Trump trolls the UN

UNFCCC, climate change, conference 2018The UN collective junket for 25,000 people is over. In PR Bingo, all the winning phrases were launched. As usual, “it’s progress”, but “nowhere near enough”.

“Weary” climate negotiators “worked through the night”, in a “marathon” and “but the agreement fell well short…”

‘1,000 little steps’: Global climate talks end in progress but fail to address the galloping pace of climate change

By Brady Dennis ,Griff Witte and Chris Mooney, The Washington Post

The agreement was non binding and has no chance of achieving the 1.5C or even the 2C goal, despite this, the crowd was happy:

“Approval of the agreement prompted a standing ovation from the delegates. “

People who think in group-formation will cheer any form of “Yes” —  nevermind the numbers.

Trump is trolling the UN

The US is out of Paris (theoretically) but “in” the negotiations. It will take four years for the US to formally leave the Paris Agreement, but in the meantime, he’s technically at the table, unbridled, and free to kill sacred cows in public. The UN, no doubt, thought the four year cooling off period would work for them (with the help of 4 year US election cycles) but being out-but-in gives Trump license to send delegates to loudly not welcome a treasured UN scientific report, to showcase fossil fuels, and generally wreak havoc and play mischief. So the US blocked the “welcome” of the IPCC report midway along with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In response, predictably, small island nations and environmental groups caused an uproar.

The world’s largest economy and its second-largest polluter played an at-times contentious role in the negotiations, with its officials rankling fellow delegates by initially refusing to accept a landmark climate report and later putting on a presentation touting the virtues of fossil fuels.

But fellow negotiators said the United States was mostly notable for its absence.

..  “The U.S. role here is somewhat schizophrenic — pushing coal and dissing science on the one hand, but also working hard in the room for strong transparency rules,” said Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions,

Real environmentalists think transparency will help them:

Despite Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord and promote the use of coal, the US was praised for its efforts to close potential loopholes that could allow countries to dodge their commitments to cut emissions.

“The US pushed harder than nearly anyone else for transparency rules that put all countries under the same system, and it’s largely succeeded,” said Elliot Diringer of the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, a Washington think tank.

–Tom Batchelor, The Independent

Trump trolling again. Transparency will show how pathetically inadequate most “carbon reduction” programs are and it will slow the corruption.

The ever present hope of “global carbon trading” resurfaces

Carbon markets, carbon trading, climate money, burning carbon credit image. Jo Nova.The $7 trillion dollar creature from the deep pops up again. The plan is for bankers to get rich on an unnecessary fake free market in carbon-paper, which is one of the most expensive and inefficient ways to reduce carbon.

And the meeting postponed decisions on pledging more ambitious action to fight global warming and on regulating the market for international carbon emissions trading.

Brazil foils those plans for another year, dang “populist” leader!

In another sign of a more difficult environment for climate negotiations this year, text establishing a large part of a planned carbon trading system was scuttled after Brazil, one of the world’s leading greenhouse gas producers, blocked proposals for counting certain emissions.

Brazil led a push for lenient rules that other nations said would weaken the system, which is intended to incentivize emissions cuts by creating a market price. With negotiators unable to reach a deal, the issue was punted until next year — a move that Boston College environmental law professor David Wirth said could “delay or undermine confidence among the private sector in undertaking climate-friendly investmentsone of the most important purposes of the Paris Rulebook.”  — The Washington Post

And you thought the environment was the real purpose of the UN rulebook. Really, it’s climate friendly investments.

How much of this UN gig is just a disguised industry showcase for the renewables industry?

9.5 out of 10 based on 78 ratings

57 comments to Trump trolls the UN

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Brilliant Jo.

    A wonderful “feel good” expose’ of the heart of Global Climate Warming: Other People’s Money.

    It almost make you want to wish everyone here a Merry Christmas and happy New year.

    KK

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Good idea KK, a merry Christmas to all that make the efforts to bring about changes that will truly help humanity, and for those that knowingly or blindly abet the usurping of peoples liberties and wellbeing you have our eternal pity of your affliction.

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    • #

      Yes, if climate change is a critical issue, why the secrecy? This is not a case of Spy vs Spy, but it is most certainly something out of Mad Magazine.

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    • #

      As another (ex) beancounter can I make the point that if 77% of the selling price is taxation then the rate of taxation on the fuel cost is 204%.

      Because the excise duty is fixed at 58p per litre the rate of tax increases as the price of petrol falls. At a price per litre of 108p the rate of tax is 237.5%.

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  • #
    James McCown

    market for international carbon emissions trading

    All they’re going to do is make fossil fuel energy more expensive and less obtainable. A truly stupid idea since much of an industrial economy revolves around energy.

    I’m lucky to live in a state with low gasoline/diesel consumption taxes. I only have to pay about $1.90 per gallon at the pump. If I lived in California, I certainly could not afford their $3.60 per gallon. And in many countries the taxes are much higher than in the USA.

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    • #

      Here in the UK the cost of gasoline has recently fallen to £1.15 a liter. That is about $5.50 per US Gallon. This is typical of European price levels.

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      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        Manic; since most here (meaning me) are not familiar with the fuel prices in the UK. Is this falling upward to a new high, or have the prices really fallen from something even higher?

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        • #

          The fuel prices have recently fallen in line with the oil price. Peak price was around £1.27 a liter earlier this year.
          Currently the basic excise duty is £0.58 a liter and then there is 20% VAT.
          At £1.15 a liter, £0.77 or 67% of the retail price is tax.

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      • #
        Hasbeen

        Is that all. In Oz I am paying A$5.67, over $7 US. for a S gallon of unleaded, & A$6.25 for the premium many average hatches require.

        Like electricity prices, we are top of the world again.

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        • #
          Lawrie

          You have your conversion backwards. I suspect you mean you are paying $7 AuD per gallon or $1.55 per litre as I am for diesel here on the Mid North Coast. That would equate to about $5.04 US per Imperial gallon or $ 4.20 per US gal.

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    • #
      Hivemind

      “A truly stupid idea since much of an industrial economy revolves around energy.”

      That is actually the point. They are trying to destroy all the modern economies.

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      • #
        Santa Baby

        Affordable energy in ample quantities is the lifeblood of the industrial societies and a prerequisite for the economic development of the others.” — John P. Holdren, Science Adviser to President Obama. Published in Science 9 February 2001

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      • #
        Tom O

        You have to realize that destroying the economy destroys population simultaneously since there will not be the supplies required to support it. And yes, that IS their true objective, to destroy the, in their minds, excessive human population.

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    • #
      Dave in the States

      It is essentially wealth transfer from the middle class to the elites. It also stops social mobility from poor to middle class and from middle class upward, world wide. It is a death sentence to many of the poorest on this planet. The elderly and the youngest bear the greatest burdens of such policies.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      “All they’re going to do is make fossil hydrocarbon (should be the proper name) fuel energy more expensive and less obtainable. ” They will price it out of any market, and cut the flows, regardless of the FACT that (not including coal) the other sorts (fuels) are almost an indefinite supply, continuously kindly regenerated by mother earth. Isnt she kind to us ;).
      Ludicrous part is that oil doesnt just supply fuel it also supplies MOST of the chemicals used by modern society. (theres a bin next door for your computer, phone and all your other gadgets).

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  • #
    PeterS

    All this fuss over trying to mitigate climate change yet allowing about a thousand new coal fired power stations to be built with gay abandon resulting in a net increase in global CO2 emissions even if the West achieved their CO2 emissions reduction targets, which they won’t. Total madness. Of course the reality is there are a number of agendas in operation that have nothing to do with saving the planet from a mythical man-made catastrophic climate change. Merry Christmas to all and be happy while the West is being torn apart, mostly from within. It gives self-flagellation a new dimension where the religion is CAGW. We in Australia are getting better at it if the recent polls have anything to say about it.

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  • #
    Jonesy

    The damage has already been done here. Onerous land clearing laws will kill agricultural development for ever until the laws are rescinded. Farmers fined millions for making fire breaks too wide… Really?

    Even if Australia disappeared off the map, India and China’s combined population produce more CO2 just by simply being alive.

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Unintended consequence

      About 2005 around here cleared land was around 6X timbered and untouchable.

      Latest sales have pushed the premium to around 8X

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      • #
        Hasbeen

        And it gets worse, with all the timber controlling chemicals now band.

        Today around here grazing does not produce enough income to cover the cost of keeping regrowth timber at bay in the old fashioned labour intensive way, to keep the land productive.

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  • #
    Latus Dextro

    And you thought the environment was the real purpose of the UN rulebook?

    Of course, no more than the UN 2030 Transformational Agenda is a plan to create global liberty, prosperity and wealth, the UN Global Migration Compact a plan to ensure national sovereignty and border security, and the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its thousands of UN accredited NGO’s, euphemistically described as ‘civil society’, exists to secure the cultures, customs and traditions of all people.

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    • #
      Dennis

      The UN organisation officials are clever when it comes to non confrontational mission statements.

      Just don’t look at the detail.

      National Parks preserving for future generations: locking up sustainable logging areas, dam sites, minerals and energy deposits, etc.

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      WARNING! WARNING! New-Green-Speak gobbledegook alert! Danger!

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378392/climate-agreement-a-big-breakthrough-james-shaw

      New Zealand’s “Climate Change Minister James Shaw says momentum will start to build now… it is a big step… it didn’t say a great deal about how we wanted to do it… it applies to everyone in the world… ensuring that we get the momentum… essentially countries say what they think that they can do… would need ‘unprecedented changes’ in every aspect of society.” The what!?

      Everything’s got to change… except the weather. Hmmm, not a great pitch for me.

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      • #
        sophocles

        I’ve tried to warn about him several times. He’s a True Believer™ and honest … ahem. You lot will have to make up yer own minds about that.

        He and Taxinda together … urk!

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  • #
    Mark M

    I have not signed any UN rule book, nor have I given anyone consent to sign anything from the UN on my behalf.

    You have a big problem ahead of you.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Jo, great move showing the UN for what it really is, but youre going to have to put a side by side comparison ( for the 20 somethings ) who have either never seen a Soviet hammer and sickle flag ( as the Leftist dominated edukayshun system has whitewashed it out ) or they just have no idea of the link…

    My personal experience has been that I have met at least 1 very smart 16 year old who actually think communism is “cool”…its a bit of a problem.

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  • #

    It is not just the USA that was promoting fossil fuels. From the Carbon Brief

    Poland’s role as host of the UNFCC’s annual talks for the third time in 11 years proved significant.

    Its choice to hold the COP in Katowice, in the heart of the coal-dominated region of Silesia, was poignant, particularly as several coal-sector companies were chosen as partners for the talks.

    Poland also announced the opening of a new coal mine in the region shortly before the conference began. Around 80% of the country’s electricity currently comes from coal.

    Delegates arriving at the talks were met by the taste of coal in the air and high levels of smog, as well as an accolade from the Polish Coal Miners Band. It was very quickly noted that the Katowice pavilion inside the COP venue featured walls, floors, soap and even earrings all made from coal. “There is no plan today to fully give up on coal,” Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, told the opening plenary.

    To get into the pavilion delegates had to walk over a perspex floor with coal beneath.

    https://manicbeancounter.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/COP21-Poland-Pavilion.png

    The serious message that Poland was trying to get across was that climate mitigation has severe economic consequences. This is something that climate alarmists downplay or ignore.

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  • #
    Michael Reed

    Yes I thought that Trump not being able to pull out of Paris completely was unfortunately
    was not a good thing.However it is the best thing because if the US was not there then
    there then no one could speak about the issue of reliable fossil fuel energy . What we would have
    only got was this silly IPCC scare report and the MSM only going with that like it always does .It
    in a way also exposes the hypocrisy of these COP junkets .I did my usual booking .com search for
    availability of 4 and 5 star hotel rooms in Katowice and wad ya know nearly all rooms booked out the remaining rooms have even more staggeringly higher prices .And again the shear hypocrisy of
    of these meetings are a testament to themselves .Probably the only difference between Katowice
    and Paris is that Paris could could fit more private jets into its le Borget airport and of course it would have many more Michelin hat restaurants.Just a thought but if Guinea ‘s 400 delegates to this binge
    had turned up late (and some at least probably did) then these unfortunate citizens (from a country with ta GDP that puts them in the bottom 30 percent of all the worlds 192 countries) would
    have to have shacked up in the last of the 5 star hotel rooms.Oh the bane of fossil fuels what a dilemma for those living so high off the hog.
    Cheers Mike Reed

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    • #
      Reed Coray

      Michael, you mention “COP junkets.” That got me thinking just how apropos the acronym COP, which stands for “Conference of Parties,” is. Especially if you employ the right definition of “Parties.”

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  • #
    Ross

    “How much of this UN gig is just a disguised industry showcase for the renewables industry?”

    Probably 97% of it.

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  • #
    RicDre

    Merry Christmas to everyone; May your days be merry and bright (and may all your Christmases be White…thank you Irving Berlin…I’d like to do a little skiing this Christmas!)

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      RicDre, if I may be as bold as to borrow from Bing: “I’m, dreaming, of a white, Christmas…” and so it appears Santa and his naughty elves – and even naughtier reindeer – all came a little early this year:

      https://www.metservice.com/skifields/temple-basin

      Snow to ~2,000 m Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 22 December – our southern summer solstice, longest day of the year, beginning of summer, and it be snowin’ on d’ tops of d’ Southern Alps of d’ Mainland mon, irie! Whoops, I get excited when it snows around Christmas, especially in the South Pacific – OK so it’ll only be a dusting and it won’t linger – but hey, it’s not supposed to be snowing in winter let alone summer, and, it perplexes my friends and family of the green/warm/cult persuasion sooo much… me happy, it’s snowing (again).

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      • #
        sophocles

        hey, it’s not supposed to be snowing in winter let alone summer, and, it perplexes my friends and family of the green/warm/cult persuasion sooo much

        Greg, be nice to them, patronizing but nice
        Then tell them it’s the Sun’s fault. That should add confusion to the perplexity. 🙂

        10

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Wondering about your carbon footprint when grocery shopping ? , wonder no more – https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-12-18/food-carbon-rating-system-could-help-reduce-diet-impact/10621786

    I have to ask what the carbon footprint of the extra labelling and work associated with it is though ?

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  • #

    “How much of this UN gig is just a disguised industry showcase for the renewables industry?” All of it, totally, and with no basis in science whatsoever, it is just a giant Fraud to collect your money.

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  • #
    Neville

    Prof Nic Lewis has another look at climate sensitivity and finds that multi-decadal warming would be just 50% of IPCC AR5 projections after 1,000 years.

    https://judithcurry.com/2018/12/11/climate-sensitivity-to-cumulative-carbon-emissions/

    Here is Nic’s projection of FIGURE 2, with his temp dipping to 50% of their warming after 1,000 years. See bottom ORANGE line added to their FIG 2. Thanks Nic for responding to my request. Needless to say that Co2 levels could remain high for many thousands of years in the future. At least this is what many scientists believe. Nic also finds slightly higher warming at 100 years than the original FIG 2 , see black line just below his ORANGE line at 100 years, but then both temps diverge ( their line rises after 100+ years) after that date. Who knows?

    UPDATE 13 December 2018

    “The below version of Figure 2, produced in response to reader suggestions, marks (orange line) the approximate path of temperature change implied by my observationally-based TCRE and ECRE estimates, in response to the CMIP5 ESMs mean total emissions over years 1-99 of 1919 GtC. Note that the ensemble of CMIP5 ESMs involved (whose mean warming is shown by the green, red and blue lines) had a lower mean TCRE than the ensemble of CMIP5 ESMs and EMICs used for IPCC AR5 Figure SPM.10. Note also that the warming simulated by GFDL-ESM2M (black line), which has a TCRE of 1.03°C, is marginally lower than that per my observational TCRE estimate in year 100, but is much higher in year 1000 than that per the observational ECRE estimate. That reflects this model both having a higher ECS (~3.0°C), and simulating a higher proportion (~20%) of emitted CO2remaining in the atmosphere in year 1000, than per my observational ECRE estimate”.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Nope, CO2 doesn’t cause warming, its a fallacy.

      CO2 increasing at the same time as temperatures is just a natural coincidence, the sun rules.

      https://tallbloke.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/image1.jpg

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      • #
        sophocles

        To el gordo @ # 14.1

        That’s a grand graph 🙂
        Thank you.

        If you haven’t acquired a copy yet, then see if you can find your way clear to obtaining a copy of Ben Davidson’s book: “A Weatherman’s Guide to the Sun.”

        I purchased a copy three months ago: best book I’ve bought for years! There’s been a huge burst in Solar Science over the last decade: human mortality, human illness, earthquakes (Solar Wind), volcanoes (Galactic Cosmic Rays), tropical cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons etc—Solar Wind and Solar Flares) and some of the not quite so extreme weather (thunder storms etc—Solar Wind) not to mention Global Warming and Global Cooling (GCRs) and because of a similar burst in Satellite sensing/monitoring equipment and geological sensing/measuring and monitoring equipment.

        There’s a lot to read and absorb. The IPCC is now nearly 20 years out of date as seen in various climate assessments! The literature is rapidly filling up with (peer reviewed) papers which can’t be interpreted any other way: “It’s the Sun, Stupid!

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  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    The People’s Cube on Global Warming:

    “Global Warming
    A modern-day equivalent of class struggle. Global Warming is an easily understood, historically inevitable concept in Marxist Science designed to help the Party to crush capitalism and fulfil mankind’s utmost desire of appointing Al Gore President For Life and establishing a planned centralized economy world-wide. (Global Socialist Revolution)……”

    “The importance of Global Warming for the Revolution is too great to leave it in the hands of [real] scientists. The masses must believe that it is beneficial to have faith in Global Warming whether it can be proven or not . If Global Warming didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent it.”

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    ‘1,000 little steps’: Global climate talks end in progress but fail to address the galloping pace of climate change

    All you weary climate negotiators, may I be so bold as to ask, “What’s new?” That’s sarcasm but you probably won’t get it.

    You have never once since the beginning of your scam ever let the pace of warming slow so much as a hundredth of a degree Celsius. You look like frauds. You act like frauds and you even talk like frauds. Yet because Joanne Nova is so unwilling to let anyone indulge in an ad hominem attack this comment in which I call it like it really appears will probably end up in moderation.

    Let the truth be the truth. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck even goes, “Quack, quack,” then it’s a duck. And you weary climate negotiators along with everyone who supports you and enables you are nothing but ducks.

    Where is all the coastal area Al Gore told us would be under water long before now? It’s high and dry, that’s where. Some high priest of climate change he is. You embarrass yourselves with every pronouncement you make.

    What a sorry mess you are.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      And as surely as you will see if someone approves what I said, my comment to which this is a reply ended up in moderation. Why? Because I called it like it appears.

      Jo demands a standard of decent debate whereas the world can lie cheat and steal as it pleases.

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      • #
        el gordo

        We have laws against some things and words which are never spoken, its a minefield, tread carefully.

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        • #
          Bobl

          Roy isn’t subject to 18c but Jo is

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            The only thing I know abut 18C is how to spell it since you just mentioned it. But I can’t imagine politics is not fair game for calling it like it is, even in Australia. Politics has never been a sacred cow, surely not politics.

            And someone did approve my original comment. Not a word was changed.

            Perhaps if we all spoke up on the same day at the same hour… …naww, it would never be believed from skeptics who have always been polite and argued the science instead of practicing the ad hom. But I’ll argue that the appearance is so strong now that anyone alive and breathing can smell the stench of that apparently prohibited word — oh hi gordo did you get caught for the same sin I did? It’s happened to me ore than once.

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Climate conferences are nothing but a refuge for the ‘King Canutes’ to congratulate each other on their impossible goals. They will get wet feet very soon.

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Look here for Eco Fr@ud parts 1-3.
    http://www.climate.conscious.com.au/

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  • #
    sophocles

    It’s that time of the year for this year, 2018.

    My best wishes to all and yours for the festive season—may it be good to you and for you. May the new year, 2019, also be a good year: and may it confound the pseudo scientists with the obvious and undeniable (I’m an optimist!) signs of global cooling. I have a lot of borax to poke.

    My special best wishes for ROM. I hope ROM, you will be able to return here.

    Special best wishes to Jo and David. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy agreeing with each other anywhere nearly as much.

    May 2019 do you proud.

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  • #
    TdeF

    “The U.S. role here is somewhat schizophrenic — pushing coal and dissing science”

    So there is only one ‘Science’? Their science.

    In their ‘science’ CO2 is pollution, the stuff from which all carbon based life on earth is made. The increase is not natural. It our fault. It is causing deadly warming, which we have not seen in 120 years now. There is nothing good about an increase in CO2. Building windmills by the hundreds of thousands will magically have a detectable effect on CO2. So will having millions of solar panels. All contradicted by the facts.

    Someone’s ‘Science’ is crap. That is usually the test of science, the ability to explain the past and accurately predict the future. After 30 years, COP24 was clearly a denier’s and opportunists and carpetbaggers convention. After at least 24 of these massively expensive love ins, who needs to diss their science? It is obviously wrong.

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  • #
    DaveR

    Just how the UN and EU expect that just because a nation signed up to an “aspirational, non-binding” agreement on CO2 emissions reduction, those bodies then try to impose international “laws” on signees that run over the top of sovereign rights of nations.

    In the Australian context, the UN/EU and their fellow green travelers claim to have higher authority than the Australian government, its elected MPs and the electorate.

    This is why the Morrison government must ditch these pretenders and the Paris Agreement now.

    30