The process is the punishment. Agents of the Big-government Blob have access to a bottomless pit of lawyers. They can not only afford endless trials, for them it’s an advantage. Drag it out, wear opponents down, exhaust their coffers. And while the case is ever-pending and never-ending it’s already a win for the accuser — silencing critics, and endorsing celebrity “victim-status”. When the defendants witnesses are older and wiser, there’s another dark advantage too — vale Bob Carter.
What they cannot afford though is discovery.
So they can’t afford to sue a guy like Mark Steyn.
This is about free speech and accountability of publicly funded scientists. Steyn could use your help. See also The criminalization of dissent.
As Steyn says: “It is particularly absurd that an interlocutory ruling on a piece of legislation intended to expedite cases has now taken over two years and counting.”
What is Mann hiding?
— Jo
Mr. Steyn has asked the court to move forward with the case as material witnesses for the defense have passed away since the referral.
The defense of this case, due to its First Amendment implications, is supported by: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Advance Publications, Inc., Alibritton Communications Company, American Society of News Editors, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, The Association of American Publishers, Inc., Dow Jones & Company, Inc., First Amendment Coalition, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Gannett Co., Inc., Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, The McClatchy Company, MediaNews Group. Inc., d/b/a Digital First Media. The National Press Club, National Press Photographers Association. National Public Radio, Inc., NBCUniversal Media. LLC, The New York Times Company, News Corp. Newspaper Association of America. North Jersey Media Group Inc.. Online News Association, POLITICO LLC, Reuters America LLC, The Seattle Times Company, Society of Professional Journalists, Students Press Law Center, Time Inc., The Washington Post.
I take it he is NOT from the mainstream media that loves to bury stories or take them out of context to show a different point?
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Mark Steyn? One of the most fearless political commentators of our times, and a brilliantly talented writer. He’s a Canadian who has chosen the most contentious and important debates, took on the human rights commission over Islam and won, and then got embroiled in the climate debate as well. He called the Hockey Stick graph “fraudulent”. Mann sued for defamation in Oct-2012.
Steyn wants the case to go ahead. He wants discovery.
He fights for free speech.
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AMEN! My fourth-estate heroes are Andy McCarthy, Mark Steyn and Rush Limbaugh. McCarthy is clear, logical and always polite. Limbaugh is the most despised by liberals (think democrats), which automatically qualifies him to be near the top of my hero’s list. And as you say, Steyn is a no-holds-barred fighter for conservative ideals. His writings are also the most witty. Michael Mann would have been well advised to leave Steyn off his seemingly endless list of people to silence via legal action.
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If we in the USA could have Mark Steyn running against Daniel Hannan we would have little to worry about for our election.
Two of the biggest US patriots and neither of them can run for prez.
Too bad.
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Sorry Jo red thumbed you in error.
Mark Steyn is s grest advocate for the cause!
Regards GeoffW
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I have suggested taking a more muscular approach to the CO2 catastrophists, BEFORE people like Anthony Watts get hauled into court. Please see my comments at https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/03/california-legislature-shelves-their-ugly-attempt-at-killing-the-first-amendment/comment-page-1/
My latest one, about organizing a boycott of Naomi Oreskes’ courses at Harvard, is still in the moderation que, as I write this, so I’ll reproduce it, here:
“Another point of attack: Naomi Oreskes has been found to be “out to lunch”, to put it mildly. In fact, as I read “Naomi Oreskes Warps History” http://leftexposed.org/2016/06/naomi-oreskes-warps-history/, she is more likely guilty of [SNIP*] than mere incompetence.
In any event, don’t Harvard students deserve to know about the quality of her {cough} {cough} scholarship? So, I’d also recommend organizing a boycott, of Harvard students, against attending her classes. With any luck, Harvard WON’T dismiss her, or even reprimand her. Thus, one can keep appealing to Harvard students, parents of students, and alumni INDEFINITELY to boycott her classes, thus having cause for being able to enlighten students of this elite institution INDEFINITELY about what a scam is being perpetrated.
Until it completely collapses, anyway, and people like Anthony Watts are out of danger.”
[*Snip. Sigh, it’s an Australian law thing. –J]
00
metamars, we do need to go beyond blogs.We have to do what the Green socialists are so good at. We need to network, to be organised, to do posters, letters, radio interviews. we need to set up a culture of philanthropy to both scientific independent research as well as groups that work for smaller government. We need to find ways to finance full time support. Then we think about “the masses”.
Don’t underestimate the point of blogs like WUWT and this one — we are not trying to reach the masses — the role here is the intellectual slice, the decision-makers, the investors. A lot of what I do is targeted at skeptics, not believers. Honest people need to know they are right, and why, before they get passionate, angry, organised. When we write up research and test ideas, it’s for our sake.
31
I heard Mark Steyn speak in Sydney at the IPA forum. He was just awesome. Succinct, extremely knowledgeable on a huge range of issues regarding freedom and of expression and speech, and absolutely up to date on the complexities of the global warming issue. His performance in the US Senate hearing alongside Judith Curry when they bit back at a snotty Democrat Senator who was having a go at Judith as a “denier” was, apparently, ‘not done’ but absolutely brilliant.
100
I’m not clear who’s been “worn down” here.
I think Mann would potentially have more to lose via disclosure than anyone. Perhaps he’s waiting for the “stick” to come true or maybe he’s feeling the end of that stick firmly embedded?
260
Maybe he will have a banker suicide too…
Nailguns are popular…
66
It hurts to think of what is happening to science but a bit too much hate.
52
I find the hard left are seagulls…..
30
Mann, without any doubt, has more to lose by disclosure, which is why he has so dedicatedly avoided anything of the sort for years – yes, actual years. He doesn’t want to confront cross-examination and he hasn’t the slightest desire for his “evidence” ever to see daylight.
30
Good luck to Mark.
Mikie’s doing what he always does.
190
First Mann, then Shukla, now this. Proposed California Bill
would make ‘Climate Change’ dissent illegal.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/02/the-first-amendment-is-now-dead-in-california-new-california-bill-would-allow-prosecution-of-climate-change-skeptics/
30
I think your’e correct on this one Jo, the warmists have created a situation of damned if they do damned if they don’t where Mann is concerned, he and many others will become pariahs to their cause until the whole thing collapses, with the nameless clever ones fading away with the spoils of a very dirty war.
292
I have purchased a few of Stein’s books to support his cause. He is also the person responsible for getting Section 13 (a huge threat to free speech) of The Canadian Human Rights Act repealed.
Free speech owes this man a huge thank you.
410
Likewise.
‘For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
the laws delay …… the insolence of office…’
H/t Mark Steyn after Hamlet
80
I have just finished reading “A Disgrace to the Profession”, where Steyn provides quotes from climate research professionals that show what low esteem Mann enjoys in the field. It took me a while to read, because my blood pressure kept spiking as I saw expert after expert (including some alarmists) dismiss the hockey stick and Mann’s behavior as examples of atrocious “research” and “behavior. How Mann dares to raise his head amazes me. Steyn mentions that he wrote the book to fill the time until the wheels of justice turned, and he mentions that he has to call it “Volume One”, as he has lots more in store.
401
OT: UAH global dropping fast.
Down to +0.55ºC from +0.71ºC last month.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2016/06/uah-global-temperature-update-for-may-2016-0-55-deg-c/
120
The El Nino was only ever going to a transient effect.
Gone now… Strong La Nina predicted.
AMO starting to head downwards.
The Sun having a snooze.
This is probably the last year of the zero temperature trend of this century.
A cooling trend is coming that will be a wake-up call to all those sucked in by the AGW alarmism.
162
Here is the graph.
https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/uah_lt_1979_thru_may_2016_v6.jpg
70
Nah, credit for the coming cooling has already been popularly seized by the CAGW crowd by renaming to CC.
00
Great debt is owed to Mark Steyn for taking such a time consuming ‘slapp’ for the rest of us to speak freely.
Good luck to Mark Steyn for a resolution within his lifetime.
371
Somewhat OT, but perhaps not. Has anyone noticed how the debate about Britain exiting the EU (BREXIT) has taken on the same sort of scare campaign by the Stayers as that used by warming worriers? Just one example of many by the doomsayers, as their wailing becomes louder and louder:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/01/brexit-would-set-off-global-chain-reaction-oecd-warns/.
131
And they appear to have the same friends/supporters: http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/01/claim-corrupt-google-suppressing-eurosceptic-website-says-founder/.
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bemused:
Since the UK is the only net contributor to the EU budget**, it wouldn’t be the pound that drops in value.
** Don’t ask me how that works, the EU budgets are as clear as mudand the auditors have refused for many years to certify them.
110
What would happen is all the EU ponzi schemes they had concocted to forcibly extract money from Britain while in its EU straight jacket, would unwind, and the theft would be exposed….that is the main reason they dont want it to happen…..that and a “good” european Soviet would fall apart….
60
As you say, this was OT. Leave it for the “weekend unthreaded” blogs or take it elsewhere. God knows there’s plenty of other forums for it. Just don’t bother us readers with material so totally unreleated to the topic.
13
Those with skeptical viewpoints resent,
That if colleagues on ‘warming’ dissent,
They may face a long trial,
Based on ‘climate denial’,
From the dogma that warmists present.
230
The suit hardly matters now that Global warming is factually wrong and the hockey stick dropped. Mann earned a Phd and world fame so he has a lot to lose. It is doubtful that he wants this case to proceed. The only intent was to punish and silence Mark. This is half successful.
However it is amazing after 30 years how many people think Global Warming is true and Climate Change exists and involves steady warming. This fact free idea permeates society and while fewer worry about it, no one much questions it.
However the use of the legal system to silence Mark demonstrates the awful power to silence anyone telling the truth.
271
It also raises the question of how they now they give the Nobel prize to anyone for just being a nice chap…makes a mockery of it…
40
The cloth is also unravelling at the other end right now. The George Mason university (RICO 20) emails are now online at WUWT and the details of whAt could turn out to be a vast conspiracy are starting to emerge.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/01/crowd-source-this-document-dump-the-gmu-rico20-emails-are-now-online-in-full/
130
Amazing documnents, especially the endless quotes from IPCC contributing authors slamming ‘the science is settled idea.’ Some are vitriolic. Dr Vincent Gray: “The (IPCC) climate change statement is an
orchestrated litany of lies.” Some are understated but devastating Dr Madhav Khandekar: “I have carefully analysed adverse impacts of climate change as projected by the IPCC and have discounted these claims as exaggerated and lacking any supporting evidence.”
However decades of this non science pushed by the UN and it will take a generation to die as an idea. The tragedy is the good which has not been done with the trillions and the peace and the opportunity, perhaps the greatest waste in human history. All over a hockey stick.
141
Think about how it unfolded – the hockey stick paper presented, then conveniently a movie appears to convince an unsuspecting public of an inconvenient “truth” ( aka The Big Lie ) , then the MSM ignore most dissenting sceptic voices, then the gummints of the world treat the words of the blantantly wrong IPCC as “holy writ” ….
If its not the biggest organized systemic scam and abuse of the peopels of this planet, I dont knwo what is.
I feel sorry for kids who will have thier faith in solid science trashed, the damage to scientific credibility etc.
It will put back science years and like most things the hard Left touches, it has trashed it like bored armed delinquent teenager….
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Got s new one up. Go get em Mark!
http://dailybail.com/home/epa-gave-convicted-climate-expert-salary-awards-after-he-def.html
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no dissent will be allowed:
31 May: WaPo: Todd Stern: Trump is wrong on the Paris climate agreement. I know because I negotiated it.
(Todd Stern was the U.S. special envoy for climate change from 2009 until April 2016)
But suppose Trump disagrees and wants to keep his promise to “cancel” the Paris Agreement. For starters, he couldn’t do that even if he were foolish enough to try…
Of course Trump could, in theory, pull the United States out of the Paris regime, but that would be stunningly misguided…
Climate change is happening now, intensively, all over the world. It’s getting worse…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-wrong-on-the-paris-climate-agreement-i-know-because-i-negotiated-it/2016/05/31/ce3a680a-2667-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html
1 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: Ed King: Life is not reality TV: Ex US envoy attacks Trump climate plans
“Ludicrous… stunningly misguided… wrongheaded”…
TWEET Laurence Tubiana: Donald Trump : Floods and hurricanes don’t care about reality show speeches. that’s why #ParisAgreement will be implemented.
STERN: “If a President Trump were to stick to his wrongheaded notion that climate change is a hoax, and unilaterally withdraw from the Paris Agreement, he would also inflict severe diplomatic damage on the United States,” he writes.
“U.S. standing in the world would plummet amid almost universal condemnation…
“It’s time to take Trump seriously. He is effectively the Republican candidate for president. Don’t make excuses for his words or assume he doesn’t mean them. We’re playing for keeps now.”
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/06/01/life-is-not-reality-tv-ex-us-envoy-attacks-trump-climate-plans/
51
Mikey’s gonna get SLAPPed by his own lawsuit? Couldn’t happen to a more appropriate Mann.
71
no dissent will be allowed when trillions of dollars are at stake! Ed King gives Bill Gates top billing, billioning?
1 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: Ed King: Energy ministers gather in San Francisco to reboot climate ‘moon-shot’
Bill Gates and officials from over 20 governments will meet to discuss plans for a vast hike in clean-tech funding by 2020
Whatever happened to Mission Innovation?
Launched at the start of the 2015 Paris climate talks, the initiative promised to unleash the financial and scientific power of the public and private sector on developing new forms of green energy…
At the same time Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Virgin’s Richard Branson swore to unleash a green energy “economic revolution”…
Still, if there have been moves, the protagonists have kept them quiet…
That’s where the San Francisco meet – the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial – fits in.
Speakers at the meeting include US special envoy for climate change Jonathan Pershing and Laurence Tubiana, French ambassador for climate negotiations.
Taking part are 23 countries that cover 90% of clean energy investments and 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions…
Finance is not an issue, (White House energy secretary Ernest) Moniz argued. ***This collection of millionaires and billionaires are prepared to take a hit on their investments…
But a separate study issued today by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) in San Francisco paints a gloomier picture.
Low coal, oil and gas prices pose a threat to long-term clean energy growth, said its Energy Technology Perspectives 2016 (LINK).
Between 2016 and 2050, $9 trillion is needed to decarbonise the energy sector, with a further $6.4 trillion needed to clean up buildings, industry and transport over the same time period…READ ALL
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/06/01/energy-ministers-gather-in-san-francisco-to-reboot-climate-moon-shot/
20
If it is going so well, why do they need to reboot it?
30
Climate Crappist …Mick the Hockey Stick Mann versus Mark anti BS Steyn .
Mick the Hockey Stick Mann …the originator of ‘Mike’s little nature trick’ (climategate emails) versus Mark exposer of the truth Steyn .
If climate BS was gold , Mann would be the new Fort Knox !
Didn’t even the vatican of Climate Propaganda , the IPCC , covertly and without any fanfare remove Mann’s Hockey Stick from their BS Logo ?
What a joke , and yet this clown Mann is still allowed to drag it out in kangaroo courts forever!
Maybe Trump can do something about these kookoo courts when he becomes Pres also .
Vote 1 the Donald , and vote Mark Steyn as the President’s Climate and UN Policy Advisor !!
That will sort the Marxist Infestation out !
71
I am very proud to look up on the wall above this computer and see a framed $100 USA gift certificate which Mark sold to help finance his legal challenge of Mann. It will never be cashed. I don’t know if he’s still selling them but I urge you to find out and buy one for any amount.
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stan stendera June 2, 2016 at 10:47 am
“I am very proud to look up on the wall above this computer and see a framed $100 USA gift certificate which Mark sold to help finance his legal challenge of Mann. It will never be cashed. I don’t know if he’s still selling them but I urge you to find out and buy one for any amount.”
Stan,
If you can, please buy some of joanne’s chocolate! Each lovely piece comes hand wrapped in Green foil! 🙂
70
I’ll do better then buy chocolate. I’ll make a straight donation.
30
Thanks for the reminder Stan and Will; it’s Chocolate time, done.
10
I just tried to buy chocolate with two different credit cards, both with multithousand $ dollar limits and was unable to close the deal. I refuse to have anything to do with PayPal and Jo’s tipjar says she can’t take American checks. Help. You have my E-mail Jo, tell me what you want me to do.
30
Try unquerty transf.
00
GO MARK STEYN !!! … the Mann smackdown will be the victory of the century against these scamsters.
Al Gore was intelligent enough to avoid all debates and litigation, perhaps because he is a politician rather than a ‘scientist’, making him a little more cunning in the real world (outside of the bubble/eco-echo-chamber).
Will they allow this case to proceed within the next century? … Heck no! In my opinion, they will never allow this case to proceed unless they know they can rig the proceedings (and this is D.C. we are talking about!!!).
32
Nairobi last week, SF this week…the gravy train rolls on:
1 Jun: NYT Dot Earth: Andrew C. Revkin: The Value and Gaps in a Big San Francisco Clean-Energy Conclave
Are such meetings worth the carbon combustion it took for hundreds of participants to get to the Bay Area?
Over all, I’d say yes, just as was the case last week with the United Nations Environment Assembly meeting on sustainable development that I attended in Nairobi…
A “super wicked” problem like the climate/energy challenge will inevitably have no universal solution applicable everywhere. But discourse can clarify what works where – whether it’s a new financial instrument fostering solar panel deployment or a new battery design…
The clean energy meeting brings together top energy officials and other representatives from 23 countries and the European Commission and attracts all manner of interested parties (some paying $10,000 a table to be at certain events)…
The city is also hosting a parallel meeting of top officials from the 20 countries that pledged at the December climate talks in Paris to double investments in clean-energy research and development through an initiative called Mission Innovation…READ ALL
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/the-value-and-gaps-in-a-big-san-francisco-clean-energy-conclave/?_r=0
Clean Energy Ministerial 7
Attending Ministers and Heads of Delegation includes:
Australia: Rhondda Dickson, Deputy Secretary, Office of Climate Change & Renewables Innovation
Speakers include: Tom Steyer…
see “Parallel Events”
CEM7 Event Sponsors: Dignity Health, the fifth largest health system in the nation and the largest hospital provider in California; NextGen Climate America (Tom Steyer etc); Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E); Prelude Ventures, platform for venture investing in the cleantech sector…
http://www.cem7.org/
30
What gets me is hearing the pious platitudes from George Monbiot on the BBC World Service this morning. He was on about the “carbon” produced by the airline industry. As far as I can tell it is the Green Blob who use it more than anybody else, endlessly travelling the world to various conflabs. Definitely one law for them and another for the rest of us.
40
1 Jun: UK Telegraph: Emily Gosden: Plans to curb diesel power ‘could raise risk of blackouts’
Britain could face increased risk of blackouts in coming winters if ministers are too heavy-handed in their attempts to curb diesel generation, KPMG has warned…
This could result in “a greater chance of blackouts” at a time when Britain’s electricity system is already stretched, it concludes in a report commissioned by UK Power Reserve, which builds small gas generators…
A spokesman for the energy department said: “Keeping the lights on is non-negotiable.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/01/plans-to-curb-diesel-power-could-raise-risk-of-blackouts/
1 Jun: Guardian: Reuters: Angela Merkel strikes deal with German states to put brakes on green energy
Pact addresses concerns that burgeoning output from renewables is putting strain on electricity grid and pushing up prices
After a meeting with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday, the government agreed to cap the expansion of onshore wind power at 2.8 gigawatts in capacity per year.
In addition only a certain amount of new capacity will be permitted in north Germany to avoid overburdening the electricity grid…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/01/angela-merkel-signs-deal-with-german-states-to-regulate-green-energy-rollout
10
OFF TOPIC – wait for the weekend or take it elsewhere.
You lower the standard of this blog when you post unrelated clutter.
11
who called the blog police?
20
Yes, you do , JohnM
10
Since Pat has started the OT early today (and gazumped the Germany/Merkel renewable reduction story I was waiting to put up,
Queensland triples solar ambition for clean energy future
http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2016/6/1/queensland-triples-solar-ambition-for-clean-energy-future
From an incredible 40 MW to an awe inspiring 120 MW!!!! Tony will now be able to scrap his web articles debunking renewables
Go the Solar State
21
This is truly huge news.
120MW of large scale Solar PV.
You know, the same amount of power generated in one year from these solar plants is delivered by Bayswater in, umm, 3 days.
Like I said ….. huge.
I guess they can now close down the Stanwell Power Station, 25Km from where I sit here in Rockhampton, and send all the workers home, well, for 5 days and 8 hours anyway.
Tony.
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5 days and 8 hours, but only between 10 AM and 2 PM on clear days
40
Continuing on from a comment I made yesterday, South Australia’s 1477 MW nameplate fleet of wind turbines must be exhausted after last month’s semi-sustained high output. (Several periods of < 30% capacity lasting a few hours? move along folks, nothing to see – literally).
So far (yeah, it's only been a day and a half – who can do without electricity for 36 hours), the capacity has not risen above 20% and has been under 10% for half the time (that's 18 hours for the mathematically challenge greenwash). And that's including utter BS output figures from the Starfish Hill Wind Farm which has been reporting a continuous 16MW output since 3pm on the 30th of May (or maybe someone has set up a big fan on Kangaroo Island to drive the turbines there).
Right now [Thu 02 Jun at 12:00 (NEM Time)], the wind output total is a whopping 66 MW – a capacity factor of 4.5%. Get well soon turbines – South Australia will need you once the heat returns.
Just for state pride, Victoria’s 1220 MW of wind farms has also gone on holiday with a capacity factor lower than 15% all month with only 12 hours above 10%. Current output is an incredible 3 MW for a capacity of 0.25%
Take that Crow Eaters!
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While I wholeheartedly agree with you, I have to dissent in the case of Tasmania where I live.
We are 95%+ electrically hydro, and windfarms are actually (IMO) only practical in a state such as ours where hydro plants can be ramped down and up easy depending on wind generation inflows, saving hydro volume catchments. On the mainland wind farms are simply brown-out disasters waiting to happen which will wreak havoc on state energy management plans and private producers.
As Tassie’s population increases we cannot rely solely on hydro anymore, and any extra gravity potential we can accumulate through high wind or rainfall periods can be sold to the mainland helping out our State Budget (which, of course, would be in red ink eternally if it wasn’t for GST redistribution – thank you Labor-Greens for shutting down the last few coal plants we had to protect us from, let’s say, a broken Basslink power cable, which also could have fed energy to the mainland supporting small scale local coal mining which was also closed down!!!)
The Labor-Green team was a cancer on Tasmania. Is there any real difference between Labor and Greens anymore outside of certain border control issues?
70
Eyeswide open I think that the Goliath Cement works at Railton and Norsk Newsprint mill at Boyer still burn coal. Many years ago I went down the Goliath owned coal mine at Fingal. Noticed a completely carbonised tree trunk under the basalt roof. Because of the hard material over the coal deposit they had do the mine planning using long horizontal drilling. Still lots of coal there.
40
“saving hydro volume catchments.”
Over the last couple of year, they made it obvious that was never one of their plans.
Otherwise they wouldn’t have got in the mess they did when BassLink went down.
20
31 May: WaPo: The world is about to install 700 million air conditioners. Here’s what that means for the climate
By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis
Overall, the Berkeley report projects that the world is poised to install 700 million air conditioners by 2030, and 1.6 billion of them by 2050. In terms of electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, that’s like adding several new countries to the world…
To try to address this problem, (U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest) Moniz’s department is participating in the Advanced Cooling Challenge, which is to be launched Thursday in San Francisco at the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial, a global meeting of national energy policy leaders. The goal will be to find creative solutions to lessen the energy and climate impact of an unstoppable trend toward more global air conditioning — by making air conditioners much more energy efficient, and also less dependent on HFCs or hydrofluorocarbons as refrigerants, because these substances themselves act as an extremely powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere…READ ALL
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/31/the-world-is-about-to-install-700-million-air-conditioners-heres-what-that-means-for-the-climate/
Canadian blogger & Guardian contributor, Madeleine (How I deal with the unbearable hypocrisy of being an environmentalist) Somerville, has a simpler solution, endorsed by a great white ageing male:
1 Jun: Guardian: Madeleine Somerville: Want to help fight climate change? Start with reproductive rights
With overpopulation a key environmental concern, safe access to birth control, abortion and reproductive health services offer a simple solution
But the difference between men and women in environmental issues doesn’t just come down to who controls the purse strings. Women are statistically more likely to believe the science about climate change in the first place and, what’s more, believe it will affect them personally…
It’s tempting to chalk women’s increased awareness and concern for environmental issues up to some innate caretaking instinct or womanly solidarity. Nature is almost always characterized as female, after all. In Mother Nature v the human race, the actions we take against her are almost always framed as male: raping, pillaging, conquering, plundering. Doesn’t it make sense that women would empathize?…
At the 2014 UN Climate Summit, the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, noted that women and children are 14 times more vulnerable than men in a climate disaster such as floods or droughts, especially in developing nations…
We’ve discussed it before, and although overpopulation isn’t the only problem (how much each population consumes is almost equally important) it’s a big one. And unlike many issues related to climate change, it’s one which is incredibly simple to solve. David Attenborough states it plainly and often: “Wherever women are given political control of their bodies, where they have the vote, education, appropriate medical facilities and they can read and have rights and so on, the birth rate falls – there’s no exceptions to that.”…
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/31/climate-change-women-reproductive-rights-birth-control
10
more ***ageing males:
1 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Gas v Google: Information, not fuel is driving the energy transition
The future energy system has more in common with an iPhone than a coal mine, fossil fuel incumbents are warned
Energy industry incumbents like to remind upstarts that renewables contribute just 3% of the global mix.
So it was at the FT Energy Transformation Strategies event on Wednesday, where an ***ageing all-male panel was mainly concerned with which fossil fuel would dominate in future…
(MEGAN FOCUSES ON THE NON-AGEING MALES)
“The gas industry is in competition with Google,” said (IEA chief economist, Laszlo) Varro. The concept of back-up capacity increasingly looks “outdated and redundant”.
That was echoed in a talk by Paul Gilding, sustainability advisor and author of The Great Disruption.
“The new emerging energy system is so fundamentally different, it is not surprising the current industry can’t see it,” he said. “It is fundamentally a technology business. It has more in common with an iPhone than a coal mine.”
His thesis is simple: The future is about services not commodities, value not volume, Uber not private cars…
Traditional energy companies are “culturally incapable of acting fast enough” to survive the transition, Gilding added…
Varro had some comfort for the old guard. Hydrocarbons would still be needed to make plastics…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/06/01/gas-v-google-information-not-fuel-is-driving-the-energy-transition/
10
re Megan Darby’s FT Energy Transformation Strategies event –
the CAGW activist MSM in action again:
Financial Times Live: FT Energy Transformation Strategies
Beyond Fossil Fuels? Surviving and Thriving in a Post COP World
London 1 June 2016
28 Speakers
FT contributors: Ed Crooks, Pilita Clark
Gold Sponsor: Price Waterhouse Coopers
Associate Sponsor: Carbon Tracker
Supporting Partners: Natural Gas Europe, RenewableEnergyWorld.com, Recharge, European Energy Review.
Organiser: Financial Times: The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy.
https://live.ft.com/Events/2016/FT-Energy-Transformation-Strategies
re Megan’s young ‘un, Paul Gilding:
Wikipedia: Paul Gilding
Paul Gilding is an Australian environmentalist, consultant, and author. Gilding, a former executive director of Greenpeace International, and a Fellow at University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, is the author of The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World (2011). In 2012, Gilding delivered a presentation on the thesis of his book at the 2012 TED conference titled The Earth is Full, which earned him press attention. He lives in southern Tasmania with his wife and children.
Between 1989 and 1994, Gilding served as the executive director of Greenpeace Australia and, later, Greenpeace International…
Gilding also believes that the global economy will fully embrace sustainable energy when societies fully accept the reality of climate change and abandon fossil fuel resources.
Megan’s other young ‘un, Laszlo Varro, was more concerned about US competitiveness in the coal “space”, as they say, a couple of years ago:
2014: WSJ: The Future of Coal: Despite Gas Boom, Coal Isn’t Dead
Production Is Booming in Western U.S. to Feed Power Plants at Home and Abroad
by John W. Mill & Rebecca Smith
Demand is being stoked by the rise of power-hungry middle classes in emerging economies, led by China and India. By the end of this decade, coal is expected to surpass oil as the world’s dominant fuel source, according to a recent study by consultant Wood Mackenzie…
The International Energy Agency recently warned that the U.S. coal industry will have a difficult time competing with Indonesia, Australia and Russia in export markets, however. Some U.S. rivals in selling coal to Asia are closer, reducing shipping fees, with lower labor and environmental costs. “The U.S. will be the high-cost marginal supplier in the Asia market,” says Laszlo Varro, head of the agency’s gas, coal and power division…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303332904579228160256043626
20
As usual, Joannes’ brilliant website gets to the kernal of all
the global warming propaganda.
I would particularly like to complement the bloggerer Pat above, who has the patience to read and post his extracts from such rags as the guardian, something I could not do without a pair of welders gloves and a large nose peg.
Yes it is important that we should all do our bit to support Mark Steyn in any way we can.
Greetings from a sunny Scotland.
51
1 Jun: Washington Examiner: Mariana Barillas: Kerry to students: ‘Your parents’ money’ helps fight climate change
Secretary of State John Kerry told a group of students on Wednesday the government is “spending billions” of “your parents’ money” to combat the effects of climate change.
Kerry explained during his visit to Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., that the “long-term future of this planet” depends on dealing with and understanding “the crisis of the ocean as it is linked to the challenge of climate change, as it is linked to the quality of life that we have here on Earth itself.”
“So we’re spending billions of dollars today of taxpayer money. Your parents’ money is going to pay for the harder impact of storms that we’re suffering — much more damage than ever before as a result of the intensity of the storms that we suffer because of climate change,” he said…
After one student asked him what the ocean would look like 100 years from now if humans continue along the present course, Kerry said he could not predict the consequences with “absolute precision.”…
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/kerry-students-parents-money-helps-fight-climate-change/article/2592739
30
2 Jun: SMH: Nicole Hasham: Election 2016: Government spruiks renewables rebound but dirty coal power still poses threat
Australia is on track to meet official clean energy targets, says Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
The rise of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has buoyed investors, Mr Hunt says, as new figures show 18 large-scale wind, solar and biogas projects worth at least $2.2 billion are set to be built…
Experts have recently warned the 2020 goal of 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy was unlikely to be met, given difficult market conditions, skittish banks and an investment drought under the Abbott administration, which substantially set back progress towards the target.
Mr Hunt told Fairfax Media on Thursday that data provided by the Clean Energy Regulator this week showed 18 projects had been committed under the target, generating 1100 of the 6000 megawatts of new renewable energy required…
Kobad Bhavnagri, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia, said a substantial amount of secured renewable energy capacity, including some of that referred to by Mr Hunt, was sponsored by the ACT government – meaning it would not contribute to the RET and the federal government could not take credit for it…
He said the recent financing of new wind and solar farms was positive, “however, the capacity committed is less than one 10th of what is needed” to meet the RET.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-government-spruiks-renewables-rebound-but-dirty-coal-power-still-poses-threat-20160602-gp9ufa.html
10
Go get ’em Mark. I count myself as very happy to have contributed to the cause.
01
This has been going on since 2012.
The adage is
‘justice delayed is justice denied’.
20
As Mann’s suit against Ball failed miserably, the court should be expediting this, not dragging its feet.
00