Mid-winter cold and expensive electricity: a million pensioners fear they can’t heat their homes

Northen Hemisphere Temperature Graph. Nullschool.

It’s cold up there in Canada, Alaska, Siberia. The Green circle marked over Greenland. (Purple means “minus 30” or colder). | Map Nullschool.

Wholesale gas and electricity prices have risen between 30 and 40 per cent over the past three-to-five months in the UK according to Bobby Kalar, the boss of Yu energy.

Not surprisingly, pensioners in the UK say they are cutting back on food so they can afford to keep the heat on. Still, their sacrifices will mean the world will be 0.00C cooler in 2100. Hard to argue with that.

Express UK

WINTER CRISIS: One MILLION pensioners fear they cannot afford to heat their homes

And a third will be forced to ration their heating in a bid to keep the bills down, according to a new survey.

Of Britain’s 11.5m over 65s, nearly one in ten (nine per cent) are anticipating either a new health problem or the worsening of a current condition, like arthritis, as they struggle with the cold.

As many as 90 per cent of the 2,000 pensioners surveyed by comparison website comparethemarket.com believe the high cost of gas and electricity presents a real health threat to elderly people living in the UK.

At this minute the UK is apparently a balmy 5C. Parts of Canada and Alaska are minus 40. Siberia, minus 44C. I wouldn’t want to be a pensioner living in the highlands of Greenland though, where it is minus 54C right now.

 FergusFallsJournal has a list of things to keep in the car in winter in case you get stranded. Conversely, in Pakistan, the news tells mothers how to spot when pneumonia in children requires a hospital visit. Two hospitals in Rawalpindi report that 500 children a day are being admitted  suffering from pneumonia. Apparently, ninety thousand children a year die of pneumonia in Pakistan every year. Puts things in perspective.

h/t Pat.

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174 comments to Mid-winter cold and expensive electricity: a million pensioners fear they can’t heat their homes

  • #
    TimiBoy

    Puts things in perspective? Not for a Green it doesn’t.

    240

    • #
      Hivemind

      Have you ever read “Fallen Angels” by Larry Niven, et al. An excellent treatise on the mindset that is Green Power (and I don’t mean electricity).

      220

    • #
      Oliver K. Manuel

      Our tyrannical one-world government uses fear to control and enslave all humanity.

      https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/cia-director-slams-trump-for-slamming-cia/#comment-202059

      Trump cannot solve this if he becomes a tool of Goldman Sachs financial interests.

      20

    • #
      RB.

      A good example of that.

      The Greens have blamed ­”climate change” for damage to Sydney’s shark nets, despite clear evidence they were vandalised …

      Rookie Greens MP Justin Field insist[ed] climate change may be to blame after The Daily Telegraph revealed shark nets at Bondi, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Manly, Queenscliff and other popular beaches had been deliberately damaged.

      “Climate change has really hit the NSW coast in the past 12 months, we’ve had huge storm events, so I’ll hold my judgment on how those nets were damaged,” Mr Field said.

      20

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Pakistan notwithstanding, what is happening because of government policy in the UK makes Her Majesty’s Government look pretty close to a criminal enterprise. How can anyone be excused from responsibility for putting peoples lives in jeopardy for political purposes? How can they be excused from responsibility for making it necessary to eat poorly or not at all on some days just to keep warm?

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        The answer to both questions is simple and easy; they cannot be excused. Where are the left handed chimps when you need them? A few chimps would serve the UK far better than its present government.

        00

  • #
    el gordo

    Book burning is still fashionable.

    100

  • #
    DavidR

    It is worth pointing out that the storm shown in the centre of the nullschool image is currently heating the Arctic by more than 20 deg C and decimating the Arctic Ice that is already at record low levels for this time of the year in area, extent and volume. As is the Antarctic Ice, meaning that the global figures are at record lows often by many standard deviations from the average. .

    http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/fcst/#GFS-025deg.ARC-LEA.T2_anom (please note this link is time sensitive and will change in the days to come)

    Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.

    In cold climates people adjust their approach to living to cope with the cold. There will always be extremes, however warming a cold climate does not reduce the impact of winter extremes if people adjust to the warming. Excess winter deaths in Australia are as common as excess winter deaths in both Europe and America.

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    • #
      LOL in Oregon

      So, sending nice warm Bermuda air to a “dark, place the sun don’t shine”
      ….just like the output side of an air conditioner,
      is a wonderful way to keep people in mid-latitudes warm?
      Haaa, Haaa, Haaa!

      181

    • #
      Rainer Bensch

      Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.

      So at last we have someone who found real evidence for this. Do you care to share it?

      371

      • #

        Looks like a meridonal jet stream as predicted for low solar cycles by Stephen Wilde.

        Still waiting for that evidence DavidR….

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        • #
          AndyG55

          Amazing that a NON-“climate scientist™” (note the ™ sign)…

          … can get predictions correct…

          … but died in the brain, “real climate scientists™”…. CAN’T !

          I have long though Stephen was closer to the reality of climate than basically any of the so-called “real climate scientists™”.

          62

        • #
          Oliver K. Manuel

          I agree, Jo Nova. Any “climatologist” that ignores the Sun is a fool.

          And eventually (maybe in the next century), we may also realize that the Sun’s core is composed entirely of neutrons, just like the cores of uranium and plutonium atoms that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 Aug 1945.

          30

    • #
      Steven Fraser

      DavidR: we have seen a few other patterns like this recently, where the cold shifts south (below freezing over the North Pacific to the 50th parallel, for example), and with a low pressure center near the pole.

      This is exactly what to expect as strong NH winter storms progress after they depart the Northeast… they swing out over the Atlantic, and then follow the water into the gap between Greenland and England.

      It is the pathway for moist warmth as it dries and progresses to deep space.

      What is quite fun to see is that, even with a claimed hot year, and an El Niño, the Arctic ice is tracking very near the most recent other years, and Greenland surface mass balance is 200 GT above average for this date.

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      • #
        DavidR

        Steven, Globally Sea Ice Extent and area are lowest ever in the record. Both Antarctic and Arctic Ice are lowest on record for this time of the year and have been for months and the ice volume as measured by PIOMAS is about 10% below the record for this time of the year. In what way does this consitite “very near” the most recent other years.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “Globally Sea Ice Extent and area are lowest ever in the PIDDLINGLY SHORT record.”

          Your lack of historical perspective is making you look like a wandering fool.

          22

    • #
      Denis

      DavidR

      I think those 1 million pensioners are just whimps myself and like you I think the sooner they die, along with those Pakistanis, the sooner we can worry about how much the temperature may, or may not have, increased over the Arctic and the Antarctic.

      And the rising sea levels will take us all out.

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      • #
        Environment Skeptic

        The real problem is poor thermal designs. Each day, trillions of humans are heating and cooling nothing other than concrete, bricks, and the like….

        For example, a fridge is lined with a very thin layer of plastic which takes very little energy to cool down or heat up on account of the mass of plastic being very small. If the inner lining of a fridge was comprised of blue-stone walls and thick bricks, concrete and so on it would take forever to reach operating temperature. And endless amounts of energy consumption..

        It is clear that when the average anthropoid heats or cools their abode so they can heat or cool themselves they also need to cool down or heat up the structure as well due to poor thermal design….throwing around some insulation between the walls and so on is not enough….the thermal mass of the interior space needs to be vastly reduced as well.

        To alleviate globally poor housing technology the internal wall of at least one room of the house needs to be a thin wall comprised of stainless steel or plastic laminate on top of some high density styrene insulation for example……..what is external to the insulation can be of anything that is desired for example brick, concrete or other…

        I continue to be skeptical that the skills needed to build shelter that require minimal energy to heat or cool can be achieved in an environment where basic knowledge about things like ‘thermal mass’ are ignored.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      “is currently heating the Arctic by more than 20 deg C and decimating the Arctic Ice that is already at record low levels for this time of the year in area, extent and volume”

      SO WHAT.!!!

      Research has shown that during the first 3/4 of the Holocene, the Arctic was often sea ice free in summer. Was that “global warming™”

      Current levels are actually anomalously HIGH if you look at any period except that coming out of the LIA, the coldest period in 10,000 years. 1979 was and EXTREME up there with the levels of the LIA, as shown by the Icelandic Sea Ice index. That is what it is coming down from.

      https://s19.postimg.org/bkgbf2prn/Icelandic_sea_ice_index_2.png

      Get some historic perspective and stop being such a brain-washed alarmista sap.

      The world is still just a tiny molehill above the coldest period in the last 10,000 years, colder than the MWP, colder again than the RWP, and very much colder than the first 3/4 of the current interglacial.

      https://s19.postimg.org/juac2rmk3/holocene.png

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      • #
        DavidR

        Andy you are right temperatures have been declining since the start of the Holocene at the rate of about 0.2 degC per millenium by the way. If this had continued for the past 1000 years we would now be about 0.2 degrees colder than 1000 years ago instead of 0.5 hotter than then. However the Arctic has not been ice free for hundreds of thousands of years if not longer.

        http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/12/02/the_last_time_there_was_this_little_arctic_ice_modern_humans_didn_t_exist.html

        Over the past 150 years temperatures have risen very rapidly and are now well above the period often referred to as the MWP. According to a Craig Loehle paper, 2008 or 2009 the hottest 30 years of the MWP was equivalent to the average temperature of the 30 year period from 1977-2006. We are now well above that period by about 0.5 degrees because temperatures have been rising steadily since then.

        By the way it is completely useless putting up pictures of data with no documentation as to where the data comes from. You may as well have made them up yourself. If you provide rubbish references you can’t expect to be taken seriously.

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        • #

          DavidR,writes this whopper since there are indeed science papers out there showing long periods of little to no SUMMER ice:

          “However the Arctic has not been ice free for hundreds of thousands of years if not longer.”

          Dr. Meier differs with you on the first link:

          Can the Arctic really become sea ice-free during summer?

          It has been suggested that the Arctic really can’t lose all its sea ice during summer because there isn’t enough energy to melt all of the ice in the short summer. There are a couple of reasons why this thinking is faulty.

          First, we know the Arctic can potentially lose all its sea ice during summer because it has done so in the past. Examination of several proxy records (e.g., sediment cores) of sea ice indicate ice-free or near ice-free summer conditions for at least some time during the period of 15,000 to 5,000 years ago (Polyak et al., 2010) when Arctic temperatures were not much warmer than today.

          LINK

          ===================================================

          New insights on Arctic Quaternary climate variability from palaeo-records and numerical modelling

          The combined sea ice data suggest that the seasonal Arctic sea ice cover was strongly reduced during most of the early Holocene and there appear to have been periods of ice free summers in the central Arctic Ocean.

          LINK
          ===================================================

          Ice free Arctic Ocean, an Early Holocene analogue.

          We therefore conclude that for a period in the Early Holocene, probably for a millenium or more, the Arctic Ocean was free of sea ice at least for shorter periods in the summer

          LINK

          21

        • #
          AndyG55

          Poor diddums

          Its pointless linking to somewhere like the Slate.
          You certainly won’t be taken seriously if you think that is science.

          Do your own homework and figure it for yourself, look further than the crud site you are probably used to swilling from.
          (I am over trying to teach people who don’t want to learn)

          If you don’t, you are destined to remain FOREVER IGNORANT.. just the way you want to be.

          32

    • #
      Bill Johnston

      I’d say it is all to do with all the record heat in Sydney’s temperature record, which is caused by data-fudging. Woops … I mean by site and instrument changes they forgot to adjust for. (Or have you moved on into another parallel universe DavidR?

      Cheers,

      Bill

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    • #
      ianl8888

      Excess winter deaths …

      In excess of what, exactly ?

      70

      • #
        Dennis

        Eugenics maybe, the leftists answer to their perception of too many humans and too many not contributing (see Fabian Society).

        100

        • #
          tom0mason

          Onward comrade, to a New World Order!
          In the progressive utopian dream of the socialist system, everything is shared out equally to all socially contributing progressive workers.
          If you are nonproductive, nonprogressive, or in any way antisocial then you are eliminated from the progressive system for the good of the progressive majority.

          Don’tcha just love ‘Scientific Socialism’ — aka Malthus+Darwinism with a murderous streak.

          111

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Soudns like a silent imposition of the infamous Hitler T4 program to kill those deemed “unworthy of life”…yes it was aimed at killing disabled people first, but you see the roots of it here….

            90

            • #
              tom0mason

              Adolf and his party were left of center (third way national socialists) so it stand to reason that their policies chime with modern socialist causes — birth control, abortion, assisted suicide, crony capitalism, run-up national debt, and wars.

              71

      • #
        DavidR

        Health officials keep track of deaths by season. In all countries there are more (excess)deaths in winter than summer. The variation is very similar whether the country is cold or hot. That is it is the diseases that come with winter rather than the nominal temperatures that are the issue.

        11

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.’

      I think you will find that has to do with the jet stream misbehaving, gone all wobbly on its random walk, which you must be aware is a consequence of global cooling.

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      • #
        DavidR

        el Gordo, had there been any global cooling the alteration in the jet stream may have been due to it. However as I am sure you re aware there has only been global warming, with three successive annual surface temperature records lifting the records bu more than 0.2 degC.

        This is particularly true in the Arctic where temperatures in 2016 were more than 1 deg C hotter than the previous record year in the Arctic.

        https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv

        12

        • #
          AndyG55

          GISS fabrications.. ROFLMAO.

          hilarious. 🙂

          Even if it was real…. 1ºC hotter than what? -30ºC?

          Get some PERSPECTIVE, child-mind !!!

          21

          • #
            DavidR

            One deg hotter than the previous record Andy, which was more than 2 degrees hotter than the 1950-1980 average. That is calculated over the entire year and the area of the globe north of 64N. The NOAA data basically agrees with GISS and you have no data to refute it. So far 2017 is running hotter than 2016 in th 80N+ lattitudes.

            I have perspective, Andy you need evidence to support your views! And you need to get over your child-like insults as well, how old are you 13? Fantasies about scientists fabricating data are not evidence.

            11

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          … had there been any global cooling the alteration in the jet stream may have been due to it. However as I am sure you re aware there has only been global warming …

          But the jet stream has altered over the past decade or three, so I presume you would agree that would constitute evidence of global cooling?

          … three successive annual surface temperature records lifting the records bu (sic) more than 0.2 degC.

          That is as may be, but the “records” are not the actual measurements. They are homogenised, and adjusted, and normalised and distributed, and …

          So what does the raw and unadjusted record say? The test for science is that an experiment, must be repeatable, and replicable, by independent parties.

          The same test applies to “adjustments” made to raw data. The need for adjustment and the method of adjustment must be published along with the raw data (which must also be published, along with the adjusted data. Otherwise, it is not repeatable, and therefore not science.

          But there again, David, it never was, was it.

          20

    • #
      tom0mason

      “Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.
      Is what is known in scientific circles as Bµ||sh*t, or more correctly advocacy BS, as it is only an opinion and has NO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE!

      There is however lost of supporting evidence that it is a feature of solar action on this planets atmosphere.

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    • #
      tom0mason

      “Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.
      Is what is known in scientific circles as Bµ||sh*t, or more correctly advocacy BS, as it is only an opinion and has NO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE!

      There is however lots of supporting evidence that it is a feature of solar action on this planets atmosphere.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      please note this link is time sensitive and will change in the days to come

      Yep, it appears to no longer work, when I tried it. So much for repeatable science.

      Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.

      What is the mechanism that caused this shift to occur?

      How can it be definitively attributed to “global warming”? What other candidates of causation were examined and rejected, and on what grounds?

      Is it a regular event, and if so at what mean frequency? Why is this particular event so unusual?

      If it is not a regular or cyclic event, then what are the causation factors, and why have those causation factors not occurred before?

      What is the latent heat of ice?

      Given the volume of ice involved, how much energy would need to be transferred to cause the melting you claim? How could such energy be produced by a storm, as you claim?

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Wobbly jet stream.. never happened before CO2 existed as a pollutant.

      https://realclimatescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-29-at-8.49.00-AM.png

      Again, DrivelR’s shuttered vision makes a fool of him.

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    • #
      • #
        AndyG55

        Its a bit unusual, but certainly not unprecedented to have a large high sitting over the Arctic at this time of year.

        That means it sucks in slightly less cold air from the surrounding area, but that leaves those areas with much cooler air.

        This is exactly what has happened before, 1977 being a good example.

        Just a normal WEATHER pattern triggered by the wobbly jet stream, due probably to solar effects.

        Certainly NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with any minor but highly beneficial rise in atmospheric plant food.

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        • #
          el gordo

          ‘…due probably to solar effects.’

          Solar minima may induce changes in the stratosphere, which in turn brings about high-pressure blocking systems. ‘The mechanism behind solar forcing of regional climate change may have been similar under both modern and Last Glacial Maximum climate conditions.’

          The Hockey Schtick

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      • #
        KinkyKeith

        A fascinating diagram.

        If you drag it down and wait for it to refocus over the pole you can see the danger that DafidR is apparently oblivious of.

        There is a gigantic black hole with two separate rotating orifices that send the heat down to the pole.

        No wonder there is no ice left, these black wholes pump huge amounts of heat directly onto the ice.

        KK

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    • #
      Rick Will

      DavidR stated:

      Much of the cold in the lower latitudes is caused by heat shifting to the Arctic as a consequence of global warming.

      Mate, surely you must be beginning to realise how you have been royally conned when you come up with a statement like this. You are saying that the COLD is due to global WARMING – that is simply laughable. How can anyone write such silly things.

      What about the albedo affect of snow that was touted as a big factor in the positive feedback. If less snow was going to accelerate the warming surely all that extra snow is now going to accelerate the cooling. Heaven forbid the models being wrong!

      We have all this extra snow on land while the area of sea ice globally has not reduced since satellite records began:
      https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNgVr59PXA_67TgnYA
      Surely the amount of solar radiation reflected has increased tremendously. There is snow on the Sahara!. The fountains in Rome are solid and streets covered in snow!
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095509/Snow-Rome-1st-time-26-YEARS-36c-temperatures-eastern-Europe.html

      There is almost zero water vapour in the air over ice so its thermal inertia is low. According it is subject to rapid change in temperature over a wide range. An excursion of 40F is not unusual:
      http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/meanTarchive/meanT_2000.png

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      • #
        DavidR

        Rick Will write drivel. Cold in one place may be caused by heat shifting to another location. For instance if the gulf stream shuts down, as some commentators are noting may happen, due to the increased fresh water caused by arctic melting, Europe will get significantly colder. We have known this for years, it is not questionable. As for the town in the Sahara that got snow it is positioned at roughly the same latitude and height as Cooma which regularly gets snow so it is nothing significant. And Rome is a whole lot further north than that.

        13

    • #

      What I your vague theories got to do with the supposed anti-global warming policies that are driving up my electricity and gas bills?
      I you look at the real world policy data (and not some trumped -up modeled projections) you will find that the sum total of all proposed policies to cut emissions, if fully enacted, will not stop global emissions from rising. That is because the 1992 Rio Declaration exempted “developing” countries from a primary responsibility to cut emissions. These countries now account for two-thirds of global GHG emissions, and with 84% of the global population, there is a lot more emissions growth likely in the next few decades.
      The major consequence of mitigation policies is that those countries applying them will increase energy costs, hurting the poor in societies and putting industry at a comparative disadvantage to the non-policy developing countries. Donald Trump was wrong to say that Global Warming was a Chinese hoax, but right on the policy consequences.

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      • #
        PeterPetrum

        Trump has modified that and said it was hyperbole. What he meant was that China was taking Obama and the rest of the world for a ride and would not even dream of reducing their emissions until 2030. In the meantime the rest of the western world is crippling their economies by bringing in useless ‘carbon’ mitigation policies. That’s what he meant, and the US is not going to play that game once he gets in.

        30

    • #
      Allen Ford

      An alternative view, that makes much more sense, is that it may have something to do with the volcanic activity associated with the Gakkel Ridge.

      The Gakkel ridge is a gigantic chain of underwater volcanoes snaking 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) beneath the Arctic Ocean from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.

      The Gakkel Ridge has in the recent past [written January 2016] pulsed massive amounts of heat into the overlying ocean and thereby melted large portions of the ice that floats above the heated ocean column, says Kamis.

      Climate scientists who favor the theory of man-made global warming maintain that the higher melt rate of Arctic sea ice from 1999 to 2007 was entirely due to man-made CO2 emissions, Kamis continues.

      Natural forces play dominate role in sea ice extent

      However, it is clear to most scientists, he continues, that non-atmospheric natural forces play the dominate role in sea ice extent and thickness. [emphasis added]

      These natural forces include variations in the Earth’s orbit, long-term cyclic changes in deep-ocean currents, and most importantly geologically induced heat and chemically charged fluid flow from deep ocean faults and volcanoes.

      Even though the October 12 event was associated with an extensive earthquake swarm, a huge methane release, and a significant series of volcanic eruptions along the Gakkel Ridge, “it was, and still is dismissed as insignificant by most climate scientists advocating the theory of man-made global warming,” says Kamis

      But many scientists now realize that the 1999-2007 Gakkel Ridge heat and chemically charged fluid flow event was the root cause of accelerated the Arctic sea ice melting rate.

      http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/heat-from-deep-ocean-fault-punches-hole-in-arctic-ice-sheet.html

      Sorry, DavidR, but the thermodynamic numbers supporting an atmospheric origin for Arctic sea ice variations just don’t add up compared to other more logical explanations.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        That hole is about the size that might be expected from a reasonable size underwater eruption. 100-200km²

        Eruption over, It would close up pretty quick.

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    • #
      ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

      DavidR, I thought your mother told you to stop staring at the swirling patterns on that soap bubble or you’ll go blind. However, feel free to use it as an analogy for the Earth, considering it’s just as accurate as climate models.

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    • #
      Mark D.

      DavidR; have you been drinking?

      51

    • #
      RB.

      There is a lot of snow falling on Greenland. http://beta.dmi.dk/uploads/tx_dmidatastore/webservice/b/m/s/d/e/accumulatedsmb.png

      We are talking about the extent that is at least 10% sea ice so its greatly affected by currents . Anchorage is -19C at the moment while Nuuk is -9C and Murmansk is -5C so its not about ice melting.
      As for Antarctica, something is a miss.

      On an annual basis, the total Antarctic sea ice extent has increased about 1% per decade since 1979.

      Then a massive drop this November. The extent usually drops about 9 million square kilometers by the end of December and 14 million by the end of summer but this rapid a drop is definitely very unusual. So unusual, and the algorithms were changed last year, that I suspect human error rather than nature.

      Why don’t I trust them? Because all the stories on the Antarctic sea ice extent being at its lowest choose show the combined polar ice extents eg. http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/585403a3a1a45e38468b5e04-
      so that people can’t see that at this time of year, the Antarctic is sea-ice extent varies much more than the Arctic.
      http://www.igsoc.org:8080/annals/17/igs_annals_vol17_year1993_pg149-154.pdf

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    • #
      RB.

      There is a lot of snow falling on Greenland. http://beta.dmi.dk/uploads/tx_dmidatastore/webservice/b/m/s/d/e/accumulatedsmb.png

      We are talking about the extent that is at least 10% sea ice so its greatly affected by currents . Anchorage is -19C at the moment while Nuuk is -9C and Murmansk is -5C so its not about ice melting.
      As for Antarctica, something is a miss.
      On an annual basis, the total Antarctic sea ice extent has increased about 1% per decade since 1979.
      Then a massive drop this November. The extent usually drops about 9 million square kilometers by the end of December and 14 million by the end of summer but this rapid a drop is definitely very unusual. So unusual, and the algorithms were changed last year, that I suspect human error rather than nature.

      Why don’t I trust them? Because all the stories on the Antarctic sea ice extent being at its lowest choose show the combined polar ice extents eg. http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/585403a3a1a45e38468b5e04-
      so that people can’t see that at this time of year, the Antarctic is sea-ice extent varies much more than the Arctic.
      http://www.igsoc.org:8080/annals/17/igs_annals_vol17_year1993_pg149-154.pdf

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    • #
      Mari C

      David, even if a part of what is being claimed by the CAGW folks is true, once all that ice-melt (COLD) water hits the oceans, and the ice shelves calve giant ice-cubes into the briny seas, the waters that control our atmosphere will be delivering cooling (COLD) weather everywhere.

      Weather happens, climate changes, and we are just large insects wandering about, fooling ourselves with the idea that we will have any long-term impact on the planet. Or just exhibiting an extreme amount of hubris.

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      • #
        DavidR

        I am not sure about the insects bit, ‘we are just large insects wandering about, fooling ourselves’ but there are an awful lot of people here wandering about fooling themselves.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “wandering about fooling themselves.”

          We have offered to guide you..

          But you are like a blind mule.

          You will remain a wandering fool.

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  • #
    Mikky

    Just wait for the schemes to get rid of natural gas, which is what provides most of the heating in the UK, it has to go soon so that the UK can “meet its targets”, allowing the UK delegates to enter the temple of ritual prostration to Gaia at UN shindigs, and to avoid a Green Zombie Apocalypse. Falling electricity demand in the UK is claimed by the usual suspects to be due to efficiency and consumers being “smart”, but the reality is that most is due to exorbitant prices, and a recent run of very mild winters.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien

      “Most is due to exorbitant prices”.

      Which is the big plan. Never mind that this will destroy industry, and with that the whole economic system.

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      The funny thing is that the UK – following the lead of the USA – is constantly bad-mouthing the Russians. Blaming them for the ongoing demise of ISIS, for reclaiming Crimea (which was given away by Ukrainian Khrushchev), for not letting the Russian-speakers in the Donbass get eliminated by the Nazis of Galicia, for the lost US election etc.

      Meanwhile, the UK’s imports of Russian gas are rising every year inexorably.

      Russia Almost Doubles Gas Exports to the U.K.

      The UK’s domestic supplies are dwindling and they are closing down their coal-fired power stations. Also, the Norwegians can see the writing on the wall and will not increase their exports. Sending LNG from the USA or Qatar is prohibitively expensive. In sum, they are long-term well and truly stuffed. Hoisted by their own petard, if you like.

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  • #
    cedarhill

    The Left has created a horrible environment for the UK. Not only is heating becoming unreachable but their electric power grid will follow the way of south Australia. No heat, no lights, no food and all the immigrants in the world trying to flood into their neighborhoods. And the Left wonders why Brexit passed.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Yes. Might be worth starting to hand out firearms to registered citizens soon…if it all goes splat, you dont want to be the only one without a gun….

      80

    • #
      ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

      The Greed Dream ©®™: People shivering in dark caves surrounded by an electricity grid.

      40

  • #
    Joe Lalonde

    Our governments are imposing “population control” through subversive means…

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    • #
      PeterS

      Except the US once Trump becomes President. I would not be surprised if he declares war with the left and that might even include Europe itself. It’s about time the left were declared as our real enemy. Socialism is death.

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      • #
        Joe Lalonde

        President Trump has generated a weapon that will protect him in his presidency…His daughter Ivanka protecting him with a daughters love for her father. Should ANYONE threaten or do him any harm…
        You would NOT want to be at the end of her revenge!

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      • #
        el gordo

        Peter

        Socialism is not dead, with increasing mechanisation and robotics replacing human workers, Marxism with a human face won’t be so bad.

        The dictatorship of the proletariat was just an anomaly.

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  • #
    Stephen Harper

    Jo,

    Did you mean: “the world will be 0.00C cooler in 2100″?

    160

  • #
    Reasonable Skeptic

    Seems like the Greens are finally getting the pressure on the people to change their lives to save the planet. Sure the old and poor will suffer, but the goal is to change the weather and we must make sacrifices. /sarc.

    Trudeau is doing a Town Hall in Canada. A women asked about skyrocketing energy. After the platitudes, the responses was basically that it was only going to get worse.
    [I added the “/sarc” tag for you, but too late to avoid several people getting upset over the implications. Please use this as a learning experience] Fly

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    • #
      Tom O

      I have no idea where your mind is, but it isn’t in humanity and humane thoughts. There is no reason for anyone to suffer since there is no proof whatsoever that anything “bad” is going to happen to the climate. “I had a dream” isn’t good enough for me to want to take the “climate fright gun” and put it to the head of people that have every right to expect to live as some brain dead green has. Show me hard, physical proof that there is a crisis being caused by being warm in the winter at an affordable price. if you can’t, take your dream and sleep elsewhere.

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    • #
      Speedy

      *********************************************************************
      OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION
      *********************************************************************

      No Climate Scientists were killed or harmed in the promulgation of this policy.
      Just pensioners, taxpayers and other irrelevanti. Nothing to worry about.

      Please move on, and keep voting socialist.

      Cheers,

      Speedy

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    • #
      Speedy

      *********************************************************************
      OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION
      *********************************************************************

      No Climate Scientists were killed or harmed in the promulgation of this policy.
      Just pensioners, taxpayers and other irrelevanti. Nothing to worry about.

      Please move on, and keep voting socialist.

      Cheers,

      Speedy

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    • #
      Annie

      Your first comment was heartless RS, I took the positive side to your second but now regret the green tick I gave you. Consider it cancelled. 🙁

      60

      • #
        Annie

        And a red one in its place. 🙁 🙁

        60

        • #
          Annie

          Double cancel if Fly is correct. That actually had been my original instinct but then, on rereading, I thought you meant it! A sarc/ tag does help those of us without our morning coffee hit. 😉

          60

  • #

    Think global but die local.

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  • #
    bobl

    All heating devices not powered by solar cells or windmills should be removed from UK greens houses/communes.

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    • #
      Denis

      Removing all heating devices from the House of Commons is a grand idea.

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      • #
        StephenP

        The House of Commons has a district heating system and backup generator run on natural gas, so it is a case of blow you,I’m all right Jack.

        40

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        The last time I was in that building (thankfully a long time ago, now) they used reticulated hot water and radiators for heat. The boiler in the basements was used to destroy confidential material that was no longer required. It seemed an efficient enough system, except in summer, when presumably the confidential boiler fuel was left lying around somewhere.

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  • #
    Lionell Griffith

    Still more evidence that the green blob and their political fellow travelers do not mean well. That this madness continues is proof that they intend to cull the population of humans of the undesirables.

    Undesirable clearly means anyone who wishes to live and does so by producing and using energy in necessary quantities. This means everyone! CO2 emissions and the non-existent undefinable and unmeasurable so called global warming is only an excuse.

    Only if they would stop breathing and using energy would I believe there purpose was benign. I see their purpose to be as malignant or more so than the worse tyrants of the past. They secretly (perhaps not so secretly based upon their continued actions) wish to extinguish all human life on earth. They are the enemy of all who simply want to live, stay alive, and thrive by virtue of their own thoughts and actions.

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  • #
    Vlad the Deplorable Impaler

    O/T but hilarious:

    https://www.cooleffect.org/saveoursnowmen

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      PeterS

      The US, Japan and Europe should now be faced with an invasion of snowmen given the extreme low temperatures of late. When are we going to see global warming alarmists behind bars?

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  • #
    PhilJourdan

    But that is the whole point of the green agenda! The more people die, the happier they become. Their stated goals are a reduction in the population (as long as it is not themselves). And freezing them to death is a way to the goal.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    In the U.K., high costs force the old,
    To spend fortunes, just not to get cold,
    Which will empty the purse,
    And will likely get worse,
    As more long bitter winters unfold.

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  • #
    TdeF

    Man made Global Warming is exclusively the concern of rich countries with plenty of power, a self indulgent fantasy.
    tur
    You can tell rich countries, with fields of giant windmills which are rarely turning, not needed and worshipped by a small minority. The rest of society, the rusted on Labor voters and deluded conservatives think they are an incredible waste, destroying energy reliability, massively forcing up costs and punishing the poor. The UN and EU bureaucrats are delighted. While the 10,000 EU unelected bureaucrats who earn more than the British PM, it is is the greatest symbol of their power.

    In the UN also, it shows how one crazy idea can control governments and force the masses of poor people to part with their carbon cash. The greatest achievement is to convince science ignorant people that breathing is a crime and carbon dioxide is deadly pollution. Trump is right. The UN is a dictator’s picnic. The EU and UN are not countries. They represent no one but themselves and they are the problem. To paraphrase John Cleese in Life of Brian, what Jesus fails to realise is that the poor are the problem.

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      TdeF

      I was just reading the IPA book Magna Carta. Prince John signed it but it was soon annulled by edict of the UN of the day, the Pope and his bureaucrats in Rome and all the Barons were excommunicated. Europe has a history of taxing, trans national bureaucrats exerting power and raising taxes without representation. The purpose of all the money was to fight wars for power and fortune in the Middle East and to enrich the elites. Nothing has changed.

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        TdeF

        Prince John did not sign the book. Nor did the authors Chris Berg and John Roskam. A good read though.

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        • #
          Annie

          TdeF, do you not mean King John? I think he would have a job signing the book as he, presumably, is residing in his tomb in Worcester Cathedral! On the rare occasions I am there I pat the tomb and say ‘Hi!’ to him. The tomb is in the Quire in front of the high altar. One of the copies of the Magna Carta is in Salisbury Cathedral.

          30

    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Did you see that Talcum has moved Hunt into Health?
      Now the big question is who he moves into the environment portfolio.
      George Christiansen would be a good choice. Or Chris Back.

      30

  • #

    Living in Britain I do not think that this will add much to bills. The recent rise to about £50 Mwh takes the wholesale prices back to where they were in the period from 2009 to 2015. At the start of the year they were £40 Mwh, falling to about £30-£35 Mwh in August. For instance see the charts at this site for wholesale electricity. At most it will add about 10% to electricity prices. That is because most of the cost passed onto me as an end user is for the other costs. That is for the costs of the grid, the renewables subsidies and the administrative costs. I looked into the breakdown of costs three years ago, noting that these other costs has risen by 25% in the period since the Climate Change Act 2008. Yet then Labour leader Ed Miliband had the audacity to launch a major policy initiative to freeze energy prices, inferring the 30% rise was due to profiteering by the energy companies, when they were down to the very Act he as Minister for Energy and Climate Change had sponsored.
    For details see my post Labour’s Hypocrisy on Rising Energy Bills.

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    • #
      TdeF

      In South Australia, where electricity bills are soaring past anyone’s ability to pay and supply failure is massive and random, the socialist Labor government which shut down and blew up coal power are outrageously blaming the free market for the high prices. Despite the fact that it is obvious who is pushing up prices, according to Labor the problem is not caring socialism but money hungry, profiteering free enterprise, as usual. Capitalists. According to the same Labor minister, BHP and Arrium are at fault too for not building their own power stations as they do in third world countries.

      So the ‘energy market’ is failing the people, which is not surprising when under the RET every coal or gas retailer has to pay a windmill operator for the right to sell carbon based electricity. Currently $90 Mwh, £55 Mwh. This is NOT for the electricity, just for the right to sell their own. The electricity is extra. Carbon is not mentioned once in the RET Act but the list of approved vendors of LGCs (Large Scale Gneration Certificates) does not include gas and coal generators. A massive carbon tax without even using the word carbon. This was brought in by a Conservative government and nothing is said by either side of politics or by anyone else. You would think the Carbon tax was dead, except that Australia’s biggest and cheapest power generator is about to close in two months because it cannot make a profit at any price.

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  • #
    Mark M

    CO2 scam tax “could become [Trudeau’s] electoral undoing — not just in Ontario, but across all of Canada.”

    Terence Corcoran: Trudeau’s Liberals just got struck by the first shot in Canada’s carbon-tax rebellion

    http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/terence-corcoran-trudeaus-liberals-just-got-struck-by-the-first-shot-in-canadas-carbon-tax-rebellion

    * Check the video of the woman telling Trudeau her energy bill is more than her mortgage!

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    • #
      PeterS

      Perfect example why leftists are our and Trump’s number two enemy soon to become number one. Also a good reason for a new party to appear here in Australia to contest against the two major parties who are now both leftists.

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    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Prime Minister Castro is steeped in the ideology of his step daddy and his real daddy. Surely, he idolises Mao just as Pierre did. Sooner or later the populace will catch on, although the voters in Ontario and Alberta have been duped into following Wynne and Notley.

      30

    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Letter from Kevin Hogan, retired V.P., Engineering & Construction, Shell Canada to Kent Hehr………

      Dear Kent,

      We have not met; however, I have a message that I think is important for you to hear.

      As a retired (in Calgary) former executive who had a 36 year career with a foreign multinational oil company, I know how the international decision makers in that company think (and act), and believe that others in this business are similar.

      Our Prime Minister needs a crash course in the importance of the energy business to the Canadian economy, and of the realities of this global business. A recommended source would be “The Quest” by Daniel Yergin, a leading authority on energy in the world, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his earlier book “The Prize”. It would also be helpful for him to receive a factual non-partisan report on how other global jurisdictions (in the energy business) operate and how we differ in a positive way. He then needs to state very clearly that the Canadian Oil Sands are a “Prize” that Canada uniquely has, and it is our intent to develop them in a very responsible manner for the benefit of all Canadians. Are you prepared to be a catalyst in making that happen?????

      The reality is that a multinational energy company is not unduly concerned about today’s low price of oil ——- sure, higher prices would enhance their executives’ remuneration, but what really counts in their decision making on huge long term capital investments is their evaluation of whether or not a country is “business friendly”. At this moment, Canada is viewed as “business unfriendly” by the international energy business, and the result of that view has a very large impact on our economy and jobs for Canadians (and not just Albertans).

      Earlier, I said that we have not met. I have not been active politically and perhaps that was a mistake on my part. However, I do not intend to stand quietly and allow our leadership in Ottawa to destroy our economy. There is an urgent need to act now, given the potential impact of the political changes being played out to the south.

      My hope is that you will be able to influence the leadership in Ottawa regarding the above. If you are unwilling or unable to do that, I (and as many friends as I can muster) will actively work to ensure that supporters of the current leadership in Ottawa are not sent or returned to Ottawa in the next election.

      Kevin Hogan

      PS I’m sure our Prime Minister will dance around his comments about phasing out the Oil Sands, but unless there is a fundamental change in his (and others in Ottawa) understanding of this industry and its importance to Canada, we will all pay a very big price.

      40

  • #

    The UK has the potential to regain its energy security to the extent that it has with coal until the mid twentieth century and from North Sea oil and gas in the period 1980 to 2005. Mostly under the North of England (with smaller deposits elsewhere) there is sufficient shale gas to meet Britain’s current gas needs for at least 50 years. The formations are likely much deeper than many of the US shale deposits. Yet development has been held up by Green activists making all sorts of misleading claims. This has been lead by the charity Friends of the Earth. These claims include.
    – chemicals used in fracking fluids can cause cancer. These fluids are about 95% H20, 5% sand and 0.17% other chemicals.
    – Drop in house prices near to drilling sites.
    – Asthma rates have been shown to be 3 times higher
    – If British shale gas were added to fossil fuel emissions it could trigger catastrophic climate change. (that is a little bit more on top of 1.50% of global emissions).
    When the Advertising Standards Authority got agree FoE to drop the first three claims in fundraising until they get supporting evidence, FoE tried to infer the ASA had dropped the case.
    The FoE is still able to peddle myths about fracking at its website. Despite a fundraising leaflet claiming shale gas could trigger catastrophic climate change, the website claims that shale gas development will not affect UK gas prices, or jobs. They do this by quoting a newspaper report made weeks before the British Geological Survey announced the phenomenal deposits in the North of England.

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  • #
    PeterS

    It’s not accident extremists are so angry and full of hatred of people like Trump. He is a game changer – there’s no doubt about that. We haven’t seen such polarization in public opinion for some time. The Greens in particular should show their true colours and start wearing brown shirts.

    91

  • #
    pat

    WaPo, Reuters, Politico etc, (the rest of the FakeNewsMSM will be on board soon) all loving this final move by Obama to cement his climate legacy!

    17 Jan: WashingtonExaminer: John Siciliano: Obama gives another $500 million to Green Climate Fund
    The Obama administration approved another $500 million contribution for a United Nations’ climate fund on Tuesday, a move that is expected to infuriate Republicans who have sought to stop the payments…
    Environmental groups applauded the contribution and warned the incoming Trump administration not to reverse the U.S.’s obligations to support the fund…

    “The incoming Trump administration and Congress must not play politics with the moral and legal obligation of the U.S. to provide assistance through the Green Climate Fund for those whose lives and livelihoods are today being devastated by climate change,” said Friends of the Earth.
    “This must not be twisted into some kind of game to score anti-science political points; the health, well-being and even survival of children and their families are at stake here,” the group said…
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obama-gives-another-500-million-to-green-climate-fund/article/2612077

    the party of the Elite, for the Elite and by the Elite:

    17 Jan: RealClearPolitics: Tim Hains: John Kerry Predicts Trump Administration Will Last “A Year, Two Years, Whatever”
    Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Geneva on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that he does not believe that president-elect Donald Trump will repeal everything he says he will when his administration comes into power on Friday, but if he does it could cause significant damage for “a year, two years, whatever, while the [Trump] administration is there.”
    JOHN KERRY: We’ll have injured our own credibility in, conceivably, an irreparable way. Not irreparably. There’s time, and that’s just too dramatic. But we will have done great injury to ourselves. And it will hurt for the endurance of a year, two years, whatever, while the [Trump] administration is there.
    [crowd laughs and claps]
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/01/17/john_kerry_predicts_trump_administration_will_last_a_year_two_years.html

    40

  • #
    ianl8888

    O/T, but Obama’s pardon or clemency list is starting to roll out:

    https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/821466204179144704

    A US reader may be able to supply the name of the President with the absolute record for the number of pardoned felons for us – it won’t be Obama – but Obama’s eventual list will be of general interest.

    50

  • #

    What is the link between cold and pneumonia?

    21

    • #
      TdeF

      Opportunistic bacteria, viruses and cold air. Crowded housing for warmth, proximity of infected and uninfected people and mainly the lack of dry heat to evaporate the water which shields bacteria and viruses from destruction. Say from a sneeze or a cough, itself forced by infections which use this to spread. Also limited diet with no vitamins from fresh vegetables. Then add the fact that people who live in cold crowded housing are poor and cannot afford early diagnosis or medication, so the spread is more rapid. Then you get other infections which run down immune systems and colds which can predispose people to serious lung infections. This in turn kills breadwinners directly and through self sacrifice and the poverty cycle continues. Cheap energy changed cold countries. Expensive energy is a death sentence for many.

      I was amazed at the system in Russia where hot water is centrally produced and distributed to all buildings in a radius, limiting development in cities like Ekaterinberg. It is free or nominal and absolutely essential for survival. Go outside that radius and you freeze. So cities appear surrounded by virgin forest. It is not the model used by Western cities, so the sprawl consumes valuable resources. A Russian friend says she was warmer in St. Petersburg in winter than Melbourne. The multi storey living also helps retain heat, as did terraces in London.

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      • #

        crowding yes, cold air no

        23

        • #
          Annie

          Actually Gee Aye, I was very ill after having to breathe freezing cold air instead of staying in keeping warm. Cold air does affect me badly and I’m sure I’m not alone. When last living in England, ‘oop north’ I had to wear and breathe through a scarf every time I went out for the paper, in what passed for spring in 2013!

          40

          • #
            Annie

            It’s also bad for people with heart problems.

            30

          • #

            we are talking about infections of the lungs not your condition.

            take care

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            • #
              tom0mason

              One of the problems with ailments like pneumonia is that many people often do not realize they have it! It is not until a bodily stress (like under nourishment, physical stress, climatic conditions) kick in does it become a big problem.

              There is also a type of pneumonia whose symptoms are so mild that they may be mistaken for something else. This is sometime called walking pneumonia. Walking pneumonia gets its name from the fact that sufferers are able to walk around and go about their daily business, whereas typical pneumonia makes its victims very weak and sick. Walking pneumonia is generally caused by a bacteria called Mycoplasma pneumonia, though other infections may be involved. People who have this infection often do not realize that they even have pneumonia, chalking their symptoms up to a bad cold. The body can often fight off the bacteria on its own, without the need for treatment.

              Often within small or tightly packed communities Mycoplasma pneumonia is endemic among the population.
              http://www.jpma.org.pk/full_article_text.php?article_id=7107 and a few others I found searching Mycoplasma pneumonia for more info.

              40

              • #

                cool thanks for that link. The pathology of pneumonia that kills children under 5 years is a bit more limited and specific and sadly they are not walking

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              • #
                Rod Stuart

                Having had Mycoplasma pneumonia twice, I can assure you that it can lead to complications.

                40

              • #
                tom0mason

                No probs Gee Aye,

                As I’m prone to catching pneumonia I like to know ahead of time when a ‘new’ (often just mutated) version are making the rounds.
                I’ve had serious pneumonia 9 times, first time in the 1957 Asian flu with pneumonia nearly had me.
                Last very bad pneumonia was in the 1980’s after a tour in the tropics, the military sent off to see the snow! I soon bounced back after 2 months of treatment and a further 3 months ‘light’ duties (I’d lost near half my body mass and was prescribed 2 pints of Guinness/day!).
                Since then a few bouts but nothing modern medicine did not see off in double quick time.
                Cold winter weather especially freezing air causes a vicious wheeze in me, so it’s often hard to tell when its a physical reaction to the cold or an infection starting.

                40

            • #
              Annie

              I wasn’t talking about me just then, more a general statement re the effects of cold air on health, which include pneumonia.

              30

            • #
              Mari C

              Cold does reduce the body’s ability to fight off infection. Dry air has a tendency to dry mucous membranes, allowing them to “crack” and thus letting in opportunistic bacteria and virusii. Sinus infections, colds, influenza, all part of the respiratory system, can induce pneumonia or pneumonia-like illnesses.

              Close quarters, dampness (which also fosters fungus and mold, which can infect those with poor or stressed immune systems), spreading of assorted bacteria and virusii, all increase pneumonia chances. Even in warm climes, if the living is filthy and cramped the spread of disease – including pneumonia – is easy.

              So Gee Aye, in addition to your stupendous knowledge of climate issues you are now an expert in infectious diseases?

              I’ve a bit of experience in what to look for, how to avoid and prevent such in immuno-compromised patients. No expert, but enough knowledge to know that you are being aggressively inane and have very little idea of which you are speaking.

              10

          • #
            PhilJourdan

            Cold acerbates health issue as the body must spend more energy generating heat, and thus less energy to fighting infections. Cold will not get you sick, just make it more susceptible to you getting sick.

            00

    • #

      Seriously Jo but put me in my place if I’ve misread… if you were implying that cold is a cause of many pneumonia deaths in Pakistan then you have been mislead. Even the poorly titled article you linked to does not make this claim.

      Maybe you were just making a point that more serious health issues exist in the world than ones connected with temperature (of either extreme)?

      here is a depressingly informative article about the Pakistan’s pneumonia problem

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2647447/

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      • #
        Mark D.

        Good god Gee, doesn’t cold cause people to move inside and congregate? There’s all kinds of junk we pass back and forth when confined by cold weather.

        Can’t believe you are making this comment…..

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        • #

          sorry but pneumonia is active all year in Pakistan including in areas where cold is never a problem. Crowding is a problem in all seasons including the hottest weather when people congregate in cool places (who would have thought of that one?). The real concern is a lack of prompt treatment and isolation, overcrowding (ie cold, hot or not), lack of immunisation (https://www.cdc.gov/features/pneumonia/) plus all and more of the other poverty related issues that predispose people to infection that TdeF raised.

          31

          • #
            Mark D.

            Are you saying there is no correlation with cold? I don’t give a sit about other correlations that may be valid.

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            • #

              No.My original comment was in relation to Jo contrasting the fear of cold in a rich western nation versus 500 deaths per day (which is an average and is not a cold related spike) in poor third world communities. It was unclear if she was saying that cold was a direct cause of deaths or if the comment was contrasting western fears of weather versus the harsh reality of life for most of the world all the time.

              Why No? Clearly in Pakistan there are large numbers of deaths at all times of the year in lots of different places including those that do and don’t have cold seasons. This article confirms a seasonal correlation but not causation http://www.ipublishing.co.in/ijesarticles/twelve/articles/volthree/EIJES31088.pdf

              If one were to think that cold is the cause, and to wave a wand to warm up the winter in the temperate zones, one would find a very small drop in deaths due to pneumonia if all other things stayed the same.

              21

              • #
                Annie

                Actually Gee Aye, the thread is about mid-winter cold and expensive electricity. Taking just the UK there is a large spike in deaths in the winter. There are many pensioners who can’t afford their now unnecessarily inflated energy bills and enough good quality food. Not only that, even those who aren’t so pressed financially are now facing power cuts with the ridiculous change to so-called renewable energy. I was in England for that last really cold long winter and I can tell you that there was no wind and no sun to speak of for weeks. How wilfully irresponsible is it of governments then to close reliable coal-fired much cheaper power production? As for ‘pollution free’ renewables, the embodied energy and materials, including the highly-polluting in their production rare earths…don’t try to tell me their energy is either ‘free’ or ‘clean’.

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            • #

              interesting quote from that article (which cites another study)

              Also, other factors such as
              remaining more time indoors in dwellings
              with poor ventilation and indoor pollution may prom
              ote the risk of acute respiratory
              infections.

              Accuweather has Karachi today with mild temperatures and smoke.

              12

      • #
        el gordo

        Gee from that link the idea of qualified nurses as foot doctors would be a good start, feed the people and penalised those families who don’t immunise. The death rate should plummet.

        ‘Dr Mehnaz said that most of the children, especially in Sindh, are malnourished. “To treat malnourished children is a challenge for doctors,” she added. She said that despite the pneumonia vaccine’s availability in the Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) for free, 46 per cent of the child population in Pakistan still remains non-immunised, leading to child mortality.”

        The Express Tribune

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    • #
      Dave

      Geeaye

      “What is the link between cold and pneumonia?”

      My thoughts:

      In Papua New Guinea Highlands, many suffer from pneumonia, during periods of cold weather. (to us it is mild at 12 degrees C) but outcomes are bad due to remoteness of the area.

      Cold or freezing conditions puts a high amount of stress on your body (including muscle tension, cortisol release and others) this will decrease the efficiency of your immune system and it may allow bacteria to colonize, your immune system may underreact, then overreact (inefficiently) to the pneumococcal bacteria in your lungs. You can therefore get pneumonia and lots of other illness from getting chilled.

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  • #
    PeterS

    The picture at the top right of this page looks like it’s showing a purple dragon with a green eye is about to pounce on Europe!

    50

  • #
    pat

    17 Jan: Toronto Sun: Lorne Gunter: If Trudeau cares about Canadians, he’ll drop his carbon tax
    How in heaven’s name did Kathy Katula become the bad guy?
    On Friday, at a town hall in Peterborough, Ont., Katula confronted Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the cost of carbon taxes and other “green” schemes…
    In response, Prime Minister Selfie felt her pain, passed the buck and gave her a big hug…
    But now Katula – not Trudeau – has become the target of an online hate campaign. The gentlest attacks insist Katula must be lying about her power bills. The next level accuse her of engaging in criminal fraud, perhaps while being paid by opposition politicians intent on embarrassing Trudeau or Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne…

    Where do environmentalists and Trudeau supporters get off harassing this poor woman for having the courage to stand up and tell our eco-addled PM about the real-world consequences of the Liberals’ – provincial and federal – mad rush to “green” energy?
    Oh, right, I forgot. Environmentalism is the new secure religion and Justin Trudeau is its young pope. Anyone, like Katula, who suggests this fashionable new faith is harmful in any way, is going to be attacked as a heretic, an infidel, a climate-change denier…

    Over the past 15 years, Ontario Liberal alternate energy policies have cost taxpayers more than $40 billion. They have raised the cost of electricity by well over double. That has not only put consumers like Katula into energy poverty, it has cost the province tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs…
    The Ontario government claims that shutting coal-fired power plants significantly improved air quality in that province. But a new study released Tuesday by the Fraser Institute claims the same benefits could have been achieved much more cheaply by installing clean-coal technology and leaving plants open. And that would have kept electricity prices low and saved manufacturing jobs…ETC
    http://www.torontosun.com/2017/01/17/if-trudeau-cares-about-canadians-hell-drop-his-carbon-tax

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    Mark M

    Shutdown of coal plants raised electricity rates, failed to reduce pollution: Report
    “Ontario’s hell-bent determination to phase out coal-fired generation raised electricity rates without significantly improving air pollution levels, a new Fraser Institute report says.
    Ontario closed its last coal plant in 2014, and made it illegal to open any more.”
    http://www.torontosun.com/2017/01/17/shutdown-of-coal-plants-raised-electricity-rates-failed-to-reduce-pollution-report?token=9325faa3ac549598fd3dd286fe2fdbd7
    . . .
    It also failed to prevent the climate from changing.

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    toorightmate

    How dumb am I?
    It is January.
    It is cold in the Northern hemisphere and hot in the Southern hemisphere.
    I am even dumb enough to say that in July the positions will be reversed.

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      Annie

      Hello toorightmate. Two mornings ago here in Victoria the temperature was 6C at 0630! Mid January, southern hemisphere.
      In 2012, late July, had picnic for family with plan to encamp by the Water Splash near Langthwaite on’t t’moors. It was far too cold. Late July, northern hemisphere! Confused?! Rather than dumb! 😉

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    pat

    17 Jan: Accuweather: Storms to pummel California with flooding rain, snowy mountain travel
    by Alex Sosnowsky
    “Thus far this season, Mammoth Mountain ski area in California, has received 248.5 inches of snow with 144.5 inches falling this month, as of Jan. 16, at the main lodge,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Ken Clark.
    Records at the resort date back to the 1969-70 season.
    “The resort is likely to achieve its snowiest January on record, snowiest month on record and could end up with seasonal snowfall that ranks very high on the all-time list,” Clark said.
    The records are 182 inches (January), 209 inches (any month) and 668 inches (season)…
    http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/storms-to-pummel-california-with-flooding-rain-snowy-mountain-travel/70000574

    can’t copy the following:

    16 Jan: Missoulian: Peter Friesen: Missoula winter breaking cold, snowfall records
    Missoula is in the middle of its coldest winter in almost 40 years, as well as its snowiest winter ever so far…
    http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-winter-breaking-cold-snowfall-records/article_78090974-afff-5d87-a514-13967fbfb55d.html

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    pat

    financialising carbon dioxide emissions has its benefits:

    16 Jan: UK Sun: COLD CALLER CON Glamorous party girl conned pensioners out of £2m to fund her luxury lifestyle of the best restaurants and trips to the races
    A PARTY girl conned more than £2million from vulnerable pensioners while working for a firm of barristers.
    Prya Boodhoo masterminded a scam to swindle the pensioners out of their life savings – right under the noses of top lawyers…
    The 31-year-old set up an “environmentally-friendly” firm and used boiler-room tactics to sell fraudulent ***carbon credit shares…

    They say around 147 victims bought the Certified Emission Reduction carbon credits from her company, Greentrade, as an investment hoping to turn a profit.
    The majority of victims were pensioners who would send cheques and payments to a maildrop facility which were then banked by the firm…

    Those who are targeted are usually vulnerable or have a history of share investment, particularly in privatised utilities in the 1980s and 90s.
    Most of the victims are pensioners with police confirming that some killed themselves because of the financial problems they got into…
    One of the victims, a woman in her late 70s, lost her life savings after she invested £23,000 in carbon credits…
    But although Boodhoo was caught red-handed she may never face criminal charges because the trail of deception may involve several foreign countries and would be too costly to investigate…
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2627289/glamorous-party-girl-conned-pensioners-out-of-2m-to-fund-her-luxury-lifestyle-of-the-best-restaurants-and-trips-to-the-races/

    17 Jan: CarbonPulse: Two more suspects nabbed by authorities in EU ETS tax fraud probe
    Two more suspects have been arrested by European authorities in an ongoing probe into tax fraud committed through the EU ETS…(subscription reqd)

    earlier arrest:

    PICS: 16 Jan: UK Mirror: Nick Sommerlad: Major Tory donor arrested over alleged £100million VAT scam – and faces extradition to Germany
    Peter Singh Virdee was held at Heathrow and prosecutors allege he was one of the “central organisers” of a criminal plot to defraud authorities of VAT.
    He faces up to 15 years in jail for alleged fraud and evasion of 125 million euros – £109million – in VAT, if found guilty…

    German prosecutors allege Virdee was one of the “central organisers” of a criminal plot to defraud authorities of VAT on ***carbon credits under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
    Carbon credits are tradeable permits for nations or firms to produce a certain amount of emissions.
    The Sikh tycoon worked “in the background” and took pains to conceal his identity, prosecutors claim…
    Virdee, a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, denies the allegations…

    Virdee’s website details his charity work and features a series of photos of him meeting the Queen and Prince Philip, athlete Usain Bolt, singer Rihanna and actors Al Pacino and Mickey Rourke…
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/major-tory-donor-arrested-over-9629627

    16 Jan: DailyHeraldCaribbean: Investor in Antigua and Barbuda accused of tax fraud in Germany
    The 43-year-old businessman was named as one of the investors in the US $450 million Gravenor Bay project in Antigua and Barbuda which includes two five-star hotels, golf course, marina, polo friend, villas, commercial units and residential apartments. His clean energy company, PV Energy, had also signed a contract with the Government of the twin-island nation to develop and install two solar plants and solar panel roof installations on more than 50 schools and public buildings…
    He is accused of operating a so-called “VAT carousel” scheme on EU carbon credits…

    Hetherington at least usully puts “carbon credits” in his headlines:

    8 Jan: ThisIsMoneyUK: Tony Hetherington: One of Britain’s biggest carbon cheats is banned – and now Israel starts to crack down on binary options firms
    Gavin Manerowski, 36, of Redhill, Surrey, was a director of MH Carbon Limited, which under his management raked in at least £14.3million from investors who were told their certificates – allowing industries to emit carbon into the atmosphere – would increase in value and could be sold at a profit.
    Insolvency Service investigators found no secondary market existed and that Manerowski knew, or ought to have known, that investors would be unable to turn their carbon credits back into cash at any price…

    Accurate records were not kept by the company, which went into liquidation with no assets, but the investigation found that while Manerowski was in charge, MH Carbon could have notched up profits of up to £6.5million.
    I warned twice in 2013 that the company was a rip-off and that Manerowski previously worked for disreputable stockbroker Wills & Co…
    Though the Insolvency Service found Manerowski responsible for misrepresenting the value of carbon credits, no further proceedings have been brought against him and it appears he will be allowed to keep the profits he made through MH Carbon…
    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-4097554/TONY-HETHERINGTON-One-Britain-s-biggest-carbon-cheat-banned-Israel-starts-crack-binary-options-firms.html

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    Bulldust

    O/Topic – good to see Deutsche Bank copping one betwixt the eyes for their dealings running into the GFC:

    http://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/deutsche-bank-completes-us72b-us-settlement-for-its-role-in-provoking-the-gfc-20170117-gttegt.html

    They are up for a US$7.2 billion settlement. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bank…

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  • #

    Look at this link for the current Grid Status in the UK.

    Firstly note the time there at the bottom, and it’s currently 1AM, while here in Oz, it’s now just gone 11AM, so that’s GMT for the UK, and that will change as you access that site at any time from now on, because it’s a real time Update.

    Note that the current supply from Wind power is just on 5.25%. That may seem a little high, because now note the total Demand which is 34.34GW.

    However, and here the time comes into play, as that Demand is the low point for the day, as average daily Maximum Demand is up around 50GW, as seen by the smaller graph at top left under those dials.

    I regularly go to this site, and Wind is regularly averaging only around 1.5% and lower during daytime when Demand rises, and you can see that (well just, sort of) at the second (the top one) graph from the left, where Wind power barely tolls along the bottom at just a tick above zero, the blue line there.

    Something like this set of graphs is a good tool, and shows that when real power is required, there is nothing like the regularity of coal, nuclear, and CCGT. (Combined Cycle Gas Turbine)

    Note that if the bulk of power comes from CCGT, and with the gas price high, then it stands to reason why electrical power costs are high.

    Tony.

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    pat

    it’s not really closing til april and, even then, there may be a remnant – see second link *** – but thank you, Peter Schweizer nonetheless:

    AUDIO: 10mins48secs: 17 Jan: Breitbart: Peter Schweizer: Clinton Global Initiative Folded Because They Can No Longer ‘Sell Access to Political Power’
    Clinton Cash author and Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday’s Breitbart News Daily for what Marlow described as a “victory lap” over the demise of the Clinton Global Initiative, whose questionable activities featured so prominently in Schweizer’s book. …
    http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2017/01/17/peter-schweizer-clinton-global-initiative-folded-can-no-longer-sell-access-political-power/

    19 Sept 2016: Bloomberg: Clinton Global Initiative Ends With Some of Shine Worn Off
    by Margaret Talev and Bill Allison
    When the Clinton Global Initiative opens Monday for its 12th and final annual meeting, it’ll be a little less global, lighter on initiative and absent one Clinton.
    The event in New York, for years considered a prime forum for movie stars, captains of industry and global leaders to put their good names to good works, is ending its run with a formidable list of accomplishments but burdened by the political complications of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for president and the attendant scrutiny of the family’s ties to wealthy interests.
    Some well-known supporters of CGI, notably President Barack Obama, are missing from the guest list for this year’s meeting, when the door will close on an institution that’s won praise for reshaping philanthropy but also drawn derision for an atmosphere of pay-for-access…

    Some of the biggest corporate sponsors of years past are sitting out the finale: Exxon Mobil Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG already skipped last year, too. Other longtime sponsors Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Barclays PLC, and Blackstone Group LP are taking a pass as well. CGI will also be missing some of its main draws. Like Obama, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, will instead be at the United Nations General Assembly opening…
    Glamour was always a part of the CGI. In 2013, Bill Clinton was running late for a panel with the International Monetary Fund’s Christine LaGarde, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Bono, when the U2 frontman grabbed the microphone and performed a spot-on impersonation of the former president, complete with accent and mannerisms…

    ***Bill Clinton said he intends to continue a smaller, CGI university program that can be maintained with support from independent foundations and individuals…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-09-19/clinton-global-initiative-ends-run-with-some-of-shine-worn-off

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    pat

    17 Jan: Youtube: 10mins46secs: ProjectVeritas: Part II: NEW Investigation Uncovers Plot to Chain the Trains & Shut Down DC During Inauguration
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIjbkYLI1nY

    thank you, James O’Keefe/Project Veritas:

    17 Jan: US News & World Report: Steven Nelson: Anti-Trump DisruptJ20 Activists Scale Back Inauguration Blockade Plans
    Just one bridge is going to be shut down, a leader now says.
    An activist coalition has dramatically scaled back plans to block the flow of traffic into the nation’s capital on Friday, a key organizer says following the release of undercover videos produced by a conservative group.
    Legba Carrefour, an organizer of the activist network DisruptJ20 shown discussing bridge and train blockades in footage recorded by Project Veritas on Tuesday, says “the amount of chaos is being intentionally overstated” by his group.

    “By virtue of us making those claims, it whips people up into the kind of panic that accidentally ends up causing the chaos we want. You can say ‘all of Metro is being blockaded’ and people will stay home,” the local anarchist says.
    Carrefour, who has for weeks shared with reporters grandiose visions of a traffic-blocking “clusterf–k,” tells U.S. News the current plan is to block just one bridge on Friday morning.
    He asked that the particular roadway not be identified…

    And he says he isn’t concerned about the release of videos featuring his plans.
    “They have nothing on me that I would not feel comfortable talking about in front of the police. Don’t care,” he says.
    http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-01-17/anti-trump-disruptj20-activists-scale-back-inauguration-blockade-plans

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    Amber

    Intuitively most people I talk to know global warming is at best an exaggeration
    but it doesn’t take long for some of them to express their concern that there are just
    too many people in the world . Fuel poverty deaths claim the lives of 10’s of thousands per year.
    A fairly clever population control measure some might conclude . You know a “civilized ”
    yet highly efficient population control measure weeding out the poorest and weakest fully supported and sanctioned by government leaders .

    We live in a funny world where the old and weak are disposables and the anarchists rights
    are protected as they incite violence and the affront to other peoples rights .
    The Inauguration is just one example .

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    Amber

    Mark M right you are. Ontario Liberals have absolutely screwed up the
    economic engine of the once great province .
    People get what they vote for and in Ontario they like big fat government
    that hates the private sector . In fairness some responsibility rests
    with business “leaders ” who have been neutered puppies .

    What happens now that Prime Minister Photo OP Trudeau is going to shove a carbon tax
    down everyone’s throat . Business “leaders ” suck up and a few get a piece of the action .
    All from a part time drama teacher who claims budgets balance themselves .
    Genius pure Genius . Take Canada Over USA or perhaps not… Rosie O’Donnell has threated to move there .

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    Mark M

    97% Permanent drought update:

    Alien-looking shrimp of the desert appear in Central Australia after flooding rains

    Growing to seven centimetres at maturity, the shrimps are members of the crustacean family yet look more like an alien tadpole with a double-pronged tail.

    A remnant of prehistoric times, on mainland Australia there is only one type of shield shrimp (triops australiensis) and it is commonly found across the middle section of the country.

    “These are eggs that can dry out and get blown by the wind. They deal with all the kinds of extreme temperatures that inland Australia gets, including high temperatures and low temperatures at night in wintertime.

    “This gives them an opportunity to survive with the infrequent rains.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-13/shield-shrimps-in-central-australia-heavy-rains/8176744

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    el gordo

    “[Friday night] was actually the warmest January night the city has ever recorded, and records for the city station go back to 1858 so there’s quite a while of records there,” BOM duty forecaster Rebecca Kamitakahara said.

    ABC News

    Wait a minute, if I can’t point to 1879 as a global cooling tipping point, how can the Klimatariat cherrypick 1858 as a very hot night in Sydney?

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      el gordo

      Correction: It wasn’t a hot night in 1858, I blame the heat for my lapsed thinking, but as you are all aware Observatory Hill suffers from UHI so any suggestion it was the hottest January night ever recorded is only malicious gossip.

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    pat

    17 Jan: Gateway Pundit: Jim Hoft: Breaking: #DisruptJ20 Far Left Terror Group’s Twitter Account Hacked – Documents Posted Online
    On Monday night DeploraBall organizer Mike Cernovich announced the FBI had been contacted and charges will be filed (LINK) against DisruptJ20 on Tuesday…

    And things just got worse for the violent leftist group–
    Hacker group MidnightRide20 broke into the #DisruptJ20 twitter account and started posting its documents online.
    The information includes chants to use at Inauguration disruptions…

    The far left groups vow to STOP TRUMP before he is inaugurated.
    That sounds like a threat?…
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/01/breaking-disruptj20-far-left-terror-groups-twitter-account-hacked-documents-posted-online/

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    Leo Morgan

    Those poor pensioners don’t have to worry. Obama has just given away a billion dollars to make sure winters don’t get warmer by an imperceptible amount. Oh wait. They do have to worry.

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