JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears
https://theweek.com/speedreads/898497/israel-first-country-warn-citizens-not-travel-abroad-over-coronavirus-fears
50
The Australian has just published an article that questions whether folks should travel overseas, as it points out that if you have a “standard” flu, there is a possibility of being taken off a flight and quarantined.
50
Link and some excerpts:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/smart-travel-planning-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/news-story/a2e6ee65f07b260c0d15ab42859a759b
“First, if you’re sick, don’t travel. ” “Prepare for disruptions”
“Check your travel insurance.” “…consider only “cancel for any reason” plans”
40
A lot of hype…..
Clearly a coordinated scare mongering across most MSM.
IMHO a lot of theatre. Bird flu was going to make your curtains fade and make the moon shift orbit…and nothing…..
Its more of a martial law dry run…..
71
Mers had a 35% mortality rate. You can thank your lucky stars that this virus falls short of that. When doctors and nurses are themselves dying from treating people with this virus, when so many get sick that the hospitals cannot cope, then I don’t think it is overblown.
50
I see more contradiction across the MSM than coordination.
However, that’s probably a result of the high number of unknowns associated with the virus.
This for example:
Japanese woman confirmed as coronavirus case for second time, weeks after initial recovery
“Once you have the infection, it could remain dormant and with minimal symptoms, and then you can get an exacerbation if it finds its way into the lungs,” said Philip Tierno Jr., Professor of Microbiology and Pathology at NYU School of Medicine.
Tierno said much remains unknown about the virus. “I’m not certain that this is not bi-phasic, like anthrax,” he said, meaning the disease appears to go away before recurring.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-japan/japanese-woman-confirmed-as-coronavirus-case-for-second-time-weeks-after-initial-recovery-idUSKCN20L0BI
That contrasts with the downplaying coming from the WHO Director-General:
On Monday, the WHO-China joint mission concluded its visit and delivered its report.
As you also know, the team has traveled to several different provinces, including Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The team has made a range of findings about the transmissibility of the virus, the severity of disease and the impact of the measures taken.
They found that the epidemic peaked and plateaued between the 23rd of January and the 2nd of February, and has been declining steadily since then.
They have found that there has been no significant change in the genetic makeup of the virus.
The team also estimate that the measures taken in China have averted a significant number of cases.
https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-mission-briefing-on-covid-19—26-february-2020
But yet the WHO wants the international community to pledge and pay $US675 million to it.
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/05-02-2020-us-675-million-needed-for-new-coronavirus-preparedness-and-response-global-plan
20
And Americans are being advised to establish a two week stock of food and water in the face of pandemic. I would like to know why water would be restricted. And how two weeks would be enough?
As far as I can see, this is another airborne flu but with 10x the death rate.
Most people will be hoping for a vaccine and countries are just stalling by closing borders, giving the researchers time. Consider that in the Spanish Flu of 1918, 37 million died in a time when it took weeks just to travel. The real problem today is that an infected carrier can get around the world in two days.
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Breitbart article here
10
Re: water.
During the bushfires on the South Coast of NSW this last November-February period it became very clear just how fragile the infrastructure is in NSW (and presumably all advanced western economies).
The sequence was like this.
1. Road closures (all main highways and by-ways) isolated towns, villages and hamlets.
Result food ran low in supermarkets and the like and people started to hoard.
2. Power lines were burnt out and power was cut off.
Hoarded food in fridges and freezers started to deteriorate.
Communication towers back-up batteries eventually ran down and no mobile or other communication was possible.
Water storage reservoirs stopped filtering water because of lack of power. Warnings were given not to drink the water without boiling or using Aquatabs. Those who had gas bottles for their BBQs detached them at night a locked them away to confound the mongrels who were out and about looting.
Lack of power meant the reservoirs were not being filled. Hence water was likely to be cut altogether.
That took about one week to eventuate.
Now, apply that experience on a larger scale with the fires being replaced by a pandemic.
There’s no redundancy or back-up. The drive to efficiency has removed all redundancy. That creates a fragility that only becomes apparent during an emergency.
Get your self a couple of 20 litre containers and keep them full. It beats drinking out of the bath. 🙂
30
Generic advice re the water I think. An arbitrary two weeks where they think issues could be resolved. Water needs storing, treating in some cases and pumping. In a city environment its easy to see it falling apart if maintenance isnt available.
20
Yarpos this is where living in the sticks comes in handy , 38,000 litres of rainwater tank capacity and two generators with just enough solar and battery back up .
10
Hollywood’s Carbon Footprint
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/26/hollywoods-carbon-footprint/
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Why are polar bears going extinct? (Spoiler: They’re not)
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/26/why-are-polar-bears-going-extinct/
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Cost Of ‘Net Zero’ Will Be Astronomical, New Reports Warn
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/25/cost-of-net-zero-will-be-astronomical-new-reports-warn/
20
I completely understand, but do we really have to do everything he demands?
He really has no right to demand that All communication with him be highlighted, as demanded in the last thread.
KK
10
KK: “…but do we really have to do everything he demands?”
I must be missing something, who is this question referring to?
RD
20
Peter FitzRoy made a comment earlier about emphasis.
Highlighting.
I thought that because you were emphasising so many of your comments you must have been doing it for him.
KK
10
KK:
I missed that comment from PF. Rest assured I do not do his dirty work. I usually highlight the title of a document so that it stands out from the link.
00
It’s all part of the feel good pronouncements of politicians, knowing they will have long departed before their li*es are laid bare. A bit like the Paris obligations which no one kept, except Australia and the US and these are the two countries being attacked by the IPCC for failure to act.
I am still wondering what can be done to show the emperor has no clothes, with pronouncements like this.
50
“… these are the two countries being attacked by the IPCC for failure to act. I am still wondering what can be done to show the emperor has no clothes ….”
Say ICPP!
31
Hijacking the Winds of Change
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/26/hijacking-the-winds-of-change/
20
Excellent article. Heating by compression as air rushes downhill. Especially in Antarctica which drops suddenly from 9,000 feet. And having experienced the Chinooks for three days, the snow just vanishes. The next day is spring. Now all changes are blamed on Climate Change, even extremely short lived events like these.
Weather is not the Climate is the excuse of all Climate Scientists to exclude real weather scientists, meteorologists from the new exclusive domain of Climate Science. It allows pretend scientists like Tim Flannery to pontificates about the weather and to be universally wrong. In fact you would think Climate Scientists might be right occasionally, if only by accident.
50
It will also be amazing to see how dependent so many countries are on tourism.
When I first went to America, I did not know anyone in my social set who had been there. Now I know few people who have not.
Maybe COP26 will have to be done using the Internet and saving 35,000 people flying to Glasgow? The hypocrisy is just astounding.
50
And like 911, how many businesses can function without international conferences in places like Monaco, Las Vegas, Venice and the usual ski villages and resorts and golf courses favored by businesses. Given that countries are moving to 5G all the flying seems absurd, not because of man made Global Warming, but simply unnecessary as after 911.
I doubt some places like Paris and Venice and London can realistically cope with all of Asia flying in for a visit. The queues in Paris were impossible and I gave up. You simply cannot get to see some places without parking overnight. And tourists will soon outnumber locals in Venice.
Perhaps more internet visits would be in order. There was a wonderful 3D tour of the Taj Mahal, showing detail you could not see if you were there. And in Jerusalem and other ancient tourist places. I see a new world of internet tourism with ticket prices.
40
Dunno about that. In 2008 I planned a trip to Arizona specifically to see the Barringer Crater (also known as Meteor Crater) and arranged to stay with some people in Phoenix. The husband was enthusiastic about visiting the crater but his wife wasn’t, telling me seriously, why don’t you just look at a picture of it in National Geographic? She was happy to take me to many other places in Arizona. Anyway we did go there and she conceded that my excitement and body language told her it was not the same as looking at a photo of it.
30
I visited Barringer Crater many years ago. It is a very impressive display of how big a hole can be made by a relatively small rock traveling very fast.
30
As a % of gdp the most dependent are the small island nations, the usual suspects in the climate cash grab cargo cult mentality.
10
How fast can a coronavirus vaccine be developed and how quickly can it be produced in sufficient quantities to immunize those in Western or other advanced countries (since the Third World will be ignored)?
20
A few weeks ago it wast stated it could take 6-12 months. Of course it might be speeded up if things turn nasty.
10
I suspect many are trying. Here’s news of a trial that’s about to start.
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/covid-19-treatment-co-created-by-ubc-researcher-begins-clinical-trial-1.4827835
10
I get the feeling that the Australian government is gearing up for the Corona 19 pandemic.
This is indicated by the following news report on the ABC online
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-27/federal-government-coronavirus-pandemic-emergency-plan/12005734
But it does not want any of us to worry & ‘panic’
So it is being very low key in it’s announcements to the media.
Meanwhile this morning I found this pdf by the the Commonwealth Government about how it will respond to the Corona outbreak ?
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/02/australian-health-sector-emergency-response-plan-for-novel-coronavirus-covid-19_1.pdf
It actually does not inspire me at all
Full of inpenetrable ‘bureaucratese ‘.
Does it mean anything ?
But whether it means anything or not, some bureaucrat’s bum is now fire proof.
30
It is obvious that what is being said at the highest levels is forcing countries to shut their doors. At the public level, we are being told enough to worry everyone but not enough to produce panic.
Having lived through so many flu like scares, this one is the worst. It’s as if ebola had escaped. They are tracking down the lead carriers in Italy and elsewhere. This is not done for the flu. This is being treated as Spanish Flu which killed 37 million in a world with 1/5th of the population and no rapid travel.
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And the document places it high on both transmissability and fatality, so it is officially rated with the Spanish Flu of 1918/19. What Trump has done in shutting the borders is just buying time to develop an innoculation. That’s the problem with selection. You can be selected against, eliminated in the lottery of life, especially if medical supplies run out.
20
And Scott Morrison has just announced the government is initiating their Emergency Response Plan for Coronavirus.
Why is not known.
30
So do we cheer that he is initiating the Emergency Response Plan ?
Or worry because it is too little too late ?
As apart from the issue of whether anyone knows what it means ?
20
I wonder what the plan even is and how effective it might be if devised by a committee of public servants.
10
Been seeing comments about 5G using 60 Ghz. 60 Ghz appears to have an effect on O2 and its structure, if hit with 60 gigs.
Been trying to establish if a concentrated RF burst of 60 Ghz can affect O2 take up via haemoglobin in mammals.
Apparently Wuhan also a hot spot for 5G deployment.
Wondering if Wuhan is an open air crash test dummy for a whole bunch of technology roll outs of which the locals arent allowed to complain.
Researching further….interesting theory.
41
Humans test dummies are not new. During the early days of nuclear testing in the US they used soldiers not that far away from the above ground explosions and were exposed to vast amounts of radiation.
40
And not just in the USA. Also here in Australia.
The scientists hid in a bunker. But the troops were out in the open. They just turned away to avoid eye damage from the Flash, then about turned and watched the mushroom cloud climbing up and up.
I have never found out if anyone even bothered to follow them up to see if there were any long term health effects.
10
I was going to say that too.
Ugly stuff. Expendables.
10
https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-60GHz.html
“Drawbacks or disadvantages of 60GHz frequency
“Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of 60GHz frequency:
“➨60GHz wireless system offers less range due to path loss encountered at this frequency. Free “space path loss over length of 1 meter at 60 GHz is about 68 dB.
“➨60GHz frequency can not penetrate through the walls.
“➨This frequency incurs substantial RF absorption peak due to resonance of oxygen molecules. “This is significant at greater than 100 meters range. Hence low range communication will not “have any effect of this issue.
10
See also page 6 and 7
https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/bulletins/oet70/oet70a.pdf
“An additional set of curves for total one-way attenuation through the atmosphere, including attenuation due to water vapor and oxygen, is given in Figure 5. This is shown for several angles from the vertical, or zenith. Clearly,the greater this angle Φ, the more atmosphere the signal goes through and,consequently, the more the signal is attenuated.
“Figure 6 [1] shows the one-way attenuation through the atmosphere for oxygen only. The attenuation increases as the off-zenith angleΦ, increases, due to the longer distance atmospheric penetration. As one would expect, the loss is highest around the 60 GHz oxygen absorption peak for all elevation angles.
“Figure 7 shows the gaseous attenuation for oxygen absorption and for water vapor absorption as a function of range, over and above the free-space loss given in Figure 1. The resonances for frequencies below 100 GHz occur at 24 GHz for water vapor and 60 GHz for oxygen.
“Figure 8 depicts total attenuation, including free space loss and gaseous attenuation, for three typical frequencies. There is no significant increase in attenuation due to gaseous absorption above the free space loss given in Figure1, except for the 60 GHz band.
“Above a distance of about 9 km, the composite loss (FSL + Absorption) increases significantly from free space loss alone
10
https://www.rfglobalnet.com/doc/fixed-wireless-communications-at-60ghz-unique-0001
“Figure 1 illustrates the atmospheric absorption for millimeter wave frequencies.
At the millimeter wave frequency of 60GHz, the absorption is very high, with 98 percent of the transmitted energy absorbed by atmospheric oxygen.
“While oxygen absorption at 60GHz severely limits range, it also eliminates interference between same frequency terminals.
10
My uncle died a pretty miserable death with assorted cancers and related conditions many decades after witnessing the Montebello tests in Australia. Could just be coincidence though.
20
I’m guessing you may have seen this video. Yes?
https://www.sgtreport.com/2020/02/must-watch-covid-19-pandemic-aided-by-weaponized-5g-rollout-across-china/
Certainly looks like it’s deserving of some attention. Especially since the deployment preceded the illness by so little time. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.
And when you consider all of the pollution that’s been there too, it sure looks like there could be more to it than bat soup.
31
That’s got to be the biggest load of nonsense yet associated with the Corona virus out-break.
Do you have any published science to support the nonsense?
Science fiction is obviously a genre of its own. Creative writing knows no bounds.
30
Did you watch the vid? She does give some references. And OriginalSteve is providing some links above. It may be no more than a contributing factor, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s necessarily quite as big a load of nonsense you suggest.
00
Hmmmm, I see the comment with video I linked is in moderation so maybe Jo and the crew think it’s as big a load as you do. 🙂
[comment has returned] AD
00
We’ve gone through this before, and I see that some folks are not convinced. So let’s try once more. RF energy decreases by the square of the distance. This means ithat RF energy decreases drastically when you are only a short distance from the source. If you aren’t convinced, then purchase an RF meter and measure the amount wherever you want to do it. Then go and buy the relevant international standard to see what allowable S energy levels are. And if you are worried about this, then why the heck are you putting mobiles to the side of your head? And why would anybody RF charge anything on their bedside table? I worked in this field for over 35 years, and I’m still amazed at how folks can be concerned over something that is not a problem, yet take risks where there clearly are problem areas.
20
Graeme #4,
Thought you’d probably have something to contribute when this came up.
When you were working in the field were you working with 5G? 60GHZ?
Just so you know, I’m not putting mobiles to the side of my head, I don’t own a mobile phone, and nothing is ever charging on my bedside table.
11
A little homework for you Joseph.
Download this Aust Standard: https://www.arpansa.gov.au/sites/default/files/legacy/pubs/rps/rps3.pdf
(It’s not the only standard that covers this subject, but it’s a start.)
Next sit down and have a good read – it’s only 136 pages.
Then acquire a field strength meter that covers the frequencies you are interested in, along with a reference antenna, step outside, and MEASURE the actual radiation levels of whatever you want to measure, wherever you want to measure it.
Then get back to us with the ACTUAL DATA and your analysis of that data.
We have enough trouble fending off alarmist comments about climate change that are not based on solid scientific evidence without getting involved in yet another similar subject.
20
Downloaded. Will read.
I’ve got a friend with a meter.
Still curious to know if you were working with 5G, and if you have had any experience with 60 GHZ ?
There is quite a lot that is different about what’s going on with 5G.
Not saying 5G is causing all of the illness but I think it would be prudent to do some research in that area if you’ve suddenly got a lot of people getting sick and dying not long after you’ve turned it on. And especially if you’re using 60 GHZ and you know that frequency plays with the oxygen in a way that could be causing some problems, and if you could determine that it was contributing to the dis-ease in some way, you could switch it off.
00
The ABC just published a “fact check” on the 500 scientists that stated that there is no climate emergency. Why did they not do that with that other recent list that said there was a climate emergency – the list that included Micky Mouse?
50
reference please!
What did they say about them?
10
Ok, Serge has it at #12
10
Another element to this Fact Check was regarding the bonafides of an actual scientist.
The article quotes the Australian Academy of Science
Dr Michael Mann, celebrated by the ABC as a climate scientist for his ‘hockey stick graph’ – refused to release data and proprietary results ordered by a Canadian Court in the libel matter of Mann vs Ball, where Dr Ball had asserted the ‘truth defence’.
The ABC certainly has held no reservations or expressed any caution in regards to Dr Mann’s work and opinions.
Using the ABC’s own fact check we can declare Q&A, ABC Radio (with Wendy Harmer) & ABC Radio (PM) with the highly coveted rating of ‘4-5 pinocchio’s’.
70
‘Stealth Transmission’ Fuels Fast Spread of Coronavirus Outbreak
https://t.co/fkSo9C7HEF?amp=1
h/t Mike Shellenberger (@shellenbergerMD twitter)
20
The ABC are off the leash once again, now trying to discredit a group of scientists and professionals that have signed a petition that there is no climate emergency.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-27/who-are–scientists-professionals-who-say-no-climate-emergency/11734966
Just to be 100% sure of the current climate situation I did look out the window before reading the article and I can confirm that the weather looks absolutely normal, perhaps a bit cooler than average for this time of year, but nothing unusual.
Anyway, after reading the article, I was wondering why would we need scientists to tell us, the general population, that there is a climate emergency ?. Surely if the climate had gone into some kind of permanent radical state then it would rather obvious every time we ventured outside the front door. Also, surely the opinion of the general public must take precedence here as we are the ones that pay taxes that keep these career scientists employed, fed and housed. A much better and more meaningful idea would be to set up a global online poll and get all global citizens to do a quick front lawn check of their climate situation and report back. We could then send this to the ABC fact check as well as all scientists and settle this matter once and for all.
For the record – Sydney’s North Shore @ 6:00pm – 22 degrees C, clear skies, light NE wind, humidity 74%. No emergency unless I jump into the cold swimming pool 😉
100
Well said. As one of the signatories.
100
I agree TdeF. I am also a signatory. I am happy to be in such distinguished company.
I read through the article. While the tone is definitely hostile and seems to belittle the signatories, what they say seems to be factually correct. A fair minded person would probably want to consider the opinions of the 500.
Like the 300 Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae we are standing up to the apparently overwhelming forces of hostile derogatory hordes invading our enlightened but seemingly fragile civilisation.
There was a humorous cartoon image, based on the movie (The 300), featuring Watts, Moncton and Delingpole. Skeptical Science took it down. Fortunately Jo published a copy.
http://joannenova.com.au/2013/08/skepticalscience-goes-godwin-nazi-or-something/
40
Peter, you aren’t so well hidden.
🙂
20
Not trying to hide KK. Just set a simple challenge. I have given my identity several times on links to this blog.
The RMIT/ABC Fact Check did contain a few errors including but not exhaustive;
1. The number of Australian Scientists who have signed is a lot more than 75.
2.
They can’t have tried very hard. I signed the petition with my own name, yet I have not been contacted
20
No surprise then the ABC fact checking team need fact checking themselves .
20
It would be so amusing to see them try and fact check the case for their promoted climate emergency, but we all know why that won’t happen 🙂
30
Sorry Peter, I was wondering who TdeF is. There are two clues, one related to the Tour de France possibly and another to a tour of duty in a foreign country. 🙂 not important.
20
I met TdeF at the Melbourne Christmas Party.
Sorry I can’t reveal here. But we may catch up again.
20
Understand completely.
10
You are well hidden in the group.
20
I find it surprising that the Fact Check team had to investigate how to identify a “scientist”?? After all, they have been fact checking for a year or two, and made various judgement calls, so I’d assumed they might have known that… Perhaps they ought to have asked how science might have been used to explore the points made in the petition. Even the basic approach of science.
And then they might have explored the points, scientifically. But I guess that would frighten them too much, so they just did the ad hominem thing, at length.
Cheers
Dave B
20
There are now at least 800 signers, so ABC is way behind.
20
PLEASE SHARE and EDUCATE
The two links below are a series of educational charts on CO2 and Climate Change. These charts are as unbiased as you can make them.
The world of CO2
https://www.ric-communications.ch/referenzen/simple-science-1.html
– N° 1 Earth’s atmospheric composition
– N° 2 Natural sources of CO2 emissions
– N° 3 Global anthropogenic CO2 emissions
– N° 4 CO2 – Carbon dioxide molecule
– N° 5 The global carbon cycle
– N° 6 Carbon and plant respiration
– N° 7 Plant categories and abundance (C3, C4 & CAM Plants)
– N° 8 Photosynthesis, the C3 vs C4 gap
– N° 9 Plant respiration and CO2
– N° 10 The logarithmic temperature rise of higher CO2 levels.
– N° 11 Earth’s atmospheric composition in relationship to CO2
– N° 12 Human respiration and CO2 concentrations.
– N° 13 600 million years of temperature change and atmospheric CO2
The World of Climate Change
http://www.ric-communications.ch/referenzen/simple-science-2.html
– N° 1 600 million years of global temperature change
– N° 2 Earth‘s temperature record for the last 400,000 years
– N° 3 Holocene period and average northern hemispheric temperatures
– N° 4 140 years of global mean temperature
– N° 5 120 m of sea level rise over the past 20‘000 years
– N° 6 Eastern European alpine glacier history during the Holocene period.
I would think that most visitors to JoNova site understand the importance of CO2 and all its benefits. I therefore don’t think these charts are of interest since the opinion here is clear, CO2 is good and not evil. However we live in our bubble and the rest of the world isn’t so informed.
So if you need some helpful charts to better explain what CO2 is, this is the place to go. These step by step guides start at the beginning and are ideal for beginners. No propaganda, no tricks, only facts. The data is drawn from Scientists and institutions like NASA, GISS, NOAA and IPCC. YES the IPCC also provides data that is correct.
This is my small contribution in helping to put a more balanced view the hysteria over Climate Change.
Ray
P.S. Sorry for reposting my charts yet again on your super BLOG. It’s still the best to get some attention. THANKS!
30
Thank you for the well detailed graphs etc and great reference material.
10
Your welcome and thanks!
10
Raymond,
Excellent and very useful charts.
Question,
Chart 14 “ Materials use in Generation systems”. In the World of CO2 section…
Do you have comparable data for Coal and Gas generators ?
…Also, do you have this comparason converted to “Carbon Footprint” ? …or Tons of CO2..?
Thanks .
10
French Plan to use UK Nuclear plants to produce Hydrogen
https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/edf-plans-vast-hydrogen-production-at-uk-nuclear-plants/2-1-763048
20
Yet another reason the only way to have a hope of reaching 0% emissions here in Australia we MUST have nuclear power in the mix. Otherwise, it’s all hype and/or lies.
10
Isn’t hydrogen dangerous to store.
True, you can probably get tanked hydrogen in small quantities but it won’t be so easy on a commercial scale.
KK
10
I seem to remember a plan to store and transport hydrogen by combining it with Nitrogen to form Ammonia, and converting back before use .?
10
From Wiki..
20
Great article! I’ve referenced it in this satirical piece I wrote here: https://www.accredited-times.com/2020/02/27/marble-bar-why-the-climate-emergency-requires-us-to-control-the-past/
[POSSIBLY ONE FOR THE RECORDS JO] AD
[Ta! Sent to Chris G and the BOM Audit team. Love it! – jo]
10
wishful thinking:
25 Feb: Forbes: Tonight’s Democratic Debate In South Carolina Could Finally See Tough Talk On Climate
by Eric Mack
Charleston, South Carolina got a glimpse of its potential future in September when Hurricane Dorian grazed the South Carolina coast, bringing the three-headed monster of heavy rain, storm surge and extreme high tides with it.
Tuesday night, seven Democratic candidates for President will take the stage in Charleston and try to make their cases for how they’ll stem the intensification of climate change, which is fueling that future marked by increased risk of powerful storms and chronic flooding across the Southeast…
…this debate could have a slightly different dynamic as billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer joins the fray…
If Steyer is given the opportunity Tuesday to stand by this declaration on the debate stage amidst candidates with greater name recognition, it could force an interesting conversation about climate among the Democratic challengers for once…
We’ll soon see how bold these seven candidates are willing to be just a week out from Super Tuesday.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2020/02/25/tonights-democratic-debate-in-south-carolina-could-finally-see-tough-talk-on-climate/#1eee53716c43
reality:
26 Feb: The Hill: Ocasio-Cortez slams South Carolina presidential debate over climate change
The U.S. congresswoman criticized the CBS debate for not addressing climate change. Frontrunner Bernie Sanders was quick to second the observation.
By Alexandra Kelley
After the loud and fiery Democratic presidential primary debate in South Carolina on Tuesday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took to Twitter to express her concern over the lack of discussion about climate change.
TWEET: AOC:
“Not a single climate change question. Horrifying.”
Current front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was quick to agree with her, retweeting Ocasio-Cortez’s original observation with his own opinion:
TWEET: Bernie Sanders:
“A disgrace”
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/484694-aoc-knocks-cbs-debate-for-not-asking-about
20
messaging:
27 Feb: Reuters: Climate change could add around $100 billion to costs of extreme weather
by Simon Jessop
LONDON – Climate change could add around $100 billion, or more than 20%, to the global cost of extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves and droughts by 2040, research from Cambridge University showed on Wednesday.
The findings come from the university’s Climate Change Business Risk Index, which uses climate modeling data to quantify extreme weather event risks and their potential to disrupt business operations and supply chains globally.
Average direct costs of around $195 billion a year could rise to $234 billion by 2040, the report said, an increase of $39 billion a year at today’s values, with the remainder taken up by indirect costs such as those from supply chain disruption. ..
Andrew Coburn, chief scientist at the Centre for Risk Studies, said companies were struggling to get to grips with the long-range weather forecasts and how their businesses would be affected by the transition to a low-carbon economy…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-costs/climate-change-could-add-around-100-billion-to-costs-of-extreme-weather-idUSKCN20K2EN
27 Feb: Carbon Brief: A piece in the Financial Times reports that Chinese and Indian cities are “most at risk from rising sea levels”. And a feature for Reuters says rising seas are putting Myanmar’s coastal villages “on the frontline of climate change”. Separately, the Jakarta Post reports: “Climate change-driven global warming is a factor behind repeated instances of severe flooding across Greater Jakarta since early January…according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).”
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lol:
27 Feb: Guardian: Australia needs at least half of all new cars in 10 years time to be electric vehicles to remain within 2C warming, new analysis shows
by Katharine Murphy
Australia can achieve a transition to net zero emissions by 2050 with known technologies, but the deployment of low emissions options will need to be accelerated significantly, according to new analysis by ClimateWorks Australia.
The yet-to-be released analysis, which was previewed at a workshop at the Australian National University amid a resumption of the climate wars in federal politics, suggests transitioning to net zero will require Australia’s electricity market to be 100% renewables by 2035, as well as achieving deep energy efficiency and electrification in buildings, and an accelerated rollout of electric vehicles…
***Anna Skarbek, the chief executive of ClimateWorks, which is a non-profit advisory body that works within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, told an ANU forum reaching net zero in Australia was entirely possible…
Skarbek – who is a former investment banker and a founding director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – said blah blah…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/net-zero-emissions-by-2050-possible-in-australia-if-low-emissions-options-accelerated
***Wikipedia: Anna Skarbek studied law and commerce at Monash University before taking a job in Macquarie Bank’s natural resources team, with a focus on coal transactions. Skarbek sits on the Government of South Australia’s low-carbon expert panel with former Liberal party politician John Hewson and ANU Professor Frank Jotzo.
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Dem pundits & the FakeNewsMSM mob are spouting versions of the following all day long:
27 Feb: AP: Trump faces credibility test as he plays down virus threat
By AAMER MADHANI, JONATHAN LEMIRE and ZEKE MILLER; writers Josh Boak, Lauran Neergaard and Darlene Superville contributed to this report
As Trump plays down the threat of an outbreak, his past attacks on government scientists on everything from hurricane forecasts to climate change and his reputation for straining the truth all factor into the credibility of his message…
https://apnews.com/67a9a72531ca2e332bea9225cec2fda5
27 Feb: Hartford Courant: The Denier-In-Chief won’t be able to deny coronavirus
By Thomas Cangelosi
With impunity, he’s denied that the American taxpayer is paying for his border wall; he’s denied the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered on his behalf in both 2016 and 2020; he’s denied the findings in the Mueller Report; he’s denied his affair with a porn star, as well as paying for her silence; he’s denied the human role in climate change and global warming, despite scientific evidence to the contrary; he’s denied pressuring the Ukraine President to investigate his political rival; and he denied, with a Sharpie, that the National Weather Service didn’t say Alabama was threatened by Hurricane Dorian.
But the Great Denier has finally met his match. It’s called reality, and it comes in the virulent form of the coronavirus…
To extrapolate on John Donne’s observation that “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” — today’s reality is that no continent is an island, but each is a part of the world. It’s undeniable.
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-cangelosi-coronavirus-trump-0227-20200227-ojsaueafx5abtg5cffdu3xznmu-story.html
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Wallace-Wells adds his imagination to the task:
26 Feb: NY Mag: What Coronavirus Teaches Us About Climate Change
By David Wallace-Wells
Earlier this month, the temperature on Antarctica’s Esperanza Peninsula reached 65 degrees Fahrenheit — the warmest ever, and hotter than it was, at the time, not just in New York but in San Diego. A few days later, the temperature on the continent’s Seymour Island hit 69 — hotter than it was in Delhi. The next day, Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier lost a chunk of ice 130 square miles in surface area. A few days after that, scientists working at Australia’s University of New South Wales published research showing that, about a hundred thousand years ago, the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet produced, all by itself, six feet of sea-level rise — and that it took less than two degrees Celsius of warming to melt it. We are currently at about 1.1 degrees of warming, but are heading almost inevitably for 2. And New South Wales, where those scientists were peering deep into the past to get some kind of Dark Mirror handle on the future world coming now terrifyingly into view, is still on fire — more than four months since the catastrophic Australian bushfires began. A quarter of the country’s forests have been incinerated in a single bushfire season, as have more than a billion of Australia’s animals…
An even better contemporary illustration about the dilemma of adaptation — or, really, the false choice between adaptation and mitigation — may come not from the challenges of climate change but the coronavirus. In the scariest projections, 70 percent of the world could be infected by COVID-19, with probably 2 percent of those numbers dying from the disease — a worst-case scenario of 100 million or so deaths. But while even these scenarios spare the overwhelming majority of the species, of course they are also horrifyingly large death tolls, and therefore not an argument for complacency but for vigilance — from both public-health officials and workaday citizens. Quarantines are imperfect tools in the fight against diseases like this, and yet of course we would prefer to see the problem contained, to the extent it can be, rather than watch it grow as quickly and expansively as possible, trusting we could clean up the mess on the other side. The health infrastructure we have today (in certain parts of the world at least) is one reason that the death rate is as low as 2 percent; the health infrastructure we are building today (construction of new hospitals, the deployment of military resources, research in pursuit of a vaccine) may drive that figure lower, perhaps even to zero, over the course of the next year or so. But those facts alone — or, rather, the partial hope that they represent — is not a reason to forego action today. Best of all, of course, would have been if we could have avoided the virus in the first place.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/what-coronavirus-teaches-us-about-climate-change.html
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26 Feb: SMH: Morrison government mulls ARENA’s future as funding starts to run out
by Peter Hannam
The energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, said funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) was guaranteed until 2022 but has declined to confirm it will receive further funding…
Earlier on Wednesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC Radio ARENA had done a good job but also avoided committing fresh funds to the $2.5 billion agency set up in 2012 by the Gillard Labor government…
ARENA’s funding issue is being considered by cabinet, with Mr Taylor supporting additional funding. One option being considered is using profits generated by the government’s other main conduit of support for low-carbon technology – the Clean Energy Financial Corporation – to bankroll ARENA…
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-government-mulls-arena-s-future-as-funding-starts-to-run-out-20200226-p544o2.html
no thanks, Anna:
27 Feb: Guardian: Australia needs at least half of all new cars in 10 years time to be electric vehicles to remain within 2C warming, new analysis shows
by Katharine Murphy
Australia can achieve a transition to net zero emissions by 2050 with known technologies, but the deployment of low emissions options will need to be accelerated significantly, according to new analysis by ClimateWorks Australia.
The yet-to-be released analysis, which was previewed at a workshop at the Australian National University amid a resumption of the climate wars in federal politics, suggests transitioning to net zero will require Australia’s electricity market to be 100% renewables by 2035, as well as achieving deep energy efficiency and electrification in buildings, and an accelerated rollout of electric vehicles…
Anna Skarbek, the chief executive of ClimateWorks, which is a non-profit advisory body that works within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, told an ANU forum reaching net zero in Australia was entirely possible…
Skarbek – who is a former investment banker and a founding director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – said blah blah…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/net-zero-emissions-by-2050-possible-in-australia-if-low-emissions-options-accelerated
***Wikipedia: Anna Skarbek studied law and commerce at Monash University before taking a job in Macquarie Bank’s natural resources team, with a focus on coal transactions. Skarbek sits on the Government of South Australia’s low-carbon expert panel with former Liberal party politician John Hewson and ANU Professor Frank Jotzo.
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Troughing, gouging and skimming by the usual.
Throw in a “professor”, an ex politician with a finger in the pie and mention the woke state of S.A. and that’s covered most of it: and to think it’s all available to the privileged few because they sell the myth of “caring for the Environment”.
The hypocrisy is overwhelming, the reality of their “scientific” justification for their actions is Non Existent but the woke lifestyle on the public purse is Wow!!!
Welcome to the New World where reality no longer need be at the forefront of thinking: Environmental Justice, forget reality, the Environment is the god of our times, The Environment, the New meme that can deliver everything a politician could ever dream of.
And in the meantime, for the last several decades our youth has been trying to tell us something about the direction our nation has taken: wrong direction.
How can politicians get away with ignoring the fact that our youth have been for several decades “checking out” early?
It’s a national disgrace and from recent comments New Zealand is in the same boat with youth suicide at embarrassingly high levels. Do we really live in caring societies?
It doesn’t seem so.
We need a Leader to bring a change in National Focus to give people honesty, direction and hope for a sane future.
KK
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Make Australia great again? Just saying.
10
Australians buying different types of new cars controls the global climate? People swallow that nonsense? The stupid, it burns.
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26 Feb: The Hill: New Interior rule would limit which scientific studies agency can consider
By Rebecca Beitsch
The Interior Department is pushing ahead with a controversial proposal that would prohibit the agency from considering scientific studies that don’t make all of their underlying data public.
Critics argue that the move, described by the agency as an effort to increase transparency, would sideline landmark scientific research, particularly in cases where revealing such data would result in privacy violations.
The proposal, dubbed the Promoting Open Science rule, mirrors a similar effort at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which critics argue would block that agency from considering renowned public health studies.
Interior’s effort first surfaced as an order in October 2018, but the agency is now attempting to cement it as a rule, forwarding a proposal in mid-February to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The text of the rule is not yet public, but if finalized, critics fear it could hamstring future administrations from broadly considering science. Efforts to roll back the rule, if implemented, could take years.
“It doesn’t do anything to help transparency. It’s designed to restrict the science the agency can use,” said Andrew Rosenberg with the Union of Concerned Scientists, arguing the agency is caving to pressure from polluting industries…READ ON
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/484747-new-interior-rule-would-limit-which-scientific-studies-agency-can
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TIME FOR EVERYONE TO GET OUT OF PARIS:
28 Feb: BBC: Climate campaigners win Heathrow expansion case
Controversial plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport have been thrown into doubt after a court ruling.
The government’s decision to allow the expansion was unlawful because it did not take climate commitments into account, the Court of Appeal said
Heathrow said it would challenge the decision, but the government said it would not appeal.
The judges said that in future, a third runway could go ahead, as long as it fits with the UK’s climate policy.
The case was brought by environmental groups, councils and the Mayor of London.
There were “whoops and jumps of jubilation from environmentalists outside the court room” after the judgement, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reported.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that the government would not appeal against the ruling…
Friends of the Earth, one of the environmental groups that brought the case, said the ruling was “an absolutely groundbreaking result for climate justice”.
Will Rundle, head of legal at the campaign group, said: “This judgment has exciting wider implications for keeping climate change at the heart of all planning decisions.
“It’s time for developers and public authorities to be held to account when it comes to the climate impact of their damaging developments.”
Greenpeace said the government needed to “permanently ground Heathrow’s expansion plans”…
Analysis by Roger Harrabin, Environment analyst
This judgement will fly round the globe quicker than a 747.
From now on, every infrastructure spending decision in the UK could face legal challenge if it doesn’t comply with the Climate Change Act, which mandates virtually zero emissions by 2050.
It’s not clear that’s what MPs intended when they signed up to the 2050 target, but in today’s court ruling, it’s what they’ve got…
The Court of Appeal found that the government had not followed UK policy when backing the controversial expansion plans.
It said that the government had a duty to take into account the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global warming.
It was “legally fatal” to the government’s Heathrow expansion policy that it did not take those climate commitments into account, the judges said…
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51658693
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The Guardian says BoJo opposes the third runway so this decision may play into his hands.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2020/02/27/heathrow-third-runway-ruled-illegal-over-climate-change-uk-court-rules-new-runway-not-consistent-with-un-paris-climate-agreement/.
Note big confusion between the Paris Agreement and the zero 2050 law. Not the same at all.
20
Attempting to avoid another Conference confrontation?
Move forward to 2050 and don’t look back.
10
“whoops and jumps of jubilation from environmentalists outside the court room” after the judgement, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reported.”
These “environmentalists” are as close to the Environment as Christianna Figuerres is to the common people.
It’s The Power, it’s just such a rush, and the working conditions aren’t bad either.
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Remdesivir and Chloroquine seem to be somewhat effective against novel Coronavirus. Chloroquine seems to hold most promise. – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0?fbclid=IwAR3c5iy9h65X1cnkrL6i6fJcWwi0ygN1LtI67SkcgREM4DyxxAcPauRuf5w
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Found this a couple of days ago:
Antiviral Activity of Chloroquine against Human Coronavirus OC43 Infection in Newborn Mice
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2715625/
From the Abstract it seems there has been activity on Chloroquine and Coronaviruses for many years.
40
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2715625/
Link playing up? Try the above.
10
first time I’ve seen an upcoming ABC “Big Ideas” program at the top of their home page. sounds good!
AUDIO: Coming soon: ABC Big Ideas: Overcoming eco-anxiety
Broadcast: Wed 4 Mar 2020
Many young Australians are experiencing ‘eco-anxiety’: a sense of dread caused by, as they see it, an unfolding, climate change induced, ecological catastrophe. The ongoing drought, and devastating wildfires, have only amplified their concerns and fears. How are they overcoming it? Paul Barclay speaks to 4 young Australians between the ages of 17 and 25.
Recorded at GOMA in Brisbane on February 20, 2020
Speakers:
Kate McBride – grazier; Healthy River ambassador
Jamie Graham – Tasmanian aboriginal activist; ecologist in training.
Thomas King – CEO, Food Frontier.
Varsha Yajman – climate change activist, Australian Youth Climate Coalition; organiser, School Strike for Climate.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/overcoming-eco-anxiety/12008548
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No normal young Australians then? Just poseurs and hand wringers?
20
theirABC devotes most of the article defending BoM. finally, allows a little positive, though qualified, celebration:
27 Feb: ABC: This week’s Perth storms are weather events the BOM finds almost impossible to predict
By Irena Ceranic
Perth residents have been left bewildered this week as ferocious storms have appeared seemingly out of nowhere, causing widespread destruction in a matter of minutes.
Many people were caught off guard by a particularly powerful and fast moving cell that barrelled in from the north on Tuesday, despite the risk of thunderstorms featuring on the forecast for Perth all week.
***What forecasts by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) did not include was exactly where and when the storms would occur.
That is because it is almost impossible to predict the precise location and movement of a severe storm, particularly in summer, until it forms and appears on the radar, leaving very little time to warn the public…
It is a difficulty faced by meteorologists all around the world due to the isolated nature of thunderstorms and the wide margin for error.
The smallest variation in temperature, wind or moisture can mean the difference between a large thunderstorm event and just a blip on the radar…
The three ingredients to a thunderstorm
“The tricky part is the trigger,” (BOM spokesman Neil Bennett) said…
“On a broad scale it’s quite easy to spot, but on a local scale sometimes it can be something as simple as the strength of the sea breeze or the timing of the sea breeze.
“Sometimes you miss it by one degree in temperature. For example … if it’s going to get to 33 instead of 32 on a particular day then the atmosphere will explode.”
Tuesday’s storm was detected on the radar just before 4:00pm, allowing little lead time to warn the public that wild weather was imminent…
Storm deluges hit ‘very defined area’
The hit-and-miss nature of summer thunderstorms also means rainfall totals are difficult to predict…
Perth usually has about two days of thunderstorm activity in February, but the city has now entered its fourth day of stormy weather and more is forecast for Friday…
A welcome start for farmers
Farmers are all too familiar with the sporadic nature of thunderstorms, but this week’s downpours have given many parts of the state’s grain-growing region an early boost to the season, drenching parched soils and filling up dams…
Daniel Spencer, who owns a small farm at Bencubbin in the Wheatbelt, has received just over 160 millimetres since Saturday, with 64mm of that falling in just 15 minutes…
“It’s quite exciting times, we’ve had most of last year’s rain in four or five days.”…
Rain has filled dams in the area, some of which locals have never seen full…
Mr Spencer said while the stormy weather was welcome, it had also added a few jobs to his to-do list…
“I’ve only got one paddock now that I can put sheep in until everything dries out enough to tidy things up.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-27/perth-storm-a-weather-event-impossible-to-predict-cause/12005990
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basically, rural France is up in arms (or nearly) over ghastly wind farms:
(google translation)
27 Feb: Le Monde: Emmanuel Macron wants to slow the development of onshore wind
After encouraging its development for two years, the executive began, under pressure from local elected officials, a change of course which delighted opponents and caused concern in the sector
by Nabil Wakim
Is a bad wind blowing for onshort wind? After encouraging its development for two years, the executive began a change of course which delighted opponents and caused concern in the sector.
Emmanuel Macron himself planted the first seed of this new deal on January 14 in Pau. During a round table on the theme of “ecology in our territories”, the President of the Republic had called for being “lucid” by affirming that “the capacity to massively develop wind power is reduced”.
“The consensus on wind energy is weakening significantly in our country,” he explained, before adding that “more and more people no longer want to see wind turbines near them, consider that their landscape is degraded ”.
A few days later, in an interview with Le Monde on January 21, Elisabeth Borne declared that “the development of wind power is very badly distributed in France”. “It was done in an anarchic way, and we have territories in which there is saturation, including visual”, underlined the minister of the ecological and united transition, thus breaking with the very enthusiastic speech on the wind of his predecessors Nicolas Hulot and François de Rugy…
“The message of the anti wind turbines was heard by the head of state, he received a lot of messages on this subject, we must be vigilant”, deciphers a source from Elysee, who stresses that the relationship with the rural French is a priority of the second part of the mandate…
“The president wants to change policy. He realized that he could not have the image of the one who destroyed the landscapes of France “, rejoices Jean-Louis Butré, president of the Sustainable Environment Federation (FED), one of the main wind energy associations . But Mr. Butré remains cautious about the consequences of this turnaround…
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2020/02/27/eolien-terrestre-sous-la-pression-des-elus-ruraux-macron-change-de-cap_6030978_3234.html
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What is net zero emissions ….
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/what-is-net-zero/
Comments?
10
Dennis without reading your link I’d guess 3 trillion dollars and a ruined economy .
10
this story has now been picked up by BBC Monitoring, WaPo, Fox News, Gateway Pundit, tho I haven’t seen any of them mention the mercury stuff:
27 Feb: Interfax SBI opens case on Biden’s pressure on Shokin – lawyer
The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has registered a criminal case on pressure from former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden on former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin.
“The SBI has added information on the criminal offence to the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations,” Shokin’s lawyer Oleksandr Teleshetsky said during a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on February 27…
“Judging by remarks Biden allowed himself to make in public, Viktor Mykolayovych Shokin has sufficient grounds to believe that it was him [Biden] who masterminded and, to a certain extent, perpetrated those criminal offences to which Shokin alerted the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine,” he said.
Greek law enforcement agencies, in turn, are investigating Shokin’s mercury poisoning in 2019, Teleshetsky said, adding that Shokin himself links this incident to Biden…
Shokin said in late January 2020, that he had survived mercury poisoning in Greece five months before, after which he had to undergo lengthy medical treatment.
https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/643674.html
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Ted Woodley and Victoria Energy Policy Centre director, Bruce Mountain, were just on Chris Kenny/Sky program, totally demolishing Snowy Hydro 2.0. no video available as yet, but the following tells the story (even tho Woodley seems to believe in CAGW):
25 Feb: Australian: Time to melt the Snowy 2.0 myths
Not only is the much-hyped energy generation scheme bad for the environment — it will actually raise the price of electricity for consumers.
By TED WOODLEY
(Ted Woodley is a former chief executive of EnergyAustralia, PowerNet, GasNet and CLP Power Systems (Hong Kong). He is honorary treasurer of the National Parks Association of NSW)
Snowy 2.0 is a very inefficient storage and runs against the trend of power system decentralisation. It will push up prices and its cost will far exceed its benefits.
It will be a net consumer of energy. Unlike hydro power stations that simply generate electricity as water flows downhill, pumped-hydro stations must first pump water uphill, consuming much more energy than they generate. After accounting for losses in the pumping/generation cycle (about 25 per cent) and the network (about 10 per cent each way for pumping and generating), Snowy 2.0 will lose about 40 per cent of the energy it stores: 100 units in, 60 units delivered.
It will be the most inefficient energy storage on the National Electricity Market. Because of Snowy 2.0’s 27km tunnel connecting its two reservoirs — far longer than any pumped-hydro station in the world — it will have high water friction losses.
While water is the medium for storing and generating energy, it is the energy used for pumping that water uphill that powers the storage process. For the next decade or so, it will be coal-fired generators, increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Independent analysis estimates Snowy 2.0 will incur 50 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent for its construction and first decade of operation. By comparison, 440,000 vehicles emit one million tonnes in a year.
Also, at such a distance from the two major load centres of Sydney and Melbourne, network losses will be higher than practically all other energy storages.
Also, Snowy 2.0 is vulnerable to transmission outages and constraints, as was demonstrated by the recent bushfire-triggered outages of Snowy substations and transmission links to Sydney and between NSW and Victoria…
Contrary to public statements, wholesale electricity prices are predicted to increase, not decrease, as a result of Snowy 2.0, according to Snowy Hydro’s own modelling. When announced in March 2017, Snowy 2.0 was to be completed in four years at a cost of $2bn. Completion now is estimated to be in 2025 at a cost of $3.8bn to $4.5bn, even though an eight-year contract recently has been let for $5.1bn.
Industry experts predict the total cost will be about $10bn when other components (financing, transmission and so on) are added, warning that even this may be exceeded as large infrastructure projects very rarely come in on budget. The final cost is almost certain to be substantially more than Snowy 2.0’s estimated market benefit of $4.3bn to $6.6bn (which industry experts consider to be optimistic)…
Snowy 2.0’s legacy on the park will include 14 million cubic metres of excavated soil, some contaminated by naturally occurring asbestos and potentially acid-forming rock, with more than half to be dumped in Snowy reservoirs; four high-voltage transmission circuits on twin towers with a 120m-wide easement for 10km; more than 100km of new or widened roads and tracks; the destruction of 1000ha of habitat for 14 threatened species; the spread of pest fish throughout the Snowy Scheme and downstream rivers; and the visual blight of infrastructure and scars across the alpine landscape…
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/its-time-to-melt-the-myths-about-the-snowy-20-hydro-project/news-story/47b6c4d8ffcb02b2d02ad8490622ac42
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VIDEO: approx 9m: 27 Feb: Sky News: Chris Kenny: Labor’s emissions reduction ‘insinuations’ are ‘insulting’
Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has come under widespread criticism for not providing the facts and figures of the party’s policy.
“Labor has refused to cost it,” Mr Kenny said.
“It insults all of us by saying whatever it costs, doing nothing will cost more”.
“Yet anyone with an IQ above room temperature can work out there will be no cost if Australia doesn’t do any more than it already is”.
Mr Kenny also referred to a recent report from The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, which provided “a costed net zero scenario,” which predicted an annual drop in GDP over the timeframe to 2050.
“Labor can either accept them or provide some other calculations,” he said.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6136373380001
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27 Feb: CarbonPulse: EU nations pressure Brussels to bring forward carbon border tax proposals
EU member states want Brussels to propose an EU carbon border adjustment tax earlier than 2021 to help safeguard the bloc’s heavy industry, several national ministers said on Thursday.
27 Feb: CarbonPulse: EU Market: EUAs dip nearly 3% to 2-week low as virus fears deepen
EUAs dropped below €24 early on Thursday, with the energy complex continuing to come under pressure amid fears that the spreading Covid-19 coronavirus will disrupt the global economy.
27 Feb: CarbonPulse: The UK said it was open to considering a link between a future national ETS and the EU carbon market on Thursday, even as it pushes to reject applying EU rules in a post-Brexit trade pact.
The UK said it was open to considering a link between a future national ETS and the EU carbon market on Thursday, even as it pushes to reject applying EU rules in a post-Brexit trade pact.
27 Feb: CarbonPulse: Australia’s Safeguard facilities continue switch to multi-year targets
A dozen more facilities covered by Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism have switched to using multi-year targets, meaning they don’t have to worry about compliance for another three years.
26 Feb: CarbonPulse: Analysts lower near-term EUA forecasts as investors stay away
Analysts have nudged down their EUA price forecasts for this year by 2.7% compared to projections from January, as the expected emergence of speculative investors has failed to materialise.
10
This is a sort of anomaly, with a possible link to a meandering jet stream and global cooling.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/27/recent-canary-islands-dust-storm-versus-climate/
00
27 Feb: ClimateChangeNews: Net zero goal ‘greatest commercial opportunity of our time,’ says Mark Carney
Incoming UN special envoy, Cop26 president Alok Sharma and ECB president Christine Lagarde set out agenda for private finance at UN climate talks
By Chloé Farand
Every private finance decision must take into account climate change and how to decarbonise the world economy to net zero, incoming UN special envoy on climate action Mark Carney has told banks and investors…
“Achieving net zero emissions will require a whole economy transition – every company, every bank, every insurer and investor will have to adjust their business models,” he added.
“This could turn an existential risk into the greatest commercial opportunity of our time.”…
“We need fifty shades of green to catalyse and support all companies toward net zero,” he said…
Finance has been identified as a key priority and a cross-cutting theme of Cop26 by the UK presidency, which said it will help deliver all other objectives…
Rich countries have promised to mobile $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries curb emissions and cope with climate impacts. Huge investments are still needed to deliver that goal..
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/02/27/net-zero-goal-greatest-commercial-opportunity-time-says-mark-carney/
00
Road and air plans at risk as Heathrow runway bid rejected
The Times – 10 hours ago
Dozens of airport, road and energy projects have been thrown into doubt after judges delivered a crushing blow to plans for a third runway at Heathrow over its impact on the environment…
28 Feb: Daily Mail: Fears Heathrow eco-bombshell could pose a threat to ALL future transport projects after court ruled the £14bn airport expansion was illegal
•The Court of Appeal ruled the £14bn Heathrow Airport expansion was illegal
•It found the Government failed to account for its duty to curb climate change
•The Transport Secretary said the Government would not appeal the ruling
By Colin Fernandez
British ambitions of becoming a global economic power after Brexit suffered a major blow yesterday after a court ruling suggested future airports, motorway and energy projects could all be blocked to prevent global warming…
…critics said the move would hand a huge economic advantage to the UK’s competitors…
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Government would not appeal the ruling – and that Heathrow expansion was the private sector’s responsibility. He tweeted: ‘Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment. This Government won’t appeal today’s judgment given our manifesto makes clear any Heathrow expansion will be industry-led.’…
Former transport secretary Andrew Adonis said: ‘The only winners from a refusal to expand Heathrow as agreed by Parliament two years ago will be other international hubs that will take the extra traffic, especially Amsterdam, Paris and Dubai.
‘There won’t be fewer flights – they just won’t come to Britain.’…
Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said it was ‘bitterly disappointed’.
He added: ‘Without expansion, firms risk losing crucial regional connectivity and access to key markets across the world.
‘The benefits of a third runway would extend far beyond south-east England. Hundreds of UK companies are already invested in the supply chain for expansion, and tens of thousands of additional jobs will be created if the project goes ahead.’…
Former chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Johnson’s lack of leadership. He tweeted: ‘Judges kill off Heathrow third runway and Britain getting the modern air transport infrastructure we need, despite the elected Parliament voting for it overwhelmingly. Presumably this is the kind of over-reaching undemocratic judicial activism Boris wants to curb…or perhaps not.’…
Dr Phillip Williamson, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, said the Court of Appeal judgment ‘shows that the Paris Agreement is legally binding, not an aspiration, and will require many other policy re-thinks’…
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is visiting the UK today, tweeted: ‘Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change. Imagine when we all start taking the Paris Agreement into account.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8053443/Grounded-greens-Heathrow-expansion-ruled-illegal-court.html
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27 Feb: BBC: Climate change: Pressure on big investors to act on environment
By David Shukman
Ever wondered if your bank or insurance company is funding the coal industry? Or whether your ***pension fund is backing oil companies drilling new wells in the Arctic?
Investors are facing scrutiny like never before about what they’re doing to tackle climate change. And the Bank of England has now launched a push to engage the entire business world…
One plan is to boost the number of banks, insurers and pension funds signed up to be more open about their carbon footprints and plans to improve them.
Known as the TCFD – or Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures – the project already has the backing of companies with balance sheets worth a total of $135trillion.
Under this system, there are no obligations on business leaders to come up with plans to go net zero, but if a company is not taking much action, that fact will be exposed to public gaze…
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51657829
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behind paywall. some excerpts found:
27 Feb: UK Telegraph editorial: Courts should not have the final say on Heathrow expansion
If British politicians will vote through laws – such as the Climate Change Act – or sign treaties – such as the Paris Agreement – that legally bind us to wildly ambitious carbon targets, we should not be surprised if these decisions are then turned into legal weapons by campaigners to challenge infrastructure projects they do not like…
The liberal-Left sincerely believes that issues such as tackling climate change, are too important to be left up to democracy, so they enshrine their policies in law as obligations – even human rights – that courts can step in to defend…It is the kind of thinking that the EU endorses, but is alien to Britain’s traditions and the Tories must oppose it…A small number of radical activists cannot be allowed to hold back progress: they see capitalism as the root of all evil and airports are at the centre of their opposition to it…
28 Feb: UK Sun editorial: THE SUN SAYS It’s in the national interest to increase our airport capacity — or watch jobs disappear across the Channel
WHO runs Britain? Eco-campaigners and activist judges? Or our elected politicians?
Two years ago MPs overwhelmingly approved the third runway at Heathrow. Even in that dysfunctional Parliament it won a huge majority of 296…
But as with fracking, which could have slashed energy bills for millions and powered the UK for a generation, it has been killed off by a green lobby whose concerns, while understandable, always seem to trump our economy…
The Appeal Court claims the runway bid was flawed because it failed to factor in our agreement to end emissions by 2050. But how far will they take that argument? To any new transport infrastructure? Any new road?
The Government must find a way to stop its net-zero commitment, ***which The Sun supports, crippling our economy as our rivals flourish…
Equally it must stop courts running a parallel government and siding with pressure groups to block key decisions taken by MPs elected to do so.
It may not be in Boris Johnson’s personal interests to back a further appeal.
It is, however, in the national interest to radically and rapidly increase our airport capacity — or watch business and jobs disappear across the Channel.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11059283/national-interest-increase-airport-capacity/
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28 Feb: Daily Mail: ALEX BRUMMER: The Heathrow decision is an act of self-harm to make us all poorer
What few people realise is that Heathrow is enormously important for freight and exports. In terms of value, it is the UK’s biggest port for global markets excluding the EU and Switzerland, and handles 33 per cent of Britain’s exports to very fast-growing international markets which are at the heart of ‘global Britain’.
Marks & Spencer, for instance, supplies its franchise operators in Hong Kong with several jumbo-jet flights a week of fresh sandwiches and produce. What happens when capacity shortages prevents it – and other exporters – from doing so? They will go to other airports.
Heathrow says the third runway would be worth billions of pounds in exports.
The battle over London’s vital global transport hub is a sharp reminder of how the economic costs of a green agenda threaten the prosperity of the nation. Uncomfortable as the noise and pollution is for people like me living under the flightpath, the greater public good would be served by a new runway…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8053803/ALEX-BRUMMER-Heathrow-decision-act-self-harm-make-poorer.html
27 Feb: ClimateChangeNews: To be credible at Cop26, the UK needs a plan for its climate plan
By Richard Black (EX BBC)
(Richard Black is the director of the think-tank the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit)
Britain’s new Cop26 president Alok Sharma has a problem over upgrading the UK’s climate plan, also known as NDC.
Although that might sound like a technical issue, it’s really not; his decision on how to manage it will be a crucial factor in setting the tone ahead of this year’s critical UN climate summit in Glasgow…
Although more than 100 governments have said they will put forward an enhanced NDC before the Glasgow summit, ***only three have actually done so. Question marks therefore hang over how many others will – and when – and how much they’re going to accelerate their carbon clampdowns…
Having left the European Union, the UK must at some point submit a national NDC anyway – the bloc uses a joint one. And to burnish its leadership credentials and encourage other countries to step up on their NDCs, an obvious route is to go early and go large…READ ON
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/02/27/credible-cop26-uk-needs-plan-climate-plan/
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FakeNewsNYT will not allow CAGW dissent:
27 Feb: NYT: Trustee Who Funds Climate Change Skeptics Leaves Natural History Board
Rebekah Mercer, whose family foundation was a major Trump donor, stepped down from the museum when her term expired in December.
By Robin Pogrebin
Rebekah Mercer, an influential donor to conservative causes — including groups that deny climate science — has quietly stepped down from the American Museum of Natural History, one of the country’s most prominent science museums.
The museum, where Ms. Mercer served two three-year terms, said Thursday through a spokeswoman: “Ms. Mercer’s term expired in December 2019 and her position on the board came to an end at that time.”
Members may serve up to three consecutive terms; the museum did not say if Ms. Mercer had sought election to a third term. Ms. Mercer did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Her presence on the board prompted protests after The New York Times reported in 2017 that the Mercer Family Foundation — which Ms. Mercer operates with her father, the New York investor Robert Mercer — had given nearly $8 million to organizations including those that reject the scientific consensus on climate change. Among these beneficiaries are the Heartland Institute in Illinois and Breitbart News, the influential right-wing website that was run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist.
As one of Mr. Trump’s biggest donors, Ms. Mercer joined his transition team. Her family foundation has also been a generous supporter of the museum, giving a total of $1.4 million to the institution according to its three most recent tax returns.
In 2018 more than 200 scientists and other academics who have advocated policy action on climate change called on the museum to remove Ms. Mercer from its board and “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.”
Last week, the advocacy group Revolting Lesbians trumpeted Ms. Mercer’s departure on its Facebook page: “WE DID IT!” the post said. “This is a big deal because we are in a climate emergency, and a scientific institution has no place accepting money from and giving power and legitimacy to a mega-funder of climate science denial.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/arts/design/natural-history-trustee-mercer-out.html
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27 Feb: Grist: Major news networks devoted less than 4 hours to climate change in 2019. Total.
By Yvette Cabrera
When it comes to climate change, television news is covering little more than the tip of the iceberg.
That’s according to a just-released report from Media Matters for America, which found that global warming garnered a tiny sliver — well under 1 percent — of overall broadcast news coverage. The progressive research nonprofit also found that, while these news outlets did cover climate change more often in 2019 than in the year prior, the quality of coverage was “generally shallow.” And when it came to giving voice to those hit first and worst by extreme weather and other climate-related disasters, the networks fell short: People of color were “massively underrepresented” in coverage…
“In spite of the increase in coverage from 2018 to 2019, climate coverage as a whole still made up only 0.6% of overall corporate broadcast TV nightly news in 2019, showing that these programs’ climate coverage does not adequately reflect the urgency and severity of the climate crisis,” the report found…
•Media Matters praised PBS NewsHour for its climate coverage, noting that it has outpaced its broadcast counterparts in climate reporting for the past six years. PBS Newshour aired 121 climate segments in 2019, an average of 10 segments per month. “This is more coverage than we found from the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly news shows combined,” the report found…READ ON
https://grist.org/climate/major-news-networks-devoted-less-than-four-hours-to-climate-change-in-2019-total/
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Some interesting weather coming up, will the remnant cyclone remain in the tropics or head south east?
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/weatherpulse/player/Weatherpulse-Possible-rain-on-the-horizon/6136756312001
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WUWT – Strong La-Nina indication in 4 to 6 months.
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