Nearly $1 billion a day to change the climate… the invisible vested elephant in the room

Elephant, Climate funding, Global Warming Finance.

Here’s a stark statistic that came out last week in a new report: The Climate Industry draws in nearly $1 billion dollars a day. But here’s an ominous combination:  …  it openly admits that taxpayer money is its “engine-room”. Reading between the lines below, this industry is almost completely dependent on domestic policies that funnel money from citizens to itself, and tilts the playing field — without those policies, it can’t attract much private money. That is, it can only get money at least partially by coercion, people won’t give it money purely voluntarily. These same groups want even more — they want the public to take the risks too. What could possibly go wrong?

Al Gore, said it himself: “Special interests control decisions too frequently.” [See the ABC]. So he must be concerned about the lobbying weight of a $360 billion dollar baby whose existence is contingent on government gravy? As if…

From: The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2013 from the Climate Policy Initiative

“Landscape 2013 finds that global climate finance flows have plateaued at USD 359 billion, or around USD 1 billion per day – far below even the most conservative estimates of investment needs.

OK, so in greenspeak, it’s only a billion dollars a day, and that’s not nearly large enough!

“In 2012, annual global climate finance reached approximately USD 359 billion (range of 356-363 billion). The private sector continued to provide the lion’s share, contributing USD 224 billion, or 62% of the total. The public sector contributed USD 135 billion (range of 132-139), or around 38% of global climate finance.

The public sector provides 38% of “climate finance”, but note, if it disappeared, the sector would shrink by more than 38%, because some of the private money would disappear too. This, below, is their nice way of saying they feed off taxpayer subsidies.

“Landscape 2013 confirms that public policies, resources, and money are the ‘engine room’ of the climate finance system, and can alter the balance between risk and return in ways that drive the supply and demand for finance. Private capital flows into climate investments when public incentives

and money make them commercially attractive by taking-off risk and reducing incremental costs. While many countries have policy frameworks that provide such incentives, significant capacity and incentive gaps remain.

The first thing on their list is to ensure the gravy keeps flowing from taxpayers…

“We offer the following findings as action points for policymakers:
“1. Develop well-articulated domestic enabling environments to encourage further private investment.

Point 2: Citizens need to take more risk, because the private sector realizes how fickle this all is. Private money doesn’t want to go to Uganda.

“Recognize that private actors prefer familiar policy environments where the perception of risk is lower.

“…the 24% of climate finance that flowed between countries in 2012 was dominated by mostly  publicly funded North-South flows. Of private flows, the vast proportion was invested in  developed countries…

Point 3: What’s a new “risk mechanism”? Is that a way of disguising real risks, or a new way of shifting risk from investors to the taxpayer? (If I invent Climate-Blackjack, is that another new risk management tool?)

“There is potential for government-backed sponsors to scale up the provision of new and improved risk mechanisms. Landscape 2013 highlights the potential of government-backed sponsors such as DFIs, a coalition of like-minded governments and potentially, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), in scaling up provision of new and improved risk instruments.

OK. I scoff, but most of the people working in this — the accountants, marketers, lawyers, the odd engineer– are doing a hard day’s work. But in the end, together, this generates the most highly leveraged kind of lobbying machine. Without government policies hoping to change the weather, the industry collapses. That is not like big-oil. If the government stopped subsidizing car manufacturers, people would just import cars from overseas. If the government made the outrageous move of banning all new fossil-fuel cars, everyone would just keep driving their old one. Modern cars don’t need government subsidies to work, and big-oil doesn’t need government policies to sell oil — but windmills and solar panels certainly do.

Elephant original Wikimedia: Hansm

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103 comments to Nearly $1 billion a day to change the climate… the invisible vested elephant in the room

  • #

    Then this is the way to kill the beast. We’ve got to get this message through to our politicians so they can turn off the tap – everywhere, worldwide. We need a whole big dose of “blinkers off” because these same politicians who think nothing will stop it can be a big part of stopping it.

    They need to see this report. They need to recognize that they are being used, and also recognize that they will be true heroes if they rise together and stand together and switch off that tap!

    If our politicians worldwide don’t rise together, there will come a time when the people will. Which side of the fence do they want to be when and if that happens? If they haven’t already pulled their weight and tried to stop the flow, they’ll go under with all the other weak-willed panderers to of Green policy.

    This simply cannot be allowed to go on unabated.

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      Jon

      Some politicians fund this as a jobsecurity towards all the UN well paid tax free jobs. And a lot belive in it from an ideological standpoint.

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      Yonniestone

      If you can’t cut off the head of the snake, cut off it’s food supply.

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      They need to see this report. They need to recognize that they are being used …

      They need to see this report, and realise that that their constituents have also seen this report, and their constituents understand that they are being used, and that there is a groundswell of opposition building. Over the next twenty four months politicians will need to decide where they stand. They can either be part of the charge, or they can be trampled by it.

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      • #
        Mattb

        will they die like dogs, or fight like lions?

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      • #
        Dave

        This is across all levels of government Federal, State and local where the pollies don’t care anymore about the people. There are now 17% more homeless people in Australia since Rudd was elected. But Gillard and Combet just thought about GREEN tax and regulations. It is the same in local councils, just be GREEN and feel good while the park benches fill up with homeless people unable to obtain even basic housing.

        Good grief, $1 billion per day to save the planet from CAGW? And mean while the homeless are forgotten because they are unable to contribute to the CO2 Tax, hence unimportant.

        Even in MattyB’s City of Vincent, the Ex-Mayor Alannah MacTiernan was going to do a register of homeless in her local area. She managed one morning of getting up at 4 am to see the extent of the homeless. The registry was never completed. Rudd’s homeless plan from 2007 was a failure. But the Town of Vincent has FREE Green EV Car recharge points installed mainly for the academics and bureaucrats that received free EV vehicles. The Recharge points are empty, but the park benches are filling up every night.

        The total cost of CAGW money is a lot more than $1 billion a day, every GREEN rabid council in Australia is also feeding out of the swill like the pigs they are.

        The RET, through the solar rebates schemes etc are criminal in regard to the poor, they are the ones that will eventually end up on the street as bills keep rising.

        Electricity Bill should actually take a stand himself and declare enough is enough, get rid of CO2 Tax (all forms) and the RET. But then there is the elephant to contend with first.

        What’s your stand MattyB, Green or help the homeless people?

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “What’s your stand MattyB, Green or help the homeless people?”

          Seriously… you really need to ask !!!!!

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    • #
      DT

      Many former politicians of the left now work at the UN, their new world order headquarters.

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    • #
      BilB

      I don’t think that the politicians are interested in this view, other than Australia. Their blinkers have been ripped off by Climate Change as they face tens of billions even hundreds of billions of public dollar costs reinforcing infrastructure to cope with the effects of Global Warming (cooling to you and yours). I’ve just been seeing the lengths New York city is going to to protect itself from rising sea levels (falling to you and yours) and Climate Change induced super storms.

      [A look at the record? http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/stations/12.php Where is the fingerprint of human co2 caused sea level rise? Do you see it? More denial of the science from Bill.] ED

      [Ed – I think this new wave of pro-man-made-crisis commenters are interesting, the level of delusion far outranks the former fans. At least the former admitted they were losing the popular vote and the political gambit. Look at the effort he goes to: no one says sea-levels are falling, but Bilb needs to create an imaginary Skeptic-Monster to fight to make his increasingly bizarre beliefs make sense? – Jo]

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  • #
    Maverick

    Whilst the policy makers, public investors and private investors don’t know it yet the private sector investment is the trojan horse that will bring the entire system down at some point. The catalysts will be a change in the regulatory environment, another global recession, the failure of a couple of large banks, or a US currency crisis, or another Asia crisis. This will cause some big private investors to want their money back, or refuse tranche funding calls and the schemes will explode in bankruptcies.

    Remember, the Managed Investment Scheme industry in Australia, a forestry plantation investment schemes based on tax incentives – boom! Remember Obama’s solar loan guarantee fund – boom!

    History will repeat itself again, and the “private investors” they are bragging about ultimately need to be able to invest $100 and get $105 back consistently over a long period. When they realise they can’t it will be the downfall of the entire manufactured investment scheme.

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    • #
      MemoryVault

      Hi Maverick,

      I agree with the distinct possibility of the scenarios you have outlined, but offer yet another one for consideration.

      It is not generally realised or understood, but when the day comes, somewhere, as it must, that baseload power demands exceed peak load capacity, the first thing that the grid controllers will have to do is isolate out all the supply from windmills, as a first step towards returning stability to at least some of the grid. Wind power is simply too variable to have any place in an unstable, overloaded system.

      In other words, the moment it is most needed, is the moment it will be shown to be utterly useless for supplying actual meaningful levels of usable power. At that point a lot of people are going to be wondering just how they got conned into paying so much money, via their taxes and power bills, for useless bird shredders. Throw in the fact that they will be doing this wondering in the dark and probably cold, and it adds up to an awful lot of angry people.

      Add to their numbers all the people, also sitting in the dark and cold, who actually believed the solar panels they had installed on their roof somehow guaranteed supply during blackouts, and you have one heck of a lot of angry people. A government-changing number of angry people.

      As I see it, at the moment it’s a race between Australia, England, Scotland, and possibly Germany, as to who will be first to crash their national grid through reliance on worthless windmills and solar panels. Word will quickly spread once it happens in one place.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        The USA system is fragmented. Texas and California stand out as likely trouble spots for those who expect continuous supply.
        The UK will be the first to go. While there are 3 grids in Scotland they depend on England to absorb excess wind electricity from those wind turbines on the west coast. Meanwhile throughout the UK successive governments have been shutting down coal and nuclear power stations, so their reserve capacity is expected to drop to 5%. (Australia’s reserve is more than 20%).

        Some people in the UK government are now awake to the problem, hence the expensive rush to get lots of diesel generators installed. Read very high subsidies for the white shoe brigade (I know that is out of date but what polite phrase is there for opportunist sharks rescuing the public). Currently they have about 4% capacity on or coming on line for this winter. These generators are expected to operate when the wind farms fail, and I think the amount (and cost) of backup for wind farms will now become obvious to many, as will the amount of emissions caused as a direct result of those same “clean” generators.

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    • #
      Ross

      Maverick

      I think you are right and you will get your wish. The Germans are waking up very quickly and realising the real cost of the renewable energy schemes.
      I think if the NH winter this year is as bad as predicted , we will see major public “unrest” in the UK.
      Like you ,I have also read in a number of places that the smart money says we are heading for another GFC like event, in the next 18 months.(A key reason is the so called changes to the banking system is all “smoke and mirrors”).
      So I agree with your list of catalysts.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Jo will testify that I have always claimed that this is a bubble. It is like the South Seas bubble, and the dot.com bubble and several others.

      Any investment scheme (for that is what climate change is all about), that does not have a tangible asset at its base, is bound to fail. The time taken to fail, only influences the degree of damage sustained by those left holding worthless paper at the end of the day. With any luck, that’ll be Weird Wildleaf Frond, Grown Piece, Fiends of the Hearth, and so on; and not Governments that are entrusted with, and custodians of, tax payers dollars.

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      • #
        RoHa

        Of course, a bunch of Big Money Boys will have stashed away piles of dosh before it fails. Then they will use a tiny fraction of that cash to support foam-flecked right-wingers who denounce any Government that tries to tax them, regulate their activities, or provide useful services for the rest of us.

        But while we are waiting, can I interest you in some tulip bulbs?

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      • #
        Mark D.

        and not Governments that are entrusted with, and custodians of, tax payers dollars.

        That horse left the barn some years ago. Now governments are custodians of massive debt. Frankly I’m not going to speculate which Ponzi scheme will be the first to fail.

        I’m an optimist too……

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  • #
    Jon

    And some are afraid of getting a negative treatment from the press and the leftist/greenies?

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  • #
    King Geo

    So the Climate Industry sucks in nearly a $billion/day to change Earth’s Climate – what a waste of resources – what an unadulterated and brain numbing squandering of hard earned tax payers money – we the poor tax payers on Planet Earth are subsidizing this “Lunatic Climate Industry [LCI]” that achieves SFA in its “modem of operandi”. As I see it the only thing that is going to stop this “despicable waste of hard earned money” is the imminent LIA [Little Ice Age]. Bring it on and may the perpetrators of the despicable LCI be undone by earth’s LIA, and be left out in the cold to perish.

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  • #

    ” … the accountants, marketers, lawyers, the odd engineer– are doing a hard day’s work.”

    Mafia foot-soldiers do a hard days work as well. And I’m beginning to wonder why the Bandidos etc are so bad compared to this level of criminality. In their supreme arrogance, the perpetrators have given us the figure. One billion dollars a day. Amazing.

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  • #
    William Astley

    The green scams (solar, wind farms, and conversion of food to biofuel) are neither effective in significantly reducing CO2 emissions (which is a benefit not a problem and the planet is about to significantly cool however ignore that reality if you wish) and are very, very expensive if one’s goal was to reduce CO2 emission by say 50% rather than 15%. Solar for example is four times more expensive (cheapest recent Germany commercial installation Vs most expensive new nuclear installation, Finland or 12 times more expensive compared to the same reactor design constructed in China, solar costs do not include storage.). The problem is to reduce CO2 emissions by more than around 15% storage using green scams requires storage which increases the cost of the green scams (wind and solar) by a factor of two or three. That is a fact not skepticism. If facts are not ignored nuclear is the only solution that works however the only thing greens hate irrationally more than CO2 is nuclear.

    The food to biofuel is a special madness case. As there is a fixed amount of agricultural land, virgin forest must be cut down to grow food to convert to biofuel or people will starve. Cutting down virgin forest results in a net increase in CO2 emissions rather than a reduction. That madness if it is not stopped will result in either the extinction of most animal species on the planet as there will be no habitat left or/and people will starve.

    P.S. Great site! I come here often. Best wishes to all.

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  • #

    Too bad skeptics don’t have a $1 billion per day funding source.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      We do! Didn’t you know? Jo is only waiting for the cheque to arrive. It will come any day now … They promised …

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    • #

      Unfortunately, WE are the source of a good part of the $1 Billion per day. It is taken from us by taxes, regulations, inflation, and countless other scams at the point of the government’s gun. It is nothing but theft and extortion. That it is said to be “legal” is morally irrelevant.

      By our nature and the nature of our relationship to reality, we severally have a natural RIGHT to OUR individual lives, OUR individual liberty, and OUR individual pursuit of happiness. No man nor no collective (aka government) has the right to violate those rights.

      Though some may need something, that need grants no right to take by force no matter how urgent. To be taken, the thing must first exist. To exist, it must first be produced by the expenditure of mental and physical effort by individual men. That these men used their lives to bring the things into existence, is the reason that it is theirs to keep and use as THEY choose. Those who need, need because they did not produce. How then can it be said that because someone DID NOT produce something, he thereby has the right to take that which was produced by another man?

      Perhaps you say that need places an undeniable claim on others. What you are then in fact saying is that the act of not producing gives the right to take and consume. The act of producing abolishes that right. This is the morality of a thief and a thug. That you take only to give to another does not change the moral equation. It is still the act of a thief and a thug!

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    • #
      Peter Miller

      Even 1% of that $1.0 billion figure would be a multiple of what sceptics receive in an average year.

      The alarmists are losing the argument, just imagine how bad it would become for them if the sceptics were properly funded.

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  • #
    ROM

    This World Health Organisation [ WHO ] report is somewhat dated being from year 2000 so the financial data seen here will need to be adjusted for inflation.
    Some considerable efforts in this field will have been made since 2000. Nevertheless the sheer magnitude of the differences between the importance of the following global wide situation and the sheer greed , the utter waste, the initiation of gross corruption as the carpetbaggers of the renewable energy industry try to dominate the political, bureacratic and legal classes in attempting to have ever more resources channeled their way along with total destruction of limited societal resources and ultimately the insidious corruption of the ruling, bureacratic and legal classes which then filters right down through out society and as we see from so many similar examples from past history, is often the trigger that will ultimately lead to the destruction of the mores and fabric of our society that holds a society together .

    Of such of the above have been the grounds for the beginnings of so many of the world’s bloodiest revolutions.
    And we are not immune for we cannot see or foretell the future ,

    Contrast the money needed for clean drinking water in adequate amounts for the poorest and for all of the world’s citizens from the WHO report below. Something which will benefit hundreds of millions of the poorest and those least able to help themselves from right across the planet.
    Contrast that to the sheer insatiable and unsavoury, almost evil greed of the renewable energy industry which provides no perceivable benefits to any sort at all to mankind.
    Instead it imposes immense costs and so much unneeded, unnecessary suffering, so many documented needless deaths and the increasing pauperizing of hundreds of millions in our western societies through the gross increases in energy costs demanded and given to the renewable energy industry by utterly spineless self serving and perhaps even corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and the increasingly limited amounts of energy for industry and for the advancement of our society and our living standards.

    As has been said before; The renewable energy industry,ie; wind and solar is the quickest way ever of transferring wealth from the poor to the rich

    Draw your own conclusions after reading my extracts below and hopefully you will read the full WHO report and then understand the stupidity and sheer ignorance of so many in our society when we contrast this below with utter insatiable greed of a grossly corrupt renewable energy industry ,

    The title of this report; ;WHO World Water Day Report

    [ quote]
    It is estimated that it would cost about US$ 23 billion per year to achieve the international development target of halving the percentage of people unserved with improved water sources globally (currently at 18%) and improved sanitation services (currently at 40%) by the year 2015. But governments presently spend US$ 16 billion a year in building new infrastructure. The additional US$ 7 billion a year needed to supply good water and sanitation to some who lack it is less than one tenth of what Europe spends on alcoholic drinks each year, about the same as Europe spends on ice cream and half of what the United States spends each year on pet food. Compared to what governments expend on military weapons, the cost of providing people with the means to improve their health is small.

    Managing water supply can be difficult in rural areas. Of the 1.1 billion people without access to improved water sources worldwide, around 84% live in rural areas.

    Study after study has shown that where a community improves its water supply, hygiene and/or sanitation then health improves. For example, diarrhoea can be reduced by 26% when basic water, hygiene and sanitation are supplied. Yet statistics tell a terrible story. Forty percent of the world’s 6 billion people have no acceptable means of sanitation, and more than 1 billion people draw their water from unsafe sources.

    The World Health Organization says diarrhoeal diseases remain a leading cause of illness and death in the developing world. Every year, about 2.2 million people die from diarrhoea; 90% of these deaths are among children, mostly in developing countries. A significant number of deaths are due to a single type of bacteria, Shigella, which causes dysentery or bloody diarrhoea. It is readily controlled by improving hygiene, water supply and sanitation. Although no vaccine exists and antibiotics may be inaccessible to many people, an effective intervention is available. The simple act of washing hands with soap and water reduces Shigella and other types of diarrhoea by up to 35%.

    [ end of quotes ]
    I did a lot of research over a year or so on the alternative / renewable energy industry when I ran with the “Alternative Energy Scam” thread on the now closed unfortunately Weather Zone climate blog.
    Do I need to say more on my total and complete and utter contempt for the so called renewable energy industry, one of the most corrupt, greedy, inefficient, totally ineffective in it’s stated aims of reducing CO2 and the most destructive of all industries of resources, both material and human, and wealth that this planet has seen in many a long day.
    The quicker all subsidies of every type are removed from this so called “renewable” energy industry [ which it most definitely is not ] , the quicker all legislated requirements that energy from this industry has to be taken over any other energy sources regardless of efficiency or costs, The quicker the renewable energy industry , wind in particular is forced to compensate all those who have and are suffering from the low frequency infra sound be fully compensated the better, The quicker the wind industry be forced to pay all the fines and close down their turbines if they can’t meet the legislated criteria common to everybody else for the killing of birds that other members of our society are forced to pay the better.
    The quicker the a completely corrupt insatiably greedy renewable energy industry is brought down to the same level of responsibility to society as any other industry is forced to do and brought to it’s knees the better off we will all be across our entire society.

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  • #
    handjive

    Timely and on target piece by Guest Poster Willis Eschenbach over at wuwt …”I got to wondering what had happened to the United Nations “Green Climate Fund”.

    You may recall that the Green Climate Fund was set up by the UN as the only result of the most recent Rio de Janeiro conference on climate idiocy.

    When the Fund is going full throttle, it is supposed to disburse no less than $200 billion ($200,000,000,000) dollars each and every year to the developing countries.”

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    • #

      handjive-

      Compare the goals of that Green Climate fund with what was sought via the South American world systems model called Bariloche that I described in the link below.

      The answers to all these mysteries are laid out in previous decades before work was controversial. I call it Tiptoeing through the Footnotes but it is what turns up detailing books that most of us have not heard of. Precisely because they are so confessional on intentions.

      The UN really is mounting a global coup at this point. Going for broke but with our money.

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    • #
      Speedy

      Handjive

      It’s little the Rudd-Gillard-Swan “Green Fund” – all $10 billion of it. We never hear what they’ve done with it, but they are still squarking for more.

      Forget the green facade. It was always about power and money.

      Cheers,

      Speedy

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  • #

    The purpose of these Climate models is actually not to track climate as a natural system. It is to track what public policy changes imposed in the name of CAGW can do to social systems. That becomes quite clear if you go back to the UN and the OECD’s and the Club of Rome’s original work on modelling.

    It also makes the links to education and the desired single global “system” that was being made during Cold War quite clear and it aligns precisely with what is being sought in 2013. I have Donella Meadows rarely talked about 1982 book and I went back into the 92 book Beyond the Limits over the weekend to follow up on what is explained here. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/forging-new-categories-of-consciousness-globally-to-make-political-power-the-key-determinant-of-21st-century-life/

    Jo-this relates directly to Australia’s new national curriculum too. As OECD’s Sec-General said recently, they commenced the Green Growth strategy in 2011 and now it’s time to go after the institutions. Schools are the institutions virtually all citizens pass through for an extended period of time when neural plasticity is the greatest.

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  • #
    Safetyguy66

    You know I think what irks me the most about the environmentalist’s obsession with “living in harmony with the planet”, apart from their insatiable appetite for public money for their quest. Is their blatant and foolish disregard for the reality of the very “mother nature” they profess to be “saving”.

    From my house on the banks of the Tamar (I took the gamble on waterfront real estate) I can see the timber mills at Bell Bay. The pile of woodchips looks like one of the nearby hills, its that big. Tonight the two giant “Bunsen burners” (that’s what we call them) are running. They look just like a high school Bunsen burner but they are (I reckon) 40m or so high and of a similar scale in terms of the flame size.

    I have a pretty basic telescope on the veranda and we use it to spy on popular fishing spots as well as to marvel at the industry on the opposite shore which includes Hydro Tasmania’s Bell Bay power station, the timber mills, the Port of Bell Bay and the site of what would have been the Gunns pulp mill.

    Tonight its particularly beautiful, the stars are out, there is no wind and summer is in the air. Looking at the burners I could only feel pride at what mankind has achieved and it occurred to me (the point of this post)… That we need EVERYTHING we can get to survive. We already live against unimaginable odds, considering what we have been through as a species. People like Christiana Figueres talk about the maybe effects on people in the future.

    http://www.news.com.au/national/un-climate-chief-christiana-figueres-attacks-tony-abbotts-climate-plan-and-says-nsw-bushfires-are-linked/story-fncynjr2-1226744258926

    Those of us connected to the present and to reality should be talking about the debt we owe to the people of the past. If the humans who first mastered fire could see these two burners at the timber mill running, I really wonder if they would be thinking “we have gone too far”. I seriously doubt it, living in an age where survival was uncertain must have honed an instinct that would surely desire any means necessary to live. If it was any other way we would not be here. If the tribe contained people like Adam Bandt, we would not be here.

    I think what we easily forget is we are going to need every advantage we can get to survive. Survival will be unlikely to be determined by our ability to live in what environmentalists deludedly(not a word) believe is harmony with an environment, that would snuff us out in a heartbeat if we were foolish enough to weaken our resolve. The coal we burn today powers the society that will provide the development and technology we will need to make the transition to the next energy source, whatever that may be. By any measure we are still foraging on the ground for twigs as far as the kind of energy we will need to survive as a species is concerned.

    http://io9.com/5986723/using-the-kardashev-scale-to-measure-the-power-of-extraterrestrial-civilizations

    In denying developing countries assistance to develop their natural resources in the same way Western nations have developed, we may condemn the next Newton or Hawkins to death by preventable disease over a “maybe”.

    http://econews.com.au/news-to-sustain-our-world/world-bank-funds-limit-for-coal-fired-power/

    We should be doing everything we can to ensure the maximum rate and scope of development in every country in the world, because if history is any indication, we will need all the people we can get. Nature and the environment have been pretty cruel to every species that have come before us and only a few have survived lengthy periods. The policies of so called green groups are nothing less than luddite anti humanism at their core. The fact that they have duped many people in to funding this nonsense just cannot be allowed to continue.

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    GetDown

    From what I understand 10% of revenue raised by the carbon tax is supposed to go to the UN Green Climate Fund. Does anyone know how to find what Australia has contributed so far & how it compares to other countries?

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  • #

    It would be OK spending $1 billion a day if there was some reasonable expectation of greater than $1 billion of benefit. Even if you accept the most extreme scenarios, there is no net benefit. I have outlined a proposal to demonstrate why this is the case. It needs developing, but I lack the funding to do it. 🙂

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      sophocles

      It needs developing, but I lack the funding to do it

      … have you thought of asking the Oil Companies? They’re
      supposed to support everything and everyone … including
      or especially sceptics …

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    ROM

    The skeptic Global Warming Policy Foundation [ GWPF ] site always has a European energy based referenced article.
    Europe of course being the centre of the whole global warming scam and the so called renewable energy industry has a fair bit happening right now in the renewabale energy business, none of it looking good at all for the renewable energy scammers

    The European winter which is already under way with heavy snowfalls across some of Europe weeks ahead of the ” normal’,time, [ normal as in the last 30 years of a warming trend but what’s normal ? ] is forecast to have another severe winter, the sixth in a row of severe winters so the following headline is very relevant due to energy costs being forced up and up by the stupidity and spinelessness of the politicians and their kow-towing to the renewable energy industries, wind in the UK and wind and solar of all things in Germany which is on the latitude that runs just south of James Bay, the southern extension of Hudson’s Bay in Canada.

    One of those headlines as of a couple of minutes ago was from the UK “Independent” via the GWPF was

    Long, Cold Winter For 3 Million Who Can’t Pay Their Energy Bills

    And thats in the UK . Germany has even higher numbers of citizens who can’t pay their energy bills and have been cut off from power

    As for German energy news and there has been a fair bit lately as Germany has been almost fanatical in pushing ahead with renewable energy at almost any cost [ The UK politicians have been just plain idiotic and are making energy decisions based what seems a good idea at the time No rationality at all. They are incapable of that ! ] but the scene is changing and fast as the european and German and UK economies show signs of coming close to collapse as industry of all types shuts down or leaves for cheaper and more reliable energy countries .

    So increasingly none of the news now emerging is very conducive to further investment in the European renewable energy industry ;

    From P Gosselin’s german translated NoTricksZone blog via the GWPF.
    I always have a look at the NTZ site as it opens another window into the European renewable energy and climate warming scene ;

    Germany Sends Clear Signal That It Will Slam The Brakes On Renewables

    Even Gillard despite her beat efforts never managed anything as bad a this utterly stupid directive from the EU.

    Another European Directive That Really Sucks…EU Now Banning “Energy-Hungry” Home Appliances –

    In Europe as they say; The peasants are revolting.

    The so called seriously misnamed Renewable Energy industry is finished and it’s wind and solar systems won’t be renewed when they finish their short period of a productive life. For many they will just be abandoned and again it will be the public who will have to pick up the costs of the removal of the hideous towers and derelict turbines and immense concrete foundations both land and ocean. And the dangerous solar farms with all the glass and chemicals covering ever square metre of ground.

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      Dave

      Thanks ROM,

      Great summary of idiots at work. I couldn’t believe the link above about appliances.
      EU Now Banning “Energy-Hungry” Home Appliances” – so will our washing machines only take a pair of undies and one sock at a time? Maybe have to be co-utilised as a blender for juice also. And a storage container when not in use.

      They are going from a joke to the ridiculous very quickly.

      And as you said, how many of UK’s poor will die this winter as a result of the GREEN pigs with their snouts in the swill of CAGW. Will the government ministers who are responsible for this madness ever be held to account.

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        Safetyguy66

        You will be down at the creek bashing your smalls on a flat rock if the Eco Loons have their way.

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          AndyG55

          That sounds like it would hurt ! 🙂

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          ROM

          Just like my grandfather described at a family sunday dinner when i was small boy some 65 years ago.

          He remarked how all the boys use to arrange to get together down at the river when collect drinking and washing water in the horse drawn barrels from the river and it was quite surprising that the girls all seemed to be down at the river at the same time washing their family smalls and clothing.

          The old man got quite a glint in the eye with those memories!
          My grandmother just smiled!

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      FijiDave

      ROM, good points. I read your comment, and then went to a link I’d received in an email from son-in-law and nearly choked on my cornflakes when I read this:

      Increasing levels of wind and solar power capacity have been a key factor in driving down wholesale electricity prices in Germany. They fell from over €80 per MWh at peak hours in 2008 to just €38 per MWh today and renewable energy now supplies 22% of Germany’s electricity demand on average.

      Words fail me, but I’d be really interested in your take on it, and, of course, I dare say TonyFromOz would have something to contribute.

      It is now clear why 3,000,000 can’t pay their energy bills.

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      Allen Ford

      What’s the bet that the brain dead clowns who make and/or support these sorts of decsions will go without the convenience of domestic appliances?

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      AndyG55

      They try to take Betsy (my 40yr old Simpson washing machine) off me.. they will have real fight on there hands !! 🙂

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    pat

    just in case anyone is still under the misapprehension that poor countries are being given anything:

    27 Oct: WUWT: Willis Eschenbach: Long Green
    Here’s a list of the countries who are both rich and improvident enough to squander their taxpayers’ money on the Green Climate Fund…
    Australia, $513,000…
    TOTAL, $7,555,000
    Now, of course, $7.5 million, that’s a long ways from their goal of dispersing $200 billion per year…
    How much of the $7.5 million went to help the people it’s supposed to help?…
    Among those are the Members of the Board. Of course, then you have to pay for their travel, and a place for them to meet, for their meetings. And it turns out that three Board Meetings cost just under a million dollars. Expensive meetings. Very expensive meetings.

    Oh, can’t forget the Board Committees, Panels, and Working groups. They cost just under four hundred thousand. Total, a million three …
    The next round of plum jobs are the people who make up the “Interim Secretariat”. From the name, I take it that these folks are just placeholders until we get more parasites for the real Secretariat …in any case, there’s two million in the budget to hire fifteen people. My mathematics makes that $133,000 per person per year…
    It gets worse. They actually hire themselves to do the work, at incredible rates. For example, from the UN FCCC they are hiring one full-time and one part-time person, plus some administrative support … for a cool half million dollars. One and a half people. Half a megabuck.

    And from the UN GEF, same deal, one full-time and one 60% time person, cost, another half million…
    So the Green Climate Fund has three-quarters of a million bucks in the budget for consultants, to make sure something gets done.
    Oh, and did I mention $200,000 per year for the Executive Director?…
    Of course, you can’t do business by email, phone, and Skype. Gotta have a travel budget … three hundred grand.
    Add all that up, and the “Interim Secretariat” costs $5.3 million …
    Lastly, a Trust Fund needs an Interim Trustee. The Green Climate Fund hires that service from the World Bank for just under three-quarters of a million dollars per year … one trustee …IT costs … I can hardly believe it myself, but by a strange coincidence, what it costs them to run the Green Climate Fund adds up to … well … about seven and a half million dollars.

    And that means that of the $7.5 million dollars donated by taxpayers all over the world, the people in the developing countries will get …
    None…
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/10/27/long-green/#more-96352

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      Note from Willis Eschenbach main article there is a list of Countries which forwarded that $7.5 Million, (just for this Green Climate Fund alone, and distinct from other amounts way way larger than this) to the UN for disbursement, a list of Countries that does not include the U.S. and some of you may wonder why.

      Well you see, the US never added that vital second signature to The Kyoto protocol, so they have no obligation to send money to the UN for things like this, or anything.

      So then, why do those Countries do it, send that money to the UN?

      You see, it is their obligation now, as they signed up for Kyoto, which details that signatories (the small number of already Developed Countries) must set up a price on Carbon (Dioxide) or an ETS, and a large part of that money raised from that is to be sent to the UN to pay all the costs of the remaining Developing Countries, around 150+ of them.

      That was the doing of the UNFCCC and I detailed that in this Post from three years back:

      The UN and Climate Change – Ten Fateful Words

      In that Post is a further link back to another Post of mine from a year earlier, in November 2009, and that also is worth having a look at again, well, for me anyway, just to see if what I said four years ago still stands.

      Climate Change: Near Term Prospects

      I’ve linked to that first Post a few times here at Joanne’s site now, but that is the source of all the UN’s money, the Countries who signed up to Kyoto, so no wonder the UN is desperate to find a viable replacement for a legal document whose use by date has now passed.

      Tony.

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    pat

    28 Oct:EconomicVoice: Government faces House of Lords challenge over clean energy
    The Government’s refusal to include a power sector decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill will be challenged in the House of Lords today (Monday 28 October 2013).
    An amendment to put a clean power target in the Energy Bill – tabled by former Shell chairman, Lord Oxburgh, and former World Bank chief economist Lord Stern – is expected to attract widespread support from peers.
    Major investors, including Hermes, Aviva and Schroders, wrote to the Chancellor last month demanding a decarbonisation target be inserted into the Energy Bill. They argue this would give investment certainty to power and manufacturing companies who want to develop the UK’s renewable energy potential.
    Decarbonising the UK’s power sector would also free the UK from the tyranny of soaring gas prices – the main cause of rocketing household energy bills…
    http://www.economicvoice.com/government-faces-house-of-lords-challenge-over-clean-energy-says-friends-of-the-earth/

    2010: UK Telegraph: James Delingpole: How Lord Oxburgh of Persil washed the Climategate team whiter than white (pt 2)
    Funny how wind-farming, carbon-trader Lord Oxburgh (did I mention that he was a carbon-trading wind farmer by the way?) found himself unable to agree with that last sentence…
    One thing’s for certain, the Oxburgh Inquiry was most definitely not in any way a manifestation of the corruption which infests the global warming industry. As Andrew Orlowski made quite clear at the time, when reporting on the connections which make Lord Oxburgh so eminently suitable for the job:
    Oxburgh has paid directorships of two renewable energy companies, and is a paid advisor to Climate Change Capital, the Low Carbon Initiative, Evo-Electric, Fujitsu, and an environmental advisor to Deutsche Bank. Last month we revealed that Oxburgh had failed to declare his directorship of GLOBE, an international network of legislators with ties to the Club of Rome.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100044687/how-lord-oxburgh-of-persil-washed-the-climategate-team-whiter-than-white-pt-2/

    UK Parliament: Lord Oxburgh – Register of Interests
    1. Directorships:
    2OC Ltd (clean energy)
    Non-executive Director, Green Energy Options Ltd (GEO) (energy monitors to manage domestic energy consumption)…
    2: Remunerated employment, office, profession etc.
    Occasional professional advice is given to: Deutschebank; Evo Electric Ltd (electric motors); Climate Change Capital; Government of Singapore (higher education; water resources; energy); Fujitsu (IT services); Geothermal Engineering Ltd; McKinsey & Company
    10: Non-financial interests (a)
    Director, Global Legislators’ Organisation (GLOBE) Ltd
    10: Non-financial interests (e)
    President, Carbon Capture & Storage Association
    http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-oxburgh/2494

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    PhilJourdan

    That number alone – $1 billion/day – should be enough to show a pig in a poke. Only the most incompetent could not turn water into wine or lead into gold for that amount. Proving something as trivial as a lie is one daily with much less money.

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    Peter Miller

    Just think how much good this money could do if it was being spent wisely, instead of being just p*****d up against the wall.

    This is one of the greatest scandals of our time. The amount of money being looted from the general public makes the drug cartels appear like junior amateurs.

    $1.0 billion per day?!?

    Can anyone think of just one instance where any of this money is being spent wisely – just one instance of it doing some good somewhere?

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      Well, we need to remember that this $1bn per day is, in the main, fiat money. It is only notional. It is not underpinned by anything tangible. It is not real. Even the currency is part of the bubble.

      This is an experiment in creative anarchy. It has never been attempted before, on such a grand scale, but what could possibly go wrong.

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        PhilJourdan

        All money is real. The difference is the value. Oil from the wells is an asset. Paper bills are not. When you create more paper bills, but not more assets, then those bills buy less assets.

        So this $1bn/day is an insidious hidden tax. It decreases the wealth of everyone with no laws increasing taxes being passed.

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          Rereke Whakaaro

          It only decreases the wealth of people who hold money, and treat it as an asset, rather than a medium of exchange.

          You need to look at the utility of whatever you are buying or selling. The monetary value will change, but the utility remains constant. It is the only constant, and it is personal, and it cannot be legislated. That is why I invest in food, or the means of producing food. You can barter with food. The number of eggs you can acquire with a cabbage, has not significantly changed in decades.

          I believe that a tax should also have a utility. If a tax is used to play for the protection of the community, then that has a utility. It a tax is used to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, it has a negative utility, since CO2 assists with the production of food.

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            PhilJourdan

            No, it affects everyone. Most people do not have salaries indexed to COLA. So they lose. It is that tax I was referring to. It affects everyone.

            It also affects those holding other assets, as their value does not keep pace with inflation. The one area that does not lose is debt. People with debt love it (and hence so do governments). It makes their debt cheaper.

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    Hmm,

    Fifteen hours have elapsed between the first comment at 1.3, and my comment at 18.1. And no trolls to be seen, apart from Matt who has collected the customary eight red thumbs from his family and one green thumb from his follower.

    Yesterday was a public holiday in New Zealand, so one hypothesis could be that all the trolls on this site are New Zealanders. If that is the case, I will have to have a stern word with both of them.

    Or perhaps, when confronted with the size of the pot, the trolls are all rushing back to Alarmist Central to ensure they get their fair dibs of the proceeds.

    Just musing …

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    Kevin Lohse

    Possibly OT and possibly not. Following practices learnt in a military career, I like to keep an eye on what the enemy is doing, even if I have to shower afterwards. This is the latest from the UK Beta version of your very own, “Conversation”, apparently a publication where the Oz intellectual left can reveal their foolishness to the global public at large. Guy Williams, of the University of Tasmania, has penned this:
    https://theconversation.com/why-is-antarctic-sea-ice-growing-19605?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+29+October+2013&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+29+October+2013+CID_51920a406c6120699eee7f78624fbf3

    which I leave for your delectation why I go and shower .

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    AndyG55

    All that money and they STILL haven’t designed a device that uses the greenhouse effect for heating purposes !!!

    All that perpetual energy, and nobody is using it.

    Amazing… isn’t it !!

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    DT

    In 1788 the Aussie Bush was park like. The article at the link below is worth reading, climate change has been the cause of bushfires, no the rain the alarmists said would never fill the dams again has filled the dams and allowed the bush to flourish and form more fuel to burn;

    http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/archives/43503/

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    AndyG55

    With 4 Hiroshima bombs per second, SURELY they could harvest at least a tiny portion of that energy.

    The ultimate alternative energy supply, greenhouse energy !
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Pity it doesn’t exist 🙂

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    Brian G Valentine

    1. Develop well-articulated domestic enabling environments to encourage further private investment.

    i.e., institute Communism by main force.

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    pat

    THIS IS NOT THE ONION. SO REMINDS ME OF AN ABCFACTCHECK GOTCHA. Naturally, it’s all over the CAGW websites in US:

    25 Oct: Salon: Lindsay Abrams: Nebraska approves climate-denying study; scientists refuse to conduct it
    State researchers say they refuse to be used as political pawns
    The problem, according to members of the governor-appointed Climate Assessment and Response Committee, is that the bill behind the study specifically calls for the researchers to look at “cyclical” climate change. In so doing, it completely leaves out human contributions to global warming.
    At a discussion yesterday, the Omaha World-Herald Bureau reports, Barbara Mayes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, pointed out that “cyclical” isn’t even a scientific term…
    Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the university’s acclaimed National Drought Mitigation Center, said he would not be comfortable circulating a study proposal to his peers if it excluded the role of humans.
    “Personally, I would not send it out,” Svoboda said.
    Similarly, Martha Shulski, climatologist and director of the High Plains Regional Climate Center, told the committee that the study’s scope will determine her staff’s potential involvement.
    “If it’s only natural (causes), but not human, we would not be interested,” she said.
    “I don’t want my name on something … and be used as a political pawn,” Nebraska state climatologist Al Dutcher told the committee…
    http://www.salon.com/2013/10/24/nebraska_approves_climate_denying_study_scientists_refuse_to_conduct_it/#

    24 Oct: Lincoln Journal Star Canada: ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS: Climate change study moving forward but ‘cherry-picking’ data, senator says
    Dutcher and other committee members, mostly from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, balked at doing a climate study that did not include the role of humans.
    “We would be uncomfortable in sending it to our peers within the scientific community if the human component wasn’t included. For me, it’s really tough to separate those out,” said drought center Director Mike Hayes. “Everything with climate is connected with humans.”
    The proposed study, the way it was ordered, Dutcher said, does not provide “a mechanism to address the pertinent issues in regards to climate change.”
    The issue has become polarized, he said, between one side looking only at man-made influences and the other denying they exist. He said the answer is somewhere in the middle…
    Dutcher called the $44,000 the Legislature appropriated for the study a “pittance.”
    “There’s no way this can be done with the type of dollars we are seeing here,” he said. Scientists typically spend $300,000 to $500,000 for one or two components of a climate change study, he said.
    “There’s not a whole lot you can answer with that small pool of money,” Dutcher said…
    Haar said he intended the study to be a review of current scientific evidence on climate change, which 97 percent of climatologists agree is taking place at an accelerated rate.
    http://journalstar.com/legislature/climate-change-study-moving-forward-but-cherry-picking-data-senator/article_635113f1-f28b-54a7-9c43-9e9050a15e2a.html

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      Allen Ford

      “Everything with climate is connected with humans.”

      Gosh! So even climate variations before the advent of humans was “connected to humans”? Wow!

      Would train driver Pachauri dare to call this, “voodoo science”?

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      JohnRMcD

      I know this is just being picky, but Lincoln Nebraska is NOT QUITE in Canada.

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    ROM

    Fiji Dave, again you can find the real situation re German energy costs and increases as against the spurious claims of the lying renewable energy industry here in Pierre Gosselin’s NoTricksZone blog.
    There are a number of other past posts in the NTZ blog which touches on those same energy cost increases in Germany all due to the closing down of conventional coal and oil fired power generators and the immense subsidies being aid to the German wind and solar energy producers.

    A German farmer who covers all his buildings with very heavily subsidised solar panels which produce no energy at all for at least 3 months of the German winter can reputedly live comfortably on the immense subsidy payments, paid for by those who can’t afford solar, for his limited solar output without growing anything much.

    The German political apparatus has become totally paranoid over the last year or so after suffering a 3 day complete power failure around Hamburg a year or so ago , the cause of which still seems to be unknown and which indicates the entire German grid is now in the realms of a possible complete breakdown during this coming winter.
    All due to close to minimum sustainable regular base load power supplies from coal and oil fired plants which are being closed down as they are no longer profitable as wind and solar, as the legislated prime and first used power suppliers, keep stripping off the power output and money and forcing the conventional power suppliers to run their plants at idle while still being fully responsible for all the costs.
    Which is forcing many conventional power suppliers to close now uneconomic plants. In fact and it is on the NTZ blog back a few months, one commercial power plant operator in one German province after the huge losses they had suffered due to the unpredictably and energy skimming of the renewable energy industry had decided to close their coal fired power plant.
    This would have led to regular blackouts in that German province as it was the main base load power generator with wind and solar skimming the energy output and the very high returns from that so called renewable energy, from the output of the much lower cost conventional coal fired generator .
    The State legislature in a serious panic forced through a bill that forced the coal fired plant to remain in operation even while incurring huge operating losses.
    I haven’t read of the eventual outcome but i suspect the coal fired plant is now also receiving huge subsidies.
    Germany in fact right now is building as fast as possible, eight very large coal fired generator plants as base load generators as reality as distinct from government verbosity starts to take hold in the German politically and most importantly, the employment generating industrial and business classes.
    By the way the German coal fired plants are now using american coal which is no longer cost competitive as a fuel source for generators in the USA as against the gas from the American fracking industry.
    And interestingly there in the USA some gas only ie; dry fracked wells have also been closed and capped as they also are no longer competitive at the present gas prices with fracked wells that provide both oil and gas.

    In answer to the above “whats happening now with German energy prices compared to the German renewable energy industry’s claims “?

    The following and much more on the German renewable energy situation can be found by going to the NTZ “Categories” listing in the RH column “Alternative Energies”

    From NTZ ; 18th October 2013

    Germany’s Green Energies Lead To Skyrocketing Electricity Prices – Feed-In Rates Increase More Than 10-Fold!

    German Media Now Sharply Attacking Once Beloved Green Energy Feed-In Act…”Completely Out Of Control”
    By P Gosselin on 15. September 2013

    German Green Energy Catastrophe Confirmed! Spiegel: “Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good” –

    plus many more posts on the German energy situation

    And for interest;

    “Most Severe Winter Start In 200 Years!” + Euro Municipalities Now Ignoring Foolish Predictions Of Warm Winters
    By P Gosselin on 12. Oktober 2013

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      ROM

      Quick addendum from another of my regular reads. the english version of the widely known German news mag “Speigel online” and Spiegel isn’t exactly right wing in it’s editorial outlook

      Reality Check: Germany’s Defective Green Energy Game Plan

      Germany pretends to be a pioneer in the green revolution. But its massively expensive Energiewende has done nothing to make the environment cleaner or encourage genuine efficiency. One writer argues: Either do it right, or don’t do it at all.

      So, perhaps you’ve heard about Germany’s heroic green revolution, about how it’s overhauling its entire energy infrastructure to embrace renewable energy sources? Well, in reality, our chimney stacks are spewing out more than ever, and coal consumption jumped 8 percent in the first half of 2013. Germans are pumping more climate-killing CO2 into the air than they have in years. And people are surprised.

      Why coal, you might ask? Aren’t Germans installing rooftop solar panels and wind turbines everywhere? What’s being done with the billions of euros from the renewable energy surcharge, which is tacked onto Germans’ power bills to subsidize green energy and due to rise again soon? This is certainly not how we imagined the Energiewende, Germany’s push to abandon nuclear energy and promote renewable sources, which Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government launched in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
      This same government acts as if this coal fever were merely a growing pain or transitional problem. But that’s not true. Instead, it stems from structural flaws in the Energiewende. Renewable energy and the coal boom are causally linked. The insane system to promote renewable energy sources ensures that, with each new rooftop solar panel and each additional wind turbine, more coal is automatically burned and more CO2 released into the atmosphere.

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    RoHa

    “Private money doesn’t want to go to Uganda.”

    But Nigeria is OK, isn’t it? Only there’s this Nigerian prince I’m helping out …

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    Nathan

    Just wanted to share this. John Stossel interviews Roy Spencer and Gavin Schmidt (NASA CLimatologist) on youtube “john stossel – green tyranny: In the name of protecting the earth” at around 28mins. I note the lack of confidence Gavin shows, the immaturity of his stance. Does he really believe it anymore, or is he really unsure of himself? He won’t face Roy, won’t ‘debate’. It was like watching a child and his walk out rather than sit at the same table as Roy is hilarious.

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      Brian G Valentine

      Every time Gavin comes face to face with a skeptic in public Gavin comes out looking silly and one would think Gavin would learn. Thus Gavin’s fear of doing this.

      Gavin’s worst public humiliation was probably a “debate” with himself together with Brenda Ekwurzel of AAAS, who faced off against Lindzen and the late Michael Crichton, before an audience that was resoundingly convinced that AGW was a fraud after the performance and not before.

      I don’t know why Gavin continues to do this; his retired mentor Hansen did nothing for him

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    pat

    ROM –

    customers are complaining in UK, EU, Australia about the subsidies, feed-in tariffs, for renewables, so some companies are busily exploiting countries with populations even less able to pay for the such folly:

    23 Oct: Reuters: UPDATE 2-Iberdrola warns on profit after regulatory hit
    Regulatory changes wipe 1.01 billion euros from results.
    Iberdrola SA warned on Wednesday that the costs of regulatory changes were hurting its earnings and straining its dividend payouts, making the Spanish utility the latest European energy firm to fall victim of tough market conditions.
    Like other Spanish utilities such as Endesa, Iberdrola has been hit by government measures to solve a 26 billion euro ($35.8 billion) shortfall in Spain’s power system stemming from the difference between state-regulated costs and utilities’ revenues.
    The company, a world leader in wind turbines, said cuts to renewables subsidies and a tax on generation in Spain, plus costs related to a regulator-mandated energy efficiency scheme in Britain and price cuts in Brazil had wiped 1.01 billion euros from its core profit in the first nine months of the year.
    The impact of the regulatory changes could come as a shock as Iberdrola had moved away from the volatile business of power generation to seek lower but steady earnings abroad in regulated businesses like grids and wind power…
    “Iberdrola will continue to face challenging earnings momentum, given the pending reform on renewables, and this together with the new dividend profile will weigh on the share price in the short term,” Barclays analysts said in a note…
    European utilities are going through the toughest market conditions in decades, as power demand falls because of the eurozone crisis and the EU’s energy efficiency drive. Meanwhile, the green energy boom is creating overcapacity and unpredictable policy changes like Germany’s nuclear phase-out have upset long-term investment plans.
    Some utilities have stopped investing in continental Europe and are seeking growth in emerging markets and more stable regulatory environments like the United States and Britain.
    French peer GDF Suez has led the way in investing in power generation abroad, while Iberdrola has focused on foreign grids…
    The group also faces regulatory hurdles in Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff is looking to cut power rates again, a year after a forced tariff reduction…
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/iberdrola-results-idUSL5N0ID12620131023

    March 2012: Guardian: Clar Ni Chonghaile in Nairobi: Kenya to host sub-Saharan Africa’s largest windfarm
    The Lake Turkana Wind Power project aims to provide reliable, low-cost wind power to the Kenya national grid, allowing the country to reduce its dependency on hydroelectric power
    Kenya’s remote Turkana region was briefly a top Twitter trend on Monday after British firm Tullow Oil said it had struck oil in one of the east African country’s poorest areas. The news prompted a flurry of #TurkanaOil tweets with some predicting a windfall but many others wondering whether oil would be a blessing or a curse.
    Somewhat ironically, as Kenya dreams of joining Africa’s oil giants, the arid region surrounding the jade waters of Lake Turkana is already poised to make a serious contribution to Kenya’s ever-growing energy needs with the construction of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest windfarm…
    “The World Bank Group has been working with the Kenyan government and … Kenya Power on this since August last year. They are completing their internal approval processes including the due diligence on the project. They are well advanced and we hope they will have completed and reached their board approvals in the next two months,” Carlo Van Wageningen, head of LTWP, told the Guardian in an email response to questions.
    The ambitious project, which is backed by the African Development Bank, marks the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history, and should allow the country to diversify from hydroelectric power, which provides around 60% of its electricity needs but is prone to drought and irregular rainfall, leading to blackouts and shortages that dampen economic growth.
    Only about 18% of Kenyan households have access to power, according to the United Nations, and demand is increasing. Kenya’s peak electricity demand has risen to 1,200 megawatts, compared with 780MW in 2002, due to economic growth…
    Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said Kenya was among a group of developing countries where UNEP had mapped potentially windy sites and ones with good solar potential. He said LTWP had plans to expand the windfarm once the first phase is under way…
    The windfarm will cover 40,000 acres in Loiyangalani district in north-eastern Kenya, stretching from 450m at the shore of Lake Turkana to 2,300m above sea level at the top of Mount Kulal…
    A total of 365 wind turbines will be erected once 204km of roads have been built or improved to allow access for trucks, which will need to make around 12,000 trips to bring materials to the area…
    He said it was too early to comment on what the consequences of the oil discovery in Turkana would be. “We hope and expect that the two investments can coexist without interfering with each other. We are also not sure yet on how near the discovery is to the LTWP site,” he said.
    Production of the first 50MW is expected to start by December 2013 with the windfarm due to be fully operational by late 2014. A 428km transmission line will be built to link the farm to the national grid…
    The LTWP consortium is made up of Dutch firm KP&P Africa B.V., Aldwych International, the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), the Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), Wind Power A/S (Vestas) and the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund).
    LTWP says that the carbon credits the project creates should earn 26bn Kenyan shillings (euros 200m) over the life of the project, and this income will be shared with the government and invested in the surrounding community…
    LTWP says the project will create 2,500 jobs during the 32-month construction period and 200 full-time jobs during its operations.
    According to the Earth Policy Institute, wind energy developers installed a record 41,000MW of electricity-generating capacity last year, with more than 80 countries now harnessing the wind. In Africa, Ethiopia brought its first windfarm online last year, and both Nigeria and Mauritania have projects on the table. Until now, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia have led the way, although South Africa is also believed to have substantial potential.
    In Kenya, investment grew from virtually zero in 2009 to $1.3bn in 2010 across technologies such as wind, geothermal, small-scale hydro and biofuels.
    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/28/kenya-to-host-largest-windfarm-turkana

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    pat

    heard the following on BBC World Sce Radio recently, also boasting how it means Ethiopia can EXPORT energy to its “neighbouring countries”, giving the impression this single project would fulfill all Ethiopia’s outstanding energy needs, with plenty left over for export. sounded like an extravagant claim to me & BBC has not documented the report, so i can’t give their link:

    28 Oct: BusinessSpectator: Reuters: Ethiopia opens Africa’s largest wind farm
    Africa’s biggest wind farm began production in Ethiopia on Saturday, aiding efforts to diversify electricity generation from hydropower plants and help the country become a major regional exporter of energy…
    The 210 million euro ($US289.68 million) Ashegoda Wind Farm was built by French firm Vergnet SA with concessional loans from BNP Paribas and the French Development Agency (AFD). The Ethiopian government covered 9 per cent of the cost…
    Last week, Ethiopia also signed a preliminary agreement with a U.S.-Icelandic firm for a $US4 billion private sector investment intended to tap its vast geothermal power resources and produce 1000 MW from steam.
    http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/10/28/wind-power/ethiopia-opens-africas-largest-wind-farm

    28 Oct: IEEE Spectrum: Dave Levitan: Ethiopian Wind Farm Adds Five Percent of Country’s Total Electricity CapacityThose 120 MW actually represent about 5 percent of Ethiopia’s entire installed electricity generating capacity based on the Energy Information Administration’s latest data (and a more recent interview with the head of Ethiopia’s state-run utility).
    Scaling up Africa’s energy supplies is considered an enormous priority for helping to draw many millions of people out of poverty, and doing so with renewable energy is a no-brainer…
    Ethiopia alone has an estimated wind power potential of more than 1000 gigawatts (roughly the installed electricity capacity of the United States, from all energy sources). And while only a few projects are in the works in that country, an African Development Bank study from earlier this year reported that about 10.5 gigawatts of wind power currently in the pipeline across the continent…
    The quick-hit potential of such massive electricity development is hard to resist in a continent where 500 million people lack access to power. But it is exciting as well that wind power projects like the one in Ethiopia are starting to take hold, along with the ever-present potential of Saharan solar power. And the money for these projects is starting to flow as well, highlighted by U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement earlier this year of a US $7 billion grant for the Power Africa project; much of that cash will go toward renewable energy projects.
    http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/wind/ethiopian-wind-farm-adds-five-percent-of-countrys-total-electricity-capacity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrumEnergy+(IEEE+Spectrum%3A+Energy)

    21 Oct: WindPowerMonthly: (Spanish) Iberdrola wins 61MW Kenyan contract
    As previously announced, the wind farm will be made up of 38 GE 1.6-82.5 turbines. It was originally initiated by EcoGen as a 30MW project in 2004, but was scaled up to 50MW in 2009, with a 60MW plan approved in May 2010.
    Iberdrola, as part of a consortium with Gamesa, is also building the Ngong II wind farm, 30 kilometres from Nairobi…
    While there are a number of wind farms in the pipeline in Kenya, including the 300MW Lake Turkana, the country still has only 5MW of installed capacity…
    http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1217133/iberdrola-wins-61mw-kenyan-contract

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    pat

    if someone can access this, they might find more detail than i can:

    29 Oct: Australian: Ben Packham: Labor set to stick with carbon pricing, amid debate over repeal of carbon tax
    LABOR’S shadow cabinet is set to resist moves to axe the former government’s system of carbon pricing along with its unpopular carbon tax…
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/labor-set-to-stick-with-carbon-pricing-amid-debate-over-repeal-of-carbon-tax/story-e6frg6xf-1226748889136?from=google_rss&google_editors_picks=true

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    crakar24

    Just to show all you deniers how powerful the omni potent force of CO2 is

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/26/global-warming-chile-hit-with-worst-cold-spell-in-80-years/

    We have had the hottest Septenber on record which obviously caused the NSW fires (directly or indirectly) it also produced the coldest frost in 84 years in Chile (it was rather chilly) hardy ha ha……..seriously its about time you deniers woke up.

    Cgeers

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      DT

      We are not deniers, we understand that the climate changes constantly and that the weather does too, and we understand the politics of the alarmists who belong to the Church of Climate Change socialism. And as the Church followers leave in disgust as more truth is distributed the end days are now here, for the socialists and their far left political agendas.

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        Heywood

        I think you’ll find Crakar is referring to the true ‘deniers’ ie. the alarmists you speak of who deny any consideration of the idea that the ‘mainstream’ climate change opinion could be wrong.

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      AndyG55

      You crack me up, crakar ! 🙂

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      Safetyguy66

      Also I love the way no one seems to put 2 and 2 together (except for the purposes of getting 7 as the answer) on the timelines and results.

      What I mean is “worst cold spell in 80 years”, so if we for a moment, suspend common sense and rational thought for long enough to accept that CO2 causes extreme weather events, then how do you explain the event 80 years ago which was obviously similar or worse. There can not possibly be any sort of major relationship between the two propositions. 80 years more GHG in the atmosphere to get the same result as 80 years ago??? How could any right minded person claim there is a link!

      Same with the storms in the UK overnight, “worst in over a decade” so again, its happened before with 10 years less GHG and in that event over 20 people died compared to (last I heard) 4 this time. You would need to be on some high quality hallucinogens to think CO2 is playing any part in this.

      Then factor in that we have been keeping records on this stuff for a little less than one poofteenth of earths history and what you quickly realise is AGW is a political animal, its cash for comment if your a believer and the rough end of the pineapple if your not.

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        AndyG55

        When it reached 45.3C at Observatory Hill AWS, that was EXACTLY the same as the max temp on one day in 1939. (ie 74 years ago)…NO WARMER !!

        (and anyone who wants to claim 45.8C had better explain where the extra 0.5C came from, because the AWS is meant to be the over-riding number, and it only reached 45.3C)

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    Reinder van Til

    This one billion a day shows how totally insane the human race has become. Brave New World has arrived.

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    Safetyguy66

    “That is, it can only get money at least partially by coercion”

    Coercion is the stock and trade of the environment movement.

    Christine Milne was on the radio this moring calling for an expansion of the Corporations Act to compel power companies to cut electricity supplies in the event of bushfires. Seriously Christine is batty, she has basically lost the plot and that of course assumes she was ever in touch with it in the first place. The obsession greens have with enhancing and expanding Govt. power to compel people to obey their half witted ideas is something everyone should be concerned about. They have no issue whatsoever with using their 5% support(probably an over estimate) to compel the 95% of us who want nothing to do with their nonsense. Without the masses of public money that supports their so called causes, they would be on their own, which is a far more accurate reflection of their actual position.

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    pat

    unusually for DM, article doesn’t mention how CAGW policies have contributed greatly to the high energy costs to consumers, but is more a partisan political piece for the Labour Party, which is equally responsible for those policies!

    28 Oct: UK Daily Mail: Jenny Hope: Fuel poverty Britain: 24,000 will die from cold this winter and 6m fear they cannot heat their home
    Charity warns of death toll as heating bills soar
    Britons woefully ill-informed about risks of cold weather
    Freezing temperatures can bring on heart attacks and respiratory problems
    More than three million older people are worried about staying warm indoors this winter – with six million anxious about rising fuel bills, says Age UK…
    Among their major concerns this winter were staying warm at home cited by 28 per cent of respondents – equivalent to three million older people nationwide – and the soaring cost of energy bills, selected by 55 per cent…
    Luciana Berger MP, Shadow Minister for Public Health, said ‘Many older and vulnerable people all across the UK face a choice between heating and eating this winter, and it shows how out of touch David Cameron is that the only solution he offers is advice on what room to heat.
    ‘That’s why we desperately need a Labour government which will freeze energy bills to save money for 27 million households and 2.4 million businesses and reset the market to deliver fairer prices in the future.’
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478114/Fuel-poverty-Britain-24k-die-winter-rising-energy-prices.html

    still, the DM piece is better than the hilarious ABC Lateline pretense at being concerned for our older unemployed, the 50 to 64-year-olds. definitely no mention of their higher electricity bills or anything like that. more an opportunity to bring up The Men’s Shed, one of whose Patrons is former first bloke, Tim Mathieson:

    28 Oct: ABC 7.30 Lateline: The New Generation of Job Seekers
    Most days will you find him here, at the men’s shed. It helps pass the time and it’s free. That’s key for someone who’s gone from earning $800 a week to scraping by on $250 a week on the Newstart allowance…
    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3878860.htm

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    pat

    28 Oct: UK Telegraph: Peter Dominiczak: Energy companies’ reasons for price hikes cast into doubt
    Consumers have in recent weeks been hit by price rises of up to 11.1 per cent.
    A number of the “Big Six” energy firms, representatives from which will on Tuesday give evidence to MPs on the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee, have claimed that the increases are because of rising wholesale prices.
    However, data from Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggests that wholesale prices rose by only 1.7 per cent over the last year.
    The figures, reported in the Financial Times, will prompt fury across the country as homeowners prepare for winter…
    Representatives of the companies will face a grilling from MPs in Westminster this week.
    It came after David Cameron last week promised to roll back the green levies on household energy bills…
    Greg Barker, the energy minister, will this week challenge the energy companies to return millions of pounds from customers who have overpaid bills through direct debits.
    The companies will be told that if they will face fines if they refuse to return the money or pay back interest on the £2billion stockpile…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/10408440/Energy-companies-reasons-for-price-hikes-cast-into-doubt.html

    28 Oct: BBC: Cameron ‘frustrated’ by dominance of six energy firms
    There has been widespread anger at recent price increases of up to 10%.
    Ministers are also set to meet firms to discuss claims some direct debit customers have been overpaying.
    This followed newspaper reports claiming ministers are concerned that firms are using direct debit customers – many of whose monthly payments are based on estimates of their energy consumption – to stockpile large sums of money.
    Ministers are reported to be looking at the interest that firms generate on this money and potentially introducing a new code of conduct for such payments – although no date has been set for a meeting…
    Labour wants a freeze in household bills but the government says this is a gimmick and says it is focused on reviewing competition and looking at a potential reduction in the environmental charges levied on monthly bills…
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24706853

    28 Oct: UK Daily Mail: Matt Chorley: Profits for energy firms DOUBLE in a year adding £50 to every family’s bill while wholesale prices barely change
    Mr Cameron sparked a furious coalition row last week when he vowed to ‘roll back’ the green levies which he says are forcing up bills.
    Over many years ‘extras’ have been added on all bills to pay to help the elderly heat their homes and cut the cost of energy efficiency measures like insulation.
    Ofgem estimates that in the last decade environmental and social costs have risen from £10 to over £100 on the average bill.
    In the last year they have risen by around £10 to £115 of an average annual dual fuel household bill. More increases are expected…
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478251/Energy-firms-profits-DOUBLE-year.html

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    Thank you, JoNova, for pointing out the obvious.

    I will not ask to repeat the post here, but it appears our one-world government is very stressed now.

    http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/dear-ms-merkel-phone-encryption/#comment-55921

    With kind regards,
    Oliver K. Manuel
    Former NASA Principal
    Investigator for Apollo

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      Roy Hogue

      I just can’t resist saying this any longer. The world is so ignorant as to be pathetic when it comes to spying and the necessity of spying.

      Of course we were and are interested in the goings on in the halls of government everywhere. Every country is being monitored in a hundred different ways, whether friendly or otherwise. And Angela Merkel knows it as well as does Barack Obama. Every embassy and consulate is bristling with antennas listening to anything and everything that can be found. Radio and TV is monitored and every newspaper is searched. The Internet, no doubt including this blog, is watched. Cell phones are now a promising target. The reason is simple. You need to know what both your friends and your enemies are thinking, lest you be caught off guard. And more importantly, we need to identify and know the thinking of any group that could pose a danger.

      And anyone with the slightest real background in the intelligence field knows this.

      Merkel is simply trying to gain political points. Do you really think our friends aren’t monitoring us. Wouldn’t Australia be interested in what Barack Obama is thinking? Does anyone believe we aren’t interested in what Angela Merkel and Tony Abbott are thinking?

      Perhaps the public can afford to be naive but our governments don’t have that luxury. It’s nice to talk about rights and frankly I wish we could afford to believe everyone is squeaky clean and honest. But the reality we live in every day is quite different.

      Our mistake does no lie in having spied on the world around us. It lies in having created this monster called The Department of Homeland Security instead of making the organizations we already had actually cooperate with each other like they were all on the same side instead of the damned stupidity of keeping information the FBI needed secret within NSA and the CIA. It lies in not taking reasonably sound intelligence seriously. So George Bush: one fail (created Homeland Security) and one success (Iraq). But of course we all know he lied, right? And that’s what gets all the attention. Sound judgment by President Bush gets turned into talking points for his political enemies and we buy into it like a bunch of fish snapping up the worm on the hook.

      In America we need to be a lot more concerned with the Democrat’s obvious intent to regulate more and more of our lives and a lot less concerned with the Patriot Act.

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        PhilJourdan

        I agree with you as far as you go. And perhaps you never intended to take it any further. But that is where the “scandal” arises.

        The “public” is scandalized by the act of spying. But the act is not new or unique to any one country, as you point out. They all do it. The governments, however, are “scandalized” by the revelation of the details of the spying! basically, the dirty laundry is being aired in public, and that is never done! The occasional spy is caught and played up (usually when an election looms to show the “people” that the government is on top of things), but the details of what is going on is kept secret and leaders know it (the old wink, wink, nod, nod system). But now the US has no secrets. They are being aired in the press.

        For the enemies or antagonists of this country, it is a comedy. For the “allies” (and hence where most of the shock is coming from) it is a catastrophe! It means they cannot trust the US with anything. Merkel is not “shocked” her cell phone was tapped. She is shocked it was revealed!

        Which brings up another interesting side bar. You state:

        You need to know what both your friends and your enemies are thinking, lest you be caught off guard.

        And that is true. But then it also shows the gross incompetence of the American administration in Syria! Obama was caught off guard. So either the intelligence did not work (doubtful) or he dismissed it because he knew he was doing right.

        “Doin’ Right Ain’t Got No End”

        – Captain Red Legs, The Outlaw Josey Wales

        That is the mind set of Obama, and that is much more scary to the leaders of “friends” of the US than anything else. There is a reason that, while many wanted to villainize Bush for Iraq, it was not a solo operation. Over 40 nations joined in. Before Bush went to congress, he knew he had that support so it made his case stronger in congress. Love him or hate him, Bush listened to his intelligence. Obama is ignoring his (Benghazi is more proof of that).

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          Roy Hogue

          Phil,

          We agree on the whole matter. I did think, however, that this point,

          The governments, however, are “scandalized” by the revelation of the details of the spying! basically, the dirty laundry is being aired in public, and that is never done!

          was implicit in what I said. It shows you the benefit of having someone else look over your public statements and give some advice. Too bad I sit here all alone.

          I watch Obama as closely as I can and I think you’re right, he ignores his intelligence most of the time in favor of his imaginary world where the U.S. is the bad guy and we have oppressed everyone else. He’s not done a single useful thing for this country that didn’t happen by accident that his imaginary world agrees with what’s necessary. I think he does want to defend the country but hasn’t a clue about what’s really necessary. At the best he’ll do the right thing when it will make him look good.

          Another thing that’s absolutely clear about Obama is that he has no emotional attachment to the country he supposedly leads; none whatsoever. And that may be by far the most dangerous thing about him.

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            PhilJourdan

            was implicit in what I said.

            I went back and read what you wrote oringally, and I was seeing the implicit reference until I read:

            Merkel is simply trying to gain political points.

            That threw me off. I am sure she is looking for some political points, but I think her shock or outrage has more to do with revelations made public than winning political points.

            As for your analysis of Obama, I agree mostly. I am just not sure about the emotional attachment. The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. And I am not sure he is indifferent about this country.

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              Roy Hogue

              Phil,

              I guess we can debate Obama’s indifference. He strikes me as a man on a mission that, if anything, transcends any attachment to his country so much that it dominates his thinking to the point where he can’t (or won’t) see anything else.

              Others don’t agree with me and you’re certainly welcome to see it some other way as well. But consider — have you ever heard him speak of America in anything remotely like fond or affectionate terms? Have you seen the video of the Obama’s sitting behind their bulletproof glass at some flag day celebration and Michelle clearly says with a disgusted look on her face, “All this for a flag?” and the president just as clearly responds with a rather resigned, almost disgusted facial expression, “Yeah.”

              Reading lips and body language isn’t all that hard. Reading what he doesn’t say is not tough either. These are not two people who have the kind of emotional attachment to this country that you and I have.

              I have more love for Australia after having rubbed elbows with many Aussies on this blog than Obama displays toward his native America (and it’s pretty clear that he was born in Hawaii and is a native born citizen).

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                PhilJourdan

                No need to debate the nuances. But I was struck by your post and description. Leaving aside the emotional aspect, what came through from your writing was contempt. The Obamas hold the country in contempt.

                And I think that is probably most accurate.

                As for his birthplace, it was a stupid issue created by Hillary Clinton and glommed onto by people ignorant of the laws of the land. His mother was a full American Citizen. As such, he acquired full citizenship the day he was born, regardless of the location. According to the US Code, Title 8, Section 1401, subsections D & H, that makes him a natural born citizen and eligible to hold the office. Competency is another matter altogether.

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        Interesting discussion.

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    Bite Back

    Well, why didn’t you say so a long time ago? A billion a day is no problem. After all, we’ve been withstanding that for years. Come back when it amounts to something important, like maybe a trillion a day.

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