By Jo Nova
There’s nothing like a few belligerent trade spats, and miscreant dragged anchors to ruin a brand’s reputation
After six separate incidents of underwater cables being sabotaged in the Baltic Sea, the German Defense Ministry is wondering if it is wise to buy Chinese wind turbines with all their electronic parts. A new report commissioned for the department not only suggests the government should restrict new turbines, it advises them to call a halt to an existing project.
Hypothetically, China might remotely shut down wind turbines at a key moment, creating crazy price spikes, and industrial havoc (although wind turbines seem quite good at that on their own). But seriously, if wind turbines got a bit more random, or a bit less efficient, would anyone know for sure? And if a market player had that information in advance, they could make out like a bandit — bidding at the right moment, and collecting on all the price spikes. It would be just another way to bleed a country, raise electricity prices, and reduce it’s competitiveness. (But good for business back home, eh? )
Oddly, the Defense analysts seem to worry more that China might delay projects on purpose, which sounds like an act of kindness to me. But if the electricity managers had already blown up the coal plants, then it might leave a vulnerable gigawatt gap.
Some thing has to charge the big batteries and pumped hydro, after all or they won’t be there for the dinner time peak. Likewise with the EVs.
But they were also concerned China could harvest data from hundreds of radars, and be able to spy on military training sites.
Part of the danger also comes from the access that manufacturers get to turbines, according to the study. Beijing’s suppliers would have access to computer programs that control active turbines and collect data from hundreds of radars built into farms, it states — a significant issue given that wind produced a third of Germany’s electricity last year and a fifth of the EU’s power.
In sum, the report argues, that would hand China “considerable blackmail potential in the future.”
The report warns that the “first time use of Chinese wind turbines must be prevented” on “public safety” grounds, since it risks creating a reliance on Beijing’s expertise and giving it access to “essential elements of German critical infrastructure” near militarily relevant training areas.
The Defence team also suspect the Chinese projects are being subsidized by China to beat out European competitors. It’s almost a case of China-would-be-crazy if they weren’t. The more renewables they supply, the more incapacitated and deindustrialized Europe gets, and the easier it is for the rest of China’s factories to drive competitors out of business.
Think of renewables as loss-leaders for a whole civilization.
Says the country that embraced being blackmailed over the Nordstream pipeline.
Wow, I’m so impressed with these guys. The ones promising to back Ukraine,
and other fantasies.
341
Remember “Lend Lease?”
That’s when the FDR administration decided to help out the Brits in WWII with National Socialist Germany with a bunch of WWI destroyers – like 50 or so. The Brits actually paid us back.
I have a similar idea. We will lend-lease Donald Trump to Australia for 90 days on the condition that when he lops off your bureaucracies and crooked politicians that you go along with it.
We’ll do it free so long as I get a lifetime gift card to “Outback Steakhouse.”
180
I wonder whether our Defence Dept. is listening/watching.
‘UpGrade Albo’ and Blackout Bowen would not have a clue.
Heads in the Sand stuff.
360
They are all asleep at the wheel and/or don’t care.
Our Department of Defence weren’t even aware of Chinese live firing exercises off the coast of Sydney until it was reported by a commercial pilot. And the Admiral couldn’t say if there was a Chinese submarine in the area. Back in the day, P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft would drop Australian-made sonobuoys to try to detect enemy subs.
330
Since we import about 90% of our refined liquid oil, this incident should be most concerning and a wake-up call to defence chiefs.
150
Seems like one of our enemies is Climate Change.
Defence Net Zero Strategy and Future Energy Strategy released
45
Amazing isn’t it. Not a single sentence without a complete and utter falsehood.
Somebody got paid to write that entire paragraph and more.
230
Sort of like the FBI assuring people that Jeffrey Epstein was safe in a suicide watched jail cell.
Do we not need strong accountability for those senior enough to be involved with national and top domestic security, so they know they will end up in their own suicide watch cell when they tell porkies? Geoff S
70
I was hoping, vainly I suspect, that the lack of ‘commitment’ shown by our so-called military heads, was just a way of play their cards close to their chest, perhaps they have some capability they want to keep secret.
The media and publics’ right to know may have to take second place in these uncertain times.
60
Any civilian can watch shipping movements on a website, and yes I know the warships probably switched their identification off.
Pine Gap Base in the Northern Territory is the eyes and ears of US and Australian intelligence and communications monitoring Asia Pacific Region and beyond using US satellites and other systems.
Jindalee Over The Horizon Radar operated by the RAAF from several locations also monitors the region.
I do not know what games the Albanese Labor Government are playing but claiming no knowledge is nonsense, the ships sailed through the very narrow Torres Straight between mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea and that is monitored.
A few years ago when Chinese warships visited Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson) the media claim was that they arrived without prior notice, that was also untrue, and noting that all ships entering Sydney Harbour must request permission and be allocated a shipping pilot guide to berth.
120
Dennis,
I think you’ll find that the ADF was well aware of the movements of the PRC Taskforce’s movements.
That’s why the RAAF has a dozen P-8A Poseidon aircraft on constant patrol over our coastline. The media on this issue has been nothing short of appalling – as usual.
50
Sun Tzu says: look strong where you are weak and look weak where you are strong. China sent its ships round Australia to test us. We knew they were there, so we pretended we didn’t see them to make us look weak. The Chinese knew that we did that, so they weren’t fooled. Which means there wasn’t much point in us doing that, unless we knew the Chinese knew so we looked weak to make the Chinese work out that we were actually strong, thus concealing the fact that we were weak.
50
I’ve been warning that toxic W & S are disasters waiting to happen and as an addition they destroy the environment and have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years. What don’t they understand?
And they only generate for 3.6-(W ) months and 1.8-(S) months every year so why would any sane country choose these unreliable toxic junk heaps in the first place?
Why would competent engineers even consider this lunacy at all?
491
Of course the mad Labor, Greens and Teals alliance can’t wait to WASTE TRILLIONs of $ on this nonsense and wreck our economy and security.
So why do people still want to vote for these clueless fools according to some of the polls?
370
“Why would competent engineers even consider this lunacy at all?”
Jobs.
Pensions.
Prestige.
And bragging rights at the local watering hole.
Human, just like the rest of us.
Auto
170
If they had morals and professional standards , they would speak out against this insanity.
It’s no different to participating in the building of a bridge or aircraft etc. with a known structural defect and remaining silent.
People also die from energy starvation and economic collapse caused by lack of energy.
330
How many geologists speak up about Climate Change at Woodside?
21
How would you (we) ever know?
If the media is complicit in ensuring those who speak get no coverage, how would you (we) ever know?
Then, of course, there’s the welded-on Marxists, lefties, greenies and teals. The foot-soldiers, who do as they’re ordered.
50
“Why would competent engineers even consider this lunacy at all?”
They are probably graduates from the School of Environmental Engineering, just as geologists these days are an inconsequential sideline in the Schools of Environmental Science.
130
Traitors more like.
80
Auto, good observation re. human nature. Or is it why “cancel Culture” is so effective?
40
“What don’t they understand?”
They understand, the just dont care. That will be someone else problem, on of those great “renewables” jobs they tout.
“….so why would any sane country choose these unreliable toxic junk heaps in the first place?”
Most have so its probably a mix of being on trend, virtue signallimg, assorted grift and corruption and basic stupdity in the political class regarding anything numeric (outside of their bank accounts, super and parliamentary benefits)
Why would competent engineers even consider this lunacy at all?⁴
Well stated by others above
70
” German military report finds that Chinese wind turbines are a blackmail and security risk.”
Surely Australia would have looked into this ??, wouldn’t we.
240
Nope. Look how many of our politicians are Chicomm loyalists.
210
Albo banned Tik Tok being used on government issued devices last year, so he probably thinks he has already done enough on dealing with Chinese tech threats.
90
The speed with which he report was written suggests to me that Germany was looking for an out and “blackmail” was the best and quickest they could come up with! The CCP cares not they have already sucked the commercial life out of Europe and are now concentrating on Australia the land of Bucking Bowens
90
15 years into Energiewende and the military finally wakes. I guess our military will read about this eventually and pump out a report in 15 years or so.
60
Waking up from a deep slumber is always difficult especially if it happens with a pretty dream. The West is waking up very slowly and the pretty dream is just that, a dream. The dream that man can control the weather when we can’t even predict what it will do. We can only be bystanders to crashing waves, howling winds and sunny days. We can only watch in awe as a mountain explodes and causes rain for the next three years. Meanwhile, ignorant pygmies like Bowen believe a few windmills will control the majesty of nature. he and his advisors are nuts but they are making us poorer with their ridiculous policies. Gradually reality is making a comeback. Hopefully the slumber is over.
340
Germany in Siemens led the world in wind turbines and in partnerships in China. No one knows more. The should be able to control this, better than any other country. But Germany can have its own agenda. As can France. Europe is a work in progress, not a country. At least Britain is no longer a world power. Woke Climate Change Britain no longer makes raw steel.
350
But Sir Starmer is going to save the world!
Does he know that for every MW output [er … nameplate only!] a Wind Energy Subsidy Catcher needs about 120 tonnes of steel?
Good, reliable steel.
Ideally, virgin steel, not scrap of unknown origin, melted down.
Possibly he does …
Auto
250
The history of Albanese, Bandt and Starmer is as communist acolytes. Russia is now the enemy they have rejected communism and trying to rebuild a capitalist society. It’s been 33 years since 1992 but you would not know it from the foreign press. Consider that no one has a bad word to say about Communist China. On the front of the Australian today Putin is a ‘murderous dictator’ but not ‘President Xi’. As if Tienamin Square did not happen. Or the concentration camps and organ harvesting of the Uigurs. Nothing to see here. No investigative reporters. It’s as if the Uighurs did not exist.
Except now even the Germans are also getting worried. One broken submarine cable could be an accident if you squint hard. ‘Forgetting’ to lift the anchor chain and dragging it along the bottom of the Baltic for a great distance. Oops? Really, what ship’s captain would notice that? But doing it four times is starting to look like intentional. Not just why, but why now?
Windmills are just the start of Chinese infiltration of their future enemies infrastructure. Everything, from water to sewage to electricity to gas is controlled by electronics and software. And the ability of countries to fight back is being destroyed. Not least by taking control of the Port of Darwin or both ends of the Panama canal. Or fortified islands in the Phillipine sea. Or trying to buy Chagos island in the Indian ocean, grabbing the US airforce base with UK’s Starmer fully in favor of handing it over until Trump objected. Or all the windmills and power distribution world wide. And hoping no one notices. And if they do, just laugh it off.
China says Australia was just being precious, childish objecting to the Chinese navy performing live fire drills off the coast of Australia and New Zealand or sailing through the Timor strait. Without explanation or warming. And dropping flares twenty metres in front of Australian surveillance aircraft. It looks like China is preparing for war with now 500 warships. And warning everyone to stay out of it or face invasion.
290
My guess is that the Chinese cruise around the north, east and south of our continent was a reconnaissance in force, surveying the edge of the continental shelf and locating our cables to the north, north east and east, of course so they can ensure their flag of convenience ships can avoid dropping anchor on them.
130
The ALP and Greens have been doing all they can to destroy Australia ever since Hawke left office. Bringing in lots of “dodgy immigrants” to undermine society, dividing us by race, empowering activists, stifling national projects, taking irrigation water for environmental flows, ruining the grid, running down defence, encouraging welfare dependency and on it goes. They are making us weaker by the day.
200
Hopefully, Donald Trump’s aggressive treatment of Volodimir Zelensky was done with the ultimate objective that Russia is on our side when the shooting starts. And it will. China is clearly gearing up for it.
50
He is an Ex-Environmental mental Lawyer. Need I say more?
50
Actually Two Tier Free Gear Never Here No Idea Kier was a human rights lawyer leeching off the ‘international law’ gravy train.
50
Whoops and thanks for that.
00
Germany is nuts buying wind turbines from China. They should be using the wind turbines already installed in Germany to make their own wind turbines – if they could. But that would require making something from nothing because wind turbines are energy sinks. They will never be able to produce more energy than they consume in a closed system. The whole illusion of “renewable” energy is maintained by China burning 55% of the world’s annual coal consumption.
340
I’m a total cynic these days. This story is a beat up to bolster the importance of wind power. It creates the illusion that wind power is essential for the German economy, so it’s worth protecting. There was a time when I think you could at least trust defence or military types in terms of policy. But even these once dependable people have gone woke.
290
You are on the money Ross. Is it possible they only accidentally get out some truth while they are trying to achieve another lie? I could believe that.
I was wondering if this report was really written to justify a ban on Chinese wind manufacturers so the German wind industry could survive.
Can’t be too cynical…
190
It’s just another European exercise in applying non-tariff trade barriers.
After all, they could never be seen to be taking a leaf out of President Trump’s book, could they?
Their socialist comrades wouldn’t stand for it.
50
It’s a fair bet that virtually all utility infrastructure and even consumer goods and Apps from China like TikTok have backdoors built into them for spying or remote control or shut down.
Recognising the problem, TRUMP banned the import of certain Chinese electrical utility equipment in his first term but Biden reversed the ban.
https://www.powertransformernews.com/2021/04/23/us-department-of-energy-reverses-trump-ban-on-chinese-electrical-equipment/
TRUMP took action against TikTok in his first term as well.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/
If these backdoors are hard coded into chips it’s difficult if not impossible to detect them.
250
In Melbournistan in 2021 I saw workers installing a new fixed speed/revenue camera. I noticed the specific camera as it was still in its box. It was a network connected camera with artificial intelligence to recognise both people and vehicle registration numbers.
The brand of camera is Hikvision and governments have banned their use in Australia and the USA as they are capable, and probably do, form a spying network for the Chicomms. See link.
The specific camera was possibly this one:
https://www.hikvision.com/en/products/IP-Products/Network-Cameras/Ultra-Series-SmartIP-/ds-2cd3056g2-is/
The article referring to them being banned is at:
https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/banned-hikvision-cameras-surface-in-australia-as-ezviz/
I wrote to my state “representative” but he didn’t care less and told me to take it elsewhere, even though he was in the opposition fake conservative Liberal Party and could have made political capital out of it.
380
The Chinese are copying what the USA has already done … remember the Crypto-AG scandal?
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/intel/cia/rubicon.htm
20
Missed this one – thanks – bookmarked for a deeper read at a better time.
At a scan, they are all in there – Motorola, Siemens.
And gems like the guy who was trying to fix broken algorithms for clients: Frutiger wanted the best for his customers and would always try to fix a weak or broken algorithm if he deemed it necessary. It caused CIA to find him disloyal.
20
Here’s the most difficult question to answer…..how does a country recover from a severe wind and solar deficiency?
We only have a combined W & S CF of about 23%, so what happens when we have combined days of low or no wind and very cloudy weather at the same time?
The batteries would be flat in a few hours and how would we recover? What comes first, would we charge the flat batteries first or would we try to power the grid?
So why would we even consider using unreliable toxic disasters like W & S and at a cost of TRILLIONs of $?
250
Well Neville, in theory Snowy 2 might provide battery backup assuming
That it is actually built.
That the upper dam is full and assuming that a good deal of water isn’t flushed out to sea via The Snowy River “resurrection” or other “environmental” scheme dreamt up by politicians, or assuming we have used lots of water to boost agriculture (the original scheme which seems to have been forgotten) and assuming that we have enough rain before any unexpected emergency.
The chances are that the upper dam will be short in which case we will wonder why we ever decided (or our clueless politicians and bureaucrats decided) to rely on variable electricity sources.
160
I think SH2 will be a continued drain on the economy for an indefinite period and will likely never be finished or if it is, it won’t work as planned. And both factions of the Uniparty remain fanatically committed to it. The fake conservative Liberal Party Uniparty faction won’t cancel it either as it was their stupid idea in the first place, as has been much of the destruction of Australia’s energy supply, starting with Howard.
210
Graeme,
That upper lake is currently used for recreational fishing and boating. That’s all going out the window now.
Imagine sitting in a boat on the lake as it drains down. And then, when it’s near empty and the mud on the banks starts to rot in the sun, what then. Dead fish, deprived of oxygen, (due to the rot). Recreation gone, pristine lake views all gone. And this is inside a national park. What would they do in private land? Windmills? One per farm, whether you like it or not and don’t forget the power lines. All above ground, visible for miles.
You have to love green things. Ugly, barely working and always against the public needs.
270
Never fear, good neighbours, little old No Zullin will save your dingoes from Blackout Bowen:
https://taslink.co.nz/
A “2-3GW HVDC submarine extending 2,600km across the Tasman Sea” is proposed to provide you fellas with our excess hydro-generated electricity while, in theory, your excess lunchtime solar buzz can power our afternoon rush-hour traffic & evening meal… or sumpfink™️.
Reciprocation is the name of the game yes? Then once Canberra hooks-up with Singapore (via another ‘submarine’) bingo! we can run the whole world! Or ruin it. Taslink’s illustration has cities with glowing lights in Fiordland, along the length of the Southern Alps and in back-block places where even farmers fear to tread: a future ‘so bright’ no one can see the stars anymore.
NB. I have no monetary interest in this venture.
180
The current longest power cable is around 750km long. It would be amazing, (probably not currently possible), to see a power cable at 2,600km.
I think they’ll route it along the mermaid lanes to avoid congestion with the migrating kraken.
170
Here are a few
https://www.power-technology.com/features/featurethe-worlds-longest-power-transmission-lines-4167964/
20
Now aim for the underwater part. NZ doesn’t have a bridge yet. But Albo will promise it if re-elected.
10
These sort of stupid ideas are spawned from other stupid ideas such as the fantasy Sun Cable between Australia and Singapore at 4300km.
It makes a “mere” 2600km seem reasonable and possible.
150
90
They exist already in that range
11
The longest underwater electrical cable is 765km long and runs between Lincolnshire, UK and Jutland, Denmark.
30
Backdoors in Chinese equipment have been reported since at least 2012 and probably much earlier.
It’s likely that virtually all electronic equipment used in the West, government, commercial or consumer has a Chinese backdoor built into it. Even standalone chips purchased for incorporation into equipment manufactured in the West.
160
You don’t need anything more elaborate that a kill switch.
The issue is how to trigger it. You can’t rely on a message encoded in the power grid, (like the older off peak water heaters), any switchmode or regulated power supply between the chip and the grid would render that inoperable.
Maybe wifi, but that could be blocked by a well tuned firewall for any critical infrastructure.
Radio, it would be possible but you would need to have a very small antenna, (within the chip die), this would mean a very high frequency or a very powerful transmitter. Both would be a very big problem for anyone to implement remotely, even the lightest walls appreciably attenuate most very high/GHz frequencies.
So maybe the impacted chips will be the accessible ones, like switches and routers. These are exposed to the internet and can be identified in advance of an attack, primed ready to assure the highest impact. Beyond them, you have GPS receivers, radio decoders and similar but these are often of limited impact. A defective phone chip is prime for hacking but it’s not really going to end the western world.
Maybe it’ll be the little things that knock us over. Like an EM pulse above the city. Hardly covert but likely very effective. Maybe if the bad guys were to float one over your city on a large weather balloon….. now where have we seen one of them before?
100
It’s not just a matter of pulling the plug on a suspected compromised item. The idea is that these things are continuously spying, sending out information, disguised in other packets of data. Very hard to spot. Plus, pulling the plug will be too late if they decide to pull the plug on you first and shut down most of your economy. Plus even isolated items can be set up on a timer to be acted upon at a preset time for some hostile action. There are also numerous other methods of attack.
70
Maybe they could use the Israeli disabling system, a small smear of something that goes “bang” designed so a very small amount of power can activate it cheap as well
40
David Maddison, #13,
____Not so sure it’s just Chinese, and perhaps Israeli made stuff that has back door management built in.
12
Noted the international cast of players up to and including *$tuXneT* … where everybody’s spying on everyone else while children throw rocks at each other over the fence and shout rude names.
It’s all fun & games til someone gets hurt.
Whatever happened to ‘saving the planet’?
/s
60
Paul S,
The worry for Australia is this. The Israeli security people devised and executed a very cunning plan with those exploding pagers. It worked. Did our security people suddenly wake up and say Heck, we need to work very fast on measures and countermeasures to combat analogues of this type of attack with backdoors?
Or are their collective minds still in nembutal mode?
Geoff S
50
I once worked as a contractor in an organisation that cared about such things. They didnt care who you were or what assurances were given unless you provided source. That included the 5 eyes partners.
40
“It’s likely that virtually all electronic equipment used in the West, government, commercial or consumer has a Chinese backdoor built into it. Even standalone chips purchased for incorporation into equipment manufactured in the West.”.
You seem to be making the utterly absurd suggestion that there might be one item of Chinese electronic equipment somewhere in the western world that is not spying for China.
30
Here Dr Michael Kelly tries to wake up the UK about their so called net ZERO fantasy.
And he’s a Physicist, Engineer and Royal Society member, but he has joined the sceptic’s GWPF as well.
This was recorded a week ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWn4bWr5IH4&t=67s
50
Michael Kelly also, working with others, showed that the figures used by the climate alarmists for the effect of methane on the climate was overstated by approx. 7 times. They wrote a paper on their work, it was peer reviewed and published. Then they waited until the next IPCC review, where it was considered and accepted as accurate. The IPCC put this in their last report. But the alarmists (along with most Governments) seem to have ignored this and are still pushing farmers to reduce methane emissions in any way they can, to the detriment of their farming businesses.
160
Sort of like the FBI assuring people that Jeffrey Epstein was safe in a suicide watched jail cell.
Do we not need strong accountability for those senior enough to be involved with national and top domestic security, so they know they will end up in their own suicide watch cell when they tell porkies? Geoff S
60
Those in power, or in charge, have a vested interest in not, themselves, being accountable.
I can’t speak about Australia, but in the UK we have: –
No responsibility – ‘lessons will be learned …’ etc.
But nobody is disciplined, demoted, sacked, stripped of their golden pension, prosecuted, imprisoned, or executed.
A common problem in these isles: –
Child sexual abuse, Rotherham, Rochdale, etc ad nauseum – reporting, prevention, cover-up{?} prosecution; plus predators in public life – Al-Fayed; Saville, Salmond, etc.
Grenfell Tower Fire – flammable cladding [why retrofit? – ahh! Cahbun!]
Post Office Horizon [& other systems??] miscarriage of justice – 700+ lives ruined.
Medical scandals
• Covid; lock-ups [education, and commerce]; Ivermectin and hydrochloroquine; etc., the ‘safe and effective vaccine’
• Maternity – Cumbria, Nottingham, East Kent [Ashford], Lothian, L. Letby, etc.
• Contaminated [US] Bloods
• Surgeons – Paterson, Jabbar, etc.
• Infection cover-up – QEUH, etc.
• Opiate poisoning – Gosport War Memorial Hospital
Veterinary – Foot & Mouth [2001]
Migration – loss of control; glacial processing; treatment of the Windrush generation; concealing numbers.
Energy Security – no pilots, no cost-benefit analysis … blackouts
Insulation – cowboy contractors … damp & mould
Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme [NI]
Claimed ‘killing’ of negative net zero stories
Dithering over SMRs
DESNZ at October 2024, has nobody with a physics background, 1 scientist at the top.
Met. Police – Casey Review; rapist officers; vetting; corruption over decades.
Transport – train fares prosecutions dropped; HS2 corruption [and indolence?]; contracts for road [M’way] upgrades – so slo-o-o-ow; Lower Thames Xing
Water – sewage in rivers; PSBs in Wales; No reservoirs; Watercos ‘unregulated’… huge dividends paid from humungous loans.
Local Government – bankruptcies – Croydon [the Penn report], Thurrock, Woking, Birmingham etc.
Procurement: –
[Almost] Anything thru the MOD – Warrior, TSR2, Aircraft Carriers;
[Almost] Anything through the Public Private Finance Initiative – ongoing costs skyrocket
Scottish Ferries; Glen Sannox + Glen Rosa -trying to reduce emissions – Cahbun!;
Covid – tests, PPE
IT – NHS system[s], Post Office, DHSS, etc.
And many here will, I am sure, be able to suggest additions to an already horrifyingly long list!
Auto
30
So, we can see that it’s not only the fundamentally defective, economically destructive, unreliable and expensive means of generating electricity using windmills that’s bad, the Chinese electronics contained therein, as well as all other Chinese electronics and software, potentially contain a whole additional layer of threats.
And our Uniparty Governments, especially the fanatically woke Sinophile, UN, WEF and WHO compliant ones (and their useful idiot supporters) like Australia’s have no clue and don’t care in any case. And our politicians and ex-politicians and senior public serpents have much to gain. Look how so many go to work for the Chicomms, either as spies while in office or “consultants” after office.
100
Strangely, Australia’s Sinophile Foreign Minister Penny Wrong, did do something which is superficially correct, but one wonders if it was just an exercise in pretending to do something while leaving other compromised electronics in place? And what took the Uniparty Government so long after the problem was known since at least 2018?
Actually, this is about the only thing I’ve noticed that Wrong has ever done right, assuming she really went ahead with it.
80
Dr Will Happer recorded this interview in FEB 2025 and great to see him and his younger Professor colleague continuing his work on honest, factual climate science.
Dr Happer tells us they are lying to us and we know that the developing NON OECD countries agree with him.
https://www.freedom-research.org/p/exclusive-interview-with-prof-william?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
71
Infrastructure cyber security risks?
Who’d have thunk it…
/yawn
Renewables are “effeŕvescent energy” – all bubbly, nice and high demand early on, but soon they go flat and everyone says “nope, don’t want it”.
50
Q. And what do you do?
A. I’m the Shadow cyber security minister.
Tick – tick – tick –
Klaus Schwab’s nickname is ‘Shadow’?
60
While on wind farms.
Britain is paying nearly £180,000 an hour to switch off wind farms due to excess power with no place to store it.
In the first two months of 2025, constraint payments totalled £252m, a 60% rise from £158m last year. This costs £4.3m a day, or £178,000 an hour, paid for by energy bills.
https://youtu.be/U-RT-afYPa8?si=7GkW5HBSZI5kuuU5
90
They must have plenty of money to burn.
That’s why they gave, supposedly as a loan, another $2 billion to Ukraine, and a 100 year partnership agreement. Probably a commitment to a 100 year war. Just like they had in 1337–1453 (which was longer).
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/uk-ukraine-100-year-partnership-agreement/
60
But the Hundred Years’ War was against the French.
And we still expect reparations for 1066 [from the French], as well as 54 BC [from those whose capital is Rome].
That way, Rachel may – perhaps – be able to balance the books!
Auto
40
I wonder what the cost of electricity is with a 100% Coal Fired Power Station Electricity Grid is even with expensive coal sourced from underground British Coal Mines.
A lot cheaper than this Windmill Madness.
Even better with 100% Nuclear I bet.
How to run a Nation – Into the ground.
111
They copied our 2001 Act. You get paid twice. Once for the electricity and again for Green Certificates which the retailer has to buy. It’s in the price of electricity. And illegal. So there is no carbon tax. Just carbon theft.
70
But there is a carbon tax levied against coal burning power stations and the legislation from 2016 is open ended and could be applied to other emissions such as transport fuel.
30
Intermittent ‘n
Inefficient
40
Germany has had a dreadful influence on international military affairs for the past 120 years.
There is no strong reason to even consider more German military reports, let alone believe them.
Geoff S
110
True Geoff, but lets just imagine — even if the Chinese government hasn’t built in remote controls to wind turbines — what happens if they blackmail an Energy Minister with the empty threat. How many energy ministers will know enough to call their bluff? How many will want to discuss the problem transparently? Say Mr Ping says Dear Minister, if you don’t permit Xingshan Co to buy these farms we might make electricity prices higher, create embarrassing blackouts, make you look stupid in election year.
What energy minister who raved about renewables would be able to admit to the public that they might have recklessly allowed a trojan horse to be built at a cost of billions?
In other words, even if China has no back-door control, the blackmail option still works because the system is 1/ foreign built and 2/ Based on lies. The lies we tell ourselves about renewables put us at risk. We lied that these would be cheaper, we lied that the system would work, and we lied that it was necessary.
160
Hi Jo,
Reasons why Australia, if it wanted windmills, should build our own. I am old enough now to have seen a dramatic decline in Australian manufacturing. For example, a few decades ago, my company bought a couple of Australian designed and built N-22 Nomad aircraft for use in Iran. Where are Australian aircraft being built now? Not in Australia. I have a lovely Holden Statesman, 1998, Australian designed and built when General Motors US let Australia be one of only 4 countries do their own GM auto design. No Aussie cars any more.
Just as Trump is shaking up American complacency, Australia needs an immediate deep navel gaze. We are not the fine people we used to be. And I am getting really cheesed off with 20 year olds exhibiting rudeness, talking over me, trying to tell me what to do when a little respect and listening/learning would be nice. Geoff S
110
Mine is Grumpy old bugger, your acronym could be Grumpy evil old fish face; life will end soon enough irrespective of our attitudes to fellow beings.
It’s always a pleasure to read your contributions Geoff.
20
Just as wind power was an idea of the National Socialists, so too was hydrogen.
Today’s socialists are just fulfilling the “dream” (nightmare).
They even use much of the same propaganda claims.
The idea of anthropogenic climate change was also a National Socialist idea:
Note that the proposed 100m diameter windmill mentioned above corresponds to a 2.5MW modern turbine today.
https://www.esig.energy/wiki-main-page/general-electric-2-5-mw-series/
100
Has any nation ever laid the groundwork for invasion/war more comprehensively than our Sino friends , potentially everything they have manufactured and sold to the West, mostly on price alone, could be considered spyware or boobytraps.
They have profited handsomely via the UN from the mad climate scare while ignoring the restrictions imposed on the rest of us.
150
Oh I hope there are cameras hidden in all my Sino built devices. When I dance naked in front of those consumer devices, I just revel in the idea that I’m corrupting and debasing them with every image they steal.
40
When Europe is inevitably taken over by followers of the seventh century warlord, their third attempt after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th to 10th centuries and the Ottomans in the 14th and 15th centuries, but this time they were invited in, none of this will matter.
That’s the real problem Europe faces, not fake “climate change”.
191
Two of the warlords may have already worked on a planetary “Yalta”, behind closed doors of course.
10
Is it safe to type ‘Wuhan’ yet?
https://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/former-virus-epicentre-now-has-more-indoor-snow-centres-than-any-other-city/
Four (4) huge chillers kept at -6C to entertain the 14 million inhabitants of [that city on the river] who love skiing & boarding & making snow-angels … am guessing these YUGE city freezers could be multipurpose and used in case of, um, ah, another widespread mishap?
In other climactic news, real snow keeps falling in fat chunky wads across North America, Europe, right across Russia to their far east, Japan and yes China – the proverbial Snow For Africa! – despite yelps of ‘hottest ever!’ and ‘too hot to snow!’ and ‘glaciers are melting!’.
Somehow I don’t think bird choppers and shiny sun panels power these Wuhan energy-heavy industries. Ya ya, keep zee knees together!
70
I know I’m wasting my time, but can anyone tell me what’s so unprecedented or dangerous about our weather/climate today?
Can anyone actually point out anything that’s unusual or has been unusual since Dr Hansen’s BS performance in Washington DC in 1988?
The list is a long one according to the groupthinkers and lefty extremists so please tell us about the last 37 years and why we’re worse off today.
Is it SLR or Polar Bears or Arctic warming or Antarctic warming or deaths from extreme weather events or deaths from global fires and burns or starvation or even lack of calories or global literacy or a drop in global life expectancy or whatever?
BTW CAT 2 cyclone Alfred could sneak onshore at SE QLD on Thursday evening, just like Cyclones Zoe and Wanda did in 1974 and many inches of rain and flooding etc. Let’s just hope that everyone is safe there on Thursday.
110
I blame social media and mobile phones.
There are now billions of public weather reporters everywhere around the planet. Last century, we would not have heard of 99% of the now reported “extreme weather events”. They’ve always been happening, but we were blissfully ignorant in the past, enjoying a nice hot day on the beach before the southerly busters cooled things off.
130
It annoys me when the weather app on my phone warns of heatwave conditions in emotional terms and where I live is a normal summer day and below 30 deg C.
110
One kind of Cold War was ending, and another beginning.
NASA, NOAA were a propaganda front for the US nuclear arms race.
Dr Hansen reinvented the program as part of the defence against the evil Climate Change Catastrophe and the NIH biowarfare effort managed to scrape in under the same umbrella.
As for what is changing with regards to the world’s weather/Climate, it appears to involve a repeat of activity by the same old natural adversaries of life on Earth.
Periodically perturbations in the motions of the sun, moon and planets upset the General Circulation of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans and the tectonic motions its crustal plates, with a number of consequences.
For instance, the southerly motion of the Aegean Plate has significantly increased over the past few years and appears to be bringing another period of increased earthquake and volcano activity in the Mediterranean.
Increased tectonic plate activity also leads to increased release of CO2 into the oceans and atmosphere.
60
“Dr Hansen’s BS performance in Washington DC in 1988?”
I blame the ‘scientists’ that join the circus.
The three ring performance that is the US Congress.
I guess ‘science’ has become the new priestly class, climb to the top of the pyramid, perform and start tossing hearts down … which is pretty much what they did in Pandemic.
The now moribund rise of the West, depended on a leadership class with a modicum of integrity.
Probably based on a now anachronistic fear of God.
Is it possible to form functional governance without it?
That’s why we are drowning in laws as substitute for personal integrity.
To the point we are moving toward codifying thought crimes.
God likely still gets the last word.
30
Germany has become a very dependent nation. The Donald used to warn them about being energy dependent on Russia (fixed) They are now real energy dependent on USA and France ($ ka ching) wind energy dependent on China (be afraid apparently) and defence dependent on USA as the backbone of NATO(circling the drain)
I guess I could also mention censoring and jailing rheir own people as the political elite cling to power.
They seem to be in a worse position than we are. That takes some doing.
150
Why would Beijing want to shut down wind turbines in Australia when it very effectively uses them indirectly to shut down our use of coal and gas generators, suppress consideration of nuclear power, and encourage proliferation of a vulnerable highly-distributed electricity grid system?
110
Albo Tross says he will consider troops for Ukraine. He’s off his head or an election is on the verge of being called!
50
What’s that “or” thing?
30
One of the problems mentioned by the Germans was the reliance on the Chinese to supply spare parts, if they withhold these then you cant repair your energy generation we are in the same situation. We buy all our junk renewables from China and we sell them things that they can build their weapons of war with but yet we portray them as the image of evil, so which is it are they a trading partner or the country most likely country to bring on the next armageddon? I suspect the former and what we see form the dullards in charge is nothing more than pantomime performed on the worlds stage to impress someone but I am not sure who we are trying to impress just yet.
60
Meanwhile, if the sun shines, negative prices (I still get a bit of a divide by zero error working this one through – like negative interest rates) mean investors in renewables (ie. institutional investors) get jittery about earnings….
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Northwest-Europe-Power-Prices-Plunge-Below-Zero-on-Strong-Solar-Output.html
10
When it comes to China, what if they disable all their battery cars at the same time??
20
China is in the grips of a population crises. It’ll fall apart within the next 10 to 20 years.
10
“the more incapacitated and deindustrialized Europe gets, and the easier it is for the rest of China’s factories to drive competitors out of business.” You’ve got it. There’s a reason China invests so heavily in those universities that are most woke.
30
How many people lived in Florida 100 years ago when a hurricane tore thru or how many people lived in Malibu 100 years ago when a fire tore thru?
Bad News sells. Context doesn’t.
10