members of the Sunrise Movement…
The spokesperson said: “As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement have argued in the US, a Green New Deal shouldn’t just be about decarbonising our economy; it should be a radical vision for a healthier, happier and more prosperous society.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/22/labour-members-launch-green-new-deal-inspired-by-us-activists
***quotes Rebecca Long-Bailey from last year, but so far hasn’t reported the following!
17 Mar: Labour Party: Press release: Tory energy cancellations risk power for 20 million homes – Rebecca Long-Bailey
The last six months has seen the cancellation of three major nuclear power plants which would have powered 17 million homes each year…
Most of Britain’s remaining nuclear power stations are set to be closed in the 2020s with a severe energy gap looming if the Government does not secure further investment in energy infrastructure…
Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy Secretary,commenting on these figures said:
“These figures show that the Tories risk failing in one of the first duties of any Government – keeping the lights on.
“When the Wylfa plant was cancelled Greg Clark announced an energy white paper for summer 2019 – six months down the line. That’s the sign of a Government absorbed in its own meltdown, not the real issues facing our country. Ministers should come clean to the public about the gaping hole in their plans and what that means for our energy security.
“Labour has been consistent in its support for nuclear as part of our energy mix, calling on the government to take a public stake in new nuclear projects. We would end the short-sighted and ideological Tory ban on onshore wind and mobilise huge investments in renewable energy.”
https://labour.org.uk/press/tory-energy-cancellations-risk-power-20-million-homes-rebecca-long-bailey/
the only MSM to cover the story found online (no Guardian, no BBC, etc and certainly no ABC in Australia):
Tory energy failures ‘raise fears of energy shortage and lights going out’
Cancelled energy projects – including three nuclear power plants – could lead to lights out in 20million homes
UK Mirror – 17 Mar 2019
LIGHTS OUT MPs fear an electricity shortage in the next few years unless government fills the gap
Three proposed reactors — which would have powered 17million homes — have been axed in the past six months
UK Sun – 16 Mar 2019
40
however, BBC & Telegraph have anti-nuclear “celebs” story. why didn’t the celebs write their open letter to Rebecca Long-Bailey and Labour?
21 Mar: BBC: Sizewell C: Bill Nighy and Bill Turnbull sign opposition letter
Stars including actor Bill Nighy, artist Maggi Hambling and broadcaster Bill Turnbull have signed a letter objecting to a proposed nuclear power station in Suffolk…
A total of 27 actors, writers and business leaders signed the letter, published in the Daily Telegraph…
Prominent figures including actor Diana Quick, novelist Esther Freud and Adnams brewery boss Andy Wood say the development threatens an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, its wildlife and burgeoning £210m tourism industry…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-47650353
more names of nobodies:
21 Mar: UK Telegraph: Artists join business figures in opposing Sizewell C nuclear power station construction plans
by Patrick Sawer
A coalition of actors, broadcasters and entrepreneurs is warning that building work to replace Sizewell nuclear power station will “lay waste” to swathes of Suffolk’s most idyllic landscape…
Campaigners, who also include Matthew Freud, the PR guru, Melvin Benn, who runs the Latitude music festival and Humphrey Burton, the classical music presenter and broadcaster, say the plans also threaten the viability of a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the area, along with the RSPB’s famous Minsmere Reserve…READ ON
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/20/artists-join-business-figures-opposing-sizewell-c-nuclear-power/
41
Presumably these same ‘celebs’ would be more than happy to have that same idyllic countryside covered with massive bird mincers?
51
Every day I see (or hear) a news report that renewable energy is cheaper than coal; and getting cheaper still. Jo’s link is 5 years old to her comment ” Every extra wind turbine is more expensive at reducing CO2 than the last”. So what is the truth of the matter?
50
peter,
the Post of mine at this link might give you some insight into this subject.
Is Wind Power Actually Cheaper Than Coal Fired Power? Well, No!
Tony.
70
If you believe news reports then you can expect to see lower cost electricity – ha haha ha!. If you believe Jo then you can expect higher cost electricity – as certain as death and taxes.
For the first to occur there has to be a reversal of the trend established over the last 20 years. We know correlation is not causation but the linkage between rising market share of intermittent generation and electricity cost is considerable:
https://4k4oijnpiu3l4c3h-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image_thumb-2.png
I will leave you to determine the regression coefficient.
40
I wondered about this new vision of methane being the criminal, if CO2 is not. The Greens are preparing for a war on methane. Cows, kangaroos, termites have to go. Also meat, which is the not so subtle point, as if mankind invented herbivores.
So what happens to grass without the herbivores? Without the kangaroos and bison and buffalo and elephants? It turns back into CO2 and without oxygen, into methane.
We are being told that life on earth is the problem. Humans are the worst but then cows are unnatural and termites are the real problem.
At what point does a normal member of our community say stop to this ridiculous rubbish? It is nonsensical.
What I find most ridiculous is the idea that CO2 is man made. Every animal, plant, fish, insect generates CO2. All must be evil. Rotting, all generate methane. All are a problem and we have to exterminate all life on earth to save the planet? This is the religion of Jim Jones, not any religion I recognize.
Gases like CO2 are in equilibrium. If they go up, that is probably due to ocean warming, where 98% of all CO2 resides. Only science ignoramus Al Gore would conclude that CO2 causes ocean warming. Then you have a person who has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize for no apparent reason. We can only be grateful for a few chads in Florida when he nearly became US President.
110
I saw an item the other day that drew attention on the need for more analysis before you hog into your latest insect burger.
Otherwise in hindsight you may find it was a heavy metal sandwich.
Plus if it digests it likely produces methane – e.g. termites
50
I recall this from years ago that methane is apparently 40 to times more effective a greenhouse gas than CO2 but is 200 times less prevalent in the atmosphere than co2, please correct if wrong as I’ve indulged in CO2 infused beverages.
60
TdeF:
Obviously the first to go must be vegan Greens with their lentil burger emissions.
50
URGENT ALERT FOR ANYONE USING FIREFOX AS THEIR BROUSER.
FIREFOX HAS BEEN HACKED !
OT HAS OF IT’S OWN WISH INTRODUCED NEW SOFTWARE WHICH MAKE IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO USE
IF YOU WANT TO USE FIREFOX, DO NOT ALLOW YOUR FIREFOX BROUSER TO UPGRADE TO THE CURRENT ONE.
OTHERWISE YOU WILL NEED TO USE CHROME WHICH IS WHAT I AM USING RIGHT NOW.
PLEASE COPY & PASTE THIS ELSEWHERE
BILL IN OZ
40
You may need to turn off the automatic upgrade feature on Firefox. Otherwise you will be locked out of access to roughly 70-80% of all your bookmarks or required tomake them exceptions to Firefox’s deny access policy. using Firefox I have no access to JoNova. So I am now forced to use Chrome.
40
Bill
What Operating System and version?
What version of Firefox?
20
No reply??
A computer bug alarmist!
If you are going to SHOUT advice, at lest supply important and relevant information.
I’ll stick with Stack Overflow for computer related info, thanks.
10
Evidence?
Hoax?
Latest update appears to work just fine.
50
Lionell, I thought Firefox was corrupted so I deleted it and then downloaded the latest version Saturday Morning.
The problem got worse.
For around 70% of my book marks I got this message from Firefox.
” Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead
Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue to gardenseeds.org. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.
What can you do about it?
The issue is most likely with the website, and there is nothing you can do to resolve it.
If you are on a corporate network or using anti-virus software, you can reach out to the support teams for assistance. You can also notify the website’s administrator about the problem.
Learn more…”
When I tried Chrome, no problem at all !
Chiefio said ” Welcome to the Firefox Certificate Authentication War”
10
It is important to know where to go on the internet and where not to go. It is rather like safe sex, you must be careful of what you do, where you do it, and with whom you do it. Otherwise the consequences are likely not to meet your expectations and turn out rather poorly for you.
PS: I am my own IT department so I don’t expect some big brother in the sky to keep me from doing stupid things. I have to rely on myself and work hard on not behaving stupidly.
00
Use the latest version of Opera it has a built in VPN.
40
Thanks Yonnie..
I’ll try that in the morning.
Bill
10
Yonnie, Opera is now Chinese owned.
I don’t think I will go there.
00
Firefox has been playing up the last two days.
Seems to be back to normal but thanks for the warning. Some checking might be in order.
KK
40
Juast don’t upgrade Kieth.
It’s a new Firefox “Feature ” ! ( ?)
00
I’m using the latest Firefox now, v66.0.1 for Win10 64 bit with no problem. Stable and fully functioning as per usual.
You may have picked up a bug elsewhere.
10
VIDEO: 2min39sec: 21 Mar: GatewayPundit: Dershowitz: Comey and Others Committed Fraud on FISA Court – Should Be Held in Contempt
by Jim Hoft
The Department of Justice released a heavily redacted version of the FISA warrant used to surveil 2016 Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page in July 2018.
The warrants revealed that the DOJ and FBI falsely attested to the FISA court not once, not twice, not thrice, but four (!) separate times that Steele was not the source of Isikoff’s September 23 article, which DOJ used to corroborate claims from Steele’s dossier. In fact, Steele was the only source.
The dossier was bought and paid for by the Democrat party and Hillary Clinton and passed through the DOJ to the FBI who used this political document that was never verified — because it is completely false — by the FBI before they used it to spy on Carter Page, the Trump campaign and the Trump family.
Former FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, and former Attorney General Sally Yates were all required to sign off on the FISC warrant application before it was reviewed and ultimately approved.
They all signed off on a FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page knowing it was a complete lie.
On Thursday night noted law professor and author Alan Dershowitz said these individuals who pushed these fraudulent warrants to the FISA court committed fraud…
Alan Dershowitz: I think it is a fraud on the court and I think the court ought to look into holding the people who misled them in contempt. The court is a trusted institution. They handle these requests ex parte.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/03/dershowitz-comey-and-others-committed-fraud-on-fisa-court-should-be-held-in-contempt-video/
what a joke:
21 Mar: NYT: James Comey: What I Want From the Mueller Report
I am rooting for a demonstration to the world that the United States justice system works.
By James Comey
I have no idea whether the special counsel will conclude that Mr. Trump knowingly conspired with the Russians in connection with the 2016 election or that he obstructed justice with the required corrupt intent. I also don’t care…
I do have one hope that I should confess. I hope that Mr. Trump is not impeached and removed from office before the end of his term. I don’t mean that Congress shouldn’t move ahead with the process of impeachment governed by our Constitution, if Congress thinks the provable facts are there. I just hope it doesn’t. Because if Mr. Trump were removed from office by Congress, a significant portion of this country would see this as a coup, and it would drive those people farther from the common center of American life, more deeply fracturing our country…
We (WE?) need a resounding election result in 2020, where Americans of all stripes, divided as they may be about important policy issues — immigration, guns, abortion, climate change, regulation, taxes — take a moment from their busy lives to show that they are united by something even more important: the belief that the president of the United States cannot be a chronic liar who repeatedly attacks the rule of law. Then we (WE?) can get back to policy disagreements.
I just hope we (WE?) are up to it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/opinion/james-comey-mueller-report.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
00
the only coverage sillier than Matt Bevan’s ABC piece of junk:
22 Mar: MotherJones: We Already Know There Was Collusion
10 must-reads about Trump and Russia while you wait for the Mueller report
At Mother Jones, we’ve been on top of the Trump-Russia story since before the 2016 campaign, when we were the first outlet to reveal the existence of the Steele dossier and the FBI’s investigation of its allegations of a Trump-Kremlin connection. Here’s some of our best coverage of the tangled, wide-ranging, and consequential scandal…
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/we-already-know-there-was-collusion/
41
If they investigate Hillary’s deals, they will find massive collusion, but that won’t happen.
31
Early in the count but looks like the Libs will win in NSW .
20
Death duties, raiding superannuation, pushing power costs even higher, putting the Unions in charge of the government, shutting more coal power stations, crippling businesses, attacking farmers for farming, restarting the trade in boat people, opening the borders. The extremes of the Green/Labor coalition are turning people off massively and that is while they are pretending to be nice.
It could happen at a Federal level too. The Green/Labor government in waiting cannot now keep the crazies in check. People are starting to fear a Labor/Green government, as they should.
I have voted Labor and Liberal. Now it would be insane to vote Labor. They are past politics, captured by communists and socialists and Green nut jobs and Unions as never before. Morrison only has to hold his nerve. The NSW result shows how Liberals can win against the odds. It would be great if Morrison could make a real stand against crazy energy policies instead of just more legislation to cover up the RET disaster, the greatest theft from Australians in history. It is not even taxation.
72
Been called a Liberals win by basically all commentators.
https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/23/11/36/nsw-election-live-coverage-voting-polls-gladys-berejiklian-michael-daley-political-news
40
Daly has conceded about an hour ago .
40
Should tits be worried?
11
Who’s tits??
11
Yonni is unaware of political correctness.
00
so sad to see Attenborough doubling down:
22 Mar: BBC: Sir David Attenborough to present climate change documentary
Sir David Attenborough is to present an “urgent” new documentary about climate change for BBC One.
The one-off film will focus on the potential threats to our planet and the possible solutions.
The broadcaster says “conditions have changed far faster” than he ever imagined when he first started talking about the environment 20 years ago.
The documentary will show footage showing the impact global warming has already had.
It will also feature interviews with climatologists and meteorologists to explore the science behind recent extreme weather conditions, including the California wildfires in November 2018.
Last December, Sir David called climate change “humanity’s greatest threat in thousands of years” at the opening ceremony of the United Nations climate change conference.
He said it could lead to the collapse of civilisations and the extinction of “much of the natural world”…
Sir David, 92, said that when he started his career in the mid-1950s, he did not think there was anybody who thought “there was a danger that we might annihilate part of the natural world.”…
The BBC said the film would “deliver an unflinching exploration of what dangerous levels of climate change could mean for human populations.”
“There is a real hunger from audiences to find out more about climate change and understand the facts,” said Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content.
“We have a trusted guide in Sir David Attenborough, who will be speaking to the challenging issues that it raises, and present an engaging and informative look at one of the biggest issues of our time.”
Climate Change – The Facts will be broadcast this spring.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47666007
20
Sir David Sh*taborough !
With more pompous crap for the crazies amongst us.
I will not watch him any more at all.
31
23 Mar: Guardian: Attenborough to front climate-change film as BBC moves from teach to preach
Film forms part of Our Planet Matters, a season that launches on Sunday and will highlight environmental damage
by Mark Lawson
But the climate of the BBC Natural History Unit, for which Attenborough has made most of his shows, has changed radically – because of climate change.
The BBC announced late on Friday that Attenborough, 92, will present a 60-minute film, Climate Change – The Facts, which will be screened this spring on BBC One. The show is a consolation for BBC executives, who had been flustered that the next TV project of the presenter most identified with the corporation will be with the streaming service Netflix: Our Planet, an eight-part documentary series, starts on 5 April.
Climate Change – The Facts is part of a rolling season of programmes, under the banner Our Planet Matters, that starts on Sunday night on BBC One. Chris Packham, one of Attenborough’s younger heirs, will introduce Blue Planet Live, billed as a “week-long examination of the health of our oceans and their wildlife”, focusing first on “the increasingly fragile Great Barrier Reef.”…
Whereas earlier work in the genre – led by Attenborough’s Life on Earth (1979) and Blue Planet (2001) – looked at the world with wonder, more recent shows seeking to highlight and reverse environmental damage have adopted a graver tone…
“Climate change is making the natural world – and everything that embraces – much more unpredictable,” says Julian Hector, the head of the Natural History Unit. “We made a big film in Kenya for Dynasties. There was a time when you could go there and pretty much predict what you would find. But there are parts of Kenya that have been in a sustained drought for many years, which means that wildlife is finding it harder to get food, and people to grow it. Climate change is increasingly the backdrop to our films, and so the causes of it are worth exploring.”…
Hector dates the beginning of the shift to Blue Planet II, two years ago: “Not a single development goes on in the Natural History Unit where we’re not talking about a conservation element or the difficulty of filming because of climate change. This nervousness about the state of the natural world is omnipresent.”…
Although there seems certain to be some social media pushback during the Our Planet Matters season – especially about calling the Attenborough film “Climate Change – The Facts” – the Natural History Unit is helped by having effectively been given, on the question of climate change, a total exception to the obligation of “impartiality” that applies to news programmes.
Are NHU shows allowed to treat climate change as settled science? “I think that’s true,” says Hector. “The overwhelming scientific opinion is that it is a real phenomenon. So we are allowed to present it as an accepted position, rather than every single story having to be countered by a climate-change sceptic.”
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/22/attenborough-to-front-climate-change-film-as-bbc-moves-from-teach-to-preach
11
behind paywall:
23 Mar: UK Times: Why David Attenborough has made Our Planet for Netflix
David Attenborough has worked with the BBC throughout his legendary career. Now, at 92, he has been persuaded to make a series with Netflix to get across his climate change message to millions of people globally. Damian Whitworth follows the crew to the Arctic on the trail of the threatened polar bear
The bear is less interested in us than searching for the scent of a female and her cubs, who passed this way a few hours earlier. He is also on the hunt for seals. Given that we have already seen vulnerable pups lying out on the ice, his next meal is probably not too far off.
But the crew making this film have noticed something strange about the fjord and the bear’s behaviour while they have been filming here …
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-david-attenborough-has-made-our-planet-for-netflix-8w73nqjtw
11
guess you need plenty of CAGW scare campaigns when you want to force so many costly changes on the public:
21 Mar: Utility Week: Perry ‘can’t set a date’ for big decisions on heat
by Tom Grimwood
Claire Perry has said she “can’t set a date” for when the government will be ready to start making big strategic decisions on the future of heat.
However, responding to questions at an event in London, the energy and clean growth minster also promised to provide more guidance on the government’s intentions in a new roadmap for heat decarbonisation due be published in early 2020.
“We will pull all of this together into this roadmap,” she told the audience. “I know sometimes people think that’s an exercise in paper pushing. It’s actually an incredibly helpful way of setting out the priorities.” She said the clean growth strategy has been “enormously valuable” in this regard.
Perry said the government still wants to keep its options open at this stage and that is continuing to take “no regrets” decisions in the meantime…
Perry said the newly-created energy data taskforce led by Laura Sandys will enable the policy-makers to “sharpen up our analysis” and examine data flows such as those arising from the digitalisation of demand…
She emphasised the importance of starting a public debate and educating consumers about the different options for decarbonisation; it is already difficult for them to make informed decisions over home improvements such as roof insulation or more efficient boilers and these choices will be “amplified” with the proliferation of low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps.
The minister said policies will need to target consumers at the moments in life when they make major decisions about heating – mainly when they are moving into a new house. Although there are plenty of “good ideas” being floated for how to do this – including stamp duty changes and a revival of the Green Deal scheme – it will nevertheless be an “immense challenge”. She said there is a “huge furrow to plough” around green mortgages…
She conceded that “we are not doing a great job on some of this”, noting that less than one in ten people are familiar with renewable heating technologies according to the latest survey of public attitudes…
Perry said the government has commissioned research into how best to engage with consumers on heat and this work will help inform its roadmap. She urged the room at the event hosted by the Energy Systems Catapult to go “further and faster” in gathering the evidence ministers will need to make the right decisions.
Her comments come after Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan admitted earlier this week he is “far more nervous” about the decarbonisation of heat than of power or transport. He worried that there may be a backlash from consumers if they are forced to adopt new technologies such as hydrogen gas boilers.
https://utilityweek.co.uk/perry-cant-set-date-big-decisions-heat/
20
lengthy, very detailed:
21 Mar: Forbes: Any Green New Deal Is Dead Without Nuclear Power
by James Conca
Even more persuasive, four of the world’s top climate scientists, Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Tom Wigley, Dr. Ken Caldeira and Dr. Kerry Emanuel, have shown that renewables alone cannot meet the goal of decarbonizing the world economy.
The four scientists outlined how only a combined strategy of employing all the major sustainable clean energy options, including renewables and nuclear, and efficiency and conservation, can prevent the worst effects of climate change by the end of this century.
Even the Union of Concerned Scientists recenty said we need nuclear to address global warming…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/03/21/green-new-deal-is-dead-without-nuclear-power/
re the writer:
Dr. James Conca: I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research, planetary surface processes, radiobiology and shielding for space colonies, subsurface transport and environmental clean-up of heavy metals. I am a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation, Adjunct at WSU, an Affiliate Scientist at LANL and consult on strategic planning for the DOE, EPA/State environmental agencies, and industry including companies that own nuclear, hydro, wind farms, large solar arrays, coal and gas plants. I also consult for EPA/State environmental agencies and industry on clean-up of heavy metals from soil and water. For over 25 years I have been a member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, as well as professional societies including the America Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society, the Geological Society of America and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
10
22 Mar: Heritage Org: Green New Deal Would Cost a Lot of Green
by Nicolas Loris (This piece originally appeared in Los Angeles Times)
(Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy. Nick is an economist who focuses on energy, environmental, and regulatory issues as the Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow)
Do you want the federal government to control what kind of car you drive and what type of energy you buy? Because the end goal of the Green New Deal is to eliminate the use of coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and the internal-combustion engine.
These energy sources provide 83 percent of America’s electricity and 92 percent of the transportation fuel market. So the costs of a green transformation would be astronomical. And pricier electricity and gas adversely affects low-income households disproportionately because they spend a higher percentage of their budget on energy…
Think of all of those union jobs lost in mining, refining, pipe-fitting and welding. The AFL-CIO, which represents 55 different unions and 12.5 million workers, sure is. They recently sent a letter to the champions of the resolution, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey warning that: “We will not accept proposals that could cause immediate harm to millions of our members and their families. We will not stand by and let threats to our members’ jobs and their families’ standards of living go unanswered.”…
The reality is the Green New Deal is less about controlling the climate and more about the federal government controlling major aspects of economic production and decisions in your life. After all, if a climate change-induced crisis were 12 years away, one would assume nuclear power would need to be an integral part of the solution…
https://www.heritage.org/environment/commentary/green-new-deal-would-cost-lot-green
20
23 Mar: IOL South Africa: Greenpeace slams Zuma’s claim that nuclear deal would have stopped load shedding
by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
In an interview with Business Day this week, Zuma insisted he was correct in backing a nuclear deal with the Russians, adding that had South Africa signed up for it, there would be no energy crisis.
“The former president’s remarks are based on ignorance or denial of the facts, and vested interests to promote nuclear at all cost.
“Nuclear power is clearly too expensive – especially in the face of Eskom’s debt of more than R400billion – but more than that, nuclear power stations take over a decade to build. There is no chance whatsoever that going ahead with the nuclear deal would have helped South Africa avoid load shedding in 2019.
“Instead, the real solution would have been to fast-track the renewable energy projects that had been put on hold for years and remove the barriers to rooftop solar.”
“Renewable energy can be installed much more quickly and cheaply than either coal or nuclear.
“And if we’re serious about putting an end to load shedding, speeding up the implementation of renewable energy is the best approach,” Greenpeace Africa said on Friday.
Eskom has implemented Stage 4 load shedding for the past eight days, plunging the country into its darkest energy crisis yet.
On Friday, it was reduced to Stage 2.
“We are going to pay trillions of rand because of energy problems, but if we went for nuclear we would be out of spending trillions for a shorter time and we’d make more trillions,” Zuma said in the interview earlier in the week….
On Friday, Ramaphosa said the government was working on plans to address the current challenges at Eskom.
He said his administration was investigating claims of deliberate sabotage amid the rolling blackouts.
Some political parties have called for urgent intervention. DA leader Mmusi Maimane said millions of jobs and livelihoods were at stake.
“This was inevitable given the extent of mismanagement, corruption and bad policy Eskom has been subjected to over the past two decades. A total collapse now seems possible, but it is not inevitable,” he said, adding there were five things South Africa could do to avert the catastrophe, including privatising…
Disaster management centres countrywide have called on communities to save water, warning that load shedding could affect water supplies in some areas.
https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/greenpeace-slams-zumas-claim-that-nuclear-deal-would-have-stopped-load-shedding-20043089
10
22 Mar: IOL South Africa: Our darkest hour: gear up Eskom!
by Ryk de Klerk (independent analyst)
Does coal have a role to play in electricity generation in the future? According to the Chamber of Mines of South Africa (COM) in their Coal Strategy 2018, coal power has managed to lift millions of people in China out of electricity poverty – out of a population of 1.3billion people a mere 3million people do not have access. A total of 1139 HELE (high efficiency, low emissions) power generation plants across Asia are planned or under construction compared with the 716 plants in operation.
As in South Africa, electricity supply in India has not kept pace with growth in demand. India’s electricity market is dominated by coal, which accounts for more than 75percent of total electricity generation. In India, 395 HELE power generation plants are planned or under construction.
Coal exports to India account for nearly 50percent of South Africa’s total coal exports and nearly 25percent of India’s coal imports. We have committed ourselves to the challenge of climate change by ratifying the Paris Agreement, which came into effect in November 2016, but it is clear that we are just shifting the emissions or smoke to somewhere else on the planet.
We find ourselves in India’s space.
However, we act as if everyone in this country has access to electricity and the greens are arguing that coal mining and/or the use of coal should be phased out or even stopped immediately. We are a developing economy – some will say a Third World country – but we are endowed with 3.5percent of the world’s total coal reserves.
I agree with the chamber’s statement that: “Environmental policies and regulations aimed at reducing the country’s carbon emissions are welcome but must take into account South Africa’s developmental exigencies – in terms of affordable and reliable power and energy security – vis a vis that of South Africa’s global trade and investment competitors.”
Coal is and should be the core of the energy mix in this country. According to the chamber, in 2016 more than 77000 people were employed in the coal industry and indirectly created more than 170000 extra jobs in the economy.
In total more than 1.2million livelihoods depend on these jobs.
Sweat the coal assets. Eskom can use the abundance of coal it has for its own benefit by building HELE power generation plants or, even better, partner with our BRICS members and/or private sector to embark on it? As the chamber said: “The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been loath to lend funds to utilities and governments that want to build coal power plants.”
Sweat older plants. According to the chamber, over the next 10 years Eskom will close four power stations, or 8800MW of installed capacity, which will cost 30000 jobs directly and with the multiplier effect probably another 70000 indirectly in other sectors of the economy and mainly in the transport and storage sectors. Surely, these assets can be sweat to produce for longer and keep jobs for longer?…
https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/our-darkest-hour-gear-up-eskom-20027133
20
23 Mar: TheWestAustralian: WA power stations off boil as renewables slash use of coal
by Daniel Mercer
Coal-fired power plants operated by State-owned power provider Synergy are running at as little as one-third of their capacity amid the onslaught of renewable energy flooding WA’s main electricity grid.
In a sign of the financial pain being inflicted on its traditional thermal generation business, Synergy said the 340MW Collie power station ran at just 34 per cent of its capacity in January.
Figures show none of the utility’s three coal-fired generators of Collie, Muja C and Muja D ran anywhere near its capacity in the three months to February 28, despite demand for power typically peaking in summer.
Across the period, the 390MW Muja C unit had a “capacity factor” of 53 per cent in December, 59 per cent in January and 43 per cent in February, while the 422MW Muja D operated at capacity of 38 per cent, 53 per cent and 65 per cent.
By contrast, the Japanese-owned Bluewaters power station, which has take-or-pay contracts with customers including Synergy, ran at up to 90 per cent during the period.
The data show the extent to which Synergy’s business is being buffeted by surging levels of green power in the South West interconnected system, led by rooftop solar, of which about 1000MW has been installed.
It also coincided with a report from the Australian Energy Market Operator which said Synergy faced big increases in costs as its coal-plants were increasingly stopped and started to cope with the influx of renewable energy.
AEMO also noted that stopping and starting coal plants increased the risk of units tripping in the run-up to the evening peak when solar power tapered off, potentially leaving consumers vulnerable. With cheap renewable energy flooding the system at various times of the day, Muja and Collie are increasingly being pushed out of the market.
Chiefly responsible is solar power, which is now the biggest single source of electricity when aggregated and often sends day-time wholesale prices crashing.
But Synergy is also exposed at night, when output from wind turbines is typically highest and demand for electricity is low.
This has forced Synergy to ramp its coal plants up and down to accommodate the ebbs and flows of renewable power, hurting their ability to run as “base-load” operations.
Synergy said the trend was not only reducing revenue by cutting into the operating capacity of its plants, but also leading to increased maintenance costs as the units were run outside of their design specifications.
A Synergy spokeswoman said cycling the utility’s coal-fired plants also led to “an increased risk of unplanned outages due to deterioration of (the) plant”.
https://thewest.com.au/business/energy/wa-power-stations-off-boil-as-renewables-slash-use-of-coal-ng-b881131719z
20
pat:
the SA solution, shut down the coal plants. People will have to get used to higher bills and blackouts.
20
22 Mar: Heartland Blog: Power Grid Serving 65 Million May be at Risk in East, Midwest
by Bud Weinstein (Originally Published at The Hill)
(Bernard L. Weinstein is Associate Director of the Maguire Energy Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Business Economics in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. From 1989 to 2009 he was Director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, where he is now an Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics)
Wind and solar, though growing rapidly, account for only about 5 percent of generation capacity. However, growing dependence on renewables and gas poses serious challenges to grid stability and reliability.
Low prices do not mean that wind and solar can replace conventional power plants anytime soon. They are great when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, but that is not always the case. Because large-scale battery storage at a reasonable cost is not yet on the horizon, utilities have to invest more in backup generation, which is typically natural gas peaking plants. Furthermore, wind and solar can’t scale up fast enough to offset the loss of coal and nuclear power. And if federal and state subsidies to renewables should go away, the attractiveness of wind and solar investments is likely to diminish quickly.
Right now, domestic gas is cheap and abundant, but that won’t always be the case. A global market for natural gas is evolving, and the United States is becoming a major player. Indeed, within a few years, America is projected to become the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). A decade from now, according to a recent forecast by the World Bank, average gas prices will be at least 50 percent higher than they are today, making gas-fired power generation a more expensive proposition.
Unlike renewables and natural gas peaking units, coal and nuclear plants are “always on,” so the loss of this base-load power is the most serious threat to power grid integrity. Unfortunately, some system operators are not assigning value to the resiliency attributes of the base-load plants providing power to their grids. Such is the case with PJM, the nation’s largest regional transmission operator that provides electricity to 65 million people in 13 mid-eastern and mid-western states as well as the District of Columbia.
In an unusual move, senior executives of four utilities that rely on PJM to transmit their power — Public Service Enterprise Group, Exelon Corporation, FirstEnergy Corporation and Duke Energy — recently sent a letter to the grid operator imploring PJM to adopt market reforms that recognize the importance of their coal and nuclear plants in assuring grid resiliency and reliability. They argue that pricing in the wholesale market, which may be based on the marginal cost of natural gas or the feed-in tariffs of renewables, is not adequately compensating utilities for the reliability of their base-load power plants.
They also want PJM to recognize the importance of fuel diversity to grid reliability and the potential risks to the grid from premature retirements of coal and nuclear power plants.
All power grids, for that matter, must adopt pricing mechanisms that ensure fuel diversity and an adequate reserve margin. Otherwise, the nation’s system operators will be unprepared for heatwaves, polar vortices, spikes in natural gas prices, cyber attacks and other disruptive events.
http://blog.heartland.org/2019/03/power-grid-serving-65-million-may-be-at-risk-in-east-midwest/
20
22 Mar: Vietnam Net: Vietnam set to increase power supply to meet rising demands
Foreign investors have recently shown their concerns about the country’s risk of power shortage next time, but experts said the government will increase the electricity supply, especially from coal-fired power, to meet the country’s rapidly rising power demands.
According to Takimoto Koji, chief representative of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City, Japanese investors are concerned as JETRO has been recently announced that Vietnam could face a power shortage by 2022.
However, the investors can feel relieved as experts believed Vietnam would increase coal-fired power sharply over the next decade to meet the local demand.
Daine Loh, power and renewables analyst of Fitch Group’s Fitch Solutions Macro Research, forecast coal power generation will reach 50.5 percent of the total consumption power mix by 2028, with gas at 22.5 percent, hydropower at 22.8 percent and non-hydro renewables at 3.8 percent.
According to Daine, traditionally, Vietnam has relied on hydropower and natural gas for its power generation, but there are several obstacles to see continued growth in these two sectors.
Firstly, hydropower potential has already been almost fully exploited at present. Furthermore, recent droughts and decreasing water supplies highlight the threats facing Vietnam’s hydropower generation output reliability.
Secondly, domestic gas reserves are depleting and will not sustain a substantial ramp-up in gas power generation over the longer term, Daine said.
“As a result, we expect the government to turn largely to coal power to meet Vietnam’s increasing power demand, which stems in particular from an expanding industry and manufacturing sector, in order to support continued economic growth. Rapid urbanization and government efforts to up electrification levels to 100 percent will further boost electricity consumption growth rates.”
Sharing the view, power analyst Nguyen Canh Nam from the Vietnam Energy Association, said coal-fired power would still play a key role in the country’s electricity industry in the coming years.
Considering the country’s domestic coal resources, the ability to import coal and the level of greenhouse gas emissions, it is necessary to develop coal-fired power because of its technical and economic feasibility, Nam said, explaining while renewable energy from solar and wind is more costly, it can’t ensure consistent power supply…
According to Nam, the ratio of Vietnam’s coal-fired power is 39.1 percent, the same as the global average. The rate is much higher in many other countries, such as 63 percent in China, 61 percent in Australia, 46 percent in South Korea, 78 percent in Poland and 87 percent in South Africa.
Besides, he said, coal-fired power output per capita in Vietnam is also 793 kWh, much lower than the world’s average level of 1,290 kWh.
However, Nam said the development of coal-fired power must be cleaner to increase efficiency and reduce emissions through the use of more modern technologies…
https://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/220515/vietnam-set-to-increase-power-supply-to-meet-rising-demands.html
20
This is a bit off topic, but the beginning of the article says France (with nukes) and Germany (with a huge renewables component).
Here is a question: What happened to those nukes that the USSR had in East Germany? Did they go back to the USSR? Or did the reunified Germany keep them?
Hmmmmm…….
40
Climate will do what climate will do as it has for hundreds of millions of years. Meanwhile, decisions and policy need to be based on hard fact.
There are some crucial, verifiable facts – with citations – about human-generated carbon dioxide and its effect on global warming people need to know and understand at
hseneker.blogspot.com
The discussion is too long to post here but is a quick and easy read. I recommend following the links in the citations; some of them are very educational.
20
Great piece Harold.
As you say, it IS a monstrous lie.
In addition to the points you made, there are heat transfer mechanisms associated with gases that easily shut down the claims of man made global warming by human origin CO2.
KK
10