Mysterious thing called Populism affecting wildlife

If only there was no populism:

ScienceDaily.   Researchers at Colorado State University and The Ohio State University have found that a cultural backlash stemming from the rise of populism may limit opportunities for state fish and wildlife agencies to adapt to changing social values in the United States. The team reached this conclusion by analyzing more than 12,000 surveys from 19 states and studying ballot initiatives related to hunting.

Unwind your way through that maze. Academics have spent thousands of dollars to discover that some people have different values to academics. Some people who don’t like new laws are protesting, and that may stop “unlimited” changes. Isn’t that democracy?

In the case of human-wildlife conflict, traditionalists would be more likely to support lethal wildlife control methods while mutualists would be more supportive of restrictions on humans.

After two million years of meat-eating, I’d say homo traditionalist had already been “affecting the wildlife”. Even before the rise of populismisticness.

But if populism is pop-u-lar, what kind of “changing social values” do fish and wildlife agencies really need to adapt to anyway? If the changes are less popular, who says we need to change?

The problem is “Trust me”

Based on the new study, researchers found that in states with the largest change in social values, individuals who held traditional values had lower levels of trust in the state wildlife agency. In contrast to traditional values, in which people believe wildlife exists for their benefit, the researchers describe an emerging set of values, in which wildlife and humans are seen as part of a connected social community, as mutualism.

Here’s a thought, maybe traditionalists think of humans as being a “part of a connected social community” — a human one — one where people talk about things and persuade each other, rather than just deciding their own social values were Right, doing 12,000 studies and labelling people who disagree as an –ism? But that would make the traditionalists the mutualists, and the mutualists, well… insensitive totalitarians.

You thought this was peer reviewed science, but this is a Trump-Brexit thing:

The recent trend toward populist politics has occurred, in part, as a result of a cultural backlash, where select segments of society have rallied against progressive social changes of the later 20th and early 21st centuries. This trend includes the Brexit vote in England, election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, and increased representation of populist parties in European parliaments.

Missing something?

Researchers talk about the “backlash” but not about the “overreach” that might have caused it:

One area where the researchers looked at for evidence of backlash was in the surge of wildlife-related ballot initiatives. In the 1990s, there was a rise in initiatives that limited certain forms of hunting and fishing. In Colorado, initiatives included a ban on spring bear hunting in 1992 and the elimination of recreational trapping in 1996.

Between the turn of the century and the present, however, there has been a counter surge of ballot initiatives, most of which focus on protecting the right to hunt. This trend, the authors said, offers evidence of actions among traditional groups to fight back against change.

One mans “fight back against change” is another man’s protest at a stupid idea.

Only one of them gets a grant to misunderstand the other and put it in a press release.

Message to academics: If “trust” is the issue, try listening, behaving with honor, honesty and respect. Funny things might happen.

REFERENCE

Michael J. Manfredo, Tara L. Teel, Leeann Sullivan, Alia M. Dietsch. Values, trust, and cultural backlash in conservation governance: The case of wildlife management in the United StatesBiological Conservation, 2017; 214: 303 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.07.032

PS: I don’t even like hunting.

9.6 out of 10 based on 66 ratings

98 comments to Mysterious thing called Populism affecting wildlife

  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    When did democracy move away from reflecting the interests of the majority?

    The majority view of the people constitutes the popular view – populism.

    It could only be those who have a totalitarian bent who see the view of the majority as a pejorative.

    Brown shirts, black shirts, red shirts, green shirts. They’re all out of the same mould.

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    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      Jawohl!

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      • #
        Graham Richards

        Easily fixed! Give wildlife the vote because all life should be equal. Gotta zip there’s a couple of guys in white coats coming for me & I’m one of the sane ones.

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        • #
          Kneel

          Voting is compulsory too, don’t forget.
          Failure to vote = fine.
          Failure to pay fine = court summons.
          Failure to appear = arrest warrent.
          Ignorance of the law is no excuse, either.
          All you really need is reinstatement of capital punishment.
          🙂

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      And what colour shirt do you wear my little red thumber?

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    • #
      James Murphy

      People in red shirts never did very well in Star Trek. Talk about oppression!

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    • #
      Tim Hammond

      Not at all. The majority does not have the right to simply impose views or actions just because they are the majority. That is immediately a tyranny.

      But it is the inconsistency of the approach that is dangerous as well as absurd: the majority is right when it agrees with the “elites” but populist when it disagrees. Democracy is fine when we vote in the “right way”, dangerous when we don’t.

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    • #
      Gerry, England

      Populism is when democracy produces a result the left doesn’t like. And it is never their ideas that are wrong but the people who voted against them because the Russians made them do it.

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  • #
    Spetzer86

    Nothing says “embracing shared values with wildlife” like hugging a polar bear.

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  • #
    Lionell Griffith

    If “trust” is the issue, try listening, behaving with honor, honesty and respect.

    That’s just it, trust is not the issue. It is abject submission to their collective whims they want. Honor, Honesty, and Respect are simply not within their character to expresses. Those are attributes of individuals of the live and let live persuasion.

    The academics at issue have the belief that individuals do not and cannot exist. It is the collective for which the individual members must willingly sacrifice themselves for the higher good as determined by themselves as the voice of of the collective.

    Their claim to that position is based upon the premise that truth cannot be known by mere mortals. However, they are in a privileged position of knowing the unknowable because they are more sensitive to a higher plane of knowledge. If you are a member of that sacred group, no explanation is required, if you aren’t, no explanation is possible. They thereby presume the responsibility of using any means necessary to force the masses to obey their higher knowledge.

    Or more simply, they present an extreme expression of philosophical and psychological pathology on the dark side of insanity. If examined by the standards of reason, reality, and logic, there words have no connection to anything real except for the will to destroy for the sake of destruction.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Its a case of a dictator being surprised when his subjects revolt after having the screws tightened down for the 50th time….dictators of course are paranoid. In this case, uf you keep making normal human behaviour , like hunting and fishing etc, to implement the demented and drooling stupidity of eco-nazism by legislation, the dimwits who under Agenda 21 shouldnt be surprised when obe day the crowd with flaming torches and pulitchforks turn up at their gate and burst through it….

      The thing is, we ( the normal people ) did start or pick this fight, they did….

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    • #
      Just Thinkin'

      Lionell,

      Sounds like you are describing the GREENS (for their true word was taken) to a t.

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    • #
      Leonard Lane

      Excellent comment Lionell. Yes it is the totalitarians who rush to crush individual rights, thoughts, and actions. After all, they do know best, don’t they?

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    • #
      Richard John

      Your comment absolutely NAILS what is occurring in our society. The attempt to shift the focus from the individual to the collective will be the great battle of the 21st century. This is demonstrative in the polarization of the political left and political rights and in the attempts by educational institutions and the media to INDOCTRINATE people.

      00

  • #
    Bob Sykes

    The department at Ohio State Has a large collection of cranks and wack-jobs

    110

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      So we observe …

      I am wondering if the proportion of cranks, and “wack-jobs” is influenced by geography? Some of the wackiest universities have elevated locations, and therefore a rarefied atmosphere.

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      • #
        Lionell Griffith

        I don’t think it is elevation that does it. I was in graduate school at the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana from 1963 to 1965. I had several certifiable “wack-jobs” as professors even during that ancient era. Neither of them appreciated me following the evidence to form a theory rather than looking for evidence supporting their preconceived theory. In order to receive a passing grade, B for a graduate student, I had to regurgitate the theories of their significant others in minute detail. Even though the theories were clearly speculation with scant evidence supporting them.

        Some kind of process existed because its thermodynamics could be measured. However, thermodynamics by itself cannot be used as proof of specific mechanism. In fact, it is usually the case that very different mechanisms can have identical thermodynamics. The physical structure in action must be observed to know the difference. Since the action was at the molecular level, the action could not be observed with the tools available at the time.

        I was naive enough to believe it was a matter of differences in scientific interpretation. Since then, it has become clear to me that political/philosophical differences drive the interpretation of science. It turns on “truth can be discovered and known by individuals” or “truth cannot be discovered but only revealed by agreement among the self selected elite” In other words it was Galileo vs The Church replayed.

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        • #
          The Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

          Agreed; the elevation of an institution does not seem to have any effect on the proportion of ‘wack-jobs’ employed there. What we usually call the “Left Coast” (not to ignore the “Right Coast”, but the term is never used, for obvious reasons … )is very close to sea level.

          And, the high country of Colorado is as anti-deplorable as one might find (with ‘high’ having a double-entendre here). In my own state of Wyoming, we are typically 1500 – 2000 metres above sea level, and seem to be in the minority of those who can, and will, think clearly, and reasonably.

          The point might be driven home more clearly if one would do a search for “TrumpLand” and the “Clinton Archipeligo” after the 2016 election. It makes fairly clear what parts of the country still have those ‘live and let live’ attitudes, and which ones have the “my way or the highway” attitudes.

          Regards,

          Vlad

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        • #

          I was naive enough to believe it was a matter of differences in scientific interpretation. Since then, it has become clear to me that political/philosophical differences drive the interpretation of science. It turns on “truth can be discovered and known by individuals” or “truth cannot be discovered but only revealed by agreement among the self selected elite” In other words it was Galileo vs The Church replayed.

          You write of the claim of science by western academic agreement,which can only be some form of religious belief!! Any science, depends on the rigorous application of the scientific method. Such adherence to that method can only be demonstrated by documentation of desperate attempt by “each” to falsify, never to reinforce each claimed conjecture. Where is that documentation that demonstrates “science”?
          Science is about useful discovery of the physical, not about philosophical ‘truth’, whatever that may be! What have you discovered today? Under what circumstances is that a load of crap? SCIENCE
          All the best!-will-

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          • #
            Lionell Griffith

            Apparently, I did no make myself clear to you. Consider:

            What else is “Galileo vs The Church replayed” but the method of science vs the method of religion? My naivety was attributing to them honesty, honor, and respect because this I knew was the foundation of the method of science. I have since learned there was no honesty, honor, nor respect but only the will to force submission to their whim. Their belief was if they could force my submission, reality would also submit. Neither happened.

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            • #

              Lionell Griffith November 7, 2017 at 7:10 am

              “Apparently, I did no make myself clear to you. Consider:…”

              Lionell,
              I was agreeing with you; except it is no longer called a Church; but instead ‘An Institution of Higher Learning’!

              This past week, I discovered that changing tires\tyres on jeep while partying with neighbor guys, allows failure to properly tighten wheel lugs, that allows a wheel to fall off. Conjecture is that I have become a certifiable ‘statistical mechanic’! SCIENCE! Hopefully restricted to times of much beer! 🙂

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              • #
                Lionell Griffith

                OK. Sadly, the “higher Learning” is becoming so high that it is of a dimension not of this universe nor even the next.

                Observation: When you are very tired, depressed, or drunk is not the time to make decisions that can have serious impacts upon your life. Yet those are the times we are much less likely to be constrained from making such decisions. The Darwin effect is usually alert for such events. You were lucky that it was otherwise occupied and thus survived the consequences.

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        • #
          Hasbeen

          What we need to do is force universities to give these academics a real job, rather than sit down money.

          Give them 7 hours a day of teaching duties, rather than 7 hours a week, & they will be too busy working to suit around dreaming up these fool utopian dreams.

          The other real advantage would be, we would require many less academic dreamers & activists. No more than 15% of the current seat polishers would be needed, a huge saving to the budget, while getting rid of these nests of activists paid for by us.

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          • #
            sophocles

            Seven hours of teaching a week would be bliss. Most get fifteen hours teaching per week, fifteen hours research per week and fifteen hours writing research applications. Meetings are all held in the copious quantities of free time and marking goes home.
            Yeah, it’s a real life of luxury and idleness.

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            • #
              sophocles

              oh, and there’s time for counselling students each week to be fitted in there as well.
              That’s a real head-banger.
              Meals, travel time and sleep are usually ignored.

              40

          • #
            Tim Hammond

            I dislike saying it, but what we really need to do is clear out the subjects that masquerade as science.

            Much of psychology, all of sociology and all of the other social sciences are frauds and nothing more than opinion. The reproducibility crisis in psychology and sociology shows this clearly.They have not been conducting science: there has been no checking or rigorous analysis done of work in those fields for decades. Instead people with the same opinions have just nodded and accepted everything because
            they agree with it.

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  • #
    Roger

    The ban on fox hunting in the UK was led by minority ‘progressives’ (animal rights activists).

    One of the best comments I heard goes to the heart of the disconnect between those urbanites who consider themselves as somehow superior beings and rural people, it also reflects on the ignorance of so many environmental graduates.

    It came from a large group of Millwall football club supporters on an underground train as we travelled back from ‘The March’ when half a million country people protested in London against a hunting ban.

    Now Millwall supporters are reknowned as some of the most violent football supporters in Europe (leaving Russian supporters aside) so it was ‘interesting’ when they wanted to know what we were doing on ‘their’ train.

    When I told them why we were there they said ‘ You don’t come into towns and tell us what we can and can’t do – who the f**k do these townies think they are telling you what or what not you can do in the countryside, or how to do it. If you have another march, let us know and we’ll be there with you!’

    Popularism – which is intended by the metro-centric elite to be a derogatory sneer – is simply people saying enough is enough, we are sick of your metropolitan, left wing, dictatorial ‘progressive’ politics that completely ignores us and our opinions to impose your own on our communities.

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    • #
      Annie

      Nice anecdote Roger. I was at the protest in Parliament Square against the hunting ban. I walked around the outside edge and observed the good humour of the gathering. What struck me forcibly was the nastiness of the few anti-hunting people present who were trying to rile us and cause trouble. They seemed to be motivated by a hate of humans rather than a love for foxes. What also struck me forcibly was that the Met Police were also anti us….very curt and bossy and we weren’t the ones causing any trouble.

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      • #
        Annie

        Oh goody! A red thumb 🙂 Perhaps you could explain why…Red Thumber?

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          Annie you mentioned the word “hunting ” which is even worse than the word “coal” to a greenie .

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          • #
            Annie

            Well, I’ve been ‘hunting’ for good quality black coal, anthracite, for our stove! It’s much better than wood but we’re stuck with that.
            C’mon Ol’ Red Thumb.

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      • #
        Roger

        I watched the police hitting out with batons indiscriminately. Worst case I saw was as people began to leave Westminster a policeman, talking to another, took a step backwards and bumped into a lady walking across behind him, he spun round lashed out with his baton and hit her in the mouth.

        I and another witness made formal statements to the IPCC who decided the police officer should not be prosecuted.

        Antis had been placed outside the station exits and I, and I think most people, saw this as a deliberately provocative act by the police in positioning them there.

        The hunting ban, passed in he face of the scientific evidence showing it not of cause suffering, by a Labour government and a Labour party that received £1 million plus from animal rights activists seeking the ban.

        Ignore red thumbs – there are many people who have no knowledge of the countryside or of wild life, they live in a Disney fantasy world secure in the firm belief that fantastic Mr. Fox loves and cares for all the other animals ……..

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        • #
          Annie

          Here they lay 1080 baits. Immense suffering for foxes and any other creatures that take them, not to mention whatever feeds on the carcasses.
          A quick clean death by foxhound is far better than poison or a shot if the shot isn’t well placed.

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      • #
        Roger

        Annie,
        Mind you it seemed they didn’t know quite what to do with the mounted police, although there were plenty there, as too many of us knew more about and probably had more experience with horses than they did – and certainly wouldn’t be intimidated by them.

        I couldn’t resist pulling the legs of the first ones I saw – started to check a WPC’s girth telling her it looked a bit loose and then asked her and 2 colleagues if they wouldn’t rather be out hunting. The ‘girth-checked’ said nothing (she didn’t seem too happy about my checking it), another said yes and the third said he would be hunting on Saturday but keep quiet about it!

        Apart from the mounted section the Met behaved appallingly that day and a number of officers should, from what I witnessed, have faced criminal charges.

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      • #
        Tim Hammond

        The Antis are class warriors, not Greenies. Hunters are seen as upper class oppressors and so are fair game.

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    … in states with the largest change in social values, individuals who held traditional values had lower levels of trust in the state wildlife agency.

    People migrate for lots of reasons, but a primary one is the belief that life will be better “over there”. Certainly, if you are an inner-city dweller; just one of the tens of millions of other inner-city dwellers in urban America, the notion of the peace and tranquillity of “the great outdoors” is an attractive metaphor.

    The silence of the pristine, the open spaces, the clear sky, the pure water that does not need to come in a bottle; all these are part of the spell. They are what draws the former urbanites away from their morning latte’s. It is perfect, and it should always be this way.

    Except that there are dozens of species in the great out doors, that will view you as dinner. There are tens of dozens of species which will just kill you because they can. They aren’t going to change. You have to.

    Popular romantic views from the urban coasts do not apply in the more scenic parts of the country. On the coast, the meat in the delicatessen is dinner. In the high country, you are. It is the hunters and fishers who (just barely) take the edge off the wildness of the wilderness. If you are an ex-urbanite, and you refuse to change your views, I am sure that something will welcome you with open jaws.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      If it isn’t the black widow spiders, gila monsters**, rattlesnakes, wolves or bears then there is the deadly populisms lurking in the wood. In fact they go round in a pack just waiting until you drop your guard then those populisms they will be on you. That’s why many of the ‘enlightened’ refer to stay in the University where they feel safe.

      ** Curiously the definition of a Gila monster sounds familiar….Gila monsters spend nearly all of their time in burrows underground, either ones they have dug themselves or more likely, those stolen from other animals.

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    individuals who held traditional values had lower levels of trust in the state wildlife agency.

    Would those individuals be the same “Deplorables” that exercised their constitutional right to change government as they were tired of the old one?

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    • #
      jorgekafkazar

      Would those individuals be the same “Deplorables” that exercised their constitutional right to change government as they were tired of the old one?

      The very same. In the US, the ‘deplorers™’ are still frothing at the mouth and spewing spittle-dipped insanities a year after the election. Black uniforms are starting to appear to distinguish the elite from the underlings.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    The popular mood won’t adjust,
    To ideas that aren’t discussed,
    Or with warmists comply,
    Who dictate from on high,
    And expect to be taken on trust.

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  • #

    My populism is founded in the growing tendency of professionals to engage in corporate boosting, loose speculation, outright fakery…and worst of all statistics. When a professional gives evidence of good intentions, wide experience and sound observation-based knowledge I stop being a populist and become a client.

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  • #
    John Smith

    As an almost human (that’s me dragging the club on the evolution chart), I’m concerned about the overpopulation of ‘mutualists’.
    Domestication and intellectual inbreeding has caused them to loose many of their traditional survival skills.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Australia’s national parks are being destroyed by introduced feral animals like foxes, cats, pigs, deer etc. because mostly the Lefties / Greens win’t allow hunters in to shoot these animals for free.

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    • #
      Dennis

      Also by the creation of habitats for feral animals by “green group” acquisition of farmland and turning back to nature. This is also creating fire hazard for surrounding farmland.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Feral creatures need eradicating and I think we can get Green support for the cull. Know thy enemy.

      http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/pestsweeds/pestanimals.htm

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Victoriastan recently had a parliamentary enquiry into feral pest animals and I was unlucky enough to be chosen to give a submission , the biggest difference between us and the other mainland states is we won’t declare deer an invasive pest .(Tasmania also).
        Despite the evidence of the destructive nature of these animals there is too much vested interest by a few groups to change this animals status so protections and regulation remain .

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    • #
      Hasbeen

      It is not just the green groups. Restrictions on keeping regrowth down on improved country is making it harder to keep pasture fully productive.

      Also the return on grazing is continually reducing, while the cost of feral weed control is constantly rising, & fence maintenance is very high.

      Many of the chemicals I used are no longer available, & those left appear to be the less effective. Many of these losses are down to activists pushes, with no basis in science. Just think DDT if you doubt this.

      My 76 year old neighbours 10,000 paddock is disappearing under regrowth, which is approaching terminal. He tells me he no longer has the energy to keep fighting authorities & the scrub, & will just let it go.

      I wonder how long before we become a beef importer, as we have becomes a seafood importer?

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    • #
      Griffo

      Not true,e.g. National Parks authorities in Australia have problems organising culls of brumbies owing to protests by misguided horse enthusiasts,natural areas and parks around Sydney are regularly baited with 1080 to kill foxes and residents in some suburbs might be surprized to learn that marksmen are employed to shoot foxes and rabbits using silenced rifles late at night in city parks,Centennial Park for example.

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Have you seen the reason given by govt for not culling brumbies ? According to the powers that be it’s because they cant find any interest among the groups involved in the culling of feral animals and no Im not so sure that’s completely accurate .
        Land clearing can be a problem in some states but i have never heard of anyone not being able to maintain regrowth and weeds , maybe some restrictions on the use of herbicides in some catchments .

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        • #
          Hasbeen

          In Queensland regrowth is often classified as virgin forest, requiring all the permits & restrictions that apply to virgin territory.

          30

      • #
        el gordo

        Feral camels were fine until motorised transport became the norm, so the owners let them roam, with disastrous consequences.

        ‘By 2008, it was feared that Central Australia’s feral camel population had grown to about one million and was projected to double every 8 to 10 years. Camels are known to cause serious degradation of local environmental and cultural sites particularly during dry conditions. A AU$19 million management program was funded in 2009 and upon completion in 2013, the feral population was estimated to have been reduced to around 300,000.’

        wiki

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    • #
      William

      Is it just me, or have others noted the increase in shark attacks on the New South Wales coast has occurred since Bob Carr created massive marine national parks, severely limiting commercial fishing. So there are many more bait fish and a corresponding and steady increase in sharks off our coast in the years since.

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  • #
    Dennis

    Following a storm yesterday and good rain over the past few days on the mid north coast of NSW, and 14C in my office this morning at 7.09 am the BoM has released the following;

    Climate outlook overview
    The November to January rainfall outlook, issued 26 October 2017, shows most of the country has around a 50% chance of above average rainfall.
    November is likely to be drier than usual for most of WA, SA and Victoria. The chance of getting above normal rainfall is below 30% in the southern half of WA.
    November to January daytime and overnight temperatures are likely to be warmer than average for most of the country, with the highest chances over Tasmania, Victoria and northern Australia. Elsewhere, the chance of a warmer three months is close to 50%.
    The Pacific Ocean is likely to continue cooling towards La Niña levels over the coming months. However, the ocean warmth that typically appears to the north of Australia and in the eastern Indian Ocean is unlikely to develop. This means that Australia is unlikely to receive widespread heavy rainfall that is typical of around two thirds of previous La Niña events. See the Climate Influences section for more information.

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    • #
      el gordo

      ‘November to January daytime and overnight temperatures are likely to be warmer than average for most of the country…’

      I’m getting a little sick of the chill factor, but I know they are wrong.

      The reason for the lack of heat can be sheeted home to the collapse of the high pressure belt and a wayward jet stream, presumably this can be linked to a quiet sun.

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    • #
      el gordo

      …. and I’ll bet my house that Tasmania won’t have above average temperatures this summer.

      Because BoM has a global warming meme under its bonnet (the coldest and driest places are supposed to warm under forced CO2) that they are blind to natural variability.

      Mark my words, the southern half of Australia, the mid latitudes, will feel the brunt of global cooling.

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Listening to their ABC this morning they said the WMO was predicting this year to be the hottest on record with the bom measures temps I’m sure they can make it happen .

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    • #
      Robber

      Don’t you just love it when BOM puts their science on the line – a 50% chance of above average rainfall, a 50% chance of above average temperatures. Winners either way!
      A $300 million budget when I could have lent them a penny and got the same results.

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    • #
      Senex

      Um, a 50% chance of above average rainfall.. would be entirely consistent with the average, wouldn’t it? 50% chance of above average, 50% chance of below average (regardless of the magnitude). Same with a 50% chance of a warmer three month period – or a 50% chance of a cooler period, if you like. Utterly meaningless statements.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      This device does much better than the BoM and doesn’t cost hundreds of millions.

      https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0d/7e/29/a4/tenterfield-weather-rock.jpg

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    • #
      David Maddison

      This device does much better than the BoM and doesn’t cost hundreds of millions.

      https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0d/7e/29/a4/tenterfield-weather-rock.jpg

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Australia no longer has any reliable temperature data because the BoM keeps altering the raw data to demonstrate their political objective of supposed global warming.

      While BoM keeps announcing record high temperatures based on inappropriate manipulation of data, it is obvious to all casual observers that these “record highs” simply don’t exist with many saying they have never seen the weather so cool for a given time of year.

      The world is cooling and with the BoM obsession to prove warming they have missed the start of the cooling signal.

      We need to urgently get some honest temperature data and the people behind this need to be held account as they have destroyed the economy.

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  • #

    Speaking of overreach, a couple of years ago some low level bureaucrat in the forest service decided to close some roads that accessed parts of the Sierra back country to preserve the Yosemite toad. In the particular area that affected my summertime skiing adventures, there was a potential habitat for that toad, but none were actually present, moreover; the access roads were nowhere near the potential habitat. When that person was asked to provide the environmental impact statement justifying their action, it was unavailable because it was never done. Apparently, this was done for no other reason than to gain brownie points with the Sierra club and the Moonbeam administration.

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    • #
      Dennis

      In New South Wales a major highway upgrade has been underway from Sydney to the Queensland border for a couple of decades. One section in between two completed sections was claimed to be passing through an area where an almost extinct wildflower was located, the Greens claimed.

      The construction was halted, the crews and machinery moved out and the standoff continued for almost a year before the Greens lost their case in the Land and Environment Court.

      The cost to taxpayers and to completing a major project was substantial.

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  • #
    Robert Swan

    These people trotting out “populist” as a term of abuse really should check their dictionaries. Its opposite is “elitist” and joining that side doesn’t always turn out so well.

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  • #
    Asp

    It is not longer the struggle between good and evil, but between -nesses and -isms. Fascism, populism, Trumpism fighting against wellness, mindfulness and thoughtfulness (but not forgetfulness).

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  • #
    ROM

    From Jo’s headline post;

    Researchers at Colorado State University and The Ohio State University have found that a cultural backlash stemming from the rise of populism may limit opportunities for state fish and wildlife agencies to adapt to changing social values in the United States.

    “may limit opportunities for state fish and wildlife agencies to adapt to changing social values in the United States.”
    .

    Now does that mean that all the programs and policies of the Wild Life bureaucracy in the USA were completely wrong from the very start some 5 or 10 decades ago because they applied the wrong “social values” when creating their programs and policies.

    Or does it mean with changing “Social values” , the newest criteria by which the success or otherwise of a program and its policies are now judged, that they might get the new politically correct and socially acceptable Wild Life programs and policies wrong all over again if those quite flexible and subject to generational changes in social values occurs again in another few years when the next generation rolls into place.

    A new generation with their own versions of the politically correct way of doing things will take control and all those so very politically correct wild life programs and policies of the progressive elites of the previous decades and generation past are just completely idiotic and half witted and were completely on the wrong tracking and used the completely wrong “social values” for the protection and preservation of wild life and nature.

    I am sure that all those critters out there, the millions and millions of them are very cognisant of the need to understand and take into account the politically correct “social values” of the elite from the species Homo sapiens when they are foraging and looking for food and procreating and sleeping and doing all the things that wild critters do whilst keeping in mind the politically correct “social values” they should be cognisant of and should be following if they want to conform to the correct “Social values” and avoid being “popular” or whatever as prescribed by the progressive researchers in the Ohio State University.

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    Allen Ford

    I am somewhat perplexed that there is no mention of the position of remnant, noble hunter/gatherer communities who are renowned for lunching on wildlife on a daily basis

    The professors’ blatant, culturist biases are only too evident!

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    pat

    trust us/UN:

    6 Nov: WMO Press Release: 2017 is set to be in top three hottest years, with record-breaking extreme weather
    It is very likely that 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact events including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heatwaves and drought. Long-term indicators of climate change such as increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, sea level rise and ocean acidification continue unabated. Arctic sea ice coverage remains below average and previously stable Antarctic sea ice extent was at or near a record low…

    (LINK) The World Meteorological Organization’s provisional Statement on the State of the Climate says the average global temperature from January to September 2017 was approximately 1.1°C above the pre-industrial era. As a result of a powerful El Niño, 2016 is likely to remain the warmest year on record, with 2017 and 2015 being second and/or third. 2013-2017 is set to be the warmest five-year period on record.

    The WMO statement – which covers January to September – was released on the opening day of the United Nations climate change conference in Bonn. It includes information submitted by a wide range of UN agencies on human, socio-economic and environmental impacts as part of a drive to provide a more comprehensive, UN-wide policy brief for decision makers on the interplay between weather, climate and water and the UN global goals…

    Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change which is hosting the Bonn conference, said: “These findings underline the rising risks to people, economies and the very fabric of life on Earth if we fail to get on track with the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement”…

    The World Meteorological Organization is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on Weather, Climate and Water…

    Notes for Editors:
    WMO uses three conventional surface temperature data sets – NOAA’s NOAAGlobalTemp data set, Met Office Hadley Centre and Climatic Research Unit HadCRUT.4.6.0.0 data set and NASA GISS’s GISTEMP data set. They use measurements of air temperature over land and sea-water temperature measurements over oceans to estimate temperatures around the globe.
    WMO also uses two reanalyses with a much wider range of input data, including measurements from satellites…

    The provisional statement now uses 1981-2010 as a baseline. This takes the place of the 1961-1990 baseline used in previous reports. The 1981-2010 period is recommended by WMO to compute the climatological standard normal for climate monitoring purposes as it is more representative of current climatic conditions…READ ON
    https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/2017-set-be-top-three-hottest-years-record-breaking-extreme-weather

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    tom0mason

    Bowing to mere populism Jørgen Randers, will have none of it!
    Randers, a professor of climate strategy at BI Norwegian Business School proposes —
    “If people don’t want my preferred solution, then people are stupid, shouldn’t be allowed to decide their fate, and we should install a climate dictatorship instead.”

    A green dictatorship! This is the true face of the Club of Rome (CoR) at work. The CoR are rich and powerful bunch of loony green activists that all too often have the ear of the UN. This idea was first floated by Anders Wijkman, who’s spokesperson for the Club of Rome, of which Jørgen Randers is member of their executive committee.

    Read more of these truly horrific proposals at https://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/posts/10156188900228968:0

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    Cynic of Ayr

    I look at this differently. What I see here is not an investigation, and not a report. I didn’t even bother to read it. I didn’t have to. It was self-explanatory.
    I see an enormous complete and total waste of tax money on what is nothing – nothing – other than a Junket for a Junket’s sake.
    Nothing will come of it. Nothing will be done. It will change nothing.
    If the study was never done, it would not have mattered.
    And this is the Country’s problem. Not that there are too many animals or humans, but because there are thousands too many Gillian Triggs, and Government funded departments, that produce nothing.

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    pat

    Climate Home aka “climatechangenews” reports on the important issues at COP34 in Bonn!

    6 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Zero tolerance for sexual harassment at climate talks, say UN and NGOs
    Sexual harassment policies publicised on first morning of two-week meeting in Bonn, after top lawyer warns talks may not be safe for young women
    By Megan Darby in Bonn
    The UN climate body and a prominent NGO network said there would be zero tolerance for sexual harassment at climate talks, which started in Bonn on Monday.
    In response to reporting from Climate Home News, for the first time, the daily programme issued by the UN secretariat included notice of its zero harassment policy and details of how to report incidents.

    Its lead diplomat Patricia Espinosa spoke about the personal significance of the issue to her, when asked by Climate Home News at an afternoon press briefing.
    “I am really very sensitive to this – I have people in my own family, women in my own family, who have suffered in different circumstances,” Espinosa said.

    Since taking the UN job, Espinosa said she had sought to strengthen its activities on gender issues – although not everybody saw it as central to the climate agenda. ***“It is not easy to really get the resources to have a dedicated team for that,” she said.
    “We have assigned the gender focal point in the secretariat to listen to any [harassment] situation that could arise,” Espinosa added…

    Climate Action Network (Can), which coordinates several campaign groups at the negotiations, also used its morning meeting on Monday to advise members about how they could raise complaints…
    CAN organises a party at each annual UN summit, where negotiators, campaigners and other delegates mingle. A number of attendees have privately told Climate Home News they experienced or witnessed groping at one of these parties…
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/06/zero-tolerance-sexual-harassment-climate-talks-say-un-ngos/

    5 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Leading climate lawyer speaks out over sexual harassment at UN talks
    by Megan Darby
    In a deeply personal article for Climate Home News, lawyer Farhana Yamin shared her experiences and encouraged others to speak up. Yamin described two incidents from the 1990s that she had kept quiet for decades, even from her family…
    She said other women at UN climate negotiations had shared similar stories with her, in private…
    LINK: Me too: I was sexually harassed at UN climate negotiations
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/05/leading-climate-lawyer-speaks-sexual-harassment-un-talks/

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    pat

    6 Nov: CarbonBrief: Which Countries Have Sent the Most Delegates to COP23?
    By multiple authors
    Carbon Brief dives into the data to find out how many people each country has sent to Bonn—and the gender balance of each delegation…

    According to the UNFCCC’s provisional list, there are some 11,300 participants at COP23 on behalf of a particular country or “party.” That’s down from around 15,000 at COP21 in Paris in 2015.
    In addition, there are a further 6,176 attendees representing UN bodies, specialized agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), plus 1,633 journalists covering the talks. This puts the total number of delegates at just more than 19,000—approximately half the number that went to COP21…

    Carbon Brief’s analysis of the provisional list shows that the largest party delegations come from Africa—in fact, the whole top five of our list are African countries.
    In first place is Côte d’Ivoire with 492 participants; a delegation that is 137 people larger than the second-placed country, Guinea (355 people). It’s second place again for Guinea, whose 398-strong delegation was only smaller than Morocco’s (439) at COP21 in Paris.
    Making up the rest of the Top 5 is the Democratic Republic of Congo (340), Congo (308) and Morocco (253).

    The highest-placed European country is Germany in sixth with 230 participants—perhaps unsurprising considering the talks are being held in Bonn.
    Other European parties with sizeable delegations include France (177), Poland (77) and the European Union (76). The UK comes someway down the list with 45, which is the average delegation size across the 196 parties attending Bonn.
    Despite President Donald Trump’s intention to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement, the U.S. has still sent 48 delegates to Bonn. Though this is less than half the number present at COP21 in Paris in 2015. In contrast, neighbors Canada has a team of 161…

    Other prominent CO2 emitters also have large delegations, including Indonesia (158), Brazil (128), Japan (109), China (82) and Russia (71). It’s also worth noting that some countries allocate some of their party badges to NGOs, which can artificially inflate the size of their official delegation.
    You can explore the delegation sizes across all the countries represented at COP23 in the map below. The darker the shading, the more delegates that country has brought along. Mouse over the countries to see the number of delegates and the population size…
    (AUSTRALIA 34)
    https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-sent-most-delegates-cop23

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      Please do not even begin to tell me that this conference is anything other than a junket.

      Those top five Countries with the most number of delegates, all of them from Africa, have a total of 1746 delegates.

      Add up the population of those five Countries and the total is 155.2 Million people. That’s a little less than half the population of the U.S. and yet they have 37 times the number of delegates that the U.S. is sending, and I don’t care if the U.S. has lost interest. Imagine the absolute outcry (from everyone, not just those who may be anti towards the UNFCCC) if the U.S. were to send the same per capita delegates as those five Countries, because that would mean 3634 delegates. There would be an outcry like never heard before.

      Heavens above, the population of Cote D’Ivoire is almost the same as that for Australia, and that Country alone is sending 14.5 times the delegates that Australia is sending.

      What an absolute crock.

      And you wonder why some of this laugh off these junkets important meetings.

      By the way, in the lead up to that Paris conference, I was chasing up all sorts of non climate related matters, but still related in some way to COP21, and it was reported that Hookers were coming to Paris from all across the whole of Europe, because all of these conferences, no matter where they have been held, have proved to be an absolute gold plated bonanza for these, umm, working ladies, which puts into perspective the whole story from pat about gender balance at these conferences.

      And some people wonder why we laugh at the futility of these conferences

      Tony.

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    pat

    6 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Polish coal cash grab attacked by UK, France, Germany
    No support for coal, say several EU nations, as Poland asks for billions generated through emissions trading scheme for its ageing plants
    By Arthur Neslen in Bonn
    A Polish bid to siphon off up to €29bn of EU carbon market money for ageing coal plants has been slapped down in a backroom statement by the UK, France, Germany and four other countries.

    The declaration, which Climate Home News has seen, is in the form of a “non-paper” – a diplomatic demarche – also calls for a tougher emissions performance standard, which would prevent public investment in coal across the EU…
    The governmental ‘non-paper’- also signed by Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – says categorically that fund “should not be used to support any solid fossil fuels-based energy generation”.

    The story emerged as annual UN climate talks began in Bonn, Germany on Monday. Poland will the host next year’s crux COP24 climate summit, on which the strength of the Paris Agreement will rest…
    Concerns about conflicts between the Polish coal industry and the UN agenda to rapidly cut carbon emissions are widespread at the talks…

    The anti-coal declaration from Poland’s wealthier EU neighbours calls for increases in the ETS fund to be clearly linked with speedier moves to decarbonise.
    The governments say resistance by some EU countries to a parliamentary proposal for a 450gCO2/kWh emissions performance standard (EPS) is “problematic”, and concerning.
    The EPS benchmark is significantly tougher than the European commission’s proposed 550gCO2/kWh bar, and would effectively embargo public subsidies for the dirty fuel…

    Femke de Jong, a spokeswoman for carbon Market Watch said it would be “outrageous” to use clean energy funds to bail out Poland’s coal plants…
    For its part, Poland argues that it supports the EU’s climate objectives but not at the expense of its industry’s competitiveness, or energy supply needs…ETC
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/06/polish-coal-cash-grab-attacked-uk-france-germany/

    6 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: ‘Don’t wake the bear’: fragile climate talks begin in Bonn
    Despite calm rhetoric, negotiators are nervous of the Trump effect, telling Climate Home News the Paris consensus ‘can unravel very quickly’
    By Karl Mathiesen
    In the lead up to the annual UN talks in Bonn, which kick off on Monday, rhetoric from all nations has been uniform – confident, calm, defiant…
    But talk to the negotiators who built the deal and it becomes evident that the tumult in the US has created genuine apprehension among those who know this process best…

    “The fragility of the political compromise of Paris has sometimes not been emphasised because we are all nervous. We want it to succeed and we’ve a lot invested in it, as parties, as citizens, as parents,” a senior negotiator said at an event in London last week.
    “But there’s also a lot of nervousness that that package can unravel very quickly… We don’t really yet know what the US will do. They could act with benign neglect and disinterest. Or they could be very disruptive. Or they could be a little bit of a mixture of all of those things.” This point of view was confirmed by other diplomats Climate Home News spoke with…

    On the opposite side of the climate divide from the powerful and recalcitrant US, another group disagrees with the view that the momentum built up around Paris deal is immutable – the multitudinous poor who will suffer the hardest edge of climate change. They believe they made enormous concessions when agreeing the Paris deal – allowing wealthy countries to weaken key passages of the final text for example.

    Yet after all these concessions, they see a wealthy world and big polluters still wriggling away from their commitments. This is not limited to Trump’s US. Germany, the country hosting the talks, is going to miss its 2020 emissions reduction targets by a mile…

    “The truth is that no single party has raised ambition [in their pledge to the Paris deal] since 2012,” said the diplomat quoted earlier from London. Small countries were nearing a crossroads, the source added, at which they could decide the accord was not fit for purpose and disengage from the process.
    The most recent UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap report found the promises made to the Paris deal remain just one third of what is necessary to keep the world below 2C. The less dangerous 1.5C goal remains over the horizon…

    In a statement on Sunday, the UN climate body said the Fijian presidency expects countries to not only meet targets set for 2020, but raise their longer term pledges to the Paris deal over the next year. Indian officials launched a preemptive strike against this last week, flat-out rejecting any talk of increasing their ambition.
    Such rancour sticks in the wheels like molasses. The real fear is not a reversal of the Paris deal, but a deceleration at a time when the planet and every major scientific institution says we need to go faster.
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/06/dont-wake-bear-fragile-climate-talks-begin-bonn/

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      Dave in the States

      Ambitious climate action policies, that are more than lip service, are like other impractical political agenda items, such as gun control in the US, or getting Americans to buy EVs instead of SUVs. It just isn’t going to happen.

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    Dave in the States

    The resentment of the people, especially in the fly over states, to the political and academics classes just doing what they want anyway over the will of the people, and justifying it by saying they have to do it because the people are just too ignorant of “nuances”, had reached a boiling point during Obama. It created first the Tea Party and then Trump. The cat is out of the bag. Its a good thing.

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      Dave in the States

      I might add that we have come to realization that there is little difference between Democrat and Republican politicians and their agendas. Same thing.

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    pat

    pure comedy, from start to finish:

    6 Nov: Deutsche Welle: Dave Keating: COP23: US absence felt on first day of UN climate summit
    The VIPs will not arrive until next week for the intensive final days of the summit. But already, the politicians are gearing up for a battle between people claiming to speak for the United States…

    For the first time ever, the United States did not set up a pavilion at this year’s UN summit – the only developed country not to do so. But a rival group of US governors, mayors and business leaders, called the We Are Still In coalition, is opening a “US Climate Action Center” pavilion on Thursday. It is led by California Governor Jerry Brown and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg…

    “For the first time, the US government is unlikely to create a space at these talks to tell America’s story of climate action,” says Lou Leonard, senior vice president for climate change and energy at the World Wildlife Fund…

    Who’s the boss?
    All of this means there will be two competing US delegations at this year’s summit, which has left people wondering who really speaks for the United States.
    “My view is that the sub-national delegates truly represent the interests of Americans, they are closer to public opinion on this,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group urging climate action, at a press conference today in Bonn.
    “But on the issue of negotiating though, under our system of government it is the executive branch of the federal government that represents the US in these negotiations,” he added…

    With no visible US presence yet in Bonn from either camp, delegates are split over whether to focus more on talking to the official US delegation, or the unofficial one.

    Many believe that the US will not end up pulling out of the agreement, and so it is better to talk to the rival delegation for now. “This is an aberration, and whoever takes power after President Trump will restore the US back into the Paris Agreement,” said Meyer…
    Barbara Hendricks, Germany’s environment minister, told DW that she believes the official US delegation should be engaged with.”I am very pleased, because [US] state secretary Rex Tillerson has a very balanced position,” Hendricks said. “I am confident the American delegation will not disrupt the negotiations.”…

    ***Companies and financial institutions are more involved in this year’s summit than ever before, prompting some grumbling from NGOs who believe the process is being hijacked by strong financial interests…

    Jonathan Taylor, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, gave a press conference in Bonn today saying the public lending institution has seen a huge uptick in private sector commitments in the past months. The bank, which ties its loans with private sources, has pledged to provide €100 billion for climate action projects by 2020.
    ???”We are on track to deliver on our commitment,” he said…

    Anti-US summit?
    Whichever US delegation countries choose to engage with, the resentment felt toward the US decision at the summit runs deep. Trump’s decision was the subject of near-universal scorn at the first day’s press conferences.
    James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who has been nicknamed “the father of climate change awareness” because of his early warnings in congressional testimony in 1988, gave a press conference blasting the Trump decision and presenting the latest climate science. He was joined on stage by his 18-year-old granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, who is suing Trump and the US government for inaction on climate change.
    “Adults, you say you love us, but I challenge you to make your actions match your words,” she said. “If you continue to pursue your selfish aims, the result will be enormous suffering for your children.”

    PICTURE GALLERY: PHOTO#1: Anti-coal demo in Bonn
    Never too late
    “If we don’t try to save the world, then nothing will happen. We are against everything that is bad for the climate,” says 80-year-old Helga.
    http://www.dw.com/en/cop23-us-absence-felt-on-first-day-of-un-climate-summit/a-41262516

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      ivan

      I have said it before and will say it again – the UN and all its agencies is long past its sell by date and should be completely dismantled. Doing that will improve the living standards of almost all of the ‘little people’ of the world, the self important and self styled ‘big people’ will lose out.

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    pat

    what a laugh:

    6 Nov: Bloomberg: How China and Environmentalists Became Unlikely Bedfellows
    by Jess Shankleman With assistance by Feifei Shen
    The nation that spews the most pollution and is building dozens of coal-fired power plants is also winning accolades from the likes of Greenpeace and WWF for its efforts to fight global warming and steer an eventual path away from fossil fuels.

    “Air quality kills competitiveness, kills people — that’s a big driver for China,” said Rachel Kyte, a United Nations special representative who leads the Sustainable Energy for All program. “How that translates into their leadership beyond the way they’re already leading is something that will be important to watch.”…

    Xi is seeking to translate his prestige into gains for China’s diplomatic and trade agenda, opening doors for its rapidly-expanding clean energy businesses — especially the solar panel making industry it dominates…

    For now, environmental groups are praising Xi’s handling of both climate and Trump. Part of is out of necessity: the practices they use in the west of confront and protest wouldn’t work with China…
    Praise for China on the environment is remarkable given the scale of its emissions and that the government has said pollution won’t peak until 2030. While photovoltaic makers including Trina Solar Ltd. and JA Solar Holding Co. are stepping up capacity to feed booming demand at home and abroad, energy in China is dominated by fossil fuels…

    As the U.S. and Europe retire their dirtiest power plants, China by 2040 will install 26 percent of all the new coal-fired generation, according to International Energy Agency data…

    “China has increased its leadership. That’s a matter of fact,” said Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist who has advised the U.K. and European governments on climate policy.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-06/how-china-drew-respect-from-greens-while-boosting-its-pollution

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    pat

    behind paywall at the Telegraph, where the headline is: Fake news! How the BBC and Blue Planet got it wrong, yet again, about walruses and climate change

    4 Nov: GWPF: from UK Telegraph: Christopher Booker: How The BBC and Blue Planet Got It Wrong About Walruses And Climate Change
    There are a few problems with the BBC’s version of the facts
    The BBC got excited about two things last week. One was that topping the list of new words entering this year’s dictionaries is “fake news” (LINK). The other was that, thanks to “human activities” and an El Niño weather event, 2016 saw a record spike in global CO2, taking it up to levels not seen since the Pliocene period “three to five million years” ago, when the world was “two to three degrees warmer” than today, and sea levels up to “20 metres” (66ft) higher thanks to melting polar ice.

    This enabled the BBC yet again to claim that Arctic ice is rapidly vanishing, supported on BBC News by a clip from David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series, intoning that, among species most “seriously affected” by global warming, are walruses, showing hundreds of them desperately squeezing on to a melting ice floe.

    But there are one or two little problems with this BBC version of the facts. First, far from Arctic ice vanishing, there has been no further downward trend in the extent of its summer melting since 2006 (LINK). Its lowest point this September was higher than in seven of the past 11 years.

    Secondly, far from walruses being “seriously affected”, an exhaustive survey by the US Fish and Wildlife Service has found that there are so many more of them than there were 30 years ago that last month it decided not to list Pacific walruses on its endangered species list (LINK).

    Thirdly, what produced that 2016 spike in CO2 and global temperatures was not “human activity” but the unusual warming of the Pacific Ocean by an abnormally strong El Niño. It is this warming that causes the oceans to “outgas” more CO2, not the CO2 that causes the warming: as even the BBC was told when, in July last year, its website quoted the Met Office under the heading “El Niño likely to boost CO2 in 2016”.

    Since that El Niño ended, however, the latest Met Office data show that ocean temperatures have dropped sharply, with global surface temperatures back to where they were in 2002. Which is why the BBC’s reporting of all this last week could scarcely have been a better example of what it likes to scorn as “fake news”.
    https://www.thegwpf.com/christopher-booker-how-the-bbc-and-blue-planet-got-it-wrong-about-walruses-and-climate-change/

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    Tim Hammond

    Not only is this stuff not remotely research (people disagree with things they disagree with, and if you do stuff people disagree with, they don’t rust you) it is most definitely not science.

    They make massive assumptions about cause and effect – backlash caused by populism for example – without any evidence whatsoever.

    I would suggest that the populism and the backlash are one and the same thing.

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    The 9% populist vote in the U.S. in 1892 brought an income tax law “neither” party wanted within less than 2 years as if the socialists had gotten 54% of the vote. The spoiler vote multiplier gave each spoiler vote 6 times the law-changing clout. The Prohibition party averaged 1.4% of the vote and changed the Constitution to make beer and wine a felony as though it had garnered a 2/3 majority. Each dry spoiler vote packed the law-changing power of 21 normal votes. The Libertarian Party in America uses that spoiler vote multiplier effect to cause politicians and judges to repeal or strike down bad laws. Out single electoral vote in 1972 made the Supreme Court put our plank on abortion into law, and cleared the way for Canada to secure full individual rights for women. We saw, we learned, we are repealing national socialist laws and securing individual rights by voting our platform.

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    Roy Hogue

    As someone who realizes that populism potentially could lead to a state where everyone simply tries to go their own way without regard for others and I don’t like to see it go too far.

    On the other hand, I have no use for a dictatorial government micromanaging every aspect of life. The UN come to mind, not to mention my own federal and state governments.

    So let the populism go on. I think it will not go so far as to be a problem.

    In the meantime, what in the name of god are they talking about? It looks like another solution without a problem to solve. Or more accurately, a complaint that things are getting out of the hands of the regulator class and back into local hands — probably a good thing too. I think I’ll laugh at that complaint.

    Researchers have no place these days. They need to run and hide before the populists catch up with them. 😉

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