Divestment Snowflakes protesting at St Johns College Jan 30th
Students at St Johns College were protesting last week at the fossil fuel investments that help keep the College running. Even camping out in the quadrangle in the middle of winter:
“We are not going anywhere” – St John’s locked down over Climate Strike
The Oxford Student
Oxford students have occupied St. John’s College since Wednesday, demanding that the College divests its £8.1 million of disclosed investments in fossil fuel companies and all undisclosed fossil fuel investments from its £551 million endowments.
Dozens of students have set up camp in the front quad of St. John’s equipped with banners and placards, to demand that it takes the climate emergency seriously and measures to remove the social licence of fossil fuel companies.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are allegations that St. John’s College had disabled student’s room keys. Instead, they are allegedly doing manual Bod card checks, escorting students to and from their rooms, and are not allowing non-residents to enter the college. There are reports of students bringing protesters food as they have remained on the quad since yesterday.
A solidarity rally has been taking place outside the front gates of the College.
Professor Andrew Parker took that offer and raised it:
by John Sexton, HotAir
Professor Parker responded with a provocative offer. “I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice,” he wrote. “But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off with immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”
One of the students wrote back and said he would present the proposal but he didn’t think Parker was being appropriately serious. Professor Parker responded to that note saying, “You are right that I am being provocative but I am provoking some clear thinking, I hope. It is all too easy to request others to do things that carry no personal cost to yourself. The question is whether you and others are prepared to make personal sacrifices to achieve the goals of environmental improvement (which I support as a goal).” The best part of the story is the response from the organizer of the protest:
Fergus Green, the organiser of the wider protest, who is studying for a master’s degree in physics and philosophy at Balliol College, said: “This is an inappropriate and flippant response by the bursar to what we were hoping would be a mature discussion. It’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to switch off the central heating.”
Brilliant. Give the man a medal.
h/t Willie
Must be very difficult for a modern day activist to remain relevant when all the really good cause were already taken in the 60’s…
351
Very true! But didn’t we have some fun, back in the 60’s, when the cause de jour could morph in the blink of an eye.
100
I can still remember the 60’s clearly – so you may well have had more fun than me.
90
THe acid, pot(amyl nitrate and nitrous oxide if you were doing medicine) lotsa beer and chicks. Mannnnn….
50
Speaking of “… doing medicine”
Who remembers going to Measles Parties as a kid in the 60’s?
20
Did you have heating at university in the 1960s? The best I got was an inadequate gas fire. And it was very cold in Cambridge in the winter.
00
Only a liberal dose of mind altering substances could support this.
70
When I see signs like theirs, I translate them to say, “George Soros, come buy our fossil fuels at bargain-basement prices so you can profit hugely when the ice age hits hard….or you can refuse to sell fossil fuels and let most of the world’s population die when the ice age hits hard.”
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It seems that Fergus, one of the leaders, is able to recognise inappropriateness and flippancy in others but not in his own actions, which are obviously excluded from such judgementalism by non believers.
It’s amazing that these students, in what may be regarded as the apex of civilisation and privilege, are blissfully able to dismiss any thought of the plight of those in Africa, Asia and India whose needs are so basic and raw.
Those living on the borderline of subsistence and those whose countries are still being torn and destroyed by war and plunder would be amazed by the attention given to this imaginary problem of Global Warming.
KK
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Yes, not even prepared to forego central heating, for the cause, but expecting the whole world to pander to their literally sophomoric fantasies, about a whole planet in danger, and the brave little twits flocking to stage unctuous protests, to save terrestrial Heaven, via doing absolutely nothing but demand others do everything, and take all the losses and deprivations.
Ineffectual flaccid selfish stupidity.
381
That, is deeply penetrating.
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I understand that “deeply penetrating” can be both painful, and embarrassing. But given that they are Oxford twits, that is probably appropriate.
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Hi RW,
Even if you jump the first paragraph, the last words;
“Ineffectual flaccid selfish stupidity.”
Are just,,, so penetrating.
It’s a great word.
40
So is the cold Kieth.
Gotta luv that Bursar.
20
Never mind old and poor people in the UK, unable to afford any sort of proper heating in winter. I’m afraid I think those students are selfish little brats…’do as I say and not as I do’. Good for the bursar; clever fellow, keep it up!
250
20
True, but a small point, they’re still privileged.
It’s the civilised bit that’s the issue.
As WX said, there’s nothing civilised in their behaviour and when the Modern Media collapses so will their lives.
KK
30
I always think that when an article begins with a pejorative headline that it can only get better.
I was wrong.
421
Perhaps you would like to join them Figleaf? I’ve been in England in Jan/Feb., the weather is lovely at this time of year. I know you would hate to be thought of as a hypocrite, so when are you flying out? Oh, whoops, sorry, I forgot carbon footprint. You’ll have to travel overland and by sea. Maybe Greta will sail down to pick you up?
161
no idea what you are on about but keep up the good work.
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Just say that you “have no idea”, and leave it at that.
It is relevant to your every post.
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Yes, wrong as always. At least consistent.
81
GA, get thee to Oxford and join the silly little people there; set an example by wearing nothing, eating nothing, using nothing produced by coal and oil once you are there. See how long you last. If those nincompoops complain about flippancy and about how cold they would be with their gas CH turned off (poor dears), how about they think of the really susceptible people their daft advice would kill in January?
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What is it with the projections today. Is that satire? Are you trying to outdo “peter”?
19
Your posts are getting more and more childish and incoherent…… so sad.
62
When a gee aye post starts with, “I always think….”
… I laugh at the impossibility of the situation.
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Mere academic dopey dumbnuttery !
Our colleges and universities are the swamp
Where such crap is birthed !
Note to Dpt of Immigration : Please ensure none of these dumbnuts are granted visas to enter Australia !
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It will come home to roost like a 4 ton chicken, when the temp drops and crops fail and solar panels give 1/100th of their original output, coz they are covered in snow…..
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PS : Jo they don’t deserve a medal !
Award him a toffee apple instead !
30
How dare they!!!
ROFL!!!
St Greta of Stampy Foot……
Well, they gave Obummer a Nobel for being…well…Obammer…so why not give it to a grumpy, stage managed teenagers, who spruik climate hot air?
Its not so much The Nobel as The NoPoint….
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-04/greta-thunberg-nominated-for-2020-nobel-peace-prize/11928008
“Two members of parliament in Sweden have nominated Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.
“Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, who are both members of Sweden’s Left Party, said Ms Thunberg “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis” and “action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace”.
“The 2015 landmark Paris climate deal asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that are melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns.
“It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
“The voice of a generation?
“Greta Thunberg inspired a global movement for climate action, but some haven’t welcomed her message.
“Ms Thunberg, 17, has encouraged students to skip school to join protests that demand faster action on climate change, a movement that has spread beyond Sweden to other European nations and around the world.
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Isn’t the Nobel Peace Prize the gift of the Norwegians ?
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No, The Nobel Prize (singular) was established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer, Alfred Nobel, along with prizes, in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, Medicine, and Literature.
50
The “Peace Prize”, was, and is, a much later political artifact.
130
By the Norwegians.
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27 Dec 2019: Australian: ABC executives, staff spend $20m on travel as axe hovers
by Nick Tabakoff
There has also been disquiet among ABC staff and unions earlier this year about business-class travel by the board, particularly as they campaigned for a 2 per cent pay rise that was ultimately granted last month. These concerns reached a head in October when most ABC board members travelled business class to a Townsville board meeting, which doubled as an ABC “listening tour” of north Queensland.
It is understood that one key board-level exception to the business-class travel was the ABC’s staff-elected director Jane Connors, who has insisted on travelling economy to board meetings while her colleagues travel in the front of the plane.
While the bulk of the ABC board travels business class, the government figure in charge of the ABC, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, has been choosing to travel economy on domestic flights…
An ABC spokesman said the ABC was “on track” to cut its travel costs: “There was a 3.1 per cent decrease in kilometres flown by ABC employees in 2018-19, compared to the previous year. This financial year we are on track to further decrease travel costs.”…
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-executives-staff-spend-20m-on-travel-as-axe-hovers/news-story/0083a476a9c38ca2f4dfccc6a4c5ffa3
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They FLY!
Don’t they know about the climate emergency? Why are they flying around the country to get the input of the “customers” when they could do it on-line instead and save 000’s of air km?
Based on this, we should immediately divest all our holdings in such a business! That’ll fix it!
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Kneel:
In line with their policies perhaps the ABC would look better (and more in keeping) hitchhiking on a flock of flying pigs.
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And they can use this for their internet:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549
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Well, the only solution consistent with the policies presented is this:
Shut down all fossil fueled electricity into the mains feeding St John’s College Oxford.
Anything less than that would be “offensive” to the sensibilities of the students.
Love to see how that would work out, eh?
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No. Let’s not be Draconian.
Allow the students to choose their power sources.
Yes. They may vote for their Tuition costs. Green or Mixed.
If Green, all power is shut down whenever Unreliables cannot support their campus aggregate load.
If Mixed, tuition costs “follow the costs of the load”.
That ought to do it. Pain is a great Teacher. And they are there to Learn. So let it be a Learning experience.
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Probably just as well they drink warm beer.
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And the students can then pay the purchase price for the power they choose…
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I suspect that most of the outraged students
Are not from this college
But from elsewhere.
So turning off the power & gas
Would punish the sane students at the college
-if such rarities can exist !
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4 Feb: AFR: Failed Joyce coup sparks fresh climate row
by Phillip Coorey
An explosive new row over climate change has erupted inside the Morrison government following a failed bid by Barnaby Joyce to wrest the Nationals leadership from Michael McCormack.
Moments after Mr Joyce lost the spill, he and his backers including George Christensen and David Gillespie, spoke in the joint party room meeting against climate change policy.
They were taken to task by Liberal colleagues who say climate change is an even more red hot issue in their seats following the bushfires and they want the government to do more on policy.
Mr Joyce ran for the leadership on an ***anti-environmental platform. Backed by Matt Canavan, he vowed to do more to promote coal, enable widespread land clearing and to wind back the Murray-Darling Basin plan so less water was dedicated to the health of the river system…
Mr Morrison was unambiguous about the link between the fires and climate change in his speech to Parliament to lead off a day of condolences for the victims of the fires…
“These fires have been fueled by one of the worst droughts on record, changing in our climate and a build up in fuel amongst other factors.
“Our summers are getting longer, drier and hotter, that’s what climate change does, and that requires a new responsiveness, resilience and a re-invigorated focus on adaptation.”
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/failed-joyce-coup-sparks-fresh-climate-row-20200204-p53xmv
behind paywall for me; Canavan now out of the Cabinet:
4 Feb: AFR: McCormack demands unity after Joyce defeat
by Phillip Coorey
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/mccormack-demands-unity-after-joyce-defeat-20200204-p53xgz
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IPSOS says:
29 Jan: ABC: Quiet Australians decide it is time to speak up on climate change action
7.30 By Tracy Bowden
‘Ordinary Australians’
They organised a quiet protest outside the office of their federal MP, Liberal member Dave Sharma, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
“I look at the protests and I think, they’re young activists or old activists who can be easily dismissed as ratbags doing their own thing, we can ignore them. And I’ve been guilty of that,” he said.
“We want to distinguish ourselves from those groups and say, look, we’re just ordinary Australians, we’re not radical but our votes count.”
The self-described swinging voter took out an ad promoting the vigil in his local newspaper and set up a Facebook page…
Rob Henderson was another novice protester.
“It’s a first for me holding up a placard, that’s for sure,” he told 7.30, while holding up a sign reading, “Quiet Australians sick of hot air”…
The latest survey by research group IPSOS shows a jump in concern for the environment.
The proportion of Australians citing climate change as their key concern jumped from 24 per cent in May 2019 to 41 per cent in January this year, coming in ahead of issues such as healthcare and the cost of living.
Dan Evans from IPSOS says the research also shows a broader age group aware of the issue.
“Older Australians, the Boomer cohort, are becoming more concerned,” Dan Evans from IPSOS told 7.30.
“But in a broad sense, everyone’s a bit more concerned.
“At the federal election that was the fourth most important issue facing the nation, now it’s clearly the top concern.”…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-29/new-activists-quiet-australians-government-action-climate-change/11903728
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Since it takes no more than 6 protesters to gain ABC coverage, how do we know what this supposedly mass protest represents?
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Brilliant! Very funny and a clever and mature response. Taking on the intellectuals of Oxford with second hand opinions and no proof is silly. As for a student doing physics and philsophy even sillier. Perhaps he could apply some physics and philosopy to his beliefs? Physics used to be called Natural Philosophy. Let him just question why he believes the 50% CO2 increase is man made and CO2 is not in rapid equilibrium.
To progress he has to transition from believing everything to believing nothing without proof. It’s called growing up too. The first degree means you believe everything and you think you know everything. Arrogance. The second you should develop serious doubts. The third and you realise you know very little and accept nothing without proof. It means you are thinking for yourself in the tradition of Rene Decartes.
As for Michael Mann, he failed his Physics PhD course, so he went into counting tree rings and making up his own data. He is now world famous, for all the wrong reasons.
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… doing physics and philsophy …?
Perhaps he is really doing sums, and finking, and stuff?
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Let’s not forget Caldeira et al, who introduced the ridiculous ‘ocean acidification’ scare – assuredly in the same league as Mann’s tree rings. In Caldeira-speak, a pH change from 14 to 13.99 would be termed ‘acidification’ – idiotic, but what a wonderful way to scare people!
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After reading TdeF’s comments I would like to add the following:
Books such as Owen Barfield’s “History in English Words” explain that words carry their history of origin and also their corruption which changed their meaning and philosophy.
The use of the term ‘Social Credit’ by the Chinese to describe their draconian national surveillance system is just one such term that has been corrupted and reveals the change of meaning and philosophy of the original DOUGLAS Social Credit proposals and the original English words.
‘Social’ once meant an association or group of individuals and ‘Credit’ stemming from the same root word as ‘Creedo’, meant belief, faith.
It is 80 years since biologist, philosopher and social crediter Geoffrey Dobbs wrote about the corruption of culture and philosophy by changing the meaning of key nouns and adjectives (found here: The Social Crediter, Vol.8 No.25 August 20 1942).
I looked up ‘philosophy’ and the courses available to students in the Anglo-American world today. The following is a summary according to U.K. psychotherapist Mark Vernon.
• Analytic Philosophy: If your question is “What’s the meaning of life” this kind of philosophy probably won’t help you.
• Continental Academic Philosophy: Rather than Logic and/or Reason this one is more into hermeneutics and interpretation. Sees itself as more of an Art.
• Self-help Philosophy: Doesn’t mean to change anything in one’s life but just helps things to go a bit better.
• Philosophy as Therapy: Known as therapeutic consolation. In the modern world will help life to be a bit better.
• Now known as Hellenistic Philosophy. Has its roots in Ancient Greek thought back to Socrates in particular ways.
The General Philosophical Orientation of Social Credit
Speaking of philosophy in the narrower and more correct sense (i.e., as a search for the basic and unchanging principles that define and delimit reality), it is important to recognize that the analysis and remedial proposals of Social Credit’s economic and political theory are grounded in a general philosophical outlook which has much in common with what is often referred to as the philosophia perennis.
The philosophia perennis encompasses that broad tradition of thought in the history of Western philosophy which insists on the existence of objective reality and its basic intelligibility to the human mind.
Its major figures include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Boethius, and St. Thomas Aquinas, amongst many others.
One does wonder which version/course of Philosophy the students featured in the report studied – and passed!
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Did Michael Mann fail his PhD?
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Why do Western societies insist on shunting such low-cailbre dopes through the “higher-education” sausage machine at such great expense to taxpayers?
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It is having the lack of a chin, that suits such people for the rarefied atmosphere. The inclusion of brains is an optional extra.
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no end of surprises! https://aumladder.blogspot.com/2020/02/china-us-joint-biotechnology.html
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these ‘protestors’ are busybodies who in the equation of “Meum et tuum” [mine and yours] are solely concerned yours only.
how about they start their ‘protest’ looking at their own before demanding change from others.
they can start by divesting themselves of all products created with or using fossil fuels (clothing, computers, anything made of steel, meat, plastics, cars, planes, trains, automobiles, etc).
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We didn’t mean shut off the gas *WE* student use for necessary purposes. We meant the evil gas that the gas barons buy and sell for PROFIT
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minimising their carbon footprint as usual:
3 Feb: Daily Mail: ‘We’re treated like SKIVVIES’: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Scotland Yard protection officers ‘claim they’re sent on errands like picking up royals’ groceries and coffees’ in Canada
by Luke Andrews
Highly-trained protection staff have also allegedly been seen buying food from an organic delicatessen, a favourite of Meghan’s, and picking up coffees from fast food outlet Tim Hortons.
A team of 15 guards has been flown to guard the couple and their nine-month-old son Archie at their secluded Canadian bolthole, after they stood back from royal duties.
The Duke and Duchess’s security is estimated to cost taxpayers in Canada and the UK between £3million and £6million a year, as staff work round the clock two weeks at a time…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7957899/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markles-Scotland-Yard-protection-officers-claim-theyre-sent-errands.html
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mmmmm Fergus wants to take the high moral ground and have a discussion, but doesnt want to actually do anything. Must be a job at the BBC for him somehwere?
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“It’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to switch off the central heating.”
To which I’d say that it’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to switch off investment in the fuel used for the central heating. But everyone knows that. The art of activism is not saying what everyone knows but what everyone is supposed to know.
Mind you, I’m not naive enough to think this protest is on the level. As I mentioned in a previous thread, there is a huge gas glut in the world right now and it is already having its consequences on investment. That’s right. Divestment is happening on a major scale because there is too much of the stuff. How does Egypt develop its enormous Zohr field now? Is there any point in Turkey roughing up Cyprus over gas at the moment? Russia has just done a deal with Ukraine to get the southern route back on track ahead of Nordstream2’s doubling of supply from the north. (This is no fun for Australia’s high price-point producers, so let’s hope someone locates those green jobs very soon.)
What to do? Why, it’s simple. Call Coal Busters! Chock-a-block the power market with white elephants, especially decrepit technologies like wind and solar, so that there will be a permanent demand for “transitional” gas.
That’s right. Those students are really demonstrating in favour of Bloomberg’s and Exxon’s fossil fuel of choice.
Doh!
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4 Feb: Junkee: This Climate-Change Denying Liberal Senator Straight-Up Admitted To “Not Relying On Evidence”
by Joseph Earp
“Jim Molan, do you accept the scientific view?” MacDonald asked.
“I certainly accept that the climate is changing, it has changed and it will change. As to whether it is human-induced climate change,” said Molan, to rising boos and jeers from the audience, “my mind is open.”
Molan then proceeded to say that he gets “information” come across his desk every day contesting the accepted climate science. When MacDonald asked Molan what that information was, the Senator repeatedly dodged the question, until finally, he gave this corker of an answer:
“It’s a range of information,” he said, to more audience boos.
“What is the evidence that you are relying on?” MacDonald pressed.
“I’m not relying on evidence, Hamish,” Molan replied, and was immediately greeted by an eruption of applause and laughter from the audience.
“You said it,” said climate scientist Michael Man, seated next to Molan.
“This is why my mind is open,” Molan shot back…
Watch the whole glorious exchange in full below, starting at 56:25:
VIDEO WON’T WORK FOR ME
https://junkee.com/jim-molan-qa-climate-change/240518
45m02s:
3 Feb: ABC Q&A: Q+A Bushfires Special
TRANSCRIPT
JIM MOLAN
But this is why my mind is open. I would love to be convinced one way or the other. But to be prudent, what the government is doing is it’s got a climate… an emissions reduction policy. And it is a good policy. And it will mitigate risk to the maximum that it can. And where risk cannot be mitigated, it will adapt. And that’s what we’ve got to work on, is the adaption.
MICHAEL MANN
Come on now, mate…
MICHAEL MANN
Now, you know, you should keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out. When it comes to this issue, when it comes to human-caused climate change, it’s literally the consensus of the world’s scientists that it’s caused by human activity. Now, you sometimes hear the talking point from contrarians, from the Murdoch media…
HAMISH MACDONALD
But, Michael Mann…
MICHAEL MANN
…that maybe it’s natural. Natural factors would be pushing us in the opposite direction right now…
HAMISH MACDONALD
Let’s try not to make this personal.
MICHAEL MANN
Absolutely.
JIM MOLAN
And we’re into name-calling already, Michael. Well done
MICHAEL MANN
Well, no, I didn’t call you names…
MICHAEL MANN
I just made a point about open-mindedness…
HAMISH MACDONALD
…that this is a democratically-elected government, they went to the electorate with the policies that they have in place now and they were voted for. And this government has been elected in multiple times. Clearly, there are a lot of Australians that are happy with the policy settings, that may agree, in fact, with Jim Molan’s scepticism, open-mindedness about the science. Are you saying to all of them that their brains have fallen out?
MICHAEL MANN
No. What I’m saying is that being open-minded is a great thing. Scepticism is an important thing in science. But there has to be scepticism on both sides. ***It can’t be one-sided scepticism, where you’re literally…
MICHAEL MANN
…rejecting the overwhelming evidence, based on the flimsiest of ideas that you can’t even define…
https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2020-03-02/11906192
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the Q&A audience is not only ignorant & rude…as usual. it is entirely predictable.
anyone who is not totally aligned to CAGW alarmism is mad to go on.
Chris Kenny just had Dave Sharma/Wentworth on his Sky program. Sharma (paraphrasing) said it didn’t matter whether or not CAGW caused the bushfires. it’s best to just pretend it did (or something to that effect).
was then asked wasn’t it unfortunate to lose Matt Canavan from the Cabinet, given how effective he has been, especially in Qld at the last election.
Sharma said he would pass on that question.
50
Red team or blue team or indie, nobody gets to squat in Wentworth unless he or she is working for Green Blob and its promoters. The globsters really like that seat and are prepared to spend big on it. (Yeah, I heard the one about Malcolm spending millions of his own money…but it depends how you define “own money”, doesn’t it?)
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“What I’m saying is that being open-minded is a great thing”.. says Mickey Mann.
And yet his mind is totally CLOSED to anything that could possibly put any doubt into the scam of CO2 caused global warming.
Totally CLOSED to the fact that his FARCICAL climate graphs are basically just a load of fr*******t junk science.
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Michael Mann is probably the individual most responsible for converting me to a more skeptical position.
I accepted the Al Gore story initially. That began to change when I read the climate gate emails where they discuss how to fabricate the hockey stick. Particularly all the comments about them needing to maintain public faith in that story. Adjusting data to convince the public? BOOM. You just lost me right there.
I’m now a luke warmer. I think CO2 is in all likelihood rising due to fossil fuel use and it’s probably warming the planet, but I don’t believe it’s nearly as dramatic as they are trying to say. They have form twisting the data to sell their scary story.
30
Nice model of an fossil fuel powered Ice Breaker,
Seems to be sitting on aluminium stands on top of blue plastic sheets.
If the picture was in better resolution we could almost certainly create a huge list of items that are manufactured using, or made from, fossil fuels.
These “students”? don’t seem to have reached the “self-thought” stage of life yet..
and probably never will.
50
Yep. I confess to being a bit herbal. I like linen and hemp, shop with cotton bags instead of those crumbly “green” plastic things, wash up with castile soap and bicarb, run all Linux…You know the type.
And because I’m a bit herbal I’m amazed at just how plasticated Our Green Betters are. Even for a major photo op they can’t do without. I’m not against any fossil fuel product, would never boycott anyone (boycotts have an ugly history and have are having an ugly present). But it sure takes the snowflakes a lot of fossil fuels to protest against…fossil fuels!
If anyone wants a real laugh, check out where those great carbon-zero-preaching foundations park their money. But I guess when you are dodging taxes in the service of humanity you have to think of solid returns. Can’t all be green fairy-floss for green pixies! (In fact, almost none of it is.)
30
random bits from the Q&A Transcript:
from intro:
WOMAN 3: Given the massive amount of carbon released into the atmosphere during the recent fires, how should the government start counting and reporting on those emissions?…
WOMAN 4: What do you think it will take to get the urgent, ambitious and coordinated emission-reduction policies?…
WOMAN 5: What role, if any, does Scott Morrison’s faith have in influencing policy decisions around our environment and climate change?…
HAMISH MACDONALD: Now, let’s meet the panel…renowned US climate scientist Michael Mann…
—
MILENA CIFALI: …and 2 billion wildlife have perished, if not more…
HAMISH MACDONALD: Before we get an answer to that, how are you doing? (NO-ONE RESPONDS TO 2 BILLION-PLUS WILDLIFE PERISHED; IT’S JUST IGNORED OR ACCEPTED)
HAMISH MACDONALD: Let me bring in Michael Mann here. Was there sufficient warning to government in Australia, in your view, that something very different was going to happen this summer, enough perhaps to prompt them to act earlier than they did?
***MICHAEL MANN, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Yeah. There are climate scientists who were telling us that because of the behaviour of something called the Indian Ocean Dipole – some of you may have heard about this – we can actually predict something about what’s likely to happen. It impacts the monsoon, rainfall patterns. It’s part of why it was so dry, why the winter was dry and the summer has been dry. So, yes, we knew this was coming. One would expect that policymakers should have used that information, used the information provided by the great scientists here in Australia.
JIM MOLAN: And did you engage with the people who do the firefighting?
MICHAEL MANN: Oh, certainly.
JIM MOLAN: You… you did?
MICHAEL MANN: No, I…
JIM MOLAN: You did engage with the Premier of New South Wales, who is responsible for our firefighting?
MICHAEL MANN: I just arrived here in December. I’m an American. But my colleagues here at… (LAUGHS) I’m American, but I love Australia. And, you know, my colleagues here, they’re wonderful colleagues, at CSIRO here, at ANU, University of New South Wales. Some of the best climate scientists and atmospheric scientists and oceanographers in the world are here in Australia. It’s really a luxury that the government should be drawing upon.
JIM MOLAN: And, Hamish, can we get that fact-checked please?
HAMISH MACDONALD: Which?
JIM MOLAN: Because I was not aware that our scientists went to the Premier of New South Wales and said, “Prepare for an unprecedented event.” They may have. But wouldn’t it be good, Hamish, to get a fact check on that?…
MICHAEL MANN: Can I actually make one more point here? Because actually, 12 years ago, some of you may have heard of the report, the Garnaut report. 12 years ago, we told you this was coming. Climate scientists told you this was coming. And… and… what have we seen on the part of this government? We’ve seen…
HAMISH MACDONALD: What exactly did he say, though?
MICHAEL MANN: So, it’s actually remarkable. You can go online and take a look at the report. It’s actually stunning when you read it, because it literally said that climate change is increasing the length of the fire season, it’s leading to greater fuel loads and more intense fires. And by 2020, the effect will become obvious. And here we are in 2020, and the effect has become obvious…
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Michael is so eloquent, the RC should call him up and he can quote Garnaut.
‘Scott Morrison has written to state and territory leaders seeking their approval of draft terms of reference for a royal commission into the devastating bushfire season.’ SBS
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I think they should be given another divestment campaign to think about. Which is what someone else might have said awhile prior to organising this stupidity. We always ought to trace the funding and the organisers when we see foolishness at this level. All these rich kids being such big girls blouses. The gene pool gets pretty thin at the top, when the rich are no longer downwardly mobile. At one stage I had a twitter identity called “The egalitarian eugenicist” where I argued the key to a healthy gene pool was making rich slobs downwardly mobile again.
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followup to #20.1 above re Dave Sharma interview on Sky this evening:
Sky videos count down, which is annoying.
about 4m10s from the end, Sharma is asked about Jim Molan/Q&A. respects Jim’s right to have a view, but says he believes in CAGW.
his response includes:
“even if people might disagree about the causes, or they might be uncertain about the causes, I think the prudent set of policies is to take out insurance in case that is the case” … “it’s prudent to act as if humans are playing a role and we should try to reduce that role”.
Matt Canavan question follows.
VIDEO: approx 12m: 4 Feb: Sky News: Chris Kenny: Coalition will ‘address climate change but not threaten jobs’
Member for Wentworth Dave Sharma says the Coalition has a “pretty clear” agenda to address climate policy and will not “threaten” the economy or jobs in the process.
Mr Sharma told Sky News host Chris Kenny the Cabinet “is all in behind” Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s climate policy. “This is about technology, not taxation … this is about addressing climate change but in a way that doesn’t threaten the economy or threaten jobs,” he said.
“It’s a sensible set of policies and I think we’ll be sticking with them”.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6129409926001
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4 Feb: Daily Mail: Boris Johnson refuses to take questions at climate change launch after sacked ex-minister tears into his broken green ‘promises’ and says voters ‘should not trust him’
By David Wilcock
Claire Perry O’Neill, who was sacked last week as president of the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, launched a blistering revenge attack on his record this morning, accusing him of reneging on green promises.
The former clean growth minister accused him of presiding over ‘a huge lack of leadership’ on the issue, which had left the UK ‘playing at Oxford United levels when we need to be Liverpool’.
It came as Mr Johnson was joined by Sir David Attenborough to outline plans for the summit with a speech setting out Britain’s stall as a leader on tackling climate change…
Ms O’Neill told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme today: ‘The Prime Minister has made incredibly warm statements about this over the years.
‘He has also admitted to me that he doesn’t really understand it. He doesn’t really get it, I think is what he said.’…
In a letter to Mr Johnson published by the Financial Times, Ms O’Neill told him: ‘You promised to ‘lead from the front’ and asked me what was needed: ‘Money, people, just tell us!’ Sadly these promises are not close to being met.’
Speaking to the BBC, Ms N’Neill added: ‘We have seen a huge lack of leadership and engagement.
‘Our efforts right now are somewhere around the middle of League One. We are playing at Oxford United levels when we need to be Liverpool if we are going to do what the world actually needs us to do.’…
Of the Prime Minister, Ms O’Neill said: ‘My advice to anybody to whom Boris is making promises – whether it is voters, world leaders, ministers, employees or indeed to family members – is to get it in writing, get a lawyer to look at it and make sure the money is in the bank.’
However, Cabinet minister Michael Gove has rejected claims by Ms O’Neill that the Government had shown a lack of leadership on the issue of climate change…
CLAIRE O’NEILL’S LETTER TO BORIS JOHNSON IN FULL…
– I am told by COP unit sources that budgets (which I do not see) are ballooning, the team and the Scottish government are in an extraordinary state of stand-off and that you are considering re-locating the event to an English location. I had asked if you would consider resetting your relationship with the First Minister – putting aside the devolution battle for the sake of this vastly more important agenda. I understand you declined in salty terms…
You had a vision for Brexit and you got Brexit done. As I write, we have less than 7,000 hours before the start of COP26…READ ON
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7964423/Sacked-green-summit-boss-Claire-Perry-says-Boris-Johnson-doesnt-really-understand-climate-change.html
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the usual Richard Black condescension:
3 Feb: ECIU blog: UN climate summit: Glasgow lurches into PM’s view
By Richard Black (ex-BBC)
For Boris Johnson’s neonate of a government, the UN climate summit has just lurched somewhat uncomfortably into full view.
Proposed last year as something that could kitemark post-Brexit Britain’s commitments to both the international community of nations and a clean energy transition, one suspects that ministers from Mr Johnson downwards, with the political foreground populated by Brexit and reshuffles and trade deals, have seen the Glasgow summit as something dimly seen on a far-off horizon through a somewhat inchoate mist of can-do optimism…
No more.
With Tuesday’s launch of the government’s COP26 strategy, ministers acquire political ownership of a process that could either bring diplomatic triumph in November, or result in the world’s least developed countries and the UK’s climate-concerned citizens spaffing industrial quantities of egg all over Mr Johnson and his Cabinet…
The slightly messy departure of Claire (Perry) O’Neill from the post of COP26 President is actually the least of the government’s issues…READ ON
https://eciu.net/blog/2020/un-climate-summit-glasgow-lurches-into-pms-view
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they know nothing. lengthy, read all:
3 Feb: Bloomberg Green: Climate Models Are Running Red Hot, and Scientists Don’t Know Why
The simulators used to forecast warming have suddenly started giving us less time.
By Eric Roston; with With Akshat Rathi
There are dozens of climate models, and for decades they’ve agreed on what it would take to heat the planet by about 3° Celsius…
Then last year, unnoticed in plain view, some of the models started running very hot. The scientists who hone these systems used the same assumptions about greenhouse-gas emissions as before and came back with far worse outcomes. Some produced projections in excess of 5°C, a nightmare scenario.
The scientists involved couldn’t agree on why — or if the results should be trusted. Climatologists began “talking to each other like, ‘What’d you get?’, ‘What’d you get?’” said Andrew Gettelman, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, which builds a high-profile climate model.
“The question is whether they’ve overshot,” said Mark Zelinka, staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Researchers are starting to put together answers, a task that will take months at best, and there’s not yet agreement on how to interpret the hotter results. The reason for worry is that these same models have successfully projected global warming for a half century. Their output continues to frame all major scientific, policy and private-sector climate goals and debates, including the sixth encyclopedic assessment by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due out next year.
For now, however, there are doubts and worries. A higher warming estimate “probably isn’t the right answer,” said Klaus Wyser, senior researcher at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute…
This uncertainty over how to read the models highlights one of the central challenges of climate change. On the one hand, policy makers and members of the public are turning to scientists as never before to explain historic wildfires, devastating droughts and spring-like temperatures in mid-winter. And the bedrock of the science has never been more solid. But the questions vexing experts now are probably the most important of all: Just how bad is it going to get—and how soon?…
It takes climate modelers, who run hugely complex calculations on supercomputers, more than a biblical six days to create their virtual worlds. Modules for air, land and sea all churn together and interact, and through early runs the researchers will make adjustments for troubleshooting and debugging that amount to re-wiring the whole world…
***Wyser was expecting to get calls from journalists about the disturbing hot-model results. “It was known in the research community for, let’s say, about a year,” he said. But he didn’t know how to go about communicating the findings, and almost no one outside of the tight network of researchers came looking for answers. “It more or less just passed unnoticed.”…
Climate models have been doing a fine job projecting warming for a long time…
The authors of the main UN climate-science reports will follow along and try to stitch together a big picture, for release in 2021.
In the meantime, Gettelman and colleagues around the world will push ahead. “It’s like a giant puzzle,” he said, “where everybody gets a little piece.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-03/climate-models-are-running-red-hot-and-scientists-don-t-know-why
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I see that the Government and Whitehall have a combined heat and power supply run on natural gas.
How will they cope when natural gas is banned? Hydrogen? How will the hydrogen be produced?
https://www.pfmonthenet.net/article/13426/Cofathec-wins–25m-Whitehall-energy-contract.aspx
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StephenP:
The cheapest and most convenient method to produce hydrogen used is from natural gas.
Mind you, I think the sooner Whitehall rushes into hydrogen (wanting to look Green) might solve a few problems. If in doubt about my meaning look up how difficult it is to contain hydrogen, to detect leaks and its wide explosive range when mixed with air.
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Guy Fawkes Mk2?
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Annie:
I note that before every opening of the UK Parliament they search the cellars, just in case someone has added barrels of gunpowder there.
Too much to hope for, yet I can’t abandon hope that the rush to green posturing may BACKFIRE.
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Climate wars set to erupt again.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/nationals-turmoil-threatens-to-spark-problems-for-scott-morrison/11930096
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Fergus Green comes across as one of those students who has realised how much hard work there is to become somebody by being a physicist. Best to be an activist. He should have enrolled in one of the humanities where you think no further than will your postulate tickle the woke button of your colleagues.
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this morning our time:
VIDEO: 4m54s: 4 Feb: CitizenFreePress: Rand Paul Unleashes LIVE On Senate Floor – Names Whistleblower Eric Ciaramella 5 Times
Posted by Kane
Dr. Rand Paul reads and displays the question which Chief Justice Roberts declined to read last week during the Senate Impeachment Trial and publicly names coup plotters Eric Ciaramella and Sean Misko…
UPDATE – Here’s the full 10-minute VIDEO
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/rand-paul-unleashes-live-on-senate-floor-names-whistleblower-eric-ciaramella-5-times/
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3 Feb: Reason.com: Baltimore County Admits It Hasn’t Been Recycling Glass for 7 Years. It Still Encourages Residents to Recycle Glass.
When ritual is more important than reuse
by Christian Britschgi
Over the weekend, news broke that the county—which does not include the City of Baltimore—has not been recycling the glass it’s been collecting as part of its recycling program. For the past seven years, the jars and bottles that residents dutifully placed in their blue bins have been being junked instead.
“There are numerous issues with glass recycling, including increased presence of shredded paper in recycling streams which contaminates materials and is difficult to separate from broken glass fragments, in addition to other limitations on providing quality material,” county spokesperson Sean Naron told (LINK) The Baltimore Sun.
Glass recycling reportedly stopped in 2013, the same year the county opened a $23 million single-stream recycling facility, according to the Sun article…
The same article notes that the cost of transporting heavy glass from recycling centers to glass manufacturers is often prohibitively high, meaning it’s often more economical to just make glass out of new materials…
Rising rates of contamination and the effective closure of a major export market in China, which stopped accepting most American plastic, have left material processing facilities with no willing buyers. Many of the recyclables that are collected therefore end up in landfills or incinerators.
And that’s what’s been happening to Baltimore County’s glass. Yet county officials are wary about telling people to stop recycling the stuff, according to the Sun. People, they fear, will fall out of the recycling habit. Ritual is apparently more important than actual reuse.
https://reason.com/2020/02/03/baltimore-county-admits-it-hasnt-been-recycling-glass-for-7-years-it-still-encourages-residents-to-recycle-glass/
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