Lord Deben, (John Gummer) UK
Australians heard how disappointing we are to Lord Deben, who earns £1,000-a-day as chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). But the Australian-investigative-media didn’t mention that conflict of interest, or that Lord Deben’s private company was caught in 2019 being paid £600,000 from ‘green’ businesses, like windfarms and car battery makers, which he never declared. He says there’s no conflict of interest and that he “complied with disclosure rules”.
So now we know the rules are inadequate.
Australia named climate ‘disappointment’
Canberra Times
Australia has been labelled “a great disappointment to the rest of the world” by the United Kingdom’s climate advisor for clinging to coal-fired power.
Imagine if the ABC introduced every Deben pronunciation with the information that Deben earned money from Green businesses and is paid to head a committee that wouldn’t exist if climate change was natural.
Scott Morrison accused of failing to understand the ‘urgency’ of climate change
The ABC
“What was so disappointing for us is the way it appeared your prime minister really doesn’t understand the urgency of what we have to do,” Lord Deben said.
For a guy heading up the UK Climate Change Committee, you’d think he’d know the beaches on 88% of Pacific Islands are growing, not shrinking.
“Nations around you will disappear beneath the sea because that’s what is going to happen to the South Pacific,” he said.
“As it gets worse for everyone else, people are simply not going to be prepared to trade with countries that don’t meet the same standards.”
There’s a pattern here. Lord Deben was also accused of misleading the UK parliament in 2013. He was chairman of a £500 million dollar water company that he claimed did no energy-related business, but the company’s website boasted that they installed high voltage transmission lines for wind-farms. His daughter was also director in his Sancroft environmental consultancy.
Simon at AustralianClimateMadness explains Sancroft a long time ago:
Lord Deben, formerly John (Selwyn) Gummer, is a climate change evangelist who happens to be chairman of a company (which he formed) to advise other corporates on ‘environmental responsibility’.
But he’s also the chairman of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. So on the one hand he’s driving government policy towards tougher environmental and sustainability requirements, whilst on the other providing advice, at huge cost no doubt, to companies on how to manage those additional requirements. Anyone not able to spot the conflict of interest there?
If only three-million-dollars-a-day was enough taxpayer money to get Australian journalists to do internet searches looking for “Lord Deben, Conflict of Interest”?
So, much the same as Dr. Katharine Hayhoe and ATMOS Research & Consulting.
No conflict with Hayhoe’s evangelism though . .
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The same kind of alarmists are trying to influence policy in the US. There’s this, from the Climate Institute’s web site:
“The Climate Institute has been in a unique position to inform key decision-makers, …”
Of course, as a 501(3)(c) NPO, lobbying would be illegal, the definition of which is
“seek to influence (a politician or public official) on an issue.”
If advocating on behalf of green interests whose agenda is justified with fake science with the sole purpose of subverting capitalism under the guise of equity isn’t lobbying, what is? Many involved with this organization have close ties to both the IPCC and Democratic politics, and their proximity to K street (lobby row) in DC can’t be a coincidence.
Yet another sanctioned conflict of interest, that in this case, is technically illegal.
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And Ross Garnaut, currently pushing a ‘renewable energy zone’ in central west Queensland, of course funded by us taxpayers. As the previous chairman of Sunshot Energy (with his sons, nice touch of nepotism), which evolved to Sunshot Industries in 2020 (still got a son on board), they are ‘supported’ by Zen Energy (https://www.zenenergy.com.au/ ) whose website proudly announces ‘it’s time to reset’. Who’s on Zen Energy’s board? Well, would you know it, dear old Garnaut and son.
Garnaut, who published https://www.rossgarnaut.com.au/reset-restoring-australia-after-the-great-crash-of-2020/. Some people know a sure thing when they get on it.
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That sort of thing makes me want to vomit.
We are not free and SkoMoe stands by and tacitly endorses it.
Australia; the ugly country.
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Deben appears regularly on the BBC. He tells one lie after another (in his role of chair of the “independent” Climate Change Committee).
20
The Climate Change Committee chaired by this wretch was set up to advise the UK government at the time the Climate Change Act 2008 was passed. He has no scientific qualifications.
According to his Wikipedia entry, in 2009 he was part of a parliamentary expenses scandal after claiming £36,000 for gardening over four years as a parliamentary expense. These claims were initially approved by the Parliamentary Fees Office, although claims should only be made on expenses essential to parliamentary duties. He repaid £11,538 for gardening and household bills and donated £11,500 to charity, saying that he was paying above the minimum required. Very decent of him and all this was no barrier to his being made a peer the next year.
There are as many economists as climate scientists on the CCC, but it declines to cost its net-zero policies. Independent experts have done:
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/02/ThreeTrillion-1.pdf
Not surprisingly the CCC is coy about costs. It has misled Parliament:
https://www.thegwpf.com/climate-change-committee-misled-parliament-about-the-cost-of-net-zero/
The CCC even wants Britain to go beyond Net Zero, to atone for starting the Industrial Revolution:
https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Net-Zero-The-UKs-contribution-to-stopping-global-warming.pdf
Earlier this year it grumbled: “The government does not include an explicit ambition on diet change, or reductions in the growth of aviation, and policies for managing travel demand have not been developed to match the funding that has been committed.”
https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Independent-Assessment-of-the-UK-Net-Zero-Strategy-CCC.pdf
That means making them unaffordable. Gummer/Deben added:
“You need to have a very clear and powerful body saying what has to happen, these are the priorities and get on with it. Unless we have that, this whole thing will be policy strong, policy powerful and policy rich but delivery poor.”
https://www.thegwpf.com/only-authoritarian-rule-can-deliver-net-zero-lord-deben-admits/
In a democracy, is he seeking to place himself above parliament?
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It is a bit of stretch to say that the UK is a democracy since although the people vote, they fail to realise they have no power and are just continuing the charade. The ridiculous claim is made that the country voted for then NetZero lunacy because it was in the Tories manifesto in 2019. There was no detail of the costs – much as now – nor any discussion on it and everyone knows that the election was about finally getting out of the EU and that the lying ignorant womanising oaf Johnson was not as bad as the rabid communist Corbyn. The electors don’t actually vote for the office of Prime Minister of course. On top of this, huge numbers of MPs are part of the government in all sorts of petty little roles – and many others are looking at getting government jobs – so they are not going to do their job of holding the government to account which effectively means vast swathes of this country have no functioning MP and are not being represented.
40
Boris Johnson astutely matched Labour spending plans in order to make the 2019 a single-issue election, on Brexit.
You could make the case that any electoral system has democratic deficit; that’s Ken Arrow’s theorem. But Boris got us (I am English) out of the octopus that is the EU with its far greater democratic deficit.
The point of democracy is not to vote for wonderful people. People in politics aren’t wonderful. The point is that they fear being de-elected. Nigel Farage got us Brexit without his parties ever getting a single MP, because the big parties feared losing votes to his party.
So, following tghe Brexit rfeferendum, can we have a referendum about climate change, please? And what should the question be? Now *that* is worth debating.
30
Too much of the UK’s wealth is tied up in peerage and family fortunes. Viscount Ridley is another whose views should be taken with a pinch of salt. Remember that the Chair is a single voice at the table, management decisions are made by the Chief Executive. The rest of the Board look to be a good mix of economists, scientists and engineers.
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From my reading of it, there is no family money here at all. Rather he and his brother, sons of a priest, have been very successful in various ways which have nothing to do with inherited wealth. And they were both appointed Peers, rather than inherited titles. Both the Conservative and Labor parties stack the House of Lords. A few years back the Labor party appointed a fish monger as Lord.
So while I have heard that 95% of England is owned by 5% of Englishmen from the days of the Norman conquest, that is not the case here. However I am not excusing his very profitable forays into highly opportunistic Environmenalism. That is more consistent with the types of people who are commercially very successful rather and who then seek these exalted positions.
The House of Lords is in widespread disrepute with such appointments but the Australian Senate is also a crock and the complete opposite of representative. A Tasmanian senator represents 1/16th as many people as a NSW senator. It is why we have lousy submarines, so they can be made in Adelaide. And why they do not work, because the Greens are anti submarine, anti nuclear, anti weapons and anti just about everything but communism.
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Excellent comment, bar it’s ‘Labour’ in the UK, not Labor.
40
It is also be useful to google Scott Morrison’s conflicts of interest with the coal lobby:
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/22/business-interests-conflicts-dirty-country/
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-05/apo-nid258826.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00827-5
https://theconversation.com/australias-devotion-to-coal-has-come-at-a-huge-cost-we-need-the-government-to-change-course-urgently-140841
https://reneweconomy.com.au/morrison-and-taylor-continue-to-stack-government-bodies-with-fossil-fuel-allies/
https://larutadelclima.org/meet-steve-morrison-australias-coal-loving-prime-minister/
and the list goes on…..
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Not one thing there that points to a financial conflict of interest by PM Morrison.
Keeping a country afloat, and energy safe and secure while prime minister, is not a conflict of interest..
It is a duty.
Coal currently providing 93% of NSW electricity. 90% of Qld, and 88% of Vic (brown coal)
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Clarence.t:
Probably your best comment ever!
This of course is so obvious that we take its importance for granted. We used to be secure and confident that any leader present or future would be fully aware of this duty.
Sadly we cannot be confident any longer.
30
Hardly big time conflicts of interest there Simon. None of them indicate, or even suggest, Morrison is getting rich off appointments. The research into these articles is poor. It’s all about the business knowledge of people being used to guide the policies of energy in Australia, rather than University types with no experience in the real world. Didn’t see any …any….mention of real conflict of interest with Malcolm and his family raking in the dosh based on his policy decisions. And the best of all is the quote…. “ we study whether coverage of the coal mine in the Courier-Mail converges with public sentiment as expressed on Twitter and we track the evolution of public opinion over time. While traditionally public opinion has been studied through surveys, using Twitter data allows us retrospectively to measure the evolution of key—if not necessarily representative—dimensions of public opinion based on a massive dataset.”
That’s the level of understanding that’s represented in these articles. Laughable.
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Nice to see the unreliable and downright mendacious links you refer to Simon. Promoting a form of energy that has served well for over 100 years, to one that can’t stand on its own feet and still represents a squat diddle for huge investment seems the right thing. Deben and many others one could name are along for the ride – all in their financial interests. Save the Planet? ..we’re only in it for the MONEY.
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You’re looking very silly, Simon.
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So Simon….
You don’t see the difference between an Australian leader who deals with and recruits people to inform the government on aspects of the energy…coal… that’s all that’s sustaining the economy and keeping the lights on now…in the interests of preventing the total system collapse that comes from energy scarcity and insecurity…and on the other hand a creature like Deben who builds and sustains very large amounts of personal and family wealth from forcing the UK and the world into spending taxpayers’ money and the population’s personal incomes on building his…Deben’s .. own wealth at the expense of energy…economic…military and health security for millions of people around the world…for whole nations?
Deben has been on Australia’s case at least since 2013 …and it wouldn’t be surprising …so targeted is his vulture-like focus on us…to find he had something to do with Turnbull and his coup.
If I remember correctly…Deben also tried to force deployment of some sort of massive tidal or wave project a few years ago…in which he was invested ….that allegedly would have collected billions for his own family coffers…so the fact that he still seems to be a protected species in the UK after exposure of his vested interests…says a lot about how much we can trust the UK in this dangerous post-truth climate of madness and Fascist hostage-taking and coercion.
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And the biggest conflict of interest are the voters. Without the coal areas of Qld and the miners in WA other parties that offer better representation will take Morrison and Barnaby’s jobs.
Given that fossil fuels powers the nation it would seem stupid not to give them a seat on committee. Especially when the committees are full of renewable parasites who contribute so little to the national energy needs.
10
I think the UK (not to mention Brandon’s US) is a great disappointment to Australia.
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He does not speak for me. I can assure you he is a great disappointment to the UK.
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Must notice the photo, and and once again compliment Gaia’s director of central casting.
I think it induced a past life flashback, when I was brought before the Inquisition.
I’m certain that was one of the guys.
Oz is a nest of heretics.
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His very name induced in me a flashback to writing poetry at school. Bummer, Dumber………….
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Were being tut tutted by wealthy people who have private jets.
Do you think they would be upset if we called them hypocrits?
And this appears to show the stupid in full cry…..EVs everywhere but no way to charge them. The Homer Smpson award….
Or maybe Flop 26 was handing out the next set of instructions….
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/prime-minister-scott-morrison-to-unveil-plan-for-more-electric-vehicles/news-story/a2e8dd7f361b8bd82942e42cd4a1a87b
“Scott Morrison to unveil plan to flood Australia with electric cars
“The Morrison government is poised to unveil its strategy to get 1.7 million electric vehicles on Australian roads by 2030.
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Morrison is a master appeaser and follower….the antithesis of a leader.
He hasn’t got the guts to tell Australians that the intention actually is for most of us to not own cars at all…and for those who do… the absolute nub of the EV/intermittent electricity ‘economy’ is to have those who can afford to buy and run EVs conscripted as an essential part of the desperate attempt to keep the country from sinking without trace as the only country on earth forced by its lily-livered government to be 100% dependent on the weather for its energy…their cars and homes conscripted…virtually appropriated…as the batteries for whatever’s left of the economy.
And for those of us with our petrol-driven cars…a risk premium placed on petroleum will fix that…or just a government shutdown of civilian access to petroleum…for the sake of ‘the planet’ of course.
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He who would defend everything, defends nothing – or so Clausewitz would have it. Morrison will fail because of that. I can’t say what the man really thinks because conviction is one thing most politicians lack. It has a pejorative and it’s called populism. Sad state of affairs.
30
So scomo is following another bill shorten path that lost labor the “unlosable election”.
What the hell is going on? LNP are making sure there is no point of difference between them and labor/greens.
30
Oh dear… Coal turned on again in the UK.. just in time to help power Flop26
https://www.netzerowatch.com/coal-keeps-lights-on-at-cop26-as-low-wind-strikes-again/
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If you think we’re in trouble here in the UK then just watch Germany, where they are winding down nuclear as well as fossil fuels.
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Now you understand why the wealthy have been buying underground bunkers.
Think about it- as the Elite engineers food shortages through covid and no energy through the climate lie, what do you think is going to happen in places like land locked germany? Then add in a sick and worsening population from the vaxes and you have engineered chaos.
And from chaos they will impose totalitarian rule to restore “order” of thier making.
We need another Nuremberg….
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The UK is further down the track. It has shut down coal-fired plants but (unlike Germany) has made it impossible to restart them (except part of Drax). They have discouraged or banned fracking AND exploration for new gas fields as their old ones start being depleted, and reduced gas storage to a minimum (possibly wanting to have space for hydrogen storage) and made it economically unattractive to build new efficient gas plants. They have been steadily shutting down older nuclear and not replacing it with new capacity. Everything was to be wind with gas “peakers” until they forgot to order gas and found the price has shot up.
All remaining coal-fired plants running flat out and the steady chug, chug of diesels keeping the lights on. God help them if the coming winter is a very cold one. Mass deaths would follow.
60
Graeme
The sooner this problem is dealt with the better, and it is likely to take power cuts and resulting problems to make the point to Whitehall/Westminster.
Boris Johnson gazed into the abyss two months ago and quietly made a decision to order a large number of small nuclear reactors from Rolls Royce. No fanfare, because it is a huge U-turn, but it is happening. It will take some years, though.
10
It’s a big trough … but you ain’t getting any.
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I have not seen John Hewson for a while (fortunately), but he has extensive renewable interests. When he goes on the attack against fossil fuels and govt policy which he deems insufficient on climate change no media outlet ever discloses his conflicts of interest. Ditto for a plethora of others, Mac Bank CEO comes to mind with their vast renewables investments.
Its quite sickening that strict disclosures are required in the financial area etc but in climate those on the renewables side are never asked about this or required to disclose their conflicts…
280
Hewson was vocal a few years ago when Wentworth was up for grabs, telling people not to vote for the Liberals. Alex Turnbull was also front and centre.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/turnbulls-son-hails-cheap-renewables-urges-no-vote-for-crazy-liberals-77004/
120
It amuses me that these proponents of” Green Hydrogen” do not consider making a thermonuclear device – a step further if you like in the discussion. I mean it’s all natural, the process of Hydrogen to Helium that gives this rock sustenance should go down well with the bien pensant of our well off suburbs.
80
“As it gets worse for everyone else, people are simply not going to be prepared to trade with countries that don’t meet the same standards.”
Soo UK, Europe ect won’t be trading with China any more…. That’s and interesting turn of events/scar
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The UK can’t supply it’s own food and energy needs right now … so it might be a good idea for them to trade with somebody.
Half the reason for Brexit was to get out from under the thumb of the EU trade regulations and allow the UK to negotiate it’s own treaties … would be kind of pointless if they end up finding no one else good enough to deal with.
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Trade they will. Other than that it’s the dark days of WW2 and survival on Heinz beans. Thanks USA for Heinz English recipe baked beans.
60
Declaration: I do not have any commercial interest but only endorse the product.
50
But GlenM – what about the emissions?
40
As with Europe, I can’t wait to see the whole of UK crippled for about 2 weeks with a huge blackout caused by these pricks & their renewables. That when the 2nd English civil war will start!
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His appalling behaviour has effectively continued uncorrected by the system over there in Britain but they are by no means alone: the USA, Australia and New Zealand are also on the way down the sewer.
When a nominally democratic government fails to serve the people it is finished and somehow, we need to address that reality.
The world is not in a good place at the moment.
310
This current world situation makes me feel like flipping out: a full analysis here,
https://joannenova.com.au/2019/09/weekend-unthreaded-277/#comment-2189282
30
Sorry, that was my attack on Verbalism via sarc
30
Have faith, the climate is changing down a gear and its only a matter of time before this whole sorry business is exposed.
As the world cools over the coming decade we have the opportunity to explain to the electorate that the sun, moon and gas giants are responsible.
210
Yeah but if that happens, all these brainless morons in the electorate will attribute the cooling to the great work everybody is doing to reduce emissions.
30
You can tell the whole electric car thing is a farce when the government has to get involved building refuelling stations, in the good old days, the people making the fuel provided the refuelling stations.
240
Don’t forget the electric car subsidies, anytime the government has to pay you to buy something, you know it’s going to suck.
170
EV subsidies commenced in Australia around 2016/17 when the Turnbull Government allocated $300 million for vehicle leasing firms to encourage fleet operators to use EV.
Once upon a time with free enterprise and free markets consumers made purchasing decisions based on what the market decided was best, and businesses offering products did their own promotional advertising, not governments.
70
Good point, but the fuel companies wanted you to have lots of fuel, whereas the (current) governments want you to have less.
60
I believe that the reasons are many and varied, one of the most important being the potential threat from China and disruption of oil shipping supplies and that when our nation is threatened fuel supplies are essential for Australian Defence Force purposes, personal and business transport using EV (yes I am well aware of the EV issues such as far too high vehicle prices, unsatisfactory range and recharging time inconvenience, etc).
But longer term, possibly a hundred or two hundred years, oil supplies will be unable to keep up with present demand and projected demand based on increasing demand.
However, I have no doubt that right now crony capitalist globalists are anxious to create more wealth for themselves and their business shareholders and have very effectively infiltrated political parties and through them governments to gain influence.
10
It’s the modern way to “contract out” everything. I’m not against contracting per se; I’ve been hired as a contractor in IT for many years, and found it very enjoyable to avoid much of the admin crap. The problem though is businesses and government relinquish their responsibilities to keep tabs on the contracted work to make sure it is on par. When they are not on par they should be terminated ASAP and new contracts formed. That keeps everyone on their toes and the work progresses well to completion, not backwards as is often the case today. The sub contract is an example of that. The government did the right thing but should have done it sooner, or better still not have done the original contract in the first place and went nuclear to begin with. Better still it should also include nuclear weapons but of course that’s a definite no-no given the immaturity and silliness of Australia.
Having said all that, I long for the old days at CSIRO when we had mostly permanents and were all dedicated to their work as a team and enjoyed it so much we all did our jobs very well. That though only lasted a year and the team fell apart once the “prima donnas” got into the act.
70
Like when the late 1800s onwards EV introduction was ended when in the early 1900s Henry Ford released his Model T ICEV that could be driven out of the city carrying spare cans of gasoline/petrol on the running boards alongside, that were easy to refuel in a few minutes and priced competitively lower than EV.
40
If “because of climate change”, the whole continent of Australia is luxuriating in the best conditions for plant growth and agricultural production ON RECORD, thank you La Nina. I guess the benign climate conditions we are experiencing now are classified as extreme, as according to our public broadcasters the ABC and SBS, we should be experiencing drought and bushfires and cyclones, but we aren’t – just the odd thunderstorm as the moist tropical northern air-masses mingle with the cool southern Antarctic escapees that have blanketed the southern half of our continent.
For those who want to be uplifted by the growing conditions currently experienced here, check out Landline on Australian ABC freeview. My only complaint is the cool weather we are experiencing in the south has slowed the growth of my tomato plants!
100
I can’t get my tomatoes going – along with the cucumbers. August has been the only month in 14 that has a higher than average temperature. That by .2 degrees. Then again lots of wheat out west gets hammered by heavy rain. The ABC might get around one day to reporting it.
70
Bjorn Lomborg just put some figures together on the burn area in Australia. Average of the 20th century was around 10% of Australia burned. 21st century that figure drops to 6 % on average. For the year “Australia burned” -2019/20 – it was 3.75% (rounded off to 4%). Stats compiled from historical data and then satellite data appended for last 40 odd years. Yet, if you asked any of those elites at COP26 they would probably parrot that bushfires in Australia are getting worse due to CC, whereas there has been a steady decline.
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AUSTRALIA has had eight mega-droughts over the last 1000 years. The biggest was a 39-year drought between 1174 and 1212 AD during a century of aridity (1102-1212 AD) during the global Medieval warming.
There was a 23-year mega-drought from 1500-1522 AD. It was continent-wide. Tree ring studies in Western Australia covering the period from 1350 AD show many 30-year droughts during the Little Ice Age between 1300 and 1850 AD.PC
Professor Ian Plimer
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During the early 1800s white settlers on land along the Hunter River NSW (the Port of Newcastle is on the Hunter River) were told by Australian Aborigine tribes people about a drought during which the Hunter dried up above the high tide point and the tribes moved to live together in the hills (Great Dividing Range – Barrington Tops) where natural springs continued to flow.
30
The East coast is way overdue for a major drought. The last biggie was 1982. The millennial “drought’ 1997-2012 was just a period of less rainfall not what I would call a drought – certainly not in relative Australian terms. Previous to that, 1967/68, 1944, 1916/17. Like 1982 its when there is virtually no rainfall past Feb up until the following year. There was a virtual total wipeout of all broadacre dryland crop in 1982 on the East coast. Luckily WA had rain and we had wheat to fill export contracts. 1982 is nearly 40 years ago – tick, tick tick.
10
Everyone in the south (Victoria) always plants their home tomatoes way too early. I think its something to do with Sept/October school holidays and the push by the likes of Bunnings etc. You can wait until about now to plant them. As long as they have full sun, nutrients and lots of water they catch up very quickly.
60
Lord Deben and his CCC ; Just looked at the committee members, a bigger bunch of left wing, socialist, climate change advocates you could not wish to find anywhere in the world. I feel sorry for the ordinary everyday working class people of the UK who are supposedly represented by this bunch of ‘independant’ elites. I’m sure that all (13) of them are doing just nicely thank you very much, out of ‘climate change’ via their bussiness connections and university jobs etc. I’ll bet they all live in large comfortable homes with the latest expensive heat pumps and modern insulation in nice parts of the country. And they will get their holidays overseas twice a year, all with business travel. All of this completely at odds with the majority of the working class people for whom life in the future can only get poorer. Glad that I no longer live there.
GeoffW
200
You don’t live in Victoria? I do and am thinking I’d be no worse off in my native land. 🙁
80
This donkey Lord Deben is just another ignorant fool according to Alex Epstein and he knows more about GREEN energy con merchants than most people.
But why do EVs suddenly burst into flames at the most inconvenient times?
And why do they NOW require enormous free space distances even when they are parked in the street?
This includes all types of EVs like buses, cars, bikes etc and you’d be very stupid if you risked charging these TOXIC EV disasters at home in your garage.
Of course these super expensive clueless EVs are a terrible value for money con trick and can burst into flames anywhere.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/11/08/e-vehicle-woes-german-cities-remove-e-buses-from-service-after-bursting-in-flames-fire-hazard/
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Today there is a piece in The Paywallian about travelling all round the country (do you hear that you various power-drunk premiers?) for something like $197! Presumably they are talking about how ‘cheap’ it would be in an EV. I didn’t bother to follow it up.
Firstly, buy your grossly expensive EV (if you are not a member of the plebs on a low pension). Secondly, hope that there are sufficient charging stations.
Thirdly, that the ruddy thing doesn’t go up in flames and bbq you.
150
To add to your comment Annie, that would be after the big tankers carrying diesel fuel refuelled all the generators across the Nullabor, up the west coast , across the top and down through central Australia . And the cost of electricity will be…..?
150
🙂
20
And Victoria has recently signed up for a bunch of electric buses: https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2021/10/05/melbournes-bus-fleet-to-electrify-from-next-year-in-2-3-billion-contract/
No due diligence in the contract acquisition apparently…
30
I’d better forward some interesting links about bbq-ing e-buses to our grandson who uses buses around Melbourne. He might be less keen if those replace the current ones!
20
We all should be disappointed – disappointed that we don’t have any leaders in any level of government who knows the difference between rhetorical nonsense that only allows a nation to self-destruct, and discernment to allow a nation to grow.
120
and also to call people like Lord Deben for what they really are; fools at best and in some cases virtual terrorists at worst who ought to be treated as any terrorist would be treated. If we don’t act that way as a nation then there is no future for us other than a crash and burn scenario to play out to wake everyone up; well almost everyone since there will always be a certain group of people who are so anti-Australia they will do anything to destroy it. Those who don’t actually believe there are such people and that they are not an insignificant force are deluded and in effect aiding and abetting them by ignoring them.
140
Regrettably I heard a snippet of Barking Insane Obama on the radio this morning extolling the Children’s Climate Crusade (CCC) in Glasgow to “gird your loins and keep fighting”. Say what?!
1/. How did he get to Scotland from Martha’s Vineyard? Did he hitch a ride on a Rothschild carbon-fibre multi-million dollar super yacht or did he fly first-class on a private jet running on used fish ‘n’ chip oil?
2/. Is he, in fact, a reincarnated Roman emperor encouraging his slaves to continue the slaughter in the blood bath otherwise known as the Colosseum?
3/. Have the krazy klimate kiddies finally thrown away their synthetic oil-based thermal wear to attire themselves in loin-girding rags and cloth to appease the weather gods? Could be a dangerous life-threatening move knowing the climate, and/or weather, of bonnie wee Scotland in November… brrrrrr!
Hopefully he wasn’t suffering a bout of flatulence as was his VICE-President last week: Let’s go Brandon!
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You can see John Gummer’s contributions in the House of Lords here:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=4154&startDate=2016-11-08&endDate=2021-11-08&type=Spoken&outputType=List&partial=False
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“Climate Change”.
Nice business if you can get it.
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Jo,
He doesn’t get 1000 pounds per day *salary* as Chairman of the CCC. He gets a few tens of thousands pa; the figure you quote is what he gets from his sustainability consultancy. That Daily Mail article is not a model of clarity but it does also say his salary is 40,000pa and it is possible to verify this online from the CCC’s accounts.
If he was cleared of conflict of interest in view of the information in the Daily Mail article then the rules are not fit for purpose.
70
Perhaps Gummer has Mad Cow Disease?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_2913000/2913807.stm
1990: Gummer enlists daughter in BSE fight
The government has again attempted to reassure the public that British beef is safe, despite growing fears over the cattle disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
The Minister of Agriculture, John Gummer, even invited newspapers and camera crews to photograph him trying to feed a beefburger to his four-year-old daughter, Cordelia, at an event in his Suffolk constituency.
Although his daughter refused the burger, he took a large bite himself, saying it was “absolutely delicious”.
100
Wasn’t there a yankee politician who quaffed a flask of agent orange back in Vietnam deforestation days?
20
We all know the drill by now and how the criticism is aimed at small 1% western emitters that are no threat to the global climate, whilst the big emissions of China are excused away. This has never been about the climate, but only ever about wealth redistribution. Obviously his Lordship feels guilty about his own vast wealth and birth title and feels the best cure is to make other working people pay for his sins.
However, on the topic of wealth redistribution, his Lordship needs to be reminded of the old saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The colonial states are living proof of this saying and the system of government, law and order and education are what ultimately determines national and personal wealth. Giving $1 Trillion dollars to a poor country such as Nigeria will do little to lift people from poverty. Corrupt governments keep most of the money for themselves and whatever is given as handouts will only create a larger dependency group that will be exposed when the money dries up. The only fix is to change their broken systems to one that works and there is no determination to undertake that task, so the poverty and corruption will remain.
His Lordship should also be reminded that Australia is a former penal colony and we have many ancestors of convicts still living down here today who would very much like his Lordship to come down and convey his message of hypocrisy face to face.
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https://companycheck.co.uk/director/909819066/LORD-DEBEN-JOHN-SELWYN-GUMMER/summary
About LORD JOHN SELWYN GUMMER
Active Directorships 3
Resigned Directorships 15
Closed Directorships 0
Total Directorships 18
Lord John Selwyn Gummer holds 3 appointments at 3 active companies, has resigned from 15 companies and held 0 appointments at 0 dissolved companies. Their longest current appointment spans 17 years, 9 months and 4 days at CATHOLIC HERALD LIMITED
The combined cash at bank value for all businesses where JOHN holds a current appointment equals £8.1m, a combined total current assets value of £19.2m with a total current liabilities of £15.8m and a total current net worth of £8.5m. Roles associated with Lord John Selwyn Gummer within the recorded businesses include: Director
Director Details
Full Name Lord John Selwyn Gummer
Date of Birth Nov 1939
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Apart from Gummer, I think so many of the Elites are making money at taxpayer expense and with the benefit of anti-free market legislation (and not due to free market entrepreneurial efforts) that it is in the public interest to publish lists of all politicians, public serpents, union bosses and other assorted rent seekers who are in receipt of monies in any form from Big Green.
50
Some form of auditing their wealth on the way in and on the way out would also be helpful in keeping the powers that be in the sunlight.
40
So, we have some upper class twit who criticises Australia for mining and burning a natural product that has given us enormous economic prosperity for at least 70 years and will continue to do so until the near future. He’s one of these people who need to be asked if they know how a plant grows or to how many degrees will the Earth stop warming if we get to the mythical net zero?
90
This is a man who charged building a moat – an actual moat – to parliamentary expenses. If he wasn’t such a crook who should be languishing behind bars for brazen corruption, he should at least be a laughing stock.
80
My mistake, moat-gate wasn’t his doing, but he was forced to repay over £15000 of wrongfully claimed expenses. It’s hard to tell the difference between them sometimes..
60
The UK Daily Telegraph produced a booklet ‘The Complete Expenses File’, which I kept. I have just fished it out, blown off the dust and turned to page 10.
“The taxpayer was billed more than £100 a year to remove moles from John Gummer’s country estate, as part of his claims of more than £9,000 a year for gardening.
Other costs included removing jackdaw nests and tackling insect infestations.
The fees office became concernedthat Mr Gummer, who claimed close to the maximum amount allowed each year, was not producing receipts to justify many of his claims.”
And so on…
There is a somewhat lugubriously expressioned mole in the accompanying photo.
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This Deben fool should spend 5 minutes watching this Michael Shellenberger video and he might begin to WAKE UP.
Michael was a true believer in the Science of so called climate change and promoted S&W energy during the Obama years.
But today he knows that S&W are a LETHAL, TOXIC disaster and Nuclear BASE-LOAD energy is the answer.
Therefore he asks the most important question … “do we have to destroy the EARTH to save it”?
A full transcript is also available at the link.
https://www.prageru.com/video/do-we-have-to-destroy-the-earth-to-save-it
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It is very difficult to convince anybody of anything when their income depends on believing the opposite.
70
Two usage nitpicks:
• It’s sayeth or saith, but not sayth.
• It’s a conflict of interests. Deben has an interest in getting money out of green investments. He has an interest in appearing impartial on the committee. These interests (plural) are in conflict.
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David Stockman is always a good read. His latest article is GreenMageddon and What It Means for You
and
https://internationalman.com/articles/david-stockman-on-greenmageddon-and-what-it-means-for-you/
20
Good morning my dear fellow, It’s Lord Deben here.
Good morning M’lud, how can I help you?
I think you people are ‘diddling’ me.
Oh no, M’Lud, we wouldn’t do that.
Look here, I know that the Nameplate Total for my wind farm is 900MW, and you people are only paying me for 270MW. That sounds like ‘diddling’ to me, eh!
Oh no M’Lud, that’s the average daily output. 30% of Nameplate.
Why is it just my wind farm that is so low.
Oh no, M’Lud, they’re all the same. Just 30%.
Where did it say that in my original portfolio?
M’Lud, it was there in print ….. the number of homes supplied. That’s the standard wording.
WTF!
Tony.
100
Similar to the EV deceptive information that avoids real range and never mentions highway and city driving or the other many energy consumption variable factors like air conditioning, hill climbing, full passenger/luggage load, etc.
And that often used recharge time for 10-80% avoids mentioning discharge below 10% is stopped by the computer management system and that charging more than 80% regularly reduces battery pack effective working life more quickly.
20
There are lots of traps for young players, they’ll find out the hard way.
00
I would say Morrison was in reasonable company when taking some control over the COP26 summary.
He has gone too far pushing for electric vehicles – over 1million by 2030, in Australia with its huge expanses to be covered. He is obviously wavering amidst pressure from the world elitists that cash out on their nations’ economic travails and who see him as a blockhead for not being prepared to cash out for himself while the peons that are the citizens of those nations are forced back to peasantry under the guise of saving their world.
If I was Morrison, now is the time I would demand a worldwide review of the science on climate that is exciting this destruction but brazenly allows for no debate – itself an indication that this is the biggest fraud ever carried out. Surely with the devastation on the Western nations their leaders seek to bring down, there should be absolute certainty on the science.
What is more ridiculous than the USA currently. Biden seems to believe that in shutting down most of the USA’s fossil fuel pipelines and production, he is saving the world from AGW. Problem is, he is demanding overseas suppliers like OPEC and the Russians to increase their output to provide for the USA!!! In other words, the USA continues to use fossil fuels but provided from abroad. He is saving nothing of his CO2 ‘poison’ output. He is simply getting the resources from overseas, at huge expense for the citizens when he was left an export industry in fossil fuels by Trump! He is using the cost of those imports as the means of forcing the cost of living through the roof for his people. It is so sick, but in keeping with everything else he has done.
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Released
30/06/2021
Key statistics
There were 20.1 million registered motor vehicles as at 31 January 2021.
The national fleet increased by 1.7% from 2020 to 2021.
Toyota topped the list of passenger vehicles for the 16th consecutive year with 3.0 million registrations.
Diesel vehicles increased to 26.4% of the national fleet, up from 20.9% in 2016.
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Aussies have spoken. !
10
It goes straight to the character of this little parasite as soon as he opens his mouth.
Then he has the gall to express “disappointment” with those who don’t follow his gross poor form and appalling financial behaviour.
Gummer is another “Monocled Mutineer” who has manipulated his way into an institution which once had at least a few gentlemen in it. Now, we expect these ratbags to turn up even in the Succession, where grasping the money of the citizens is the main game. One senses the disgust of the population when political neutrality is thrown out the throne room; those who once were the backbone are not going to be there when these spineless graspers need rescuing. It may be sooner than expected.
Gone with the wind.
00
If OZ is a disappointment to the leftards, then I’d say we’re on the right track.
20
Australians should carry any criticism by lord Debent as a badge of pride.
30
It is a bit of stretch to say that Gummer ‘earns’ his £1000 a day as CCC Chairman unless you view it from the side of those who will make money from NetZero lunacy. Perhaps they should pay him and not us poor shafted taxpayers.
40
We have so many “Lord Debens” in the U.S. that I would be hard pressed to find time, or column space, to even begin a list. The Clinton’s come to mind as our finest examples, but practically any politician with any influence to sell, or any insider information to trade upon, does so — both mainstream political parties are involved. Look at the fortunes amassed by the Pelosi’s and Biden’s. Read any of Peter Schweitzer’s books. But it is becoming apparent that this rot includes people all through the bureaucracies (CDC and FDA most recently), large corporations (“Tech”), and various NGOs.
If the media could be counted upon to do the job for which they are granted extraordinary rights in the U.S., and governing boards of directors were not captive to those they are sworn to oversee, and elections provided real accountability, the situation could be kept at a low simmer. But those are pretty big “ifs” and the reality is we are headed in a wrong direction.
20
Someone help me out here, check the maths, that sort of thing. BTW, pro-AGW people, don’t bother.
Forests in Australia are roughly 135 million ha. 1 ha sequesters about nine metric ton of CO2 annually. So that equates to about 1.2 billion tons of CO2 sequestered by just our forests, annually. Australia’s total CO2 emissions are about 392 million tons annually. So that should mean that Australia has now surpassed “net zero”.
Forests in the entire world are about 4 billion ha. The total worldwide CO2 emissions are about 35 billion tons annually. So the entire world has surpassed net zero, just using the forests, not grassland, not agriculture, not phytoplankton. What am I missing?
10
Antoine, except that mature forests are carbon neutral. Only growing forests are a carbon sink. This is accepted by everyone everywhere.
My other half, David Evans calculated our Kyoto carbon stores in trees barks, soils, and leaf litter using satellite images down to a 25m x 25m grid resolution across Australia. Most nations don’t care, but for Australia it made a huge difference and we did the calculations very seriously.
Not that anyone in the world has tried to estimate the ocean / lake and water sinks properly. Now there’s a big hole…
40
“Only growing forests are a carbon sink”
The obvious solution is to cut the mature trees for use and replace them with fresh carbon sinks.
Any unused material: leaves, stumps and branches could be dumped in a disused mine covered with dirt to rot for a while.
Eventually there could be a source of natural gas to use.
The ultimate green cycle as the young trees feed of the CO2 produced.
20
So when does a tree stop growing ?
If a tree has leaves on it it must be adsorbing CO2 ( or is there some other process that simulates photosynthesis ? )
I am sure i also read that mature ( full size) trees adsorb much more CO2 than even several “growing” trees . .?
10
One of many links..
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07276
And.. https://scienceline.org/2008/11/ask-konkel-carbon-old-forest/
10
Yeah I don’t think that’s right Jo, all respect of course 🙂 Their CO2 utilisation might decrease because of slower growth, but offset against greater size. And when do they stop growing? Maybe those ideas are perpetuated to limit the impact of forests on the CO2 balance sheet? Viv Forbes was adamant that we had surpassed carbon neutrality.
10
Antoine,
…it is widely accepted that Australia,..and infact the entire SH ….is a “NET CARBON SINK” In the total Carbon Cycle.
However,.. the IPCC are choosey as to how they define “Net Zero” and have sneeked in the critical “Anthropogenic Carbon”. Phrase into their definition, which implies that the “NET balance” theyant to use is the man made emissions offset against the “man made “ sinks ( trees planted, CCS projects, planted crops, etc)
My understanding is that their definition excludes “Natural” sinks such as natural forrests, etc..
However, i noticed at the CO 26 , the DPC (Congo) is to be granted $1.5 bn to preserve its own natural forrest because it adsorbs 1.2bn tons of CO2 annually ?
Why dot we get $1.5bn also ?
20
COP 26 is intellectually challenged. Forests produce only about 30% of Oxygen (following photosynthesis). The real problem is to ensure that phytoplankton (which produces over 60% of the Earth’s Oxygen) is not destroyed by such parameters as ocean pollution. The sooner these COP 26 idiots realise this, the better.
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