Bring on the climate fraud game? If Exxon can be sued, so can Al Gore, renewables, insurance, banks,

From the Republican Attorney’s General in the US – the message that policing the “global warming debate through the power of the subpoena is a grave mistake.” The Rep AG’s point out this is a public policy debate, and if other AG’s are going to use the subpoena’s to shake down companies like Exxon for supporting free speech on one side of the debate, then suddenly a lot of players are opening themselves to similar cases.

Wall St Journal: Two can play at Climate Fraud

Eric Schneiderman and Sheldon Whitehouse, call your office. The New York Attorney General and Rhode Island Senator who helped to launch the prosecution of dissent on climate change may not like where their project is headed. Thirteen state Attorneys General have sent a letter pointing out that if minimizing the risks of climate change can be prosecuted as “fraud,” then so can statements overstating the dangers of climate change.

Since the money in this debate is so one sided, it follows that a lot more people have profited from exaggerating the scare:

But the AGs’ letter points out that, “If Exxon’s disclosure is deficient, what of the failure of renewable energy companies to list climate change as a risk?” If climate change turns out to be less serious than advertised, then “‘clean energy’ companies may become less valuable and some may be altogether worthless,” the letter adds.

Insurance companies that sell products to protect from extreme weather, droughts, and floods might reap rewards from prophecies of doom that are exaggerated, ya’think?

Warren Buffett: “We’ve been remarkably free of hurricanes in the last five years. If you’ve been writing hurricane insurance it’s been all profit.””

Likewise, bankers can call themselves heroes while they lobby for schemes to save the world where financial houses scoop in brokers fees in a 2 trillion dollar carbon trading pool. Then there are all the companies selling everything from electric car batteries, to wind turbines,  solar panels, pink batts, desalination, geothermal power,  and hydrodams. And let’s not forget bio-diesel, ethanol, and carbon sequestration.

Trading legal blows is not the way this should be done.

We don’t think anyone should be prosecuted for engaging in political debate, but progressives have shown (see independent counsels) that they’ll cease their abuses only when the same methods are used against them.

If AG’s are going to play this card, the only response is “bring it on”. As I’ve said many times, many of the players on the Global Scare Industry are heavily leveraged in this debate. Whereas coal companies sell a product that most of the world wants and cheaper than most of the competition, the renewables/ electric car / carbon market depend entirely on the existence of a Grand Global Weather Scare.

Bolt on Flannery:

Tim Flannery, 2007:

Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming….Desalination plants can provide insurance against drought. In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.

Tim Flannery, 2007:

 

So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems…

But in 2016 today’s flood alert for Sydney:

One of the biggest concerns was Warragamba Dam, which was already at about 98 per cent capacity.

h/t tip to Pat, Bolt,  others.

9.4 out of 10 based on 102 ratings

126 comments to Bring on the climate fraud game? If Exxon can be sued, so can Al Gore, renewables, insurance, banks,

  • #
    TdeF

    Flannery should be in fear for his dodgy very public advice on investing in the hot rocks scheme in SA where the Government invested $93 million and lost the lot.

    He has no hard engineering or science qualifications to say “the technology is relatively straightforward”. It is one thing to pretend to science, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer modelling expertise because you have a Science PdD in prehistoric kangaroos and he studied none of these subjects in his English degree at La Trobe. It is quite another to offer hard technical advice

    You can have a personal opinion on health issues but once you start advising people with presumed authority, that is actionable. Of course it was only $93 million dollars. Still the government should seek compensation from Flannery. Add $100bn for desalination plants in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. “Even the rain which falls will not fill the dams”.

    712

    • #
      el gordo

      No due diligence in regards to long periods of drought and flooding rains as noted in ice cores. Flummery dismissed the past as irrelevant, now its come back to haunt him.

      Who did the risk analysis on the desal plants?

      462

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Flannery’s past at that time was his present, without the ability to see a trend in data sets how can a Mammologist even ascertain something is dead?

        362

        • #
          delcon2

          When you have the”Government”that we have at the moment,these”Shysters”will not be held to account.

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          • #
            David Maddison

            Yes. But we should be making the shysters live in fear and be telling them one day they WILL be held to account.

            60

            • #
              Dennis

              I would really enjoy observing the reactions of Australian politicians if a solicitor wrote a legal document and emailed it to them giving legal advice regarding climate change fraud and the possible personal ramifications for supporting fraud could involve them in.

              10

      • #
        William

        Who did the risk analysis on the desal plants el gordo?

        Probably the same genius *cough* who did the cost-benefit analysis.

        40

        • #
          Dennis

          I understand that the assessor is the same that carried out risk and cost analysis of the NBN.

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    • #

      The Flim Flam Man and all of his ilk will be completely safe during the 21st Century Inquisition. It’s the unfaithful, as always, that will be subject to scrutiny.

      262

    • #
      Peter C

      You can have a personal opinion on health issues but once you start advising people with presumed authority, that is actionable.

      As it should be.

      Can we have our Money back? Can we at least be rid of this man from any public office or preferrmemt for ever more.

      There are quite a few more in my sights including Bernie Fraser, chairman of the Climate Change Aurthority.

      211

    • #
      toorightmate

      If only, if only, if only, if only we had blown ONLY $93 M!!!! If only.

      120

      • #
        Dennis

        Petty cash, only $93 million … the last NSW Union Labor Government held a fire sale of half of the state government owned electricity assets, private companies owned by the government, not long before they lost power. The independent estimates of value exceeded $12 billion, and were a few billion more at the high end, but NSW Union Labor accepted $5.9 billion.

        Only $5.9 billion lost to taxpayers, almost six new public teaching hospitals in value.

        30

    • #
      Dave of Reedy Creek

      Couldn’t agree with you more. As I commented on Andrew Bolt’ s blog yesterday, can someone please tell me if any media news items Flannery has given over the years actually ever happened?
      Also can anyone tell us if he, as a palaeontologist, has ever written a peer reviewed paper on climate change and what credentials does he have to impose his preposterous projections on to the public in Australia?
      Could it just be that he is of the leftist climate change people and therefore his words are to be accepted?

      80

  • #
    Alexander

    Let us not forget that full discovery for evidence in lawsuits is easier from publicly-funded entities (whose business is already part of the public domain) than from private ones (who have proprietary and privacy protections).

    We can already sense the absurd contortions and legal sophistries the warmists will invent to try to maintain the back-room secrecy of their crony-corruption, ideology-driven, and power-lusting manipulations. They are already good at inventing “science;” now they can work at inventing “law.”

    Thanks to the various Freedom of Information Acts (with the courts already upholding their applicability and efficacy), truth-seekers may well have the upper hand here.

    360

  • #
    AndyG55

    Every temperature adjustment…

    Every FAILED alarmist claim…

    Every EXCUSE for the lack of warming…

    NOW BECOMES OPEN SLATHER FOR LEAGAL CASES.

    362

  • #
    handjive

    “The leader of the climate fascists is Al Gore, who, after dozens of documented distortions in his influential film An Inconvenient Truth, has refused to debate any
    dissenter since the film came out.

    Now he is leading the unconstitutional crusade against freedom of scientific speech.”

    That is Alex Epstein in his excellent opine @forbes, “First The Government Went After ExxonMobil — Now They’re Going After Me” …

    “I have nothing to fear whatsoever about what such a witch-hunt would or wouldn’t reveal on my end, but I do not tolerate anyone violating my rights.

    So I wrote the Attorney General a three-word response that is not appropriate for a family publication. See it here.”

    > Don’t miss Alex Epstein’s response.

    272

    • #
      PeterPetrum

      I would have loved to have seen that (female) AGs face when she got that response. Must have got her thinking though, when the sweat dried!

      90

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Alex Epstein’s response may have been perfect, but it is no small thing to be attacked by an Attorney General. Unless he can show impropriety which gets the government official removed from office, government officials have many ways of getting back at him, and us too.

        Calls to get the AGW issue brought before a court should take care. Who “owns” the court?

        20

  • #
    Mal

    Maybe the best place to man made climate change is in court.

    The public “debate” on climate change has been totally one sided to date and has led to a complete distortion of science and more importantly has led to a miss allocation of resources both public and private into green energy schemes as well as condemning the innocent (Fossil fuels.

    Basically the debate to date has been a Kangaroo Court with a foregone outcome.

    The case for the defence cannot be presented rationally in the current public environment.

    Therefore a court case with expert advice based on evidence, with experienced barristers providing an argument against man made climate change or certainly exaggerated claims can be examined under the rule of law.
    There would only need to be a couple of wins against people/companies profiteering from false or exaggerated claims to take the wind out of the sails of this current farcical state of affairs.
    There is nothing like being hit in the hip pocket nerve to wake someone up to face facts not just their own opinion.

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  • #
    el gordo

    The Ontario Teacher’s Pension Fund owns the Sydney Desalination Plant.

    http://www.sydneydesal.com.au/who-we-are/ownership-structure/

    Does the OTPF know they bought a lemon?

    150

    • #
      FarmerDoug2

      Sydney ratepayers bought the lemon.
      Doug

      80

    • #
      Another Ian

      el gordo

      I had to pass that to SDA where Ontario isn’t exactly the pillar of financial wisdom!

      70

    • #
      gnome

      That Ontario teacher must have been onto a good thing during hir career! (Or is it the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund?)

      50

    • #
      Raven

      Waddyamean, lemon!
      The damn thing has never been fired up, has it?

      It’s a one owner and only driven to church on Sundays by Mr & Mrs Flannery . . just for old times sake. 😉

      100

  • #
    handjive

    And, the legal term, ‘precedent’.

    There is one:

    Man fined for dud doomsday warning

    “Wang Chao-hung, better known as “Teacher Wang”, stirred up a media frenzy after he “predicted” a giant quake and tsunami would hit Taiwan on May 11, urging people to move into makeshift shelters converted from cargo containers.

    Mr Wang later claimed that his remarks were misinterpreted by journalists when the catastrophe failed to materialise, but he was convicted by a district court in Nantou, central Taiwan, of spreading socially disruptive rumours.”

    But, the same does not exist for the Gore-ites.

    As Alex Epstein notes in his opine@forbes:

    “The government has no right to demand a single email of mine or Exxon’s unless it has evidence that we are committing fraud by concealing or fabricating evidence.

    In the case of the climate impact of CO2, this is impossible–because all the evidence about CO2 and climate is in the public domain, largely collected and disseminated by government agencies or government-funded educational institutions.”

    [Thanks for summarizing since the article is behind a paywall.] AZ

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  • #
    davefromweewaa

    Well played you 13 Republican Attorneys General!

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  • #
    pat

    CAGW costs pop up everywhere.

    following was “Council to turn the city green” on Fairfax’s Illawarra Mercury homepage.

    in the actual headline, it’s the “walls” the Council will turn green.

    in reality, the council is simply trying to get through a plan to burden people with more CAGW costs.

    anyone opposed to this insanity, start complaining now, just in case…

    20 Jun: Illawarra Mercury: Kate McIlwain: Wollongong council to turn CBD walls green
    Developers planning to build in the Wollongong CBD would be encouraged to incorporate vertical gardens and plant covered roofs to make the new structures more environmentally friendly…
    This would mean new developments would need to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and reduce waste and the use of clean water. They would also need to use renewable energy, improve the indoor environmental quality and use recyclable or recycled materials.
    For new houses, there are a number of provisions which encourage the retention of native trees and planting of greenery as well as controls over how big a building’s footprint can be.
    For instance, homes on blocks of between 450-900 square metres would only be able to take up 50 per cent of the land, while homes on blocks larger than 900 metres would only be able to cover 40 per cent of the land.
    New houses would also be required to have a minimum percentage of landscaping and plant “a minimum of one semi mature small to medium evergreen or deciduous tree” within that area.
    Currently, 20 per cent of a dwelling site is required to be landscaped, but the new provisions will increase this to 30 per cent and 40 per cent for larger blocks…ETC
    ***The changes are on exhibition through the council’s website until July 8.
    http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3977101/council-to-turn-the-city-green/?cs=300
    comment by Just askin: Umm how many of these plans will actually happen now that the merger has been proposed and the GM has sold his house and is ready to hoof it outta here?

    60

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Does anyone offer insurance against global warming?

      I’ll let the concept of that hang in the air for consideration….

      30

      • #
        el gordo

        The insurance companies pay lip service with the latest IPCC revelations under the arm. Time to bring in the reinsurers. Its all climate change to them.

        [This comment was caught by the spam filter. Sorry] ED

        00

  • #

    I think we have the wrong take on the cash in. I think skeptics should start a Climate Change Authority, Authority, to oversee the “work” of people like Flannery. Why should a charlatan like him get all the bucks? $$$

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Is that where we’l finally see the payout that BIG OIL has failed to deliver?

      Not living in hope.

      And the red thumber seems to have gone off shift down this end of comments

      111

      • #
        toorightmate

        The red thumbers had a big day out yesterday – listening to Billygoat Bill sprout lie after lie at the ALP Campaign “Launch” (was it a launch or a lunch?).
        And poor Billiegoat Bill himself is exhausted after his in-depth, soul-searching interview by Chloe.

        72

  • #
    dennisambler

    IPCC scientist Myles Allen of Oxford University Environmental Change Institute, author of “Towards the Trillionth Tonne”, the basis of “Keep it in the Ground” memes and carbon budgets, was actively promoting legal action in relation to CO2 as far back as 2003. He was a Lead Author for IPCC assessment AR5, WG1, Chapter 10: Detection and Attribution of Climate Change: from Global to Regional.

    This was his message in a BBC interview in 2003:

    “Suing over Climate Change”: Thursday, 3 April, 2003
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2910017.stm

    “The vast numbers affected by the effects of climate change, such as flooding, drought and forest fires, mean that potentially people, organisations and even countries could be seeking compensation for the damage caused. “It’s not a question we could stand up and survive in a court of law at the moment, but it’s the sort of question we should be working towards scientifically,” Myles Allen, a physicist at Oxford University, UK, told the BBC World Service’s Discovery programme.”

    “Some of it might be down to things you’d have trouble suing – like the Sun – so you obviously need to work how particularly human influence has contributed to the overall change in risk,” the scientist, who has worked with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said.” “But once you’ve done that, then we as scientists can essentially hand the problem over to the lawyers, for them to assess whether the change in risk is enough for the courts to decide that a settlement could be made.”

    “This next decade is going to see quite a lot of climate change cases around the world”, said environment lawyer Peter Roderick, who runs the Climate Justice Program for Friends Of The Earth International.”

    Allen is now involved in the RICO game, check the group photo: https://nigguraths.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/the-new-york-times-wrong-on-the-la-jolla-rico-junta/

    91

  • #
    doubtingdave

    THE EMPIRICISTS STRIKE BACK !!!

    130

  • #
    Mentat

    Brilliant post Jo.

    These ‘Flummaries’ need their day in court – to explain their view that those ‘deniers’ with empirical evidence supporting the ‘denier’ hypothesis of ongoing natural climate change – and to actually table the actual empirical evidence that convinced them that climate change suddenly, was man-made, and that therefore ‘deniers’ should be jailed.

    What we need is a legal money tree to fight the green blob’s appropriated tax-payer funded legal money tree.

    131

  • #
    gnome

    AG’s is not the plural of AG, and subpoena’s is not the plural of subpoena.

    Just stop it – it’s not that hard.

    60

  • #

    The problem as I see it is the gullibility of those people who accepted the advice of Dr. Flannery et Co. Who made the decisions on the need to invest in the mothballed desalination plants, surely it was the various state politicians?

    Wasn’t there a Federal Climate Council appointed by a previous Labor government that gave advice on climate change to all and sundry, as well as the federal agencies the CSIRO and BOM and the Universities?

    Unfortunately, with the politicizing of the science it is nigh impossible to get an objective opinion from these expert bodies. Take the opinions and advice about the Great Barrier Reef which is presently in discussion.

    A quote I read a few days age “Politicians aren’t good with numbers and science and get taken in by these con-artists”.

    91

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Robert O:

      They are addicted to spending.
      And the sheep baa’d Two billion bad, Four billion better.

      80

  • #
    pat

    if true, how many billions of $$$ have been on these unpopular little items?

    16 Jun: EurActiv: Elza Holmstedt Pell: Smart meters ‘not needed’ after all for European power grid
    A transition to an intelligent electricity grid in Europe can take place without smart meters, industry players have said, in comments that will embarrass the European Commission, which pushed a Europe-wide plan to roll out smart meters years ago.
    There are other more efficient ways than smart meters to help develop intelligent power grids, said industry delegates at the annual convention of Europe’s electricity association Eurelectric, held in Vilnius last week.
    These include quicker integration of renewables, the development of energy storage and energy demand response solutions, said the industry representatives…
    Germany, for instance, has decided not to have a national roll-out plan at all, running counter to requirements laid out in EU legislation…
    Markus Merkel, a senior advisor to the management board of German distribution system operator (DSO) EWE, told the Eurelectric conference that “there isn’t a positive business case” for smart meters in Germany.
    He said smart meters would be more useful for DSOs in their work to upgrade the grid if they provided real time data on energy consumption rather than the circa 15-minute intervals that current products provide.
    “We need something different, and maybe smart metering 2.0 – the next generation of smart meters – will deliver something more that we as DSOs can also use,” he said.
    Laurence Carpanini, director smarter energy solutions at IBM, echoed the real time data point, adding: “I don’t look at smart meters now as being the drivers of change – you don’t need smart meters really.”…
    https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/smart-meters-not-needed-after-all-for-european-power-grid/

    at bottom of article: Positions
    A spokesperson for Eurelectric sent a statement to EurActiv after publication of this article, clarifying their position on smart meters. “Even though there are voices in the industry saying that we don’t necessarily need smart meters, this does not represent the view of all Eurelectric members,” said Anamaria Olaru, communication and PA coordinator for Eurelectric. “The debate on ‘Enhancing the value of the intelligent grid’ showed a complexity of views from our speakers” while the EurActiv article “was written from a pure grid perspective, missing out on the consumer perspective,” she said.

    70

  • #
    pat

    ***billions afor the stake for the EU allegedly, so no wonder Eurelectric responded to the EurActiv article so quickly. (btw no engish media other than EurActiv reported on the Conference):

    10 May: TheEnergyCollective: Powering the Energy Union in an Interconnected and Digital World
    by Hans ten Berge, EURELECTRIC Secretary- General (see his bio at bottom of article)
    It has been estimated that accelerated innovation in power supply technologies and business models for energy efficiency will be worth ***€70 billion to the EU economy by 2030…
    In conclusion, it is clear that digitisation and innovation, combined with the political focus on an efficient and competitive low-carbon economy, will require a complete re-think of the European power and our entire energy system.
    EURELECTRIC will approach this topic at the EURELECTRIC Annual Convention taking place in Vilnius on 6-7 June 2016, which will focus on the new “e-lectricity landscape”. The conference will explore the economic, regulatory, environmental and societal factors that are giving rise to a complex and digitised, low carbon electricity system, with a number of new players emerging.
    http://www.theenergycollective.com/aolaru/2377812/powering-the-energy-union-in-an-interconnected-and-digital-world

    EURELECTRIC Annual Convention & Conference, Vilnius 6-7 June 2016
    The Power Sector Goes Digital
    http://www.eurelectric.org/vilnius2016/

    India is obviously a huge market, but note the admission smart meters will hopefully put an end to rampant power theft, not CAGW:

    17 Jun: Times of India: Power consumers to get smart meters
    It was decided, under the Ujwal Dicsom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme, that household power meters that consume more than 500 units of power a month would be replaced with smart meters.
    In the next stage, this was to extend to households that consumed up to 200 units of power…
    Relentless technology upgradation has tremendously brought down the cost of a smart meters from 8,000 to 3,223, (Power Minister, Piyush) Goyal said adding that the game-changing decision ***will ensure power thefts are a thing of the past.
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Power-consumers-to-get-smart-meters/articleshow/52787334.cms

    50

  • #
    ROM

    Its getting late tonight  so this will do;
    ———-

    ROM’s 1st Law of political and societal activism;
    .

    For every enforced political and societal action by hard line activists there will be a strong backlash and the creation of a strong opposing counter reaction to those activist’s and their cause.

    100

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Yes, becasue most of the activists are Socialists.

      And Socialism rails against human nature. WHat other ideology requires mass genocide of those who wont go along with it, then later on it fails.

      How many people do we know wanting to run away to Cuba or North Korea or East Germany?

      30

  • #
    michael hart

    “Bolt on Flannery:…”

    “Strap-on Flannery” seems more likely to British ears, but maybe you do it differently down-under.

    90

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Such an apparatus is redundant to people of his ilk as they are walking cock-ups already….

      40

  • #
    PeterPetrum

    I am currently reading the publication by the Lavoiser Group – The Climate Gate Emails – amazing stuff and here is a ready made list of at least 10 who could be prosecuted under such legislation, if they were stupid enough to proceed with this, including Mann and Gore. I am sure that once the Democrat AGs realise what kind of tiger they are grabbing by the tail they will desist. If they don’t, it will mean that they really have been conned into believing the devious and unsupported “findings” of this nest of vipers. I find it hard to believe that, with the exposure of these emails some years ago, that this cabal is still out there pushing their lies.

    131

    • #
      PeterPetrum

      Just seen gnome’s comment at #12 – he is right, of course. Read all my AGs above as AsG! So sorry!

      50

  • #
    Speedy

    Jo

    Here’s a tip for your Cool Futures fund: Find out who Tim Flannery has his Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance with…

    Given the dud predictions and the lazy billions spent on desalination plants around the country, I’d be nervous if I were them. Or, at the very least, I’d be looking to review the premiums by a few thousand percent…

    Cheers,

    Speedy

    61

  • #
    richard ilfeld

    DO NOT GO TO COURT. Please, One begs of you.
    And the court begats settlements, and the settlement begats massive transfer
    of wealth from honest, hardworking folks to the officially victimized and their
    lawyers, with the officially victimized getting the short end of the stick and the truly victimized, if any,
    ignored.
    Think asbestos.
    Think Tobacco.
    Think BP oil spill.
    Mama Court System spreads thy and my money on the hurt to make it go away.
    The issue is subsumed ans soon forgotten, but the payments linger on.

    I can easily envison wealthy seaside enclaves of California seaside property owners collecting money from poor and embattled midwestern filling station operators. If this is silly, how did an asbestos lawyer become the owner of a hundred million dollar Baseball team on the backs of local brake shops, and why are there third generation asbestos lawyers (but not a single accountable government official).

    SO please, not the courts.

    80

    • #
      PeterPetrum

      You are absolutely correct, Richard, the only winners, no matter who’s argument succeeds, will be the lawyers. Even if the sceptics win a case, it will get no publicity. However, having said that, it will be interesting to observe the actions of the Democrat AsG now that it has been pointed out to them that Al Gore and his deciples might be the ones ending up with egg on their faces and huge legal costs to pay.

      70

    • #
      Mark D.

      DO NOT GO TO COURT. Please, One begs of you.

      Richard, I don’t see the case examples you provide as comparable. We are looking at attacks on personal rights and freedoms. A challenge in court is nearly the only way to protect those fundamental rights.

      92

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        And once legal precedence is set, it will open the floodgates for Sceptics to take down the evil empire……the legal profession *loves* precedence, which is why they have avoided it being tested thoroughly in court……

        10

    • #
      Yonniestone

      I agree with lawyers being the only victors in cases however the examples you cited are tangible as evidence whereas the entire ‘climate’ fiasco is based on deception via speculation enforced by coercion, the raw evidence kept and maintained by true sceptics will be the linchpin of any such case against alarmists.

      30

  • #
    Egor TheOne

    If ‘Climate Sage Flannery’ got what he deserved for his climate clairvoyance, it would be in the order of : Life plus a 1000 breaking rocks in a midday desert sun !

    Under such proposed guidelines lines, someone like Mr 97% CONsensus, would be considered a ‘War Criminale Extradinaire”!

    62

  • #
    Rud Istvan

    For those in Australia interested, Exxon has and Epstein can avail themselves of existing US cibil rights laws. 18USC241 makes it a crime to conspire to deny any civil right. Free speech under the 1st Amendment is such a right. The ‘Green 20 AsG’ press conference is sufficient evidence of the comspiracy. 42USC1983 makes the conspircacy subject to civil action (lawsuit for damages and injunctive relief). These AsG opened a legal can of worms they cannot win. And the House oversight committee has now sent a letter signed by 17 Representatives demanding (not yet subpoenaing) all relevant records from the ‘Green 20 AsG and involved NGOs including UCS. The documents are to be produced by June 24, this Friday. The political thinking is they well not be –UCS already said they will not comply. So then they will be hit by subpoena next week and risk criminal contempt of congress. Same process as the investigations of NOAA Karlization. UCS is known to be a conspirator from the GMU FOIA emails of Shukla and gang, and from emails from the NY AG Schneiderman concerning concealing UCS involvement withnthe AsG on the day of their press conference.
    Its going to be quite a show.

    140

    • #
      Mark D.

      I can only hope it is more than a show Rud.

      40

    • #
      sophocles

      Such pushback would be well deserved and deserving of support. I’m hoping it will start soon.

      I’ve got heaps of beer and popcorn to hand, I’m ready.

      I think Monkton said something about legal action having to start a few years ago, IIRC.

      (The links are especially for climateskeptic 🙂 )

      20

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    And so it gets uglier and uglier. And our freedoms go down the drain faster and faster.

    And there’s no safe place to run to. The First Amendment is no longer respected and then chaos reigns.

    70

    • #
      delcon2

      And that is why Obama is fighting so hard to get rid of the “Second Amendment”

      40

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        And Hillary has actually made the promise to get rid of it. Obama, wise man that he is, has only tried to water it down to uselessness.

        /sarc off

        Trump is a wild card about it.

        10

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          And it’s interesting that once Obama’s first attempt to water down the First Amendment was rejected by Congress so overwhelmingly, he’s not tried again. He simply talks now with the obvious expectation that someone else can manage it. The man has serious personality issues in my view, else he would keep at it more directly.

          30

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Hull ry is wall streets bought and paid for stooge…..the second amendment is hated by all Socialists because it stops them monstering the people – think Stalin Mao and PolPot…..

          One quote I saw us a man with a gun is a Citizen,, a man without a gun is a Subject.

          Buff said

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    Ruairi

    The warmist schemes eventually must fail,
    As smart attorneys quickly learn to nail,
    The constant climate scares,
    As a sham to sell their wares,
    Of planet saving climate cures for sale.

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    el gordo

    The class action against the Queensland government (Brisbane floods) is set down for the Supreme Court of NSW in Sydney on July 18, 2016.

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    Manfred

    It’s very simple. They reap what they sow. They’ve peddled shonky science, politicized science and propaganda. In desperation they turn to courts. Great. Let’s tie them up in legalese and bureaucracy, lets constipate them for eternity. They are a bain on civilised society, the UN ironically providing them with the label of ‘civil society‘, just so we’re all clear.

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      Yonniestone

      So that’s the borgs ideal for a civil society? ,there are black markets more civilised than this regime.

      You consistently see a pattern where socialists have this fear mechanism regarding other peoples freedom of expression, I believe their politics are simply self projections of an inherent fear of existing with mortality looming in the background, where a great democracy can express life through the arts the socialist will seek to repress life through legislation, and both will equally proclaim the beauty in these actions.

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        Manfred

        The Borg failed to realise is that the Universe is a big place and there’s room for all. They obsessed over controlling it all, all the time, everywhere. The UN eco-marxists (small ‘m’) make the same error. They’re equally obsessed with control. What is becoming enormously entertaining is that as nature and real science fail to oblige by providing them with their raison d’etre to administer the World by 2030, they daily redouble their attempts at control. It’s little different for the hapless individual clinging-on the the edge of a precipice. It’s mindless and reflexive.
        Now, as for that Kling-On, so much more transparent and dependably aggressive, even with their decloaking devices. Comparatively, a real pleasure to deal with.

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      Manfred June 21, 2016 at 7:32 am

      “It’s very simple. They reap what they sow. They’ve peddled shonky science, politicized science and propaganda. In desperation they turn to courts. Great. Let’s tie them up in legalese and bureaucracy, lets constipate them for eternity. They are a bain on civilised society, the UN ironically providing them with the label of ‘civil society‘, just so we’re all clear.”

      Interesting!,
      Where I live ‘civil society’ is neighbors intruding with ‘you gots to try some of this new beer!’ BTW I need 2 each 10-32 1 inch long bolts, got any?
      All the best! -will-

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    MurrayA

    Jo,
    You cited Andrew Bolt’s blog. There’s a warmist commenter who, whenever Andrew posts something on climate change, just has to jump in with his alarmist diatribe to contradict both Andrew and other “denialists”. He calls himself “Dr Brian”, and I believe he has been on this site as well. Here is his latest offering (just for laughs):

    “No. We are getting higher temperatures throughout the year and average yearly rainfall in our agricultural regions and our cities is reducing

    And this is with a global average temperature just 1 C higher than a century ago.

    The real problems come with temperatures rising several degrees higher still.

    If you think spending billions to tackle this is a waste, consider the cost of not doing so.”

    These alarmists will never give in, no matter what contrary evidence is served up to them.

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      Roy Hogue

      Fear not, Murray. Dr. Brian will be only one of many.

      For the first time ever in my memory the temperature on my patio was reading out as 106° F (41° C) earlier today and it may have been higher because I was out much of the day and couldn’t read the thermometer. And this is not only unusual but similar hotter than usual temperatures are all across the southwestern U.S. Range and forest fires are following long like the lap dogs they are. And there’s no end of noise about how all this is caused by climate change coming from the usual list of suspects. But so what?

      We really have no idea what the full range of what we can call normal high and for that matter, low temperatures really is, do we? Is 50, 100, 500, …, years a long enough record to make it possible to state with certainty that without CO2 induced global warming it would not get this hot? I think it takes a very long record to be sure what the possible normal extremes are and you probably do too. They will feed us an average temperature as though it meant something as important as E=MC**2 and try to get us to panic by calling it evidence of climate change. Well, it’s evidence of hot air alright but that hot air ain’t in the atmosphere.

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        Roy Hogue

        Just a few short years ago I woke up to see the outside temperature showing a very unusual (for us) 27° F (~ -3° C). I wonder what climate phenomenon this was evidence of.

        They would try to have it both ways, which is why the name is now climate change instead of global warming. Very conveniently the name change happened only after a period of time during which the temperature (average surface temperature) stopped increasing after the little ice age.

        I could wish I could blow the whole thing to smithereens.

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          Roy Hogue

          In the end, high temperatures will come and go. And it won’t matter to the these self-righteous meddlers in the way the human race conducts it’s daily life. It could be cold tomorrow and it’s our fault, hot the next day and it’s our fault and the next day could be anything between those extremes and that’s also our fault. Honesty is not in them. They don’t have an ounce of it among the many thousands of them all stacked up together.

          Scam is hardly the word for it. We are hated because we don’t live our lives exactly the way the control freaks want us to. And they will crush us to get our behavior in line or simply do away with us if we won’t comply. That’s my reading of the situation.

          The worst of it is that people are more willing to accept being told to knuckle under than they are to go looking to see what’s really happening. They will accept being safe serfs in their own country before they will fight for the freedom to live their lives the way they want to. Not quite true — if you want an anything goes lifestyle you have plenty of support from the left.

          The United States isn’t the only country that was born out of a revolution of some kind. But it’s the most noteworthy by far because of the government concept, of, by and for the people and the constitution carefully put together to insure the people would be and could stay, in control. And yet look what has happened. I will bet that not one person in 1,000 I could meet on any busy street could recite even the preamble to the constitution. The important things now are being sure we mention on every second of news about it that the night club in Orlando was an LGBT night club** and protecting the world from the horrible danger of CO2. And one more thing, perhaps even more important, electing a woman to the presidency.

          For the sake of these things and a lot of similar stuff we all must kiss the required anatomy or be hated.

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            Roy Hogue

            ** As if it’s important… …but it’s not.

            These were people hated for who and what they were just like any other victims of this insane hatred. They had friends, lovers, families, hopes and dreams just like you and me. Cut them and they would bleed red. Steal from them and they like it no more than anyone else does. They were someone’s son or daughter and LGBT does not change that. Meet them on the street and how would you ever know anything about them unless they told it to you? You wouldn’t.

            And if you shoot them they die, just like anyone else. They were you and me and the crime is the same whether they were LGBT or not.

            Their lifestyle isn’t important to even know, EXCEPT (BIG BIG EXCEPTION) LGBT is a politically correct protected group. Martin Luther King is sobbing in his grave. How many more specially protected classes of humanity will we create before learn the folly of it? Black, LGBT, poor, underprivileged… …already a long list.

            This is the insanity in which we live.

            Need I explain my anger and frustration any further?

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      TdeF

      “And this is with a global average temperature just 1 C higher than a century ago.”

      So how does he know this? How does anyone know this?

      In 1916 there was no global thermometer. Captain Cook proved there was no great Southern Land. So 1/3 of the planet, south of the tropic of Capricorn is mainly water plus Antarctica and Australia. Mostly uninhabitable and uninhabited and a lot colder than the Norther half so extrapolation does not work.

      “The real problems come with temperatures rising several degrees higher still.”

      How does he know this? Apart from a bump in 1985-95 conincident with the move to electronic measurement, the temperature has not moved 0.1C before or since.

      Perhaps Brian is the dog from Family Guy.

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      AndyG55

      I think we can all thank our lucky stars that the world is warmer than during the Little Ice Age.

      The warming since then has been TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY BENEFICIAL. !

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      AndyG55

      Just for fun. Here is Average maximum temps for Coonabarrabran (just a random pick)

      https://s19.postimg.org/r74o934qb/Coonabarrabran.png

      Make up your own minds if there’s been any warming. 🙂

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    pat

    20 Jun: RenewEconomy: Sophie Vorrath: Another big Australian solar installer in liquidation
    One of Australia’s largest rooftop solar installers, Metro Solar, has suffered financial collapse, with notice published last week that the Victoria-based company had been put into liquidation under the administration of accounting group Hall Chadwick.
    In a notice dated June 15, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) said that the company formerly known as Metro Solar would be wound up, with Hall Chadwick’s David Ross and Richard Albarran appointed as liquidators.
    But in an interview with RenewEconomy on Monday, Metro Solar general manager Paul O’Connell said that while the company was before the liquidators, a sale agreement had been reached in which new owners, headed up by O’Connell, would assume all debt and ensure customers were looked after and warranties honoured…
    In February, Melbourne retailer Infinity Solar (now rebranded as Infinity Power) went broke, while clean energy retailer GO Energy was put into voluntary administration in April.
    And on a global scale, April also saw the bankruptcy filing of US based SunEdison – once the largest renewable energy developer of the world…
    “Big is really struggling,” the source said. “Big is good at solidity and predictability, but in times that are highly changeable, it’s little and nimble that fare the best.
    “That’s why we’ve got birds and not dinosaurs.”…READ ALL
    http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/another-big-australian-solar-installer-in-liquidation-19816

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    I think you should all go over to the Conversation to read the genesis of a very soon to be written blog post here (unless I am very much mistaken)

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      AndyG55

      roflmao,,

      The Conversation is nothing more than a far, far left propaganda scam site!

      And again we see Greenpeace operatives assuming identities that are not theirs to assume.

      The LIES and DECEIT from them will probably never stop.

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      el gordo

      You can see how Cook has slanted the argument, not looking at the science.

      His opinion is next to worthless in the face of global cooling.

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        Yonniestone

        It’d be funny if he wasn’t serious, it’s all a bit sad really. 🙁

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          OriginalSteve

          All we have to do is keep speaking the truth and use solud science……

          There was one regional newspaper that used to post numerous Blatantly pro-cagw articles ( it is a f********* rag ) but I regularly “patrolled” it and refuted the lies with science. Eventually the flood of warmist propaganda slowed to a trickle. This is a fight that takes a lot of persistence…..

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      AndyG55

      And I might add, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with fossil fuel companies telling the TRUTH about CO2.

      It is those alarmista that are paid to produce lies and extremism that will have to watch their backs.

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        el gordo

        Yeah, apparently it was a close run thing 18,000 years ago. Dr. Patrick Moore at WUWT.

        ‘Moore looks at the historical record of CO2 in our atmosphere and concludes that we came dangerously close to losing plant life on Earth about 18,000 years ago, when CO2 levels approached 150 ppm, below which plant life can’t sustain photosynthesis. He notes:

        “A 140 million year decline in CO2 to levels that came close to threatening the survival of life on Earth can hardly be described as “the balance of nature”.

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    pat

    oops.

    17 Jun: AP: American Medical Association warns of health and safety problems from ‘white’ LED streetlights
    (This article is provided to AP customers through a distribution partnership with The Conversation-US. The Associated Press did not select or edit this item)
    by Richard G. ‘Bugs’ Stevens, University of Connecticut
    The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it.
    The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago on June 14, comes in response to the rise of new LED street lighting sweeping the country. An AMA committee issued guidelines on how communities can choose LED streetlights to “minimize potential harmful human health and environmental effects.”…
    But in the wake of these installations have been complaints about the harshness of these lights. An extreme example is the city of Davis, California where the residents demanded a complete replacement of these high color temperature LED street lights…
    The other issue addressed by the AMA statement is the impact on human circadian rhythmicity…
    In the case of white LED light, it is estimated to be 5 times more effective at suppressing melatonin at night than the high Pressure sodium lamps (given the same light output) which have been the mainstay of street lighting for decades. Melatonin suppression is a marker of circadian disruption which includes disrupted sleep.
    Bright electric lighting can also adversely affect wildlife by, for example, disturbing migratory patterns of birds and some aquatic animals which nest on shore…READ ON
    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b18537d576574ae39f9e7c7d11ce1c38/american-medical-association-warns-health-and-safety

    apart from Houston Chronicle, i can’t see any other MSM carrying this story.

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    pat

    17 Jun: YahooFinance: Zacks: Is SunEdison (SUNEQ) Still Alive?
    by Ryan McQueeney
    At this point, I’m not sure what the perfect metaphor for SunEdison SUNEQ is. Is the bankrupt solar energy company like a prizefighter in the 12th round, beaten and bloodied but refusing to go down? Or is SunEdison more like a zombie, back from the dead to cause major problems for us humans?
    For one, SunEdison is certainly doing some fighting… against its own shareholders. In court papers filed on Tuesday, the company argued that its bankruptcy amounts to “hopeless insolvency,” meaning that its shareholders should not have a committee representing them during the Chapter 11 process. SunEdison also said that it faces more than $4.2 billion in debt…
    Apparently, the company has identified eight projects in India that it would like to sell, and it has reached out to solar competitors of all sizes to make the deal. The eight projects have a total capacity of 1,318 MW…
    The agreement modification also lowered several of the interest rates that SunEdison will pay its creditors.
    Perhaps the right metaphor for SunEdison right now is a whiny kindergartener…READ ALL
    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sunedison-suneq-still-alive-193707277.html

    Reuters only makes the following info available, unless you can sign in to the site linked at the end:

    16 Jun: Reuters: Jim Christie: SunEdison sparring with shareholders amid ‘hopeless insolvency’
    Bankrupt SunEdison’s situation amounts to “hopeless insolvency,” and therefore its shareholders should not have an official committee representing them in its Chapter 11 case, the renewable energy company said in court papers.
    SunEdison said in papers filed on Tuesday it faces more than $4.2 billion in prepetition claims, compared with $850 million it anticipates it can distribute after paying off its debtor-in-possession loan.
    To read the full story on WestlawNext Practitioner Insights, click here..(MUST SIGN IN)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/bankruptcy-shareholders-idUSL1N1980FO

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    pat

    remember BBC, The Economist & GQ outing Australian Craig Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto of Bitcoin fame? well, it wasn’t what it seemed and the PR company connected to UEA/Climategate, Outside Organiation, is involved.

    novel length:

    London Review of Books: June 30 Issue: The Satoshi Affair
    Andrew O’Hagan on the many lives of Satoshi Nakamoto
    The PR team, at MacGregor’s behest, had been in touch with a number of journalists; the ones who were interested were from the BBC, the Economist and GQ. The inclusion of GQ had irked Wright from the start (he sees himself as an academic), but the PR company, the Outside Organisation, had a connection there – their founder was a contributing editor – and said the magazine would love the story. But did the PR men explain to the editors there who was behind this project to out Satoshi, and who was paying their fee? I later asked them by email and one of them replied: ‘It is not at all unusual to be instructed to represent an individual through an independent company. Our conversation with [GQ] and the other journalists was about the proposed story.’
    I emailed him again. ‘But did you tell them,’ I wrote, ‘that the outing of Satoshi was being done at the behest of a commercial company?’ He didn’t reply.
    All the journalists had signed NDAs and embargos. They would each be allowed a brief interview with Wright after he had demonstrated to them his use of the Satoshi key. These meetings would take place at the offices of the PR company in Tottenham Court Road on Monday, 24 April and Tuesday, 25 April. I found all this a bit odd: Wright was being difficult, for sure, but the PR strategy was crazily old-fashioned…
    The piecemeal feeding of ‘proof’ to these journalists was compelling but anachronistic. I supposed it was an attempt to get the story out of the world of crypto-gab and into the real media, but it was set up with an alarming sense of security paranoia. Wright could never have handled a celebration, but the journalists were being managed to an extent that might have raised more questions than it answered…
    Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent, was led into a conference room with his producer, Priya Patel, and Mark Ward, a technology correspondent for the BBC News website. Wright sat at his laptop, hardly looking up, and a screen on the wall showed what he was looking at. Matonis was in the room, and so was Matthews. Ramona had gone upstairs. Cellan-Jones was decent and professional, ready to get to the bottom of the story. He appeared to feel the tension, with Wright already behaving as if being asked questions was grossly humiliating and the questioner openly hostile. But Cellan-Jones was not hostile: if anything, he was mildly pre-convinced, and just going about capturing the story for the layman…
    http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n13/andrew-ohagan/the-satoshi-affair

    21 Jun: UK Times: Sean O’Neill: Unmasking of ‘bitcoin creator’ is revealed as elaborate stunt
    The story of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of the bitcoin, has taken a new twist with the revelation that the controversial “unmasking” of an Australian computer scientist was part of a commercial PR strategy…
    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/unmasking-of-bitcoin-creator-is-revealed-as-elaborate-stunt-grs7nndp8

    more to come.

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    pat

    BBC tries to downplay getting taken in:

    20 Jun: BBC: Rory Cellan-Jones: Back to the Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin affair
    At the beginning of May, it seemed that a great mystery had been solved.
    An Australian academic and entrepreneur, Craig Wright, identified himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the crypto-currency Bitcoin…
    And, then, we get a behind-the-scenes account of what happened when this brilliant, difficult, angry man – described by one colleague as “like Steve Jobs but only worse” – went public, in separate meetings with the BBC, the Economist and GQ, and the days afterwards, when everything fell apart.
    As someone who played a part in that saga – and still asks himself whether he should have asked better questions of Dr Wright – I was just a little disappointed with this climax to the story…
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36575524

    scroll down the comments for Steve McIntyre’s “Covert” Operations by East Anglia’s CRU” and “Ex-News of the World man advised UEA over ‘climategate’”, etc.

    2011: radio4scienceboards: Outside Organisation
    http://radio4scienceboards.proboards.com/thread/1020/outside-organisation

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    Yonniestone

    I’d like those behind the banning of incandescent light bulbs to face court one day, today I replaced 4 fluorescent tubes in the garage and was conscious of the mercury in the old ones during disposal, so searching the best way to go about it I came across this gem from the Department of the Environment Disposal of mercury-containing lamps.

    Abstract: “Even without recycling of waste lamps, using CFLs releases less mercury into the environment than using incandescent light bulbs. This is because burning coal to produce electricity releases mercury. CFLs use only about 20 per cent of the electricity that incandescent bulbs use to produce the same amount of light, therefore requiring less electricity to be generated. The result is that use of CFLs releases about 80 per cent less mercury than incandescent light bulbs.”

    So there you have it, if coal/fossil fuel power didn’t produce it just dump it into the environment as it all balances out.

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    Dennis

    Job creation people, get it right. Desalination plant construction created jobs for unionists and maintaining the facilities are permanent jobs for unionists.

    You have to get the priorities right.

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    Fred

    Don’t they already have a law judgment from the UK about inconvenient truth, that they had to announce all the inaccuracies before they were allowed to show it in schools.

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      OriginalSteve

      Correct. – if shown in a UK school it has to be clearly labelled as political propaganda.

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    Don Gaddes

    We are still under the influence of an X Factor induced Orbital Dry Period – and will be until 2020 in Australia.
    The recent precipitation events over Australia’s southeast coast are directly attributable to the explosive eruption of Sinabung volcano in Indonesia – the development of a ‘low pressure’ system moved over Australia by ‘axial spin’.
    The BoM’s assertion that these precipitation events are due “entirely” to warm waters off the east coast, is just more ENSO Fantasy.

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    john

    Here’s some past info regarding Atty Genl Eric Schneiderman…

    Is Eric Schneiderman a crook?

    http://spectator.org/54969_eric-schneiderman-crook/

    Is the Attorney General of New York a crook?

    Who is Neal Kwatra?

    Who is Melvin Lowe?

    What exactly was that federal sentencing memorandum all about?

    Why isn’t Jon Corzine being prosecuted?

    And exactly what went on in a closed-door meeting between New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and President Obama — hours before Schneiderman filed a Saturday afternoon lawsuit against Obama’s famous critic –- Donald Trump?
    Sources say the ‘investigate Schneiderman’ movement is gaining traction among congressional Republicans, particularly in the House Financial Services Committee. One obvious reason: Schneiderman, a Democrat, seems to spare no expense in attacking critics of President Obama but hasn’t lifted an investigative finger when it comes to the sleaze involving fat cats in his own party.
    Gasparino goes on to suggest as Exhibit One of Schneiderman failing to have “lifted an investigative finger when it comes to the sleaze involving fat cats in his own party:

    The case of Jon Corzine.

    =======

    Schneiderman sex scandal…

    http://www.nyshame.com/tag/schneiderman/

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      KinkyKeith

      Heartwarming to think that the system may actually be capable of working to make a few of the parasites accountable.

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    Miner49er

    Fossil fuels contribute only 3% of all CO2 emissions. 95% comes from plant matter decomposition. Warming climate CAUSES increased CO2 emissions, since plant matter decomposes faster in warmer weather.

    Nature promptly recycles ambient CO2 into limestone (calcite) through numerous chemical and biogenic calcification processes. The higher the ambient CO2, the faster calcification occurs. An equilibrium-seeking process.

    Climate may be warming. It is supposed to be warming because earth is emerging from an ice age. This warming has many causes (adequately discussed elsewhere), but it is NOT caused by human fossil fuels use.

    Its simple. Warming CAUSES increased CO2, and IS NOT CAUSED by it.

    Total Carbon in Sediments, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere & Biosphere
    Carbon Reservoirs:
    Carbonate Sediments: 72.711% (limestone etc.)
    Organic Carbon in Sediments: 27.131% (fossil fuels etc.)
    CO2 in the Atmosphere 00.0027% (ambient CO2)
    Living & Dead Terrestrial Organic Matter: 00.0033% (swamps, etc.)
    Carbon in Oceans: 00.152%
    TOTAL CARBON ON EARTH: 100.0000%

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