Trump to sack climate change scientists and slash EPA: Unskeptical scientists are terrified

No elected representative has done more to speed climate research up:

Donald Trump to sack climate change scientists

Myron Ebell, who led Mr Trump’s transition team at the agency, said that he expects the new President to sack at least half of the staff there. He also hopes that the organisation will have its budget cut significantly, he said.

Trump will save the state based EPA roles, but chop the federal monster which has 15,000 employees:

Ebell suggested it was reasonable to expect the president to seek a cut of about $1 billion from the EPA’s roughly $8 billion annual budget.

About half the EPA’s budget passes through to state and local governments for infrastructure projects and environmental cleanup efforts that Ebell said Trump supports.

We live in hope:

“President Trump said during the campaign that he would like to abolish the EPA, or ‘leave a little bit,”‘ Ebell said.

Not surprisingly, climate scientists are reacting with their usual calm demeanor:

GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS AT U.S. CLIMATE CONFERENCE TERRIFIED TO SPEAK WITH THE PRESS

The mood was understandably gloomy at the National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy, and the Environment.

“It’s strange,” the woman said. “People keep walking up to me and giving me hugs.” Like several others I spoke to for this story, she declined to tell me her name out of fear that she might suffer retaliation, including being fired.

Imagine not being able to speak freely? Welcome to the world of skeptical scientists.

On the other half of the divide people aren’t just afraid of being sacked, they get exiledsacked, evicted, blackballed,   terminated, punished, vilified and general bullied.

I’m thinking right now of a friend at an Australian University who I can’t name, who isn’t even in the field of climate research but was specifically warned not to speak publicly about climate issues, even in his personal time, “or else”.  We’ve had messages from people in Australian and US institutions which study the climate or meteorology and who tell us there are other quiet skeptics “in the office”. And there is at least one other story of what sounds like quite appalling treatment that I have yet to cover.

The thing about being a skeptic is that, it’s not just scientists, but all kinds of people who can face punishment — even skeptical farmers can get suddenly slapped with severe new license conditions, and bled cash til they lose their farm.

 

9.4 out of 10 based on 168 ratings

181 comments to Trump to sack climate change scientists and slash EPA: Unskeptical scientists are terrified

  • #
    RAH

    If your aren’t skeptical then your no scientist.

    From one of the earliest progenitors of the modern Scientific method:
    “The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration and not the sayings of human beings whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of of its content, attack it from every side. he should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.”
    ― Ibn al-Haytham

    The extraconstitutional monster they call the EPA is in for a severe cut back under the Trump administration but it will take laws to make keep that agency from being abused again in the future as a vehicle to promote social and economic change far beyond it’s originally intended purview. Jo, this is one example of why in a previous thread I was saying the fight to stop the climate change agenda would be a longer and harder one than many think.

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    • #
      Spetzer86

      And every change will be fought by the remaining personnel in a gorilla warfare mode if not openly. We’ll be hearing more stories of impending climate doom caused, no doubt, by the reduced work force of the poor, downtrodden EPA. Just wait until the Senators from states with major climate universities get hit with stories of lost students and reduced grant monies. Gonna be a bumpy ride.

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    • #
      Clive Popham

      Does the red thumb here mean the reader disagrees that ‘fight to stop the climate change agenda would be a longer and harder one than many think.
      People should read the content and stop red thumbing as a matter of habit.

      3117

    • #
      turnedounice

      I agree. However, what makes matters much worse is that IPCC science [[snip] problem] is easily detected by any professional taught basic radiative physics.

      The ‘Clear Sky Atmospheric Greenhouse Factor’, 40% extra energy than reality, pushed by Ramanathan is based on assuming that OLR (-18 deg C)/mean surface exitance (+15 deg C) is Earth’s radiant emissivity. This is wrong because emissivity must be calculated for the same emission temperature and geometry.

      From 1964 this led to the use of an imaginary negative heat flow in the atmosphere, admitted by Hansen in 2000, eventually mutating into the Kirchhoff’s Law of Radiation approach by the UKMO. However, that is based on incorrect cloud aerosol physics and is now, apparently, being quietly dumped to prevent the Public from knowing the truth about how taxation has been used to fund science [snip].

      This follows the retirement of Juliet Slingo whose late husband programmed that [[snip] problem].

      [If you avoid the word I snipped and replaced with a better alternative you have a much better chance of not ending up in moderation.] AZ

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Most Bogans out there, will think that radiative physics explains how a car engine is cooled.

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      • #

        turnedounice January 28, 2017 at 8:40 pm

        “I agree. However, what makes matters much worse is that IPCC science problem is easily detected by any professional taught basic radiative physics.”

        Yes indeed! but just who is taught “basic radiative physics”?? Certainly not meteorologists, climatologists, nor physicists. They are all taught the word ‘radiation’ is some sort of heat transfer involving ‘photons’ that are fired off in all directions. Read any ‘modern’ heat transfer textbook! EMR flux is never ‘heat’ as ‘heat’ requires ‘mass’ and EMR never requires mass or temperature! Radiatively, ‘minimum surface temperature’ is but proportional to the fourth root of broad-band ‘radiance’, a measure of ‘electromagnetic field strength’, never flux!
        All the best! -will-

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    • #

      The true scientist does not make him/her self an “enemy” of all that he reads. He simply does not BELIEVE, nor DISBELIEVE, what he cannot yet prove, or disprove, to himself. The key is seeking out, focusing on, verifying and communicating to the world, the specific evidence that proves or disproves an hypothesis, or even a widely-believed, long-held theory. That is what makes a competent scientist.

      Only cultists talk of “enemies” in the context of science, the strictly dispassionate human endeavor. That goes for [[snip] anyone] that always project their fear outward in one or another form of false [snip] war.

      [Harry, We cannot deal with certain subjects because of 18C. I had two options: I could reject this comment or I could make a change that I think preserves your meaning. I think what you had to say is legitimate and important so I chose the latter option. Please be aware of this in the future.] AZ

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  • #
    Tom O

    The worst part about what is happening is that the only “edict” that I am aware of is that “climate change” is something you are not supposed to talk about, not the environment or environmental concerns. The intent was to get politics out of policy.

    The reaction of the weepy eyed set is that suddenly they are afraid to do or say anything – like climate change is the ONLY thing they did. What I am seeing, in my own mind, is intentional obstructionism attempting to masquerade as “afraid to say anything.”

    Everyone old enough to work for the US government knows damn well that promoting the national parks, as an example, or participating in an agricultural pest control project is not being attacked by the administration, nor is doing legitimate EPA research and work. But the whiners are intentionally requiring every step to be explained, so as to give the new administration as bad an appearance as possible.

    I can only hope those that are “gaming the system” to support climate alarmism find a way to put their heads in the nooses they think are there, and get removed from their jobs since their politics are more important than either their job or factual, actual department and administration policy.

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  • #

    I hope a purge at GISS is next. For an ostensible scientific organization, it has a lot of people who don’t believe in the scientific method.

    778

    • #
      Robber

      Three red thumbs, is that a record? Red thumbers, why not express your views here? You can speak freely here, unlike many government institutions and universities that have been controlled by the thought police.

      4311

      • #
        ExWarmist

        They are too frightened to speak.

        (frightened of reason, evidence, logic, and humiliation).

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        • #

          Even the ‘esteemed’ scientists in the cabal are either afraid, unable and/or unwilling to support their position and I’ve tried to get many to do so. It’s amazing how stupid supposedly intelligent people get when confronted with evidence that falsifies everything they believe in.

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          • #
            James Bradley

            The usual crowd of global warming believers was in full swing here before the results of the presidential election. I think the prospect of free and open debate questioning the fact that they rely on a theory that was never proven by experiment or data since Arrhenius proposed CO2 causes global warming.

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            • #
              Oliver K. Manuel

              The refusal of mainstream scientists to respond publicly to clearly identified errors, like the logical error in Weizsacker’s definition of “nuclear binding energy,” means they know their “consensus science” propaganda is false.

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          • #
            Allen Ford

            Thank God for Richard Lintzen!

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            • #
              Oliver K. Manuel

              Yes, MIT Professor Richard S. Lindzen and Princeton Professor William Happer have demonstrated intellectual integrity.

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          • #
            ExWarmist

            Well it took me 6 months to go from believer to skeptic back in 2008.

            I don’t expect anyone to change on a dime.

            My biggest barrier was my intellectual hubris. I couldn’t believe that I had been duped so completely. I was quite annoyed both with myself, and the perpetrators/enablers, once I realised that the Man Made Global Warming movement wasn’t actually science.

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            • #
              Greg Cavanagh

              It took me about 3 hours.

              I opened up every web page I could find, about 5, and read them.

              First I read RealClimate. I took note that the questions were reasonable, and I wanted to hear the answers too, but the vitriol response shocked me.

              Then I read Climate Audit, very technical and thorough. I also noted that the questions were answered with thought and civility.

              I can’t remember which one the next was, but they spent many pages arguing about a unity value.

              And I discovered Watts Up With That. Again the in depth studies were good, the answers to the questions were good and well considered.

              I went back to RealClimate and read some more articles. I was then convinced which side was correct; the sceptics and critics, not the Global Warming enthusiasts.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Did I mention I once dd some work for Climate Action Newcastle..

                Even was part a human sign on the beach (oh the embarrassment when I look back at that) ( NO, not the head in the sand, push-bike parking, one 😉 )

                Then I started thinking, and realised that there really is just no way that CO2 can ever cause warming in a convective, pressure-gradient controlled atmosphere.

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              • #
                graphicconception

                … but the vitriol response shocked me.

                Me too.

                I had heard about AGW but had taken no interest in the subject. Then I found myself with a spare day and a computer so I decided to find out about it. I soon discovered that not everything was as clear cut as some were suggesting.

                I also noticed the same thing about Real Climate and other supporters of the consensus. If the science really was all settled and they knew all the answers then why did they not just answer the questions politely with authority? I quickly came to the conclusion that they did not have the answers but thought if they shouted loud enough they would be believed.

                Eventually, I ended up on the UK Royal Society’s site. There were statements from some RS members. Several obviously supported the AGW meme but one clearly did not but you had to read between the lines to spot it. He said all the right words but would not fully commit. It was as if he had been told to make encouraging sounds, or else.

                I never looked back after that.

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              • #
                beowulf

                I’ve been a climate heretic since 1990 when I was lucky enough to stumble across the late John Daly’s excellent little book “The Greenhouse Trap” while the scam was still in its infancy. Unlike many here I didn’t come from a background heavy with science and the belief in the inherent righteousness of anyone with letters after their name, so that was one barrier I didn’t have to overcome. Daly had no scientific credentials, but he did have the knowledge. Those were pre-internet days so access to information was extremely limited. His book was a revelation.

                Whilst our understanding of a lot of issues surrounding global warming has moved on a step since 1990,the basics remain the same. Things like the dirty politics of global warming, which even at that stage was getting up a head of steam, or the fact that CO2 increased AFTER temperature increased, or the limited marginal ability of CO2 to absorb any more IR in the crucial bandwidths. Daly covered them all plus much more.

                His prophetic statement that “CO2 is a fertilizer, not a pollutant” sounds like something written last year, not in 1989. He also bemoaned the fact that the CSIRO had been given $7.8 million to prove the greenhouse effect, thus tying its financial future to the scam.

                How lucky we would be if the CSIRO had only ever been given $7.8 million to waste on global warming.

                To paraphrase Winny: never in the field of human endeavour have so many, been so conned, for so long, by so few.

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            • #
              GD

              Well it took me 6 months to go from believer to skeptic back in 2008

              I remember the Labor Party ads decrying Howard’s stance on ‘global warming’. Even though I was a rusted-on Liberal voter, I thought that Howard was behind the times. After all, it did get hotter around 1998, perhaps Howard was wrong. I still voted Liberal but wasn’t surprised when Rudd won. However, various blog sites I was reading led me to Jo Nova’s and Anthony Watts’ blogs. From there it became obvious that there were chinks in the AGW armour.

              Unfortunately, the scam has now been going on for so long that there is a generation of students brainwashed to believe it and an MSM consuming public who have heard nothing but the dire warnings of how the sea levels are rising, and the planet is frying. They believe that the only way to stop it is with a carbon tax or an emissions scheme.

              While Trump is making inroads on the damage done by these charlatans it will be some time before the populace gets the message.

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            • #
              Rereke Whakaaro

              It took me about the same period of time for me to decide that I was sceptical about the whole thing.

              But then I got sceptical regarding the speed of my transition. Had I given it sufficient thought? I had done no research for myself, so could I trust what I was reading? Was I reading the right material? Had I gone out of my way to read opinion from both sides of the argument? So I started frequenting (well lurking really) blogs like this one, and on blogs like Sceptical Science (which wasn’t sceptical at all), and that was how I made my mind up.

              It appears that I have an allergy regarding blog sites that push an agenda, but don’t have fun, in the process.

              Learning point: If people are obviously enjoying what they are doing, without compulsion, then they are probably doing the right thing.

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              • #
                ExWarmist

                How can anyone make an informed choice without compulsion.

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              • #

                ExWarmist January 29, 2017 at 6:18 am

                “How can anyone make an informed choice without compulsion?”

                Have compulsion to ‘learn’. Learn from those willing to explain on your terms. Most importantly, do not make a choice until you have to!

                30

              • #
                ExWarmist

                I’m looking at the sentence I wrote above and I realise that I have completely stuffed it up.

                What I was trying to say was, “How can anyone make an informed choice when compelled to make a particular choice.”

                (Which is about the opposite of what I said at 3.1.1.1.1)

                (And now the original statement will live on the internet forever. The infamy! This rancid albatross will hang about my neck for aeons… (goes off and sulks in the corner.))

                20

        • #
          AndyG55

          I would LOVE my red thumbs to make a comment….

          Always pleased to “discuss” if they can take a bit of heat.

          But alas, they remain perpetually silent.. 🙁

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          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            Better to get a red thumb, than two fingers.

            Philosophical thought for the day.

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            • #

              Lol I love ‘thought fer today.’
              a serf in the turnip field.

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            • #
              scaper...

              My thought for the day.

              Opinions are like bottoms, some smell worse than others.

              50

            • #
              Ted O'Brien.

              I do very much like the red thumb facility, many thanks to Jo and her crew for having the foresight to include it. Such a facility would greatly improve many other blogs. Curiously, it doesn’t get much serious use here.

              Meanwhile, I didn’t need half an hour, I saw the b******s coming when they hijacked the management of the CSIRO in 1986. I didn’t know then that AGW would be the carrier, but I had a fair idea that I, as a small business capitalist, would be part of their target.

              Through the 1990s it looked to me that there was cause for concern. But for me it was a story by Michael Duffy, who no longer writes for the Sydney Morning Herald, telling David Evans’s story, which turned the tide. About the same time Bob Carter sealed the deal, pointing out that the scientific method had been astroturfing aside. (Now I won’t change that. My bleeping predictive text has turned the four letter word ‘cast” into a 12 letter word of dubious quality. Cast aside it should be. One day I’ll have to find and read the instruction manual and turn it off.)

              Many people have put in wonderful work, but according to my observations, David Evans was primary whistleblower for the world.

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          • #
            sophocles

            I sometimes wonder if some haven’t had a good day until they’ve dropped in at Jo’s website and red-thumbed everything in sight. “That’ll larn ’em!”

            That “Certifiable Klimate Leader” hasn’t been back. Oops, or was that “Certified?”

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          • #
            ExWarmist

            Especially, given where those two fingers might get inserted.

            10

      • #
        Raven

        . . why not express your views here? You can speak freely here . .

        Yes, only a handful post, unfortunately.

        Over at SkS you’ll be moderated for uttering any view that is deemed to have been debunked. I was flabbergasted at that muddled and obviously circular reasoning.
        I reckon that’s how they lead themselves into their notion of ‘Climate Myths’.

        Of course, over at The Conversation, the last thing they want is a conversation.

        It’s the rarefied atmosphere of climate discussion where the concentration of a trace gas is only matched by their trace of logic.

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        • #
          Greg Cavanagh

          And unbelievably, The Conversation is even worse.

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          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            “A conversation requires a two-way exchange of information”.

            That was my one and only comment on the conversation, but it was sufficient to get me banned (although not as Rereke – ‘cos they don’t do effnik).

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      • #
        tom0mason

        Red-thumbers have been told —

        “No matter if the science of global warming is all phony – climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”

        Christine Stewart (former Canadian Minister of the Environment).

        Green ‘justice’ constructed with lies.
        Another quote to make it clear…

        “We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.”

        Timothy Wirth (President, UN Foundation).

        Yes sir, as the red-thumbers know
        “The ends justifies the means!”

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      • #
        Robber

        Wow!! 7 red thumbs for supporting free speech – says it all really.

        125

      • #
        neil

        Hilarious, five years ago when the climate change army called to arms on social media to distort an opinion poll here or on Bolt or the ABC they would get thousands of recruits faking the results.

        Now they get twenty.

        100

      • #
        Oliver

        Oops my bad . Didnt mean to red thumb you. Damn fingers

        10

  • #
    Gymmie

    so poor Algorebull’s movie is all for naut. I guess Trump being a Hollywood type seen a fake for what it was.

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    • #
      bobl

      Goebels = GoreBulls ??? Hmm is there anything in it …. Nah!

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    • #
      Mark M

      The Global Warming Fears of Sundance 2017

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ARZYpJgDs

      * Warning: Clear the area before viewing, chuckling attack imminent.

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      • #
        Rick Will

        The depth of knowledge and comprehensive of climate data so clearly displayed.

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      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        My God, I regret watching that.

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      • #
        sophocles

        Aw, Gee Shucks. The poly Bears “don’t have a habitat” and without land, nothing can have sex

        Bacteria don’t need that little evolutionary trait … and the poly bears seem to be doing all right too, with their population growing from an estimated 5,000 or so in the 1960s to over 20,000 now. Must have found ways to do it.

        What a load of … um, no I won’t go there.

        I thought people had intelligence. Well, there goes that concept.

        10

  • #
    PhilJourdan

    While I doubt it is in her plans, I would love to see a column by Dr. Judith Curry about “suppression” in climate science. I do not want to see any suppression, but the fact is all the suppression has been done to the skeptics.

    Perhaps with the money gone, the bullies like Mann and Schmidt will no longer be able to wreck careers because the person is not some mindless sycophant.

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    • #
      Rud Istvan

      See her new amicus brief to CEI/NR v. Mann. Easiest access is via cliscep.com. Pages 6 and 7.

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    • #
      RAH

      You know I don’t believe it should all just be about stopping the human caused climate change mafia. It should also about funding honest climate research with a view towards better understanding the natural cycles and how the climate really works. Increasing THAT knowledge will almost certainly make it harder to scam the people again.

      513

      • #

        It should also be about compelling warmist scientists to defend their absurdly high climate sensitivity with the laws of physics. This is something I’ve asked many to do to no avail. The ALWAYS ignore the question and reply with something like, “It must be high to explain the data”, although the data is more easily explained by natural variability, dubious adjustments, bogus homogenization and cherry picking, where the last three increase the margin of error, rather than decrease it as they try to claim.

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        • #
          Hivemind

          They don’t need it to be high to explain the data. The data shows no warming for ~20 years. They need it to be high to justify their extreme predictions, on which much grant money is attached.

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      • #
        Bob Cormack

        While continuing (re-starting?) real climate research is a good idea, the current crop of climate scientists propagandists won’t be able to switch to this, as they would have zero credibility.

        In fact, they may be unemployable, except in leftist think tanks, as their demonstrated willingness to severely damage society simply to enhance their sense of importance should give any ethical organization pause.

        (And, this is not to mention their probable lack of any marketable skills — I remember Phil Jones having to ask for help using a spreadsheet in the Climategate emails.)

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  • #

    Let us hope that the US President’s actions are taken to the fullest extent and will finally reveal to all and sundry what a despicable industry this has become.

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  • #
    Ross

    Very interesting thread on Real Science (Tony Heller). In the USA there is a False Claims Act which in effect gives incentives to whistleblowers

    https://realclimatescience.com/2016/09/climate-fraud-whistleblower-rewards-program/#more-14451

    With President Trump taking aim, it could help open the “can of worms”.

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    We have to remember even after all those years of media scares, climate dogmas rife through institutions, the public still has a majority of sceptics where CAGW is concerned, now they have a champion to challenge those few powerful enough to influence public policies that has unwantedly impacted their lives.

    Its been a while since the people had hope in a leader that can deliver their wishes as voted for and promised so don’t be surprised when President Trump is embraced like a demigod as he continues to be true to his word, the left know they are outnumbered so when the majority start feeling positive about restoring national pride it scares the hell out of them.

    They see the reductions in the CAGW departments akin to destroying the temples and smashing idols, we see it as a relief on our finances.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    Those warmists being nasty and mean,
    To skeptics who wouldn’t turn green,
    Will be skeptical too,
    As the foot changes shoe,
    When the new broom in office sweeps clean.

    582

  • #
    Neville

    We all saw what happened to Lomborg here in OZ. The govt had provided funding but the left wing extremists and thugs stopped him anyway.
    Yet his PR Paris COP 21 study still stands against the stupidity of wasting trillions of dollars until 2100 with no measurable change to temp at all.
    If Trump can stop this madness he will save the taxpayers of the world trillions of dollars that would be flushed down the drain for a ZIP return.

    http://www.lomborg.com/press-release-research-reveals-negligible-impact-of-paris-climate-promises

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    • #
      el gordo

      I believe the US Administration should offer him a job, he would fit in very nicely.

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    • #
      King Geo

      When UWA rejected Bjorn Lomborg setting up his fully govt funded “Consensus Centre” at their campus some years back – that was the last straw for me – I have nothing to do with my “alter mater” anymore. And many share my disgust of that decision.

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  • #

    Payback’s a bitch.

    60

  • #

    Things are becoming increasingly surreal every day:

    German Paper Editor Says ‘Murder in the White House’ Way to End ‘Trump Catastrophe’

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/26/german-editor-murder-whitehouse-end-trump-catastrophe/

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    • #
      ianl8888

      I remember that also worked on a French satirical magazine a few years ago. So it should work for a newspaper, been road tested,

      Obviously a popular technique …

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  • #

    Things are becoming increasingly surreal every day:

    German Paper Editor Says ‘Murder in the White House’ Way to End ‘Trump Catastrophe’

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/26/german-editor-murder-whitehouse-end-trump-catastrophe/

    40

  • #
    Another Ian

    Read and marvel!

    “Larry Ledwick says:
    27 January 2017 at 5:43 pm

    Hmmm Mikey likes!”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/week-one-of-1-a-t/#comment-78350

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    • #
      Peter C

      Conressional Review Plan.

      I hope Trump has heard about it . I suppose he has and we might have a Republical Repeel the Rules Plan

      40

  • #
    Robert R

    Trump will save the state based EPA roles, but chop the federal monster which has 15,000 employees:

    The fact that there are 15,000 employees in this government department is staggering! Apart from all the sabotage of productive industry by these 15000, the fact that they have been paid huge salaries for not producing any goods or needed service for society is symptomatic of the cancer eating away at western democracies in the lat 8 years. Climate change is just one example. While private sector (productive) employment has declined in the last 8 years, government employee numbers have ballooned. That is why government debt, to pay their wages and the cost of their useless activities, has ballooned. Let’s hope the new president will end this obsession. In other countries like Australia, there will come a day of reckoning with ‘leftie’ leaning governments.This will be when they can’t borrow any more!
    Employment level stats should measure only jobs in the productive sector to provide a meaningful stat for any politician who claims to have reduced unemployment!

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    • #
      Robber

      In Australia, have a look at the bureaucracy associated with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) to administer the RET. Work is grouped into four broad functions: National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting, administration of the Renewable Energy Target, the Emissions Reduction Fund, and corporate services. Under CEO Chloe Munro there are 15 executive officers plus 4 board members.
      Buried in budget papers for the Department of Environment (DOE) one finds that the CER has 324 staff and a budget of $374 million.
      Within the DOE there is also the Australian Renewable Energy Agency that spends $190 million (with a staff of 2); the Clean Energy Finance Corporation with a budget of $195 million and 65 staff; and the Climate Change Authority with a budget of $3 million and 9 staff (50% lower than prior year).
      Within the DOE also resides the dearly beloved Bureau of Meteorology with a budget of $445 million and 1600 staff.

      Abolish the RET and not only save hundreds of millions of $$$ in administration costs but also save every electricity consumer $$$$. For example, to bail out Alcoa from shutting down their aluminium smelter, governments are providing $240 million in subsidies over the next 4 years.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      And it is obvious from the behaviour reported above that many are zealots for AGW, bent on “saving the planet” from nasty industry.
      No idea about the real world. No wonder there are crying – they know they won’t ever find a job as suited to their tastes. Particularly with the gap in salaries between those in private employment and the public service.

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    • #
      Tony Porter

      Robert,
      You’re right: This and this (and much more can be found from google), is the real agenda that the CAGW / climate change scam is actually about and is masking.

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  • #
    tom0mason

    “Imagine not being able to speak freely? Welcome to the world of skeptical scientists.

    On the other half of the divide people aren’t just afraid of being sacked, they get exiled, sacked, evicted, blackballed, terminated, punished, vilified and general bullied.”

    There are a number of other real world instances of this nasty behavior here —
    https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/climate-bullies-gone-wild-caught-on-tape-and-print/

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    Speedy

    Morning all.

    The trouble is that the climate change institutions have been eroding the very values that they now need to protect themselves. Such as open debate and tolerance for differing opinions.

    Cheers

    Speedy

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    So many “climate” scientists have forgotten that most wonderful maxim used by the British Royal Society “Take the word of no man”. Instead they have run with a grant-generating crowd using corrupted and altered data (all one way of course, making the past look cooler – odd, is that not, it’s never, ever, the other way round). I’m afraid they fully deserve what’s coming to them.

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    wilbert robichaud

    This my Home town in the Acadian peninsula after an ice storm this week. No power whatsoever for 177000 people and it could as long as a week before all is restored. This is what real Green energy looks like. These are the same people and family members who censured me every time I tried to debate AGW with them. As much as I am worry about them, I cannot help but wonder ,,,How do they like that Green Energy now? No Human or industrial emissions. . https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2444867875652342&set=pcb.2444868528985610&type=3&theater

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    Paul Bamford

    Trump should first expose the massive abuse of data by GISS and NOAA and then start firing those responsible, from the top on down.
    The public need to see why these people are being fired, or they will think it is just persecution of “lovely people who are just trying to save the planet”.
    The public need to know they have been lied to.
    Just firing people is not exposing the scam.

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    Mark M

    Another WINNING personnel pick by Prez. Don:

    Donald Trump Puts Coal Lobbyist in Charge of Prosecuting Environmental Crimes

    “The appointment of Jeffery H. Wood, who up until last week was a lobbyist for Southern Company, was announced only with a modest notice posted on January 23 on the Environment and Natural Resource Division’s website.

    It’s the latest personnel move that signals the coal industry’s return to power in the Beltway.”

    https://theintercept.com/2017/01/27/coal-doj-trump/

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      Tony Porter

      We can only hope that President Trump rapidly ramps up his aggression in persecuting these society destroying misanthropic, Socialist bigots. Most of them should be imprisoned for crimes against humanity…

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    mem

    Penn State University has just released the most dreadful piece of climate change promotion I’ve ever seen featuring Michael E Mann.I would love someone of Jo’s caliber to go through it bit by bit,identify all the propaganda techniques deployed then develop a clear thinking quiz/exercise using it as the subject matter. It would be great fun and could be used as an online teaching aid for high school clear-thinking classes.
    Readers can access the video via Michael E Mann’s twitter. Just google his twitter account and you will find it under a heading called Conversations. I couldn’t do a link but maybe someone can help?

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    Jim

    People, even in government, if doing wrong with their funds, should be investigated, and if doing wrong, be canned. But senior scientists, on the SRS, should put in their papers to quit. SRS, the political appointees, in charge of the department’s.should be out.I’m afraid that’s who guides and reports for the department’s in the agencies.

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    Harry Twinotter

    “I’m thinking right now of a friend at an Australian University who I can’t name, who isn’t even in the field of climate research but was specifically warned not to speak publicly about climate issues, even in his personal time, “or else”. ”

    Conspiracy Theory.

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    David Maddison

    NASAGISS software has word “fudge” in its trillion dollar software.

    See picture of code at https://mobile.twitter.com/tan123/status/824697456478875648

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    Defund them all. They will then have to find a real job in the real world. Or let them go crying all the way to the MSM – the one no-one bothers to read any more.

    Arthur Koestler once coined the term mimophant, thin-skinned as a mimosa when it came to its own feelings, but thick-skinned as an elephant whilst trampling over those of others. Crybully is its modern-day analogue.

    Someone should buy them a mirror.

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    Robdel

    I can only echo Professor Higgins sentiments. How simply frightful, how humiliating, how delightful. Makes a welcome change after the scorn that has been heaped on sceptics like myself for many years.

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      Rereke Whakaaro

      Hey, I get scorn heaped on me all of the time. That is because I choose to see the world in as many odd ways as possible.

      People seem to believe that there is only one reality. How boring is that? Create your own reality, and enjoy it before the men in white coats turn up.

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        el gordo

        ‘How boring is that? ‘

        Very, but that’s their lot in this life.

        Groupthink helps people cope with the complexity of existence, whereas people like us (PLU) are usually out of order and regarded as a little eccentric.

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    Raven

    Has anyone noticed how so many of these new Climate Science™ papers are written as PhD papers?

    He didn’t have the marks to get into the hard sciences, but no matter.
    There always seems to be a new kid on the block who’s written his paper which is guided and backed up by his more prominent mentor Prof. as the second author. Often they’re examining if birds develop longer wings or what makes fish less curious . . that sort of thing.

    These papers are much ridiculed here and all over the sceptic universe. That said, the conclusions might also be considered as, well, I dunno . . not unreasonable or possible. He’s also concluded that more research is needed.
    The fact that the paper is also puerile doesn’t seem to matter.

    From there, the hapless but enthusiastic Climate Scientist™ get’s a job at NASA or the EPA and starts his career. He no doubt thinks he’s doing some good in the world and submits to the ‘publish or perish’ routine as did everyone before him. He’s now committed.

    He’s probably an entirely decent guy, too.
    Two years down the track and he’s got an inkling there’s a lot of fluff in his game. Still ’n’ all, he’s got a young family and needs to by groceries just like everyone else. He still thinks he can contribute to a better world despite what he sees in his own profession.
    He’s also a member of the strong public sector union, just like everyone else.

    Donald Trump gets elected and that looms as an existential threat.
    He then dons a lab coat for the first time in his life and joins a march on Washington in solidarity with . . . of all things . . science. Not job security, mind you . . . science.
    Greenpeace supports the march as do the Democrats and a myriad of fellow travellers.

    And thus, the illusion is created . . ‘the war on science’ . . the ice cream licks itself.
    The successful bait and switch is perpetuated. Hey, it’s in all the papers . . Donald Trump is anti-science.

    Well done.

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      Graeme No.3

      But Raven, haven’t you noticed how many papers re of the “fish grow bigger wings” variety. Once they get away with the first paper and get tenure then many increase the flow of BS. Worse the push for “intellectual purity” tend to push sceptics out. Eventually you get Departments believing in AGW and nothing else.

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        Raven

        Agreed, Graeme, the groupthink happens too. There’s lots of research covering the unconscious passive peer pressure type of thing and is an interesting area all by itself.

        I guess I was musing along two related paths.
        One where a reasonable man can be sucked into the AGW vortex and remain there without necessarily being a rabid activist scientist or even a strong believer type.

        The other theme is just how easily job security can be falsely cloaked as a war on science.

        I’d expect this lower group of largely inoffensive worker bees likely make up the vast majority of climate researchers.
        There’s only a very few stand out ‘leaders’ like Michael Mann, Gavin Schmidt, Al Gore etc.

        After 30 years of research, not only has the science made zero progress, it has only grown the worker bee contingent without any worker bee having remotely challenged any leader. There’s no self correcting science happening here . . not a jot.
        Climate science has become a guild of sorts.

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    Dean from Ohio

    It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch!

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    mem

    el gordo,I think you have misread the article which is understandable given its construction. Nigel Farage is not tipped it is the other chap in the photo “Mr Malloch, a eurosceptic French and German speaker who has ties to the Roosevelt family, has reportedly interviewed for the EU ambassador role and is expected to be appointed following the confirmation of Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state-elect.”

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    Lionell Griffith

    They were at war with reality. It is a war that cannot be won. The consequences are slowly becoming real. Soon they will be unemployed and unemployable. Schadenfreude!

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      Greg Cavanagh

      LOL, they’ll have a resume that can’t be used, or a very short (blank) resume.

      So what did you do between 2000 and 2010?
      Um…. Well…

      Damned funny either way.

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    pat

    20 Jan: Breitbart: Daniel J. Flynn: It’s Donald Trump’s Inauguration, But the Establishment Still Acts Like He’s the Party Crasher
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/20/its-donald-trumps-inauguration-but-the-establishment-acts-like-hes-the-party-crasher/

    26 Jan: The Hill: Brooke Seipel: Al Gore will host canceled climate change summit
    Climate activist and former vice president Al Gore is teaming up with the American Public Health Association and other organizations to hold a summit on climate change and health that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention canceled earlier this week…
    The CDC falls under the Department of Health and Human Services, and Trump has nominated Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who has expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change, to lead the department…
    “They tried to cancel this conference but it is going forward anyway,” Gore said in a statement on the event. “Today we face a challenging political climate, but climate shouldn’t be a political issue. Health professionals urgently need the very best science in order to protect the public, and climate science has increasingly critical implications for their day-to-day work. With more and more hot days, which exacerbate the proliferation of the Zika virus and other public health threats, we cannot afford to waste any time.”
    The meeting is organized in partnership with The Climate Reality Project; Harvard Global Health Institute; the University of Washington Center for Health and the Global Environment; and Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.
    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316373-al-gore-will-hold-climate-change-summit-cancelled-after-trump

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      Robert R

      hot days, which exacerbate the proliferation of the Zika virus

      Zika virus! I’ts so cold these days I’m sure Al Gore and his friends won’t have problems with mosquitoes at their ‘climate change’ summit that they are going to hold anyway. Unless too many of those fellow warmists attending turn up in their private jets, adding to the heat that is!
      It’s funny how ‘climate change’ causes wealth!

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    pat

    27 Jan: Hotair: Jazz Shaw: That climate conference is back on…but not at the CDC
    The Federal Government won’t be involved and it being (re)organized by Al Gore…
    Obviously there’s nothing wrong with this in terms of government policy. It’s now a privately owned and operated conference which isn’t taking up any taxpayer money or creating government policy. If they want to have a meeting and pay for it themselves, more power to them. But this rapid evolution does give us the opportunity to ask why the conference was being hosted by the CDC in the first place…
    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/27/that-climate-conference-is-back-on-but-not-at-the-cdc/

    27 Jan: Bloomberg: Scientists Warn Trump’s Border Wall Will Be Bad for the Planet
    by Anna Hirtenstein and Joe Ryan
    Concrete is a potent source of greenhouses gas, and Trump’s “great wall” will need a lot of it — more than double the amount in Hoover Dam, according to engineers at New York University and University College London…
    “The carbon footprint of a wall that size would be huge,” Dan Millis, borderlands program coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Arizona chapter, said in an interview…
    The U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure and many worthwhile projects will require concrete, said Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists. But those projects should be in line with the broader goal of fighting global warming…
    The Sierra Club’s Millis said carbon dioxide would hardly be the wall’s only environmental impact. It would also cause flooding and cut off migratory paths for endangered jaguars, ocelots and other creatures, he said…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-26/scientists-warn-trump-s-border-wall-will-be-bad-for-the-planet

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      Robert Rosicka

      Concrete sequesters carbon .

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      Lewis P Buckingham

      Trump’s border could be a win win for protection of a wilderness area, tourism and drug and and firearm control.
      The border need not be a huge structure, most of it could be a low fence with electronic surveillance and a no go area.
      Once stabilised the areas adjacent could be turned into wilderness areas and managed by both countries.
      At the moment it would be subject to environmental degradation from the thousands of people moving through it, not to mention the numerous deaths caused by the crossing.
      There has to be balance, otherwise few are ever able to visit wilderness areas.
      The Australian decision follows.
      ‘But Environment Minister Matthew Groom said it struck the right balance between tourism, economic development and conservation.

      Mr Groom agreed the plan removed protection against built accommodation on the South Coast Track and rejected suggestions minimal infrastructure, tourism opportunities and air access contravened the UNESCO decision.

      “We recognise that our natural areas are places to be experienced and enjoyed and shared with the world and tourism is very important in that context,” he said.
      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-10/hut-plan-in-tasmanian-world-heritage-area-criticised/8109430

      The Sonoran desert can be made a beautiful place again.
      Not like the horror stretch it now is
      http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/11/death-in-the-desertthedangeroustrekbetweenmexicoandarizona.html

      ‘Since 2001, more than 2,100 migrants have perished beneath the Arizona sun.

      It’s not a clean death. Dying from what coroners call exposure to the elements can be brutally elongated. The human body shuts down slowly, over the course of a few days or, in some cases, hours. In his award-winning book “The Devil’s Highway,” which follows the case of the Yuma 14, Luis Alberto Urrea describes the steps in gripping detail. “Those in shape will, sooner or later, faint,” he writes. “This is the brain’s way of stopping the machine, like hitting the brakes when you realize you’re speeding towards a cliff.” ‘

      Now that the two countries are talking behind the scenes, stopping the deaths from exposure, gun running and drug running would be a first step.
      Once each party recognises the Sovereign rights of the other, maybe a more balanced immigration policy will emerge.

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    pat

    27 Jan: BBC: World Bank loan scheme ‘failing clean energy’
    By Mark Kinver
    A multi-billion dollar global fund is encouraging the construction of fossil fuel projects, at the expense of cleaner options, a study reports.
    An NGO said that some World Bank policy loans had the effect of supporting coal, gas and oil developments while undermining renewable schemes.
    It added the loans were intended to boost growth in the low carbon sector.
    The World Bank disputed the report’s findings, saying it did not reflect the wider work it did with countries.
    The report by NGO Bank Information Center (BIC) looks at the Bank’s Development Policy Finance (DPF) operations in four nations – Indonesia, Peru, Egypt and Mozambique.
    DPF is one of the main activities of the bank, accounting for about one-third of its funding (more than US $15 billion in 2016), according to the report’s authors…
    However, BIC research found that DPF had introduced subsidies for coal in three of the four nations examined in the report (Indonesia, Egypt and Mozambique).
    The authors said this had helped Indonesia become one of the world’s top coal exporting nations, while turning Mozambique – considered to be among the most at-risk nations from climate change – into a major player in the global coal sector…READ ALL
    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38762930

    27 Jan: ThomsonReutersFoundation: World Bank disputes report tying Peru loans to Amazon destruction
    Billions for oil and gas pipelines and concessions in Amazon could drive climate change and destroy forest
    by Chris Arsenault
    About $2.5 billion in World Bank investments in Peru are subsidizing 26 new oil and gas concessions and other energy infrastructure, said the Bank Information Center, a U.S.-based advocacy group (BIC)…
    The World Bank disputed those statements, saying its lending was designed to spurn economic growth in Peru through public-private partnerships along with environmental protection.
    “The Bank has supported Peru’s effort to mitigate and manage the impacts of climate change and natural disasters through a range of instruments,” the lender said in a statement.
    Local authorities decided natural gas pipelines and other large infrastructure projects in the Amazon were good investments, the World Bank said…
    http://news.trust.org/item/20170127071941-hoxgx

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    pat

    22 Jan: UK Daily Mail: Ben Ellery: The great cavity wall calamity: 1.5 million homes are blighted by damp after cowboy builders cash in on a Government insulation drive
    Millions of homeowners persuaded to sign up to scheme with promise of cheaper bills by call-centre staff and salesman trying to meet targets
    The government scheme was meant to make homes energy efficient
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4143922/1-5million-homes-blighted-damp-cowboy-builders.html

    GWPF carries the story:

    22 Jan: GWPF: Britain’s Next Green Tax Scandal: 1.5 Million Homes Blighted By Damp
    http://www.thegwpf.com/britains-next-green-scandal-1-5-million-homes-blighted-by-damp/

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      Dennis

      Reminds me about the “pink bats” insulation scam created and paid for Rudd Labor Australia

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        Dennis

        As was said because Minister Peter Garret was in charge: how can you tell when you’re ceiling’s burning …… Midnight Foil.

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    TdeF

    I was reading about Emannuel Kant’s view of the Enlightenment. He likened it to becoming an adult, having independent views. Thinking for yourself, not being told what to think by the Monarch or the Church. It seems many modern people have not made it through the enlightment let along Rational philosophy, that you can work it out for yourself. Like a herd, they all want to think what everyone else thinks. It gives a feeling of being in the majority, of being safe. Thus Graham Chapmans famous statement in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. You are all individuals! Yes, we’re all individuals.

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      TdeF

      “If we are asked , “Do we now live in an enlightened age?” the answer is, “No ,” but we do live in an age of enlightenment.
      As things now stand, much is lacking which prevents men from being, or easily becoming, capable of correctly using their own
      reason in religious matters with assurance and free from outside direction.”

      This was 200 years ago, Immanuel Kant on Enlightenment.

      Some things never change. As Tony Abbott said, Climate Change/Global Warming is socialism masquerading as environmentalism. Worse, it is an unholy marriage of religious dictum and conformist pressure, a perfect tool designed for social control by the Green party, the carpetbaggers of modern politics. As the swamp drains, we have to be thankful for Trumps’ Deplorables and Abbott’s Deluded Conservatives.

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      gnome

      I’m not. I’m just a small insignificant member of an ever growing group of total sceptics.

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    manalive

    Forbes contributor and government ‘watchdog’ Adam Andrzejewski on the (US) EPA’s ‘Climate Change Liberation Army’:
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2015/10/21/the-climate-change-liberation-army-and-u-s-environmental-protection-agency-epa-adventurism/#426e377641b9

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    pat

    27 Jan: TheFederalist: Robert Tracinski: New York Times: Our Readers Are Too Dumb To Understand Global Warming Numbers
    When I challenged him about the ‘hottest year on record,’ a New York Times reporter explained that his readers are too dumb to understand numbers.
    I recently wrote about the wretched reporting on the claim that 2016 was the “hottest year on record,” using as my main example a New York Times article by Justin Gillis that gave his readers none of the relevant numbers they could use to evaluate that claim. None of them. If you search for the actual numbers, you will eventually find that the effect they are claiming, the actual amount by which this year was hotter than previous years, is smaller than the margin of error in the data.
    Shortly afterward, I got a revealing response from Gillis. I’ll fill in all the details for you, because the whole thing is an important case study in why you can’t trust mainstream reporting on global warming. But let’s just cut to the chase. When I asked him why he didn’t include the basic numbers we need to understand his story, he gave me this reply…READ ALL
    http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/27/new-york-times-our-readers-are-too-dumb-to-understand-numbers/

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    pat

    AMAZING PICS: 27 Jan: UKDailyMail: Ted Thornhill: The Californian ski resort with so much snow it’ll stay open until July 4: Mammoth has received a record-breaking 20.5 feet of the white stuff this January
    More snow has fallen in Mammoth this January than in any other month in its recorded history – by three feet
    At the summit the base depth is a staggering 25 feet – and there’s 14 feet of snow at lower levels
    Astonishing pictures have emerged from the resort showing cars and chalets buried in the white stuff
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4161486/Record-breaking-snow-falls-California-s-Mammoth-resort.html

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    Richard111

    I think Trump would be foolish to sack any ‘scientists’ until there has been a conclusive debate about the ‘science of greenhouse gases’. It is very easy to show there is no such thing as a ‘greenhouse gas’ in the atmosphere. This would show the public that AGW is fraudulent.

    Then do the sacking.

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      Frank

      Richard,
      There has been “a conclusive debate about the’ science of greenhouse gases’ ” , you have a conclusion and now you want the “debate” to prove it, you have have your science backwards.
      You’re fired !

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    pat

    plenty of FakeNews in this one:

    27 Jan: Scientific American: CDC’s Canceled Climate Change Summit Raises Self-Censorship Concerns
    Scheduled speakers cite political sensitivities, but the government’s disease-control agency has not offered a reason
    By Dina Fine Maron
    The CDC had not responded to an e-mailed request for comment by the time of publication on Friday, and it was impossible to confirm any official reason for the altered plans. Some scheduled participants and a former CDC official, however, linked the agency’s move to concerns about attitudes within the Trump administration.
    Comments from Trump and some of his cabinet nominees about human-caused climate change (Trump has called it a hoax) had underscored their skepticism, and conference planners preemptively nixed the conference to prevent political backlash, says physician Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association and a scheduled opening speaker at the event. The decision “was informed by the political environment,” Benjamin says. “Obviously it was informed by the fact that there were a lot of mixed messages about support for climate change [science], and during the campaign (???)there was a lot said on that,” he adds…

    “It was canceled because of political nervousness about the new administration’s attitudes toward climate change work,” says Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and currently an environmental health professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health…

    The conference is now back on—but not at the CDC. Former Vice Pres. Al Gore will instead host the event on February 16 at the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta. It remains unclear, however, whether any governmental scientists will attend or speak, Benjamin says…
    The new conference will be abridged to a one-day summit instead of the original three-day program, and will be sponsored by nongovernmental groups including the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Turner Foundation, along with Gore’s education and advocacy group, the Climate Reality Project…

    “I think it’s deeply problematic that the meeting was canceled in the first place,” says Ed Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, who had also been scheduled to speak at the CDC conference.

    (WHOA!!!)***“I hope that our nation’s public health agencies — and by that I mean CDC, National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency — will be allowed to participate in the replacement meeting, but I don’t know if that’s the case. I’m glad that there is an alternative to the original meeting, but I’m a little concerned that it will be perceived as a political event — not a public health and science event—based on the change in sponsorship.”
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cdc-rsquo-s-canceled-climate-change-summit-raises-self-censorship-concerns/

    ***UNBELIEVABLE.

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      AndyG55

      “*“I hope that our nation’s public health agencies — and by that I mean CDC, National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency — will be allowed to participate in the replacement meeting, “

      Own money, own time. Have the conference on a weekend.

      Of course they can attend.

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      RAH

      “I think it’s deeply problematic that the meeting was canceled in the first place,” says Ed Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, who had also been scheduled to speak at the CDC conference. ” kinda says it all for me.

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    pat

    what a nasty piece of work this Nye guy is:

    26 Jan: People Mag: Bill Nye Says Trump and His Advisors Are in ‘Denial’ About Climate Change: ‘It’s Real — Let’s Get to Work’
    By Diana Pearl and Maggie Parker
    “You want jobs in the U.S.? You want to have industries in the U.S.?” he said. “[Build] wind turbine solar panels. [Get] some geothermal, some tidal energy and we could power the entire U.S. right now.”
    Nye also said that he doesn’t think Trump is in complete denial when it comes to climate change, but rather has surrounded himself with people who won’t be proactive about it.
    “I think he’s, as we say, fallen in with ***bad companions,” he said. “So what we want to do is get his companions to come around.”…

    “They’re experiencing what in psychology is called cognitive dissonance — they are in denial about climate change because it doesn’t seem possible that humans could change the climate of the whole planet. But we are. There are enormous opportunities if we embraced renewable energy. Climate policy and energy policy are interconnected.”…
    http://people.com/politics/bill-nye-says-trump-and-his-advisors-are-in-denial-about-climate-change-its-real-lets-get-to-work/

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    Robert Rosicka

    To all you Trolls who believe the sky is falling and Trump is not your president.

    http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=70647&d=1485146254

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      TdeF

      So the annual migration of great herds of prairie dogs across the desert will stop? A tragedy for the species and the many ranchers who depend on the prairie dog migration to attack the tourists plus of course the odd dentist looking to bring home a trophy. Or perhaps slow the spread of the tumbleweed, which is in fact a relatively recent infestation from Siberia.

      Walls change things, sometimes for the better, but of course the planet was ideal before man, the plants, the weather, the animals. Everything was just perfect, as the story goes. Those dinosaur bones however need explanation. If only they had a United Nations and an EPA and Scientific American and National Geographic, perhaps the Dinosaurs would still be with us?

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        Graeme No.3

        Dinosaurs had tiny brains compared with mammals of the same size, but they dominated the world for some time. Then a sudden unpredicted catastrophe wiped most of them out. The dinosaurs were probably most upset at it happening to them, but the rest of the animals quickly forgot about that time and got on with life and dealing with the new conditions.

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    TdeF

    That’s supposed to be attRact the tourists, but perhaps it is funnier without its Rs. Most things are.

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    Wally

    Not being able to speak freely…

    I’ve been working in pale-green industries, saving energy (and power bills) for over a decade. I do it because it’s interesting technology, getting more for less is usually good, and because in the long (very long) run energy efficiency is a good thing for us all.

    But talk about wind power, solar, scams, climate…. nope. Everyone around me is a convert to the cause, and when I say it’s all built on bull I get funny looks or long arguments. Behind my back I’m a (gasp) climate denier. My family and most people I mix with are of a lefty persuasion, and in general so am I. But I don’t subscribe to the full package – I like some of the lefty liberal things, and don’t like others. This makes me BAD and EVIL and NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

    While I’m bad and evil and not to be trusted, I have to listen to all this crap from the believers about the evils of CO2 and how we should not travel, not eat meat, not do this, not do that, and pay more for power. Those same believers who love their steak, are forever flying around the world on holidays or to conferences, never compost anything, drive big cars…

    While at the same time I’m very careful about waste, drive small cars that are cheap and frugal to run, have solar on the house (gasp! cuts my power bill), have a big garden, grow plants, I could go on.

    I consider myself a skeptical pro-business capitalist lefty pale practical greeny. I don’t fit ANY category.

    Saying what I really think means that I get pilloried, ignored, treated as a crank or fool. So I’ve spent a decade keeping quiet apart from places like here.

    In many ways Trump frightens me. But he’s making a lot of noises that I like and if he gives the Climate Machine a good kick in the chops, I’ll be very pleased indeed.

    I think we have a long way to go before there is rational discussion though – probably there needs to be a complete generational change. By that I mean that although Trump might shake things up, true change will only come when the existing crop of climate “scientists” have retired and the current crop of kids at school are NOT brainwashed (long wait there) and have replaced them. 40 or 50 more years to go.

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    Reasonable Skeptic

    When you hitch your life to a political wagon you have to understand it can be thrown into chaos. It is unfortunate that so many good people confused science and politics and will end up paying a price they never expected to pay.

    I hope that Cool Futures is at the forefront of taking advantage of this economic opportunity.

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    pat

    26 Jan: Bloomberg: Musk’s Surprise Rapport With Trump Means 40% Rally for Tesla
    by Dana Hull
    It’s a good time to be Elon Musk.
    Shares of the billionaire’s Tesla Motors Inc. have surged 40 percent since Dec. 1, putting the stock within reach of a 52-week high…

    Palo Alto, California-based Tesla’s cars are all produced in the U.S., so Trump’s threats to tax imports could be a boon to the maker of electric vehicles and energy storage devices. Tesla, which has 25,000 workers in the U.S., builds vehicles in Fremont, California; its Gigafactory lies in a Republican congressional district in Nevada; and it has partnered with Panasonic Corp. to produce solar cells and panels beginning this summer in Buffalo, New York. The rockets launched by his closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. are all made at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California…

    Musk shocked some of his loyal customers Tuesday when he declared on Twitter that Tillerson “has the potential to be an excellent Sec of State.”
    When asked to expound, Musk said “Rex is an exceptionally competent executive, understands geopolitics and knows how to win for his team. His team is now the USA.” Both Musk and Tillerson have expressed support for a tax on carbon emissions.

    ***Musk raised the prospect of a carbon tax directly with Trump and U.S. business leaders at Monday’s meeting but got little or no support among the other executives in attendance, a senior White House official said…

    Musk’s support for Tillerson drew a pleas from Michael Mann, a climate scientist whose claim to fame includes the paper outlining the so-called hockey-stick chart of temperature data. “You are a hero to so many climate activists Elon,” Mann wrote on Twitter. “Please don’t lend your imprimatur to an Exxon Mobil-driven foreign policy.”…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-26/musk-s-surprising-rapport-with-trump-yields-40-rally-for-tesla

    ***hopefully, Musk’s liking for a carbon tax has fallen on deaf ears.

    27 Jan: MercuryNews Calif: Levi Sumagaysay: Elon Musk joins a second Trump team
    Elon Musk, who is one of only a few tech executives on Donald Trump’s business advisory team, is also now part of a manufacturing jobs initiative announced Friday by the White House…
    Is Musk, the clean energy evangelist, really all in with an administration whose leader has dismissed climate change?
    Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and a member of the PayPal Mafia, is a popular figure in tech and in business. But he is getting some flack for cooperating with Trump, whose other views and policies are controversial.
    One Twitter exchange went like this:
    “dude, what are you doing? You are losing #credibility by the minute. Come back to the #light !,” commented suzieofficial.
    To which Musk replied:
    “Yeah, am hearing this from a lot of people & it’s getting me down. I’m just trying to make a positive contribution & hope good comes of it.”…

    ***something a bit smug about Musk agreeing with The Economist’s condescending remark that Trump needs people to “talk sense” to him.

    26 Jan: Gizmodo: Bryan Menegus: Gizmodo Chats With Elon Musk About Climate Change And Donald Trump
    Yesterday Elon Musk stunned us (and just about everyone else) by tweeting in support of Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil and likely Secretary of State under the Trump administration…
    TWEET: The Economist: Rex Tillerson has been narrowly approved as US secretary of state. He has the integrity to ***talk sense to his boss …
    REPLY: Elon Musk: This may sound surprising coming from me, but I agree with The Economist. Rex Tillerson has the potential to be an excellent Sec of State…

    Why Musk spent part of his morning answering our DMs is anyone’s best guess, but we’re happy to meet courtesy with courtesy. His answers to our questions are reproduced below unedited and without emphasis…
    MUSK: My tweets speak for themselves. Please read them exactly as they are written…Also, he has publicly acknowledged for years that a carbon tax could make sense. There is no better person to push for that to become a reality than Tillerson. This is what matters far more than pipelines or opening oil reserves. The unpriced externality must be priced…READ ALL
    http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/a-brief-chat-with-elon-musk-about-climate-change-rex-tillerson-and-donald-trump/

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      Graeme No.3

      I think that Musk has realised that Obama no longer controls government subsidies. It may take some time before that realisation sinks in in other quarters.

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        PeterS

        I predicted many years ago that Obama will go down in history as being the worst President ever despite his popularity at the time. I still stick to that. It’s taking longer than I thought for people to come to that truth; mostly I suspect because of the successful whitewashing, coverups and large volume of fibs by the MSM and other leftist groups.

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    Harry Passfield

    I guess the EPA has reached PEAK Scientist.

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    There is a long list of abuses from the Climate Alarmists. Here is an article documenting just a few:
    Climate Bullies Gone Wild; Caught on Tape and Print
    https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/climate-bullies-gone-wild-caught-on-tape-and-print/

    Bottom line, elections have consequences, and there is a new sheriff in town and he doesn’t like bullies.

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    David Maddison

    The damage done to the reputation of science by promotion of non-existent globull warming is huge.

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      Harry Passfield

      Good point, David, but, not half as much as the damage done to the ‘poorer’ society (ie: you and me). AGW, IMHO, has been the scam of scams and many who have been enriched by it will, hopefully, come to a reckoning. I reserve my judgement on what I think would be a proportionate sentence for them, but it would probably be that they no longer contribute CO2 to the atmosphere.

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    Self Dillusion

    It’s strange,” the woman said. “People keep walking up to me and giving me hugs.”

    Is this feeling of despondancy a result of losing a job or as a result of the huge damage that has been caused to Science in general ?

    Finally all those who have embarked on the Climate gravy train are being asked to get off at the next stop.

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    n tesdorf

    The EPA can now get back to doing its real job of protecting the environment. and climate scientists can get back to studying the climate and stop obsessing over a beneficial, harmless, peripheral gas called CO2. Some scientists could start to study the impact of the Sun on the Climate, for a change.

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    Andrew Lock

    Looking forward to the avalanche of quality papers coming from all these silenced scientists over the next four years.

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    Angry

    Trump Hopes to Slash EPA Staff, Carbon Footprint by 50%

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/27/trump-hopes-to-slash-epa-staff-carbon-footprint-by-50/

    FANTASTIC !

    Get rid of the EPA entirely !

    GO TRUMP !!!

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    Anton

    Who was it that said, “The debate is over…”?

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