The Australian National University (ANU) created a bit of media storm in Australia in the last week when it declared it would divest itself of “socially irresponsible investments“, with a focus on fossil fuel use. ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young was emphatic:
“I have repeatedly said climate change is the most serious issue ever to have faced humanity.”
And later, “fossil fuel-reliant companies will not survive the next 20 to 30 years unless they diversify into new energies.”
Applause and recriminations followed.
Sinclair Davidson rather callously suggested this was just a token gesture of pointless political symbolism. (Golly. You are such a cynic Sinclair.) Obviously, if climate change is THE most serious issue, the next step for ANU is to light the way, and stop using the products of fossil fuel companies too. It is surely time for a Fossil Fuel Free Zone (FFFZ) on campus. Like a Nuclear Free Zone, all forms of Fossil Fuels and Fossil Fuel Bombs will have to keep away.
All petrol and diesel powered machines would be barred at the gates. Truck deliveries will have to be by electric and solar powered trucks. Hey, other trucks can drop the goods at the gates. I’m sure students won’t mind carrying the boxes as they arrive, or perhaps Delivery-Rickshaws are the answer? General fitness and health on campus would improve. What’s not to like?
Heating on campus during the long cold Canberra winter could be solar powered, or fired by waste paper (like recycled peer reviewed papers?). Buildings could be made from wood collected from sustainable plantations (like the Chemistry lab in Nottingham — but without the part where it burns down).
I expect henceforth that campus staff will be happy to travel to conferences by foot, bike, yacht and/or nuclear sub. Or they could just Skype international colleagues from their windmill powered computer (the “Skype and skip” conference initiative). Nothing is more important than the climate.
Australia should not just be an adopter of alternative energy, we should be a producer,” he wrote. “I have often said the real debate in climate should be about producing cost-effective alternative energy. Sticking our collective heads in the sand and ignoring a changing world will ensure we do destroy jobs. “Universities like ANU should be the powerhouses to produce the new technologies for such a world.
And it’s not like Prof Young’s job, status or grants are affected in any way by climate PR and the level of political conviction and public pressure about CO2.
“As well as being Vice-Chancellor of ANU, I am also an active researcher. Climate and changes to climate figure heavily in my research into physical oceanography, global ocean climate and extreme meteorological events.” — Prof Young, ANU
Perhaps instead of rejigging investments, and releasing press releases about that, Prof Young will explain the Pause, find the missing heat, or the lost hot spot?
As far as the FFFZ goes — there is already a group called Fossil Free ANU:
But Louis Klee from the group ANU Fossil Free said while it [divestment] was a big achievement for the university, the decision did not go far enough.
He said the ANU still had major holdings in BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Woodside Petroleum.
Curious that FossilFreeANU don’t seem to want ANU to produce less CO2 just to give up on the profits associated with its production. (What’s more important — changing the weather, or hobbling independent corporations in favor of big-government dependent groups? Vale renewables?)
“It is wrong for ANU to continue to profit from these industries that are responsible for the wreckage of the planet,” he said.
I guess other people can make those profits instead then.
Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at Australian National University (who could not possibly have a vested interest in this argument, right?), assures us on The Conversation that the ANU’s decision is not merely tokenistic. He was astonished by what he calls the “intense” response.
The outrage from the affected companies shows how much influence universities can wield when they put their money where their mouth is.
But climate economics seems to be so different from normal economics:
The Australian government seems to believe that national prosperity is tied to fossil fuels, and that “Team Australia” ought to be backing the sector and its individual companies, no matter their environmental performance.
Nevermind that Australia’s largest export industry is coal.
Nonetheless, we are sure Frank Jotzo’s productivity and prosperity is not tied to fossil fuels, and he’ll be the first on campus to start the campaign to make ANU a fossil free zone, right? Turn off the computer, the lights, and get on your bike.
Yes, the ANU is the other one of my alma maters, that and UWA. Sigh.
There’s all that plastic and cabling in computers derived from fossil fuels. Those much- cherished GCM’s will have to go and the calculations transferred to abacuses. Those lovely graphs will have to be drawn by hand using natural pigments. All available research literature will have to be transcribed onto vellum and an enormous library to hold all the scrolls will have to be built. It’ll all be make work now that that nice Mr. Abbott has cut the funding.
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Right you are Kevin. And the tires, tubes, wiring, plastic, lubricants, batteries, etc. on those electric cars would have to go. As would fertilizer, all frozen, prepackaged, and cooked food (unless they cooked it over a fire started without butane lighters, matches, or electric coils, all metals as they are mined, all wood unless it is cut with stone axes because saws use material mined or powered by fossil fuel or generated with fossil fuels.
No light bulbs (CFC or LED) as they are made of glass, metal, etc. mined using fossil fuels).
Under conditions of no electricity (because solar power and wind power both depend on mining), only power from wood and dung they could collect, only light from their fires, no grain, milk, beer, or any food they didn’t produce themselves without imported water (remember it is pumped or stored, and disinfected with chemicals produced in factories using fossil fuels, metals, plastics, etc. No bricks or concrete, no metal. In fact stone age living hunting and gathering your food with rocks and sticks, grass baskets, no clothes for your body, no medicines, and on and on for millions of everyday things.
What a bunch of non-thinkers inhabit our public and subsidized and tax supported private universities.
Utter nonsense.
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I suggest whale oil lamps, of course caught in the wild (farmed fish takes energy) on a wind powered 18th century style cutter, just like in the old days. Whale oil was all the rage in pre-industrial times.
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Thanks Bobl. Yes that would work. But there are a few problems. Didn’t the ship builders buy timbers cut with axes or saws. An wouldn’t steel or iron chisels be needed in finishing these beautiful ships so that they were almost tight enough to hold water. Also a magnetized iron needle for the compass, forged tips for the harpoons, etc. And to make it even sillier, does Australia allow whale hunting? If something cannot be grown, picked from vegetation, or hunted down and killed then it must be mined. It is all useless chatter and pompous press conferences by the leftists who mostly ride on the taxpayers’ back. It would all be funny if it didn’t cause many people their lives, jobs, and well being. It keeps many millions in poverty and denies the benefits of fossil fuels to those who need them most.
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Not having gone to University nor understanding how a University works, I have a question.
People gift money to University’s. These money’s are then invested in company’s that pay dividends?
Some company’s pay better dividends than other company’s and I personally having had such investments in different company’s and have found that the fossil fuel investments generally paid a lot better than some of my other investments.
So divesting from fossil fuels, isn’t this like cutting the had that feeds it (the University). Where do they reinvest to make up the shortfall?
Renewables? That would be a great strategy! Not only would you not receive any dividends but I think within a few short years renewables hopefully will completely collapse.
And aren’t a lot of pension funds invested – and some quite heavily – in renewables – there go some of the pensions!
Am I missing something?
Thanks
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People talk about “divesting from fossil fuels”, by which they mean selling their shares to somebody else, perhaps at an overall profit, or perhaps at an overall loss, depending upon timing.
Does the company issuing the shares care about this? Not at all. They do not care whose dollar they have, as long as it underpins their business.
The rhetoric spouted by Prof. Young is no more than tokenism. But there again, that is all we have ever expected to receive from academia. I put it down whatever they brew up in the Science labs, after hours.
You are probably fortunate, to have not gone to University. You acquire “learning” at university, but not necessarily “wisdom”.
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To quote a certain North American citizen:
“Data is [sic] not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, and understanding is not wisdom.”
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Nicely put LG – I shall use that.
You don’t happen to know which North American citizen said that, do you?
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Attributed to astronomer Clifford Stoll.
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Thanks
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Rereke, I’ve long pondered that particular quote. Stoll (an “interesting” character) made several dead wrong assertions – to which he cheerfully admits.
But that one, quite possibly made off the cuff, sticks in my mind. Not just because it’s demonstrably true (how many people do we all know who can draw known facts out of their brain like rabbits out of a hat yet are disasters at making common-sense decisions?) but because it draws the sharpest quantitative distinction between its constituent parts. I very much doubt any attempt at a “quantitative” analysis could disprove it.
But perhaps that’s a question for the semioticians and philosophers…
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I work entirely with information — it is my input material, and my output material (although hopefully enriched with additional input material).
However, we live on a world when we are tyrannised by data — measurements of events long past, and with little context, and with few recorded relationships to other contemporaneous events, each with their own set of measurements.
People believe measurements, and so the rely on statistical analysis of data, from multiple sources, that are presumed to be about related events, occurring at the same point in time.
It has always been my conjecture, that you cannot take some information (that has a specific context), and decompose that information into discrete data items, that may or may not be stored together, and then recombine them at some later point, to reproduce the original information.
What happens to the context, in that process? It has to be assumed, and that assumption will be influenced by the purpose of doing the recombination, rather than the context in which the original information was captured.
The quote from Clifford Stoll will be very useful, and I intend to make him quite famous, if I can.
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Not talking about anyone specificially here – what stands out is how to be at the top of your game in this country, to be part of the Establishment, it seems you have to sell your soul to the Warmist cause.
I’m not sure which is scarier – the fact that the warmist cause exists and is at its heart geniocidal in nature if you took it to its logical conclusion, or that knowledgable powerful people would so easily sell out the public to their cause. I guess in many ways powerful people have sent huge numbers of good hearted people to their deaths in pointless wars for questionable causes, I guess nothing has changed.
One benefit of the internet age is we are much more aware of how the powers that be seem to be highly disfuctional, and appear to have strong psychopathic/sociapathic tendencies. Perhaps thats the price of power – losing your humanity and be willing to shred othe rhumans for a brief shot at power. Kind of a damning indictment of some humans if that is the case.
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You make an excellent point.
Beyond that point is also the notion that by simply selling their interests in these companies to the market, they have also divested themselves of an opportunity to influence the companies investment directions. A shareholder like the ANU would no doubt having voting rights in most cases and in some cases may be a significant investor. Its highly likely, if not guaranteed that whoever picks up these shares will care significantly less about the “moral/ethical” investment strategies those companies take. Particularly when the shares are being publically sold in to the market as somehow “tainted”, any buyer is obviously stating their lack of concern for the ANU’s position simply by buying them. Combine that with the fact that many of the companies divested would have interests in a broad range of activities, of which fossil fuels would be only a part, the ANU has also denied its investment dollars to activities it probably otherwise supports or at least has no issue with.
This is flawed green logic at its finest. Its a dummy spit, its taking your ball and going home. If the ANU is not willing to significantly lower its carbon footprint on its journey to “zero fossils” ASAP then it has not only achieved nothing, but very likely just made what it thinks is the issue, worse.
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Yep, you got it …
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Thanks Rereke
“Does the company issuing the shares care about this? Not at all. They do not care whose dollar they have, as long as it underpins their business.”
They do care about it, however, if the ‘research’ on which such a divestment decision was based can be shown to have been inaccurate or misleading, yet has been released into the public domain.
Misleading information can have a material impact on a company’s share price. If so, presumably releasing it may constitute an offence under Corporations Law.
Alice
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A lot of super funds too. It’s like someone booby-trapped the RET so it would really hurt to remove and forever attract government propping.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/pacific-hydro-writedown-20141005-10qgvx.html
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Reminds me of the USA how some credit car companies wont deal with gun stores. As such, becasue they know the US 2nd Ammendment stands, they are trying to use other pressures to make gun ownership more difficult.
Similarly – if enough Establishment linked super funds pull out of fossil fuels it may start a trend, but, and this is the bit where the air whistles through the average greenies head where the brain should be – if you corner yourself in green stuff only, and it isnt doing well, well you will crash the super fund.
I just cant imagine too many super fund Boards lasting long if they do that often enough.
And to be blunt – joe average doesnt give a rats about green *cough* “ethical” investing ( greenie “10:10” snuff movies anyone? ) – they just care about if they have enough money to retire on. Most of them couldnt, truth be told, give a rats about the planet.
I think now were at a juncture – its probably a point that we need to start lobbying super fund boards etc to be sensible about all this – UNLESS – the plan is to crash the economy by implementing a “Jim Jones greenie kool-aid” style investing approach…..
As they say, the difference between society and complete anarchy is about 3 mortgage payments, so lets see how that goes.
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If renewabubbles collapse a few SMSFs then it’s the fault of the investors, they should have researched better, holding those stocks might have made sense in “peak hysteria” say 98 through 2000 so that you could lay your hands on all that government slush money, but makes zero sense now. My view, oil, gas, uranium. The only renewabubble related commodity worth investing in are possibly rare earths only because energy efficiency in general makes sense, and also the tailings will contain high levels of thorium, which could be mined from the tailings if thorium power ever gets off the ground.
I’m pretty bullish on traditional energy in the long term, though in the short term expect some rationalisation and M&A in that sector as fracking creates an oil/gas glut. Renewables? Don’t touch them even with a 10 foot barge pole. European fossil energy miners outside of Russia would be a great bet – I think the current skirmish will shift European attitudes to fossil energy.
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Well Peter, now that university fees are going to be deregulated I would think they hope to make up any short fall by screwing their students for more money. Failing that they will try to screw it out of the tax payer as no government will allow a university to fall over even if by its own financial recklessness. If you have no responsibility and no consequences then you do not have to worry about the results of your superior moral stand.
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This is symptomatic of the well known problem with academics:
They live in ivory towers and have little or no idea how the real world works.
Putting academics in charge of businesses is almost guaranteed to produce disaster.
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They all believe that if they were god, they would have made the universe work differently. Once that belief is accepted, it is a very thin line to cross for them to believe they can tell god how to do things. Then finally, they conclude all they need to do is to write a few equations, draw a few graphs, wish, and assert and it will all be done.
It follows that, if their wishes are not met, it is because of all those uncooperative engineers and business men insisting on having things their own way. It is clear that such people can’t appreciate the higher and finer things of life. The obvious solution, to academia, is a bigger government, more guns, more whips, more knives, more hobnailed boots, and more government grant money to force all those uncooperative engineers and business men to be more cooperative and do things their way.
Apart from the fact that such thinking is essentially that of a spoiled three year old child, what could go wrong?
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e.g., Fairfax Press and Fred Hilmer!
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And putting them in government is sure to cause disaster.
Giving them a management roll in the bureaucracy is even worse.
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“As well as being Vice-Chancellor of ANU, I am also an active researcher. Climate and changes to climate figure heavily in my research into physical oceanography, global ocean climate and extreme meteorological events.” – Prof Young, ANU
Me donner une pause!
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Huh… I bet this will go over well in ANU’s Chemical Engineering department.
Then again, the school already offers a program in ‘Climate’, so I’m guessing that the intelligent faculty have already started moving on.
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If they truly are concerned with global warming, I think the first thing a university should do is disband since the only thing of value that they have produced in the past few decades is “hot air,” and without that, there might not be any global warming at all.
But more seriously, I would think that the proper thing for a university to do is “educate. not indoctrinate.” It seems to me that “higher education” ceased to exist sometime around the turn of the century, and was replaced by “propaganda mills” instead.
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I would put the date earlier than the turn of the century — somewhere around 1970, when the Cold War was at it’s height, and the Soviets where actively trying to infiltrate the British and American corridors of power (think Philby, et al).
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Despite the ANU VC saying this to a senate estimates committee “The reality is our economy and indeed the world economy is going to be dependant on fossil fuels for decades to come” the university decided to shed its holdings in Iluka Resources, Independence Group, Newcrest Mining, Sandfire Resources, Oil Search, Santos and Sirius Resources for ethical reasons – representing just a couple of per cent of its total holdings. But note that “While seven resources stocks were dumped, ANU has retained investments in mining groups BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, as well as in Woodside Petroleum and Wesfarmers”. Is that hypocrisy and bowing to student baying or what?
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“Truck deliveries will have to be by electric and solar powered trucks.”
I would want to make sure that any electricity that entered the campus grounds was also pure and uncontaminated by of fossil-fuel sources. And, of course, I wouldn’t want to be caught wearing clothes that had been created using fossil-fuel energy. Nor eat food…
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“Truck deliveries will have to be by electric and solar powered trucks.”
But only those produced in plants powered by sun/wind/water.
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Nope, sorry, the wires that carry the electriciy in were made with fossil fuels, lots of it. Most of them even have a core of carbon steel which requires coking coal, even before you consider the electricity use. Power conductors are largely aluminium (wound around the steel core) which as we all know is terribly polluting to make. I’m afraid that until ANU can carry sufficient electricity in using wet 100% hemp string, they will have to go without…
The engineering department of ANU must be having a pink fit. Not only is the stipidty an affront, but those same companies they are divesting from, and their peers, like BHP and Woodside that they kept (Hypocrites) are also key users of University engineering research services and funders of various chairs. I suggest the fossil and mining industries, and anyone who is even thinking about gifting Universities, divest ANU and pick a sane University to support
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Fire the faux academics.
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One wonders whether they are greenies first and academics second…..
Theres that selling of their souls to the Establishment disfunction again…
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The excellent news, when someone, or an institution, divests themselves of a large tranche of shares and share options, the price of those shares may well drop.
The really good thing is hopefully they will be on the open market and available for anyone to better the risk spread of their investment portfolio, or your managed fund broker will, or hopefully the investment arm of your pension company will (unless you have foolish bought an ‘ethically green’ pension).
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Heh, I saw this quote on another site (forgot which one) earlier and is perfectly appropriate here.
“One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.”
Eric Hoffer
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There’s a movie about a Fossil Fuel Free Zone called “The Village”.
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The Hockey Schtick nails it again.
“All global warming since 1940 is due to artificial “processing” of data”
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The ANU is showing courage beyond compare in this draconian age of ‘Big Carbon’, I hope one day they can they can implement revolutionary ideas such as the G. Fawkes Laboratory at Nottingham University even using such structures for their own residences.
The ANU will continue to lead in sustainability practices with the recent prototype of a ‘Carbon Neutral Bong’, the ANU’s DR Chong stated “It’s amazing mann, after a few you can actually hear Gaia thanking you!”, just like the Bong anything Carbon Neutral seems to have many drawbacks, let’s hope this type of ‘Australia’s best practice’ catches on.
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Oh crap forgot the /sarc. button on the end, as if it needs one but then again……
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Thanks for the (wry) laugh Yonnie. No sarc tag needed!
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ANU could use a couple of dozen large wind turbines. Would really enhance the place. 🙂
And think how much climate modelling they could get done using all that wind power….. when there is no wind. !
Plus bonus for everyone. 🙂
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Griss,
In order to taylor the turbines to the academic culture of the ANU how should they be set – to suck or blow?
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No, just “spin” ! 🙂
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The Griss:
The Canberra Government wants to have 90% “renewable” energy for Canberra, but ALL the wind farms have to be in NSW!
So they won’t allow wind turbines on the ANU campus.
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=3327
Of course, if that nasty Mr. Abbott cuts or drops the RET then there will be no new wind farms because they will lose money rapidly. If the ANU is investing in “green” electricity then the Chancellor should be stood down, pending psychiatric report.
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The NSW government should tell them to GO JUMP !
If the ACT wants 90% renewables, they should do it on their own turf !!
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Do you know how much energy goes into making one of those batteriesn(more than ever comes out). The only reason they make a profit is the energy coming out of them can be sold for more than the energy that went into them – thanks to generous subsidies
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The unrepentant use of fossil fuels by those who vilify the products, the industry and the had working Australians employed by that industry, is perhaps the greatest hypocrisy facing mankind.
My partner said to me recently “Im so glad your not a climate alarmist, you would be unbearable”. What she was referring to is my obsessive penchant for living by the words I speak, for having the courage of my convictions. She knows I would disconnect from the grid and live under a bridge before I would use fossil fuel if I genuinely believed it was such a dangerous issue.
As the santa slaying book and the recent events in Canada clearly illustrate, when your cause is “saving the world” or “doing Gods work” all bets are off. You can say and do exactly as you please because your moral high ground is unassailable. So for a University to publically say one thing, then obviously do another, is just par for the course these days.
I think your “fossil fuel free zone” idea is actually ground breaking for the sceptic movement.(do we have a movement?) Can you imagine standing at the gates of an ANU campus with a sign saying “Fossil Fuel Free Zone” and having some unwashed HECS bludger arguing with you that its going to far, the irony might be so delicious I would pass out. I think it is an idea well worth pursuing (T Shirts perhaps?). Its a position we can use to bludgeon these hypocrites, perhaps even bludgeon them into the realisation of the base stupidity of their position.
In reality we should have a massive statue of a chunk of coal with oil dripping down it, cast in solid iron out the front of Parliament. Because in reality that’s the truth of this nation, that’s the truth of our prosperity. Its the “inconvenient truth” of hippies tweeting and facebooking their puerile venom against the very industries and technology that facilitate their worthless communications.
Another great story Jo, thanks.
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Thank you Safetyguy66 (#16) for a most enjoyable turn of phrase that resonates in a strange way the exhortation of the radical, regarding the treasures awaiting at the Pearly Gates after the job has been completed. Is sublime irony a celestial experience? Likely may well be here.
As Tony has often said: ‘tell them to turn it all off…see how long that lasts’. ‘Arm chair’ politicians and activists to a man, ANU should be laughed out of the room with an ‘is that all you’ve got?’ Symptomatic of a post-modern intellectual drift away from the rigour of core business and into the realms of politics and opinion, leadership grooming and the all important sine qua non installation of the guilt complex irretrievably associated with a nauseating Progressive conscience.
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Couldn’t agree more, I have spent my working life exploring for oil and coal and I am very proud of what I have contributed towards the wealth of this nation. I am tired of my profession being constantly attacked and denigrated.
I am thoroughly sick of publicly funded green nutbags spitting in the face of the people who have generated the wealth that they are happily living off.
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What? Actually living by one’s beliefs? Doing as you are saying? Not asking others to do what you won’t? Academia and the Green Left actually behaving in that way?
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Not quite bemused. They are doing it on somebody elses dime, and hope, “hope” that the students go along with it.
It is in fact no risk to himself or his household.
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Posturing. Leftist elitist posturing. Save Ebola victims by forcing Australian doctors and Nurses to go to Liberia. Save boat people by drowning 1200 of them. (“Accidents happen”) Save the water in the Murray by letting it run to the ocean. Save the planet by destroying modern society. Save the world from the evils of Chlorine by banning its use. Carbon dioxide is pollution. No science, no sense, no caring and always what someone else has to do and why someone else has to suffer. Careless, callous, utterly irresponsible and always at the great cost of someone else. What else can you expect from cosseted public servants and the ABC.
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On the Ebola question the way forward is clear, in West Africa there are 4000 dead and 3000 survivors. Surviving Ebola confers immunity, the west should be training and paying the survivors to look after the sick !
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Now we have a doctor freshly returned in New York City. No quarantine? What are they thinking? Why no quarantine?
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I urge them to be careful about investing in wind-
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/wind-power-investments-in-germany-proving-riskier-than-thought-a-946367.html
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Very OT.. Wish me luck.. Gall bladder removal today !
Its been a pain, will be glad its gone.
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Good Luck.
Have it preserved and labelled Gallbladderthe4th.
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The Griss will become The Bliss …
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It will have a better personality and science knowledge than its namesake.
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If you guys really think it will change my attitude to wannabee trolls.. think again !! 🙂
Off to the hospital in 15 mins !
See ya’s.. hopefully tomorrow morning (I think they said they like to keep people in overnight)
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Good fortune.
KK
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Good luck mate, had mine out a couple of years ago and it has been a great relief.
Bit of a mixed blessing though, watch the diet and avoid fatty foods.
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Good luck mate I hope it all goes smoothly. As a massive salt fan, I suspect I wont be far behind you.
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I think what’s happened is the modern language of political correctness has confused him.
Sustainability is the prime example here. I’ll bet he makes his own definition of what this word means.
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Also, I’d suggest divestment from energy infrastructure that is completely dependent on fossil fuels for its manufacture, implementation and supplementation. Like wind and solar infrastructure. Hell, you’ll even need fossil fuels to dismantle that junk and cart it away.
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Shhh!…. You’ll upset Tristan.
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Sigh 🙁
ANU is one of mine too.
It is such a shame that all these people are competing to gain public recognition.
Unfortunately it is leading them to use their intellect to create populist pseudo academic sound bites.
They have also, very unfortunately, fallen victim to a hierarchical delusion that they are espousing ‘higher level thinking’ because they are still resident academics (as opposed to a far greater number of tertiary educated people who have gone out into the rough and tumble of the real world)
Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ pyramid does not state that once you reach the higher levels of ‘self actualisation’ on the pyramid that you can then stay cossetted in academia and you can then automatically sneer at and trash the structures of society that supply access to the other needs. . .AND . . .supplied the means for all of us (including Prof Young) to have access to higher education!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
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Climate change a CSIRO priority as new chief looks to secure funding
Larry Marshall says global warming is high on the public’s agenda because ‘the science is so compelling’
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/15/climate-change-a-csiro-priority-as-new-chief-looks-to-secure-funding?CMP=twt_gu
So. Where does the CSIRO spend taxpayer funds on the “compelling science?”
“Is your coastal community prepared for the effects of climate change in the marine environment?
Test if you are prepared with our online climate change blueprint tool”
http://coastalclimateblueprint.org.au
So let’s check some of the ‘scientific claims’, courtesy of the home of ‘academic rigour’ & ‘journalistic flair’, and cul-de-sac of debate, the conversation:
https://theconversation.com/your-coastal-towns-climate-score-theres-a-website-for-that-33306
“The most common impact has been the southern shift in the distribution of species, as well as declines in young surviving to breed in species such as the southern rock lobster. This has resulted in substantial declines in allocated catch.”
Off to ‘oogle & research this claim …
A Thriving Industry
The value added to the country’s regional economies involved in this industry is valued at around $1/2 billion a year, and for many small towns it is the primary source of economic activity.
The industry continues to evolve, attributable in most part to the innovative mindset and culture of continual forward thinking improvement adopted by its members.
Australian Southern Rocklobster Clean Green Program
The Clean Green program is a world first rock lobster supply chain management strategy. It is a product certification program integrating “pot to plate” standards for environmental management, food safety and quality, work place safety and animal welfare.
http://www.southernrocklobster.com/industry/thriving/thriving.aspx
Quote: “St Helens (Tasmania) is located in one of the fastest warming regions globally (estimated at four times the global average) and is experiencing a transition from cool temperate to warmer temperate species.”
Off to ‘oogle again. Search criteria: “fastest warming places on earth”
Here is the page response: 541,000 results (0.36 seconds) … see for yourself. No mention of St Helens, Tasmania.
Heck. It’s not even in the top 10:
10 Places Where Climate Change Is Being Felt the Fastest
http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/earths-10-places-where-climate-change-happening-fastest-20140812?pageno=1
Is it any wonder the universities are turning out dunces?
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I love this one.
FFFZ !!!!
The truth of their beliefs is in their ACTION.
No action — No truth ?
KK
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Just slightly off topic, I see our ABC have given John Hewson a double free kick against the government and any reduction of the RET. First on the web, and then on broadcast version at the 16.25 minute mark.
Our ABC being balanced again, Bravo!!!
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Nothing worse that a sore loser, poor John Hewson, he is so hurt.
40
Hey Jo,
I think you’ve got a misspelling in this one. Isn’t it fossil fools instead of fossil fuels.
On the other hand, if they really want to make fuels of themselves I suspect someone will be happy to supply the match.
Wouldn’t that be some hot debate on the merit of the science?
What on Earth can you do with such people?
70
“What on Earth can you do with such people?”
Put them in a big cargo net and haul it up.
KK
30
There is ahip of fools leaving soon, they need a crew ….antarctica anyone?
40
Do they need a cheap barbeque unit? Works well on ice I am told.
30
At the rate this stuff is growing, at least around here,there shortly won’t be a big enough cargo net you can use.
My neighbor across the street just finished installing 10 solar panels on the roof (I counted them as they were hauled up, one by one). They’re on the back side of the roof where you can’t see them from the street and facing west. Which means they get their best output only in the mid afternoon and virtually nothing useful until around noon. Dumb placement if you’re serious about it. Anyway, after they’ve been up there a while I intend to go over and ask about how they’re performing and what the financial arrangement is.
If Tony’s research is anywhere near the truth and I think it is, then there’s a real disconnect between the renewable energy push and reality. A capacity factor of less than 20% for renewable sources compared with about 97% for conventional generation is a real failure to understand the meaning of numbers, just for starters.
So no, there’s not much you can do with them. Ignorance of technology will always be the biggest problem to overcome and we’ll never do it because no one even knows the questions to ask, much less the answers.
30
I have trouble even convincing my wife about how things work. She simply has no background from which to understand heating and air conditioning or electricity for example. And that seems to be true for the majority of the population.
It’s no wonder that people are so easily manipulated by the “experts”. I doubt that most of the California legislature, the ones who put in the California equivalent of the EPA, bill AB-32, understand what the machinations of the behind the scenes “experts” are all about.
She does understand that global warming is a farce though.
40
QUESTION FOR Tony:
Am I right? You can’t get any benefit out of PV arrays until the output voltage exceeds the line voltage the alternator has to generate to feed into your wiring and then you need even more to begin feeding power back into the grid. So there’s no benefit at all if the light isn’t bright enough to put out 117 Volts, The U.S. standard (it really runs around 120 RMS according to my UPS).
10
Keep them on ice?
30
Jo, clearly it all went downhill after you left.
We have two data points so it must be a trend …
60
I didn’t attend ANU, and I am feeling sorely left out of this conversation.
50
Jo, super excellent riposte!
I only wish they would take it up and suffer….they are possibly smug enough and dumb enough….wouldn’t take them long to give it up.
50
My first thoughts too; a cheap university coming up for sale in the near future.
40
Friday Funnies!
25 September 2013 stefan@realclimate
What ocean heating reveals about global warming
“Beam me up Scotty!
Now to the most amusing attempt of “climate skeptics” to wish these scientific results away.
Their argument goes like this: It is not possible that warming of the deep ocean accelerates at the same time as warming of the upper ocean slows down, because the heat must pass through the upper layer to reach the depths.
This argument reveals once again the shocking lack of understanding of basic physics in “climate skeptic” circles.
Beam me up Scotty! There is no intelligent life on this planet.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2013/09/what-ocean-heating-reveals-about-global-warming/
~ ~ ~
October 6, 2014
Lack of ocean heat puzzles Nasa
“Scientists have noticed that while greenhouse gases have continued to mount in the first part of the 21st century, global average surface air temperatures have stopped rising along with them, said Nasa.
Some studies have suggested that heat is being absorbed temporarily by the deep seas, and that this so-called global warming hiatus is a temporary trend.
But latest data from satellite and direct ocean temperature measurements from 2005 to 2013 “found the ocean abyss below 1 995m has not warmed measurably,” Nasa said in a statement.”
http://www.news24.com/Green/News/Lack-of-ocean-heat-puzzles-Nasa-20141006
. . .
There is no intelligence in our universities of climate science.
That debate is surely settled.
60
Since they are also divesting from certain mining companies, they need to stop using minerals as well. (Good luck with that).
Copper, which is mined by Newcrest (one of the ‘excluded’ companies), goes into wiring, so no laptops, iphones, and no alternative energy for the university, which also uses copper in wiring along with a multitude of other mineral products, including in its’ own research.
No green or academic ever ceases to use minerals. From the time one wakes up, to the time one goes to bed, minerals in one form or another are being used (including what goes into one’s house to sleep in to begin with), and has been since the days on the savannah and people started chipping flint (a mineral) for use. People have been mining for tens of thousands of years, and will for tens of thousands of years into the future, but just don’t tell the greens. (‘Hand me that microphone, made by extracting minerals, to shout ‘NO MINING’-a concept that doesn’t exist-even cavemen use tools which are a form of quarrying/mining).
Isn’t it socially irresponsible to do the following?:
-use a closed, selective, report to determine what is and what isn’t socially responsible, without releasing such information or discussion to the public domain?
-not to approach or discuss the issues with the actual companies involved (like guilty until proved innocent).
-making value judgements about certain companies without interaction with relevant regulatory and other agencies who are actually responsible for the very matters and issues they are concerned about, and may have a different view about?
-deciding that it knows better than the existing political, legal and social framework as it currently stands? (In which case, then start a political party)
-Not conducting a review of the internal conflicts of interest within the university itself?
When people stop using minerals, we can start listening to those who decide that mining is socially irresponsible, until then they are just blind and ignorant hypocrites.
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Reuters out in force in Brussels, spinning & updating every moment!
23 Oct: Reuters: Barbara Lewis: UPDATE 5-EU leaders divided over costs as climate talks begin
“If there isn’t an agreement in Brussels among the countries that are furthest ahead on this issue, how are we going to convince the Chinese or the Americans or the poorer countries?” (French President) Hollande said on his arrival for the Brussels talks…
The big stumbling block is how to share the financial burden of moving away from fossil fuel and investing in a greener energy mix…
Poland – whose new prime minister Ewa Kopacz is attending her first EU summit – fears the political fallout from policy that could shut coal mines a year before an election.
The nation has long led objections to EU efforts to be more ambitious about curbing emissions, but other nations have also raised concerns about the proposed deal.
British counterpart David Cameron says too much red tape will fuel Eurosceptic demands to quit the EU…
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Julia Fioretti, Philip Blenkinsop, Adrian Croft and Andreas Rinke; Editing by David Goodman, David Holmes and Lisa Shumaker)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/eu-summit-climatechange-idUSL6N0SI2HS20141023
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Cameron’s survival as Prime Minister will depend on what he does and says at this summit. If he makes a mistake, just watch UKIP eat his lunch.
60
Cameron’s got a far more pressing problem. After a Conservative MP resigned and won the by-election with an increased majority as a member of UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) in Clacton, and Essex sea-side resort just outside London, another MP has done the same thing in Rochester, a town at the mouth of the river Medway where it joins the Thames in Kent. The election is in about a month’s time and the bookies have UKIP to win at 5-1 ON. Cameron has put himself on the line with this one, turning the election into a referendum on his record as PM. If he loses, as looks likely, he could well face a leadership challenge within the Parliamentary Conservative Party. The voluntary party have already voted with their feet – over 50% of the membership has disappeared in the last 6 years.
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But Cameroid needs the support of the lefty liberals more then ever to get through his term of office without it all grinding to a halt.
So in the meantime UKIP can carry on expanding with the true conservatives joining the fold, and all at the Cameroid version of conservativism’s expense.
50
The UK has been told it must pay an extra £1.7bn (2.1bn euros) towards the European Union’s budget because the economy has performed better than expected in recent years.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29751124
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UKIP were really quite clever getting these sitting MPs to resign and restated for election when they switched party allegiance. That’s not a requirement of the system and these are the first defecting MPs to have done so in recent history.
The mid-term protest vote gives them a strong chance of winning which they wouldn’t enjoy at a General Election. Going into a subsequent General Election next year with already a handful of seats they never had before will be an enormous boost to them, even though people don’t generally vote for a protest party at General Elections.
40
Frank Jotzo is quoted as saying:
It’s not the University’s money in the first place, is it?
cervos non occulus describes Jotzo’s extent of scientific knowledge; he demonstrates this in the ANU-sponsored interview of one climate numpty by another: Climate Change – Economics and Policy: A/Prof Frank Jotzo Interviewed by Dr Jan Libich.
If you can bear it; watch the whole “interview”. They are both trying to justify their positions; to continue the flow of funds into their troughs. Jotzo should be as sceptical of The Science of climate change as he is of the ability of economics to predict the long term future.
50
CAGW dreamers:
13 Oct: ABC: Michael Condon: Divesting mining stocks just a financial call
The trend of global investment firms selling out of fossil fuel companies is a big issue for the investment in Australia’s mining sector.
The Australian National University Trust and the Rockefeller family have recently shunned investment in mining companies…
Peter Strachan, independent corporate analyst and author of Stock Analysis, says he believes that a lot of the divestment is being done purely as a cold hard business decisions.
He thinks that it is less to do with environmental concerns.
***”The ball really started rolling with the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund which has $600 billion to invest.
“They decided to do it as they figured mining was not a good investment…”…
“They all think that renewables is a growth sector.
“With fossil fuels, we are consuming scarce non-renewable resources and the big investors are starting to have a sense of that and are looking to invest elsewhere in the future.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-13/nrn-divesting-mining-stocks-just-a-financial-call-13-10-14/5809454
reality check:
23 Oct: Bloomberg: Mikael Holter: China’s Cnooc Considers Norway Exploration as Oil Trumps Nobel
Cnooc Ltd. (883) is sizing up the potential for oil exploration in Norway’s Arctic as China’s biggest offshore producer ignores a freeze in the two countries’ relations since the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize…
Yet the deterioration in ties has done little to stem business interests as the world’s second-biggest economy seeks access to energy sources needed to fuel growth. Part of that plan involves establishing a foothold in the Arctic, which could hold more than 20 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources…
The company’s bid for Arctic exploration follows deals between China National Petroleum Corp. and Russian companies for oil imports and exploration…
Norway’s government, which took office last year, has made improved relations with China a top foreign-policy goal. The Conservative-led administration has gone to great lengths to avoid angering China further, including snubbing Tibetan leader Dalai Lama — another Nobel Peace prize laureate — during his visit to Norway in May…
Cnooc also became a partner of Norway’s fully state-owned company Petoro AS in an exploration license off Iceland’s shores last year…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-23/china-s-cnooc-considers-norway-exploration-as-oil-trumps-nobel.html
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meanwhile, over in Obamaland…READ ALL:
23 Oct: Chicago Tribune: Bloomberg: Tim Loh: Coal miners fired in Appalachia getting hired in Wyoming
It’s boom times in Wyoming for embattled U.S. coal companies, where the mining industry is hiring workers while shedding them in Appalachia…
“It’s going to be running a good while in Wyoming, because of how much coal they put out,” said King, who expects to start work by next month. While he doesn’t know what he’ll be earning, a friend made the move a year ago and since then his base pay has increased to about $35 an hour from $25.
Coal output in the Powder River Basin increased 2.6 percent in the first half from a year earlier while total U.S. production inched upward a mere 0.75 percent. Mines there are vast open holes that cost less than half to operate than those in West Virginia where workers head underground to extract the fuel…
Peabody’s North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming is the country’s biggest, with five pits that span 100 square miles (259 square kilometers).
The St. Louis-based company sold 123.3 million tons of Western U.S. coal in the first three quarters, the vast majority from the Powder River Basin. That’s up 4.6 percent from a year earlier and Scott Durgin, senior vice president of operations for the region, said Peabody would have increased output even more if there were enough trains available to haul it away.
Looking at one of the North Antelope pits, he points to a coal seam that’s 60 feet (18 meters) high, and runs north for more than 50 miles.
“I don’t see the end of it,” he said. “It just continues to grow.”…
The area is also home to oil and gas production, and about half of Gillette’s workers are in the energy industry or supporting fields, according to the local chamber of commerce…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-coal23-20141023-story.html
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our mis-educated youth!
24 Oct: SMH: Latika Bourke: Australian Youth Climate Coalition removes anti-coal poster after backlash
Young climate activists have been accused of comparing coal miners to paedophiles in a poster that has since been taken down from the internet after a social media backlash.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition was considering posting the image on a billboard at Brisbane airport during next month’s G20 summit.
It features a man’s coal-marked hands covering the mouth of a young frightened-looking girl with the slogan ‘Don’t Let the Coal Lobby Get their Dirty Hands On Our Future’.
But social media users complained that the picture of a man’s blackened hands covering a young girl’s face looked “paedophilic”..
“This is sick, AYCC is comparing paedophilia with hardworking coal mining Australians,” one pro-mining user tweeted…
Lucy Manne from AYCC said the poster was a submission to an online competition aimed at engaging young people on climate change….
Government backbencher George Christensen slammed the Australian Youth Climate Coalition as “environutbags” and condemned the image as “disgraceful”.
“Their latest effort to demonise the coal industry including the many hard working coal miners in my electorate is to compare them to the perpetrators of domestic violence or child abductors,” he said.
“How low will the extreme green groups go?”
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-youth-climate-coalition-removes-anticoal-poster-after-backlash-20141024-11axsw.html
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That’s easy to know how far they will go – three words :
10:10 movie
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Japan tells US to butt out:
23 Oct: Japan Times: Reuters: U.S. calls out Japan on coal plant exports
by Yuka Obayashi and Aaron Sheldrick
The United States has challenged the Japanese government over moves to ramp up exports of coal-fired power technology and to offer cheap loans to lure buyers, according to a U.S. source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Japan’s shipments of the equipment soared to nearly $8 billion last year as it looks to boost infrastructure exports, defying U.S. calls for developed nations to stop investing in foreign coal projects, to curb greenhouse gas emissions…
The source said the dispute had taken place quietly and Japanese officials had politely rebuffed the criticisms…
“Japan is trying to help foreign countries adopt low-pollution power systems such as renewable energy and liquefied natural gas plants as much as possible,” said Kakudo.
***“But some countries can’t afford these systems, and those which produce coal want to utilize their own resources. In those cases, it is better to build plants with the high efficiency that Japan can provide.”…
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/23/business/economy-business/u-s-calls-out-japan-on-coal-plant-exports/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=u-s-calls-out-japan-on-coal-plant-exports
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23 Oct: Australian: Business Spectator: Robert Gottliebsen: Thermal coal still a goldmine for Australia
The combination of very high power prices in Japan, new technology and the fact that world temperatures have not increased in the last decade is giving coal another chance given its low price…
The Fukushima nuclear disaster not only caused Japan to halt nuclear power but also turned the Japanese public off nuclear. Time may change those community attitudes, but so far there remains stark opposition to nuclear…
There has been a big rise in Japanese renewable power led by rooftop solar, but the next major power station in Japan may be based on coal — perhaps Australian coal. And that will open the floodgates to an era of much lower Japanese electricity prices based on coal.
If Australia is to be competitive, it will need to cut its coal costs. Japan, led by Hitachi Power, has developed ultra-supercritical pressure coal-fired power generation technologies, which convert more of the energy in coal into power, slash pollution and reduce carbon emissions…
The latest coal-fired generation plant using ultra-supercritical pressure technology is showing a return of some 15 per cent a year, thanks to Japan’s high power prices and reduced coal prices. .
It is likely that the first plant will be announced later this year or early in 2015. That will open the floodgates to a whole series of plants.
Once Japan starts to embrace the coal technology, it will spread rapidly around the world because coal energy is in abundance and is much cheaper than LNG or renewables in most circumstances…
Given the current roadblocks for gas, maybe Australia has to go the same way as Japan.
China is certainly anxious to clean up its power generation because of the pollution, but it is now clear that the 3 per cent coal tariff was aimed not so much at reducing emissions but to try and make Australia agree to free trade agreement concessions — which it should not do.
China is also likely to look hard at similar coal technology.
***In Australia, the debate about carbon and the temperature is dominated by the extreme greens so all other developments are drowned out…
New coal burning technology will greatly reduce carbon emissions while also creating cheaper power, which countries desperately need to increase or maintain living standards.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/thermal-coal-still-a-goldmine-for-australia/story-fnp85ntp-1227099288674
***”drowned out” because the CAGW-infested MSM gives them voice.
20
Here are 2 email comments forwarded to Prof Young by this ANU alumnus:
(1) ATTENTION: Professor Ian Young AO, Vice-Chancellor (sent 13/10/14)
Thank you for your communication defending the ANU’s recently adopted share divestment policy. That you have felt the need to do so suggests to me that you are uneasy about the financial wisdom of the decision – if not now, then in the longer term when activists could potentially use the present examples as catalysts for wider and more damaging impacts on the ANU’s finances.
To my mind you and the University Council have little option but to invest funds to optimise returns in like manner to the Queensland Investment Corporation and Superannuation Funds for example. If there are alternative investments providing equal or better returns to the shares divested then by all means switch. But if not I do not believe you are in a position to accept lower investment returns at the whim of activists or idealists. As you correctly state “the returns on these investments fund scholarships, staff salaries, research projects and new infrastructure”. Should your inability to properly service such basic needs of the University in the future be sheeted home to poor investment decisions, the people responsible for the latter would deserve the opprobrium of all those denied benefits they might otherwise have enjoyed.
Tellingly, the present decision could also impact on future endowments – I leave it to you to be the judge of the net effect.
Sincerely
(2) ATTENTION: Prof Ian Young AO (sent 16/10/14)
I expect you have already read the attached comment, or had it drawn to your notice. I believe the points raised by the author are particularly germane to the ANU Council’s recent divestment decisions. I endorse the contents of the article.
Sincerely
Bill Burrows FTSE
(PhD Environmental Biology,RSBS)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/can-any-business-live-up-to-the-anus-lofty-aims/story-e6frg9fo-1227091775982
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Remember when the CO2 Tax was in the process of getting under way, the Government brought out a list of the top 500 emitters of CO2, a list now disappeared, probably a cause of embarrassment more than anything.
On that list of 500 were also the big consumers of electrical power, you know, all the major big companies, and the Coles, the Woolies etc.
Also on that list, surprisingly were an awful lot of hospitals, and virtually every University in Australia. As huge consumers of electricity, then they were a source of incoming money for that tax, money that now, they don’t have to pay, so possibly they could put that money to better use as an Institute of higher learning, you know, like increasing their share portfolio.
Now, ANU would also have been on that list, not as high as a lot of the other Universities as ANU only ranks somewhere in the high 20’s of student enrollment for Universities here in Australia.
So, having said that, how much then might ANU consume in the way of electricity?
Well, there’s no specific data on that but a ballpark figure might be around 130GWH per year, and the top 5 would be two to two and a half times that. That figure is probably me being cautious really, because the real total was shown on that list.
So, 130GWH, and that’s 130,000,000KWH, and keep in mind the average Australian residence consumes 8,300KWH per year, so ANU consumes around the same power as nearly 16,000 homes.
The power generation breakdown for Australia sees just on 90% of all generated power coming from CO2 emitting fossil fuel power plants. (Black coal-52%, Brown Coal- 23%, and Natural Gas-15%)
So, all up, this makes ANU up there as pretty much one of the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions here in Australia.
Also keep in mind that being in Canberra, they also would consume Natural Gas, so there would be emissions from that as well.
So, when I see tales of umm, divestment, it’s all just meaningless spin really, and it’s only a fraction of their Share portfolio of $1.2 Billion anyway.
Divestment from CO2.
Just who are they kidding.
Go the whole hog ANU.
Divest yourself from the power grid if you want to make a point about CO2 emissions
Tony.
151
But Tony
Canberra’s own gubmen have set the bar pretty high for themselves & as usual everybody else has to pay…………/sarc.
WS Hughes has an article:-
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=3327
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What really annoys me is academics making these grandiose gestures from the safety of knowing we the taxpayer will have to pick up any shortfall in revenue such gestures cause.
Talk about thumbing your nose at the funding source. These people need to be screwed to the wall with the prickly end of a pineapple, to remind them they have an obligation to us who have funded them from the cradle to the grave.
80
Taxpayers? Subsidies? Not in La La Land.
30
If only the lefties who live in renewable energy dreamland could be forced to live as they preach.
70
I have always noted a deafening silence whenever I ask them to do just that, ie. to practice what they preach.
50
If China meets its 2020 emissions targets its CO2 emissions will then be equivalent to 60-65% of 1990 global emissions. Emissions per capita will still be much lower than Australia’s.
If India meets its 2020 emissions targets its CO2 emissions will then be equivalent to 13% of 1990 global emissions. But it will not. India’s emissions are likely to be nearer 15% of 1990 global emissions. Either way emissions per capita will still be a tiny fraction of Australia’s.
Young people go to University to enable them to understand the World around them, which includes being able to think through problems to get a sense of perspective. If the Australian National University thinks they are solving a global issue by such a statement, it is the last place that any young person should go to if they wish to invest in their future.
60
i’ve posted the following on jo’s re-do of the Patrick Moore thread, but will put it here too, as the CAGW activists have another failure to deal with in Brussels:
24 Oct: LondonSouthEast: dpa: EU Climate Deal Disappoints Environmentalists
Under the agreement, carbon dioxide emissions are to be cut by at least 40% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and at least 27% of EU energy is to be derived from renewable sources by then.
Energy consumption is to be cut by at least 27% – a lower figure than originally anticipated. However, countries are “free to set their own, higher national targets,” the leaders wrote in a joint statement…
EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the EU was sending “a strong signal to other big economies and all other countries: We have done our homework, now we urge you to follow Europe’s example.”…
Environmental groups were scathing of the compromise, with Brook Riley of Friends of the Earth Europe calling the 40% emissions reduction target “dangerously irresponsible.”
“This deal does nothing to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels or to speed up our transition to a clean energy future. It’s a deal that puts dirty industry interests ahead of citizens and the planet,” Riley said.
Natalia Alonso of Oxfam said: “Insufficient action like this from the world’s richest countries places yet more burden on the poorest people most affected by climate change, but least responsible for causing this crisis.”
Negotiators laboured to win over Eastern European countries to the package agreed Friday…
As part of the deal, the eastern members were granted support measures to help them on the energy front.
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said she was leaving the summit with “no extra burdens” for her country, describing the deal as a “guarantee” that energy prices won’t rise until 2030.
The deal includes a review clause, thought to have been demanded by Warsaw among others, to revisit the targets after 2015 if an ambitious international treaty is not reached…
The international community has struggled to reverse a rise in temperatures, despite global efforts to burn less fossil fuel and use more renewable energy…
http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=ol33uwf0&headline=EU_Climate_Deal_Disappoints_Environmentalists
24 Oct: Irish Times: Ireland’s reliance on agriculture recognised in EU climate deal
Dairy industry can continue to grow without risk of EU fines for methane gas emissions
by Suzanne Lynch, Arthur Beesley
This marks something of a coup for Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who had argued at the outset of talks against the prospect of “unreachable” targets being set for Ireland.
Even as EU leaders settled on overall targets, they deferred talks on specific national targets until after a UN climate conference in Paris in December 2015…
Outgoing European Council president Herman Van Rompuy said the decision not to set national targets this point was taken at the behest of member states…
The leaders also agreed that member states will be required to make 15 per cent of their power generation capacity available to other countries. This followed requests from Spain and Portugal, who are keen to export more energy to neighbouring countries such as France…
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ireland-s-reliance-on-agriculture-recognised-in-eu-climate-deal-1.1975544
30
I would suggest that the Federal Government does not provide the ANU with any top up funding in the event that their so called ethical investment doesn’t perform as well as their previous fossil fuel investments.
50
Credit where it is due.
10/21/2014
Science is literally inching closer to the science fiction fantasy of starship-towing tractor beams.
Physicists working in Australia have created just such a system using lasers to push and pull tiny particles a distance of 20 centimeters, which might not sound like much but is actually around 100 times further than other similar demonstrations.
The technique uses the laser energy to heat the particles and air around them.
According to a release from Australian National University, where the project was conducted.
The technique is also versatile because it can be done with a single laser beam, Star Trek-style.
Of course, it might take a while to scale the technology up from moving tiny glass particles to something like, say, the International Space Station.
archive(dot)today/yzS1Z#selection-3567.0-3579.15
30
Some of our retirement money is invested (via mutual funds) in resource companies. So 3 points:
A. I am happy to see the divesture of shares by ANU and others of like mind because large shareholders can use their ownership status to try and influence the company’s managers. I prefer to have the managers making decisions based on sound economics because these are “for profit” organizations. If the board of directors takes its orders from climate activists then I expect my mutual fund managers to sell the shares held in that company.
B. Holders of smaller blocks of shares are of little concern to the company. If John Q. Public sells shares to Jane O’Malley there is no (that is, zero) impact on the company. This happens all the time and the stock exchanges get a fee (make money). John Q. or Jane O’ may or may not benefit from the transaction but the company doesn’t care.
C. Whenever I see this [ “ Sticking our collective heads in the sand ” ] sort of thing it is clear the speaker or writer knows nothing of Ostriches, nor much of anything else.
10
My favorite from http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/10/green-meme-friday/
10
“It is wrong for ANU to continue to profit from these industries that are responsible for the wreckage of the planet,”
What a strange use of the word ‘wreckage’. Is this person university educated?
10