Apparently from sources within my daughters private school, there is a decent chance school might be shut down across Oz next week.
Apparently there is some Australia wide hookup for schools to decide , thus.
Sounds plausible….
Bear in mind this may also be a long haul. The 1918 flu ran for a bit over 12 months, with a lull in the warmer months and a resurgence in the colder months then done, so this may not be mopped up until this time next year.
We were hoping for a result of a virus test today but apparently the school forgot to chase it up so now you know why I say the reason this virus got out of hand was pure stupidity and ineptitude.
Food is not in short supply, the panic buying and hoarding is causing supply chain and delivery logistical problems.
I went to a small shopping village supermarket this morning Mid North Coast NSW and it was busy but not crowded, people were calm, polite and pleasant, and I purchased everything I needed from well stocked shelves. And as I left the carpark a semi-trailer delivery vehicle was pulling in.
Part of me wonders if the now infamous loo paper panic we a test to see how ( impressionable ) people would react. I also expect the media are only showing the hype, not the bulk of the population who calmly go to the shops , get annoyed the shelves are bare, and go home again.
Truth be told, if we have so much food, why havent the supermarkets been able to double thier orders? Makes no sense…
Steve, was it you who posted a link recently to a vid about ‘Event 201’ where the usual suspects – UN/WHO, Bill & Melinda Gatekeepers, etc – back in Oct 2019 held a meeting where they spoke of “flooding the zone” and commandeering the media to “influence” we plebs re a possible pandemic outbreak?
That dreaded ‘C’ word strikes again: Coincidence!
My guests today were a bunch of young American uni students who, reluctantly, had only 3 days left in NZ as mom & pop had told ’em, “Y’all comin’ home NOW!” Great bunch of kids, though I did poke the borax by asking them if they voted for Trump…
One of my nieces is in ‘self-isolation’ on the Gold Coast as she and a buddy flew back from Indo early to beat the Sunday midnight curfew – and missed by 30 minutes. C’mon Queensland, daylight saving ain’t gonna freak the cows out too much… really…
Wasnt me, but I did once see on a video where Gates appears to make a suggestion they could lower population growth via a few measures, including vaccines.
Gates is from a heavily connected Establishment family in the US, so playing “god” and using the media to influemce opinion wouldnt surprise anyone who understands how things at that level work.
The system cannot suddenly start producing twice as much finished food. Everything is tuned to the normal flow. Huge masses are involved. Cows can’t suddenly give twice as much milk, trucks haul twice as much, etc.bpanic hoarding is very dangerous.
Out in the Central West I heard supplies were coming in at midday, so I went down for a look and listen to the local gossip. The truck had been delayed, some wit said it was hijacked. Over at the checkout a woman was screaming at the top of her voice, “I won’t go”. It was very unAustralian and she was quickly shuffled out the door.
On the ABC news last night Alan Kholer reported, in his Finance segment, that people from Melbourne and Canberra were going out in buses and buying up big from the local stores, and Metcash shares increased in value, against the market. Leaving the locals with empty shelves.
Banditry I call it.
Today heard that similar things were happening in Mudgee and Gulgong (but without the buses in what I heard).
Now I’ve just read, in SMH Latest on line, that Border Force is looking into such actions, with a rather severe frown.
… http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/they-are-going-to-be-dealt-with-dutton-puts-hoarders-on-notice-20200319-p54bq6.html?btis
…
Sounds good to me, if they act quickly.
Cheers
Dave B
SOME DISTRACTION FROM ALL THE VIRUSES GOING AROUNG 😉
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 BLOG. It’s still the best place for me to post and get some attention. THANKS
The country is officially shutdown. All shops, gatherings, schools, events and anything else that could influence the spread of the virus has been officially banned. Most flights coming or going out of the country are cancelled. This is the first time since WW2 that this has happened that a state of emergency has been called.
Now the Swiss are know for their organization, punctuality, their watches, tourism and a few other items, but will the Swiss behave in the same manner? I think we will have the same problems as may other countries will have with many individuals panicking and others staying calm.
I wonder how long the shutdown will hold. I could imagine the grumblings will being in about two weeks. Many small business will simply not be able to sustain their business. Shops that rely on a steady flow of cash will definitely have their difficulties.
There are no safety nets for anyone that relies on a long chain of supply and demand. Most of us are not self-sufficient and can simply go off the grid for a few months. We live in a world where last minute and just on time rule the economy. This will be a real test of the system, here and everywhere around the world.
I think the fear of the virus will cause more damage than the virus itself.
The stats I’ve seen do far basically indicate there is minimal risk of death for people under say about 70, so why the white hot hysteria?
I was surprised to see a bit of nightly “news” that wasnt hyping corona virus to the max…..
This virus has driven Socialism into society ( reliance on govt ) and inflicted significant damage and potential financial collapse of many middle class businesses and has allowed Big Gov to legally “monster” the population under the guise of emergency powers. Morrison means well, but I think has globalist handlers. What will come out of this will be a well trained population that wont question the next pandemic, and will clamor for whatever chemical “saviour” the globalists provide….which I think could be worse than the disease.
As such, this virus threat is the perfect tool to trash western civilisation if they choose to do so. While its a bad virus, its not worthy IMHO of the disproportionate hysteria thats gone with it.
So far in the last three months in Australia there have been six deaths associated with COVID19.
In the same three months there have been approximately 290 suicides and approximately 900 killed in road accidents.
The collapse of the normal business activity in Australia due to the COVID19 “fix” has seen the already dire small business situation worsen substantially; many will just give up.
There is a path that can be taken through this troubling period but care is needed to avoid damaging blanket fixes of uncertain benefit.
I think because the percentage of deaths isn’t the problem.
It’s the percentage of severe symptoms requiring hospitalisation that’ll be the problem – to the tune of around 20% of the infected population. ~1million cases by end of May means 200k needing specialised care, such as O2, which over double our capacity. And that’s before you consider the ~5k of that 200k that will deteriorate and require ICU, and also before considering supply shortages.
Yet on the diamond Princess without any lockdown and a population skewed to the elderly, 83% didn’t get the disease and 8% didn’t show the conditions. OK 9% with symptoms from illness to death. In the general population that means 2.25 million affected but spread out over weeks (9 in your figures) but how many would be in hospital at any one time?
With ~5 days incubation, the doubling effect of numbers is ~5 days.
So week 8 and a bit, there’s be ~500k cases, week 7.5 ~250k. Average stay is about 10 days.
So the week 7.5’s will just be being discharged as week 9’s come in. Week 8.2’s will be half way through their stay when week 9’s arrive.
~20% of 250k = 50k, so already half our total capacity. Week 9 adds 500k new cases; 20% = 100k. At best, there’s 50k beds available, so 50k are left at home to fend for themselves.
Week 9.5 adds another million cases, with 200k needing care but no beds.
Getting the R0 below 2, and ideally below 1 is our best course of action.
Virtual Reality, I’m happy to provide you with a first-hand resident perspective on the situation in Switzerland from Canton Geneve. What you’ve mentioned is largely correct.
Supermarkets, pharmacies, post offices, banks, doctor’s surgeries, petrol stations, convenience stores, take away outlets and hotels remain open. Train services are at half schedule. 80% of domestic flights are cancelled. The border with France, Germany, Italy and Austria (Liechtenstein too) is effectively closed for all but essential business.
The Swiss were handling matters fairly calmly until last Saturday. The usual last minute rush on Saturday afternoon was different than usual. Most supermarkets close on Sunday. Last Saturday afternoon saw Supermarkets very busy hours before closure at 6:00pm. Toilet paper was sold out and pasta all but gone. No shortage of much else other than Garlic, handwash and sanitiser. Monday saw complete pandemonium at the local low end economy grocers (Coles, Aldi, Tesco, Costco equivalents); but fairly calm behaviour at the higher end stores.
There are still quite a few people out and about in the open facilities. Perhaps 10% of people are wearing masks. Of these, most are asiatic or elderly. Social distancing is observedly well practised. Lots of hand sanitiser about. Interestingly, store staff are not wearing masks but rather gloves in most instances.
Other than the above, most trades are still active. The exception being where an infection has been identified. Police presence is minimal but security has been stepped up in supermarkets.
Many restaurants have converted to Take away only. Uber Eats and Smood doing a roaring trade.
People are slowly getting their head around tele-work. Though many in Switzerland already work from home. Those who need to work from a central office are still doing so with prophylactic measures in place.
Switzerland is a good analog for Australia save for the fact it acts as a transportation crossroad. The virus issue is however related to the interface between surrounding countries from where many commute daily or intra-weekly i.e. Italy, Germany, Austria and France. The transportation of goods is low risk for virus propagation.
Yes, That sounds right. I’m out of business right now, clients getting organized with the new situation. I had time this afternoon to walk through old Zürich and it was empty! Shops and restaurants all closed and almost nobody around. I took some pictures, but since all my pictures are landscape the situation wasn’t really new for me. The only advantage, didn’t have to wait till there wasn’t anyone in the picture.
We will truly have to wait and see, this will have repercussions. What they will be is the big question…
I lived in Switzerland for a few years and you can assured it will be well executed and compliance will be high, at least compared with Oz. Their biggest problem will be random behaviours of all the resident foriegners 20-30% at any point in time depending how the economy is going.
Ah, Bu66er !
Here i was hoping for at least a brief conversation about something different ..
..like why one of my chickens has suddenly just laid a pure white shelled egg, rather than the usual brown shell ?
Oh well……
..(maybe its a symptom of some bird flu virus ? )
I’m not surprised that it has slowed, the amount of extra traffic going through the internet must be huge.
Think of all those people self-isolating stuck at home watching Netflix etc.
Jo’s site specifically is very very slow, I can jump around other places fine but this site runs very slowly at times , to the point I gave up on it this afternoon. 30seconds + to load a page is unusable for most.
I was just speaking to a mate who happens to like the breakfast cereal “Just Right”. He regularly buys it when it’s on special and has seven boxes of it in his pantry. His daughters are always ribbing him about it. I told him that for years I regularly buy the cereal Muesli Flakes when it’s on special and at any one time have between 20-30 boxes in my cupboard. The best-before date of the oldest unopened boxes is still 2018. I did a count of the boxes earlier today and have 28 at the moment. He will tell his daughters that “Uncle” Ian has four times as many cereal boxes as him. And no, I have not bought any boxes this year because for now I am dieting which means no breakfast!
Same mate is a relief school teacher and I asked him of his assessment. He said given the inside rule of no more than 100 people, some schools have that many staff in the staff room. He believes school will soon be out, and maybe for the year.
My understanding is the ML CO2 measurement is monitoring open ocean atmospheric conditions ?
But that must depend on weather and wind direction.
It seems obvious that these CO2 figures are “processed” to some extent.
I can understand how you get a daily average from hourly data points..
… but what is an “hourly AVERAGE” that they report ? ..
How many individual data points in each hour ?
What is the RANGE of that data ?
Does the range vary hourly ?
Where is the raw data for independent analysis.
I have always thought that Jaworowski was honest since he claimed that he was “an expert on ice cores measurements because he had made all the errors possible”.
It is an awkward thing for believers in Climatology who believe that CO2 controls the temperature in that much of the Holocene was warmer than present but ice core CO2 measurements say it was lower than present. Equally they have to adjust either the flat CO2 measurement or the temperature in the Little Ice Age. Michael Mann turned one graph upside down to that end. Even that wasn’t enough and he had to resort to “Mike’s Trick” to get his hockey stick.
We Aussies & Kiwis enjoy our freedoms. This soft… lockdown is not going to go well I feel over time. We haven’t been conditioned like China, Russia,Nth Korea. And it all could have been over in say 4 weeks if CMO had followed this site.
I read a comment on an unrelated forum by someone yesterday happy that the world wide shut down “is very good for the planet.” The person was implying that the reduction in human co2 emissions was a great benefit and just in the nick of time.
Pretty jaded. It’s probably the fault of the propaganda rather than this person being a bad person.
One thing is that we now have an experiment running. It will be interesting to see is co2 concentration is affected at all.
Dave, similar sentiments in another forum I use. This guy who lives in Switzerland is now gloating that on December 29th last year he wrote:
I am encouraging my family and friends to walk more and drive less, and eat less meat, in 2020! It will be good for their health, AND for the health of our planet!! Also, NO flying, unless it is absolutely necessary!!
Well, thanks to the Corona virus, the “less flying” is already happening!!
Had an earth quake a little while ago. I’m hundreds of miles away from the epicenter, but the kitchen cabinets were rocking. At first I thought I was just getting a strange dizzy sensation then I had to grab hold of something to stay on my feet as I realized what was happening.
Here in Geelong, I’ve begun to run the gauntlet for groceries, as Coles and Woolies have canceled online orders and deliveries. Annie commented on an earlier comment of mine about hoping that salt wasn’t in short supply, yes, I was able to get salt and loads of it if I wanted. However, then I read a comment somewhere else that bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t even buy salt.
I guess I was lucky.
On a head’s up from a neighbour, I visited a Chinese supermarket in the centre of town. She said there were lots of fish, meat, bread, and much more.
She was right in that the shop was fully stocked, but the packages and labeling were all in Chinese. Most items were unrecognisable, other than frozen prawns (I’ll be back for some of them soon); and no real meat as we know it, like mince or steaks.
Strike one!
Next, Foodworks. Not bad, limits on most items of one each, which I agree with. No meat, no eggs, and no, you know that stuff that has replaced gold as the currency standard, but a reasonable catch of other items, but only one of each.
Then on to Chemist Warehouse. This outlet has an entrance on the left and checkout on the right and the exit. Given the current ‘climate’, this is wise. However, late in the afternoon, the left entrance is closed so customers entering the store have to push past those waiting in the queue to pay for their purchases. Full body contact. I mentioned this to the check-out person, she said this was the way we’ve always done it, it’s for security purposes.
Stagger me, a chemist shop providing health products and they push customers together in a crush to enter and exit the store.
On the other hand, the vitamin shelves were fully stocked and there were two large cartons of tissues at the back. I guess the staff figured we’d help ourselves.
the runaway money machine comes to your area:
11-2-18 FDA approves a new opioid 10 times more powerful than fentanyl. The drug is called sufentanil*, which can be in a tablet version of an opioid marketed for intravenous delivery but is administered under the tongue using a specially developed, single-dose applicator. These “unique features” make the medicine well-suited for the military and therefore was a priority for the Pentagon https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2018/11/02/fda-dsuvia-fentanyl-approval/
* carfentanil, 100x stronger than fentanyl, is also FDA-approved.
……………………………………….
Laurie Powell, a former medical brand strategist—
Laurie Powell: The thing about the FDA is the FDA, is, is not a full time, a career job. It’s a few years on the FDA and then they’re being courted by the pharmaceutical companies. You’ll have a Merck going in and saying to somebody on the FDA, oh, I’ll give you $600,000 if you’ll come and work on our regulatory committee to go, to go into bat for us with the FDA. And they’ll say, okay, well I’ll think about that. And then there’ll be like a Pfizer will come in and say, well, we’ll give you $800,000 a year to come in and work on our regulatory committee. And so, it becomes like a bidding war like that. So the FDA knows that their next jumping off point to go from a lower paying government job to being a very lucrative Pharma job on the inside, on the manufacturing side. They know that that’s part of their career path, so that I’m sure weighs heavily into their decision making process.
Mike Papantonio: So Ben, it sounds like the loyalty of drug rate regulators ultimately goes to the highest bidder. Break this down. You’ve done such a spectacular job with these videos telling the story that, that corporate media refuses to tell, by the way. So break this down for us just a little bit, if you would.
Ben Swann: Well I think it makes a lot of sense to anybody who even is on the outside of this of how this would work, right? If you are government employee working for the FDA and you are sitting on these committees within the FDA essentially deciding which drugs are approved and which are not. And keep in mind, as you know, Mike it is like a a 10 year to 13 year process to get a drug approved.
It costs millions upon in some cases over $1 billion to get some drugs approved and so when you have that power you are easily and heavily courted by drug companies who come in and say, look, give us an easier time or let this drug through. And when you are done here at the FDA, we’ve got a cush plum spot waiting for you and you’ll be on our regulatory committee. Think about what that means.
You don’t have to design drugs, you don’t have to have any medical background. All you have to do is to help guide us through the process of getting more drugs approved in the future and we’ll pay you six hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, a million dollars a year to sit on this committee. And what we find is that the FDA has been using their influence in their vast of money to influence regulators at the FDA.
It’s why so many drugs get approved in the first place, but there’s actually a bigger issue than just that. Once a drug is approved by the FDA, it is rarely ever reviewed after the fact and that means that once a drug gets through, there’s almost no one on the FDA side assigned to going back and saying, let’s take a look at drugs that were approved but now have side effects that are harmful and in some cases even deadly.
Mike Papantonio: Ben, I’ve handled about 30 of the biggest pharmaceutical catastrophes in America. I’ve actually tried the cases taking the depositions, gone to trial and tried the case and the pattern that we see is, is evident. It is that you, this belief that the FDA is a regulator is a myth because as you point out, and I gotta tell you something, I know you’ve been a journalist a long time. This is, this is great work you’re doing here because the corporate media won’t tell this story.
And this is the story, that revolving door between corporate drug companies and the FDA has made it so impossible to get an objective view of whether or not a drug will kill you or not. That I tell people don’t even take a drug unless it’s been on the market for 10 years because the FDA has become so dysfunctional. And you’ve, you’ve spoken to physicians and you’ve written, you’ve looked at this, the funding of the FDA.
You’ve looked at all the parts. Is there any question that the FDA at this point has just become completely dysfunctional because the financial chokehold that takes place?
Ben Swann: No, I, I think there’s multiple things that have happened. You’re absolutely right. I mean, the FDA is, is completely dysfunctional in that respect. And it’s also starved in terms of funding. The requirements that have been put on the FDA by Congress in terms of the pressure to get new drugs approved at a faster rate versus the staffing they have. https://trofire.com/2019/06/27/big-pharma-bribing-fda-officials-to-approve-dangerous-medications/
………………………………………….
7-29-19 After serving as Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration for just under two years, Scott Gottlieb unexpectedly resigned in April to spend more time with his family. He left behind a legacy of unprecedented expansion of the FDA’s regulatory powers, a persistent commitment approving generic drugs and an unclear path for the future of the agency.
Eighty-three days later Gottlieb announced he was joining Pfizer’s advisory board. He will also serve on the company’s science and technology committee as well as its regulatory and compliance committee. https://www.fdareview.org/2019/07/29/worried-about-big-pharma-then-reduce-the-fdas-regulatory-power/
……………………………..
“It is my observation,” chairman of FDA’s Anesthetic and Analgesics Drug Product Advisory Committee, Raeford E. Brown Jr., MD, a professor of pediatric anesthesia at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, wrote, “that once the FDA approves an opioid compound there are no safeguards as to the population that will be exposed, the postmarketing analysis of prescribing behavior, or the ongoing analysis of the risks of the drug to the general population relative to its benefit to the public health. Briefly stated, for all of the opioids that have been marketed in the last 10 years, there has not been sufficient demonstration of safety, nor has there been postmarketing assessment of who is taking the drug, how often prescribing is inappropriate, and whether there was ever a reason to risk the health of the general population by having one more opioid on the market.” https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/178955/pain/fda-approval-powerful-opioid-tinged-irony
[ Good insight into the FDA but splitting this into separate comments would be better– Jo ]
Here in the UK the supermarket shelves have been stripped bare.
Today, I went in to the Chinese supermarket that my wife and go to in Liverpool.
One or two empty spaces on the shelves but they had plenty of rice and I got a 10kg bag..and some Chinese sausage and siu mai….
The Wuhan style noodles were not moving, though.
One or two face masks mainly among the european staff.
At least two lorries delivering and four vans in the car park.
My view is that the media are panicking us and some people are falling for it.
Germany reporting mortality rates of .2%. Maybe too early to have a good dataset. Testing has been aggressive and most importantly, devolved to doctor level at zero cost to patient.
Germany has highest rate of ICU beds to population but has not used up all resources yet. So ratio likely to be irrelevant at present.
It also appears elderly quarantining is may be dropping mortality rates.
Some contributors to this site have mentioned that the climate is cooling rather than warming. With airlines cutting flights and people not driving because of self isolation and working from home, and other measures, CO2 and other “greenhouse” gas emissions should be lower. No doubt some climate scientists and other believers will claim that the cooling is due to the reduction in CO2 etc and is proof that increasing CO2 levels causes warming. They will overlook the fact that the cooling started well before the pandemic.
Be quite interesting to see. The bush fires had no effect as far I’m aware, but then, the atmosphere knows how to differentiate between natural and man-made CO2.
If we don’t see a drop, or at least a pause in CO2, as a result of the next few months shutdown, then it’ll pretty hard to continue to suggest that we can exert control over CO2 (regardless if you believe CO2 is a major factor in climate change or not)
18 Mar: UK Independent: Coronavirus: Could COP26 climate summit be held by video conference?
‘What is needed to be seen is whether our habit of requiring face to face meetings can be overcome as we move forward in time,’ says former chief scientific advisor as virus threatens to derail conference
by Kate Ng
David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, told Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday there is a “possibility” the COP26 may be delayed but could be conducted in the virtual space if the “habit of requiring face to face meetings can be overcome”.
But Richard Black (EX-BBC), director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, told The Independent the idea was “not feasible” and could reduce productivity gained by “rich debates” held at the international conference…
“COP26 is made up of a rich ecosystem. 30,000-ish people from different walks of life in one place, allowing for the scrutiny of governments and rich debates to be held – it wouldn’t be possible to reduce all that into a video conference call… https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-cop26-climate-summit-un-glasgow-latest-a9406611.html
17 Mar: PJ Media: First No Collusion, Now No Actual *Russians* in Mueller’s Disastrous Russian Collusion Illusion
By Victoria Taft
The charges against three Russian “bot” farms and 13 individuals in Mueller’s so-called Russian collusion case were dropped with prejudice on Monday. But the conclusion of the case was never in doubt…
Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton saw this coming the second the indictments were announced:
TWEET: Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch
When Mueller and Rosenstein announced “Russia interference” indictment, we warned it would go no where and showed Mueller had NOTHING justifying investigation of @RealDonaldTrump. DOJ confirmed this today in embarrassing ditching, after 2 years, of case. https://t.co/TxhVxl5nGihttps://t.co/Aa2drhxazN
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 17, 2020 …
Australia and New Zealand close their borders to foreign international arrivals. Only citizens will be allowed in to the respective countries. Applies New Zealand from midnight Thursday, Australia Friday 9pm.
That’s it, folks – we’re pulling up the drawbridge tonight.
Funny thing is, people were still out walking their dogs, kite-surfing off the beach, riding bikes & skateboards along the road – your usual Thursday afternoon shenanigans.
If I hear someone say, ‘this is the new normal’, one more time I’m gonna [censored] that person – metaphorically speaking of course. Lemme know how your Friday ‘lockdown’ goes… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
24 Jan: Sky Australia: Latest cases of coronavirus confirmed in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Scotland
The latest cases of the CHINESE CORONAVIRUS have been confirmed in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Scotland as authorities struggle to contain the viral outbreak.
11 Feb: Sky UK: China’s coronavirus outbreak: What you need to know about the ‘WUHAN VIRUS’
The current outbreak has been dubbed the “WUHAN VIRUS” after the city where the first report emerged earlier this month.
by Tom Acres
1 Feb: ABC Analysis: Coronavirus fear spreads easily and it could fuel an economic as well as health emergency
The Conversation By Ilan Noy
***LINK: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’
One way to count the cost of the WUHAN CORONAVIRUS is by how many people catch it, and then how many die…
As the WUHAN VIRUS emerged in late December from an animal market, SARS originated from animal markets in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in November, 2002…
***above links to:
26 Jan: ABC: Coronavirus ‘super-spreaders’ a potential risk as strain spreads from Wuhan to cities outside of China
By Michael Walsh
Professors Cheng and Subbarao said it remained unclear if super-spreaders would even be a factor in the WUHAN CORONAVIRUS outbreak because information was still emerging, including on the total number of potential infections…
12 Feb: ABC: WHO warns coronavirus, now dubbed COVID-19, is ‘public enemy number 1’ and potentially more powerful than terrorism
Link: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’…
29 Jan: ABC: From Wuhan to Australia: A timeline of key events in the spread of the deadly coronavirus
By Erin Handley, wires
Link: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’…
13 Mar: ABC: Coronavirus began in US, not China, Chinese official suggests
By Max Walden
Lijian Zhao, a prominent firebrand official with more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, took to the social media platform to suggest the origin of COVID-19 was in fact the United States, not China…
Mr Zhao later posted an article he said provided “further evidence that the virus originated in the US”…
The US State Department and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not immediately respond to the ABC’s request for comment…
China has taken umbrage with US politicians’ references to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese coronavirus”.
In an editorial, the Global Times argued that such language from Republicans such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, house minority leader Kevin McCarthy and congressman Paul Gosar demonstrated the GOP was “prone to racism” and “in danger of becoming far right”…
It is not only the Chinese Government that has criticised perceived xenophobia on the part of US elected officials.
Like people of Asian heritage in Australia, Asian-Americans have widely reported an increase in racist attacks as a result of coronavirus.
Democratic House of Representatives member Grace Meng this week called on Mr McCarthy to apologise for referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese coronavirus”.
“This labelling of the illness is embarrassing, disrespectful, offensive, and downright disgusting,” she said in a statement.
“Wrongly inserting ‘Chinese’ into the name of this disease only reinforces the disparaging and negative stereotypes of Asian-Americans.”…
14 Mar: ABC: US-China tensions intensify over comments American military might have brought coronavirus to Wuhan
In a national address this week, Mr Trump called the outbreak a “foreign virus” that started in China.
“They know where it came from, we all know where it came from,” he said.
Tensions escalated after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian took to Twitter on Thursday…
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has complained that the US response had been hindered by what he called imperfect data from Beijing.
He and several other US politicians have angered Beijing by referring to the “Wuhan virus”.
19 Mar: ABC: Donald Trump invokes Defence Production Act to fight ‘enemy’ coronavirus
Trump defends calling COVID-19 ‘the Chinese virus’
by ABC/Reuters
On Wednesday, Mr Trump defended his description of COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus”, despite concerns among some Americans that he was making an ethnic slur.
“It’s not racist, not at all. It comes from China,” Mr Trump said of the illness, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan…
But the term has angered Chinese officials and a wide range of critics, and China experts said labelling the virus that way could increase tensions between the two countries.
“Shifting the blame to China will not help combat the epidemic in the US,” China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson GENG Shuang said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“The US should get its domestic issues handled first.”…
follow-up to comment in moderation re Australian MSM hypocrisy re the following:
TWEET: MRCTV
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the “Wuhan” or “Chinese” virus is racist.
Here’s just a few of the times the liberal media did just that.
VIDEO: 2m07s
12 Mar 2020
FROM REPLIES:
Sean Baldwin: Viruses are named after the area they’re from. CHART
12 Mar 2020
Veteran for Trump: Here is CNN’s Jim Acosta using these “Wuhan” word, but it’s ok when CNN uses the word, but anyone else it’s racist…TWEET JIM ACOSTA
12 Mar 2020
Carlos Torres: Facts:
West Nile Virus
Guinea Worm
Ebola
Zika Virus
Rock Mountain Fever
Even Lyme Disease
ALL are named after a geographic location—cities, forests, rivers, countries
So why is the media all of a sudden outraged over “The China Virus”
Spanish flu
– Lyme disease from Lyme, CT
12 Mar 2020 https://twitter.com/mrctv/status/1238186498433966081/video/1
18 Mar: WashingtonExaminer: At press briefing, Trump and aides asked four times whether ‘Chinese virus’ is racist
by Becket Adams
On Wednesday, President Trump and members of his crisis response team were questioned four times during a press briefing on the White House’s plans to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, about whether it is racist to call the disease the “Chinese virus.”
time to get Bolsonaro, thinks BBC; doubts Bolsonaro’s word:
19 Mar: BBC: Coronavirus protest in Brazil sees millions bang pots from balconies
Millions of protesters in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro appeared at windows on Wednesday evening calling for the president to step down.
It was the biggest protest against Mr Bolsonaro’s government to date.
There are over 500 cases of the virus in Brazil, including two government ministers. Four people have died.
Mr Bolsonaro, who has previously dismissed precautions taken against the novel coronavirus as “hysteria” and “fantasy”, has been criticised for his response to the deadly outbreak.
The president has been tested for the virus twice, but said on both occasions the results were negative.
However 14 people who travelled with him to Florida to meet President Trump have tested positive for the virus…READ ON AND ON https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51955679
all done; takes China’s word:
19 Mar: AP: Wuhan reports no new virus cases, offering hope to world
By KEN MORITSUGU and NICK PERRY
(Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content)
Wuhan was where the outbreak first took hold and thousands once lay sick or dying in hurriedly constructed hospitals. But Chinese authorities said Thursday that all 34 new cases recorded over the previous day had been imported from abroad.
“Today we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort,” said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector of the national health commission…
While China did not report any new cases in Wuhan or Hubei province it did record eight additional deaths…
Wuhan remains cut-off, with only those with special permission allowed to travel in or out.
The lockdown will be lifted there only if no additional cases are reported for two consecutive weeks, which may happen next month, Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was quoted as saying…
The United Nations warned that the crisis could lead to the loss of nearly 25 million jobs around the world…
Though China still has the largest number of cases, most of its patients have recovered. China even sent medical supplies to hard-hit France, returning a favor done by the French weeks ago…
Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to steer industrial output and overcome shortages of face masks, ventilators and other supplies as hospitals brace for an expected onslaught of cases…
The U.S. has reported more than 9,400 coronavirus cases and at least 138 deaths, about half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died… https://apnews.com/540510ba224feb84c7044024119323ab
Some time ago Tony in Oz spoke of the high power costs for hospitals. I have just done a search on the topic and all I see is “good news” re solar not the bad reality. Does anyone know where I might find it?
No idea. I checked the ‘new’ Royal Adelaide and couldn’t find much at all.
“When it comes to power consumption of hospitals, the diagnosis isn’t pretty: they rate as the second most energy-intensive of all commercial buildings, behind only food service providers” source The Guardian..
The RAH is also engineered to withstand major earthquakes and extreme weather events and can continue to operate for 48 hours if completely cut off from outside services such as water and power.
Not always the case (or two): https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-11/power-outage-at-royal-adelaide-hospital/11501268
The only mention I could find was
High Voltage infrastructure completion with the connection of two 66Kv supply feeds from South Australian power networks to the site substation – December 2014.
Thanks Graeme, when doing a search all I found was about solar saving money.
I found one site giving the whole of Vic health power consumption for state hospitals as 5,286 terajoules per year. I just couldn’t come up with with a meaningful av. kW demand.
19 Mar: WoodTV: The Weather in Wuhan, China and Bergamo, Italy
I’ve written before about weather and the coronavirus. Viruses, in general, do not like sunny, warm and humid air. The number of new cases in Wuhan and Hubei Province in China have dropped dramatically in recent days. That information comes from not only the Chinese government, but also from non-government sources. It’s interesting to note that the weather has turned partly to mostly sunny, dry and relatively warm over much of China. (map above from WWLP)
Average high temperatures in Wuhan in mid-March are in the upper 50s. Over the last five days, the high temperatures have been 73, 66, 75 and 74. Back in January, high temperatures in Wuhan were in the 40s. They also had 4.29″ of rain in January and 4.21″ of rain in February.
The center of the coronavirus in Italy is Bergamo, in the Lombardy area northeast of Milan in Northern Italy…
The median age of those who have died in Bergamo is near 80 years old. The obituary page in the local paper is usually 1 1/2 pages. Wednesday, it was 10 pages. Six Catholic priests have died in Bergamo in just the last week. There are some amazing success stories. A 95-year-old woman in Bergamo has recovered, as has an 81-year-old woman with diabetes and a recent broken hip.
Bergamo has had a cool month. For March 1-18, the temperature in Bergamo was 2.9 degrees cooler than average…READ ON https://www.woodtv.com/bills-blog-2/the-weather-in-wuhan-china-and-bergamo-italy/
Twitter: Bill Steffen, Chief Meteorologist Wood TV/WOTV4/WXSP, Grand Rapids Michigan
TWEET: 17 Mar 2020
The first presentation by Dr. Wilson is 29 minutes and I thought well worth the time spent watching it.
19 Mar: NBC: Coronavirus shutdowns have unintended climate benefits: cleaner air, clearer water
“I think there are some big-picture lessons here that could be very useful,” one scientist said.
By Denise Chow
“If we can think about how to prepare for climate change like a pandemic, maybe there will be a positive outcome to all of this,” said Christopher Jones, lead developer of the CoolClimate Network, an applied research consortium at the University of California, Berkeley. “We can help prevent crises in the future if we are prepared. I think there are some big-picture lessons here that could be very useful.”…
According to Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, the restrictions contributed to a 25 percent drop in China’s carbon dioxide emissions over four weeks beginning in late January, compared to the same time last year.
Myllyvirta’s analysis (LINK) also found that industrial operations were reduced by 15 percent to 40 percent in some sectors and that coal consumption at power plants fell by 36 percent.
Pollution-monitoring satellites operated by NASA and the European Space Agency observed drastic decreases in air pollution over China over two weeks in February when the quarantine was in effect…
Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere over Italy also fell precipitously, as they did in China. An analysis by The Washington Post (LINK) found that the most dramatic drop was observed over northern Italy…
(Jacqueline Klopp, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University in New York City) said the pandemic could make companies and governments realize that other threats to humanity, including climate change, could be just as devastating and that it’s imperative to develop protective measures.
“As we move to restart these economies, we need to use this moment to think about what we value,” she said. “Do we want to go back to the status quo, or do we want to tackle these big structural problems and restructure our economy and reduce emissions and pollution?” https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/coronavirus-shutdowns-have-unintended-climate-benefits-n1161921
19 Mar: BBC: Coronavirus: Air pollution and CO2 fall rapidly as virus spreads
By Matt McGrath
Researchers in New York told the BBC their early results showed carbon monoxide mainly from cars had been reduced by nearly 50% compared with last year.
Emissions of the planet-heating gas CO2 have also fallen sharply.
But there are warnings levels could rise rapidly after the pandemic…
Scientists say that by May, when CO2 emissions are at their peak thanks to the decomposition of leaves, the levels recorded might be the lowest since the financial crisis over a decade ago…
“I expect we will have the smallest increase in May to May peak CO2 that we’ve had in the northern hemisphere since 2009, or even before,” said Prof Róisín Commane, from Columbia University, who carried out the New York air monitoring work…
“It will depend on how long the pandemic lasts, and how widespread the slowdown is in the economy particularly in the US. But most likely I think we will see something in the global emissions this year,” said Prof Corinne Le Quéré from the University of East Anglia…
Back in the 2008-09, after the global financial crash, carbon emissions shot up by 5% as a result of stimulus spending that boosted fossil fuel use.
In the coming months, governments will have a chance to alter that outcome. They could insist, for instance, that any bailout of airlines would be tied to far more stringent reductions in aviation emissions.
“Governments now have to be really cautious on how they re-stimulate their economies, mindful of not locking in fossil fuels again,” said Prof Le Quéré…
“I certainly think climate could go on the back burner, and in this case, I don’t think there is much hope that stimulus goes to clean energy,” said Prof Glen Peters from the Centre for International Climate Research.
“Any stimulus will help those with job losses such as tourism and services. I think this is very different to the global financial crisis. The only silver linings could be to learning new practices to work remotely, and buying a few years of lower growth allowing solar and wind to catch up a bit, though, these may be rather small silver linings.” https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51944780
18 Mar: Bloomberg: The Post-Virus Economic Recovery Could Be a Green One
Investing in solar farms, electric vehicle infrastructure, and high speed internet would create a new way forward.
By Laura Millan Lombrana
With the world coming apart at the seams, Helen Mountford, vice president for climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, thinks investment in clean technology and infrastructure could help put it back together again.
“We have a great opportunity now to transition more quickly,” says Mountford, a former official at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and an expert in how economic measures can be used to reduce climate risks. “This is a moment when we can implement measures to help boost the economy, create jobs, and build climate resilience.”…
There’s a risk that countries and companies will revert back to what they know works, Mountford says. Shovel-ready coal or fossil fuel projects that were halted in recent years on environmental concerns could easily be reactivated. “That would be a huge risk,” she says. “That’s coming out of one health crisis and trying to boost the economy by leading us into another health crisis in terms of air pollution and climate change.” Already U.S. President Donald Trump has sworn to “back the airlines 100%,” making his pledge just hours after a trade group asked for $58 billion to make up for lost business.
Unlike in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when fossil fuel-heavy and otherwise polluting industries received a major share of the bailout money, today green investment options are plentiful. Renewable energy is cheaper than coal almost everywhere in the world, and increasingly competitive with gas. High-speed trains, electric vehicle chargers, and fiber-optic infrastructure should also be on governments’ minds.
“These are projects that create jobs, attract investment and will lead to economies that are much more efficient and less polluting,” Mountford says… https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/green-projects-could-pull-economies-out-of-the-coronavirus-slump
19 Mar: Reuters: UPDATE 1-UK’s National Grid says it can keep the lights on during coronavirus crisis
by Nina Chestney
“We have well-developed procedures in place to manage the effects of a pandemic and have analysed anticipated effects on electricity supply and demand of mass self-isolation of the UK’s workforce,” the grid operator said…
Demand across the country is expected to reduce due to a drop in energy use from industrial consumers, which is likely to be greater than the increase in domestic demand as people stay at home, National Grid said.
“Please continue to use energy as you usually would …boil that kettle, tune in to your favourite TV show and enjoy a hot shower,” National Grid electricity system operator director Fintan Slye said in a statement.
Phil Hart, director of energy and power at Cranfield University, said offices closing will reduce power use significantly, as air conditioning, lighting and support systems are switched off… https://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL8N2BB7H4
18 Mar: ReginaLeaderPost: Reuters: Coronavirus pushes EU carbon permits to lowest since summer 2018
by Nina Chestney and Susanna Twidale
LONDON — The benchmark European Union carbon permit price touched its lowest since summer 2018 on Wednesday as the spreading coronavirus was expected to shrink emissions from industry and aviation…
The EU 2020 carbon price touched 15.05 euros a tonne on Wednesday, the lowest since June 2018. At 1254 GMT, it was trading at 15.44 euros, down 15.7% from the previous settlement.
In a sign of dropping demand, European energy bourse EEX canceled an auction of 3.1 million European carbon permits on Tuesday because the total volume of bids was insufficient.
Some traders feared a UK auction of 5.7 million permits on Wednesday morning might fail, but it settled at 16.11 euros a tonne. That was lower than other recent auction results over 20 euros.
“Although the auction cleared it (the price) was low. We are in the midst of a sell-off,” a trader said… https://leaderpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/coronavirus-pushes-eu-carbon-permits-to-lowest-since-summer-2018/wcm/2df76d03-1969-4321-9929-0170e903b2b0/
19 Mar: Guardian: Cop26: Boris Johnson urged to resist calls to postpone climate talks
Expert says early cancellation due to coronavirus would damage hopes of progress
by Fiona Harvey
Nicholas Stern, one of the most prominent global experts on the climate crisis, has urged Boris Johnson to resist calls to postpone vital UN climate talks this year, despite the coronavirus outbreak.
Ministers and officials have privately discussed the possibility of postponing the Cop26 talks scheduled for Glasgow this November, but no decision has yet been taken. Travel bans and the shutdown imposed in many countries because of the virus have resulted in cancelled meetings and officials working remotely.
Lord Stern believes any move to postpone the talks would put paid to any hope of making real progress. “At the moment we must just get on with the preparation,” he said. “This is such an urgent challenge and there is so much to do, and so much valuable work that is being done, that we can’t afford to lose the momentum.”…
Yvo de Boer, a former chief of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who led talks in Copenhagen in 2009 that ended in acrimony, said it was vital to keep working towards a November Cop26. “If it is going to be cancelled, that should only be done at the last possible minute – in October,” he said.
One former high-ranking official who helped put together the Paris agreement said: “Cancelling now might look like the UK was grasping too soon for a way out of an important meeting.”
Some NGOs and developing country experts also view talk of postponement as counterproductive. Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa and a close observer of the talks for many years, said: “We would rather not see it cancelled until we know more about the spread of the virus. Cancelling it immediately might mean action on climate change gets ignored this year and people on the frontlines in poorer countries can’t afford that.”
Janine Felson, the deputy chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said: “We cannot afford to lose any momentum. We should all focus our energies on ensuring that we can support each other through this trying time and continue to push for ambition.”
But some experts contacted by the Guardian believe postponing the talks would provide more time for diplomacy. John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, has written to Alok Sharma, the business secretary and president of Cop26, urging him to delay…
“Postponement is very different to cancellation. It would be the same president, the same venue, the same two countries co-hosting, so all you are doing is having a slight delay. The UK got off to a slow start [in launching its strategy for hosting Cop26] so postponement would give more time for the work that is needed.”…
***One key issue is that the US presidential election is due to take place a week before Cop26 begins. Donald Trump is strongly opposed to the Paris agreement and his withdrawal from it will take effect the day after the election. A new president, if there is one, could be more amenable to climate action but would not take office until January, so a postponement could allow the US to participate.
Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute in the US, said: “One distinct advantage of delay until spring 2021 is the growing prospect that US voters will turn Trump’s climate nihilism out of office in favour of Joe Biden’s robust climate ambition, infusing global negotiations with far greater importance and momentum.”
18 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Coronavirus enters Liberia after observer returns from Green Climate Fund meeting
The GCF’s board meeting was held in Switzerland after some members objected to hold the session online, one delegate said
By Chloé Farand
An observer to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has become the first reported case of coronavirus in Liberia, after attending the fund’s board meeting in Switzerland last week.
The meeting was moved from the GCF headquarters in Songdo, South Korea, to the Swiss city of Geneva at a time when South Korea had become one of the world’s hotspots for the virus…
The news comes after some board members raised concerns about holding the meeting physically in Geneva, where at the time 40 cases of coronavirus, or Covid-19, had then been reported, rather than online.
Attendance to the meeting, when board members discussed a new strategic plan for the next four years, was restricted with each board member and alternate member only able to be accompanied by one advisor…
In an address to the country on Monday, Liberian president George Weah confirmed the coronavirus case and identified the observer as the executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency…
During the GCF meeting, French board member Cyril Rousseau said “some board members objected” to proposals to hold the meeting online. “That was technically feasible,” he said, adding holding a physical meeting was “the wrong decision”.
“I am puzzled. I think there is some irresponsibility there… We are at risk of introducing the virus in countries where that can put some strain on their health systems,” he said… https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-enters-liberia-observer-returns-green-climate-fund-meeting/
18 Mar: EurActiv: Green Deal facing delays due to coronavirus, EU admits
By Frédéric Simon
The European Commission is having to re-order its priorities in the face of the coronavirus crisis, with “non-essential” initiatives like the biodiversity strategy and the farm-to-fork strategy likely to be delayed by several weeks, EURACTIV understands.
Officially, the show must go on. But in private, officials admit that Brussels is having to review its priorities in order to throw all its weight behind the ongoing fight against the coronavirus crisis…
To be sure, teleworking hardly speeds up the Commission’s internal processes. On Monday, the executive’s internal servers reportedly broke down as thousands of officials tried connecting simultaneously to the Commission servers, EURACTIV has learned…
Commission staff aren’t working at full speed as a consequence. And their leaders aren’t either, due to teleworking constraints or to the coronavirus itself.
Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of the Green Deal, put himself on self-imposed quarantine until 20 March, after attending a meeting with French secretary of state for ecological transition, Brune Poirson, who tested positive with COVID-19.
Although Loonela said Timmermans “is in a good state of health” and “does not have any symptoms,” his self-isolation won’t speed up any Green Deal-related initiatives…
Austria’s Federal Minister for Climate Action, Leonore Gewessler, rejected calls by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš who said the EU Green Deal should be scrapped in order to focus on the coronavirus.
“I do not agree with Andrej Babiš,” Gewessler said. Although she insisted that the corona crisis must be overcome “now,” she said politicians had a responsibility to offer a long-term perspective to their citizens.
“Climate change is an existential threat which can be tackled with an economic program, the Green New Deal,” Gewessler told EURACTIV.
“This strategic programme defines how we can invest together with businesses and re-structure, modernise our economies. This will trigger an enormous boost for innovation. As a European, I am convinced that this is the right way forward and that we should pursue it,” she added.
“We need to start planning already now” for the post-coronavirus economic stimulus, she continued, saying that “the old growth model fuelled by fossil energy is a thing of the past”… https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/green-deal-facing-delays-due-to-coronavirus-eu-admits/
18 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Coronavirus slows developing nations’ plans to step up climate action in 2020
‘We are entering into unknown territory’ – coronavirus delays developing nations’ ability to design new climate plans before Cop26 summit in November in Glasgow
By Chloé Farand
“We are entering into unknown territory,” Jahan Chowdhury, in-country engagement director for the NDC Partnership, which supports about 75 countries design and deliver their climate plans, told Climate Home News.
“I am not sure if countries are going to be submitting their NDCs in 2020,” he added.
Chowdhury said the NDC process usually required about three large in-country meetings with a broad range of national stakeholders and five smaller, more focused, meetings. Some, but not all, meetings could be moved online.
“We will not be able to replace 100% of these meetings,” he said, adding that the whole-society approach advocated by the NDC Partnership was more difficult to implement…
Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), which supports about 20 countries formulate more ambitious NDCs this year, said “consultations with governments are one after the other coming to a halt”…
Among least developed countries, some are in the midst of developing new NDCs, but others have not begun “as they are still looking for funding to undertake the process,” said Anna Schulz, of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), who specialises in supporting vulnerable countries in the climate negotiations.
“The virus could also delay the start of their NDC development if it impacts the capacity of partner organisations and funders to release funding,” she warned… https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-slows-developing-nations-plans-step-climate-action-2020/
18 Mar: Axios: The environmental impact of China’s coronavirus shutdown
by Ben Geman
Driving the news: A Rhodium Group analysis (LINK) shows China’s emissions grew by another 2.6% last year…
What’s next: Analysts are keeping their eyes peeled for signs of what the Chinese government’s economic stimulus measures will look like.
A “property and construction-heavy” package could increase cement and steel production, Rhodium finds. That scenario increases the economy’s carbon intensity — that is, emissions per unit of economic output — as coal’s market share rises for a time.
“If stimulus resources are directed towards non-fossil sources of energy production, the opposite could occur. What does this all mean? Essentially, it’s just too soon to tell,” they conclude…
A separate new analysis (LINK) of China’s energy sector and economy by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies similarly finds: “[T]he focus on COVID-19 has slowed progress on other policy priorities including environmental policies and liberalisation, and a strong fossil-fuel heavy stimulus would further delay them.” https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-china-carbon-emissions-3453d9a1-1ae9-4789-8a41-3ed257946dbd.html
18 Mar: ColumbiaJournalismReview: On the Side of Facts
By Michael Specter
(Michael Specter has been a New Yorker staff writer since 1998, focusing on science and public health. He is an adjunct professor of bioengineering at Stanford University)
One day in 1990, a friend of mine asked if I would have lunch with Al Gore, who was then the junior senator from Tennessee. Gore was writing his first book, Earth in the Balance, which, when it was published, in 1992, would warn of an impending crisis of global warming. (The term “climate change” was less commonly used in newspapers in those days.) Gore had told my friend that he wanted to talk about the gravity of the subject and make a pitch for more coverage.
At the time, I was a science reporter at the Washington Post…
For years, many excellent writers have covered the subject exhaustively, fairly, and with insight. But there has been little significant progress…
A few years ago, toward the end of his editorship of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger tackled the question of how to persuade readers to care about climate change, writing that “journalism has so far failed to animate the public to exert sufficient pressure on politics through reporting and analysis.” One could argue that fairness and accuracy have never been enough to get the job done. Which raises a question: Since we are plunging rapidly toward the abyss, is activism, rather than journalism, the way to make the strongest case?
Maybe, but journalists should do their job and focus on helping the public see and understand the world in front of them…
How bad will things get before we take action, as a society, to mitigate climate change? It will get worse—perhaps much worse. One day, though, I believe, the public will value facts again.
So let’s not abandon our principles at this dreadful, crucial moment. Gore, for his part, never told me to do that. His argument, which he made clear in the ***wholly fact-based 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, was that the truth would eventually help rescue the world… https://www.cjr.org/special_report/on-side-of-facts.php
19 Mar: France24: Coronavirus emergency spending ‘is two years of climate financing’, says climatologist Jean Jouzel
by Mairead DUNDAS
French climatologist Jean Jouzel says the swift global reaction to the coronavirus crisis may bode well for the climate as well: It shows that in a real emergency, nations have the means – and the will – to act. “It is just as urgent to tackle the climate problem,” he says.
With factories shuttered, airlines grounded and streets cleared in the wake of the coronavirus, there’s been a notable reduction in our need for energy from coal and other fossil fuels, both in China and beyond…
Dundas: A lot has been done in just a few days to fight this virus. Should we be doing the same for the climate?
Jouzel: As a climatologist, what I see happening today represents hope: €45 billion has just been earmarked as economic aid for companies. To achieve the climate transition in France, it is estimated that an additional €20 billion would have to be injected each year. Imagine: What we are doing for the virus is two years of climate financing. We need to devote as much money towards the climate. We do not have this money, we are creating debt. That is precisely what we are proposing with the Climate-Finance Pact with [economist and climate activist] Pierre Larrouturou. Increasing the deficit can be one way of doing things, and this is exactly the approach adopted for the current health crisis…READ ON https://www.france24.com/en/20200319-coronavirus-emergency-spending-is-two-years-of-climate-financing-says-climatologist-jean-jouzel
The world shuts down because of a Flu like virus and many more businesses crash than deaths….? What ever happened to common sense? The resources we have been given are to be used and enjoyed responsibly. All the crap about global warming when global pollution stares us in the face in poorer communities is the real issue…. wait… Australia is not a poorer nation is it? you bet! we cannot even keep manage our waste properly! As far as medicine and science is concerned vaccines NEVER cured any disease. sanitation, clean water and proper food has. Do your own research here and stop following the white priests who pretend to be scientists. I haven’t read all the posts but what happened to nutritional medicine? It became alternate medicine and pharmacia (greek – sorcery) is mainstream? Yahuwah help us please!
19 Mar: ModernGhana: Liberia takes immediate steps to curb coronavirus spread
By Darlington Porkpa in Monrovia – RFI
The first sufferer has been identified as Nathaniel Blama, the 46-year-old head of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, who returned to the country last Friday after attending a (Green Climate Fund) conference in Europe.
Rigorous health controls had been in place at all entry points until this case slipped through, breaching protocols set up by health and airport authorities, according to Information Minister, Eugene Lenn Nagbe.
“This is a sad day for Liberia. We have been doing everything possible to prevent the virus from entering our country. The health authorities have been working very hard, long hours, long nights, yet this unfortunate incident occurred,” he said.
A domestic worker in Blama’s home was identified as the second case.
“You guys have done enough damage by misinforming the public that I refused quarantine. That’s not true and that’s not fair,” he said in the podcast.
However, President George Weah issued a statement a few minutes after Blama’s podcast, suspending him for an indefinite amount of time as head of the country’s Environmental Protection Agency…
Liberia is still reeling from the ravages of the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed over four thousand people, including healthcare workers.
Contract tracing, a lesson learned from Ebola
Ebola also exposed the fragility of the country’s healthcare system, Liberia’s Chief Medical officer, Dr Francis N. Kateh, has said, indicating that a vigorous contact tracing exercise has been put in place…
Blama returned to Liberia on a Brussels Airlines flight, said Kateh, adding that the airline had provided the passenger list to help the government with contact tracing.
“About 127 passengers were on the flight and 23 are categorised as high risk,” said…
“We have decided to keep all five primary contacts under special quarantine observation and will re-administer another round of tests in seven days,” (Dr. Mosoka P. Fallah, acting head of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia) said… https://www.modernghana.com/news/990237/liberia-takes-immediate-steps-to-curb-coronavirus.html
19 Mar: Belfast Telegraph: COP26 may be delayed due to Covid-19, Raab warns
The Foreign Secretary said there is no ‘cast-iron guarantee’ climate change talks will go ahead in Glasgow in November.
By Gavin Cordon, Press Association
International climate change talks in Glasgow may have to be delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned.
Mr Raab said the Government had not given up hope that it could still host the COP26 summit in November as planned, but warned that it would be a “challenge”.
“I can’t give you a cast-iron guarantee, things are moving so quickly,” he told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Obviously it is not until November. We will keep it under close review. We would of course want it to go ahead but I can’t give you any guarantee on that.”…
Apparently from sources within my daughters private school, there is a decent chance school might be shut down across Oz next week.
Apparently there is some Australia wide hookup for schools to decide , thus.
Sounds plausible….
Bear in mind this may also be a long haul. The 1918 flu ran for a bit over 12 months, with a lull in the warmer months and a resurgence in the colder months then done, so this may not be mopped up until this time next year.
80
We were hoping for a result of a virus test today but apparently the school forgot to chase it up so now you know why I say the reason this virus got out of hand was pure stupidity and ineptitude.
20
Food is not in short supply, the panic buying and hoarding is causing supply chain and delivery logistical problems.
I went to a small shopping village supermarket this morning Mid North Coast NSW and it was busy but not crowded, people were calm, polite and pleasant, and I purchased everything I needed from well stocked shelves. And as I left the carpark a semi-trailer delivery vehicle was pulling in.
50
Part of me wonders if the now infamous loo paper panic we a test to see how ( impressionable ) people would react. I also expect the media are only showing the hype, not the bulk of the population who calmly go to the shops , get annoyed the shelves are bare, and go home again.
Truth be told, if we have so much food, why havent the supermarkets been able to double thier orders? Makes no sense…
60
Steve, was it you who posted a link recently to a vid about ‘Event 201’ where the usual suspects – UN/WHO, Bill & Melinda Gatekeepers, etc – back in Oct 2019 held a meeting where they spoke of “flooding the zone” and commandeering the media to “influence” we plebs re a possible pandemic outbreak?
That dreaded ‘C’ word strikes again: Coincidence!
My guests today were a bunch of young American uni students who, reluctantly, had only 3 days left in NZ as mom & pop had told ’em, “Y’all comin’ home NOW!” Great bunch of kids, though I did poke the borax by asking them if they voted for Trump…
One of my nieces is in ‘self-isolation’ on the Gold Coast as she and a buddy flew back from Indo early to beat the Sunday midnight curfew – and missed by 30 minutes. C’mon Queensland, daylight saving ain’t gonna freak the cows out too much… really…
50
Wasnt me, but I did once see on a video where Gates appears to make a suggestion they could lower population growth via a few measures, including vaccines.
Gates is from a heavily connected Establishment family in the US, so playing “god” and using the media to influemce opinion wouldnt surprise anyone who understands how things at that level work.
70
The system cannot suddenly start producing twice as much finished food. Everything is tuned to the normal flow. Huge masses are involved. Cows can’t suddenly give twice as much milk, trucks haul twice as much, etc.bpanic hoarding is very dangerous.
40
Out in the Central West I heard supplies were coming in at midday, so I went down for a look and listen to the local gossip. The truck had been delayed, some wit said it was hijacked. Over at the checkout a woman was screaming at the top of her voice, “I won’t go”. It was very unAustralian and she was quickly shuffled out the door.
20
On the ABC news last night Alan Kholer reported, in his Finance segment, that people from Melbourne and Canberra were going out in buses and buying up big from the local stores, and Metcash shares increased in value, against the market. Leaving the locals with empty shelves.
Banditry I call it.
Today heard that similar things were happening in Mudgee and Gulgong (but without the buses in what I heard).
Now I’ve just read, in SMH Latest on line, that Border Force is looking into such actions, with a rather severe frown.
…
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/they-are-going-to-be-dealt-with-dutton-puts-hoarders-on-notice-20200319-p54bq6.html?btis
…
Sounds good to me, if they act quickly.
Cheers
Dave B
30
SOME DISTRACTION FROM ALL THE VIRUSES GOING AROUNG 😉
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 BLOG. It’s still the best place for me to post and get some attention. THANKS
00
SWITZERLAND IS SHUTDOWN
The country is officially shutdown. All shops, gatherings, schools, events and anything else that could influence the spread of the virus has been officially banned. Most flights coming or going out of the country are cancelled. This is the first time since WW2 that this has happened that a state of emergency has been called.
Now the Swiss are know for their organization, punctuality, their watches, tourism and a few other items, but will the Swiss behave in the same manner? I think we will have the same problems as may other countries will have with many individuals panicking and others staying calm.
I wonder how long the shutdown will hold. I could imagine the grumblings will being in about two weeks. Many small business will simply not be able to sustain their business. Shops that rely on a steady flow of cash will definitely have their difficulties.
There are no safety nets for anyone that relies on a long chain of supply and demand. Most of us are not self-sufficient and can simply go off the grid for a few months. We live in a world where last minute and just on time rule the economy. This will be a real test of the system, here and everywhere around the world.
60
I think the fear of the virus will cause more damage than the virus itself.
The stats I’ve seen do far basically indicate there is minimal risk of death for people under say about 70, so why the white hot hysteria?
I was surprised to see a bit of nightly “news” that wasnt hyping corona virus to the max…..
This virus has driven Socialism into society ( reliance on govt ) and inflicted significant damage and potential financial collapse of many middle class businesses and has allowed Big Gov to legally “monster” the population under the guise of emergency powers. Morrison means well, but I think has globalist handlers. What will come out of this will be a well trained population that wont question the next pandemic, and will clamor for whatever chemical “saviour” the globalists provide….which I think could be worse than the disease.
As such, this virus threat is the perfect tool to trash western civilisation if they choose to do so. While its a bad virus, its not worthy IMHO of the disproportionate hysteria thats gone with it.
100
This is what I think as well, fear is the worst enemy. We often act on fear. Will know much more in a few weeks from now when the dust settles down.
70
So far in the last three months in Australia there have been six deaths associated with COVID19.
In the same three months there have been approximately 290 suicides and approximately 900 killed in road accidents.
The collapse of the normal business activity in Australia due to the COVID19 “fix” has seen the already dire small business situation worsen substantially; many will just give up.
There is a path that can be taken through this troubling period but care is needed to avoid damaging blanket fixes of uncertain benefit.
KK
70
I think because the percentage of deaths isn’t the problem.
It’s the percentage of severe symptoms requiring hospitalisation that’ll be the problem – to the tune of around 20% of the infected population. ~1million cases by end of May means 200k needing specialised care, such as O2, which over double our capacity. And that’s before you consider the ~5k of that 200k that will deteriorate and require ICU, and also before considering supply shortages.
60
Yet on the diamond Princess without any lockdown and a population skewed to the elderly, 83% didn’t get the disease and 8% didn’t show the conditions. OK 9% with symptoms from illness to death. In the general population that means 2.25 million affected but spread out over weeks (9 in your figures) but how many would be in hospital at any one time?
10
You’re saying only 17% got infected? Yet 1 million is only ~4% of our population. (the 1 million by end May came from a news article https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-exponential-growth-explains-terrifying-spread-of-virus/news-story/6f17b9f488c71f5fe3b858daf10b3ee2)
With ~5 days incubation, the doubling effect of numbers is ~5 days.
So week 8 and a bit, there’s be ~500k cases, week 7.5 ~250k. Average stay is about 10 days.
So the week 7.5’s will just be being discharged as week 9’s come in. Week 8.2’s will be half way through their stay when week 9’s arrive.
~20% of 250k = 50k, so already half our total capacity. Week 9 adds 500k new cases; 20% = 100k. At best, there’s 50k beds available, so 50k are left at home to fend for themselves.
Week 9.5 adds another million cases, with 200k needing care but no beds.
Getting the R0 below 2, and ideally below 1 is our best course of action.
00
Virtual Reality, I’m happy to provide you with a first-hand resident perspective on the situation in Switzerland from Canton Geneve. What you’ve mentioned is largely correct.
Supermarkets, pharmacies, post offices, banks, doctor’s surgeries, petrol stations, convenience stores, take away outlets and hotels remain open. Train services are at half schedule. 80% of domestic flights are cancelled. The border with France, Germany, Italy and Austria (Liechtenstein too) is effectively closed for all but essential business.
The Swiss were handling matters fairly calmly until last Saturday. The usual last minute rush on Saturday afternoon was different than usual. Most supermarkets close on Sunday. Last Saturday afternoon saw Supermarkets very busy hours before closure at 6:00pm. Toilet paper was sold out and pasta all but gone. No shortage of much else other than Garlic, handwash and sanitiser. Monday saw complete pandemonium at the local low end economy grocers (Coles, Aldi, Tesco, Costco equivalents); but fairly calm behaviour at the higher end stores.
There are still quite a few people out and about in the open facilities. Perhaps 10% of people are wearing masks. Of these, most are asiatic or elderly. Social distancing is observedly well practised. Lots of hand sanitiser about. Interestingly, store staff are not wearing masks but rather gloves in most instances.
Other than the above, most trades are still active. The exception being where an infection has been identified. Police presence is minimal but security has been stepped up in supermarkets.
Many restaurants have converted to Take away only. Uber Eats and Smood doing a roaring trade.
People are slowly getting their head around tele-work. Though many in Switzerland already work from home. Those who need to work from a central office are still doing so with prophylactic measures in place.
Switzerland is a good analog for Australia save for the fact it acts as a transportation crossroad. The virus issue is however related to the interface between surrounding countries from where many commute daily or intra-weekly i.e. Italy, Germany, Austria and France. The transportation of goods is low risk for virus propagation.
70
Yes, That sounds right. I’m out of business right now, clients getting organized with the new situation. I had time this afternoon to walk through old Zürich and it was empty! Shops and restaurants all closed and almost nobody around. I took some pictures, but since all my pictures are landscape the situation wasn’t really new for me. The only advantage, didn’t have to wait till there wasn’t anyone in the picture.
We will truly have to wait and see, this will have repercussions. What they will be is the big question…
50
I lived in Switzerland for a few years and you can assured it will be well executed and compliance will be high, at least compared with Oz. Their biggest problem will be random behaviours of all the resident foriegners 20-30% at any point in time depending how the economy is going.
30
Ah, Bu66er !
Here i was hoping for at least a brief conversation about something different ..
..like why one of my chickens has suddenly just laid a pure white shelled egg, rather than the usual brown shell ?
Oh well……
..(maybe its a symptom of some bird flu virus ? )
40
Wow, you’ve got eggs? Consider yourself lucky compared to us city dwellers.
20
Congratulations Chad.
Thank you for sharing this fantastic occurrence with us.
You are worth your weight in golf balls.
Your blood should be bottled.
10
Or maybe , some update /feedback on the slow loading of Jo’s site ?
It would appear to be an ongoing issue for all/most users.
70
I’m not surprised that it has slowed, the amount of extra traffic going through the internet must be huge.
Think of all those people self-isolating stuck at home watching Netflix etc.
50
No, its been slow for months, just worse of late !
40
Jo’s site specifically is very very slow, I can jump around other places fine but this site runs very slowly at times , to the point I gave up on it this afternoon. 30seconds + to load a page is unusable for most.
00
Occasionally it can be slow but seems ok lately for me .
20
V e r y . . . s l o w . . . i n . . . N e w . . . Z e a l a n d . . .
But we be old fellas and fella-esses, we been thru worse.
Cheers Jo and moderators – epic job!
80
Has been OK for the past week, but very slow again today – for me.
00
Perhaps more people are looking??
Cheers
Dave B
00
I was just speaking to a mate who happens to like the breakfast cereal “Just Right”. He regularly buys it when it’s on special and has seven boxes of it in his pantry. His daughters are always ribbing him about it. I told him that for years I regularly buy the cereal Muesli Flakes when it’s on special and at any one time have between 20-30 boxes in my cupboard. The best-before date of the oldest unopened boxes is still 2018. I did a count of the boxes earlier today and have 28 at the moment. He will tell his daughters that “Uncle” Ian has four times as many cereal boxes as him. And no, I have not bought any boxes this year because for now I am dieting which means no breakfast!
Same mate is a relief school teacher and I asked him of his assessment. He said given the inside rule of no more than 100 people, some schools have that many staff in the staff room. He believes school will soon be out, and maybe for the year.
40
out for the year? can we afford the vandalism, out of season fires and teenage pregnancies?
10
Atmospheric CO2 levels do not seem to have flinched from their steady increase ….
70
🙂
And meanwhile, in most “green” areas the daily levels would cycle from near those 400 levels up to 1200 overnight.
50
Those figures are “Daily Average” .
https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
20
?
No vegetation on Mauna Loa.
20
And Mauna Loa is a volcano. There was an eruption there in 1984 but surprisingly no corresponding jump in CO2 for that period.
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.html
40
Mauna Kea access road CLOSED today due to
“Below freezing temperatures, snow covered roads and icy roadways”. Nup, nothing out of the ordinary there, same as it ever was every winter.
https://www.mkwc.ifa.hawaii.edu/
(look for current road conditions)
20
My understanding is the ML CO2 measurement is monitoring open ocean atmospheric conditions ?
But that must depend on weather and wind direction.
It seems obvious that these CO2 figures are “processed” to some extent.
I can understand how you get a daily average from hourly data points..
… but what is an “hourly AVERAGE” that they report ? ..
How many individual data points in each hour ?
What is the RANGE of that data ?
Does the range vary hourly ?
Where is the raw data for independent analysis.
20
An interesting paper by Prof. Zbigniew Jaworowski. Chairman, Scientific Council of Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection Warsaw, Poland.
Note Figure 2 (towards the end of the statement) which shows how Callendar came to the original CO2 start data.
http://www.warwickhughes.com/icecore/
20
I have always thought that Jaworowski was honest since he claimed that he was “an expert on ice cores measurements because he had made all the errors possible”.
It is an awkward thing for believers in Climatology who believe that CO2 controls the temperature in that much of the Holocene was warmer than present but ice core CO2 measurements say it was lower than present. Equally they have to adjust either the flat CO2 measurement or the temperature in the Little Ice Age. Michael Mann turned one graph upside down to that end. Even that wasn’t enough and he had to resort to “Mike’s Trick” to get his hockey stick.
30
We Aussies & Kiwis enjoy our freedoms. This soft… lockdown is not going to go well I feel over time. We haven’t been conditioned like China, Russia,Nth Korea. And it all could have been over in say 4 weeks if CMO had followed this site.
40
I read a comment on an unrelated forum by someone yesterday happy that the world wide shut down “is very good for the planet.” The person was implying that the reduction in human co2 emissions was a great benefit and just in the nick of time.
Pretty jaded. It’s probably the fault of the propaganda rather than this person being a bad person.
One thing is that we now have an experiment running. It will be interesting to see is co2 concentration is affected at all.
40
Dave see #7 above .
And ..https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
20
really depends on what the lag in the overall system really is. What is realistic in terms of a deviation and when would it be rational to expect it?
10
I wonder if temperatures for this year will now be homogenised downwards!
20
Dave, similar sentiments in another forum I use. This guy who lives in Switzerland is now gloating that on December 29th last year he wrote:
It makes you sick.
40
Had an earth quake a little while ago. I’m hundreds of miles away from the epicenter, but the kitchen cabinets were rocking. At first I thought I was just getting a strange dizzy sensation then I had to grab hold of something to stay on my feet as I realized what was happening.
70
Here in Geelong, I’ve begun to run the gauntlet for groceries, as Coles and Woolies have canceled online orders and deliveries. Annie commented on an earlier comment of mine about hoping that salt wasn’t in short supply, yes, I was able to get salt and loads of it if I wanted. However, then I read a comment somewhere else that bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t even buy salt.
I guess I was lucky.
On a head’s up from a neighbour, I visited a Chinese supermarket in the centre of town. She said there were lots of fish, meat, bread, and much more.
She was right in that the shop was fully stocked, but the packages and labeling were all in Chinese. Most items were unrecognisable, other than frozen prawns (I’ll be back for some of them soon); and no real meat as we know it, like mince or steaks.
Strike one!
Next, Foodworks. Not bad, limits on most items of one each, which I agree with. No meat, no eggs, and no, you know that stuff that has replaced gold as the currency standard, but a reasonable catch of other items, but only one of each.
Then on to Chemist Warehouse. This outlet has an entrance on the left and checkout on the right and the exit. Given the current ‘climate’, this is wise. However, late in the afternoon, the left entrance is closed so customers entering the store have to push past those waiting in the queue to pay for their purchases. Full body contact. I mentioned this to the check-out person, she said this was the way we’ve always done it, it’s for security purposes.
Stagger me, a chemist shop providing health products and they push customers together in a crush to enter and exit the store.
On the other hand, the vitamin shelves were fully stocked and there were two large cartons of tissues at the back. I guess the staff figured we’d help ourselves.
Strange days indeed.
40
the runaway money machine comes to your area:
11-2-18 FDA approves a new opioid 10 times more powerful than fentanyl. The drug is called sufentanil*, which can be in a tablet version of an opioid marketed for intravenous delivery but is administered under the tongue using a specially developed, single-dose applicator. These “unique features” make the medicine well-suited for the military and therefore was a priority for the Pentagon https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2018/11/02/fda-dsuvia-fentanyl-approval/
* carfentanil, 100x stronger than fentanyl, is also FDA-approved.
……………………………………….
Laurie Powell, a former medical brand strategist—
Laurie Powell: The thing about the FDA is the FDA, is, is not a full time, a career job. It’s a few years on the FDA and then they’re being courted by the pharmaceutical companies. You’ll have a Merck going in and saying to somebody on the FDA, oh, I’ll give you $600,000 if you’ll come and work on our regulatory committee to go, to go into bat for us with the FDA. And they’ll say, okay, well I’ll think about that. And then there’ll be like a Pfizer will come in and say, well, we’ll give you $800,000 a year to come in and work on our regulatory committee. And so, it becomes like a bidding war like that. So the FDA knows that their next jumping off point to go from a lower paying government job to being a very lucrative Pharma job on the inside, on the manufacturing side. They know that that’s part of their career path, so that I’m sure weighs heavily into their decision making process.
Mike Papantonio: So Ben, it sounds like the loyalty of drug rate regulators ultimately goes to the highest bidder. Break this down. You’ve done such a spectacular job with these videos telling the story that, that corporate media refuses to tell, by the way. So break this down for us just a little bit, if you would.
Ben Swann: Well I think it makes a lot of sense to anybody who even is on the outside of this of how this would work, right? If you are government employee working for the FDA and you are sitting on these committees within the FDA essentially deciding which drugs are approved and which are not. And keep in mind, as you know, Mike it is like a a 10 year to 13 year process to get a drug approved.
It costs millions upon in some cases over $1 billion to get some drugs approved and so when you have that power you are easily and heavily courted by drug companies who come in and say, look, give us an easier time or let this drug through. And when you are done here at the FDA, we’ve got a cush plum spot waiting for you and you’ll be on our regulatory committee. Think about what that means.
You don’t have to design drugs, you don’t have to have any medical background. All you have to do is to help guide us through the process of getting more drugs approved in the future and we’ll pay you six hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, a million dollars a year to sit on this committee. And what we find is that the FDA has been using their influence in their vast of money to influence regulators at the FDA.
It’s why so many drugs get approved in the first place, but there’s actually a bigger issue than just that. Once a drug is approved by the FDA, it is rarely ever reviewed after the fact and that means that once a drug gets through, there’s almost no one on the FDA side assigned to going back and saying, let’s take a look at drugs that were approved but now have side effects that are harmful and in some cases even deadly.
Mike Papantonio: Ben, I’ve handled about 30 of the biggest pharmaceutical catastrophes in America. I’ve actually tried the cases taking the depositions, gone to trial and tried the case and the pattern that we see is, is evident. It is that you, this belief that the FDA is a regulator is a myth because as you point out, and I gotta tell you something, I know you’ve been a journalist a long time. This is, this is great work you’re doing here because the corporate media won’t tell this story.
And this is the story, that revolving door between corporate drug companies and the FDA has made it so impossible to get an objective view of whether or not a drug will kill you or not. That I tell people don’t even take a drug unless it’s been on the market for 10 years because the FDA has become so dysfunctional. And you’ve, you’ve spoken to physicians and you’ve written, you’ve looked at this, the funding of the FDA.
You’ve looked at all the parts. Is there any question that the FDA at this point has just become completely dysfunctional because the financial chokehold that takes place?
Ben Swann: No, I, I think there’s multiple things that have happened. You’re absolutely right. I mean, the FDA is, is completely dysfunctional in that respect. And it’s also starved in terms of funding. The requirements that have been put on the FDA by Congress in terms of the pressure to get new drugs approved at a faster rate versus the staffing they have. https://trofire.com/2019/06/27/big-pharma-bribing-fda-officials-to-approve-dangerous-medications/
………………………………………….
7-29-19 After serving as Commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration for just under two years, Scott Gottlieb unexpectedly resigned in April to spend more time with his family. He left behind a legacy of unprecedented expansion of the FDA’s regulatory powers, a persistent commitment approving generic drugs and an unclear path for the future of the agency.
Eighty-three days later Gottlieb announced he was joining Pfizer’s advisory board. He will also serve on the company’s science and technology committee as well as its regulatory and compliance committee. https://www.fdareview.org/2019/07/29/worried-about-big-pharma-then-reduce-the-fdas-regulatory-power/
……………………………..
“It is my observation,” chairman of FDA’s Anesthetic and Analgesics Drug Product Advisory Committee, Raeford E. Brown Jr., MD, a professor of pediatric anesthesia at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, wrote, “that once the FDA approves an opioid compound there are no safeguards as to the population that will be exposed, the postmarketing analysis of prescribing behavior, or the ongoing analysis of the risks of the drug to the general population relative to its benefit to the public health. Briefly stated, for all of the opioids that have been marketed in the last 10 years, there has not been sufficient demonstration of safety, nor has there been postmarketing assessment of who is taking the drug, how often prescribing is inappropriate, and whether there was ever a reason to risk the health of the general population by having one more opioid on the market.” https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/178955/pain/fda-approval-powerful-opioid-tinged-irony
[ Good insight into the FDA but splitting this into separate comments would be better– Jo ]
40
Here in the UK the supermarket shelves have been stripped bare.
Today, I went in to the Chinese supermarket that my wife and go to in Liverpool.
One or two empty spaces on the shelves but they had plenty of rice and I got a 10kg bag..and some Chinese sausage and siu mai….
The Wuhan style noodles were not moving, though.
One or two face masks mainly among the european staff.
At least two lorries delivering and four vans in the car park.
My view is that the media are panicking us and some people are falling for it.
40
Germany reporting mortality rates of .2%. Maybe too early to have a good dataset. Testing has been aggressive and most importantly, devolved to doctor level at zero cost to patient.
Germany has highest rate of ICU beds to population but has not used up all resources yet. So ratio likely to be irrelevant at present.
It also appears elderly quarantining is may be dropping mortality rates.
50
Some contributors to this site have mentioned that the climate is cooling rather than warming. With airlines cutting flights and people not driving because of self isolation and working from home, and other measures, CO2 and other “greenhouse” gas emissions should be lower. No doubt some climate scientists and other believers will claim that the cooling is due to the reduction in CO2 etc and is proof that increasing CO2 levels causes warming. They will overlook the fact that the cooling started well before the pandemic.
40
Be quite interesting to see. The bush fires had no effect as far I’m aware, but then, the atmosphere knows how to differentiate between natural and man-made CO2.
If we don’t see a drop, or at least a pause in CO2, as a result of the next few months shutdown, then it’ll pretty hard to continue to suggest that we can exert control over CO2 (regardless if you believe CO2 is a major factor in climate change or not)
60
If there is any extreme weather globally whilst emissions are down, will carbon (sic) be the culprit?
20
If there is any extreme weather globally whilst emissions are down, will carbon (sic) be the culprit?
30
CO2 will stay high for centuries, even as the earth cools. We can thank our lucky stars or perhaps divine providence.
30
JO: how picky can you get??
00
Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories maybe moderatored at this sensitive time.
20
Definition of irony: a politician who believes in failed doomsday global warming telling people to use common sense.
70
this is a bit RICH!
18 Mar: UK Independent: Coronavirus: Could COP26 climate summit be held by video conference?
‘What is needed to be seen is whether our habit of requiring face to face meetings can be overcome as we move forward in time,’ says former chief scientific advisor as virus threatens to derail conference
by Kate Ng
David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, told Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday there is a “possibility” the COP26 may be delayed but could be conducted in the virtual space if the “habit of requiring face to face meetings can be overcome”.
But Richard Black (EX-BBC), director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, told The Independent the idea was “not feasible” and could reduce productivity gained by “rich debates” held at the international conference…
“COP26 is made up of a rich ecosystem. 30,000-ish people from different walks of life in one place, allowing for the scrutiny of governments and rich debates to be held – it wouldn’t be possible to reduce all that into a video conference call…
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-cop26-climate-summit-un-glasgow-latest-a9406611.html
30
17 Mar: PJ Media: First No Collusion, Now No Actual *Russians* in Mueller’s Disastrous Russian Collusion Illusion
By Victoria Taft
The charges against three Russian “bot” farms and 13 individuals in Mueller’s so-called Russian collusion case were dropped with prejudice on Monday. But the conclusion of the case was never in doubt…
Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton saw this coming the second the indictments were announced:
TWEET: Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch
When Mueller and Rosenstein announced “Russia interference” indictment, we warned it would go no where and showed Mueller had NOTHING justifying investigation of @RealDonaldTrump. DOJ confirmed this today in embarrassing ditching, after 2 years, of case. https://t.co/TxhVxl5nGi https://t.co/Aa2drhxazN
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 17, 2020 …
The Russian bot farm case was sold as the aha! moment in the Mueller investigation and ended with prosecutors asking for dismissal while all eyes were on the coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19.
You can read the ten-page “never mind” motion by the prosecutors: TEXT
https://pjmedia.com/trending/first-no-collusion-now-no-actual-russians-in-muellers-disastrous-russian-collusion-illusion/
20
Breaking News
Australia and New Zealand close their borders to foreign international arrivals. Only citizens will be allowed in to the respective countries. Applies New Zealand from midnight Thursday, Australia Friday 9pm.
30
That’s it, folks – we’re pulling up the drawbridge tonight.
Funny thing is, people were still out walking their dogs, kite-surfing off the beach, riding bikes & skateboards along the road – your usual Thursday afternoon shenanigans.
If I hear someone say, ‘this is the new normal’, one more time I’m gonna [censored] that person – metaphorically speaking of course. Lemme know how your Friday ‘lockdown’ goes… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
20
My wife whom is a Qantas Flight Attendant has informed me Qantas is considering standing down up to 20000 staff.
30
Councils to lift curfews and get faster supplies during this national emergency.
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/council-curfews-accused-of-fueling-panic-buying/
20
THE ONGOING HYPOCRISY OF THE FAKENEWSMSM:
Sky Australia is continually running a headline:
Trump defends calling the Covid-19 ‘China virus’
24 Jan: Sky Australia: Latest cases of coronavirus confirmed in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Scotland
The latest cases of the CHINESE CORONAVIRUS have been confirmed in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Scotland as authorities struggle to contain the viral outbreak.
11 Feb: Sky UK: China’s coronavirus outbreak: What you need to know about the ‘WUHAN VIRUS’
The current outbreak has been dubbed the “WUHAN VIRUS” after the city where the first report emerged earlier this month.
by Tom Acres
1 Feb: ABC Analysis: Coronavirus fear spreads easily and it could fuel an economic as well as health emergency
The Conversation By Ilan Noy
***LINK: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’
One way to count the cost of the WUHAN CORONAVIRUS is by how many people catch it, and then how many die…
As the WUHAN VIRUS emerged in late December from an animal market, SARS originated from animal markets in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in November, 2002…
***above links to:
26 Jan: ABC: Coronavirus ‘super-spreaders’ a potential risk as strain spreads from Wuhan to cities outside of China
By Michael Walsh
Professors Cheng and Subbarao said it remained unclear if super-spreaders would even be a factor in the WUHAN CORONAVIRUS outbreak because information was still emerging, including on the total number of potential infections…
12 Feb: ABC: WHO warns coronavirus, now dubbed COVID-19, is ‘public enemy number 1’ and potentially more powerful than terrorism
Link: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’…
29 Jan: ABC: From Wuhan to Australia: A timeline of key events in the spread of the deadly coronavirus
By Erin Handley, wires
Link: WUHAN VIRUS ‘super-spreaders’…
13 Mar: ABC: Coronavirus began in US, not China, Chinese official suggests
By Max Walden
Lijian Zhao, a prominent firebrand official with more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, took to the social media platform to suggest the origin of COVID-19 was in fact the United States, not China…
Mr Zhao later posted an article he said provided “further evidence that the virus originated in the US”…
The US State Department and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not immediately respond to the ABC’s request for comment…
China has taken umbrage with US politicians’ references to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese coronavirus”.
In an editorial, the Global Times argued that such language from Republicans such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, house minority leader Kevin McCarthy and congressman Paul Gosar demonstrated the GOP was “prone to racism” and “in danger of becoming far right”…
It is not only the Chinese Government that has criticised perceived xenophobia on the part of US elected officials.
Like people of Asian heritage in Australia, Asian-Americans have widely reported an increase in racist attacks as a result of coronavirus.
Democratic House of Representatives member Grace Meng this week called on Mr McCarthy to apologise for referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese coronavirus”.
“This labelling of the illness is embarrassing, disrespectful, offensive, and downright disgusting,” she said in a statement.
“Wrongly inserting ‘Chinese’ into the name of this disease only reinforces the disparaging and negative stereotypes of Asian-Americans.”…
14 Mar: ABC: US-China tensions intensify over comments American military might have brought coronavirus to Wuhan
In a national address this week, Mr Trump called the outbreak a “foreign virus” that started in China.
“They know where it came from, we all know where it came from,” he said.
Tensions escalated after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian took to Twitter on Thursday…
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has complained that the US response had been hindered by what he called imperfect data from Beijing.
He and several other US politicians have angered Beijing by referring to the “Wuhan virus”.
19 Mar: ABC: Donald Trump invokes Defence Production Act to fight ‘enemy’ coronavirus
Trump defends calling COVID-19 ‘the Chinese virus’
by ABC/Reuters
On Wednesday, Mr Trump defended his description of COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus”, despite concerns among some Americans that he was making an ethnic slur.
“It’s not racist, not at all. It comes from China,” Mr Trump said of the illness, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan…
But the term has angered Chinese officials and a wide range of critics, and China experts said labelling the virus that way could increase tensions between the two countries.
“Shifting the blame to China will not help combat the epidemic in the US,” China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson GENG Shuang said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“The US should get its domestic issues handled first.”…
20
follow-up to comment in moderation re Australian MSM hypocrisy re the following:
TWEET: MRCTV
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the “Wuhan” or “Chinese” virus is racist.
Here’s just a few of the times the liberal media did just that.
VIDEO: 2m07s
12 Mar 2020
FROM REPLIES:
Sean Baldwin: Viruses are named after the area they’re from. CHART
12 Mar 2020
Veteran for Trump: Here is CNN’s Jim Acosta using these “Wuhan” word, but it’s ok when CNN uses the word, but anyone else it’s racist…TWEET JIM ACOSTA
12 Mar 2020
Carlos Torres: Facts:
West Nile Virus
Guinea Worm
Ebola
Zika Virus
Rock Mountain Fever
Even Lyme Disease
ALL are named after a geographic location—cities, forests, rivers, countries
So why is the media all of a sudden outraged over “The China Virus”
Spanish flu
– Lyme disease from Lyme, CT
12 Mar 2020
https://twitter.com/mrctv/status/1238186498433966081/video/1
10
18 Mar: WashingtonExaminer: At press briefing, Trump and aides asked four times whether ‘Chinese virus’ is racist
by Becket Adams
On Wednesday, President Trump and members of his crisis response team were questioned four times during a press briefing on the White House’s plans to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, about whether it is racist to call the disease the “Chinese virus.”
Four times…READ ON
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/at-press-briefing-trump-and-aides-asked-four-times-whether-chinese-virus-is-racist
time to get Bolsonaro, thinks BBC; doubts Bolsonaro’s word:
19 Mar: BBC: Coronavirus protest in Brazil sees millions bang pots from balconies
Millions of protesters in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro appeared at windows on Wednesday evening calling for the president to step down.
It was the biggest protest against Mr Bolsonaro’s government to date.
There are over 500 cases of the virus in Brazil, including two government ministers. Four people have died.
Mr Bolsonaro, who has previously dismissed precautions taken against the novel coronavirus as “hysteria” and “fantasy”, has been criticised for his response to the deadly outbreak.
The president has been tested for the virus twice, but said on both occasions the results were negative.
However 14 people who travelled with him to Florida to meet President Trump have tested positive for the virus…READ ON AND ON
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51955679
all done; takes China’s word:
19 Mar: AP: Wuhan reports no new virus cases, offering hope to world
By KEN MORITSUGU and NICK PERRY
(Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report. The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content)
Wuhan was where the outbreak first took hold and thousands once lay sick or dying in hurriedly constructed hospitals. But Chinese authorities said Thursday that all 34 new cases recorded over the previous day had been imported from abroad.
“Today we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort,” said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector of the national health commission…
While China did not report any new cases in Wuhan or Hubei province it did record eight additional deaths…
Wuhan remains cut-off, with only those with special permission allowed to travel in or out.
The lockdown will be lifted there only if no additional cases are reported for two consecutive weeks, which may happen next month, Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was quoted as saying…
The United Nations warned that the crisis could lead to the loss of nearly 25 million jobs around the world…
Though China still has the largest number of cases, most of its patients have recovered. China even sent medical supplies to hard-hit France, returning a favor done by the French weeks ago…
Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to steer industrial output and overcome shortages of face masks, ventilators and other supplies as hospitals brace for an expected onslaught of cases…
The U.S. has reported more than 9,400 coronavirus cases and at least 138 deaths, about half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died…
https://apnews.com/540510ba224feb84c7044024119323ab
10
Hospital electricity costs
Some time ago Tony in Oz spoke of the high power costs for hospitals. I have just done a search on the topic and all I see is “good news” re solar not the bad reality. Does anyone know where I might find it?
20
Hanrahan:
No idea. I checked the ‘new’ Royal Adelaide and couldn’t find much at all.
“When it comes to power consumption of hospitals, the diagnosis isn’t pretty: they rate as the second most energy-intensive of all commercial buildings, behind only food service providers” source The Guardian..
The RAH is also engineered to withstand major earthquakes and extreme weather events and can continue to operate for 48 hours if completely cut off from outside services such as water and power.
Not always the case (or two):
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-11/power-outage-at-royal-adelaide-hospital/11501268
The only mention I could find was
High Voltage infrastructure completion with the connection of two 66Kv supply feeds from South Australian power networks to the site substation – December 2014.
20
Thanks Graeme, when doing a search all I found was about solar saving money.
I found one site giving the whole of Vic health power consumption for state hospitals as 5,286 terajoules per year. I just couldn’t come up with with a meaningful av. kW demand.
20
19 Mar: WoodTV: The Weather in Wuhan, China and Bergamo, Italy
I’ve written before about weather and the coronavirus. Viruses, in general, do not like sunny, warm and humid air. The number of new cases in Wuhan and Hubei Province in China have dropped dramatically in recent days. That information comes from not only the Chinese government, but also from non-government sources. It’s interesting to note that the weather has turned partly to mostly sunny, dry and relatively warm over much of China. (map above from WWLP)
Average high temperatures in Wuhan in mid-March are in the upper 50s. Over the last five days, the high temperatures have been 73, 66, 75 and 74. Back in January, high temperatures in Wuhan were in the 40s. They also had 4.29″ of rain in January and 4.21″ of rain in February.
The center of the coronavirus in Italy is Bergamo, in the Lombardy area northeast of Milan in Northern Italy…
The median age of those who have died in Bergamo is near 80 years old. The obituary page in the local paper is usually 1 1/2 pages. Wednesday, it was 10 pages. Six Catholic priests have died in Bergamo in just the last week. There are some amazing success stories. A 95-year-old woman in Bergamo has recovered, as has an 81-year-old woman with diabetes and a recent broken hip.
Bergamo has had a cool month. For March 1-18, the temperature in Bergamo was 2.9 degrees cooler than average…READ ON
https://www.woodtv.com/bills-blog-2/the-weather-in-wuhan-china-and-bergamo-italy/
10
WoodTV piece is by meteorologist, Bill Steffen:
Twitter: Bill Steffen, Chief Meteorologist Wood TV/WOTV4/WXSP, Grand Rapids Michigan
TWEET: 17 Mar 2020
The first presentation by Dr. Wilson is 29 minutes and I thought well worth the time spent watching it.
re-tweeted
Judith Curry, President of Climate Forecast Applications Network http://www.cfanclimate.com Proprietor of blog Climate Etc. http://judithcurry.com
Excellent presentation on coronavirus by James Wilson of M2 Medical Intelligence, at the Reno National Security forum
LINK https://nationalsecurityforum.org/videos/
16 Mar 2020
CHECK REPLIES
https://twitter.com/bsteffen
10
19 Mar: NBC: Coronavirus shutdowns have unintended climate benefits: cleaner air, clearer water
“I think there are some big-picture lessons here that could be very useful,” one scientist said.
By Denise Chow
“If we can think about how to prepare for climate change like a pandemic, maybe there will be a positive outcome to all of this,” said Christopher Jones, lead developer of the CoolClimate Network, an applied research consortium at the University of California, Berkeley. “We can help prevent crises in the future if we are prepared. I think there are some big-picture lessons here that could be very useful.”…
According to Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, the restrictions contributed to a 25 percent drop in China’s carbon dioxide emissions over four weeks beginning in late January, compared to the same time last year.
Myllyvirta’s analysis (LINK) also found that industrial operations were reduced by 15 percent to 40 percent in some sectors and that coal consumption at power plants fell by 36 percent.
Pollution-monitoring satellites operated by NASA and the European Space Agency observed drastic decreases in air pollution over China over two weeks in February when the quarantine was in effect…
Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere over Italy also fell precipitously, as they did in China. An analysis by The Washington Post (LINK) found that the most dramatic drop was observed over northern Italy…
(Jacqueline Klopp, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University in New York City) said the pandemic could make companies and governments realize that other threats to humanity, including climate change, could be just as devastating and that it’s imperative to develop protective measures.
“As we move to restart these economies, we need to use this moment to think about what we value,” she said. “Do we want to go back to the status quo, or do we want to tackle these big structural problems and restructure our economy and reduce emissions and pollution?”
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/coronavirus-shutdowns-have-unintended-climate-benefits-n1161921
20
19 Mar: BBC: Coronavirus: Air pollution and CO2 fall rapidly as virus spreads
By Matt McGrath
Researchers in New York told the BBC their early results showed carbon monoxide mainly from cars had been reduced by nearly 50% compared with last year.
Emissions of the planet-heating gas CO2 have also fallen sharply.
But there are warnings levels could rise rapidly after the pandemic…
Scientists say that by May, when CO2 emissions are at their peak thanks to the decomposition of leaves, the levels recorded might be the lowest since the financial crisis over a decade ago…
“I expect we will have the smallest increase in May to May peak CO2 that we’ve had in the northern hemisphere since 2009, or even before,” said Prof Róisín Commane, from Columbia University, who carried out the New York air monitoring work…
“It will depend on how long the pandemic lasts, and how widespread the slowdown is in the economy particularly in the US. But most likely I think we will see something in the global emissions this year,” said Prof Corinne Le Quéré from the University of East Anglia…
Back in the 2008-09, after the global financial crash, carbon emissions shot up by 5% as a result of stimulus spending that boosted fossil fuel use.
In the coming months, governments will have a chance to alter that outcome. They could insist, for instance, that any bailout of airlines would be tied to far more stringent reductions in aviation emissions.
“Governments now have to be really cautious on how they re-stimulate their economies, mindful of not locking in fossil fuels again,” said Prof Le Quéré…
“I certainly think climate could go on the back burner, and in this case, I don’t think there is much hope that stimulus goes to clean energy,” said Prof Glen Peters from the Centre for International Climate Research.
“Any stimulus will help those with job losses such as tourism and services. I think this is very different to the global financial crisis. The only silver linings could be to learning new practices to work remotely, and buying a few years of lower growth allowing solar and wind to catch up a bit, though, these may be rather small silver linings.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51944780
10
18 Mar: Bloomberg: The Post-Virus Economic Recovery Could Be a Green One
Investing in solar farms, electric vehicle infrastructure, and high speed internet would create a new way forward.
By Laura Millan Lombrana
With the world coming apart at the seams, Helen Mountford, vice president for climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, thinks investment in clean technology and infrastructure could help put it back together again.
“We have a great opportunity now to transition more quickly,” says Mountford, a former official at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and an expert in how economic measures can be used to reduce climate risks. “This is a moment when we can implement measures to help boost the economy, create jobs, and build climate resilience.”…
There’s a risk that countries and companies will revert back to what they know works, Mountford says. Shovel-ready coal or fossil fuel projects that were halted in recent years on environmental concerns could easily be reactivated. “That would be a huge risk,” she says. “That’s coming out of one health crisis and trying to boost the economy by leading us into another health crisis in terms of air pollution and climate change.” Already U.S. President Donald Trump has sworn to “back the airlines 100%,” making his pledge just hours after a trade group asked for $58 billion to make up for lost business.
Unlike in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when fossil fuel-heavy and otherwise polluting industries received a major share of the bailout money, today green investment options are plentiful. Renewable energy is cheaper than coal almost everywhere in the world, and increasingly competitive with gas. High-speed trains, electric vehicle chargers, and fiber-optic infrastructure should also be on governments’ minds.
“These are projects that create jobs, attract investment and will lead to economies that are much more efficient and less polluting,” Mountford says…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/green-projects-could-pull-economies-out-of-the-coronavirus-slump
10
Fintan Slye is a laugh!
19 Mar: Reuters: UPDATE 1-UK’s National Grid says it can keep the lights on during coronavirus crisis
by Nina Chestney
“We have well-developed procedures in place to manage the effects of a pandemic and have analysed anticipated effects on electricity supply and demand of mass self-isolation of the UK’s workforce,” the grid operator said…
Demand across the country is expected to reduce due to a drop in energy use from industrial consumers, which is likely to be greater than the increase in domestic demand as people stay at home, National Grid said.
“Please continue to use energy as you usually would …boil that kettle, tune in to your favourite TV show and enjoy a hot shower,” National Grid electricity system operator director Fintan Slye said in a statement.
Phil Hart, director of energy and power at Cranfield University, said offices closing will reduce power use significantly, as air conditioning, lighting and support systems are switched off…
https://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL8N2BB7H4
10
18 Mar: ReginaLeaderPost: Reuters: Coronavirus pushes EU carbon permits to lowest since summer 2018
by Nina Chestney and Susanna Twidale
LONDON — The benchmark European Union carbon permit price touched its lowest since summer 2018 on Wednesday as the spreading coronavirus was expected to shrink emissions from industry and aviation…
The EU 2020 carbon price touched 15.05 euros a tonne on Wednesday, the lowest since June 2018. At 1254 GMT, it was trading at 15.44 euros, down 15.7% from the previous settlement.
In a sign of dropping demand, European energy bourse EEX canceled an auction of 3.1 million European carbon permits on Tuesday because the total volume of bids was insufficient.
Some traders feared a UK auction of 5.7 million permits on Wednesday morning might fail, but it settled at 16.11 euros a tonne. That was lower than other recent auction results over 20 euros.
“Although the auction cleared it (the price) was low. We are in the midst of a sell-off,” a trader said…
https://leaderpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/coronavirus-pushes-eu-carbon-permits-to-lowest-since-summer-2018/wcm/2df76d03-1969-4321-9929-0170e903b2b0/
10
19 Mar: Guardian: Cop26: Boris Johnson urged to resist calls to postpone climate talks
Expert says early cancellation due to coronavirus would damage hopes of progress
by Fiona Harvey
Nicholas Stern, one of the most prominent global experts on the climate crisis, has urged Boris Johnson to resist calls to postpone vital UN climate talks this year, despite the coronavirus outbreak.
Ministers and officials have privately discussed the possibility of postponing the Cop26 talks scheduled for Glasgow this November, but no decision has yet been taken. Travel bans and the shutdown imposed in many countries because of the virus have resulted in cancelled meetings and officials working remotely.
Lord Stern believes any move to postpone the talks would put paid to any hope of making real progress. “At the moment we must just get on with the preparation,” he said. “This is such an urgent challenge and there is so much to do, and so much valuable work that is being done, that we can’t afford to lose the momentum.”…
Yvo de Boer, a former chief of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who led talks in Copenhagen in 2009 that ended in acrimony, said it was vital to keep working towards a November Cop26. “If it is going to be cancelled, that should only be done at the last possible minute – in October,” he said.
One former high-ranking official who helped put together the Paris agreement said: “Cancelling now might look like the UK was grasping too soon for a way out of an important meeting.”
Some NGOs and developing country experts also view talk of postponement as counterproductive. Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa and a close observer of the talks for many years, said: “We would rather not see it cancelled until we know more about the spread of the virus. Cancelling it immediately might mean action on climate change gets ignored this year and people on the frontlines in poorer countries can’t afford that.”
Janine Felson, the deputy chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said: “We cannot afford to lose any momentum. We should all focus our energies on ensuring that we can support each other through this trying time and continue to push for ambition.”
But some experts contacted by the Guardian believe postponing the talks would provide more time for diplomacy. John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, has written to Alok Sharma, the business secretary and president of Cop26, urging him to delay…
“Postponement is very different to cancellation. It would be the same president, the same venue, the same two countries co-hosting, so all you are doing is having a slight delay. The UK got off to a slow start [in launching its strategy for hosting Cop26] so postponement would give more time for the work that is needed.”…
***One key issue is that the US presidential election is due to take place a week before Cop26 begins. Donald Trump is strongly opposed to the Paris agreement and his withdrawal from it will take effect the day after the election. A new president, if there is one, could be more amenable to climate action but would not take office until January, so a postponement could allow the US to participate.
Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute in the US, said: “One distinct advantage of delay until spring 2021 is the growing prospect that US voters will turn Trump’s climate nihilism out of office in favour of Joe Biden’s robust climate ambition, infusing global negotiations with far greater importance and momentum.”
Some pre-Cop meetings are already in doubt. The UNFCCC has cancelled all meetings for the next month but a decision will have to be taken soon on an intermediate meeting set for Bonn in June. Italy is due to co-host Cop26 with the UK but its plans have been thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/cop26-boris-johnson-urged-resist-calls-postpone-climate-talks-coronavirus
10
18 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Coronavirus enters Liberia after observer returns from Green Climate Fund meeting
The GCF’s board meeting was held in Switzerland after some members objected to hold the session online, one delegate said
By Chloé Farand
An observer to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has become the first reported case of coronavirus in Liberia, after attending the fund’s board meeting in Switzerland last week.
The meeting was moved from the GCF headquarters in Songdo, South Korea, to the Swiss city of Geneva at a time when South Korea had become one of the world’s hotspots for the virus…
The news comes after some board members raised concerns about holding the meeting physically in Geneva, where at the time 40 cases of coronavirus, or Covid-19, had then been reported, rather than online.
Attendance to the meeting, when board members discussed a new strategic plan for the next four years, was restricted with each board member and alternate member only able to be accompanied by one advisor…
In an address to the country on Monday, Liberian president George Weah confirmed the coronavirus case and identified the observer as the executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency…
During the GCF meeting, French board member Cyril Rousseau said “some board members objected” to proposals to hold the meeting online. “That was technically feasible,” he said, adding holding a physical meeting was “the wrong decision”.
“I am puzzled. I think there is some irresponsibility there… We are at risk of introducing the virus in countries where that can put some strain on their health systems,” he said…
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-enters-liberia-observer-returns-green-climate-fund-meeting/
20
18 Mar: EurActiv: Green Deal facing delays due to coronavirus, EU admits
By Frédéric Simon
The European Commission is having to re-order its priorities in the face of the coronavirus crisis, with “non-essential” initiatives like the biodiversity strategy and the farm-to-fork strategy likely to be delayed by several weeks, EURACTIV understands.
Officially, the show must go on. But in private, officials admit that Brussels is having to review its priorities in order to throw all its weight behind the ongoing fight against the coronavirus crisis…
To be sure, teleworking hardly speeds up the Commission’s internal processes. On Monday, the executive’s internal servers reportedly broke down as thousands of officials tried connecting simultaneously to the Commission servers, EURACTIV has learned…
Commission staff aren’t working at full speed as a consequence. And their leaders aren’t either, due to teleworking constraints or to the coronavirus itself.
Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of the Green Deal, put himself on self-imposed quarantine until 20 March, after attending a meeting with French secretary of state for ecological transition, Brune Poirson, who tested positive with COVID-19.
Although Loonela said Timmermans “is in a good state of health” and “does not have any symptoms,” his self-isolation won’t speed up any Green Deal-related initiatives…
Austria’s Federal Minister for Climate Action, Leonore Gewessler, rejected calls by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš who said the EU Green Deal should be scrapped in order to focus on the coronavirus.
“I do not agree with Andrej Babiš,” Gewessler said. Although she insisted that the corona crisis must be overcome “now,” she said politicians had a responsibility to offer a long-term perspective to their citizens.
“Climate change is an existential threat which can be tackled with an economic program, the Green New Deal,” Gewessler told EURACTIV.
“This strategic programme defines how we can invest together with businesses and re-structure, modernise our economies. This will trigger an enormous boost for innovation. As a European, I am convinced that this is the right way forward and that we should pursue it,” she added.
“We need to start planning already now” for the post-coronavirus economic stimulus, she continued, saying that “the old growth model fuelled by fossil energy is a thing of the past”…
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/green-deal-facing-delays-due-to-coronavirus-eu-admits/
10
18 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Coronavirus slows developing nations’ plans to step up climate action in 2020
‘We are entering into unknown territory’ – coronavirus delays developing nations’ ability to design new climate plans before Cop26 summit in November in Glasgow
By Chloé Farand
“We are entering into unknown territory,” Jahan Chowdhury, in-country engagement director for the NDC Partnership, which supports about 75 countries design and deliver their climate plans, told Climate Home News.
“I am not sure if countries are going to be submitting their NDCs in 2020,” he added.
Chowdhury said the NDC process usually required about three large in-country meetings with a broad range of national stakeholders and five smaller, more focused, meetings. Some, but not all, meetings could be moved online.
“We will not be able to replace 100% of these meetings,” he said, adding that the whole-society approach advocated by the NDC Partnership was more difficult to implement…
Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), which supports about 20 countries formulate more ambitious NDCs this year, said “consultations with governments are one after the other coming to a halt”…
Among least developed countries, some are in the midst of developing new NDCs, but others have not begun “as they are still looking for funding to undertake the process,” said Anna Schulz, of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), who specialises in supporting vulnerable countries in the climate negotiations.
“The virus could also delay the start of their NDC development if it impacts the capacity of partner organisations and funders to release funding,” she warned…
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-slows-developing-nations-plans-step-climate-action-2020/
10
18 Mar: Axios: The environmental impact of China’s coronavirus shutdown
by Ben Geman
Driving the news: A Rhodium Group analysis (LINK) shows China’s emissions grew by another 2.6% last year…
What’s next: Analysts are keeping their eyes peeled for signs of what the Chinese government’s economic stimulus measures will look like.
A “property and construction-heavy” package could increase cement and steel production, Rhodium finds. That scenario increases the economy’s carbon intensity — that is, emissions per unit of economic output — as coal’s market share rises for a time.
“If stimulus resources are directed towards non-fossil sources of energy production, the opposite could occur. What does this all mean? Essentially, it’s just too soon to tell,” they conclude…
A separate new analysis (LINK) of China’s energy sector and economy by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies similarly finds: “[T]he focus on COVID-19 has slowed progress on other policy priorities including environmental policies and liberalisation, and a strong fossil-fuel heavy stimulus would further delay them.”
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-china-carbon-emissions-3453d9a1-1ae9-4789-8a41-3ed257946dbd.html
10
hilarious:
18 Mar: ColumbiaJournalismReview: On the Side of Facts
By Michael Specter
(Michael Specter has been a New Yorker staff writer since 1998, focusing on science and public health. He is an adjunct professor of bioengineering at Stanford University)
One day in 1990, a friend of mine asked if I would have lunch with Al Gore, who was then the junior senator from Tennessee. Gore was writing his first book, Earth in the Balance, which, when it was published, in 1992, would warn of an impending crisis of global warming. (The term “climate change” was less commonly used in newspapers in those days.) Gore had told my friend that he wanted to talk about the gravity of the subject and make a pitch for more coverage.
At the time, I was a science reporter at the Washington Post…
For years, many excellent writers have covered the subject exhaustively, fairly, and with insight. But there has been little significant progress…
A few years ago, toward the end of his editorship of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger tackled the question of how to persuade readers to care about climate change, writing that “journalism has so far failed to animate the public to exert sufficient pressure on politics through reporting and analysis.” One could argue that fairness and accuracy have never been enough to get the job done. Which raises a question: Since we are plunging rapidly toward the abyss, is activism, rather than journalism, the way to make the strongest case?
Maybe, but journalists should do their job and focus on helping the public see and understand the world in front of them…
How bad will things get before we take action, as a society, to mitigate climate change? It will get worse—perhaps much worse. One day, though, I believe, the public will value facts again.
So let’s not abandon our principles at this dreadful, crucial moment. Gore, for his part, never told me to do that. His argument, which he made clear in the ***wholly fact-based 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, was that the truth would eventually help rescue the world…
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/on-side-of-facts.php
10
19 Mar: France24: Coronavirus emergency spending ‘is two years of climate financing’, says climatologist Jean Jouzel
by Mairead DUNDAS
French climatologist Jean Jouzel says the swift global reaction to the coronavirus crisis may bode well for the climate as well: It shows that in a real emergency, nations have the means – and the will – to act. “It is just as urgent to tackle the climate problem,” he says.
With factories shuttered, airlines grounded and streets cleared in the wake of the coronavirus, there’s been a notable reduction in our need for energy from coal and other fossil fuels, both in China and beyond…
Dundas: A lot has been done in just a few days to fight this virus. Should we be doing the same for the climate?
Jouzel: As a climatologist, what I see happening today represents hope: €45 billion has just been earmarked as economic aid for companies. To achieve the climate transition in France, it is estimated that an additional €20 billion would have to be injected each year. Imagine: What we are doing for the virus is two years of climate financing. We need to devote as much money towards the climate. We do not have this money, we are creating debt. That is precisely what we are proposing with the Climate-Finance Pact with [economist and climate activist] Pierre Larrouturou. Increasing the deficit can be one way of doing things, and this is exactly the approach adopted for the current health crisis…READ ON
https://www.france24.com/en/20200319-coronavirus-emergency-spending-is-two-years-of-climate-financing-says-climatologist-jean-jouzel
10
The world shuts down because of a Flu like virus and many more businesses crash than deaths….? What ever happened to common sense? The resources we have been given are to be used and enjoyed responsibly. All the crap about global warming when global pollution stares us in the face in poorer communities is the real issue…. wait… Australia is not a poorer nation is it? you bet! we cannot even keep manage our waste properly! As far as medicine and science is concerned vaccines NEVER cured any disease. sanitation, clean water and proper food has. Do your own research here and stop following the white priests who pretend to be scientists. I haven’t read all the posts but what happened to nutritional medicine? It became alternate medicine and pharmacia (greek – sorcery) is mainstream? Yahuwah help us please!
01
follow-up to comment #33:
19 Mar: ModernGhana: Liberia takes immediate steps to curb coronavirus spread
By Darlington Porkpa in Monrovia – RFI
The first sufferer has been identified as Nathaniel Blama, the 46-year-old head of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, who returned to the country last Friday after attending a (Green Climate Fund) conference in Europe.
Rigorous health controls had been in place at all entry points until this case slipped through, breaching protocols set up by health and airport authorities, according to Information Minister, Eugene Lenn Nagbe.
“This is a sad day for Liberia. We have been doing everything possible to prevent the virus from entering our country. The health authorities have been working very hard, long hours, long nights, yet this unfortunate incident occurred,” he said.
A domestic worker in Blama’s home was identified as the second case.
“You guys have done enough damage by misinforming the public that I refused quarantine. That’s not true and that’s not fair,” he said in the podcast.
However, President George Weah issued a statement a few minutes after Blama’s podcast, suspending him for an indefinite amount of time as head of the country’s Environmental Protection Agency…
Liberia is still reeling from the ravages of the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed over four thousand people, including healthcare workers.
Contract tracing, a lesson learned from Ebola
Ebola also exposed the fragility of the country’s healthcare system, Liberia’s Chief Medical officer, Dr Francis N. Kateh, has said, indicating that a vigorous contact tracing exercise has been put in place…
Blama returned to Liberia on a Brussels Airlines flight, said Kateh, adding that the airline had provided the passenger list to help the government with contact tracing.
“About 127 passengers were on the flight and 23 are categorised as high risk,” said…
“We have decided to keep all five primary contacts under special quarantine observation and will re-administer another round of tests in seven days,” (Dr. Mosoka P. Fallah, acting head of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia) said…
https://www.modernghana.com/news/990237/liberia-takes-immediate-steps-to-curb-coronavirus.html
00
19 Mar: Belfast Telegraph: COP26 may be delayed due to Covid-19, Raab warns
The Foreign Secretary said there is no ‘cast-iron guarantee’ climate change talks will go ahead in Glasgow in November.
By Gavin Cordon, Press Association
International climate change talks in Glasgow may have to be delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned.
Mr Raab said the Government had not given up hope that it could still host the COP26 summit in November as planned, but warned that it would be a “challenge”.
“I can’t give you a cast-iron guarantee, things are moving so quickly,” he told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Obviously it is not until November. We will keep it under close review. We would of course want it to go ahead but I can’t give you any guarantee on that.”…
His comments came as the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, disclosed that he had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus…
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/cop26-may-be-delayed-due-to-covid-19-raab-warns-39058151.html
10