There are crooks in every field, but some fields are ripe for the picking.
If you wanted to run a scam would you a/ try to fool hard-nosed money changers in a mature industry that makes a real product or b/ pick the latest touchy feely fashionable trope and offer their fans, who are not good with cause, effect or numbers, a chance to feel great and get rich too?
From 2005 to 2009 a few US graduates straight out of college promised to turn biochar into energy and save the world as well. They raised $54m, gave $17m to the early investors and then promised 484% returns to later investors. The Clinton Foundation loved them, but they never made even a kilo of biochar. Not long after that the US SEC figured the scam out and shut them down. That was 2009. Then it only took 10 years to get one sentenced to 30 months jail.
If only the media had been more skeptical:
NBC Philadelphia: 30 months in prison for $54m Green Scam
[Amanda] Knorr co-founded a company called Mantria Corp., which with the help of a slick-talking Colorado “wealth advisor” raised millions for a supposed clean energy product called “biochar.”Their pitch about producing biochar, however, turned out to be completely baked, according to prosecutors, and eventually proved to be a giant Ponzi scheme.
Knorr was also sentenced to five years’ parole and ordered to pay $54 million in restitution. She so far has paid $10,000 through wage garnishments, according to prosecutors.
The Clinton Global Initiative, run by Bill and Hillary Clinton, link to Mantria on its website, ambiguously praise the “committment” and value it at “$600,000”?” Did they fund it, or are we just meant to think they did? There are many details and plans of how carbon sequestration would enrich the soils of Africa and cool the world on that site, but there’s only one progress report: This commitment was reported unfulfilled.
Biggest scam, my foot.
It’s being called the biggest scam involving clean energy, which it would be except for all the bigger scams, like wind farm rackets in Scotland who were paid £328m to do nothing, and the £1.8 billion consumers paid on giant interconnectors so that the wind farms could make a profit, or the $2 billion Russian and Ukrainian fake carbon credit scam. The Chinese hydrofluorocarbon factory scam, and the $5b VAT Tax fraud and the $100 billion plus dollars invested in scientists in the hope we might understand what causes climate change. And that’s just for starters…
…
From the Indictment Charges for “Green Energy” Ponzi Scheme (2015)
Between 2005 and 2009, Wragg, Knorr, and McKelvy, through Mantria, intended to raise over $100 million from investors through Private Placement Memorandums (PPMs). In actuality, they raised $54.5 million. Wragg and Knorr were allegedly able to raise such a large sum of money through the efforts of McKelvy. McKelvy operated what he called “Speed of Wealth” clubs which advertised on television, radio, and the internet, held seminars for prospective investors, and promised to make them rich. According to the indictment, McKelvy taught investors to liquidate all their assets such as mutual funds and 401k plans, to take out as many loans out as possible, such as home mortgages and credit card debt, and invest all those funds in Mantria. During those seminars and other programs, Wragg, Knorr, and McKelvy allegedly lied to prospective investors to dupe them into investing in Mantria and promised investment returns as high as 484%.
How could a groupthinker say “no”?
“The scheme alleged in this indictment offered investors the best of both worlds – investing in sustainable and clean energy products while also making a profit,” said Memeger. “Unfortunately for the investors, it was all a hoax.
That money isn’t coming back:
Of the $54 million believed to have been invested in Mantria, $17 million was returned to early investors to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme and make later investors believe huge profits could be had.
By the time the Securities Exchange Commission shut down Mantria in 2009, just $790,000 remained from the other $37 million.
A class action lawsuit filed in federal court eventually recovered about $6 million for victims of the scheme. Another $800,000 was placed in a receivership, overseen by a Colorado accountant John Paul Anderson. –NBC New York
Anderson – the accountant tasked with dispersing funds recovered in the class action lawsuit, has yet to distribute the money which remains in receivership.–Zerohedge
But some lawyers must have gotten rich.
We need to teach our children. No. Free. Lunch. If someone tells you they can save the world for free and you can get rich quickly, it’s time to find out why everyone isn’t doing it already.
What do you call a Ponzi scheme run by a government? Policy.
As the saying goes,”Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men and you are a conqueror.”
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Good point. In other words, it’s a criminal offence to steal money from one person but it’s OK to steal billions from the population via a scam supported by both major parties. Neither party deserve to form government on their own right at the next election. We desperately need the ACP and ON to hold the balance of power at both federal levels of government or else watch Australia crash and burn.
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‘…watch Australia crash and burn.’
Unlikely.
“To take the pressure off our fast-growing cities, you need be able to improve your links with your satellite cities,” Mr Morrison said.
52
I always thought that a Ponzi Scheme run by the government was called Social Security.
111
… that’s just one of them!
20
You could class many governments as Ponzi schemes-selling dreams with no funding. while clocking Bills up for the Easter bunny,and all kittens to pay.
210
Another ‘scheme’ is the smart meter installation being foisted on electricity consumers in the UK.
The total cost works out at over £11 billion, and could rise even more.
This works out at £371 per meter for 53 million meters.
The estimated saving is £18 per year!
Presumably the cost of installing all these meters is being carried by the consumers via their electricity bills.
I bought an OWL electricity monitor for £25 five years ago and fitted myself as the sensors just clip around the cables from the electricity meter, no electrician needed, and the read-out tells me all I need or want to know, and it also tells you the cost of the electricity you are using.
The monitor now costs £38, but is still only a tenth the cost of the official smart meters.
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And your meter keeps working when you change power companies, doesn’t it? That’s another step up from the standard UK smart meter.
110
The smart meter is about keeping a tight noose around your neck in terms of control. It never was about saving money.
We have a national telecommunications network to bring us ( supposedly ) into the latest era of internet.
All it did was provide a way of making sure everyones comms were corralled into one easy spot to be monitored by the powers that be…….for our own safety, of course.
The gummint didn’t just get his internet censorship – they got much, much more…..
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And Australians fell for the smart meter scam without so much as a whimper. We are all still paying for them in our monthly power bills. The prime purpose for them in Aus was not so that you could “hourly check your power use” or “take advantage of low power prices through the day”. It was instead to enable suppliers to automatically disconnect your house or “load shed’ your area when demand exceeded grid supply. Or even worse, under the coming socialist laws, when you had used your monthly allocation of power.
200
🙂
32
Yeah but your OWL monitor cannot turn the power off when you do not pay your bills. Your smart meter will be able to do that. Saves the awkward situation of a power company employee having to make a call.
The number of disconnections rises proportionally to the increase market share of intermittents. It is likely the savings estimate is not taking full account of the increasing saving from remote disconnections rather than an actual visit to the house.
20
The enduring motto of the Climate Alarmists will ever be:
‘At least we were trying.’
130
but ‘At least we were tried’ sounds fairer don’t you think?
240
They should be tried, in a court of law
140
And they still are ‘trying’. At least they have tried muy patience nearly to the limit.
100
muy = my – read before posting!!
40
“At least we wer trying – with your money”
60
Trying makes you The Boss.
Criticising the major flaws in The Trying makes you a negative who just likes tearing people down without offering alternative solutions.
The thinking goes something like this.
“I have a plan to invade Russia in the winter”
“That would be really really dumb. Russia is huge. You have no winter equipment. You will be forced to retreat before you reach Moscow and 80% of the army will freeze to death.”
“Oh. Well what is YOUR plan to invade Russia?”
(pause…)
“I don’t even want to invade Russia!”
“See! You are not even trying. I am trying. I am The Boss! We attack at dawn!”
If your objective is stupid it doesn’t matter how good your plan is, but some people don’t seen to understand that.
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A true Climate Don Quixote moment:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voters-in-key-seats-to-face-barrage-from-getup-and-conservative-rival-20190411-p51d7z.html
“People are fed up with the government’s inaction on climate change,” GetUp national director Paul Oosting said. “There is a sense of anger and urgency.”
“GetUp aims to make 1 million calls to voters in key seats during the campaign. This is up from about about 216,000 calls in 2016.
“Mr Oosting said his organisation was using technology that allowed volunteers to make calls into target electorates from their mobile phones.
“GetUp will also campaign on the ground and talk to people face-to-face. Mr Oosting said talking to voters was “the most effective way to shift a vote”.”
“Advance Australia, which fashions itself as a conservative anti-GetUp, will use the $500,000 it has raised to focus on six key seats held by top Liberal Party conservative warriors. It will focus on seats held by Attorney-General Christian Porter (Pearce), Victorian MP Michael Sukkar (Deakin), West Australian MP Andrew Hastie (Canning), Mr Abbott, Mr Dutton and Ms Flint to counter Labor’s flagship negative gearing, dividend imputation and environment policies, as well as GetUp itself.”
Get Up fancies itself as Lefty storm troopers, although I think Advance might be more like the SAS….not really a fair fight, but it will be interesting…
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“People are fed up with the government’s inaction on climate change”
I wonder which people they are? and how many of them there are? My local survey indicates only a few fringe nutters think its any kind of issue at all.
280
Isnt it called projection?
60
At a debate held by Sky News in Tony Abbott’s electorate last night the GetUp candidate was a no show.
As the candidates gave their final address the Greens candidate mention climate change and received a very loud Boo.
201
This was on crowd source the truth
just finished viewing
What’s Next for Julian Assange-Insights from A Former Political Prisoner Scott Bennett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5lyZs6KOVU
20
Both the LNP and ALP+Greens are the biggest supporters of the renewables scam. Neither major party deserves to form government just based on that fact alone. Vote ACP and ON or else watch Australia crash and burn.
200
I wish you were correct but I fear the general public is totally apathetic. They will only wake up when there is a very serious crisis, like a financial or electrical meltdown.
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As I keep saying the election will be a great litmus test of how asleep, stupid, clueless and/or ignorant Australians are. My hope is they are not as bad as I think they are but my expectation is they are.
60
Ha..for giggles you can always ask these $CAGW$ zombies exactly what the government is supposed to do..
Blank stares..
Here is a start Getup Krazy Klimate kiddies if you are sincere.
Sell the car..get off the grid..not happening is it ?
But climate stickers and slogans mean you care right..?
140
Have a hashtag campaign, that will fix it
Block an intersection, a few chants and a candle light vigil
More laws, and Oh yes , a fund raiser
130
The trillion dollar energy
spendboondoggle (The Australian Business Review)The Trojan horse of Green ideology beginning to disgorge its monumentally confused, nonsensical contents for a falsified theoretical non-problem in order to facilitate three supreme political goals forever fuelled by an infinite green ideological justification (the disruptive presence of a single human being upon atmospheric composition and land usage — UNFCCC climate change) in order to achieve enduring power, impose control, and force taxation, in their own words, EU Plans To Transfer Energy Powers From Capitals To Brussels.
Among their goals, the EU wants to get its grasping hands on more revenue, EU Wants Members To Drop National Veto Over Possible Carbon Tax. And the British politicians dally over departure. It beggars belief.
If Leftist politicians down-under in Australia and New Zealand, together with their spooning MSM sycophants would just pause from virtue signalling about quite literally anything and everything for a few useful seconds, we might all surface the sea of insensibility for a breath of sanity.
Were the MSM capable of briefly suspending their intellectual vacancy to cease reporting social media as ‘news’ in order to undertake some authentic journalism in keeping with their long forgotten Canons of Journalism, and disappearing freedom of speech, namely, responsibility, freedom of the press (and internet), independence, sincerity, truthfulness and accuracy, Impartiality, fair play and decency — how alien these qualities appear in a post-modern secular MSM and institutions that publicly state they spurn Christianity and welcome biblical hell as a fun place — were they to do this for a brief moment, they know or at least dimly suspect that they would likely hasten the economic and moral bankruptcy of the oh so very fragile green boondoggle that is so patently a societal, political and economic dead-end … which is probably why they won’t, don’t or can’t.
150
Some writers have posited the Vietnam war was never meant to be won, rather it was a quagmire to get society bogged down in, to bring about a societal change. The “war on Terror” is the same – draconian laws were the aim, and chasing shadows the main stock in trade, but allowed more societal re-engineering in a “war” context so it wouldnt be questioned.
Climate Change is much the same thing – its a boondoggle of the first water, designed to usher in Socialism and collapse of society, to appease the CAGW cults’ pagan occult religious. The same people that also appear to include significant population reduction via massive conflict between cultures…..( witness europes quagmire…)
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I would agree with some writers…and I’d add in the counter-culture, massively engineered and promoted to the hilt by those with hard power, from the military to the alphabet agencies to our ever more centralising media. The aim was to degrade and divide. Job almost done!
Liberation and Diversity walk around in uniforms, saluting authority and checking left and right to make sure they are not out of step.
50
Bernard Madoff currently in prison for life was caught conducting a Ponzi scheme that’s more like a kid’s game when compared to the current renewables scam. Hence a life prison sentence is perfectly adequate for all the leaders of the scam currently profiteering from it.
210
There would not be enough prisons to accommodate them all.
60
Just the major leaders will be sufficient. There are not that many. The rest can have their assets seized to pay for the costs of imprisoning the major leaders.
50
We’re gonna need a bigger jail.
80
The link below about George Soros and Tony Abbott and more is important, we here understand the dark clouds hanging over our nation, the US and others have the same new world order socialism and globalism problems and issues, maybe the turning point started by President Trump has reached crushing speed?
https://www.xyz.net.au/tony-abbott-names-soros/
70
Since the “Coming Climate Change Catastrophe” is a fraud,
that started over 50 years ago, ANY government loans or subsidies
are fraud against the taxpayers, even if the green companies
broke no laws at all.
The portion of the green industry that could not survive
without subsidies and loans is taking money for nothing …
… meanwhile one billion people on this planet have no electricity !
In the US we have up to 500,000 homeless people.
http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com
50
Put this in the heap with wave energy, tidal energy, hot rocks, solar thermal and the thousands of wind turbines left rotting with nobody left standing to remove them at end of life. Tesla is of course slowly drifting down the reality chute as well but has not yet breathed its last gasp.
80
Born Lucky
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/03/13/born-lucky-stars-align-perfectly-for-pms-son-with-mammoth-bet-on-wind-power-outfit-infigen/
40
I suspect they were officially disbursing funds, but receivers can be good at dispersing funds too.
90
Robert Swan:
Rest assured the lawyer’s (receiver’s) fees never exceed the fund available.
50
Learn why “greenhouse” gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide) can only COOL the surfaces of Earth and Venus. This ( https://youtu.be/bT1iFhGKOI8 ) is the ONLY video with correct science about temperatures and heat and what causes natural climate change. Please watch it in full (15 mins) as it will blow your mind. It outlines a whole new paradigm in what is common thinking about the role of Solar energy and how that energy even keeps the core of the Moon far hotter than its surface. The author’s world-first discovery of a “heat creep” process turns conventional thinking on its head. Please pass this on to all your friends and colleagues: nobody will ever prove it wrong, but it certainly proves climatologists wrong with their fictitious, fiddled physics.
50
Today the thread is about scams, so I’m safe, after watching this video, in saying here is another one.
611
Leave it alone Cindy.
21
Thanks Brian,
I had to watch it twice to start to understand it. As I’m no physicist I can’t evaluate its accuracy, but it sounds good. Are you in a position to confirm his work? If my search is correct, the presenter is Doug Cotter who is not known to me.
Both picture and sound are good, and the 15 minutes was well worth spending.
Cheers,
Dave B
00
Then as almost his last act as Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull gave the friends of his wife $444,000,000 without them even asking for it. No competitive tender, no examination by the appropriate department, not even even a proposal for what to do with the money. Officially to ‘save’ the Great Barrier Reef somehow, which according to Professor Peter Reed formerly of JCU, does not need ‘saving’.
That’s not a ‘scam’. That’s theft, criminality at the top. They should hand the money back or be prosecuted for corruption.
210
There is also the matter insider trading “Born Lucky” wind turbine investment story.
Frustratingly politicians including retired politicians mostly escape scruting and prosecution, another example the AWU slush fund matter and the forged documents tabled at the Trade Union Royal Commission by a witness successfully diverting the Commissioner’s attention from the slush fund investigation by VicPol and WAPol.
70
Scrutiny ^^^
20
That’s 7.7 tonnes of solid gold to friends of Lucy Turnbull. Why? You would think that needed a good explanation. It has been forgotten by the press. Why? Meanwhile JCU is fighting Professor Ridd after firing him for non collegiate behaviour? To whom is the former Prime Minister accountable?
140
Hmm…any idea when we get to find out how that court case went?
60
The decision is probably weeks, if not months, away yet, according to the coverage of the trial, very effectively undertaken by the IPA’s Gideon Rozner.
You can listen from 2.08 to hear him give the possible timetable.
https://youtu.be/ARoteL6-LW4
00
No. Return the money with interest AND undergo criminal prosecution.
50
Think about it: if legal and journalistic scrutiny were real, there would still be howls over the pop-up foundation with the Superman comic name where board members outnumbered staff. Nobody could get away with such a blatant scam which doesn’t even bother to present a convincing front.
Ergo, legal and journalistic scrutiny are not real. They too have become pop-ups with Superman comic names. They will pop up for Israel Folau but pop down for Malcolm Turnbull.
100
G’day TdeF,
O/T. Thanks for your response to my Col 8 appearance. I agree with what you said, but defend my use of “plant food” as a descriptor for CO2, both on the basis of its essential nature to plants and for its attention seeking brevity. While I can’t remember when I first heard the term I can’t claim it as my own as I found it in Ian Plimer’s “not for greens” (e.g. p126) which I’m in the process of reading.
((For those not familiar with Col8, it’s a daily, single column feature in the Sydney Morning Herald. It has a selection of short items on topics of interest selected from readers’ submissions.)
None of my subsequent replies have been published.
Cheers,
Dave B
40
The ozone depletion scam takes the cake.
https://realclimatescience.com/2018/04/the-ozone-hole-scam/
50
Also if it is due to CF4, why is it in the Southern Hemisphere where only 2% of people live (below the tropic of Capricorn) and no one below 48 degrees and in the Northern Hemisphere where 60% of humanity live North of the Tropic of Cancer? Montreal is at 46 degrees, London at 50 degrees, St.Petersburg at 60 degrees and Murmansk at 70 degrees but there is no ozone hole! So everyone pays government massive taxes on refrigerants and the new refrigerants are far less efficient, wasting huge amounts of electricity. Green logic.
71
You can see the ‘human hemisphere‘ here. That’s 93% of all humanity. No one much lives anywhere near Antarctica. Click on the Human Hemisphere. Scroll down.
51
The ozone hole depletion was a time to introduce the precautionary principle, Dupont cornered the market.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/26/business/behind-du-pont-s-shift-on-loss-of-ozone-layer.html
41
Not for the last time, NASA used it’s authority to contradict all other scientists. Sound familiar? What happened to space exploration?
61
One of the biggest scams World Wildlife Fund Scan 60 billion Euros
100
Try again
One of the biggest scams World Wildlife Fund Scan 60 billion Euros
80
What about Australia’s own green scam: the Geodynamics hot rocks project? Well over $50m of your funds wasted here. Was never, ever going to happen – the concept was well beyond current engineering capabilities. Just pure green fantasy.
91
I followed the Geodynamics story myself but fortunately did not make an investment.
The depth of the drill hole was one issue and corrosion from the hot underground water may have been another.
As far as I know they were pushing the limits but it was not evident that it was well beyond current engineering capabilities. I think the project was just not ecomonic in the end, when compared with other power technologyies , such as coal and nuclear.
I agree that public money should not have been invested.
50
Read Bladerunner’s comment in the discussion on this at “topstocks”.
I liked this bit:
South Australia’s Conservation Council is keen to see more public investment in geothermal energy and other renewable energy sources.
“There’s no doubt that a lot of these start-up, new sources of energy will require public funding to give them a start and, what we’ve found is, as soon as that happens the cost curve quickly reduces,” chief executive Craig Wilkins said.
So does the share price Craig.
From $2.40 to $0.00 in just 11 years. Scroll down to the Chart.
Anybody got a list of the directors’ names? I’d like to put them on my avoid list.
30
Sorry about the missing reference url.
I can’t seem to get it to post on Jo’s site which is a pity because the Chart is as good as you’ll ever see for a typical failed greeny.
00
Do a search for “Geothermal power closes in SA as technology deemed not financially viable”
I prefer DuckDuckGo.
10
Look for the topstocks url
00
Exactly PeterC, the required drilling depth and hole size plus the environment encountered down there (rock stress levels, fluid chemistry) was beyond reasonable engineering capabilities, rendering the whole project heavily uneconomic (not marginally uneconomic). Some of these issues were known before the project started.
41
AUDIO: 15min29sec: 12 Apr: 2GB: Michael McLaren: Bill Shorten’s electric car dream – feasible or fanciful?
Behyad Jafari, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council joins Michael for a discussion of Bill Shorten’s electric car dream that came to prominence last week last week when he announced Labor want half of all new cars sold in Australia by the year 2030 to be electric.
Though not policy, it’s still quite a heroic aspiration when at the moment less than half of 1% of new car sales in Australia are fully electric vehicles… and those models available for sale are quite expensive.
The reality is that Australia doesn’t manufacture cars anymore so 100% of our cars are now imported. This means we will be at the whim of what overseas manufacturer develop and sell into the market.
If the trend from the overseas manufacturers is to go electric, we either adopt them or go back to the horse & buggy.
https://www.2gb.com/podcast/bill-shortens-electric-car-dream-feasible-or-fanciful/
ABC’s Philip Clark says around 1min52sec he’ll get Toby’s take on all the BS & other rubbish being said about EVs during the week; Toby begins around 4mins; segment ends around 10min44sec.
AUDIO: 11 Apr: ABC Nightlife: Philip Clark: Thursday: Motortorque with Toby Hagon
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/nightlife/10972950
20
“If the trend from the overseas manufacturers is to go electric, we either adopt them or go back to the horse & buggy.”
Ah…no…thats complete nonsense. We can happily stick with a tech that works, namely petrol or diesel. What do these people take as a liesure drig do you think?
Also, who died and made useless EVs, king? Its clearly an ideology, not practical a all.
51
Original Steve –
what isn’t being discussed in the EV/2030 debate is:
Australia’s population in 2030 is forecast to be close to 30 million. what does that mean for the electricity grid?
and if this comes to pass?
13 Oct 2018: ABC: Climate target set by IPCC requires 12 Australian coal-fired power stations to close: Parliamentary Library report
Exclusive by environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak
Australia would need to shut 12 of its coal power stations by 2030 in order to do what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says is necessary to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change.
The implication comes from simple arithmetic, produced by the Parliamentary Library, and would require nine power stations closing before the end of their scheduled life…
In 2010, Australia produced about 180,000 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from coal. Cutting that by 78 per cent means we can produce just 40,000 GWh from coal in 2030…
“As people digest the IPCC report, the penny is dropping that 2030 is the real deadline, a mere 12 years away,” said Greens climate and energy spokesman Adam Bandt, who commissioned the analysis.
“The IPCC is telling us that of the 16 coal-fired power stations on the eastern seaboard, at least 10 need to go in the next 12 years…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-13/coal-power-stations-needed-to-close-to-meet-ipcc-target-report/10368194
and when it comes to charging EVs, what about the fact:
Australia: Car ownership
2016 Households with 3 or more motor vehicles: 1.5million
Oct 2017: The Australian: Car ownership in Australia: A little more than one-third of households have access to one car; a further 54 per cent have access to between two and four cars. Two per cent of households (178,000) have access to five or more cars.
70
More ABC dopiness !
41
The US will continue to manufacture ICEV and so will most manufacturers because there will be markets that cannot use EV and definitely could not afford the EV prices and energy demands.
I read recently that the head of Daimler Benz said they will continue to manufacture a range of vehicle technologies, ICEV engines still have potential for improvements, they will also manufacture hybrids and EV.
A Mr Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra in India, they also own Ssangyong in South Korea, manufacture a range of passenger and utility vehicles, tractors and aircraft, commented a while ago when M&M acquired their only EV rival in India, that the future would be a mix of technologies, EV does not suit all markets.
50
I see EV as an urban affliction – really designed for highly urbanized high density populations, like european cities.
Australia is amore diesel country – practical and loves heat and big distances.
72
it seems all the following are in the New York Times Magazine Climate Issue, tho they have varying dates:
The Climate Issue
What Survival Looks Like After the Oceans Rise
Climate Chaos Is Coming — and the Pinkertons Are Ready
How Big Business Is Hedging Against the Apocalypse
The Next Reckoning: Capitalism and Climate Change
The Problem With Putting a Price on the End of the World
Climate Change Could Destroy His Home in Peru. So He Sued an Energy Company in Germany.
all those I’ve checked are accessible:
9 Apr: NYT Mag: The Next Reckoning: Capitalism and Climate Change
Fixing the planet is going to be expensive. Can we stomach the bill for human survival?
By NATHANIEL RICH
(Nathaniel Rich is the author of the new book “Losing Earth: A Recent History,” based on an article that appeared in this magazine)
The world’s most difficult problem has a solution so simple that it can be expressed in four words: Stop burning greenhouse gases…
The Heritage Foundation ought to know; for decades, it has demonstrated mastery of the dark arts of climate-change denialism. This strain of influence peddling would be harmful enough had it managed merely to deepen the public ignorance about global warming. But denialism has had devastating downstream effects (to borrow an industry term). It has managed to defer meaningful consideration of nearly every urgent policy question that now awaits us, if we are serious about trying to stop this.
The most fundamental question is whether a capitalistic society is capable of sharply reducing carbon emissions. Will a radical realignment of our economy require a radical realignment of our political system — within the next few years?…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/09/magazine/climate-change-capitalism.html
11 Apr: NYT: How Big Business Is Hedging Against the Apocalypse
Investors are finally paying attention to climatechange — though not in the way you might hope.
By JESSE BARRON
Unlike almost every other future event, climate change is 100 percent certain to happen. What we don’t know is everything else: where, or how, or when, or what the changes mean for Facebook or Pfizer or notes of Chinese-government debt. Navigating these thickets of complexity is theoretically what Wall Street excels at; the industry prides itself on its ability to price risk for the whole economy, to determine companies’ values based on their likelihood of generating earnings. But traders are compensated on their quarterly or yearly performance, not on their distant foresight. It takes confidence to walk into your boss’s office talking about sea levels in Mozambique in 2030, when your colleague has a reason to short-sell the Turkish lira this week. Practically no one in the financial system is directly incentivized in the near term to worry about the biggest risk conceivable…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/11/magazine/climate-change-exxon-renewable-energy.html
10 Apr: NYT Mag: Climate Chaos Is Coming — and the Pinkertons Are Ready
As they see it, global warming stands to make corporate security as high-stakes in the 21st century as it was in the 19th.
by NOAH GALLAGHER SHANNON
(Noah Gallagher Shannon is a writer from northern Colorado who now lives in New York)
The Pinkertons wanted me to picture myself in a scene of absolute devastation…
Even if the Pinkertons couldn’t predict the specific risks of the future, they had a general sense of what it might look like — and what opportunities they might avail themselves of as it materialized. According to the World Bank, by 2050 some 140 million people may be displaced by sea-level rise and extreme weather, driving escalations in crime, political unrest and resource conflict…
Aware that he might end up sounding vampiric, Paz Larach hesitated, then eventually confessed what he’d wanted to say in the first place: The future looked pretty good for Pinkerton…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/10/magazine/climate-change-pinkertons.html
10
Any expose that targets the real issue is great.
This is a Fantastic post because it shows exactly what big government inspired global skimming is all about:
The Money.
Our money, as much as they can get.
Corruption is in our Charities, Local, State and Federal governments and has become a serious virus.
Bring on the Vaccine.
KK
61
Agree KK,
In our democratic system the vaccine is applied by votes in the election. The time is now.
Unfortunately I don’t think sufficient voters realise the nature of the disease, or even that our institutions are seriously ill.
The IPA, The Australian Tax Payers Alliance and Advance Australia all realise the problem and are trying to explain. None of them are political parties.
The Australian Conservatives are a political party and we have senate candidates in every state. We are very much trying to end all this idiocy.
90
“ ordered to pay $54 million in restitution. She so far has paid $10,000 ”
I’m jealous. I think a small careful scheme could work for years.
Being loved by the Clinton Foundation, or any other, invites a look by regulators and/or serious investors.
The problem is how to cash out.
I think a 2nd identity is needed.
40
Just a general Thank You to Jo for her so worthwhile enthusiasm and industry which provides respite from the unrelieved greenist propaganda served up to media consumers elsewhere.
101
unfortunately, behind paywall:
Battery storage investment key to Scotland’s renewables aim
Utility Week – 2 days ago
Designing Scotland’s electricity system so that it can run purely on renewable energy would require tens of billions of pounds worth of investment in battery storage or continued reliance on carbon emitting gas plants, according to modelling carried out by EDF… Cadoux-Hudson said that plugging the gaps when insufficient electricity is being generated by renewables would have required £56 billion worth of battery capacity…
https://utilityweek.co.uk/battery-storage-investment-key-scotlands-renewables-aim/
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behind paywall:
Wikipedia: Clive Aslet is a … writer on British architecture and life, and a campaigner on countryside and other issues. He was for many years editor of Country Life magazine.
11 Apr: UK Times: Solar panel ‘farms’ are a threat to our precious landscapes
by Clive Aslet
At the weekend, I was lucky enough to visit Stour Provost in Dorset. It is an idyllic part of the country, where the river Stour winds through a sylvan landscape, past ancient churches and mills recorded in the Domesday Book. This is the kind of scene that England does so well. Each of the three villages overlooking it is a conservation area, packed with listed buildings.
But a snake has slithered into this paradise. An application has been made to build a solar farm along one side of the valley: a 21st-century intrusion that would destroy the soul-restoring loveliness of this historic and fragile place. “Farm” is a misnomer. It will be a power station, laid out with serried ranks of reflective panels, raised a metre off the ground and three metres in height…
There are plenty of places where solar panels would not obtrude. Flat landscapes with hedges are better than hills but best of all are built environments. Think of car parks, shopping centres, factories. Put them on roofs of buildings, above railway stations and distribution centres. Easy to link them to the national grid. If solar wrecks our precious countryside, the public will turn against it…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e10ea20c-5bcf-11e9-af83-9657ec7b0130
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Updated 12 Apr: Nikkei Asian Review: Tesla and Panasonic freeze spending on $4.5bn Gigafactory
Japanese company also suspends planned investment in Shanghai plant
by DAISHI CHIBA and ITSURO FUJINO
OSAKA — Tesla and Panasonic are freezing plans to expand the capacity of their Gigafactory 1, the world’s largest EV battery plant, as concerns mount on Wall Street about sales at Elon Musk’s car company dipping below estimates.
The partners had planned to raise capacity 50% by next year, but with sales of electric vehicles performing below plans, the two companies concluded that a major investment at this stage poses too much of a risk, Nikkei has learned.
Tesla’s goals of becoming a mass producer of electric vehicles, on the order of 1 million cars a year, will be pushed back for now…
Panasonic will also suspend its planned investment in Tesla’s integrated automotive battery and EV plant in Shanghai…
Tesla shares fell close to 4% in Thursday’s trading on the Nasdaq, before closing 2.77% lower…
Prices for Tesla cars start at $35,000 for the Model 3, its lowest-priced model. Batteries make up about half the cost of an EV.
Given the relatively small profit margin on these cars, significantly cutting battery prices will be difficult without further technological advances. And lowering sticker prices is crucial to getting more EVs on the road.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-and-Panasonic-freeze-spending-on-4.5bn-Gigafactory
11 Apr: CNBC: Tesla disputes report saying carmaker is freezing spending on $4.5 billion Gigafactory
by Robert Ferris
Tesla disputed a report that the carmaker and its partner Panasonic have paused expansion of the Gigafactory 1 manufacturing facility…
Here is Tesla’s full statement…
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/11/tesla-and-panasonic-reportedly-freeze-spending-on-4point5b-gigafactory.html
20
behind paywall:
11 Apr: Financial Times: Investors must play a bigger part in the world’s energy transition
On the one hand, tens of trillions of dollars of investment is needed to provide energy for the billions of people that today live in energy poverty. On the other, the world’s energy system needs to be radically overhauled. It is not enough to merely slow down the rate of growth in carbon emissions – absolute emissions need to start to fall, and head towards net zero as soon as possible. Both of these challenges are going to require huge investment.
Global capital markets – and therefore institutional investors – are going to play a crucial part…
https://www.ft.com/content/00110364-5baf-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40
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11 Apr: Devex: New report casts doubt on World Bank ‘billions to trillions’ agenda
By Sophie Edwards
The World Bank’s ambitious strategy to use its public finance to unlock trillions in new private capital to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals is “completely unrealistic,” according to a new report.
New research (LINK) from British think tank the Overseas Development Institute, released Wednesday, finds that the multilateral development banks are failing to meet expectations when it comes to catalyzing additional private finance into low-income countries, mobilizing just $0.37 of additional capital for every $1 of public money invested.
Instead of going as planned to low-income countries, most concessional finance being provided to blend with private money is going to middle-income countries. And instead of addressing market failures and taking on more risk, the funds are directed toward relatively low-risk investments, the report finds.
Furthermore, while there are disputes over how blended finance volumes are measured, even the most generous estimates reveal flows are way below what is needed to fill the estimated $2.5 trillion annual SDG financing gap in developing countries, the report and experts say…
Released during the World Bank Spring Meetings, which got underway in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, the ODI report appears to throw cold water on the “billions to trillions” agenda, first announced in 2015 by the bank’s former president Jim Kim…
The report also highlights a lack of transparency, data, and accountability around the development banks’ use of blended finance, raising questions about accuracy and efficacy of numbers being reported…READ ON
https://www.devex.com/news/new-report-casts-doubt-on-world-bank-billions-to-trillions-agenda-94678
10
11 Apr: UK Sun: SPY IN THE HOUSE Amazon is listening to YOUR Alexa device and workers have recorded a woman singing in the shower and a sex assault
As many as 1,000 clips are reportedly analysed by full-time and contracted Amazon workers every shift – with some recording intimate moments and harrowing crimes
By Neal Baker
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8837948/amazon-listening-alexa-echo-clips-record-woman-shower-sex-assault/
20
They showed one of these “cockroach” devices could hear conversation embedded in a music track. Now imagine how easily with the same tech, it could hear conversations through multiple thin walls…or hear anything else for that matter….
Privacy? What privacy….
20
11 Apr: IISD: Partners Launch ‘Cool Coalition’ to Save Lives, Energy and Trillions for Global Economy
by Leila Mead, Thematic Expert for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (US)
Story Highlights:
The ‘Cool Coalition’ links action across the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.
The number of air conditioners in use is expected to increase from 1.2 billion today to 4.5 billion by 2050, with emissions from the sector potentially growing by 90% by 2050 over 2017 levels if no action is taken.
The coalition is led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).
Speaking about the initiative, Rachel Kyte, SEforALL CEO, underscored the need to provide sustainable cooling at speed and scale to ensure that everyone has “safe food, safe vaccines and comfort at work.” She added that hundreds of millions of people are threatened by extreme heat, and must be protected in a manner that does not increase emissions…READ ON
http://sdg.iisd.org/news/partners-launch-cool-coalition-to-save-lives-energy-and-trillions-for-global-economy/
10
***inheriting trillions, provided the CAGW mob don’t grab the trillions first:
11 Apr: Inside Philanthropy: With a Generation of New Donors ***Inheriting Trillions, How Can Nonprofits Boost Arts Giving?
by Mike Scutari
The world of philanthropy will be heavily shaped in coming years by the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in history, with tens of trillions of dollars being passed down in the next half century. Estimates vary about how much of this wealth will find its way to charity, but one report last year estimated that transfers to Gen-Xers and Millennials over the next decade alone could yield more than $2o billion a year in new grants to nonprofits.
Where will all that cash go?
A big fear among leaders of arts nonprofits is that their sector will get short shrift from younger donors who tend to gravitate instead to urgent issues like global poverty and climate change…READ ON
https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/4/11/with-a-generation-of-new-donors-inheriting-trillions-how-can-nonprofits-boost-arts-giving
10
theirABC was as gullible as the rest of the FakeNewsMSM, in entertaining the idea Avenatti was a credible 2020 Dem presidential candidate! ABC couldn’t get enough of the guy:
13 Nov: ABC: Hillary Clinton in 2020? Democrats face ugly tussle in race to find nominee to take on Donald Trump
By North America Correspondent Stephanie March
Expect names like Oprah and ***Michael Avenatti to be tossed around to add some celebrity sizzle to the otherwise predictable mix of senators, congress members and governors past and present…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/could-hillary-clinton-run-again-in-2020/10491570
this story has been out all day, but theirABC doesn’t seem interested:
12 Apr: Quartz BUSTED: Michael Avenatti faces 335 years in prison and then some
By Ephrat Livni & Justin Rohrlich
Last year, he even briefly seemed like a presidential hopeful himself…
Avenatti faces a maximum penalty of 335 years in prison for 36 counts of wire fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, and bankruptcy fraud, and aggravated identity theft. And that’s just in this one case. The attorney was also charged in March in New York federal court for allegedly attempting to extort money from Nike—an effort to force a settlement on behalf of a client in exchange for silence, which prosecutors called a “shakedown.” In that case, he faces a maximum penalty of 47 years in prison, meaning he could technically be looking at 382 years, or nearly four centuries, in lock-up if convicted on all charges…
The lawyer purportedly took money that was paid to him as part of client settlements, including a paraplegic client who received $4 million from Los Angeles County, to fund his personal expenses, a coffee business, a share in a private jet, and his own legal expenses (which are mounting). He also is accused of wire fraud in relation to these expenditures…
https://qz.com/1592973/michael-avenatti-faces-335-years-in-prison-and-then-some/
40
That is quite cheering news pat.
I did not like the way that Avenatti behaved. What a come dowm, and so quickly.
A lot more people should follow. They might do so as the AG William Barr starts hos invcestigation of spying by the FBI.
50
Off topic, but relevant to today’s date.
It’s the anniversary of the first man into space.
Yuri Gagarian 12 April 1961.
:
Per aspera ad astra (through hardships to the stars)
30
I remember seeing Sputnik flying overhead.
20
I remember being taken out and shown it but not actually seeing anything.
10
Sputnik, on checking, was launched on Friday 4th October 1957. I think we saw it on a Sunday night , maybe.
10
‘Per ardua ad astra’….RAF motto.
10
Same as the RAAF Annie.
20
Hmmmmm….So hows the whole Cool Futures hedge fun thing going then??
12
Strange, i thought there would be a few people here who could report on how well their investments in that fund are going??
00
You guys with your global ponzi schemes and gigantic green swindles. I dunno. I get where you are coming from, but we sometimes forget that small and local can be the most beautiful.
Come on. I know you want to see it again. So here it is…
https://www.wgegroup.com/news5.html
20