Midweek Unthreaded

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122 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    Inconvenient new study:

    “As Nature summarizes the study:

    The most surprising revelation from the temperature record is the extent of ocean warming during an event called the Younger Dryas, which occurred about 13,000–11,500 years ago. . . Bereiter and colleagues report that the mean ocean temperature (which reflects the global ocean, but is weighted towards the Southern Hemisphere) increased substantially during the Younger Dryas, much more than had been estimated: the temperature increase was a whopping 1.6 °C in only 700 years. This is about 1.7 times faster than the ocean is warming now because of global climate change. The reasons for this large warming should be investigated.

    The abstract of the study itself calls this sudden warming “enigmatic.” Yet somehow we are told today that our observations of ocean temperature and other environmental change must be attributable to human activity.

    Meanwhile, how much is the ocean warming in recent decades? One of the authors of the study, Jeff Severinghaus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, explained in an online note:

    “Our precision is about 0.2 ºC (0.4 ºF) now, and the warming of the past 50 years is only about 0.1 ºC.”

    Wait, what? First, the estimate of recent warming is very tiny, but moreover it is within the margin of error of their technique. So do we really know anything at all about current ocean temperature trends?”

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/01/climate-cancel-the-boiling-oceans.php

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    • #
      Bill Johnston

      And really anyway how many ultra-sensitive satellites were orbiting; how many Argos were bathescaping; how many continents were in the same place they are now?

      Provided the money’s good (and its not their’s) they’ll publish anything these days!

      Cheers,

      Dr. Bill

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      Kinky Keith

      Without referring back to the graphs, this enigma seems to occur right in the middle of the big melt at the end of the last ice age.

      There was one very noticeable slowdown in the post glacial temperature rise before it gathered pace again. Come to think of it the graph I’m referring to is about sea level rise, not temp.

      The 700 year period may have simply coincided with a slowdown in ice dropping into the oceans for a while thus allowing ocean temps to take off a bit until the next big batch of ice arrived.

      Remember the ice field over New York was just under a mile thick and melted in stages.

      It’s wonderful that they can measure the ocean temp to + or – 0.2C but just how they relate the measured temperature of say one cubic metre of ocean to the rest of the ocean is a mystery to me.

      KK

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      • #
        Frederick Bennett

        Trying to relate mean ocean temperature to the measured temperature of say one cubic metre of ocean would be mysterious.
        Severinghaus et al. use ice core samples to determine atmospheric noble gas mixing ratios. Past global mean ocean temperature may be reconstructed from measurements of atmospheric noble gas concentrations in ice core bubbles.

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        • #
          Kinky Keith

          I was thinking of the given accuracy in the above post and previous comments about the use of Ceres EMR analysis.

          Apparently the Ceres data was standardised against ocean temps.

          I can appreciate the value of the data you describe.

          🙂

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  • #
    Peter C

    Someone gave Midweek Unthreaded a one star rating before the first comment had even been made.

    Lurking red thumber is keeping a close vigil!

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Its hole aim in life is to give red thumbs.

      Its doesn’t know why, its just a psycho-pathetic response.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        I wonder if Jo could implement a policy somehow that you cannot leave a red thumb until you have replied to a post. 🙂

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        • #
          Bodge it an scarpa

          Should have a system where the red and green thumbers can be identified, as are the ‘Likers’ on Facebook. Those eligible to give thumbs must sign in, as required to make a comment.

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        • #

          I think the thumbs up and thumbs down should be deleted.

          Science is not based on a popular vote.

          A comment should not be tainted by a popular vote.

          Let people read them and make their own decisions.

          It’s too tempting to avoid reading comments
          that have a bunch of thumbs down

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    • #
      el gordo

      The mid week fred is a good idea, the reporters get the opportunity to develop their strengths in a fast moving environment.

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    • #
      Roger

      Here’s something for red-thumbers to think about:

      Finding Genuine Global Warming is like searching for Faeries at the bottom of your garden ….. the only places on earth it can be found are in random electronic noise in Climate Scientists computer programmes and in heavily doctored climate ‘records’.

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      • #
        Roger

        Clue for red-thumbers – you won’t find global warming if you look at the original, undoctored climate records as ‘record’ temperatures today are below those of the thermometer-recorded past.

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        • #

          Roger Roger, you naughty boy :

          It’s either getting warmer or cooler —
          doesn’t really matter, although
          warming is more pleasant than cooling.

          There has been some warming since 1850.

          The data are very rough, and tainted by leftists,
          so maybe there was +2 degrees or warming
          or next to none — I’m being hopeful
          by assuming +/- 1 degree C. error margins
          — could easily be worse than that.

          I think most evidence shows there was
          a harmless amount of warming.

          And if there was no warming,
          then there was cooling — the only
          very unlikely situation is no change
          at all for a hundred years.

          What undoctored thermometer records?
          The dog ate them.

          Half the planet had few measurements
          from 1880 to 1940 except Australia.

          Even today over half the grids have no thermometer data at all
          — just wild guesses from smarmy government bureaucrats!

          So at least half the “temperature record” starts out doctored.

          My climate change blog:

          http://www.elOnionBloggle.blogspot.com

          Where I predict global warming,
          unless there is global cooling,
          or no change at all,
          with a confidence level
          level of 100%

          (the IPCC is only 95% confident
          = who needs them?)

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    • #
      TdeF

      If the ozone hole is caused by humans, why isn’t it in the Northern Hemisphere? Only 2% of people live South of the Tropic of Capricorn

      Why isn’t there an ozone hole over the North Pole, affecting the lives of the 60% of people who live North of the Tropic of cancer? This man made Ozone hole does not pass the pub test.

      As the 98% of the carbon dioxide ‘pollution’ in Australia comes from overseas, why are we paying the world’s highest carbon taxes in the RET? Why isn’t China, the US and Europe paying us for their massive damage to our environment.

      What about compensation for Malcolm Turnbull whose $50Million Point Piper mansion is threatened by Climate Change an rapid sea rise? Oh, the humanity. Does no one spare a thought for poor Malcolm and his Carbon trading schemes?

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      • #
        el gordo

        Ozone depletion maybe a natural variable.

        “The Antarctic ozone hole was exceptionally weak this year,” said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This is what we would expect to see given the weather conditions in the Antarctic stratosphere.”

        ‘The smaller ozone hole in 2017 was strongly influenced by an unstable and warmer Antarctic vortex – the stratospheric low pressure system that rotates clockwise in the atmosphere above Antarctica. This helped minimize polar stratospheric cloud formation in the lower stratosphere. The formation and persistence of these clouds are important first steps leading to the chlorine- and bromine-catalyzed reactions that destroy ozone, scientists said. These Antarctic conditions resemble those found in the Arctic, where ozone depletion is much less severe.’

        Science Daily

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        • #
          Mark D.

          I’ll go one further and suggest that if ozone is human caused then co2 must also follow the same atmospheric path. i.e. all the effect of co2 should appear in the southern hemisphere just like northern sourced ozone ending with a southern ozone “hole”.

          So where is most of the “observed” warming? Hint: there are white bears……..

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          • #
            TdeF

            Amazingly the average temperature of the North Pole is 0C. (The South Pole is -25C) As an obvious consequence the area is very susceptible to tiny variations, even in one area. That creates drama which can be exploited as Global Warming, whether it is or not. So what might be seen as a good thing for shipping generally is twisted into a terrible portent of armageddon, all based on a swing of +/-1C in an area.

            Then when the sea around the Great Barrier reef is slightly warmer, that is sure and certain proof of Global Warming, even without explaining how it happened? So coral bleaching is blamed on coal. The only thing missing is any explanation at all.

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          • #
            el gordo

            I see your white bears and raise.

            Dupont produced the CFCs at the time and their patent was running out, so they invented hydrochlorofluorcarbons (HCFC) as a replacement.

            They were naturally supportive of the scare campaign and the speedy adoption of HCFC to stop further ozone depletion, hence the Montreal Protocol.

            From a scientific perspective ozone is created by UV hitting free oxygen in the atmosphere, which is presumably why Antarctica depletes in the Austral winter.

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            • #
              TdeF

              Antarctica is also at 4,000 metres and -25C colder than the arctic, but who needs facts when you want to sell a new refrigerant?

              Don’t forget the punitive government taxes which make it cheaper in Australia to buy a new Chinese airconditioner than to replace the gas in the old one. Climate Change, Ozone Hole, Heavy metals, shut everything down and send all the business to China. This is the only consistent theme of the Greens.

              Why are the windmills only in rich countries who don’t need them?

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              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Why are the windmills only in rich countries who don’t need them?’

                Because they are the biggest emitters of a harmless trace gas and need to be taught a lesson.

                Beijing is on steep learning curve and reckon they can be just as ruthless as the Americans, but clearly the behaviour of Dupont would be difficult to beat.

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          • #
            sceptic56109

            Isn’t it strange that the ozone hole over Antarctica coincides with the Antarctic Vortex which blows for a couple of months every year. I suggest it is obvious that lack of diffusion drives the ozone hole when the Vortex is active. Almost no ozone is produced over Antarctica because very little direct sunlight (ultraviolet) reaches the atmosphere above Antarctica.

            Therefore, inside the Vortex, dust or other contaminants destroy the ozone, and it cannot readily be replaced. When the winds stop blowing, the ozone hole gets becomes less distinct and migrates, sometimes reaching parts of Australia.

            Re the Arctic showing the effects of GLOBAL WARMING first, how come the last commercial vessel to navigate the North West Passage, in open water, did so in 1945? That means that it was warmer then, no?

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      • #
        Bill Johnston

        Mal might own the whole hole and shift it to where he wants. He is big on selfies for instance.

        Bill

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  • #
    TdeF

    Three nearly hot days in Melbourne, 31, 38, 39 followed by a cool change. Panic. That’s our summer. Under 30 then. Wait for Will Steffen of the privately funded ‘Climate Council’ to announce the End of Days.

    I remember one summer in Melbourne in the 1980s, only three days under 30 and down the beach every day. That was before Global Warming made the place cold and wet for summer. At least we are not paying the Climate Commissioners for advice on the climate, not one of them a meteorologist.

    Haven’t noticed the rapid and devastating sea rise either. Today the sea was right out for a hundred meters at the St. Kilda marina, so I suppose this devastating sea rise must be an average. The fairy penguins have a long walk.

    Does Climate Change really cause Bushfires? Does Climate Change make it dump rain in Perth? Did droughts and hurricanes and floods occur before Climate Change? Does Climate Change make the government of Bangladesh hand out blankets, or is that an Arctic blast?

    Was anything true?

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  • #
    Mark M

    It was 20 years ago today
    That Hansen told the world to pray
    sea levels are gonna rise
    and the world is gonna fry
    So let me introduce to you
    the truth after all these years
    Hansen’s doomsday global warming scam

    https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1988&dat=20080624&id=7mgiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7qkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5563,4123490

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    • #
      TdeF

      So someone 40 today has never known a world without Hansen’s man made Global Warming.

      Tragic. That’s new science. A wild hypothesis that mankind is wholly responsible for the planet’s temperature made fact by repetition and opportunism and political edict. It is also the universal view of the left of politics only, so it has become Political Climate Science an unholy alliance between communists, socialists, opportunists, manufacturers and China to undermine and tax Western democracies with science fantasy.

      Opportunist and self promoter Hansen will be remembered. As the Elron Hubbard of Climate Scientology.

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      • #
        TdeF

        That’s Lafayette Ronald Hubbard.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        Don’r knock fantasy. Someone is making a lot of money off of L. Ron Hubbard’s little fantasy.

        There is an opinion I once saw that Scientology was just a science fiction novel. I don’t know for sure one way or another but I would avoid Scientology up to and including may last breath.

        Science it ain’t.

        That global warming has lived 40 plus years is a travesty. But as I have said before, nothing stays around longer than a bad idea.

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      • #
        RickWill

        The propaganda has been effective with “Climate Change” being a synonym for burning fossil fuel. Another synonym for “Climate Change” is destructive weather conditions. With this understanding it is easy to connect destructive weather to burning fossil fuel; its logical.

        It has become very important for the propaganda machine to link any destructive or adverse weather conditions to Climate Change. In fact any weather that has negative consequences is the result of Climate Change. For example increased cloud cover, due to Climate Change, reduces output from solar panels. Likewise lower wind due to Climate Change reduces output from wind generators. Large hail stones that are due to Climate Change wreck cars and solar panels. High winds that are a consequence of Climate Change destroy wind turbines. High temperatures due to Climate change cause wind turbines to catch on fire. And so it goes on. Think of something bad and link it to Climate Change. Flooding rains are caused by Climate Change. Droughts are caused by Climate Change.

        It is not difficult to understand why the Vatican has been so willing to latch onto this new religion; Climate Change is the new devil. No one should ever speak good of Climate Change – it truly is evil.

        The belief in the evil of Climate Change is so entrenched that we should see it being a valid defence in criminal cases. Why did you rob the grocery store? We had been ravaged by Climate Change and had no other option.

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        • #
          Asp

          “It has become very important for the propaganda machine to link any destructive or adverse weather conditions to Climate Change.”

          Actually, it is more challenging than that. The propaganda machine now has to link adverse weather to Climate Change to CO2 emissions to Donald Trump.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            By now Donald Trump has caused everything someone doesn’t like since 1620 when the first ships landed in Plymouth. He’s sure an energetic little trouble maker. I couldn’t cause half that much trouble if I tried for my whole lifetime. I don’t know how he does it. Even with fake news it’s too much for one man but he did it nevertheless.

            Need I mention /sarc? 😉

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Why did you rob the grocery store? We had been ravaged by Climate Change and had no other option.

          Why not? Some pretty weak kneed excuses have been offered for criminal behavior. The dishonest are always looking for a new way to beat the rap.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Mark,

      Thanks for the joke. I needed a good laugh today. 🙂

      Hansen has faded into the background these days. Unfortunately his acolyte, Al Gore is still out there making trouble. I wonder when someone with a wide audience will relegate him to the trash heap.

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    • #
      RicDre

      “It was 20 years ago today
      That Hansen told the world to pray
      sea levels are gonna rise
      and the world is gonna fry
      So let me introduce to you
      the truth after all these years
      Hansen’s doomsday global warming scam”

      Is that sung to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts club band?

      40

    • #
      Bodge it an scarpa

      So the Climate Change Scam has survived for over 2 decades.
      There is little sign in the world outside of these sceptical blogs of diminishing support for the scammers and scare merchants. Quite the contrary. So if the scam survives another 2 or more decades before it is finally exposed to the public at large for the [snip] that it is, how many of the Hansens, Flanneries etc etc will still be around to be held to account for their gross misdeeds ?
      Not Many I’ll wager, and those that are still living will.be too old to prosecute, even though they have in affect committed what amounts to crimes against humanity !

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    • #

      Mark M
      That was really a clever comment

      a masterpiece

      The fact that I read your words
      to the St Pepper tune
      after the first sentence
      shows how old I am.

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  • #
    pat

    16 Jan: MetroUK: It’s so cold in Russia people’s eyelashes are freezing – it’s -62°C
    by Richard Hartley-Parkinson
    The official weather station at the ‘pole of cold’ registered minus 59°C, but locals said their readings were as low as minus 67°C – less than 1°C off the lowest accepted temperature for a permanent settlement anywhere in the world, recorded in the same village in 1933…

    The digital thermometer was installed last year to help Oymyakon market itself to tourists, but it gave up the ghost at minus 62C. ‘It broke because it was too cold,’ reported The Siberian Times (LINK)…

    In 1933, a temperature of minus 67.7°C was recorded in Oymyakon, accepted as the lowest ever in the northern hemisphere…
    http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/16/cold-russia-peoples-eyelashes-freezing-62c-7232410/

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  • #
    Mark M

    Correction (in retrospect)

    play > pay

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  • #
    pat

    16 Jan: GWPF: EuroActiv: Europe’s Green Energy Burning Is Killing 40,000 People Per Year, Study Claims
    by Linde Zuidema
    https://www.thegwpf.com/europes-green-energy-burning-is-killing-40000-people-per-year-new-study-claims/

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Not sure if anyone noticed this story yesterday but because it was from the wailing warmistas over at the doom and gloom “ARC centre of excellence ” I thought it would be the usual garbage but after reading it I noticed no air raid sirens .
    Not sure what’s going on here have I missed something or are they changing their tune ?

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-16/rising-sea-levels-could-shrink-australia-coastal-exodus/9333400

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      sea levels expected to rise by up to a metre by 2100

      That’s the nonsense quote. Straight from the scare mongers at the IPCC.

      To get such a rise we’d need to be seeing something like 10 mm per annum; whereas it’s about one tenth of that at present.

      So that’s why it’s on their ABC. It’s a nonsense.

      And, of course, nobody ever talks about the 5.5 cm per annum lateral northern shift of the tectonic plate that Australia rides on. Seems, according to the scare mongers “science”, that a lateral shift of that magnitude has no change occurring to the vertical component.

      Rubbish “science” by rubbish climate non-“scientists”.

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  • #
    pat

    16 Jan: AP: Cost climbs by $2.8 billion for California bullet train
    By KATHLEEN RONAYNE
    Officials increased the cost estimate for the first phase of California’s high speed rail project by 35 percent on Tuesday, to $10.6 billion.
    That would put the entire cost of the train from San Francisco to Los Angeles at roughly $67 billion, although officials said they hope to recover the newly announced costs later.
    “Our first responsibility is to be transparent and forthright,” said Dan Richard, chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority’s board. “We’ve got to enhance active management of this program.”…
    When voters approved $10 billion in bonds for the project in 2008, officials estimated the project would cost $40 billion…

    Money to build the train comes from voter-backed bonds, federal dollars and revenue from California’s ***cap-and-trade program. Republicans and rail critics have long called it a waste of state money. Its proponents, though, argue California needs a quicker and cleaner form of transportation up and down the state…
    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_HIGH_SPEED_RAIL?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2018-01-16-17-21-21

    14 Jan: LA Times: Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?
    by Kerry Jackson
    (Kerry Jackson is the Pacific Research Institute’s fellow in California studies. This essay was adapted from the winter issue of City Journal)
    Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income…

    The California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1971, is one example; it can add $1 million to the cost of completing a housing development, says Todd Williams, an Oakland attorney who chairs the Wendel Rosen Black & Dean land-use group. CEQA costs have been known to shut down entire homebuilding projects. CEQA reform would help increase housing supply, but there’s no real movement to change the law.

    Extensive environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions make energy more expensive, also hurting the poor. By some estimates, California energy costs are as much as 50% higher than the national average. Jonathan A. Lesser of Continental Economics, author of a 2015 Manhattan Institute study, “Less Carbon, Higher Prices,” found that “in 2012, nearly 1 million California households faced … energy expenditures exceeding 10% of household income. In certain California counties, the rate of energy poverty was as high as 15% of all households.” A Pacific Research Institute study by Wayne Winegarden found that the rate could exceed 17% of median income in some areas…

    Apparently content with futile poverty policies, Sacramento lawmakers can turn their attention to what historian Victor Davis Hanson aptly describes as a fixation on “remaking the world.” The political class wants to build a costly and needless high-speed rail system…

    With a permanent majority in the state Senate and the Assembly, a prolonged dominance in the executive branch and a weak opposition, California Democrats have long been free to indulge blue-state ideology while paying little or no political price. The state’s poverty problem is unlikely to improve while policymakers remain unwilling to unleash the engines of economic prosperity that drove California to its golden years.
    http://beta.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-california-poverty-20180114-story.html

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  • #
    pat

    16 Jan: ClimateChangeNews: Logging surge threatens a quarter of Estonia’s forest, warn conservationists
    Baltic state lobbied for flexibilities in EU rules to enable a dramatic increase in forestry, turning its thriving woodland into a net emitter of carbon by 2030
    By Arthur Neslen in Tallinn
    (Estonian Forest Aid covered expenses for the author’s visit to Estonia)
    A quarter of Estonia’s forestland is at imminent risk from a major logging increase, aided by “flexibilities” in EU rules that the Baltic state championed…
    Estonia has the EU’s second most intensively farmed forests (after Belgium), with logging making up 91% of forest activity. It is also the OECD’s most carbon-intensive country, depending heavily on shale oil for its electricity.

    To meet EU green targets, the Baltic state burns biomass for the vast majority of its renewable energy – 96% in 2012 – and more will be needed by 2030. A billion-euro “biorefinery” is due to open in 2022, churning wood into pulp for applications including power generation. This raises fears among conservation scientists of a catastrophic spike in deforestation under the banner of renewable energy…

    On Wednesday 17 January, the European Parliament votes on a proposal to ban the use of whole trees in sustainably certified biomass. Last month, 15 experts – including eight lead authors of UN climate science reports – warned that the EU’s plans would otherwise “increase global warming for decades to centuries, even when wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas”.

    The scientists wrote: “By 1850, the use of wood for bioenergy helped drive the near deforestation of western Europe even at a time when Europeans consumed relatively little energy. Although coal helped to save the forests of Europe, the solution is not to go back to burning forest.”…
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/01/16/logging-surge-threatens-quarter-estonias-forest-warn-conservationists/

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  • #
    pat

    part 2:

    16 Jan: CarbonBrief: Leo Hickman: Timeline: The history of climate modelling
    The climate models used by scientists today rely on some of the world’s most advanced supercomputers. It can take dozens of highly skilled people to build and then operate a modern-day climate model…

    Scroll through the various slides within the interactive timeline, above, by clicking on the arrows. Or you can use the calendar above each slide to jump to a particular moment within the history.

    Carbon Brief would like to thank Prof Paul N Edwards, author of A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming, and Dr Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, for their suggestions and feedback during the timeline’s compilation.
    https://www.carbonbrief.org/timeline-history-climate-modelling

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  • #
    pat

    16 Jan: Bloomberg: Shell Gives North Sea Shot in Arm With Field Redevelopment
    By Kelly Gilblom
    Royal Dutch Shell to drill eight new wells in Penguins field
    The Anglo-Dutch oil major will build a floating production, storage and offloading vessel — its first new manned installation in almost three decades — to take output from eight wells it plans to drill. Peak production will be the equivalent of 45,000 barrels a day, with a break-even price of less than $40 a barrel, Shell said on Monday…

    Penguins, a joint venture between Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp., is already operational after first being developed in 2002. Oil from the field — about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of the Shetland Islands — will be transported by tanker to refineries, while the gas will be sent by a pipeline to the St. Fergus terminal in Scotland…

    The U.K. is making it easier to claim tax relief to encourage companies to apply new technology to extract oil and gas from fields previously considered too expensive and difficult to develop.
    The U.K. Oil and Gas Authority said the redevelopment is “a vote of confidence” for the area…
    “We are expecting further high-value projects to move forward to sanction this year, which will help prolong U.K. production for many years,” Andy Samuel, OGA chief executive, said in a statement.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-15/shell-gives-north-sea-operations-shot-in-arm-at-penguins-field

    15 Jan: Reuters: Ron Bousso: Shell OKs first UK North Sea project in six years
    The project will generate a profit even with oil prices below $40 a barrel, Shell said in a statement, making it competitive against other offshore basins and most of North America’s shale production…
    After Penguins, Shell is expected to decide on a number of new projects in the central North Sea in the next year or two, Phimister said…
    The company intends to maintain its production at this level into 2030, he added…

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    pat

    behind paywall…

    Swansea lagoon backer urges ministers to look beyond cost
    Financial Times-19 hours ago
    The government should not abandon a £1.3bn tidal power project in Swansea Bay even though other forms of renewable energy are growing increasingly cheaper, according to the former minister whose official report recommended the scheme. Charles Hendry, 58, acknowledged that Swansea Bay would be significantly more expensive than the latest offshore wind projects but said tidal power could make similar cost improvements with government backing.

    “Some people’s reaction has been to say, ‘if you can get offshore wind at £57.50, why do you need anything else?’,” said Mr Hendry. “I think that is 100% the wrong conclusion. If we can do that in offshore wind, we should be asking what are the other low-carbon power sources where the UK can realistically aspire to lead.”

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  • #
    pat

    15 Jan: Deutsche Welle: Jens Thurau: Opinion: Goodbye to an unrealistic climate goal
    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seems to think restricting global warming to below 1.5 degrees is not realistic anymore. What sounds like defeat could be an opportunity, writes Jens Thurau.
    So far it’s just a news item – the actual IPCC report won’t be released until fall. But if media reports are to be believed, the world’s leading climate scientists appear to be admitting defeat when it comes to international climate protection. Their message: You can forget about keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
    “With a 66 percent probability, it lies beyond our capabilities,” the IPCC is quoted as saying.

    This infatuation with mathematical exactitude is one of the IPCC’s trademarks. In the past, it frequently led to reports that were hard to understand. But this time, the meaning is pretty clear: our greenhouse gas emissions until now and especially states’ current policies as well as their investments in the energy sector make sticking to the 1.5-degree cap practically impossible…

    ***Trying to stick to the 1.5-degree goal would mean bringing the global economy to a screeching halt. That alone makes it completely unrealistic…
    http://www.dw.com/en/opinion-goodbye-to-an-unrealistic-climate-goal/a-42158075

    writer then tries to keep the CAGW dream alive and developing countries on board!

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    Robber

    Matt in the Australian, commenting on an article by Maurice Newman “The Inconvenient Truth that Catastrophists are Wrong”.

    “I wrote this a few years ago. It’s based on the famous bush ballad “Said Hanrahan”, a poem about climate alarmism published in 1919″.
    SAID FLANNERY With apologies to John O’Brien.
    ‘We’ll all be rooned,’ said Flannery,
    In a tone smug and forlorn,
    Outside a desalination plant,
    One sunny summer’s morn.

    The left wing media huddled about,
    All credulous and green,
    And dreamed of terrifying headlines,
    Such as no one’s ever seen.

    ‘The rain we get won’t fill the dams,’
    Said Flannery, filled with gloom
    ‘Global warming will dry the land
    Our water supply is doomed.’

    ‘It’s a moral challenge’ K. Rudd declared,
    ‘That defines our century.
    If we’re ever going to stop this drought,
    We’ll need a spending spree.

    ‘It’s Climate Change!’ wept Greg Combet
    ‘Big Business is to blame!
    We need to tax their profits away
    Or it’s never going to rain!’

    ‘Rainfall’s down’ mourned old Bob Brown,
    ‘It’s the Big Polluter’s greed!
    We’ve got to tax them out into the ground
    To make this drought recede.’

    And Australians kept using power still,
    Heating and cooling their homes the same,
    And Lefties talked of carbon, and solar and windmills
    Promoting alarmist claims.

    And rain it did, in God’s good time,
    As it had rained before
    From Towong up to Condamine,
    The rain did pour and pour.

    The rain came down and didn’t stop
    The rivers and the dams,
    Were overflowing to the top,
    All across this once dry land.

    ‘We’ll all be rooned,’ said Flannery
    ‘The science is very clear
    This flood was caused by Industry
    Polluting the atmosphere!’

    ‘That’s right’ Professor Steffan revealed
    ‘This flood is what we’d expect,
    For we know that climate change is real,
    And the models are correct.

    ‘We’ll all be rooned’ Said Flannery,
    Ad nauseum, ever changing his tune
    Weather events of this extremity
    Will increase in frequency soon.

    And the climate kept on changing
    Unaffected by man’s C02
    Ms Gillard lied and brought in a Carbon tax,
    With a tax on mining too.

    ‘We’ll all be rooned’, said the man on the street,
    Whose bills continued to rise
    The country’s got no money
    We’ve wasted it all on lies.

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      Graeme#4

      The Australian is now introducing more articles on climate at a rate of almost one a day. Each article attracts a huge number of comments, with today’s article by Maurice Newman garnering well over 700 comments. Most of the comments are supportive of MN, and it seems that there now is far more support for the anti-AGW viewpoint, at least from the readers.

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    Dave in the States

    I attended a city council meeting tonight accompanying boy scouts who were working on a citizenship merit badge. One of the interesting topics was brought up by a council women asking about a study result to replace diesel powered garbage trucks with natural gas powered garbage trucks. We have no air pollution problem here, so I was left wondering why this was something she wanted done? I have no problem with natural gas power but it seems like a unnecessary expense when we already have perfectly good diesel powered garbage trucks. Fortunately, the city engineer shot that down in flames. He reported that it would cost a lot more money than it could ever recoup.

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    pat (I think) mentioned the other day of an article how renewables are proving that they are the way to go, and one commenter at that article mentioned that journalists have no concept of how electrical power is generated, distributed and consumed, hence they disseminate a false truth about that, misleading the public in so doing.

    So then, keeping that in mind, you tell me which of these four FACTS will get reported.

    ONE. China now has the largest amount of wind power on Earth. Yep! That’s true. China now has a Nameplate of 160GW of wind, just a little less than double the Country in second place, the U.S.

    TWO. The actual power delivered from that wind power in China however is nowhere even close to double that of the U.S. The power generated from all that Chinese wind power comes in at 271TWH, and that’s at a Capacity Factor (CF) of 19.3%. The U.S. generates 230TWH from all its wind power at a CF of 31%, so while Nameplate is almost double actual power generated is only 15% higher.

    THREE. China is getting out of coal fired power because of their huge amount of renewables.

    FOUR. China generates more power just from coal fired sources than the U.S. generates from EVERY source of power generation. China generates 4180TWH of power from coal fired sources, and the U.S. generates 4077TWH from EVERY source of power generation.

    (Hint – yes, no, yes, no)

    What journalists fail to understand here is the total power generation in China which, while HUGE amounts of wind Nameplate look great, when compared to actual total power generation wind power then shrinks considerably, and while there is huge amounts of wind power, it delivers its power at a much lower efficiency (CF) than those in the U.S. again something journalists don’t even understand, let alone report on.

    Some time during 2011, China surpassed the U.S. as the largest power generating Country on Earth, barely seven years ago, and now China generates in total 40% more power than the U.S.

    Then you have electrical power actually delivered to the Residential Sector. In the U.S. that comes in at 38%. Here in Australia, it’s around 28%. Yet in China, it’s still only 14%, and the benefits of constructing monumentally huge amounts of new power is that more power becomes available to that Residential sector, people in their homes, because in 2011, that residential Sector power availability was only 7.5%.

    Nup! None of this gets reported, because journalists have no comprehension of what is actually happening. They look at that huge figure of wind power Nameplate, and make so many false assumptions that then get taken as being fact.

    No one actually bothers to go and check, because they don’t know how to, other than visit Wiki, which will basically just repeat what the journalists have written.

    Tony.

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      Now, we can’t use China as a ‘template’ for an Australian situation as their wind power barely manages 19% CF, which is similar to full power for around four and a half hours a day, averaged across the year for their 270TWH.

      Australia currently generates around 250TWH per year from EVERY source, so the U.S. situation would be closer to ours with their total power generation of 230TWH, considering their CF is closer to ours here in Australia. (their 31% compared to our 30%)

      Intermittency aside, meaning some days generation would be nowhere near what is actually needed for consumption, all that means is we need the same or similar Nameplate to what they have in the U.S. to give us the same total power generation.

      So then, with the U.S. having a Nameplate of around 840GW, all we need here in Australia, is every wind plant in Australia ….. multiplied by, umm, 193.

      Got it now?

      Tony.

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        The world’s pipeline and sea lane tensions grow, especially as China seeks to forge its One Belt One Road on land and sea. It’s reached a point where China’s pipeline from Burma is not to be mentioned or mapped in China. (Unfortunately the deep water oil port in Burma is a hotspot which certain Western agencies might want to make hotter.)

        What gets discussed less are the tensions over hydro, the renewable which is so handy for making the renewable sector as a whole look efficacious. Mountainous regions tend to be poor and their water often benefits more prosperous regions. However, with hydro places like Nepal, Kashmir, other parts of Pakistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgystan, Kurdistan, Ethiopia etc can gain big economic advantages…to the displeasure of those downstream. Add to that the possible breakdown of hydro through either drought or flood. And add to that the tendency of greenies to block dams even while they use dam output figures to boost the efficacy of “renewables”.

        Imagine if there was a country with a domestic power source which was dense, easily accessed and often close to generation point. Imagine if one had centuries of supply of that power source and much of the infrastructure was already in place. No pipelines, no sea lanes, no vulnerabilities to weather, no crossing of borders, no supply shortages, no waiting…no problems!

        But surely no country is that lucky.

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        Please somebody, tell me when I’m wrong. Even I make mistakes. (my bolding here)

        So then, with the U.S. having a Nameplate of around 840GW for wind power, all we need here in Australia, is every wind plant in Australia ….. multiplied by, umm, 193.

        That’s not 840GW but 84GW, so I was out by a factor of 10, so the end result is Australia’s total wind Nameplate multiplied by 19.3, or twenty times.

        You all have my humblest apologies for that.

        Even so, it’s still pretty ridiculous really. They would be hard pressed to double our total wind power Nameplate let alone increase it by a factor of 20.

        Tony.

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    pat

    have a laugh:

    15 Jan: CNN: Dear President Trump: Churchill would have been a climate leader
    By Sir Nicholas Soames
    Editor’s Note: Sir Nicholas Soames has been a Conservative member of the UK Parliament since 1983. He is a former Army officer, and a former Armed Forces minister. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

    For President Trump, the Paris Agreement is a bad deal that will close US businesses — perhaps even has closed some already…
    Meanwhile, in London last week, Prime Minister Theresa May was launching the UK’s 25-year Plan for Nature. Its flagship pledge is to “leave the environment in a better state than we found it” — including forests, seas, rivers, soil, animals and plants.
    Reducing carbon emissions is a central part of the plan…

    Mr Trump is, of course, a right-wing leader like no other. Definitely not an inhabitant of the great tradition that gave us Presidents such as Reagan and the two Bushes. But it is right to give him the credit of wanting to do what is the best for his people. So let us look at who is right on climate change, the Paris Agreement, and the economy…
    http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/15/opinions/churchill-would-have-been-a-climate-leader-opinion/index.html

    LOL:

    17 Jan: ClimateChangeNews: UK climate strategy has ‘significant gaps’, advisers warn
    By Chloé Farand for DeSmog UK
    The UK government must urgently formulate new policies to bridge the “significant gaps” between its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its legally-binding targets to tackle climate change, a panel of experts has warned.

    The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the government’s official climate policy adviser, said in a report analysing the UK’s clean growth strategy that it “does not go far enough” to meet commitments under the legally binding Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement.
    The committee called on the government to “take urgent action” if it is to achieve its emission targets in the 2020s and 2030s and eventually reduce emissions at least 80% below 1990s levels by 2050.

    The CCC said that “even if delivered in full”, existing and new policies would fail to meet the interim goals set by the fourth and fifth carbon budgets “by a significant margin”.
    Chairman of the CCC John Gummer (also known as Lord Deben) said the government will have to “put flesh on the bone” of existing and new policies to explain how it is going to close that gap…

    This is an excerpt from a longer article by DeSmog UK (LINK)
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/01/17/uk-climate-strategy-significant-gaps-advisers-warn/

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      MudCrab

      Climate leader? Debatable. Remember that ‘Climate’ is in many ways a popular movement based on massive amounts of ‘me too’ and not wanting to be seen to offend the Cool Kids. Standing up against it is openly frowned upon. Would Churchill jump on that bandwagon because everyone told him to? Or would he see it as a threat to the UK and pushed back?

      What is more likely is that he would have seen Global Warming(tm) as a chance to sail the Home Fleet across the now ice free North Pole and attack the Japanese in the Pacific.

      Churchill would have also called, behind closed doors, a spade a spade, and then surprise attacked the French.

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    pat

    13 Jan: Australian Spectator: Keep on tweeting, Mr President
    by David Flint
    The only proper assessment of the President must be on his achievements. These include the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, thus ensuring America will have the world’s lowest energy costs which, with taxation and regulatory reform is a sound basis for US economic resurgence…

    Meanwhile in America, the elites are horrified that along with the President’s successes, the Mueller investigation into Russian collusion is unravelling…
    https://www.spectator.com.au/2018/01/keep-on-tweeting-mr-president/

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    pat

    a Republican critic gets a word in near the very end of this lengthy piece.

    12 Jan: SanJoseMercuryNews: Julie Cart: California’s climate fight gets harder soon, and the big culprit is cars
    Emissions reduction must hit 40 percent by 2030 and twice that by 2050. In 12 years, half the state’s energy must come from renewable sources such as wind and sun. California’s 14 million buildings must operate twice as efficiently, and the number of electric cars on the road will have to multiply more than 10 times. Failure would likely mean more extreme measures in later years and, many experts say, could affect public health…

    The scope of the state’s approach is all-encompassing. By law or executive order, every state agency must consider climate change when making any planning decision. Developers must take into account how far motorists travel to reach a destination, forests will be managed so that trees store more carbon dioxide and highway builders have to calculate the possibility that rising seas might inundate the roads…

    Although California has decreed that auto manufacturers sell a percentage of zero-emission vehicles, there is no mandate that drivers purchase the pricey cars…
    That would change with legislation proposed by Assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco. Ting’s bill would ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California by 2040, mirroring bans proposed by some European countries. The idea went nowhere when Ting proposed it last year, and its prospects now are unclear.

    While gas-sipping hybrids such as the Prius are nearly ubiquitous and certainly helpful, only true zero-emission vehicles can bring about the scale of change the state’s goals require, experts say…
    “People talk about the lack of infrastructure, yet there’s electricity everywhere they park their car, unless they are in the forest,” he (Ting) said. “People park their car much nearer to electricity than they do to gasoline. In transportation they talk about ‘the last mile.’ Here we have the ‘last foot’ issue. We just need the extension cord for the last foot.”…

    At least one analysis calculates that natural gas used in hot water heaters and to warm residential and commercial buildings is causing nearly the same emissions as the state’s power plants. Converting gas-fired buildings to fully electric is daunting, and hugely expensive…

    With so many reductions required, the Air Resource Board’s post-2020 strategy is one element — a critical one — of the state’s multiagency approach to climate change. That strategy elevates the cap-and-trade system, in which companies can pay to pollute by buying credits, to a much more significant role…
    The agency has never precisely quantified cap and trade’s contribution to greenhouse-gas reduction. Officials projected it at 17-20 percent in a planning document in 2008 — a year before the program launched — but are unable to say if those assumptions have been borne out. The board has not conducted the complicated analysis required to determine the program’s actual role in cutting emissions.

    Nonetheless, last month it adopted a plan to reach post-2020 objectives that ups the ante: It forecasts that cap and trade, which lawmakers recently extended to 2030, will be responsible for nearly 40 percent of California’s emissions reductions by that time, a figure disputed by some as unrealistic.

    Some critics of the program say another factor could cause the state to miss its 2030 emissions targets: the banking system that allows individual companies to hold tens of millions of carbon credits in reserve…
    According to separate analyses by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office and independent economists, refineries, cement plants and other major polluters could produce emissions in the next decade that are well above the state’s ever-tightening limits and use their banked credits, purchased cheaply, to offset their excess.

    Chris Busch, an economist and research director at the think tank Energy Innovation, said his analysis showed that because of the oversupply of allowances the “effectiveness of the program could be compromised.”

    Ross Brown, who analyzes cap and trade for the LAO, said in an interview that there’s a “decent to good chance” that banked credits could vault emissions to more than 30 percent over legal limits in 2030.
    The issue has the attention of the state Legislature, which has directed the air board to investigate. So far, the agency has shrugged off the concerns…

    Gov. Jerry Brown’s personal investment in California’s climate-change policies has been a force multiplier, spurring the myriad state agencies to adopt, and state industries to adapt to, the prospect of a carbon-less future. But Brown is in his final year in office, and the Legislature’s to-do list is crowded with other enormous issues, such as poverty and housing.
    Whether lawmakers will continue to invest in programs that, to some, don’t seem to immediately improve the lives of Californians, is an open question.

    One critic is state Sen. John Moorlach, a Republican from Costa Mesa who is also an accountant.
    “I come from a world where you measure things so you can manage it,” the senator said. “It’s a matter of priorities. Sacramento is pumping itself on the chest, thinking it is going save the world. I’m not convinced this is the right use of our resources.”…

    4 COMMENTS ONLY:
    #1: Wild Bill Kinda: California has the highest poverty in the nation, but let’s concentrate on something important./sarc
    https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/12/californias-climate-fight-gets-harder-soon-and-the-big-culprit-is-cars/

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    robert rosicka

    More alarmist rubbish from their ABC but at least this one is labelled “opinion piece”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-17/why-we-need-to-climate-proof-our-sports-stadiums/9335792

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    robert rosicka

    Is red South Australia using Victoriastan brown coal to charge its green battery ?

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I very much doubt they could keep the lights on without Victoriastans coal powered electricity, its an emphatic yes….

      A topical rework of Margaret Thatchers famous comment:

      “Socialists are very good at using other peoples electricity!”

      Namely coz they cant organize drinks session in a brewery……

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    Another Ian

    From an email just in

    Saving the world one pill at a time

    ” Numerous studies have demonstrated that increasing access to
    contraception, including birth control pills, can be an effective strategy
    for climate change mitigation as well as adaptation.[172][173] According to
    Thomas Wire, contraception is the ‘greenest technology’ because of its
    cost-effectiveness in combating global warming – each $7 spent on family
    planning would reduce global carbon emissions by 1 tonne over four decades,
    while achieving the same result with low-carbon technologies would require
    $32.[174] If all the current unmet need for contraception were met, that
    would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 34 gigatonnes between 2010
    and 2050.[175]”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill

    (Last paragraph)

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  • #
    RicDre

    Just found the following message on https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/us-cold-winters-mysteriously-disappear/

    “Alan Davidson PERMALINK
    January 15, 2018 1:56 pm

    Tony Heller at http://www.realclimatescience.com frequently posts graphs showing how adjusted NOAA records compare with NOAA unadjusted redords. Also on the huge and increasing number of temperatures in NOAA’s records that are estimated rather than actual recordings. Also on the remarkable correlation between the number of adjustments trend and the trend of atmospheric CO2 in ppm

    Wow that magic cO2 molecule is now causing the number of adjustments to rise! Is there nothing that it can’t do?

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    OriginalSteve

    Just wondering – how many electric cars have people actually seen being charged?

    There is this really expensive charger in Gundagai NSW that I have never seen a car being charged on it.

    Maybe its just to make EVs look good? It could just be a dummy charger…..

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    Chad

    Watch the power boys !..
    SA has no wind, and has maxed out its gas..currently sucking 700MW from Vic
    Vic also near max, using all the Hydro it can and also importing from NSW
    Getting close to the limits here !!

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    robert rosicka

    Just had someone send me a link to the faceache page “lock the gates” , the latest whinge is the earthquakes caused by fracking in the Netherlands and all the greentard comments about it .
    I checked the facts and the area in question is conventional drilling not fracking .

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    pat

    note the AP headline, states: Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency

    14 Jan: AP: Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency
    By LAURIE KELLMAN and JONATHAN DREW
    (Kellman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati, Claudia Lauer in Dallas, Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this report)
    YET FROM THE TEXT YOU HAVE:
    There’s been no love for the media for decades. The percentage expressing a great deal of confidence in the press has eroded from a high of 28 percent in 1976 to just 8 percent in 2016, according the General Social Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
    “Trump didn’t invent this. He didn’t cause people to start feeling this way. He’s tapping into a vein that already existed,” said Gary Abernathy, publisher and editor of the Times-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio, one of the few daily papers that endorsed Trump. People, he added, “are nodding their heads right away because that’s how they’ve felt.”…

    nonetheless, AP piece above has the following one-sentence paragraphs:

    Though Trump’s habit of warping facts has had an impact, it’s not just him.

    Trump has done his part to blur the lines between real and not.

    Even on matters existential, Trump makes things up.

    tomorrow (US time) President Trump will announce the winners of his Fake News Awards & Trophy (with help from supporters), but surely nothing will beat today’s Press Conference with Dr. Ronny Jackson.

    btw President Trump personally asked for cognitive assessments to be done, a first for a US President. he scored 30 out of 30, yet:

    VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT: 16 Jan: Newsbusters: Curtis Houck: But He’s Crazy! Liberal Media Embarrass Themselves, Demand Doctor Insist Trump’s Mentally Ill
    For almost an hour on Tuesday, the White House press corps stooped to a new low of embarrassment and clownishly liberal behavior, lobbing over a dozen questions at Navy Rear Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson to insinuate that President Trump must be mentally ill to the point of Alzheimer’s Disease. This was all despite Jackson’s insistence that he’s in great health.

    Whether it was Bloomberg, CBS News Radio, CNN, or The Washington Post, the long knives were out as the liberal media engaged in their own Pickett’s Charge to save their narrative that Trump’s mentally ill and thus must be removed via Congress or the 25th Amendment…

    DR. RANDY JACKSON: Yes, so I think that cognitive test, you know, it’s well respected. It is a test that is used throughout the United States. Lots and lots of institutions use that test. It is the one that they use at Walter Reed for the patients they feel they need to do cognitive screens on. So, it’s a universally-accepted test. Like I said, it is a little more extensive than some of the shorter ones that are in some of the guidelines, but yea, it screens for all those things. Any time of cognitive issues, Alzheimer’s and all those other things. So, you know, the fact the President got 30 out of 30 on that exam, I think that, you know, there’s no indication that he has any kind of cognitive issues. On a day-to-day basis, like I said before, it’s been my experience that the President, you know, is very sharp. Very articulate when he speaks to me and, you know, I’ve never known him to repeat himself around me. He says what he’s got to say and he speaks his mind…
    https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2018/01/16/hes-crazy-liberal-media-embarrass-themselves-demand-doctor-insist

    the video is nearly 2 hours long, so you need to pick what you want to watch, but it leaves no doubt who should be tested for their mental fitness, and it isn’t the President.

    16 Jan: WashingtonTimes: Jennifer Harper: Hostile media: A year of attacking Trump, coverage still 90% negative
    “The first year of the Trump administration was as turbulent for the news media as it was for politics, with many journalists dropping any pretense of professionalism to become strident opponents of the president,” report analysts Rich Noyes and Mike Ciandella of the Media Research Center.
    They tracked 12 months of major coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts — seen by over 25 million people each night.
    They found that the Trump presidency was the biggest story of the year, accounting for one out of every three minutes of evening news airtime — nearly 100 hours in total. There was no honeymoon, the analysis found. The tone of coverage has been “incessantly hostile” — 90 percent negative, with 43 percent of the stories focused on controversies, not policies. The never-ending Russia collusion investigation alone accounted for one-fifth of all the Trump coverage.
    “Many in the media, including the broadcast networks, have chosen to morph into anti-Trump activists”…
    POLL DU JOUR
    • 91 percent of Americans say news organization slant their coverage to promote a certain point of view; 97 percent of Republicans, 91 percent of independents and 87 percent of Democrats agree.
    Source: A Gallup/Knight Foundation survey of 19,196 U.S. adults conducted in September and released Tuesday

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    David Maddison

    I believe Donald Trump is the only one willing and able to save Western Civilisation and even though he is doing all the right things with respect to the fraud of “global warming” (e.g. withdrawing from Paris, new pipelines, opening new drilling sites etc.) he must start stating that AGW is a fraud (with an appropriate package of evidence) for the benefit of other leaders of the Western World. On the other hand, perhaps not a good idea. The US can only benefit from cheap energy from non AGW policies, so why should he promote the truth to others?

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    Another Ian

    For Tony in Oz

    Check the units

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/01/04/w-o-o-d-3-january-2018/#comment-90344

    And some comments below that one

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    robert rosicka

    Can anyone help I’m looking for some info on fracking that I know was either on a thread here or at WUWT , trying to unbrainwash a former deplorable .

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    Crakar24

    Look like our new gensets are getting a workout that’s with the interconnect and max my wife hopes we in SA get another black out due to her hatred of weatheril et al lol

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    pat

    easier than watching the whole press conference.

    hilarious. watch first 21mins for coverage of today’s media meltdown and updates from the investigative reporter, Sara Carter, and Fox’s Gregg Jarrett on various matters;
    then watch from 37mins55secs until 42mins40secs for more on today’s media meltdown, plus Joe Concha of The Hill.

    Youtube: 46mins51secs: Sean Hannity 1/16/18 – Hannity Fox News Today January 16, 2018
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SjlDAllK4

    another story picked up by very few in the FakeNewsMSM. Reuters even changed the entire article, giving it a new headline & with barely a mention of the original quotes after 15 unrelated paras but, fortunately, a few outlets carried the original:

    10 Jan: CNBC: Reuters: South Korea’s Moon says Trump deserves ‘big’ credit for North Korea talks
    •”I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks,” Moon Jae-in told reporters at his New Year’s news conference.
    “I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, I want to show my gratitude,” Moon told reporters at his New Year’s news conference. “It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure.”…
    “We cannot say talks are the sole answer,” Moon said. “If North Korea engages in provocations again or does not show sincerity in resolving this issue, the international community will continue applying strong pressure and sanctions.”…
    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/south-koreas-moon-says-trump-deserves-big-credit-for-north-korea-talks.html

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    pat

    15 Jan: IGov, Uni of Exeter: The Capacity Market – How did we get here?
    by Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team,
    This winter is the first in which Britain’s electricity Capacity Market comes into play. The Capacity Market (CM) is part of a set of policy measures introduced in 2013 known as the Electricity Market Reform. The basic case made for a capacity intervention in the early 2010s was that increasing amounts of wind power would make average wholesale prices lower as well as making periods of high prices rarer and more unpredictable, with the result that no one would invest in new capacity that could be used as back up when the wind did not blow. At the time of the development of the CM, this was all an issue for the rather distant future; in 2011 wind provided less than 4% of total electricity generated. The challenges of large swings in wind output were expected to materialise only from the mid-2020s. However, the argument was that a capacity mechanism was needed well ahead of time in order to get investment in back up capacity that would be ready when wind power became really important…

    The CM has been highly controversial, being criticised on a number of grounds including: poor value for money; undermining decarbonisation of the power sector by keeping old coal on the system; failure to bring forward major investment in new combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants, leading instead to a surge in new small-scale high-carbon diesel generation; failure to develop much in the way of demand side response (DSR), and too strict a reliability standard, leading to over-contracting of capacity.[i]

    At IGov we have recently produced some work in progress looking at the evolution of the CM over the period from the late 2000s to 2014, trying to understand the relative roles of ideas and interests amongst government and industry in shaping the policy…ETC ETC
    http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/new-thinking-the-capacity-market-how-did-we-get-here/

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    pat

    15 Jan: Reuters: Saudi Arabia aims to prequalify firms by April or May for first nuclear plant
    Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Reem Shamseddine; Editing by Rania El Gamal and Louise Heavens
    ABU DHABI – Saudi Arabia plans to prequalify for bidding firms from two or three countries by April or May for the first nuclear reactors it wants to build, a consultant for the government body working on the nuclear plans said on Monday.

    Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, wants nuclear power to diversify its energy supply mix, enabling it to export more crude rather than burning it to generate electricity.
    It plans to build 17.6 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2032, the equivalent of around 16 reactors, making it one of the biggest prospects for an industry struggling after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan…READ ON
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-nuclear/saudi-arabia-aims-to-prequalify-firms-by-april-or-may-for-first-nuclear-plant-idUSKBN1F4187

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    17 Jan: UK Times: Emily Gosden: Power subsidy is ill wind for consumers
    Households will pay tens of millions of pounds more than necessary for electricity from a £2 billion offshore wind farm after the government gave the project’s developer a more generous contract than it asked for.

    The German energy group Innogy said yesterday that the contract awarded to it in September for the Triton Knoll scheme, off the Lincolnshire coast, gave it higher subsidies than were needed. The admission will revive scrutiny of the way the government funds green energy projects. Triton Knoll will generate up to 860MW and the contract says Innogy will receive £74.75 for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity the wind farm generates for 15 years from its start date in 2021.
    That compares with wholesale prices of about £48/MWh, with the difference “topped up” via green levies on energy bills. At current prices, Triton Knoll would need subsidies of £100 million a year…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/power-subsidy-is-ill-wind-for-consumers-innogy-triton-knoll-lincolnshire-ztjljdzcr

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    17 Jan: UK Times: Ben Webster: Owners ‘must make homes energy efficient before sale’
    The owners of more than a million poorly insulated homes may be forced to upgrade them before they can be sold to help to meet the government’s climate change targets.

    The committee on climate change, which advises the government on the targets, is calling today for urgent action to reduce the amount of energy wasted in homes. It says in a report that government policies set out last year in the clean growth strategy are inadequate to meet the UK’s legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    It wants the government to try to give homeowners incentives to invest in better insulation, but to make it compulsory if take-up is low. The incentives could include low-interest-rate loans or discounts on stamp duty if a home is upgraded soon after being sold…

    Owners would be required to upgrade them to at least band E. Heating a band G home can cost more than £1,000 a year more than a band E home. The government is already targeting landlords who rent band F and G homes, requiring them to spend £2,500 on energy efficiency measures….
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/owners-must-make-homes-energy-efficient-before-sale-l3lr7kvpb

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    pat

    16 Jan: HeraldScotland: Agenda: Government must act on National Grid concerns
    By DB Watson
    (The author is a retired chartered electrical engineer and the former Manager of Projects for the Scottish office of multinational energy engineers Foster Wheeler Energy)
    A REPORT from National Grid (NG) in a November report raised serious concerns as to the ability of the new billions of pounds investment in high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) interlinks that we are installing across the UK to transfer power in all circumstances. NG identifies that this results from our progressive weakening of large tracts of the Grid as we increase the amount of connected renewables, mostly wind turbines.

    NG has now, arguably several years after they should, done some system modelling of these interconnectors and its report concludes “system strength will decrease in our transmission network over the next decade” and “we have found an increasing risk of converter instability” (this is where the new direct current lines connect to our existing alternating current Grid).

    In its highly technical report entitled Performance of Phase-Locked Loop Based Converters, NG goes on to demonstrate that as the available system strength (called fault level) falls due to increased reliance on wind turbine generation then when network faults occur there will be many scenarios where the DC/AC converters will become unstable and our voltage will start to surge and oscillate at a different frequency to the 50Hertz that we receive in our homes, which means shutdown. NG notes that this problem would not exist had we been retaining large-scale synchronous generators (such as at Longannet, Torness and Hunterston.)…READ ON
    http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15829636.Agenda__Government_must_act_on_National_Grid_concerns/

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    pat

    17 Jan: BusinessGreen: McKinsey: Renewables and EV boom will struggle to move world onto 2C pathway
    by James Murray
    McKinsey Energy Insights predicts the energy and auto markets are entering a period of rapid transformation, but warns change is not happening fast enough to meet Paris Agreement’s climate goals

    Renewables are set to dominate the global energy market and demand for electric vehicles will soar over the next decade, but neither industry will make fast enough progress to ensure the world meets targets to limit temperature increases to well below 2C this century.

    That is the stark warning from management consultancy giant McKinsey, which will today release the Reference Case for its Global Energy Perspective report…

    Echoing projections earlier this week from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), today’s report predicts that in the next 5-10 years it will become more economic to build renewable capacity than operate existing gas- or coal-fired power plants in most markets…

    The predictions follow the release yesterday of new data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (LINK), which revealed global clean energy investment ticked up three per cent last year to $333.5m even as the cost of renewables technologies continued to fall…

    Ole Rolser, associate partner and solution leader at MEI, warned the march of clean technologies into the mainstream was unlikely to deliver steep cuts in global emissions over the coming decades.
    “To realise the 2 degrees pathway scenario, we’d have to see much broader, much more disruptive change than what we’re seeing now.”
    https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3024557/mckinsey-renewables-and-ev-boom-will-struggle-to-move-world-onto-2c-pathway

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    pat

    now they are trying bullying:

    17 Jan: BBC: Roger Harrabin: Most new cars must be electric by 2030, ministers told
    Three-fifths of new cars must be electric by 2030 to meet greenhouse gas targets, ministers have been warned.
    Homes also need to be built to a higher standard, the Committee on Climate Change – the official watchdog – says…

    Carbon capture from industry must be made to happen, it says, and wood and plastics should be banned from landfill in order to re-use them.
    More trees should be planted to soak up carbon dioxide, with a view to creating 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of new woodland by 2025, and farming must do more to cut emissions…
    Industry, too, is urged to take greater responsibility.

    The committee’s chairman Lord Deben, told BBC News: “If you’re going to sell an electric car your dealers have got to understand these things, so training dealers is essential.
    “If you’re running a big fossil fuel company, you have to start thinking about the realities of when, not if, because it is not if any longer, we use a lot less fossil fuels.”…

    He also criticised construction firms for only doing the “absolute minimum” required on building energy efficient homes.
    “The government’s policies will need to be firmed up as a matter of urgency and supplemented with additional measures if the UK is to deliver on legal commitments and secure its position as an international climate change leader.”
    He added: “All departments now need to look at their contribution towards cutting emissions – including the Department for Transport.”…

    The committee wants 30% to 70% of new cars to be ultra-low emission by 2030, as well as up to 40% of new vans, as part of efforts to phase out sales of conventional petrol and diesel versions by 2040.
    Currently, fewer than 5% of new car sales are “alternatively fuelled”, which also includes hybrid models…

    Richard Black, from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, agreed: “We’re not on track to meet emissions goals that kick in in just five years’ time.
    “That leaves ministers little time for enquiries and consultations – they’re going to have to put new policies in place fast.”
    Mr Black suggested quick-win policies including: cutting company car tax for electric vehicles; repealing the ban on onshore wind power (the cheapest form of electricity generation), and re-starting the programme for Zero Carbon Homes…
    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42709763

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    pat

    16 Jan: UK Parliament: UK renewables investment falls for second year running
    At an Environmental Audit Committee hearing in Parliament this morning, MPs were told by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) that new figures show renewable energy investment in the UK was ‘dramatically lower’ in 2017 compared to 2016. This is the second year running that the UK has seen a drop in renewable energy investment.

    Parliament TV: Listen the evidence session (LINK)
    Inquiry: Green Finance (LINK)

    Commenting on the new figures released by BNEF this afternoon, Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee said:
    “This is the second year in a row that renewable energy investment in the UK has nose-dived. Current rates of investment simply won’t deliver enough renewable energy to meet our legally binding carbon reduction targets. Losing European Investment Bank funding if we leave the EU could make the problem even worse.”
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-committee/news-parliament-2017/mary-creagh-comment-green-finance-17-19/

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    pat

    Australia helping prop it up:

    17 Jan: Bloomberg: China’s Solar Boom Boosts Clean Energy Funding Near Record
    By Anna Hirtenstein; With assistance by Feifei Shen
    Investment worldwide rose 3% to $333.5 billion, BNEF says
    U.S. was second-biggest market despite Trump’s push for coal
    China’s insatiable appetite for solar power led to a surprise increase in global clean-energy investment last year even as U.S. President Donald Trump pushed to undermine pollution rules and curbs on coal.

    About $333.5 billion poured into renewable energy and cutting-edge power technologies, up 3 percent from 2016 and 7 percent short of the record set in 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Almost half went to solar projects, and China’s investment accounted for 40 percent of the total

    Prices for solar panels and wind turbines are falling rapidly, while the U.S., Germany and Poland were among the countries loosening policies designed to curb the dirtiest fossil fuels. Developers speculating they will reap subsidies in China along with higher spending from ***Australia to Mexico helped offset declines in longer-established markets across Europe…

    “China’s boom is still fundamentally irrational,” Jenny Chase, chief solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wrote in a note to clients. “The mechanism to collect the subsidies to be paid out has not been determined. However, it looks as if Chinese state-owned developers and investors will build them anyway on the assumption that the government will find a way and, if not, compensation for the power itself will prevent a total loss.”…

    ***Investment also quintupled in Mexico and more than doubled in Australia. A major coal producer, sun-drenched Australia has previously rebuffed clean energy and is beginning to spur several major projects…READ ALL
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/china-s-hunger-for-solar-boosts-clean-energy-funding-near-record

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    Roger

    Finding Genuine Global Warming is like searching for Faeries at the bottom of your garden ….. the only places on earth it can be found are in random electronic noise in Climate Scientists computer programmes and in heavily doctored climate ‘records’.

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    yarpos

    Just passed by NEM Dispatch for a look

    All interconnectors in and out of VIC in the red, I guess the AEMO is sitting there with there fingers in their ears and hoping

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    Chad

    2pm today , SA with little wind again, interconnectors running hot, and they have just fired up some of the diesel generators…i guess ready for the evening peak.?

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      Kinky Keith

      So if another state calls for help, they ain’t gonna get none.

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      Hanrahan

      The renew economy website where the generation/demand is given must be in electricity conservation mode – It won’t load. maybe the facts are just too embarrassing for a site with that name. 🙂

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    Chad

    And iintended to add,… that Tassie seems to be sucking heavily on Vic coal power overnight to save Hydro reserves for feeding to SA in the evenings ?.

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    john

    Globull warming flood in Boston, 1919:

    I’ve decided to do quick research on flooding in Boston since the peanut gallery keep screaming climate change.

    Lo and behold, I came acoss this flood disaster that killed at least 21.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

    Great Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses.[1]

    …Gosh darn that global warming!

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    john

    Oklahome legislator who is writing laws against wind finds gps tracker attached to his vehicle.

    http://m.newsok.com/legislator-suspected-wind-industry-behind-tracking-device/article/5579882

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    Amber

    Who ever thought the thought police would just sit at a keyboard ?
    It’s coming folks unless the apathetic wake up .

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