The new Emma Thompson (BBC approved) apocalyptic global temperature trend

The best of BBC science reporting. Actress cum climate scientist, Emma Thompson, predicts that Arctic drilling will cause 4 degrees of global temperature rise by 2030, 15 years hence. The BBC reporter, Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, trained with the best of BBC science and journalism, lets it pass.

Obviously, we’ve reached a tipping point — in journalistic standards. If a Nobel Prize winning physicist said that “warming may be natural”, BBC journalists are trained to point out he is not a climate scientist. But if an actress predicts Armageddon, the nation needs to know.

Perhaps Arctic drilling will unleash global magma?

BBC, global temperatures, Hadley Met centre

165 years of global warming is about to hit escape velocity

At least one climate scientist is not going to let nonsense be broadcast without protest. Where are the others?

David Rose, Daily Mail

One of Britain’s top climate scientists has launched a blistering attack on actress Emma Thompson and the BBC, accusing them of ‘scaremongering’ over the speed of global warming – and risking a worsening of the refugee crisis. Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office and a professor at Exeter University, launched his attack on Twitter about an interview Ms Thompson gave to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis last Wednesday. He followed it up with a longer critique – an extract of which this newspaper publishes today – on the website of HELIX, a prestigious EU-wide climate research programme which he also directs.

Lucky the UK still had a private press to clean up the mistakes of the publicly funded media.

Jeremy Corbyn (likely to be the next UK Labor leader) suggests that British Taxpayers should be able to opt out of funding the army. Jo Nova suggests this is an excellent principle, and British Taxpayers should be able to opt out of funding the BBC too. (And welfare, public health, public education, research into psychology, subsidies for renewables, the list goes on.)

Taking this idea further, those who opt out of being protected by the Army can set up their own defense force. The alternate army could conscript from those who opted out. Or the regular Army could conscript those who didn’t pay, in the event of an invasion.

H/t  GWPF

 

 

 

9.3 out of 10 based on 105 ratings

185 comments to The new Emma Thompson (BBC approved) apocalyptic global temperature trend

  • #
    Kevin Lohse

    Our Favourite champagne socialist has achieved one thing – She’s made Richard Betts look level-headed, the epitome of scientific probity. I suspect a BBC pre-Paris plot.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Just another hypocritical leftie luvvie who has been roped into believing her own B.S. heaped upon by sycophantic urgers.

      Do people actually realize the lifestyles many of these people have?, I’ve no sympathy for anyone sucked into the CAGW scam at this point, there’s been a literal plethora of counter views and facts available for years now and all it takes is someone to have the courage to take that personal step of reasoned skepticism to question their initial beliefs, hell you don’t even have to admit being wrong but it’d go a long way to help put humanity back to some sanity and hope.

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    • #

      It’s got to be some sort of mistake. Either that, or there must be someone else called Richard Betts.

      Pointman

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    • #
      Frank

      Given that Emma knows SFA about the science involved , you have to apply the same level of criticism to other prominent vocalists – eg Monckton and Dellingpole .
      There is a reason why climate scientists exist.

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      • #
        MudCrab

        Would that reason be the same explination for why religions have priests?

        (You are not allowed you disgree with me – you are not a priest. 😛 )

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      • #
        el gordo

        ‘There is a reason why climate scientists exist.’

        They have blotted their copy books with this AGW nonsense and will need to be severely culled.

        The Klimatariat minions are spreading untruths, such as large swathes of planet earth will soon become uninhabitable, so its about time the high priests reigned in the hysteria.

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      • #
        el gordo

        ‘…you have to apply the same level of criticism to other prominent vocalists – eg Monckton and Dellingpole .’

        Okay, here is the very latest from Mockton in a guest post at Watts. Why do I believe him and not Emma?

        ‘In the run-up to the Paris world government conference, the climate Communists are making determined efforts to pretend that the Pause does not exist, or that the rate of warming since 1990 is exactly as the IPCC had predicted. Both pretenses are false. The UAH and RSS satellite data both show the Pause, though the terrestrial tamperature datasets have all been altered in the past year with the effect of concealing it.’

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      • #

        Actress Thompson,made her absurd .4C warming in 15 years without any evidence,if drilling in the Arctic takes place,while Dr. Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office and a professor at Exeter University,stated:

        ‘Who briefed Emma Thompson? Clearly not someone who actually knows about climate science.’

        and,

        Has it occurred to scaremongers like Emma Thompson that exaggerating climate change could drive more migration unnecessarily? Irresponsible

        We have this as well:

        Dr Ed Hawkins, at Reading University, told this newspaper: ‘Climate change poses substantial risks to humans and ecosystems, but what Emma Thompson said about the timescales of predicted warming was inaccurate.’

        This was from a link Jo, provided in her blog post.

        DR. Betts said more at his blog,but that might be too much for you to digest.

        10

      • #

        Meanwhile armchair scientist Miss Thompson responds like the fanatic she is proving to be with disrespect and insults to a Head of a Climate Science division at Met Office:

        ‘I’d like to say to him [Richard Betts]: Are you insane, have you been to the Arctic, have you seen the state of the glaciers? I’ve talked to the experts… this is not scaremongering.’

        This is the sound of a close minded fanatic.

        Meanwhile Viscount Monckton,you disparage is a much better presenter of climate science,than Miss Thompson who make bald outlandish unsupported assertions and say it as fact before it happens.

        Here is a typical presentation Mr. Monckton did over at WUWT,

        The Pause draws blood – A new record Pause length: no warming for 18 years 7 months

        For 223 months, since January 1997, there has been no global warming at all (Fig. 1). This month’s RSS temperature shows the Pause setting a new record at 18 years 7 months.

        It is becoming ever more likely that the temperature increase that usually accompanies an El Niño will begin to shorten the Pause somewhat, just in time for the Paris climate summit, though a subsequent La Niña would be likely to bring about a resumption and perhaps even a lengthening of the Pause.

        https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/clip_image0023.jpg

        Figure 1. The least-squares linear-regression trend on the RSS satellite monthly global mean surface temperature anomaly dataset shows no global warming for 18 years 7 months since January 1997.

        The hiatus period of 18 years 7 months is the farthest back one can go in the RSS satellite temperature record and still show a sub-zero trend. The start date is not cherry-picked: it is calculated. And the graph does not mean there is no such thing as global warming. Going back further shows a small warming rate.

        LINK

        Emma,has only Greenpeace propaganda to sell.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        There is a reason why climate scientists exist.

        I have often wondered about this. Why do “Climate Scientists” exist?

        How are they different from Climatologists? Or Meteorologists? Or Atmospheric Physicists?

        Is it because of the dependence on the Climate Models, in which case how are they different from Statisticians? Or Applied Mathematicians? Or even, Theoretical Physists?

        With all of that expertise out there, what is it that Climate Scientists actually do?

        40

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        Quote:

        “There is a reason why climate scientists exist”

        POLITICS?

        How about a climate scientist cutting his teeth on Climate Science’s main tenet; that man made CO2 causes global warming?

        http://joannenova.com.au/2012/10/man-made-global-warming-disproved/#comment-1130169

        KK

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    • #
      Phillip Bratby

      She still thinks she’s Florence living in a magic garden. She’s not grown up yet.

      40

  • #
    diogenese2

    The danger in method acting is becoming so immersed in a character that you become indistinguishable.

    Her greatest role?
    http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070804193243/harrypotter/images/d/d5/Trelawney.jpg

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  • #
    Andrew McRae

    This reminds of the cringeworthy 2011 propaganda campaign with Carbon Cate and Carbon Caton. Having Galadriel the queen of the elves tell us we had to cut down on carbon pollution was just one of those surreal Cli-Fi moments. Still, if you want to make a scary disaster movie you have to hire actors at some point.

    Now we’ve got Nanny McPhee front-running for the Nanny State of climate control. One hopes Emma regains her Sense and Sensibility, particularly a sense of scale and geological sensibility. Then she might appreciate the global warming panic is Much Ado About Nothing.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Carbon Cate just sold her Mansion for $20million in Hunters Hill, but we should all learn to live with less of course…elven queen my A$$!

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    • #
      Dariusz

      After Carbon cate I can,t watch LOTR anymore wishing garadiel to be eaten by the wargs. Caprio has sunk with the Titanic for me a long time ago and I want to terminate ” I,ll be back” Arnie after what he did to California.
      The only celeb that I respect is Clint. He still makes my day.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        It does spoil a lot of prior enjoyment for me also, maybe just try to appreciate their real talents before the public inanity was unleashed?

        Then again some people probably enjoyed many Bill Cosby or Rolf Harris performances also………..

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      • #
        Bulldust

        Pfft Chuck Norris is the man:

        There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.

        These and other “climate change” facts at: http://www.die-klimaschutz-baustelle.de/green_facts_about_chuck_norris_jokes.html

        10

      • #
        Oksanna

        What? No room for the late Charlton Heston? Come on, the man was a legend.
        “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” Planet of the Apes
        “Soylent Green is people!” Soylent Green
        “There’s never a cop around when you need one” Omega Man
        and from his year 2000 NRA Convention speech:
        ” So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: ‘From my cold, dead hands!’ “.

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    • #
      Leo G

      Didn’t Emma Thompson say there would be no Nanny McPhee Three?

      10

  • #
    Olaf Koenders

    Excellent Jo. The moment I saw that chart I laughed myself to tears.. 🙂

    When will celebrity learn to keep its mouth shut in order to NOT look stupid? When will reporters learn to speak up in order to NOT look just as stupid? They deserve each other.

    310

    • #

      I didn’t even look at the graph until I read your comment (I have dial-up internet, I still don’t see the main part of it). When I saw the words “escape velocity” underneath, I thought “woops; doesn’t Jo know many people would get on board with Emma JUST to reach escape velocity?” This whole mess is all about mass avoidance behavior, after all.

      30

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      I fort oh noes not anava perishin’ ‘occy stik.

      20

  • #
    Mike

    Jeremy Corbyn (likely to be the next UK Labor leader) suggests that British Taxpayers should be able to opt out of funding the army.

    War is by far the biggest threat the world faces every day by far. By a long shot.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      “British Taxpayers should be able to opt out of funding the army.”

      How about letting them opt out of funding the BBC first 😉

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      • #
        Radical Rodent

        Add a few more green thumbs from me for that!

        The concept of tax-payers being able to opt out of funding government departments is a very, very good one – and one that Mr Corbyn will be shocked by, should he get it into effect, as the army will be low, low down on almost everyone’s list of things to opt out of paying for. Imagine Wastemonster being self-financing!

        00

    • #
      James Murphy

      I would like to see just how a country would work if taxpayers were able to directly allocate tax revenue. From what I have seen in surveys about such topics, it wouldn’t lead to a well run/cohesive/stable/equitable country at all. Good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes.

      Of course in the tradition of all things ‘green’, I would like to make another country do it, and not be part of it myself.

      I live for the day when people who make such statements are compelled to explain exactly how it would work – not via a policy statement in 6-12 months, but right there and then, on the spot.

      90

    • #
      Bill

      The Green Party in Canada is just as bad. According to flaky Lizzy May (glorious leader), we who wear & wore the Queen’s uniform are nothing but “Warmongers” and our government is a “fascist dictatorship”; doesn’t stop her trying to use mentally disabled veterans in her campaigning and photo-ops tho.

      70

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        I agree. There is a very thin line between security and anarchy. Lizzy May would not enjoy the very personal experiences, that come from being on the wrong side of that line.

        70

  • #

    Has anyone asked the future president of the USA, Kanye West, what he thinks?

    100

    • #
      Olaf Koenders

      LOL… I’m thinking Kanye might actually help the US back on its feet compared to the moron that’s in office now – and that’s saying something.

      60

    • #
      Yonniestone

      I’d rather be waterboarded with the urine of an asparagus eating Fox than listen to any utterances of such an egotistical void of abstract thought.

      190

  • #
    King Geo

    Emma Thompson is a great actress specialising in fictitious roles. With her “Armageddon type comments regarding AGW” Emma is simply extending her craft to the “real world”, ie she can’t differentiate fiction from non-fiction – the poor lass knows no better. Like many of her fellow actors e.g. Leonardo Dicaprio, her knowledge of “Earth Science” is exceedingly limited.

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    • #
      Mike

      yep King Geo. ‘They know not what they do’.

      80

      • #
        Mike

        ‘Knowing’ and ‘understanding’. As for ‘understanding’, best to not go there. A can of worms. A parrot that knows how to parrot is as far as it goes. To learn by rote. That is the thing. “Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition.”

        100

        • #
          Mike

          Some more info from Wikipedia:
          “Rote learning is sometimes disparaged with the derogative terms parrot fashion, regurgitation, cramming, or mugging because one who engages in rote learning may give the wrong impression of having understood what they have written or said. It is strongly discouraged by many new curriculum standards. For example, science and mathematics standards in the United States specifically emphasize the importance of deep understanding over the mere recall of facts, which is seen to be less important, although advocates of traditional education have criticized the new American standards as slighting learning basic facts and elementary arithmetic, and replacing content with process-based skills.

          More than ever, school mathematics must include an understanding of how to use technology to arrive meaningfully at solutions to problems instead of endless attention to increasingly outdated computational tedium.”
          -National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Commonsense Facts to Clear the Air[1]

          In math and science, rote methods are often used, for example to memorize formulas. There is greater understanding if students commit a formula to memory through exercises that use the formula rather than through rote repetition of the formula. Newer standards often recommend that students derive formulas themselves to achieve the best understanding.[2] Nothing is faster than rote learning if a formula must be learned quickly for an imminent test and rote methods can be helpful for committing an understood fact to memory. However, students who learn with understanding are able to transfer their knowledge to tasks requiring problem-solving with greater success than those who learn only by rote.[3]

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          • #
            King Geo

            Mike I take on board your comments and agree totally.

            I King Geo was guilty of “Rote Learning” at high school. Back in the very late 1960’s I elected to do an extra subject, Religion, for my Junior Certificate External Examination (year 10 these days but no external examination). My aim was to pass 9 subjects for my Junior Certificate – which I achieved. Our chaplain at our school at that time (in Perth) summarised the bible into a 40 page document. Being blessed with a very good “short term memory”, I parrot learnt the entire 40 pages – and almost got 100% for the exam. One week later I forgot almost all the 40 pages. So “Rote Learning” does have its advantages – but not in science. Actors like Emma & Leonardo, being excellent actors, also no doubt are good at “Rote Learning”, but given that both have had little exposure to science in their Tertiary education, they don’t appear to have the skill set to make sensible comments in the MSM regarding planet Earth’s Climate, that is Palaeoclimatology, present Climatology and future Climatology predictions.

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  • #
    FrankH

    “…British Taxpayers should be able to opt out of funding the BBC too.”

    British taxpayers don’t fund the BBC, the BBC is funded through the TV licence. We are already able to opt out.

    49

    • #
      tom0mason

      FrankH, you are so wrong!

      The BBC is funded by UK government allotment of funds. The money received is first paid into the Government’s Consolidated Fund. It is subsequently included in the ‘vote’ for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in that year’s Appropriation Act, and passed back to the BBC.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom . All excess funds go to general taxation pot.

      The TV licence fee is judged by the UK Inland Revenue and Tax Office as a TAX and is accounted for as taxation. The TV licence fee is not held in a seperate account it is a £4billion tax on the population! People that have ‘avoided’ paying this licence fee are often charged with tax evasion.

      People without a method of reception of the TV signal or simply do not watch TV (the licence is for the ability to receive a live TV signals, BBC or others) have to prove they’re innocence, or lack guilt, when charge with TV licence fee evasion the ‘crime’ assumes guilt!
      If you have not TV viewing method and can prove it you will be subjected to regular inspection by the contracted goon regularly (two yearly minimum), this is an legal invasion of privacy!

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      • #
        Mike Spilligan

        Moreover, as the TV licence fee is a tax, evasion is a criminal offence, whereas evading paying (say) an electricity bill is a civil offence and the alleged offender has to be sued for payment. As many of 10% of local court cases are for TV licence evasion and more than 100 people a year are imprisoned for doing so.

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      • #
        Mike Spilligan

        Moreover, as the TV licence fee is a tax, evasion is a criminal offence, whereas evading paying (say) an electricity bill is a civil offence and the alleged offender has to be sued for payment. As many of 10% of local court cases are for TV licence evasion and more than 100 people a year are imprisoned for doing so.

        30

      • #
        FrankH

        You’re right, according to the Wikipedia article “In January 2006, the Office of National Statistics classified the licence fee as a tax.[6] Previously, this payment had been designated a service charge.”

        However, I’m also right. I said we can opt out and we certainly can. I opted out for about 4 years. After a couple of years I received a letter from the enforcers telling me that if I owned a televison set I needed a licence. I replied questioning this and heard no more from them. A couple of years later I bought a licence.

        11

        • #
          tom0mason

          Two things of note with UK TV Licences…

          1. “Since it is not possible to prevent a person buying and using TV receiving equipment without being in possession of a licence, it has been found necessary to enforce the TV licence system by first identifying TV licence evaders and then attempting to sell them a licence and, in some cases, prosecuting them.” (from Wikipedia) This assumption in law is that a person is breaking the law even if they have no TV. The onus is on the ‘evader’ to prove they are not guilty.
          2. Your letter came from one of the contracted licence enforcing companies. Probably Capita. They are allowed to use the BBC registered trade marks, TV Licensing and TV Licensing Authority (Note the misspelling!). These entities are NOT companies merely registered trade name and some artwork. TV Licensing and TV Licensing Authority carry no weight in law as there is no physical entity behind them. They are a fiction. You were threatened by a fiction.

          The BBC contracted company will take you to court as part of their legal remit. In the industry they are known as ‘the goons’ because of the underhand and nasty tactics they use — spying on, then procescuting lone mothers, pensioners, the sick, the poor and frail.

          This method of paying the BBC should stop ASAP, it is immoral.

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          • #
            FrankH

            All those straw men for you to knock down.

            The point is that we can, and some of us do, opt out.

            01

          • #
            Olaf Koenders

            Regardless if a TV licence is a tax or not, the fact that a statute was written that allows a legal fiction (a private company) to override someone’s unalienable right to presumption of innocence and right to privacy in their own home, where this legal fiction supposedly can trespass at will without a warrant from a properly convened court, makes that statute ultra vires and void ab initio.

            30

            • #
              FrankH

              TV licence evaders have the same right to the presumption of innocence as any other accused person. The same rules of evidence apply. TV Licensing does not have the right to enter your home without a search warrant.

              And the fact remains that we ARE able to opt out. Giving me a hundred thumbs downs won’t change that. 🙂

              02

              • #
                tom0mason

                FrankH,
                You do not know this law, I do and you are incorrect.
                Let me spell it out again, as I KNOW this law!
                1. You ARE assumed to be an evader if you do not pay for a licence. Period!
                2. To prove otherwise your privacy will be invaded (by this law!) to ensure that you can not watch TV. PERIOD!
                3. By this law the contracted enforcer can choose to reinspect your premises up to yearly, often only every other year.
                This law is clear, it clearly say that non-licence fee payer are ‘evaders’, and that an ‘evader’ MUST prove their innocence, it’s opt-out removes your right to privacy. That is how this law is, and how it is used.
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                The fact that the contracted licence fee enforcer decides not to take futher action against you is their decision. You have been lucky, no more, no less. Many others have not been so lucky.
                Remember that FrankH, you have been lucky no more, no less, many others have not been so lucky.

                So FrankH stop trying to say this apalling law is fair, it is not. It is applied abitrarily, often against those who can not properly defend themselves. It MUST be abolished!
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                The upcoming changes that the BBC are pushing will extend the licence fee coverage to include all computers.
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                20

              • #
                FrankH

                1. TV Licensing will assume that you’re an evader. If they decide to take you to court the court will ask them to prove it. Normal rules apply, e.g. presumption of innocence, accuser must prove allegation etc.
                2. TV Licensing can knock at your door and ask to come in, you may refuse. They are then at liberty to return with a warrant if they can show the relevant authority (a magistrate, I believe) that they have good reason. From the Wiki article you linked to: “Although data on the number of search warrants executed per year in the whole of the UK are not collated or held centrally, some idea of the frequency at which they are used may be taken from the result of a recent FOI request.[134] It was revealed that Sheffield Magistrates granted TV Licensing a total of six search warrants in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, whilst in Northampton (including Wellingborough and Kettering) only two were granted in this period.” so it’s not something that’s used frequently.
                3. Where did I say it was fair? I don’t think it’s fair. What I said was we could opt out. We can opt out. You’re putting words in my mouth and arguing against them. Why are you doing that?

                10

              • #
                tom0mason

                FrankH
                Yet again you promote the falsehood. I KNOW I am correct! When in court I had to prove my innocence! Not the other way around.
                Capita’s grounds for prosecution was that I once had a licence (in 40 years, I have never had a licence!), they qualified that by saying it was for the property, and that there was an aerial and cable installed to the premises I must have a TV. I had no TV but at no point did Capita have to prove I did.
                So stop BSing.
                You are lying!
                You have not been on the wrong end of this rubbish licencing law!

                Stop promoting a lie! The whole system is wrong!!! How dare your try and justify that there is an opt-out, there is only a method of prosecuting the innocent, and spying on them.

                Do you work for the BBC or Capita? (aka the goons)

                31

        • #
          tom0mason

          According to various official bodies,204,018 people were prosecuted or fined in 2014 for TV licence offences: 4,905 people were prosecuted in 2014 in Northern Ireland, compared to 12,536 in Wales and 173,044 in England. In Scotland, there were 13,486 cases disposed of via an out of court fine and 32 prosecuted via the courts in 2013-2014.

          See https://endbbclicencefee.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/british-tv-licence-evasion-the-complete-file/
          for where these figures come from.

          10

    • #
      tom0mason

      FrankH,
      FACT: each year approximately 200,000 people are prosecuted for non-payment of the TV Licence.

      FACT: 68% of these prosecutions are against women (this is because when the TV Licence inspectors call during the day it’s usually the woman who’s at home).

      FACT: out of the total of 200,000 prosecutions 98% result in a fine.

      FACT: because TV Licence evasion is a strict liability offence these cases have to be heard in a magistrates court, and the court has no compulsion to allow fines to be paid by installments

      FACT: there is no compulsion on Magistrates to means test people who appear in court.

      FACT: if you do not pay the fine a warrent will be issued for your arrest.

      FACT: over the years thousands of women have been imprisoned in the United Kingdom because they were not able to pay fines imposed upon them for not having a TV Licence. Almost all of these women were on benefits and around half of them had dependent children.

      [Tom, just so that you are aware, this “FrankH” isn’t the same as the other notorious “Frank”] ED

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      • #
        FrankH

        FACT I’m not denying any of your FACTs. Not because I accept them a FACT but because that is not what I was saying. All I was saying is that we are able to opt out. That’s all. I’ll even write it so you can understand it:
        FACT we are able to opt out. There you are, it now has “FACT” in front of it, it must be true. 🙂

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        • #
          tom0mason

          My point is that your portrayal of it being easy is in error. Opting-out is not simple or easy — you were just lucky!
          Many people are not so lucky, and suffer extended periods of theats, harassment, fines, or loss privacy and/or liberty. This payment method is an unfair tax on households and should be abolished.
          As it is just a tax, account for it by financing the BBC through general taxation, failing that finance through subscription, or donation, even sell-off the BBC and be done with it.

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      • #
        tom0mason

        Thanks ED and noted.

        As you can imagine I am just a little touchy when people voice the opinion that UK TV licencing is, in any way, a good law, and you can easily opt-out from it. You can not easily opt-out. Opting out causes real hardships and repeated haressment by the authorities. I’m used to it, and resist constantly.

        Yes, you can probably opt-out for months, or maybe a year or two; do it for life and the official powers will intermittently dog you for ever.
        After 30+ years they still do not get the point that I do not watch TV and I never wish to, and I disagree that they should be allowed to invade my property to inspect the truth of the matter.
        I’m not a TV licence ‘evader’, I’m an TV resister.

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        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          I have been hunting for the reference, and it annoys me that I cannot find it.

          But, about 6-9 months ago, I came across a story where, during a marital dispute, the TV got thrown off the balcony of a third floor flat. The occupants of the flat eventually went down and recovered the pieces, put them in a cardboard box, and put them in a cupboard in the flat. They did not bother to renew the licence (on the grounds that they could not afford to replace the TV), and duly got a visit from the authorities.

          On an inspection of the flat, the said authorities found the electronic, and non-working, remains, but deemed it to still be a TV, even though it was not working and was not reparable. Apparently it was all to do with the serial number.

          I was surprised, (which is only reason I remember it), because I thought the licence was for the reception of TV signals, and not for owning a bunch of bits that could potentially be used as a recepton device, if you had sufficient knowledge.

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          • #
            tom0mason

            Yes, that is how it ‘should’ work but those employed to harrass the so called evaders are not technical. The goons do not prove reception, they attempt to prove possible reception (as they put it ‘an informed opinion’,) and as it is a criminal action, it is judged on the balance of probabilities — facts? Who needs facts!

            Note that enployees of the company that has to enforce this law gets paid extra for successful prosecutions, also of note is that some employees has been charged with perjury in these cases.

            The scary point is the current BBC campaign to extend the remit of the licence to include all devices connected to the internet. They say it is revenue lost when people watch online ‘catch-up TV’. I say stop putting it online, or put it on a contract only platform.

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              FrankH

              I should just let this go but really?

              …and as it is a criminal action, it is judged on the balance of probabilities — facts? Who needs facts!

              Criminal cases need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, civil cases are judged on the balance of probablilities. Is there no beginning to your expertise?

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              • #
                tom0mason

                I am writing about the English justice system which rarely relies on facts, and always allows probabilities and politics to color its administration.
                “Is there no beginning to your expertise?”
                My expertise is personal. I’ve been through the English abitrary and expensive legal system.

                I repeat you are wrong in saying there is an easy opt-out, there is not. There is only an expensive one, unless your are lucky.

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  • #
    PeterS

    Typical of more and more actors these days. They work so much in a fictional world they confuse fiction with reality. She needs help.

    180

  • #
    el gordo

    Its gratifying to see the Klimatariat abusing their own, a robust debate before Paris should clear the air.

    130

  • #
    James Murphy

    Aside from the problems of hydrate formation on, and in subsea drilling equipment (and production equipment too), it’s possible to cause some nasty problems when drilling through gas hydrate zones, which, in the right circumstances, leads to a large release of gas (yes, it’s happened already).

    However, it’s all about pressure and temperature, and the presence of gas, it’s not about latitude, but it would have to be a stupendously massive event, or series of events to cause 4 degrees of warming all by itself…

    Here’s a reasonable summary of some of the chemistry/physics, and drilling hazards associated with hydrates

    Japan are currently the world leaders in commercial gas production from hydrates.

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    • #
      James Murphy

      I should have added, that gas hydrates seem to be the main source of hysteria with Arctic drilling, aside from Macondo-scale oil spills, and something about Polar Bears.

      I tend to tune out after the first few ridiculous statements these people make. Sure there’s some general risk, but it is in no ones interest to deliberately cause a catastrophe – unless of course it’s Greenpeace protestors boarding rigs and production platforms to (allegedly) sabotage equipment they know nothing about.

      61

  • #
    Climate Heretic

    Just make another Spiderman movie and Emma Thompson will be no more, because she will ‘hang herself’.

    I would like to see that 🙂

    Regards
    Climate Heretic

    50

  • #
    Gazzer

    Yes, Emma Thompson, the well know refugee advocate and scientist. Didn’t she recently go up to the Arctic to have a go at Tony Abbott for not dong enough about global warming. I really hate these champagne socialists that earn millions for a days work in some crap soap that no-one in their right mind would watch.

    130

  • #
    Safetyguy66

    Is there a correlation between an alarmist’s personal carbon footprint and their propensity to speculate wildly in order to reduce the carbon footprint of others?

    Carbon Kate Winslett, Leonardo Di No Carbono and now Emma 4 degrees Thompson to name a few.

    We could call it The Law of Inverse Flatulence.

    180

  • #
    ROM

    Who is Emma Thompson?

    And if I knew who Emma Thompson was would it do anything for my fading male hormones that I could boast about?

    Or at least boast about in any gathering of over 75 years olds and on up!

    140

    • #
      Yonniestone

      All you have to know ROM is she named her daughter Gaia.

      180

    • #
      Mike

      :”Isn’t it all one to the poor flies how that are killed? By a kick of the hooves of horned devils, or by a stroke of the beautiful wings of divine angels?”

      51

    • #
      tom0mason

      Thanks ROM,
      As someone just over 10 years younger, and have not owned a TV for more than 30 years, I too find these opinionated ‘celebrities’ a bit hard to take.
      My initial assumption was that this lady was in some government job, but then I found out it was worse, she’s a mere actress. Someone that pretends to be sincere, and if she’s good at it she will win prizes for it. Unfortunately many people believe what she says based purely on the roles she has played.

      As usual pulicity and the popular press seeks the vacuous views of the uninformed loud-mouth ‘personality’.
      Maybe the BBC could get Dr. Who to voice his opinion.

      100

      • #
        tom0mason

        Unlike Nigel Lawson who is not allowed to comment on climate matters at the BBC as he has no science qualifications, Emma Thompson has scientific qualifications.
        Along with these other scientists; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Frank Langella – Emma Thompson et al, was part of a fertility research project. However the only reference to their research I can find is this 1994 documentry was called ‘Junior’.

        50

    • #
      Olaf Koenders

      ROM, I used to be a male in a female body – until my mother gave birth.. 🙂

      20

  • #
    John Watt

    Donald Trump says AGW is a Chinese plot to weaken USA. What chance has Emma Thompson/BBC got against the Trumpmeister? Heaven forbid that someday some public media operator has the integrity to present some climate facts.

    101

    • #
      gai

      The actual quote was:

      The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
      https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385

      Given that Maurice Strong Father of Kyoto is now in Beijing as an advisor to the Chinese Government and Clinton sold the USA to the Chinese and also signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) I don’t know if Trump is all that far off although he seems to have missed the Maurice Strong connection.

      Strong has been pushing the idea that China would someday soon replace the U.S. as world economic leader and more important has worked very hard to make it happen.

      THE CHINA CONNECTION

      In 1972 Maurice Strong visited China while the First Earth Summit was being organized. The visit was to persuade China to participate. The Chinese had not appeared at any U.N. function since the 1949 revolution. The Chinese took Strong to visit the grave of his cousin, Anna Louise Strong. This is back in the 1970’s when Nixon and Kissinger were pushing for free trade with China.

      Strong’s cousin, Anna Louise Strong, was a Marxist, and a member of the Comintern, who spent two years with Mao and Chou En-lai. Her burial in China in 1970 was organized personally by Chou En-lai. Maurice is well received in China, partly because of his cousin’s connections…
      http://sovereigntyonline.org/p/sd/strong.html

      And then there is Maurice Strong’s buddy, Al Gore who fired Dr Happer during the time Congress was being bamboozled about CAGW in preparation for ratifying UNFCCC.

      ….“I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly,” Happer said…

      Happer, who served as the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy in 1993, says he was fired by Gore in 1993 for not going along with Gore’s scientific views on ozone and climate issues. “I was told that science was not going to intrude on policy,” Happer explained in 1993….
      (WWWDOT)epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=5ef55aa3-802a-23ad-4ce4-89c4f49995d2

      Al Gore’s background? You have to go back to his Daddy’s ties with, Armand Hammer and his various companies.

      Armand Hammer is the son of Julius Hammer, a founder of the Socialist Labor Party and the Communist Party in the USA. Armand was called the “Capitalist Prince” by the KGB. Hammer served the interests of the Soviets and became the first — and only — American capitalist to be awarded the Order of Lenin. (See “Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer” by Edward J. Epstein)

      Gore Sr. helped Hammer make the necessary connections with a series of U.S. presidents and helped Hammer’s Occidental Petroleum company gain access to foreign political leaders. Most important, it was Gore Sr. who helped stop the FBI from pursuing an investigation of the industrialist as a Soviet agent of influence.

      Even the NY Times is not especially nice about Armand Hammer’s Maze of Skulduggery

      From a nice whitewashed version:

      …He [Armand Hammer] delights in telling about his first meeting with Deng on the latter’s trip to the US during the Carter administration. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national-security adviser, had assiduously kept Hammer away from Deng in Washington, fearing that Hammer’s long connection with Soviet leaders would irritate the Russophobic Chinese. But in Houston, Hammer was squeezed into a reception for Texas oilmen. This guise failed when Deng, speaking through his interpreter, said he didn’t need to be introduced. ”We know who Dr. Hammer is, ” Hammer reports Deng as saying. ”He is a friend who knew Lenin.”….

      Hammer has sometimes been portrayed as the name-dropper’s name-dropper. That’s misleading. It’s true that he has known an impressive repertoire of presidents, prime ministers, and communist party leaders. But that’s simply his way of doing business – particularly in those countries where the boss instructs state trading companies on what deals to conclude.

      His start at becoming a real-life Lanny Budd came with a meeting that is now legendary in the Soviet Union – his 1921 encounter with Lenin…

      Since then, he has met every Soviet leader except the current President, Yuri Andropov. Mr. Andropov sent greetings on Hammer’s 85th birthday…
      (WWWDOT)csmonitor.com/1983/1007/100720.html

      Trying to untangle all the money, power and influence behind CAGW would probably take a a lifetime.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    Quite a few actors; not all,
    Are duped by the climate-change call,
    With such asinine spoof,
    Of temps. through the roof,
    Even during a pause or a stall.

    210

  • #
    Gee Aye

    I like the self referential “tipping point” joke

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  • #
    Margaret Smith

    I have a problem with the graph: it seems to show the current years as warmer than the 1030s. This is surely false, isn’t it?

    60

  • #
    Don Gaddes

    Looks like Emma has her own ‘hockey stick’. AGW must be almost able to field a team – perhaps the ‘Hockey Ruse’?
    Something perhaps missed by Jo –
    We are now warned by the ENSOites of an impending ‘most severe El Nino event since 1997’. This represents a hiatus of 18 years. According to the forecast formula developed by Alex S. Gaddes (‘Tomorrow’s Weather’ 1990,) the equivalent Solar induced ‘Dry Cycle’ event also happened in 1979. Where is the ‘Decadal Oscillation’?

    60

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Tangentially Related Old News Department. …
    Just noticed that Svensmark had a short article published in the March-April edition of Europhysics News. It contains a nifty summary of the foundations of the cosmic-ray hypothesis of climate change.
    http://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2015/02/epn2015462p26.pdf

    The most recent cited paper is in 2013, so nothing new to astute JoNovians, but for lurkers wondering what might have caused most 20th century warming if it wasn’t CO2 this summary is an easy read.

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    johnbuk

    I think you’ll find that Prof Emma Thompson’s comments were peer reviewed by Prof. di Caprio and 97% of the remaining academics of the University of Hollywood.

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    John M

    “Actress cum climate scientist, Emma Thompson”

    I think the proper English is “actress come scientist”, unless she is studying reproductive science 🙂

    60

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    “The British and their BBC”

    I do not know what it is like for Australians who leave Australia and their culture’s influence and that of the ABC.
    But for the British who emigrate, the culture and the BBC is never far behind.

    For those who have escaped , once you have landed at your destination, it often takes years to detox or de-program oneself from the drivel that passes for TV and radio in Britain.
    To actually be able to think without bias and or prejudice of the sort that is ingrained into the British culture, requires one to actually “leave the country” and never return.

    As for Emma Thompson … If you ask anyone in Britain who Emma Thompson is, they would probably say that she is a really BIG star and because she is on the “Telly” and does American movies, she must be a very sensible woman, and what she says about CO2 being evil must be true !
    after all she is intelligent , she went to Cambridge, so she must be just like Newton.

    60

    • #
      gai

      I quit watching the ‘telly’ four decades ago. I am throughly detoxed!

      30

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        I got fed up watching a glass screen for six hours every evening.

        So I ditched the TV, and bought a computer. Now I watch a glass screen for 14 hours every day.

        That is called progress. I think?

        40

  • #
    cheshirered

    Don’t forget the BBC have abandoned impartiality on cAGW, and have also BANNED the likes of Lord Lawson from receiving a BBC platform to question cAGW theory…on the grounds he’s ‘not a climate scientist’. Funny how they happily allow an actress to spout cr4p about pending climate-Armageddon yet it goes completely unchallenged!

    100

  • #
    handjive

    I am suggesting shark-jumping platforms …
    . . .
    2007:
    University of NSW’s Professor Mike Archer, then dean of science:

    “[With the ice sheets at the poles and Greenland melting] the sea levels will be 100 meters (330 feet) higher than they are today.

    Forget Venice. I mean we’re talking about sharks in the middle of (downtown) Sydney…”
    ~ ~ ~
    >> Fast-Forward >>>

    Consultation closes 16 October 2015.

    Adapting for Climate Change – A Long Term Strategy for the City of Sydney

    The City of Sydney is currently developing a strategy for resilient city, capable of responding to the impacts of climate change

    We invite you to fill out our feedback form and give us your thoughts and comments on Adapting for Climate Change.

    The form should take about 10 minutes to fill out.

    70

  • #
    Bill

    Jo:
    Just got an email regarding the newest paper by Soon et al.
    Re-evaluating the role of solar variability on Northern Hemisphere temperature trends since the 19th century
    Willie Soon, Ronan Connolly, Michael Connolly

    will forward to your address at this site. Please let me know when you get it, or not.
    Bill

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    • #
      Bill

      Not certain if this link from the manuscript will work, but here goes…

      Soon, Willie, Connolly, Ronan, Connolly, Michael, Reevaluating
      the role of solar variability on Northern Hemisphere temperature trends since
      the 19th century, Earth Science Reviews (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.08.010

      50

      • #
        gai

        Bill,

        Is this it?
        “Re-evaluating the role of solar variability on Northern Hemisphere temperature trends since the 19th century” by Willie Soon, Ronan Connolly, Michael Connolly.

        A pre-publication version
        http://globalwarmingsolved.com/data_files/SCC2015_preprint.pdf

        I am crunching my way though it (49 pages) and it is quite good!

        Two of Jo’s regulars put it up yesterday or the day before.

        60

        • #
          Bill

          That’s the one, For some reason I was on the dist list (and happy to be!) but my version is 102 pages long-also pre-publication version.

          00

  • #

    The good thing about opting out of the ABC is that we wouldn’t need to replace it with our own bloat-and-misinformation service. We could just skip the smug presenters, preachy convent girls and man-boy comedians altogether. I know I wouldn’t miss Q&A every week, because I’ve been missing it every week since it started.

    110

  • #
    handjive

    Bets against sea level rise:

    SMH, 7 Sept 2015: The Aussie beaches odds-on to be swallowed up by sea level rise
    Sportsbet has opened the books …
    ~ ~ ~
    Bet #1: ‘Global hub’ for Antarctic research opens in Hobart
    It has been more than four years since the previous federal government committed to build the $45 million centre on the waterfront.

    Bet #2: jan 23, 2014 – Cate Blanchett buys unit on harbour as investment for sons

    Bet #3: Activist investor buys NY mansion for record $147M
    The 18-acre beachfront property — with formal gardens and a pond — was the dream house of …

    Bet #4: The launch sites for NASA are under attack by rising sea levels directly related to global warming.
    NASA has recognized this fact and has warned that their launch sites along United States coastlines could be underwater in the coming years

    50

    • #
      Bill

      Sounder investment than the stock market. How can I place my bet agianst?

      40

    • #
      David Maddison

      Have they started homogenising sea level data yet?

      20

      • #
        gai

        Yes!

        They have certainly homogenized sea level data. (I have yet to find ANY data set that has not been ‘adjusted’ to fit CAGW. Heck they even ‘adjusted’ the ppm at which C3 plants die from 220 PPM down to 180 PPM. The ‘new’ data justifying the change? The ‘new adjusted’ ice core data!)
        ……………

        This much used WIKI chart uses sea level data that is not raw data but adjusted data.

        WIKI
        This figure shows changes in sea level during the Holocene, the time following the end of the most recent glacial period, based on data from Fleming et al. 1998, Fleming 2000, & Milne et al. 2005. These papers collected data from various reports and adjusted them for subsequent vertical geologic motions, primarily those associated with post-glacial continental and hydroisostatic rebound….

        https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Sea_Level.png

        An example is Santa Catarina in the above graph. It is the red cross sitting above the curve on the right almost to the edge. This one data point pulls the obviously downward trend line starting 2,000 years ago into a flat to increasing tend line.

        So what does the paper actually say?

        Relative sea-level changes in the last 5500 years in southern Brazil žLaguna–Imbituba region, Santa Catarina State / based on vermetid 14C ages
        Rodolfo J. Anguloa,), Paulo C.F. Giannini b,1, Kenitiro Suguio Luiz C.R. Pessenda

        December 1998
        Abstract
        Twenty-six new radiocarbon dates from vermetid shells collected in the southernmost sector of the Brazilian rocky coast presented dates ranging from 5410 ” 80 to 190 ” 65 years B.P., with associated paleosea levels varying from +2.10 m to +0.20 m above present sea level. The overall suggested trend of the relative sea level ŽRSL., declining until at least 190 years B.P., is somewhat contradictory to a proposed RSL rise in the last 1000 years in southern Brazil. The data also seem to undermine a more widely accepted RSL trend that suggests that at least two negative RSL oscillations occurred between 4100 and 3800 years B.P. and between 3000 and 2700 years B.P. The maximum elevation of the RSL in the Holocene in southern Brazil was possibly lower than that observed in most of the Brazilian eastern coast. Discrepancies between ancient sea levels of similar ages are attributed to coincidental methodological problems, to imprecisions in determining past relative sea levels and to possible changes in the geomorphology and wave climate close to shore during the last 5000 years. A general trend of increasing d18 O with a reduction in age in the studied samples may suggest a gradual reduction of water temperature in the region during the same period.
        http://apostilas.cena.usp.br/moodle/pessenda/periodicos/internacionais/Angulo%20et%20al.,%201999.pdf

        So the actual raw data shows a DECREASE of up to 2.10 meters and also a reduction in water temperature but this is ” contradictory to a proposed RSL rise in the last 1000 years” so I am sure it was ‘adjusted’

        The next question is Brazil tectonically stable?

        The Brazilian Shield is tectonically stable. The last orogenic cycle to affect it occurred > 600 million years ago.

        So any uplift is extremely slow.

        Last is there other data showing sea level was higher earlier in the Holocene?

        Mid to late Holocene sea-level reconstruction of Southeast Vietnam using beachrock and beach-ridge deposits

        ….backshore deposits along the tectonically stable south-eastern Vietnamese coast document Holocene sea level changes…..reconstructed for the last 8000 years….The rates of sea-level rise decreased sharply after the rapid early Holocene rise and stabilized at a rate of 4.5 mm/year between 8.0 and 6.9 ka. Southeast Vietnam beachrocks reveal that the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand slightly above + 1.4 m was reached between 6.7 and 5.0 ka, with a peak value close to + 1.5 m around 6.0 ka….
        (wwwDOT)sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818113001859

        So again + 1.5 meters higher than today

        Sea-level highstand recorded in Holocene shoreline deposits on Oahu, Hawaii

        Unconsolidated carbonate sands and cobbles on Kapapa Island, windward Oahu, are 1.4-2.8 (+ or – 0.25) m above present mean sea level (msl)…we interpret the deposit to be a fossil beach or shoreline representing a highstand of relative sea level during middle to late Holocene time. Calibrated radiocarbon dates of coral and mollusc samples, and a consideration of the effect of wave energy setup, indicate that paleo-msl was at least 1.6 (+ or – 0.45) m above present msl prior to 3889-3665 cal. yr B.P, possibly as early as 5532-5294 cal. yr B.P., and lasted until at least 2239-1940 cal. yr B.P

        Late Quaternary highstand deposits of the southern Arabian Gulf: a record of sea-level and climate change

        Abstract
        …..It has therefore been necessary to infer the ages of these sediments by a comparison of their stratigraphy and elevation with deposits known from other parts of the world. We regard this approach as valid because the southern Gulf coastline lacks evidence for significant widespread neotectonic uplift,…….
        …..Widespread evidence exists for a Holocene sea level higher than at present in the southern Arabian Gulf, indicating that it peaked at 1–2 m above present level, c. 5.5 ka bp…….

        Verification by another method:
        Sea Level Changes Past Records and Future Expectations

        For the last 40-50 years strong observational facts indicate virtually stable sea level conditions. The Earth’s rate of rotation records an [average] acceleration from 1972 to 2012, contradicting all claims of a rapid global sea level rise, and instead suggests stable, to slightly falling, sea levels.

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    • #
      Andrew McRae

      From HJ’s link #1…
      Thank you thank you journalist Stephen Smiley:

      Scientists working from the centre’s laboratories will be at the coal face of research on the Southern Ocean.

      Being at the coal face is clearly a noble personal sacrifice made for the good of humanity! 😀 😀

      00

  • #
    pat

    just a stunt. what does “is reported” mean? what if CAGW-infested MSM merely claims a beach has disappeared? how long must it stay “disappeared”? lol.

    Sportsbet: Global Warming Specials
    Applies to the first beach in Australia that ***is reported to no longer exist as a result of sea levels rising. Dead heat may apply.
    ***Bets void if none disappear by 2018.
    http://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/current-affairs/global-warming-specials

    70

  • #
    pat

    Fairfax has jumped on a WaPo story:

    8 Sept: SMH: Joby Warrick/Washington Post: New climate-change studies deepen concerns about a northern chill
    Two new studies are adding to concerns about one of the most troubling scenarios for future climate change: the possibility that global warming could slow or shut down the Atlantic’s great ocean circulation systems, with dramatic implications for North America and Europe…
    The papers offer insight into how rapidly melting Arctic ice could slow or even temporarily halt the ocean’s normal circulation, with possible effects ranging from plunging temperatures in northern latitudes to centuries-long droughts in south-east Asia. A fictional version of this scenario was depicted in the 2004 disaster film Day after Tomorrow…
    Their report, in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, says previous research may have underestimated changes to the ocean from the huge influx of fresh, cold water from melting ice sheets…
    The team’s computer models projected a drop in ocean salinity of about 7 per cent in the areas near Greenland’s melting ice sheets…
    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/new-climatechange-studies-deepen-concerns-about-a-northern-chill-20150907-gjh9cf.html

    50

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    handjive

    It’s sea level rise Jim, but not as we know it:

    This is easily one of the best, if not THE best, surf videos we’ve ever seen.
    Beautifully shot via done at the coastal spot of Teahupo’o in Tahiti, it’s worth every second of your time.

    30

  • #
    pat

    7 Sept: UK Independent: Tom Bawden: Refugee crisis: Is climate change affecting mass migration?
    The current refugee crisis marks a watershed moment in the history of global warming because it’s the first wave of emigration to be explicitly linked to climate change, according to one leading scientist, who predicts rises in temperature and increasingly extreme weather will unleash many more mass movements of people in the future. Professor Richard Seager acknowledges that there is much more to the Syrian uprising than the climate, but says that global warming played a key role in creating the conditions that fuelled the civil war behind the refugee emergency…
    Africa is another continent likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change…
    This assumes that temperatures in the region rise by as much as 5C by 2050…
    Such warnings are speculative, of course…
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/refugee-crisis-is-climate-change-affecting-mass-migration-10490434.html

    7 Sept: Time: Aryn Baker: How Climate Change is Behind the Surge of Migrants to Europe
    From 2006 to 2011, large swaths of Syria suffered an extreme drought that, according to climatologists, was exacerbated by climate change. The drought lead to increased poverty and relocation to urban areas, according to a recent report by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and cited by Scientific American…
    And what happened in Syria, he says, is likely to play out elsewhere going forward…
    Across the Middle East and Africa climate change, according to climatologists at the U.S. Department of Defense-funded Strauss Center project on Climate Change and African Political Stability in Texas, has already affected weather. These changes have contributed to more frequent natural disasters like flooding and drought…
    http://time.com/4024210/climate-change-migrants/

    url easy to find:
    4 March: WUWT: Rebutting the claim: Did Human-Caused Climate Change Lead to War in Syria?
    By Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels

    50

  • #
    pat

    3 Sept: Billboard: Gail Mitchell: Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi & More Sing a ‘Love Song to the Earth’ to Support Climate Action
    Written by Bedingfield, Paul, Toby Gad and John Shanks and produced by Shanks (Stevie Nicks, Kelly Clarkson) and Gad (John Legend, Beyoncé), “Love Song to the Earth” also features Colbie Caillat, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice and Q’orianka Kilcher. The artists, producers and directors of the “Love Song” project and Apple are donating their respective proceeds to Friends of the Earth U.S. and the ***United Nations Foundation…
    In a release announcing the “Love Song” launch, Gad said, “I hope this song will broaden the audience for this urgent message and give the politicians emotional support for meaningful climate agreement in Paris.”…
    http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6685835/love-song-earth-climate-change-paul-mccartney-jon-bon-jovi

    too stupid to excerpt:

    Lyrics: Love Song to the Earth
    http://www.metrolyrics.com/love-song-to-the-earth-lyrics-paul-mccartney.html

    20

    • #

      Good luck to Friends of the Earth and UN in getting hold of those proceeds. And good luck to Earth in getting hold of any proceeds from Friends of the Earth and the UN.

      30

  • #
    pat

    speaking of STUPID. yesterday, ABC re-broadcast an hour (with repeat) of this arrogant nonsense from February:

    ABC Big Ideas: How did public debate get so stupid?
    If you are exasperated by the parlous state of public discourse and debate – in politics, popular culture, or society generally – then you are not alone. Writers Helen Razer and Bernard Keane are similarly cranky about ‘the decline of reason’ and the ascendancy of ‘stupid’ ideas. In their new book, A Short History of Stupid, they take aim at anti-scientific thinking…
    Paul Barclay talks to them. ORIGINALLY BROADCAST ON 09/02/2015.

    8 mins in, Barclay brings up how Keane/Razer’s stupid targets are often the highly-educated. Barclay says it’s ironic these highly-educated types are the same people (inference: smart enough to) ridicule deniers of climate change, on the basis that denial is unscientific.
    Keane says anti-vaxxers think they they are too posh for vaccination. people talk about herd immunity – they think they are too special to be part of any herd. Razer says they think they are from genetic nobility.

    example of Keane/Razer’s thinking on CAGW “denial”:

    A Short History of Stupid Quotes
    “Climate change denialists are therefore engaged in intergenerational economic warfare on their own societies. They won’t witness the worst aspects of climate change—luckily for them they’ll die before they occur. But their children and grandchildren will be affected by them. The refusal of older people, and particularly old white males, to accept the need for climate action shifts costs that they themselves are causing onto their descendants, all of whom will pay higher prices, higher taxes and higher insurance premiums and enjoy poorer health, lower economic growth and fewer jobs because of climate change. Denialists are a form of economic parasite preying on their own offspring, running up a bill they’ll die before having to pay. And every year of delay increases the costs that future generations will have to bear.”
    ― Bernard Keane, A Short History of Stupid: The decline of reason and why public debate makes us want to scream
    http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/42915641-a-short-history-of-stupid

    I want to scream.

    –Helen Razer and Bernard Keane made the debate stupid by resorting to namecalling instead of discussing science. – Jo

    50

  • #
    pat

    speaking of stupid:

    5 Sept: UK Telegraph: Andrew Critchlow: Electricity network in ‘uncharted territory’ as blackouts loom
    As Britain loses one more power station, experts argue the grid has been left too exposed
    This is the fear of experts like Anthony Price, director of Electricity Storage Network, who argues that policymakers have allowed the system to become too vulnerable to outages, which could cost the economy billions of pounds in lost output and productivity…
    His concerns were brought into sharper focus last week with the announcement that the Eggborough power station in Yorkshire would close in March 2016. The plant generates around 4pc of the UK’s electricity and its shutdown at the end of the winter will place a further squeeze on the safety cushion for avoiding a blackout across large areas of the country…
    According to analysts at the investment bank Jefferies, the closure of Eggborough will mean that over 16 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity – which is enough to provide electricity for a dozen large cities – will have been shut down over the last four years. At the same time, Britain has installed only 6,000 megawatts of new easily “dispatchable” generation capacity to meet any potential shortfalls that may arise…
    Although renewables accounted for a record 22.3pc of the UK’s total electricity generation in the first quarter of this year, conventional coal, gas-fired and nuclear plants remain the backbone of the country’s energy energy supply infrastructure. Coal burning plants still provide around 40pc of the UK’s electricity…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/utilities/11844750/Electricity-network-in-uncharted-territory-as-blackouts-loom.html

    6 Sept: MailOnSundayUK: Jon Rees: New power stations? We’ll just use less electricity: Britain’s new Energy Secretary to outline her plans this Autumn
    ‘The changes we see coming at an extraordinary pace will result in central power generating capacity becoming redundant. It will mean fewer of everything including fewer big power stations,’ said a high-ranking energy source, speaking after a further delay was announced to the building of a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset…
    ‘It’s akin to developments in computing, when the old mainframe computers were made redundant by the advent of hundreds of smaller computers, which proved far more reliable and much, much cheaper.’
    Much more electricity could be generated by smaller power stations, including solar ones.
    Lower demand at peak times is also expected as a result of the ‘internet of things’ ,where appliances can be switched off and on at suitable times.
    The final element is greater progress on energy storage as firms such as Tesla and GE develop batteries capable of storing a home’s energy needs…
    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3223539/New-power-stations-ll-just-use-electricity-Britain-s-new-Energy-Secretary-outline-plans-Autumn.html

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      ianl8888

      speaking of stupid

      That’s why this has become unstoppable … one cannot reason with stupidity

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      Pat mentions this: (my bolding here)

      Lower demand at peak times is also expected as a result of the ‘internet of things’, where appliances can be switched off and on at suitable times.

      Until the people actually get told the truth about electrical power consumption, this stupidity will prevail, just as ianl8888 says.

      There’s the real purpose of smart meters, not to aid homeowners in becoming more efficient with their power consumption, but to enable suppliers to individually shut off ….. appliances, as they so artfully mention.

      Notice here how the wording ….. appliances gives the impression that it is unthoughtful home owners placing stress on the grids, and leading to possible blackouts. Again, it gives the impression that the residential sector is the big culprit here.

      For heaven’s sake. That residential sector is barely 35% of consumption. And when is the maximum demand for residential power? Between 4PM and 10PM, you know, when people get home from school and work, they turn on the lights, they start up the heaters or coolers, they do the chores, they cook their dinner, they do their homework, they watch TV.

      AS THEY HAVE DONE FOREVER.

      What’s the plan then. To completely and utterly change the lifestyle of hundreds of generations and years. They have always done it like that. What are you going to do? Make people move their evening meal time to say 1AM. Change work and school hours.

      The other peak period is from 5AM until 9AM, you know, when people actually wake up, have their breakfast, and go to work, and working places all fire up their consumption. What do you do here? Change people’s sleep patterns and when they go to work.

      No!

      They talk about bl00dy ….. appliances.

      You won’t need to isolate appliances.

      You’ll need to isolate whole cities.

      We actually might be approaching peak stupidity.

      Until vast areas and whole cities get blacked out, then this piddling little talk of appliances will prevail.

      A few jugs here and there is nothing.

      Only then will they begin the process of actually replacing large scale power plants which, because of fear, have gone unreplaced, and are reaching the stage where you can whip it all you like, but it ‘aint getting up off the ground any more. It’s dead.

      It’s actually scary really, that it has been allowed to get this far.

      Pretty soon, someone will start asking the right questions, and heaven help the person who gives the wrong answers.

      Tony.

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        David Maddison

        How long can our ageing fossil plants be kept going? Is it the case that they are so well engineered that they can relatively easily be refurbished and kept going? What is the main issue in their deterioration? Corrosion of boiler tubing, for example, erosion of turbine blades?

        If we ever stop the stupidity with unsustainables, how quickly could a new fossil or nuclear plant be built once things get desperate?

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          AndyG55

          I would think that adding onto existing power stations using modern higher efficiency systems would be the go.

          Put one new generator in to start with, then decommission and upgrade the others as required.

          Speculating only.. Pretty sure TonyfromOz would have a better suggestion.

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          I’m not at all certain how long they can keep going.

          AGL has mentioned that they will close their plants, Bayswater, Liddell, and Loy Yang by 2050, and you have to chuckle at that really, as those greenies look at this as a win. It’s 35 years away.

          Liddell will be the first to go, as it is the oldest, but if the others make it out to 2050, that means they will be around 65 years old, and while it’s possible, I can’t really see it.

          I suspect that coal fired plant operators are saying things like this to placate those green urgers, and probably hoping that this whole thing will have petered out by then. In the meantime, they’ll just keep on humming along, doing what they always have done, supplying absolutely huge amounts of cheap electricity.

          One encouraging thing is that both Bayswater and the similarly sized plant Eraring also the same age as Bayswater have already done all the work to upgrade to USC plants. (UltraSuperCritical) Even though the upgrades are in abeyance now, all the hard yards have been done, and that means it will be considerably less time to have them up and running, because all that pre construction planning etc can take anything up to 5 years or more.

          With that already in place, it will be easier to make any upgrade even better if the newer technology comes on stream in the near future, Advanced USC, and the next level up from that.

          It’s a similar situation in the U.S. While a pretty large number of coal fired plants have closed, they were all of them ancient and tiny, as no plant greater than 800MW has closed in the last 8 years. The average age of ALL coal fired plants eight/seven years ago was almost that full 50 years, and now, with all those small and ancient plats closed that average age has dropped, but only marginally, down to around 45/6 years old, which is amazing really, because if that’s the average age, there must still be a number of plants well over that 50 years of age, still generating large amounts of power.

          If this current situation does indeed go away, then I can see a number of the large plants resubmitting proposals for upgrades.

          A new green field plant can take anything up to ten years from thought bubble to power delivery, and that’s not just for coal fired power, but for all plants, even wind and solar, which usually get fast tracked, and even then, it can still be five to seven years for wind and solar. With existing coal fired plants, the situation would be easier, and take less in time to upgrade.

          I cannot see Nuclear power plants getting up here in Oz in the near, or even long term, like 20 years. That would be too big an ask.

          Upgrades to existing plants looks more likely, and that will happen when those wind plants which have ten years operation now start failing and people start to ask questions.

          Tony.

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            David Maddison

            Thanks Tony. It’s good to hear that if people ever wake up to the madness of unsustainables we will still be able to generate economic fossil electricity 24/7/365 even with aged power plants or aged plants with upgrades.

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            I know I’ve probably said this before, but it’s so worthwhile repeating.

            For the life of me, I just cannot understand how people see any value at all in wind power.

            You have a 500MW wind plant. It has 200 generators, contained in a tiny space at the top of a pole 450 metres tall, inaccessible for maintenance except at tremendous cost, and with a lifespan of barely 25 years if they make that at all, and there’s no way known ALL of them will be working as originally pristine as they were at new.

            With a coal fired plant, you have 4 units at ground level, each in a pristinely clean space with actual room to move.

            That’s not the half of it though.

            That wind plant will deliver only 55TWH over its 25 year life, but it delivers it only when it wants to, as the wind blows, and never on demand, averaging just over 7 hours a day of its rated maximum power.

            The coal fired plant will deliver 970TWH over its minimum lifespan of 50 years, and will deliver it on demand, all the time. That coal fired plant will deliver the 25 year lifetime supply of the wind plant in it’s first 2 years and ten months.

            So what if the coal fired plant costs twice as much, even more, when it’s going to deliver almost 18 times the power.

            I fail to see how people cannot see the economics in all this, and just why coal fired power is so much cheaper. They just don’t want to know.

            Tony.

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            • #
              Yonniestone

              Love the photo Tony, so much for ‘Dirty Coal’ eh?

              Noticed the overhead crane also, it’d make maintenance easily accessible and safe, I’d say it was initially used for the plant installation.
              As for wind who the hell would purposely design something to force working at heights all year round? as you said expensive and dangerous.

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              • #
                David Maddison

                The term “dirty coal” was a superb marketing gimmick by warmists and it work. Coal is clean and pure and the main combustion products are life-giving CO2 and water plus useful flyash for building materials.

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            • #
              Dave

              .

              Wind is all Wind in UK
              Averaged less than 400MW over last 48 hours

              But that’s from over 13,000MW installed Nameplate

              How useless is this source of electricity?

              Well to be truthful it’s not a SOURCE!

              It’s a stupid hobby by Greenies

              And we pay for it all over the globe?

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              Radical Rodent

              Another point is that, for every watt of ruinable energy generation installed, a watt of backup conventional energy generation has to be installed. Why not cut the outrageous costs of the ruinable, and just install the conventional?

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        gai

        Tony,

        I have been screaming about this for years.

        On WUWT, of all places when I ran the analysis of what plant closures meant to the USA, I was actually shouted down and told I was crazy.

        The Greenies are not only going after coal, and nuclear but also hydro.

        This is what I wrote a few years ago:
        In 2009 the USA had 322 gigawatts capacity in coal plants representing 44% of the generating capacity. In 2013 coal was down to 39% and last winter the grid was ‘stretched’ using all reserve capacity.

        These are the closing reported or planned as of 2012 . Existing Capacity in 2009: – 322,043 megawatts.

        Retirements Reported:
        2009 – 529
        2010 – 1,528
        2011 – 2,517
        Retirements Planned:
        2012 – 8,890
        2013 – 2,068
        2014 – 4,715
        2015 – 9,865

        By next year [2014] around 10% of our generating capacity will be closed since Obama came into office. Originally, EPA calculated that only 9.5 GW of electrical generating capacity would close as a result of its MACT and CSAPR rules. The 2012 IER report showed more than 30 GW closing. However that underrepresented the closings, the latest update shows that 72.7 GW of electrical generating capacity will now close—a 44.4 GW increase.

        The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) most recent long-term assessment found that existing and proposed environmental regulations affecting fossil fuel plants in the United States may significantly affect bulk power system reliability.

        NERC, the nation’s leading authority on electric reliability… NERC estimates that nearly a quarter of our coal-fired capacity could be off-line by 2018 and that as many as 677 coal-fired units (258 gigawatts) would need to be temporarily shut down to install EPA-mandated equipment.[ii] These EPA regulations must be implemented within a 3-year window and the mandated equipment takes about 18 months to install. Because EPA’s three year timeline is so tight and the regulations affect so many units, utility companies are not sure that they can meet the standards and ensure reliability of the electricity system at the same time.
        http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/generating-companies-are-shuttering-coal-plants-at-record-rates-eia-reports/

        OTHER FACTORS:
        1. Nuclear energy generates 19 percent of US capacity, if all 38 units at risk are retired, about one-third of our nuclear fleet will also be shut down. link

        2. In 2013, hydropower represented only 2.6 percent of the total energy consumed. The states with the largest hydroelectric generation are Washington, California, New York, Oregon and Alabama. All but Alabama are solidly ‘Progressive’ The Warmists have all the ammo they need to block or even tear down hydroelectric, thanks to the USA National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, (October 2, 1968) An example of the problems and cost of even revamping an existing small drinking water reservoir by just updating the water line and installing a micro-hydro turbine instead of pressure reduction valves.

        3. The progressive NIMBYs are throwing a hissyfit not only about fracking (Russian propaganda?) but also about pipelines. This means a transition to natural gas is not happening in the time frame expected and a reliable supply especially in winter can not be ensured. Shell prefers natural gas because it is so easy to jack-up prices and do price gouging during winter.

        >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

        The problem with central planing has always been that it ALWAYS takes 2 to 3 times as long and costs 2 to three times as much and that is BEFORE you toss in the looney-tune Activists and the weather.

        If the USA does not have massive black-outs (Just-in-time for a Republican president of course) I will be very much surprised.

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    pat

    5 Sept: UK Mirror: John Prescott: Environmental visionary Al Gore is the US president the whole planet needs, never mind America
    Mirror columnist and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott hopes the man who lost the 2000 election in the courts not the ballot box chooses to stand again
    It’s about 100 days before the UN climate conference in Paris, perhaps the most important environment summit in history.
    Global warming is the biggest threat to international peace and prosperity, far greater than the threat from nuclear bombs, and is already increasing poverty and insecurity around the world.
    The refugee crisis caused by wars in Syria and Iraq will be as nothing compared with the migration from countries decimated by climate change.
    But where’s the political leadership to get it done?…
    Stand Al. The world needs you.
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/environmental-visionary-al-gore-president-6390482

    6 Sept: NYT: Adam Nagourney: Carbon Cuts So Sharp Even California Democrats Are Divided
    But a centerpiece of California’s long-term campaign against emissions — legislation requiring a 50 percent reduction in petroleum use by Jan. 1, 2030 — has set off a fierce battle here, pitting not only a well-financed oil industry against environmentalists, but Democrat against Democrat…
    “You’ve got the oil companies fighting Pope Francis,” he (Gov. Jerry Brown) said. “Fighting the scientists of the world. Fighting the governor of California. They are engaged in literally a life-and-death struggle, and I have no doubt who is going to be the victor.”…
    The concerns have come not only from Republicans, but also from moderate Democrats who represent communities in central California. Many of these communities are struggling with high unemployment and slow economic growth…
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/bold-bill-to-cut-california-emissions-sets-off-fierce-battle.html?_r=0

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    pat

    all over the Indian MSM today:

    8 Sept: Times of India: Vishwa Mohan: Climate deal: India seeks debate on ‘lifestyles’
    ***New Delhi’s statement is a clear indication that India is more keen to keep the focus on ‘adaptation’ (sustainable practices) to deal with the climate change as against the developed countries’ formulation of ‘mitigation’ (emission cuts) to save the world from disastrous consequences of global warming…
    India’s stand was articulated by the country’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar while making his intervention during a meeting on climate change negotiations in Paris on Monday. He said, “Lifestyle adopted in developed countries is unsustainable” and it will require five earths to fulfill their lifestyle demands. On the other hand, Indian lifestyle is sustainable where one earth is sufficient…
    Making his intervention during the meeting in Paris, Javadekar also noted that India and other developing countries have priority of eradicating poverty.
    ***”They (developing countries) cannot be asked to compromise on that goal in the name of Climate Change. Every poor of the World has the right to emerge out of poverty, and poor and developing countries need sufficient carbon space to ensure sustainable development. As climate change impacts the poorer and vulnerable sections severely, we must ensure climate justice”, he said…
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/developmental-issues/Climate-deal-India-seeks-debate-on-lifestyles/articleshow/48863742.cms

    2 Sept: India Climate Dialogue: Joydeep Gupta: India’s post-2020 climate plan in disarray
    India’s delayed submission of a national climate plan is the result of increasing doubts that the country can meet an emissions intensity target pledged in 2009, plunging future commitments into disarray, India Climate Dialogue can reveal…
    http://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2015/09/02/indias-post-2020-climate-plan-in-disarray/

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      gai

      YES SIRRAH! We really really want the INDIA LIFE STYLE!!! Just ask Ted Turner, — “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”

      Starving in India: The Forgotten Problem By Ashwin Parulkar

      What you don’t hear much about, however, is the most tragic and outrageous consequence of India’s failure to feed its people adequately: starvation deaths…

      it isn’t surprising that public officials and even many in the media are reluctant to face up to the painful reality that hunger persists in 2012. Starvation doesn’t fit neatly into the story of a “shining” India.

      But India is also a nation with about 360 million people living under the official poverty line – more than any other country – and starvation is all too real…

      I set out last September with my colleague Ankita Aggarwal from the Centre for Equity Studies, a New Delhi think tank, to investigate deaths that bore the hallmarks of starvation in three Indian states: Bihar, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh — the country’s “hungriest”, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan group that advocates policies to fight hunger and poverty.

      Each state fares worse than the abysmal national averages in nearly all nutrition indicators, including height for weight and age of children and mortality rate for children under five years old….

      Based on government estimates that 35.6% of Indian women and 34.2% of Indian men have BMIs less than 18.5, the Planning Commission’s India Human Development Report states, “If India is not in a state of famine, it is quite clearly in a state of chronic hunger.”…

      In mid-January, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called India’s malnutrition problem a national shame after a survey revealed that 42% of the nation’s children are underweight. Officials in the prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this article….

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    pat

    7 Sept: Xinhuanet: No global accord on climate change without financial commitment, says Hollande
    The international climate conference scheduled for the year-end in Paris is doomed to fail without firm financial commitment by the world’s rich nations to curb climate degradation, French President Francois Hollande said Monday.
    He warned there were real risks of stakeholders not reaching a global and restrictive accord on climate change, stressing “there will be no agreement if there is no firm commitment on finance.”
    “We need a pre-agreement on the question of finance” ahead of the climate meeting, said Hollande, so that heads of state attending the event “can be certain that a deal will be closed.”…
    ***”If we do not conclude an accord, if no significant action is taken, there would not be hundreds of thousands of refugees in the next 20-30 years. We would have to deal with millions,” he added…
    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-09/07/c_134599305.htm

    from Carbon Brief’s “Bonn climate talks ask for draft Paris text”:
    A Chinese-language article for Xinhua also pointed to differentiation as a key sticking point for the talks.
    China and India are pushing for clear differentiation between developed and developing nations, while the EU and US want all countries’ obligations to converge into a common framework…

    7 Sept: Jakarta Post: AFP: Mariette Le Roux: Climate pact hinges on finance: Conference host France
    This issue topped the agenda for the huddle of foreign and environment ministers and senior officials closing in Paris on Monday…
    Janos Pasztor, assistant UN secretary general on climate, agreed at a conference elsewhere in Paris that: “Financing is absolutely key.””$100 billion is not that much when we want to change the whole world into a no-carbon future,” he said.
    ***”For that we need trillions” — and the bulk will have to come from the private sector…
    And he (Hollande) announced he would travel to China in November, to “launch an appeal for the success of the climate conference” with President Xi Jinping…
    http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/07/climate-pact-hinges-finance-conference-host-france.html

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    pat

    7 Sept: RTCC: Alex Pashley: Ecuador seeks to unite Latin America behind climate justice crusade
    Latin America could call for top polluters to be held to account for the wrath of a warming planet on its citizens, in a major political intervention weeks before a crunch summit.
    That is according to a senior official shaping Ecuador’s rotating presidency of the 33-strong Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)…
    Ortega said the region will likely call for a legally binding deal, increased funds for adaptation to extreme weather and access to clean technology…
    But Costa Rica’s ***former lead envoy (Monica Araya, now director of think tank Nivela) described Ecuador as devising a declaration of the “past century” which reinforced a divide between the Global North and South that others had started to leave behind…
    More pressing domestic issues could distract leaders from international climate negotiations.
    Latin America and the Caribbean’s 600 million population is only responsible for about 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, after all…
    He (Ortega) insisted this request would prevail in its declaration.
    “There is no disagreement within our members. 70 million in the region are living in extreme poverty, on just one dollar a day. This is our moral imperative.”
    http://www.rtcc.org/2015/09/07/ecuador-seeks-to-unite-latin-america-behind-climate-justice-call/

    ***why quote a FORMER Costa Rican climate envoy? no doubt because she could be guaranteed to be negative!

    E3G: Monica Araya, Senior Associate
    She is Founder & Director of Nivela (a think tank) and Costa Rica Limpia (a citizen observatory). She is co-chair of the Low Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS) Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean and a Member of the Steering Committee of the UNEP Gap Emissions Report. She worked at E3G from 2009-2011 and works as senior associate on climate policy projects with a focus on the negotiations and Latin America…
    She worked for the Ministry of Foreign Trade in Costa Rica, the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, the OECD and Climate Change Capital and has collaborated with multiple organizations including: World Resources Institute (WRI), the European Climate Foundation (ECF), INCAE Business School, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the Institute for Building Efficiency, and Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)…
    http://www.e3g.org/people/monica-araya

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    pat

    Podcast 21mins: 7 Sept: RTCC: The Emissions Factor: Bonn climate talks review
    Ed King is joined by Michael Jacobs, Pilita Clark plus we hear from Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana + Dan Reifsnyder
    On this week’s podcast Ed King is joined by the FT’s Pilita Clark and Michael Jacobs – advisor to former UK PM Gordon Brown – now working with the New Climate Economy…
    Michael Jacobs: “The idea that most countries have is that this will be a durable agreement that lasts for 30-40 years… and every 5 years what countries do on climate change will be updated and extended – there will be rounds of agreement every 5 years. People hadn’t really been clear about what was going to be in there – was it mitigation or adaptation as well – and that has definitely been clarified. There has been convergence around middle positions.” –
    http://www.rtcc.org/2015/09/07/the-emissions-factor-podcast-bonn-climate-talks-review/

    New Climate Economy: Michael Jacobs, Senior Advisor
    Michael Jacobs is Senior Adviser for the New Climate Economy project. An economist and political scientist, Michael is also Senior Adviser at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris, Visiting Professor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at University College London. From 2007 to 2010 he was Special Adviser to the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and before that (2004-2007) a member of the Council of Economic Advisers at the UK Treasury. He is a former Co-Editor of the Political Quarterly and a former General Secretary of the Fabian Society. His books include The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainable Development and the Politics of the Future (Pluto Press, 1991), Greening the Millennium? The New Politics of the Environment (ed, Blackwell, 1997), The Politics of the Real World (Earthscan 1996) and Paying for Progress: A New Politics of Tax for Public Spending (Fabian Society 2000).
    CHECK THE REST OF THE PROJECT TEAM
    http://newclimateeconomy.net/content/project-team

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    pat

    more on Michael Jacobs…as reported by Pilita Clark:

    7 July: Financial Times: Pilita Clark: Clean global economic growth now ‘within reach’
    Halting global warming without denting economic growth can be done more easily than many companies and governments realise, a report from 28 chief executives, economists and political figures shows…
    “Today’s report shows us that a goal we once thought of as distant is within our reach,” said Felipe Calderón, the former president of Mexico and chairman of an international ***panel that commissioned the study…
    The report, which is timed to influence debate as governments work on finalising an international climate change agreement in Paris in December etc…
    But one of the report’s authors, Michael Jacobs, said it was clear that the pledges countries had been making for the Paris agreement so far did not fully reflect the possible gains available that were also in countries’ economic self-interest.
    “Our numbers show there is more potential out there,” he told the Financial Times…
    Investing in energy efficiency could boost cumulative economic output globally by up to ***$18trillion by 2035, it says…
    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/79a9f1c6-23f1-11e5-9c4e-a775d2b173ca.html#axzz3l6krV2pW

    pdf: 72 pages: Sept 2014: New Climate Economy Report: Better Growth, Better Climate
    Address: c/o World Resources Institute
    10 G St NE Suite 800 Washington, DC 20002, USA
    The Synthesis Report
    Partners: LOGOS
    (Check out the members of the Commission, The Economics Advisory Panel, etc)
    http://newclimateeconomy.report/TheNewClimateEconomyReport.pdf

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    pat

    imagine the arm-twisting…and whatever else!

    5 Sept: NewIndianExpress: PTI: US Envoy to Visit India, China for Climate Talks Next Week
    WASHINGTON: A senior Obama administration official will visit India and China next week to “consult” on climate change ahead of the crucial UN climate talks in Paris later this year, the White House has said.
    “Senior Advisor to the President, Brian Deese, will visit New Delhi on September 7 and Beijing on September 9 and 10.
    “He will meet with senior officials in both countries, including Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in India and Executive Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli in China, to consult on key international climate change issues,” a White House statement said…andr
    http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/US-Envoy-to-Visit-India-China-for-Climate-Talks-Next-Week/2015/09/05/article3011674.ece

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    David Maddison

    Surprised to see their ABC discussing the subject. Also read the comments.

    (USA friends, a Royal Commission is a high level Government inquiry with wide powers. It is like a Presidential Commission in the Republic. “Their” ABC is a reference to the advertising of this publically funded broadcaster which calls itself “Your ABC” but it is heavily infiltrated by Leftists.)

    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/nuclear-fuel-cycle-royal-commission/6749498

    What is Australia’s nuclear future?

    Sunday 6 September 2015 7:45AM

    A Royal Commission is underway in South Australia, looking at that state’s role in the extraction, processing, power generation and storage components of the nuclear fuel cycle.

    It’s not been reported on, overly much. But Geoff Hudson suggests it could be a fantastic opportunity for Australia’s energy sector – and could even involve mobile nuclear reactor ships-for-hire.

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    David Maddison

    Comments from 40 years ago. Sound familiar?

    40th anniversary of their ABC’S Science Show.

    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-science-show-celebrates-40-years/6726302#transcript

    Peter Ritchie-Calder: In the course of the last century we’ve put 360,000 million tonnes of fossil carbon into the atmosphere. On the present trends the accumulated requirements between now and 2000AD will come out as something like 11,000 million tonnes of coal a year, 200,000 million tonnes of crude petroleum and liquid natural gas, and 50 million million cubic metres of natural gas. Now remember, this is coming out of the bowels of the earth, and now we are taking it out and we’re throwing it back into the atmosphere and into the climatic machine, into the weather machine, where it is beginning to affect the climate itself. Now, this is a very serious matter, and to me there is no question that our climate has changed.

    Robyn Williams: Do you expect the limitation to this ever-expanding use of fossil fuels as an energy source to be due to either running out of them or to this second question of climate effect?

    Peter Ritchie-Calder: I think what is going to be…it definitely will be governed by environmental factors, that you will simply be confronted with a situation which will make life virtually intolerable.

    Robyn Williams: Well, we’ve got these different possible techniques, there’s nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, solar power, tidal power and so on. What do you think will happen to determine which of these will become the predominant and the satisfactory energy source? Do you think it will be questions of scientific ingenuity? Do you think it will be questions of our changing social patterns and use of energy, or questions of money, of business?

    Peter Ritchie-Calder: Well, if we’re looking at what I regard as the absurd oil situation, the OPEC situation, I must say I just get a lot of sardonic pleasure out of it. Because here you’ve got these fellows really cocking a snook at us, and saying to the people who went for that cheap fuel, cheap oil, ‘you’re going to pay the price that we’re going to determine for you’. It also reminds us, which again is a source of satisfaction to me, of the enormous stupidity of our whole scientific policies over the last 40 years.

    Now, we were very emphatic in 1963, that’s 12 years ago…you know, these are the years that the locusts have eaten, we’ve really wasted our opportunity. In 1963 we were talking in the Rome conference, the UN conference, on new sources of energy, which is rather sardonic because we weren’t talking about atomic energy at all, we were talking about the older sources of energy, which is the sun and the wind and the water and geothermal energy. There is nothing that we are now discussing with such alarm and despondency as a result of the oil situation that we weren’t discussing over the last 25, 30 years. We’ve been in this game, some of us, in the UN and elsewhere, for all that time, but the people that came up with the ideas couldn’t influence the politicians, the politicians were highly sceptical. The salesmanship of science is likely to persuade politicians to make the wrong choices because they are the gimmick choices.

    Now, the serious choices, you know like putting up a windmill or putting on solar heating and so on, this is below contempt, you know, this is something that you didn’t do anything about. You went for the big installations, you went for the atomic megawatt stations and all this sort of thing, you settle for the short-term and often it’s not even for the short-term. I’ve had furious arguments in the House of Lords, we’ve been discussing energy. What have we been discussing? North Sea oil. Now North Sea oil to me is something which is an incident in time, and I’m not joking. I don’t know how long the resource will last, perhaps a generation, two generations. But it is not the answer to the energy problem.

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    A C

    Hmmm?
    I was forced against better judgment to go and watch Emma Thompson in the movie “Carrington” in which she took good money to simulate (I assume it was simulated) anal intercourse with another actor for public entertainment.
    Its a sign of the West’s complete moral decline that such performances have made her a celebrity whose opinion on many subjects is now revered as authorititive.
    Lets face it Jo, a mere science degree could never compete with an Oscar

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    A C

    I might add that I dont regard Ms Blanchett with any higher regard. When a person like her is paid large sums of money based on her ability to fake emotion, I cannot regard her concern over the climate as anything more than just another performance. In fact, watching these grand dames parading across the TV screens, one wonders where the performance ends – and if there is actually a real person underneath.
    I was at the theatre recently,(waiting for Godot), where Ms Blanchett was in the audience, and I rather thought that she was putting on a better performance than the actors on the stage – she seemed to have more audience awareness

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    old44

    She named her children Tindyebwa Agaba Wise and Gaia Romilly Wise.

    Enough said.

    She is listed in Wiki as an actor and comedian, no mention of climate science.

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    pat

    8 Sept: WUWT: Tuesday tee hee – Desperate Dana by Josh
    Josh writes: The Emma Thompson BBC Newsnight interview made it to the Guardian (LINK). The writer Dana Nuccitelli (ironically an employee of Tetra Tech (LINK) who have interests in the Oil and Gas industry) explains that Emma Thompson was wrong but in the right sort of way, unlike other people who are wrong in the wrong sort of way…
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/09/08/tuesday-tee-hee-desperate-dana-by-josh/

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    David Maddison

    In as compact a way as possible I am trying to put a little statement together about why CAGW is not true. Here are the few points I am starting with. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

    Cheap fossil-based energy is an economic advantage not a liability. CO2 not a problem. No warming for over 18 years. Only 0.6C warming in 135 years. CO2 lags, not precedes temperature change. Not a major greenhouse gas. Anthropogenic CO2 only < 3.5% of all CO2 in atmosphere. An insignificant proportion of an insignificant trace gas. Catastrophic global warming a fr aud.

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    el gordo

    Emma knows nothing about the 200 year cycle, which predicts half a century of cooling has begun.

    “It gives correctly the 1850–1900 temperature minimum and shows a temperature drop from present to AD 2080, the latter comparable with the minimum of 1870, as already predicted in the studies (Steinhilber and Beer, 2013; Liu et al., 2011) on the grounds of solar activity data alone.”

    – See more at: http://notrickszone.com/2015/09/06/huge-implications-study-shows-climate-dominance-of-200-year-solar-cycle-cooling-21st-century/#sthash.HwmN9bWm.dpuf

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      gai

      Alexander Ruzmaikin and Joan Feynman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, along with Dr. Yuk Yung of the California Institute of Technology also found ” The Nile water levels and aurora records had two somewhat regularly occurring variations in common – one with a period of about 88 years and the second with a period of about 200 years.”

      March 19, 2007 NASA Finds Sun-Climate Connection in Old Nile Records

      And as I mentioned before the Fremont glacier showed the LIA ended abruptly in ten years starting around 1845.

      Applying Dr Evan’s Notch-Delay Solar theory you should look at solar activity around 1835. That would be Cycle 8 beginning in November 1833 with a smoothed sunspot number of 7.3 and ending in July 1843 with a peak in 1836 of over 200. Compare Cycle 8 to “Cycle 7 began in May 1823 with a smoothed sunspot number of 0.1 and ended in November 1833.” and a peak of around 100.

      cycles 1 to 24 in one chart:
      http://www.solen.info/solar/cycles1_to_present.html

      Cycle 8 really sticks up in that chart!

      Charts of each sunspot cycle are available at:
      http://www.solen.info/solar/cycl1_20.html

      But not for long. AGAIN Someone grab a Screenshot of these graphs, History is going to be rewritten!
      “All cycle graphs will be updated with the new data set released by WDC-SILSO on July 1, 2015”

      Cycles 21,22, and 23 have already been overwritten with Lief Svalgaard et al squashed flat sunspot ‘history’.

      The new data shows:
      Cycle 21 had a peak over 250
      Cycle 22 had a peak over 250
      Cycle 23 had a peak close to 250
      Cycle 24 is shown as peak close to 200 under Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

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      gai

      Again using Dr Evans theory and the solen information:

      http://www.solen.info/solar/images/cycles23_24.png

      It looks like solar cycle 23 peaked with a double peak in 2000 to 2002. We have seen a ‘loopy jet’ and harsh winters since around 2010 even though the temperatures have not fallen much. Since Cycle 24 peaked in 2014, I would expect that by 2025, the temps will really start falling and winters are going to be very nasty.

      Given no increase in temperature for 18 plus years, a quiet sun, the predictions of cooling going forward AND the precautionary principle, the correct thing is to DO NOTHING except build nuclear plants. However since this has always been about money, power and control of resources don’t expect reason. Expect more landgrabs from China and Russia. It is no coincidence that the Russians want control of the Ukraine the ‘Breadbasket of Europe’ or that China is buying farms in the USA, Africa and Latin America. Expect a grab for control of the food supply. Brazil, one of the BRICS countries owns the US beef supply now. Also expect military build-up in China and Russia and the use of the Middle East and North Korea as puppets.

      As the Chinese curse says, May you live in interesting times. Glad I moved south to Sunny North Carolina but I wish I was a LOT further away from DC and any major city.

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    The Housekeeper and the Head Butler

    Mr. Stevens was it his Lordship’s wish that the Chinaman should be allowed to burn coal unabated until 2030 ?
    Chinaman ?
    Yes ! The Chinaman Mr. Stevens
    I will look at in due course Ms. Kenton
    You do know this means a 4 degree rise in Global Temperature by 2030 ?
    I’m busy at the moment Ms. Kenton
    Do you think it might be a fantasy, a fantasy, on my part ?
    I’m busy .. in this room .. Ms. Kenton
    I shall wait outside then …

    Mr. Stevens if you fire those two girls…
    If you fire those two girls Mr. Stevens , because they are “Alarmists”
    I will resign Mr. Stevens ….
    -days later-
    You fired those two girls Mr. Stevens , didn’t you ?
    Mr. Stevens …?

    Never hire a Greenpeace, Activist , Housekeeper !

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    Chuck L

    OK, there is always Twitter!

    Thanks,
    Chuck

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    Chuck L

    Just as humorous as hypocrite Thompson’s science-free alarmism is Nuccitelli’s “defense” of her:

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