JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_September_2018_v6.jpg
With a cool sun, IOD and ENSO neutral, temps automatically fall.
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The headline number is a staggering 0.14C above the 30 year average 1981 to 2010! It was the coolest September in the past decade.
The linked chart shows the average surface temperature predicted by the 54 CMIP3 climate models:
http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/itas_cmip3_ave_mean_sresa1b_0-360E_-90-90N_n_1981:2020_a.png
Those models were forecasting a rise of 0.5C over the 1981-2010 average by 2020.
The average of predicted data does not show any resemblance to the UAH satellite data.
Looking at just CSIRO model output looks a bit closer to UAH:
http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/itas_csiro_mk3_5_sresa1b_0-360E_-90-90N_n_1981:2020_a.png
They must include ENSO and it predicted a modest 0.2C above the 30 year average at the present time. Considering this prediction was produced around 2005 it does bear some resemblance to UAH. It is predicting warming phase to begin again next year.
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In landing at Melbourne Airport on Monday, I was once again struck with the temperature outside, from -60C to 14C to 22C only as we came close to landing. What we measure as the temperature is air very close to the surface and that temperature is incredibly dependent on turbulence. It would be hard enough to predict average temperatures of a huge mass like the atmosphere, but predictions are only concerned with the lowest 10 metres of 20,000 metres. A slight breeze can change that. How can anyone take Global Warming seriously when we are talking about a tiny surface effect?
From a mountaineering site
The perfect day has a gradient of somewhere around –0.5° to –0.6°/100m at lower levels, increasing to –0.8° to –0.9°/100m up higher. Around cloud base the gradient should decrease again, to around –0.4°/100m. ”
So the amount of “Global Warming” corresponds to 0.14° means a change in altitude of 14-25 metres, standing on the second or third floor of a building without airconditioning. So for those terrified by the implication of this massive change, they need to move up the hill a little. They will also be safe from the terrifying sea rise of a few mm.
Much ado about nothing.
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That’s why I live on Mount Dandenong. No warming up here, and there are trees aplenty to tie the boat to.
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You have a boat? Now that’s forward thinking.
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We have two toboggans!
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Do you race them? 🙂
Ancient Saying:
Give the English one of something and they make a pet of it. Give them two, and they promptly race them.
I’m not absolutely sure, but it seems to apply to anywhere the english settled …
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No! One is plastic and only just been retrieved from the local primary school where it had lain forgotten since a school visit to Lake Mountain. The other is purely ornamental now; it is a proper German wooden one with metal runners but verboten at said ski resort…regrettably.
I can’t see why a sharp-edged plastic one should be any more damaging to the idiots who stray into its path than the wooden/metal one….however…
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Any less damaging…oh dear!
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I’m looking forward to snagging a barra or two. The warming ocean should make that possible, yeah?
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‘It is predicting warming phase to begin again next year.’
We could then officially refer to the plateau in temps for the past two decades as a ‘hiatus’.
ENSO behaviour is difficult to predict, do you see a strong El Nino this year or next?
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ENSO
The eastern Pacific is warming up so probability of El Nino conditions is increasing:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf
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The latest from BoM.
‘Oceanic and atmospheric indicators of ENSO are generally neutral. While sub-surface waters have recently warmed, sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean are only slightly above average. Likewise, the Southern Oscillation Index remains weakly negative, and short of El Niño levels.
‘Trade winds have recently been weaker than usual in the western Pacific, and may remain weak in the coming weeks. Weakened trade winds can be a precursor to El Niño development.’
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Thanks el gordo,
If the UAH global temperature gets down to the 0.0 baseline the pause will be re-established but even longer than before.
We could see that within the next 6 months. If that happens the Global Warming Scare will really be in trouble.
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The cold spring in south east Australia is a shock, not what BoM expected, and of course the rain has finally arrived in NSW along a trough line.
Back in the UK the punters reckon its going to be a miserable winter.
‘Bookmaker Coral makes it just 6-4 that we go on to have the coldest winter since records began.
The firm also makes it odds on, at 1-4, that snow falls in the London before the end of November.
Coral’s Harry Aitkenhead said: “We might be enjoying some autumn sunshine now but all the signs are pointing towards a bleak winter with weeks of snow forecast for the Christmas months.
“Our odds suggest there’s a real chance of this winter entering the record books as the coldest.”
The Sun
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Née York Times is after Trump again , this time they claim he has dodged or overclaimed his taxes
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Maybe the desperates do not understand legal tax minimisation accounting.
Or don’t care as long as they continue to make mischief to unsettle the President and sway voters away from him.
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We had the example of the Economics Editor for the ABC Emma Alberici who even after a degree in economics did not understand the difference between turnover and profits. Taxes are only on profits but she effectively demanded a tax on turnover, alleging that corporates were not paying tax.
The same with Gillard’s mining tax, where the companies invested hundreds of billions and Gillard wanted a tax on turnover. This also ignored all the PAYE taxes as in the litany of Labor, workers pay those taxes when in fact the mining companies pay everything, including the taxes. Total tax receipts from mining companies are around $65Billion but according to Labor, miners are not paying any tax. In fact they underpin the government’s finances.
Taxation is always the plaything of the Left of politics. A company has to earn enough profit on turnover to service the loans, pay the massive costs, pay its employees and their taxes and only gets what’s left. Sometimes very little and at the mercy of international markets. Gillard’s worse problem was that the Federal government under the constitution was not allowed to tax mining, an exclusive State right, so it all descended into farce as they tried to define and tax ‘super’ profits. Of course it yielded nothing.
I have read the same tripe about Trump for years. Consider if he passed a sexist comment even standing at the wailing wall in the mens’, he would be recorded by the man next to him as happened. Anything bad which could be said about Trump has already been said. The Clintons however are saints and a model nuclear family and their affairs, their many affairs are pure and honest and beyond question by the press. Huma Abedin is just a friend. It’s all a question of sides, not reality.
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Tax minimisation that works within the rules set by each country is perfectly legal and usually practised by anyone who wants to minimise their tax .
Problem is the Socialist/ Green left want anyone with money to hand it over and share it with those who have nothing , work hard in life and make wise investment choices you will do well in a country like ours but they see that as you oppressing the poor .
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Tax is the responsibility of the taxpayer. Paying too much tax is perfectly legal. If you do, you will be told it is your fault and there will be no compensation. Paying the exact obligation and not a cent more is called minimization. Paying more than that is called something else.
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Had a robo call last Friday , something about being from the ATO and I was being taken to court for incorrect tax assessments over the last 8 years and that’s about when I hung up .
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I have had creative taxation too. A written State demand for more than a million dollars in back taxes, then doubled as I was technically a criminal for avoiding these State taxes. All nonsense as governments try to squeeze taxes from the public by changing the interpretation of the law and then claiming retrospective non compliance. While tax minimization is your obligation, State and Federal taxation public servants can get into quite creative tax maximization, as happened with Paul Hogan. He won but his career was destroyed, labelled an international criminal. Malcolm Turnbull openly keeps his millions in the Carribbean, but no one said anything. There would be layers of companies.
A key problem is that public employees like the near useless ABC have no idea of life outside their publicly funded sheltered workshop where they sit with no specific responsibility to anyone and demand more money.
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Then you get Labor Treasurers like Paul Keating and Frank Crean who could not do their own tax returns.
The worst in my lifetime is the RET where the government forces your electricity supplier to pay complete strangers and bills you for it, without making it clear this is happening. This is against every principle of Westminster democracy, the forced enrichment of third parties on order of the King. For this you do not even get to own the windmills. Nothing is Free about wind power and they do not even have to compete, as they get paid whether they sell their electricity or not.
Utter ripoff. Liberal party legalized theft approved by all parties in our Federal parliament.
This was created by public servants to fund windmills off budget without having to pay for them. The same with Labor’s NBN attempt to control all communication by government order, cutting the copper wires to force you to use their NBN, the prelude to centralized government censorship and big brother, as in China.
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The Left will do anything to stop Trump, but the Left seem to be evil and insane, like the wests version of political “suicide bombers”.
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This is almost litigation territory, they could and should have worded the headline different .
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-03/donald-trump-reportedly-helped-parents-evade-millions-in-taxes/10332648
Notice that after copying the link they have added “reportedly” .
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Covering up: ignore constitutional law, implement UN agendas using treaties, and sneak in a law to protect those responsible;
http://concit.org/bastards-why-the-government-wants-foreign-interference-legislation/
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Is this the article that prompted our politicians to enact foreign interference legislation?
That protects politicians who allow foreign (UN) interference ignoring the Australian Constitution?
http://concit.org/treachery-how-socialists-stole-australia-from-the-people/
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“Hidden in the current Foreign Interference legislation before Parliament is additional legislation that should be of concern to all Australians. It changes Treason offences against our Country. It seeks to change the definition of treachery and “modernise it”. Politicians that undermine the Constitution of the Commonwealth by using illegal lawmaking will no longer able to be prosecuted by law after it is passed. The Attorney’s General Department is simply using Foreign Interference to rush this “modernised” treachery legislation through our Parliament.
According to the Department of Attorney General website under TREASON TREACHERY and OFFENCES against the GOVERNMENT new changes are being proposed to existing legislation.
“The existing offence of treason in the Criminal Code does not refer to modern international terminology relating to armed conflict. Existing offences for treachery and offences designed to protect the security and defence of the Commonwealth under Part II of the Crimes Act are archaic and outdated. Although rarely used, these offences are a critical part of Commonwealth criminal law and are being updated to appropriately reflect the modern Australian context.””
“
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For those interested in the fake honey saga, it deepens, with 1 in 5 local honeys found to be mislabelled or adulterated in a new report done by an Aussie lab. TAS, VIC and NSW honeys were the worst.
The kicker for me was:
“But as you know there is something in the order of about ten times the amount of Manuka honey sold as there is produced.”
Wow.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/fake-honey-scandal-widens-to-australian-sourced-brands/ar-BBNPRRw?ocid=spartandhp
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The plot thickens.
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Someone’s going to cop it sweet.
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A very sticky situation!
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Its a bee version of fractional banking…..
The Buzzsters are in control!!
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Honey, I faked it.
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I always wanted to get snared by a honey trap. Sadly, I’m not important enough..
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I started looking at the Manuka honey from the perspective of topical application. Offspring is of an age to be was having issues with zits.
Anyway, in WA at the time you ran into interstate import / quarantine issues. Turned out easier to go the locally produced Jarrah honey. You can get that having been analysed, its got a “rating” number for medicinal activity much like the Manuka. Its the same family of plants as the Leptospermum manuka is derived from.
And whatever, i know people have different opinions on the taste, there are some honey i really dont like. But i find Jarrah honey is really good flavor and texture wise. Lasts a loooong time on the shelf as well.
Be intersting to see if there is further testing of WA honey done?? Apparently they haven found adulteration yet, but cant imagine it absolutley doesnt happen here.
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I thought WA had a form of Manuka honey that tested as good as the Kiwi stuff Phil ?
All may not be as reported anyway , some Honey is much higher in natural sugar content than others such as Leatherwood and Citrus , this is known and virtually all honey collected has a code that shows sugar content and they’re not saying if the code was matched against the samples .
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robert, i’d say thats broadly correct, but Manuka / Jarrah isn’t stictly and apples with apples comparison.
Manuka comes from 1 species of leptopspermum (tea tree). I think its an introduced weed inn NZ. W.A has numerous different species of leptopspermum and i think there are upwards of 80 Australia wide. “Jellybush” is i think the common name for thee species in the Eastern States that has been the focus of medicinal honey. They are, like Eucalyptus from the Myrtaceae family.
Seems like Jarrah honey is the focus of testing and commercial development in W.A. We have extensive Jarrah forests. There are established protocols for assessment and a rating scheme for activity, but its a bit different than for Manuka. Kiwis are very bolshie about comparisons as they have put so much effort into developing the “Manuka” brand so Australians have to avoid legal issues with that.
Overall seems to me the that the best medicinal honeys are derived from Myrtacae. Australia,, and W.A. have a high diversity of Myrtaceae species so are a very good place to do screening and testing in this context. 🙂
references:
http://www.jarrahhoneyinfo.com/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-03/wa-jarrah-marri-honey-gives-manuka-a-run-for-its-money/9211874
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Yep, long long ago, probably pre-dating human occupation of NZ. It’s been here so long, it’s accepted as a `native’ tree/shrub/plant. Like some of the birds, it could easily have been blown over the Tasman Sea by a good storm. It’s seeds aren’t large.
Although, I wouldn’t quite call it a weed. It’s usually first off the block in terms of regrowth on any previously cleared land. It forms ideal nursery scrub for many other trees such as rimu, kahikatea, totara, puriri, because it’s not fussy about environment, and seems to range from swampy to dry, with a preference for the poorer soils (it’s Australian heritage).
The NZ manuka honey was/is delicious and it was a favourite of mine. Interestingly, it’s always been difficult to acquire: in my youth, it wasn’t as popular as red clover honey but I was able to stay stocked up on it to feed my honey addiction. 🙂
Then some brainless academic claimed health/healing properties and its price went through the roof and into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) where it remains. I don’t want to afford it while its price is where it is. I could always get a beehive or three or four and grow/make my own, but I can’t; diabetes 2 has killed (cured?) my honey addiction where that academic failed, darn it.
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Hmmm read a bit further into that ABC link. Dind’t know this.
“WA has what is thought to be the world’s oldest continuous queen bee breeding program on Rottnest Island which could be crucial if Australia has to survive a future incursion of varroa mite.
The program began in 1980 when the Department of Agriculture started 20 new breeding lines because quarantine restrictions meant local bee keepers could no longer import queens from the eastern states.”
“Rottnest is 16 kilometres from the mainland, which is too far for bees to fly so the isolation guarantees the genetic integrity of the program.
The queens bred on the holiday island are famed for their calm temperament and ability to produce bees which yield up to double the global average of honey per hive.
According to Mr Fleay, who is one of the Rottnest breeders, the island could be crucial for the survival of the industry if there is a verroa mite incursion.”
Which also ties into the long term sustainability of pollination services, which i would argue is waaaaaaaaaay more important to agriculture than honey. Lots of scary stuff happening in the world as regards insect survival in agricultural areas where bees and other insects that have always been around and pollinating crops are for whatever reason in decline. The Rottnest thing is something worth serious $.
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Interesting about Rottnest. Thanks.
People not involved in or close to agriculture and esp. horticulture (orchards etc), have no idea of just how important the humble bee is for its pollinating services.
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Kangaroo Is bee keepers make the same claim.
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Manuka is a NZ native plant..so all Aus Manuka honey must be ‘fake’ SARC.
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Not fake. Manuka — Leptospermum scoparium — is also native to Victoria and Tasmania, so we can justifiably claim Ozzie Manuka honey.
The species is variable but most Oz forms have white flowers rather than the red flowered NZ form. The antibiotic activity of various provenances is also variable, similar to the different strains of Melaleuca alternifolia used for tea tree oil, some of which were found to be completely useless medicinally after they were established in plantations.
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No, definitely not fake Manuka. NZ Manuka flowers are predominantly white. They can have a pink-ish centre but my text* suggests this is more common in Northland (North of Auckland) Must be something in the soil, sand or clay up there 🙂 although it says “scattered elsewhere.” Frustratingly, it doesn’t mention its antecedence as SE Victoria and Tasmania which another of my texts does, (and I can’t lay my hands on that one right now. Grrr.) It’s common throughout NZ, from North Cape to Stewart Island.
(I won’t be looking for that other text for a while, I’ve got Ben Davidson’s 2nd ed of “The Weatherman’s Guide to the Sun” to read over the rest of this week.) 🙂
* DAWSON John, LUCAS Rob [2012]: “A Field Guide to New Zealand’s Native Trees” Craig Potton Publishing, ISBN 978 1 877517 82 2
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I saw a “choice” report on medicinal benefits of honey ..Manuka etc..
Conclusion was that Manuka had no superior beneficial effects that other pure honey product did not also posess. Not worth the extra price.
Also i believe honey is one of few natural food products that has an infinite shelf life !
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Chad
Choice may have been unknowingly testing the dodgy fake Manuka rather that the real McCoy, given what we now know about fake honey on the market.
Pre-scandal, there was another government lab that has been testing real manuka honeys for their bio-active qualities and ranking them. I don’t have the results, but there were large differences in antibiotic activity and some were definitely worth the cash.
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Thanks for that info Sophocles. My NZ knowledge was scant.
My goto text on the subject (Wrigley J.W., Fagg M. [1993]: “Bottlebrushes, Paperbarks & Tea Trees and all other plants in the Leptospermum alliance”, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0 207 16867 9), lists 14 wild varieties of L. Scoparium in VIC and TAS. Additional are the umpteen garden cultivars bred in NZ, Ireland and the US. Those red flowered cultivars are bred from red NZ sports. It is a highly variable species.
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I’ve seen a program on Manuka honey and it’s anti bacterial properties and believe it’s even used in hospitals , nursing homes etc for difficult to heal wounds .
There is a pure strain of bees on Kangaroo island as well Phil .
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The garden cultivars are probably not regarded as `natives’ even here in NZ. :-).
I know next to nothing about them except that they exist. I have seen one with deep crimson flowers, rather pretty.
Manuka is a wood of choice for home/non-commercial smoking of fish and game-meats, esp smoked venison. Absolutely Delicious! It makes excellent firewood and is the first wood to look for when needing to make a camp fire in difficult (wet) conditions.
The wood is also sometimes used for tool handles, a job it is supposed to handle well, but I have no experience with that.
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and lets not even talk about lamingtons and pavlovas
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What a good idea!
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Methane, culling animals, what is behind this UN IPCC agenda?
Fabian Society socialists founded in England late 1800s Eugenics …
https://moderneugenicsblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/global-warming-eugenics-and-the-fabians/
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Culling people will be next.
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It’s already started.
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Turning off the heating will do that. The young, old and sick will be the first to go.
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I had in mind Australia’s high youth suis rate.
Our society doesn’t give them much of an example to follow; there isn’t a lot to look forward to.
They are opting out in distressing numbers.
We need leadership.
KK
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Collateral damage and quite acceptable if your a lefty nutcase Tdef.
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To Dennis @ # 5
Methane is only about 1ppmv (1000ppbv), yes, 1 part per million, so the UN coprocephalics are using it purely as a scary piece of propaganda. It’s in far too small a volume to have any humanly measurable effect. But not many people will actually know that, and that’s what they are relying on when they say:
“You must be rid of it!”
The fact there is a roughly constant amount of animal protein on planet earth, usually concentrated in herbivores, seems to have escaped their knowledge: If they could have lived 67MYA, they would have hunted the titanosaurs and T-Rex to extinction if the DK (Dinosaur Killer) bolide hadn’t done it first. The methane emissions back then would have to have been heard to be believed …
And, according to one NASA scientist, methane is behind Noctilucent Cloud (NC) formation: methane gas getting up to the edge of the thermosphere (the transport mechanism wasn’t explained, interestingly enough but methane was clearly blamed) where it is oxidised by ozone to form the ice for the NCs. So it can’t hang around down here for long, if it’s way up there being useful! Of course it couldn’t possibly be “ice from water comets and slushballs the size of houses” entering the top of the atmosphere as it has always done over the last four and a half billion years. Oh, no, it had to be something much more exotic than that.
It’s Advanced Idiocy in the same vein as declaring glyphosate a human carcinogen without any reasonable evidence, and ditto for DDT. Anything the human species finds actually useful, is anathema to the prats.
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❶①❶①❶①❶①
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This is what Global Warming looks like.
Warning – may cause nightmares.
https://agree-to-disagree.com/this-is-what-global-warming-looks-like
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Sheldon, nice diagrams , but you need better data sources .!
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theirABC “Big Ideas”. debate begins with CAGW-infested-invested Shell (Cecile Wake), giving the impression of fairness in the debate!
WAKE: There is no doubt that the world must transition away from its dependence on fossil fuels, towards a low-carbon energy future. the question is not so much whether, but how, how soon, blah blah.
Paul Barclay: Outcome of debate?
before debate. audience – 61% disagreed that it’s too soon to ditch fossil fuels;
by the end of the debate. audience – that number had increased to 77% who believe in immediate transition to renewable energy.
next Big Ideas: Trump – fake news.
AUDIO: 53min57sec: 2 Oct: ABC Big Ideas: Paul Barclay: Is it too soon to ditch fossil fuels?
After a decade of debate and seven prime ministers later, we still don’t have a sustained and consistent policy on energy and carbon emissions.
Scientists , meanwhile , want urgent action.
So how much time have we got?
Can we take years or decades to move away from fossil fuels or do we need to move immediately to renewable energy?
Recorded 28 August 2018 The IQ Squared Debate Sydney Town Hall.
Speakers:
Cecile Wake, Shell Australia Vice President Commercial
Josh Manuatu, Federal President Young Liberals
Ketan Joshi, Science communicator
Lisa Cox, Environment reporter Guardian AU
Simon Longstaff, moderator Executive Director ***Ethics Centre
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/is-it-too-soon-to-ditch-fossil-fules/10328184
***SOMETHING WE CAN NO DOUBT LOOK FORWARD TO ON ABC ‘BIG IDEAS’ IN THE WEEKS TO COME:
Ethics Centre: IQ2 Debate: Capitalism is destroying us
23 October 2018
Universal basic income is being seriously considered as one solution and trialled around the world…
Capitalism is criticised for being woefully unsustainable. Its pursuit of profits and accumulation of private ownership continues to bring massive environmental degradation and unstoppable levels consumerism that further pollute an Earth that is well past its tipping point…
FOR
Alan Schwartz AO is an investor with 30 years’ experience in the not-for-profit and community sector. He is the president of Philanthropy Australia, the managing director of Trawalla Group and the founder and funder of the Universal Commons Project. Alan says capitalism’s focus on financial profit is overlooking other things of value for human happiness, like the environment.
Kween G is a Sydney based hip hop artist and radio producer. Her accolades include two New York Festival awards, and Marrickville’s Young Citizen of the Year. Kween says capitalism is “profit over people”. She thinks our never ending consumption and pursuit of financial growth is destroying culture and the environment.
AGAINST
James Bartholomew is a London based author and columnist with The Spectator who coined the term “virtue signaling”.
James says capitalism has been the best economic system for human flourishing and points to the horrors of communism as a comparative example.
Eugenie Joseph is an economist from the Centre for Independent Studies. She specializes in regulation and taxation, with experience in both the private and public sector. Eugenie says capitalism has been instrumental in eradicating worldwide poverty rates and blaming it for existing inequality is not only unfair, but untrue.
http://www.ethics.org.au/events/event-details/iq2-debate-capitalism
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bit more background re the people on the “renewables” “Big Ideas” program:
Guardian: Lisa Cox is Guardian Australia’s environment reporter. She is a former political and environment reporter for Fairfax Media.
Guardian: Ketan Joshi
Ketan Joshi is a freelance communications consultant for the renewable energy industry. Previous clients include government, NGO and media. He blogs on renewable and climate issues here (LINK)
ARTICLES INCLUDE:
Commentators who don’t understand the grid should butt out of the battery debate…
For a horrible glimpse into Australia’s dark future, look to Trump’s view on coal…
Australia’s most effective pseudoscience: climate denial.
LinkedIn: Ketan Joshi: Current: CSIRO’s Data61
Previous:
Consultancy, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) May 2016 – April 2017
Infigen Energy, 6 years 1 month
Education: University of Sydney
(LINK) Humanity has what it takes to decarbonise quickly – Ketan Joshi
On the 28th of August, I took part in an ‘Intelligence Squared‘ debate held by The Ethics Centre, around the topic ‘It’s too soon to end fossil fuels’…
Below is a shortened version of the speech I gave, annotated with links and pics from the night. Read the full thing here (LINK), and, enjoy!
(excerpt) There is already broad public support for a rapid transition, with the latest Lowy Institute poll finding that 84% of Australians support a government focus on renewables, even if that means more investment in infrastructure, and nearly 60% support immediate action that involves significant costs. This was 36% in 2012. We’re seeing fingers of sunlight through the black fog…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/humanity-has-what-takes-decarbonise-quickly-ketan-joshi?articleId=6440865834117275648#comments-6440865834117275648&trk=prof-post
Ethics Centre’s Simon Longstaff is very concerned about Brett Kavanaugh; not so interested in the veracity of Dr. Ford, whose name appears nowhere on his main Twitter page!
TWEETS: Simon Longstaff
25 Sept:
There is a growing number of people who recall the youthful Brett Kavanaugh being a heavy drinker. Perhaps he has no recollection of the things he did while inebriated. If his friendship group were similarly ‘plastered’ then they, too, might have no memory of what occurred…
The fact that the Judge may not be able to recall his conduct in no way excuses whatever he may have done. The Senate Judiciary Committee must judge the nominee on his character and conduct – not his memory…
That is why it is essential that an independent and disinterested investigating body – like the FBI – be called in to establish the facts #auspol #KavanaughConfirmation @ethics_centre
https://twitter.com/SimonLongstaff/status/1044503752516886528
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Who let the 23% in the room? Of course the world will run on windmills and electric cars. Jet aircraft will have very big rubber bands, sustainably farmed.
How many Folk singers does it take to change a light bulb? Four – one to change it and three to sing about how much they missed the old one.
Same group.
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Big rubber bands will require many rubber plantations, good biz for the Brits.
What scares me is that they are trying to make flying cars..someone must have thought the Jetsons were real, think of the potential accidents…
30
Notice the pattern of prep schools-like St. Paul Prep School in Concord, New Hampshire where the cost for a year is $55,000. Around the world some spoiled elites have certain ingrained attitudes of being above the law, and this does include the matter of rape. See
http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/10/rapist-owen-labrie-very-good-liar.html
Similar also is the “highly privileged” mode of any number of elites worldwide–KGB, Chinese Communists, not a few financiers, pharmaceuticals who claim legal immunity from prosecution. Money and power concentrated in elite clubs of privilege often cause trouble, e.g.,
http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/10/gru-col-chepiga-led-covert-operation-to.html
The list is very long, but the pattern of high-priced lawyers representing such privileged types is common.
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1700 US law professor advise Senate on Kabvanaugh:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/opinion/kavanaugh-law-professors-letter.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
00
As this is a free topic forum – Syria keeps getting more an more interesting. The russians have S-300 ( and S-400 ) hypersonic missiles the americans cant hit. As a result, if you own and S-300, you own the airspace, all the way out off the coast and to any ship that strays into range. The Russians also have Scalar tech, and EMI jamming tech, and the jamming tech shut down an american ship with Ageis missile system in the Black Sea recently, rendering it useless while the russian pilots buzzed it and could have blown it out of the water if they’d wanted to.
Now picture what the strait of Hormuz might look like if when the Iran sanctions really kick in on Nov 4th and the Americans decide to take on Russians and Iranians armed with S-300 missiles.
I’m not making any predictions, the Communist smearing of Kavvanagh in the USA and the recent govt mess here is a distraction – the real story is Syria, and if it goes sour, we may have a world conflict on our hands…..
40
This is in response of the downing of a Russian aircraft, possibly by Israel but other reports say it was Syria by accident. The Israelis will no doubt have to modify their tactics to accommodate the Russian anti-aircraft missiles, if they can. They probably want to test their new F-35 stealth bombers from the US to see if they can penetrate Syrian airspace without detection. It will be useful information for both Russia and the US. Such war games though can be risky for obvious reasons.
30
ABC reporting an incident between US and Chinese warship in the disputed zone , ABC say they came within metres of each other but metres to a Journalist could mean a thousand .
30
I’m very sceptical about this for a number of reasons.
1. Why would the Russian telegraph the possession of such a weapon?
The natural response from the USA would be to develop the counter-measure should one not already exist.
2. The USA effectively has not commented on it, other than confirming that the Ruskies flew close to the USS Donald Cook. Why would it? If the USA has a counter-measure why tell the world it has such a device?
3. The Ruskies are pushing the story which is good propaganda and consistent with V Putin’s earlier exposure of the Russian’s Electronic Warfare superiority. However it fails the Sun Tzu test:
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
Nope. Even if it happened, it’s meaningless.
20
don’t mess with the Clintons and thir enablers, the FakeNewsMSM:
1 Oct: Breitbart: Disgraced Reporter Ryan Lizza Stalks Devin Nunes’ Parents in Iowa
by Kristina Wong
Democrats and left-wing media have demonized House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) for exposing the Clinton campaign’s role in funding the salacious and unverified “pee dossier” against President Donald Trump, and they are now trying to go after his parents too.
Esquire.com published the latest Nunes hit piece on Sunday evening, which involved reporter Ryan Lizza going to Sibley, Iowa, to stalk Devin Nunes’ parents at their home and dairy farm and asking members of their community for dirt on his parents and whether they were employing undocumented workers.
Lizza, who was fired from the New Yorker for sexual misconduct in 2017, wrote that Nunes has tried to hide that his parents moved to Iowa in 2006, and after it was published, mainstream media news reporters — many who reside in the liberal bubbles of Washington, DC, or New York City — expressed surprise over this fact.
Lizza writes, “So here’s the secret: The Nunes family dairy of political lore—the one where his brother and parents work—isn’t in California. It’s in Iowa.”
However, it was no secret to at least two other news outlets…
The article comes on the heels of harassment Nunes’ other family members have faced, including his uncle, grandmother, and wife Elizabeth, who is an elementary school teacher…
Despite polls released by Janz showing a tightening race between Nunes and himself, a recent Action News poll showed Nunes with a 14 percentage point lead, at 55 percent over Janz’s 41 percent.
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/10/01/devin-nunes-parents-stalked-iowa-move/
earlier:
CNN reinstates Ryan Lizza
The Washington Post Jan 25, 2018
CNN is reinstating Ryan Lizza, the Washington political reporter who was fired from the New Yorker for alleged sexual misconduct…
20
see http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/10/answers-given-too-soon-will-like-dam.html
00
trumpy-dumpy sat on the fence,
political expediency and the rest,
all the king’s horses and asses didn’t put
kav in a roseate light, nope
15
Any chance you could convert that to Engrish? I have no idea what you’re trying to say and the Blog just makes it worser!
20
how bout rhymed verse?
01
where in trumplandia we shall be,
the senators say we shall see,
the fbi testifies in legal french—
put that in english, you slimy fish
what goes up cannot stay put,
even in beijing or darwin,
but in the next round the Sun moves;
et vous, monsieur, comment ca va?
03
Yeah nah do you have an English version
31
Either that, …or he needs to step away from the bong !
10
waiting on govrnment? nope, we be
waiting on life itself, that’s all,
we be brewing up a move, a poise, an angle, a place,
not government but the flow itself, that’s all
00
When they come for you …
sans when / where evidence,
witnesses? When they come for you
with presumptions of guilt,
yours to establish innocence,
when old non-fiat practices of
constitutional law are tossed
down the memory whole for outcomes
political, say, how will you deal
with trial by kangaroo Court or
Cultural Revolution traison de
clercs, etcetera.
50
ER, this is beginning to have a college dorm room flavor to it, which, under the new rules, we could all be held accountable for.
Suppose, just suppose, those decried as conspiracy theorists are digging into an actual conspiracy? What then, my friends. A critical failure of modern times is never to dig into the reality of the past in order to learn from it. Perhaps the pace of modern life is to blame. But I think it more likely that the past illuminates the present is ways that would severely damage those trying to manage our future.
Poor Joe McCarthy has been in the news again lately. Ole Tailgunner Joe, from a time when being a veteran was respected more than today.
He was incensed about a cabal of communists in the State department. The political mob on one side, in a frenzy, saw communists everywhere. Some good people were destroyed. So were some bad people. Joe’s name became a common word, never a good thing.
Quisling, Borked, etc.
But here’s the thing. There WAS a cabal of communists in the State Department. FDR/Truman knew all about them and was tapping their phones for intelligence, which was too good a deal to lose given the bad behaviour in Eastern Europe.
The press has dredged up the Thomas-Hill hearings again. The frenzy is useful to some. No one mentions the follow-up on Anita Hill.
Have you noticed that in politics, we always move on, and never charge the perpetrators of political dirty deeds. Thus we never have a grand jury, a trial, a public unwinding of the facts that exist (and identification of those that don’t). We never look at the money trail, or the possible sources of information. Oh, they are reported on, much later and obscurely, but the myths are useful, but the facts are not. Anita Hill’s story was pretty thoroughly deconstructed. And we forget that, in the cold light of day. the basic charge was that Clarence Thomas told dirty jokes in her presence.
The Kavanaugh hearings are too raw to try to have an adult conversation about right now. Dr. Ford is, and will remain a folk hero on the left. But it’s not just that her story is vague, or that there is no blue dress. It is contrived and there are puppeteers behind the scenes. It doesn’t have to be a “conspiracy”. It could be a group of like minded people moving toward a common goal, with the nature of a mob motivating individuals to act out of character.
In the cold light of day, to a neutral audience and bereft of an ongoing hearing, would a senator of the United States really claim that throwing ice cubes at a college party disqualifies someone, on the basis of temperament, from serving on the court? I call BS on that.
They would, and do, talk about judicial temperment, respect for stare decicis, understanding of the constitution, and all the other crap that politicians talk about without meaning a word of it. It is only in the group feeding frenzy of power maintenance that the act like five years olds.
The whole purpose of college was learning, in a cloistered environment without the need to suffer the consequences of our stupidity.
Politicians seem to have forgotten everything about the intellectual part, but they have made an art form of avoiding consequences.
Until they can’t.
It is an American tradition, still honored in some conservative circles, to be slow to anger and slow to react, to not wish to emulate evil tactics even when such are used against them, and to count on reason and reality and honorable conduct to eventually win the day.
Once in a while patience is lost. Sometimes, kids go to far, and get thrown out of school, or even prosecuted.
40
1 Oct: American Thinker: The hidden agenda behind ‘climate change’
By John Eidson
(John Eidson is a 1968 electrical engineering graduate of Georgia Tech; a lifelong conservative)
In comments that laid bare the hidden agenda behind global warming alarmism, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, let slip during a February 2015 press conference in Brussels that the U.N.’s real purpose in pushing climate hysteria is to end capitalism throughout the world:
“This is the first time in human history that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally changing [getting rid of] the economic development model that has reigned since the Industrial Revolution.”
The economic model to which she referred is free-market capitalism. A year earlier, Figueres revealed what capitalism must be replaced with when she complained that America’s two-party constitutional system is hampering the U.N.’s climate objectives. She went on to cite China’s communist system as the kind of government America must have if the U.N. is to impose its environmental will on the world’s most free and prosperous capitalist nation. In other words, for the U.N. to have its way, America must somehow be transformed into a communist nation.
Let that sink in for a moment…READ ALL
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/the_hidden_agenda_behind_climate_change.html
30
Undeniable evidence to slay any conception that CO2 warms ANY planet in any way.
https://principia-scientific.org/slayers-confirmed-pressure-not-co2-determines-planets-temps/#comment-21107
Look at the video interview with Dr Karl Zeller.
“Interviewer: So you’re saying that actually, carbon dioxide is not the driver [of planetary temperatures]?
KZ: “Carbon dioxide is just like any other gas. Just like the ideal gas law, Boyle’s law, Charles’s law, Gay-Lussac’s law. Carbon dioxide isn’t any different than any other gas in those laws. And we’ve discovered that there’s a continuum across our solar system of the way atmosphere’s work: it’s strictly a function – the warmth that we experience – is due to two things: [1] distance from the Sun (which means how much solar energy we get), and [2] the amount of atmosphere we have, the atmospheric pressure that we experience here on the surface.”
Yep its all gas laws buddy, if you dont like it ..tough. (once said by Feynman about a statistical Universe).
31
Have you read Nikolov and Zeller’s paper?
If you haven’t, here it is:
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/New-Insights-on-the-Physical-Nature-of-the-Atmospheric-Greenhouse-Effect-Deduced-from-an-Empirical-Planetary-Temperature-Model.pdf
Enjoy.
21
Good thanks sophocles, looks like the luke warmists gave us a red thumb.
00
I’m back doing those daily Australian electrical data Posts for anyone who is interested.
I got out of the habit of doing them for around seven weeks or so, and when I started again yesterday, it took an age to compile You get into the rhythm of doing them, and it flows so easily, and all that needs to be remembered again.
One thing I have noticed after that hiatus is the difference between Winter power consumption/generation and what it is now, in the middle of the benign Months of Spring.
Power generation yesterday was around 3000MW lower (on an hourly average) than it was in mid Winter, and that’s around 13% lower. Because of that, those remaining coal fired plants are taking the time, (as they usually do at these times of the year) to schedule down time for maintenance, and there are currently 9 Units off line across those three States.
Even so, coal fired power is still delivering 77% of all the required power to run the Country.
I have added an extra graph to the Posts, showing the power delivered from ‘Other’ Sources, and there are seven of them, all but one of them a fossil fuel. You may think that it wouldn’t amount to much power, but it comes in at around 1.7%, incidentally, a higher percentage than the total for every solar plant in the Country.
When you add together just wind power and solar power, (taking the hydro power out of the renewable total) those two horrendously expensive niche suppliers of power can only manage around 10% of the power required to keep Australia ‘open for business’.
Here’s the link to the Post for today, detailing the data for yesterday 2nd October.
Australian Daily Electrical Power Generation Data – Tuesday 2nd October 2018
Tony.
Post Script – Still moving furniture around to try and make it all fit.
90
26 Sept: UN Environment press release: Outstanding environmental changemakers receive UN’s Champions of the Earth Award
Announced today, the Champions of the Earth Awards, the UN’s highest environmental honor, will be presented to six outstanding environmental changemakers.
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are jointly recognized in the Science and Innovation category, for their revolutionary development of a popular, plant-based alternative to beef, and for their efforts to educate consumers about environmentally conscious alternatives.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, are recognized in the Policy Leadership category for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action, including Macron’s work on the Global Pact for the Environment and Modi’s unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022…
China’s Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Programme is awarded for Inspiration and Action for the transformation of a once heavily polluted area of rivers and streams in East China’s Zhejiang province…
“In a world of uncertainty, this is certain: We will not solve the extraordinary challenges our world faces today without extraordinary talent, new thinking and bold ideas,” said Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim…
The gala, hosted by actor and environmental activist Alec Baldwin and model, actress, producer and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador Dia Mirza…
Past laureates include:
Rwandan President Paul Kagame (2016), former US Vice-President Al Gore (2007), developer of Google Earth Brian McClendon (2013) etc…
About Weibo:
***The Champions of the Earth are organised in partnership with Weibo – China’s leading social media outlet for people to create, share and discover content online…
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/outstanding-environmental-changemakers-receive-uns-champions-earth
***Wikipedia: Sina Weibo: In cooperation with internet censorship in China, Sina sets strict controls over the posts on its services. Posts with links using some URL shortening services (including Google’s goo.gl), or containing blacklisted keywords, are not allowed on Sina Weibo. Posts on politically sensitive topics are deleted after manual checking.
00
1 Oct: Daily Caller: SCOOP: House Targets Another US Environmental Group Over Its Foreign Ties
by Michael Bastasch
House lawmakers sent a letter Monday to the environmental group Earthjustice demanding documents regarding its ties to foreign officials and environmental activists, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The letter from top Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources is the fourth sent to environmental groups over their ties to foreign governments. It’s the second letter related to environmental opposition to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, Japan.
Lawmakers say Earthjustice’s political activities may require them to register as a foreign agent, according to a copy of the letter obtained by TheDCNF. Earthjustice is an environmental law firm often represents environmental activists in litigation…
Both lawmakers also signed letters sent to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and World Resources Institute (WRI) over their ties to the Chinese government.
Lawmakers asked if environmentalists’ desire to maintain good relations with the Chinese is affecting the group’s U.S. activities — effectively making them foreign agents of China’s communist government.
“NRDC seeks environmental solutions that are grounded in sound science, U.S. law and the public interest,” NRDC’s director of strategic engagement Bob Deans responded to Republicans’ letter.
“We work on behalf of every American to protect our people against dangerous pollution and leave our children a livable world,” Deans said. “Those are American values, American goals, and advancing them is manifestly in our national interest, as we have consistently demonstrated for nearly 50 years.”…
https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/01/house-environmental-earthjustice-foreign-ties/
00
BBC’s Phil Mercer now, apparently, also writing for Voice of America!
Muckrack: Phil Mercer: As seen in: Voice of America, BBC, WPBY-TV (Charleston, WV)
2 Oct: Voice of America: Giant Coal Plant to Close as Australia Faces Energy Shake-Up
by Phil Mercer
“Run down, dangerous and expensive” is how an Australian newspaper described the Liddell power plant, adding that it was “the perfect symbol of the decline of the coal industry.”…
Brett Redman, interim chief executive of energy company AGL says that despite pleas from the government the Liddell power station will close as scheduled in four years’ time.
“Our strategy to exit heavy carbon-emitting facilities over the long term is unchanged,” he said. “We continue in an operational sense to review our plans but there is no change at this point to the Liddell exit date. I have spoken to and I have met personally Angus Taylor, the new energy minister. I found that to be a very comfortable meeting where he understandably is very worried about power price on behalf of Australia’s consumers.”
Australia remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels not only for domestic power generation, but also for economic reasons. It exports billions of dollars worth of coking coal, currently a key ingredient in the making of steel, and thermal coal, which is used for heat and power generation. Much is sold to China, and into Southeast Asia…
Conservationists argue, however, that the coal industry is waning and that Australia should be vigorously pursuing alternative renewable sources. Despite Canberra’s continued enthusiasm for coal, which in Australia is cheap and plentiful, Australia’s energy mix is changing. There has been an increase in small-scale solar power generation, mostly through domestic rooftop panels and more consumption of natural gas.
https://www.voanews.com/a/giant-coal-plant-to-close-as-australia-faces-energy-shake-up/4596018.html
10
Turns out emitting a trace gas (CO2) is a truly lousy way of turning oceans acidic, boiling and killing great white sharks, and settling 97% ‘settled science’ …
Mysterious great white shark lair discovered in Pacific Ocean
“The primary lure, scientists believe, is an extraordinary abundance of squid and small fish that migrate up and down in a little understood deep-water portion of ocean known as the “mid-water,” a region skirting the edge of complete darkness that could provide an immeasurably valuable trove of information about the ocean ecosystem and climate change.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Mysterious-great-white-shark-lair-discovered-in-13234068.php?t=5c043f9ce3&f?
41
OMG not another bit of dodgy ‘science’
11
I switched off after reading something about an ‘astrological’ reason for the migration. ‘Raised eyebrows’. Very scientific.
00
an interesting read:
1 Oct: WindpowerEngineering: Managing cable congestion for the world’s largest offshore wind farm
By Michelle Froese
The world’s largest working offshore wind farm, occupying an area of 55 square miles (145 sq km), opened in the Irish Sea off Barrow-in-Furness in the North West of England in September. HR Wallingford has been helping Danish operator, Ørsted, to build stable cable crossings for their new Walney Extension wind farm, on what is becoming an increasingly congested seabed…READ ON
https://www.windpowerengineering.com/business-news-projects/managing-cable-congestion-for-the-worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm/
10
For anyone doubting how much the UN has a say in our everyday lives and laws just check out the Australian Design Rules for cars etc.
UNIFORM PROVISIONS CONCERNING THE APPROVAL OF VEHICLES WITH REGARD TO THE INSTALLATION OF LIGHTING AND LIGHT-SIGNALLING DEVICES
_________
UNITED NATIONS
___________________
11
there’s so much more being revealed than the following, but this is dynamite on its own:
3 Oct: ConservativeTreehouse: sundance: Christine Blasey-Ford Friend In Delaware Was Career FBI Agent and Likely Together During Accusation Letter Construct…
In a letter released last night (LINK) from a former boyfriend of Christine Blasey-Ford, there was a name curiously not redacted. The name of Monica L McLean was revealed as a life-long friend who Ms. Ford helped with polygraph preparation.
The media has begun to focus on the letter as outlining a lie told by Ms. Ford during recent congressional testimony… But the backstory to Ms. Monica Lee McLean is an even bigger story (LINK)…READ ON
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/10/03/christine-blasey-ford-friend-in-delaware-was-career-fbi-agent-and-likely-together-during-accusation-letter-construct/
50
3 Oct: Yahoo: Michael Stipe, Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys support Kavanaugh protest outside Supreme Court
by Ben Kaye
Before that happens (THE CONFIRMATION VOTE), though, over 20 musicians, authors, actors, and producers will make their voices of dissent heard at a protest dubbed, “Bravery is Contagious.”…
Set to take place Thursday at 7:00 PM right outside of the Supreme Court, the protest comes in support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, two of Kavanaugh’s alleged victims..
Other notable figures including Arianna Huffington…***An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David, etc…
***Party Majority PAC, the organizers behind the event…
Update: Per a member of the #CancelKavanaugh campaign, Bravery is Contagious is not a concert, as previously reported. Instead, the artists involved “are lending their names to the cause ONLY.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-stipe-erykah-badu-alicia-160732198.html
these “celebrities” are just pawns in the Clinton game:
***Party Majority PAC was co-founded by Adam Parkhomenko and Mike Lux.
Wikipedia: Adam Parkhomenko is a Democratic political strategist and organizer who served as National Field Director for the Democratic National Committee in 2016…
He was the co-founder and executive director of Ready for Hillary, a super PAC established to persuade Hillary Clinton to run for the presidency of the United States in 2016…
In the 2017 party election, Parkhomenko was a candidate for Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee…
In 2003, while a 17-year-old student at Northern Virginia Community College, Parkhomenko set up VoteHillary.org, an independent website that urged voters to vote for Hillary Clinton during the 2004 Democratic presidential primary…
***Parkhomenko co-founded Party Majority PAC, a super PAC focused on grassroots organizing and electing Democrats…
Party Majority PAC isn’t listed in Lux’s Wiki page, but that is irrelevant:
Wikipedia: Mike Lux is the co-founder and president of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C., a political consulting firm founded in 1999, focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PACs and progressive donors…served in the Clinton White House from January 1993 to mid-1995 as a Special Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. He also played a role in five different presidential campaign teams. In recent years, he co-founded the progressive blog OpenLeft.com and was named to the transition team for Barack Obama…
Lux serves on the boards of several progressive organizations, including the Arca Foundation. In addition to serving on the board, he was a co-founder of Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, PoliticsTV, Progressive Majority, and Women’s Voices Women Vote. He also played a role in helping launch the Center for American Progress and Air America…
10 Nov 2017: NBC: Former Clinton Aides Launch New Super PAC
The new group, called Party Majority, would act as a parallel structure to Democratic Party committees at the national and state levels while coordinating with them…
“Democrats are motivated to fight the Trump agenda, but without fully funded organizing operations, we won’t maximize our opportunities next year and every year thereafter,” said Party Majority co-founder Mike Lux, a former aide to President Bill Clinton who has helped build a series of progressive organizations over the last two decades…
Lux and the other co-founder, Adam Parkhomenko, who built Ready for Hillary, later served as director of grass-roots engagement on Clinton’s presidential campaign and is currently a paid adviser to Clinton, have been frustrated by the lack of coordination and continuity in Democratic campaigns…
To start building its coffers, Party Majority has tapped Lazar Palnick, a family friend of the Clintons and a Democratic fundraiser, to create a national finance council…
15 Oct 2016: Politico: The Son of the Clintons’ ‘Rabbi’
Lazar Palnick has been an elector since 1988—but this time it’s personal. His father, Zeke, forged a close relationship with the Clintons during their Arkansas days. In fact, when Bill Clinton was president, he joked that he used to call the elder Palnick his rabbi, “even though I’m a Southern Baptist.” Now, the decades-long friendship between their families could come full circle—if Hillary Clinton can hang onto her solid lead in Pennsylvania.
“I want to make sure that my friend Hillary gets to be president,” the younger Palnick said, before ending the interview saying he was uncomfortable speaking to reporters…
10
A MUST-READ:
2 Oct: ClimateChangeNews: Leaked US critique of climate report sets stage for political showdown in Korea
Confidential government feedback casts doubt on scientific models, pushes domestic energy priorities and questions economic basis for climate action.
By Sara Stefanini and Karl Mathiesen
Insight into US thinking
The US complained the draft had failed to acknowledge a previous IPCC finding that “most” climate models had overestimated the rate of global warming since the 1990s.
This referred to an unexpected slowdown in temperature rise during the first decade of this century. But a succession of very hot years has overturned this finding, bringing global temperatures in line with predictions, according to two US scientists CHN spoke with.
Michael Wehner, a senior staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and lead author on the earlier IPCC report in question, said: “The statement is no longer true with the recent exceptionally warm years, which is what we expected in 2009.”
The US’ demands that uncertainties around climate modelling be placed in the foreground of the report reflect long-running campaigns to discredit science by right-wing think tanks that are influential with president Donald Trump. The fact that they’ve made it into the government’s comments show that these campaigns are making inroads.
Stop climate change, but not development
One theme the US returned to repeatedly was the “outsized focus” placed on sustainable development by the report authors, which it said went beyond their mandate.
“The IPCC should not take it upon itself to plot a vision for global attainment of sustainable development goals via climate policy,” it said…
Energy is good, too
The US also questioned whether limiting the temperature rise to 1.5C was the best way to slash poverty and improve well being, noting the benefits associated with higher energy consumption…
(Note: Michael Wehner’s affiliation was changed from the department of energy to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/10/02/leaked-us-critique-climate-report-sets-stage-political-showdown-korea/
20
CarbonBrief: Floods. Wildfires. Yet Few Candidates Are Running on Climate Change.
In the New York Times, a feature by Trip Gabriel looks at the role of climate change as a policy issue in the upcoming US midterm elections. It begins with the story of one candidate whose company’s mission is to hasten “our country’s important transition to clean energy”, yet who brings a “much more muted” environmental message to the campaign trail [though the candidate does campaign on solar jobs as a “less divisive way to impart an environmental message”, the paper notes].
The feature continues: “In an election year that has included alarming portents of global warming – record wildfires in the West, 500-year floods in the East, a president walking away from a global climate accord – the one place that climate change rarely appears at all is in the campaigns of candidates for the House and Senate.”
It adds: “The vast majority of Democrats and Republicans running for federal office do not mention the threat of global warming in digital or TV ads, in their campaign literature or on social media.” In a comment piece for CNN, Jay Inslee (DEM), governor of Washington State writes: “If we don’t start electing people – from city council to governor – who are willing to confront climate change, we’re all going to pay dearly.” The piece is headlined: ***“How to show Trump you care about climate change.”
—
***THE BIG MISTAKE IS PRETENDING TRUMP IS ALONE IN THINKING CAGW IS A SCAM.
20
***SAME MISTAKE BEING MADE BY FT:
FT Guide: The Energy Transition for manufacturing and building
The Financial Times has launched the fourth of six instalments from its new guide to the “energy transition” – the long-term restructuring of the energy system away from fossil fuels and towards renewables. The fourth part focuses on “manufacturing and building” and includes features on firms “push[ing] for greener buildings ***despite Trump” and on mining companies “seek[ing] green power options”.
20
3 Oct: Greenpeace/Unearthed: How Germany quietly turned against action on climate change
For all her ire at Trump, Merkel’s government has been quietly backing the coal and car industries at the expense of the climate — especially in the EU
The European Commission has reportedly given up on plans to raise the EU’s 2030 carbon emissions target — with critics blaming the German government for ‘torpedoing’ the move.
It comes as the German government is refusing to clarify its position on proposals by other EU states to phase out subsidies for coal power plants and force them to meet tougher pollution rules.
The EU posturing is just the latest in a series of actions taken by Germany to stifle higher climate ambition where it threatens key industries, including pushing for weaker car emission standards and renewable energy targets.
And then there’s Hambach forest…
As much of western and northern Europe called for a 35% target for renewables by 2030, Germany (alongside the UK) backed a much-weaker 30% goal — which led to a compromise of 32%.
Then, as the EU climate commissioner tried to formally raise the body’s carbon emission targets to reflect its higher RES and efficiency aims, the Germans once again tried – and in this case succeeded – to derail the push for greater ambition…
“What’s happening at Hambach Forest shows the true face of German climate politics,” leading Hambach activist Maja Rothe from Aktion Unterholz told Unearthed.
“While internationally Germany is reasserting its climate leadership, the lignite mines in the Rhineland are the biggest source of CO2 emissions in Europe.”…
“In Germany, three lignite units will go into ‘a strategic reserve’ this weekend,” Dave Jones, coal analyst at think-tank Sandbag, told Unearthed, referring to the policy that pays power stations for staying available as a back-up source.
“The strategic reserve is a €1.6 billion jackpot to ‘compensate’ German utilities as Germany phases out coal. It’s not utilities that need compensation though, its communities.”
“Since the strategic reserve was set up in 2016, no German lignite units have announced a retirement date, despite carbon prices quadrupling. Strategic reserves just encourage utilities to keep coal plants open longer, to wait out for free handouts.”…
The capacity mechanism, which like the strategic reserve rewards power stations for being emergency back-up, has already handed out over €15 billion to coal plants across the EU, according to a Greenpeace analysis…
Last week the German government decided it would back the weak 30% target for fear that any higher ambition could impact the competitiveness of European carmakers, who have largely sung from the same hymn sheet.
In a statement Julia Poliscanova from NGO Transport & Environment said: “Germany’s stance on car CO2 standards puts at risk its own climate goals for 2030, necessitating instead harsh measures such as curbing car use, demanding more cuts from agriculture or accepting high fines for non-compliance.”…
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/03/how-germany-quietly-turned-against-action-on-climate-change/
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2 Oct: Reuters: Six men jailed in Britain over “predatory” solar energy panel scam
by Kirstin Ridley
Six fraudsters were jailed in Britain on Tuesday for orchestrating a 17 million pound scam to sell and install solar energy panels, often targeting vulnerable people.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it had brought the men to trial after the ringleaders – two brothers and former directors of Solar Energy Savings Limited – were caught during a routine police traffic stop after seven months on the run.
The men manipulated their victims with deceitful sales techniques, lies and false guarantees of reimbursement to misrepresent their deals and maximise sales. Around 1,500 victims lost up to 20,000 pounds each, the SFO said.
The men paid themselves almost two million pounds and drove Lamborghini and Porsche sports cars, had cosmetic surgery and took private flights to Switzerland and Italy…
Ludovic Black, David Diaz, Steve Wilson, Robert Ross, Niall Hastie and Kenneth Reid received sentences of between three-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half years each…
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-fraud-solar/six-men-jailed-in-britain-over-predatory-solar-energy-panel-scam-idUKKCN1MC1OP
PICS: 2 Oct: BBC: ‘Deceitful’ £17m solar panel scam gang jailed for fraud
Six men have been jailed over a £17m fraud involving selling solar panels to elderly, retired and vulnerable people…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-45713046
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if only members of REST would stand up against this kind of CAGW “activism”:
3 Oct: SMH: Ruth Williams: Super fund alleged to have breached duties over climate change risk
Industry super fund REST is facing a new federal court legal battle over claims it breached its trustee duties by failing to properly factor climate change-related risks into its investment decisions.
Mark McVeigh, a 23-year-old ecology graduate and council worker from Brisbane, has racheted up his legal campaign against the super fund over its approach to climate change, accusing REST of breaching superannuation law by failing to act in his best interests.
REST is the default industry super fund for many retail workers…
Mr McVeigh’s lawyer David Barnden, from Environmental Justice Australia, said the fresh allegations formed a “significant” amendment to a legal claim lodged in July, in which REST was accused of not disclosing enough information about climate risk…
Former federal court judge Ron Merkel QC is working on the case, along with barrister James Mack, who co-authored an opinion with Noel Hutley QC late last year suggesting trustees must consider climate change risk to meet their requirements under law.
Mr Barnden said the legal action would be “watched closely by the superannuation community”, saying it was an important test case for how investors and asset owners around the world dealt with climate change…
News of the lawsuit comes ahead of the launch on Wednesday of a report about superannuation, climate change and Millennials, launched by the Future Business Council’s offshoot, Future Business Generation. The report calls on Australia’s $2.6 trillion super industry to adopt a more sophisticated approach to climate risk, including by adopting new disclosure rules nailed down by a G20 task force headed by Michael Bloomberg, known as the TCFD…READ ON
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/super-fund-alleged-to-have-breached-duties-over-climate-change-risk-20181002-p507a3.html
theirABC gave him tons of space:
PICS: 25 Jul: ABC: Super fund REST being sued for not having a plan for climate change
By environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak
The risk that your super could take a hit to its bottom line because of climate change could soon be something your fund is legally obliged to act on.
That’s because 23-year-old Mark McVeigh is suing a $50 billion super fund — and if he wins, the industry will likely never be the same…
Mr McVeigh graduated with an ecology degree from the University of Queensland earlier this year…
“They haven’t given any real information and they haven’t supplied any real strategy or plan that they have for climate change and the risks involved,” he said.
And that, according to lawyers at Environment Justice Australia (EJA), is grounds to sue…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-25/super-fund-rest-sued-for-not-doing-enough-on-climate-change/10029744
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3 Oct: Guardian: Delays to energy efficient goods will cost EU consumers ‘billions’ in lost savings
by Arthur Neslen in Brussels
New energy efficient eco-designs for 15 products including fridges, TVs and dishwashers have been delayed, EU diplomats say, even though experts consider them “crucial” to meeting Europe’s Paris climate pledge. The delays are also expected to mean consumers will miss out on lower energy bills.
The design revamps would have saved 62m tonnes of CO2 emissions – as much as Sweden’s annual primary energy consumption – but now look set to be dealt with by the next commission, ***in which far right parties may be more influential…
The new measures were expected to save about 5% of Europe’s annual electricity consumption by 2030, and introduce innovative requirements for recycling and repairability.
But the EU has been spooked by the past success of UK tabloid campaigns against eco-design proposals, burying planned revamps of hairdryers and hot drinks vending machines in 2016.
Officials declined to be quoted on the latest delay, citing a clampdown on whistleblowers under the Juncker commission, but EU sources told the Guardian that the office of ***Martin Selmayr, the commission secretary general, was responsible for it…
Other products at risk from the delay include washing machines, industrial fans, electric motors, power transformers and welding equipment.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/02/delays-to-energy-efficient-goods-will-cost-eu-consumers-billions-in-lost-savings
***Wikipedia: Martin Selmayr: Shortly after his appointment, various media reports began to profile Selmayr as a highly influential figure within EU politics, with Politico describing him as “the most powerful EU chief of staff ever” in November 2016, noting that even Jean-Claude Juncker jokingly referred to Selmayr by the nickname “the Monster.”
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Readers here might be interested to know that the Folio Society is publishing Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in three volumes. You need to feel a bit rich though; the total cost is (AU)$270.
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A headline from Breitbart:
POLICE: UTAH MAN SUSPECTED OF MAILING RICIN TO TRUMP, MATTIS ARRESTED
I must say, I’m disappointed in Mattis.
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The Guardian is currently running a series about the drought and how they’re different now – hotter, drier and getting worse.
They interviewed a farmer near Charleville who, of course, claimed this drought was six years long and worse than ever.
Looked up the rainfall records for Charleville and found the worse drought over six years was the Federation drought.
Over a six year period from 1897 to 1902 (incl), Charleville received a total of 1787mls, an average of only 280 per year.
During the past six years from 2013 to 2018, Charleville has received 1992mls at an average of 330mls per year (and the year hasn’t finished yet).
I also looked up the drought maps and found both the drought index for the first nine months of 1902 and compared it with same period for 2018.
1902
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/archive.jsp?colour=colour&map=drought&year=1902&month=9&period=9month&area=nat
2018
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=drought&period=9month&area=nat
No comparison really. The only thing they got right is that the temps were higher in this drought – although 1915 is still the hottest year on record for Charleville.
Another fail by The Guardian.
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Is Tamino dishonest?
Tamino doesn’t want me to participate in the discussion about slowdowns.
He won’t publish my comment on his website.
Luckily I have my own website, where I can say whatever I like.
Here is the comment which Tamino didn’t want people to see.
https://agree-to-disagree.com/is-tamino-dishonest
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Frustrating !…
Or friend Giles P , over on RenewEconomy , is now claiming thet new solar farms operate at a CF of 30+ % and Wind at 50+% .
The frustrating thing is they are very selective as to who they allow to reply in comments !
Anyone still have access over there to queery his figures ?
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