Midweek Unthreaded

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136 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
    Robert Swan

    Posted this yesterday at Bishop Hill where Brexit is topical.
    ABC’s peculiar slant a bit of a theme here too.

    Thought I’d post that the UK protests are being reported in
    interesting terms by the BBC’s Mini-Me in Australia. In yesterday’s TV
    coverage they said that protesters were making Nazi salutes — sure
    enough, there was a guy and he was indeed making a Nazi salute. His
    other hand was up at his mouth for a moustache and he was
    goose-stepping in finest silly walk fashion. I kid you not: his
    impersonation of Basil Fawlty made it to this side of the world as
    serious news.

    And today the radio is reporting about “Nazi chants”. Well, yes… you
    can hear them chanting that Soubry is a Nazi. Would it be a Buddist
    chant if they repeatedly accused someone of being a Buddhist?

    Be happy that Britain isn’t the only place blessed with highly
    partisan tax-funded broadcasters.

    The ABC like to pretend that Britain is as nothing to them, but would they campaign so hard if it were any other country?

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    • #
      PeterS

      The ABC only is only ever interested in trying to tell the world the West is pure evil and that everyone else including the truly evil dictators of some of the worst regimes in existence as good. It pretty much proves which side the ABC stands for, and it’s not the good side that’s for sure.

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    • #
      TdeF

      And the NAZIs were socialists, which is why they are called NAZIs. It was originally an insult word, simple ridicule of their Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, a play on the word Isaac, a popular insult for the Catholic Bavarian yokel farmers after the Beer Hall Putsch.

      So the NAZIS were Socialists, just like so much of our press. Misinformation, misreporting, fake news, socialist and far left agendas and painting real conservatives as extreme right, even NAZIs. All in a day’s work for so many in the ABC/BBC/CNN group. Even on Murdoch’s news.com.au, we are being given opinion, not facts. Yesterday was a lead article on how Trump expects to ‘get away’ with it. How presumptuous and insulting can you be?

      Trump derangement syndrome, Abbott derangement syndrome and BREXIT derangement syndrome. All to save the planet? No, to control it using a totally fake world crisis, climate. Who would think you could cripple societies with absurd long range weather predictions? After thirty years of allegedly rapid Global Warming, where is it?

      Still our electricity bills are being massively increased to pay for windmills and solar panels for strangers and the middle classes.

      In particular the Canberra government should explain why have $37Million of free cash value in LGCs in their budget, cash handouts from poor Australians in other states because Canberra public servants used everyone else’s money to buy themselves windmills. Now they get handouts. Public servants getting cash bonuses from the working classes across Australia by illegal imposts in their expenses, not taxes.

      This massive national ripoff has to stop. In the UK, they have copied this insidious system of forcing people to give their cash to others. ‘Certificates’ for nothing. So others can own our electricity system and be paid twice at the world’s highest rates.

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      • #

        If you repeat a lie often enough but you can’t change history

        https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/09/05/were-nazis-socialists/

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        • #
          TdeF

          “Given that Nazism is traditionally held to be an extreme right-wing ideology”. Therefore not socialists? What nonsense. Sure, socialism is some feel good non dictatorial system, not actually democratic but equality for all movement. What totalitarian system does not present as socialist? Venezuela? Cuba?

          Consider the violent masked blackshirted Anti FA mobs shutting down conservatives meetings, the attacks on free speech, the near fatal beating this week of a German ‘populist’, the fake Climate Change scare, the crazy ideologies (LGBITQ) posing as human rights, the blatantly and outrageously antisemitic politics of leading ‘socialists’ (Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, Cortez et al), the positioning the US and Russia as the new enemy of a German led EU army, something hotly denied just two years ago. The German demand that the EU/Germany is given France’s seat on the Security council as a nuclear power?

          We have seen it all before. Just deny it. The facts are otherwise. We haven’t seen the book burning yet, but the ABC even destroyed every digital copy of “My boomerang won’t come back” after a single complaint. Why? Anti racism has become racism, anti white, anti US, anti Russia, anti ‘old white men’. All the hallmarks of extremely violent socialism are there.

          Climate change is a pull through, socialist science, truth by popular acclaim. The leading edge of a socialist culture in science. Truth by consensus. Mob science. Sceptics are heretics, deniers, the enemy. History is repeating.

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            The US Democrats are already starting to look like a left wing radical group, after one of thier leaders advocated confronting Trump administration leaders in restaurants etc….its borderline incitement to violence…..

            Even AmericanThinker are suggesting if the lefties push it too far, the armed american population will basically sort them out. Now whether people like it or not, this is *exactly* the reason the US Constitution framers included the 2nd Amendment. A properly run govt that respects the people, has no reason to fear the population if the population is armed.

            The MSM would have you believe only the govt can protect you, well look at New Orleans during Katrina and the debacle that was…..

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            • #
              TdeF

              Even the language of the newly minted Socialist congresswomen is violent. “MF”. No respect for anyone else, no respect for tradition. Absolutely no respect for the President of the United States who is called corrupt. Of course Bill Clinton and Hillary were models of respectability. So was Obama. Can the press even imagine the outrage of the same language used to refer to Saint Obama and Saint Hilary? Then there was the Ambassador in Tripoli. The arms sales to Morocco. The sale of US Uranium stockpiles to Russia. The arming of the ‘Arab Spring’ ‘revolutionaries’ like ISIS and friends. Saints. Talk about Trump and the language is foul.

              They want the overthrow of the ‘old’ system from the inside, just like the mob in the universities where free speech is not welcome. Could de Niro or Jim Carrey or Maxine Waters be more offensive? Doubtful. So it’s revolution. Attractive to a new generation taught that they can decide and control everything, even their own gender. Fodder for a revolution which hands all power to a few people and removes all freedoms, in the name of freedom.

              Now we are trying to stop a 2C change by 2100? It used to be a 5C change. What will it be by 2030, 1C? Fake news and fake science and fake facts.

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        • #
          PeterS

          I wish we could dispense with the “left versus right” mentality and is Nazism true socialism or not arguments, but unfortunately we can’t because most people keep thinking in those terms. Suffice to say all forms of isms, like Nazism, communism, socialism, fascism, etc. have many things in common and some of those common attributes are pure evil. There is no need to go any deeper than that and place them on some imaginary spectrum like many others do these days.

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          • #
            Hanrahan

            I wish we could dispense with the “left versus right” mentality and is Nazism true socialism or not arguments, but unfortunately we can’t because most people keep thinking in those terms.

            Actually MOST people don’t. Without the rabid left it would be a seldom used term and a Prince could dress as one for a party.

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            • #
              TdeF

              What worries me is the alignment of giant businesses with politics. $1.5Trillion annually for Climate change? It is as big as the entire steel industry! BREXIT is being hijacked by business too. So much money is at stake. Removing borders is also great for slave labor and what totalitarian society does not depend on slave labor? Who is going to protect your rights when no one is a citizen?

              This alignment of big business, big banking and socialism has not been seen for eighty years. Ultimately the aim of the Fascists and Napoleon were exactly the same, one country aligned against Russia and America.

              Where Hitler rose to power was when the Catholic conservatives and the Krupp company and some of high society saw that Hitler could restore national pride, build huge businesses and provide a defence against Stalin. Open borders slave labor was a necessary component. In the end, socialism was a front for another totalitarian regime except one which fed big business.

              In the US, the gigantic IT companies are openly all against Donald Trump and the Republicans from their strongholds in Silicon Valley. Billionaires openly against Trump and aligning with China for the business and trade.

              In ten years, I have not read a single scientific argument which establishes any basis for man made carbon dioxide driven Global Warming. I am just told to believe. This is happening in every field. The next move is to control the internet and censor such comments. That is why we are being forced to accept a legislatated Labor initiated NBN, run by a Federal government and off the books. Meta data is being kept. Big Brother gets closer every day.

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              • #
                OriginalSteve

                You mean inmate Hillary?

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              • #
                PeterS

                Big business is business. It mattes not to them what the politics of the day are. They are in it for the money first and where it occurs for the good of mankind second. So a regime where big business rules is not much better than a regime where say Nazism or communism rules. Us plebs are cannon fodder to all of them.

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          • #

            agree… people like Tdef do it to purify their own beliefs by moving the bad eggs into a different belief category. He can’t stand that his own ideology gets lumped with nazism and feels compelled to deny any links even if it means being wrong.

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            • #
              OriginalSteve

              You could argue either way.

              I think left and right are becoming meaningless – we need to label any system that encourages or uses tyranny and / or thuggery to be called out and labelled simply a threat to basic freedoms.

              You could start with the collusion of the UN, govts, the left and big business to hamstring freedoms to pursue unfettered money making while selling monsterous climate lies, a clear and present threat to basic freedoms….

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              • #

                that’s more or less what PeterS wrote and to which I replied with “I agree” although you then go on to include “the left” which you said “are becoming meaningless” because you actually believe it is meaningful when you want to propose your own conspiracy theories.

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              • #
                OriginalSteve

                The left seem to be quite prominent in the whole mess, so they rate a specific mention….

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            • #
              TdeF

              “people like”. Now you are calling me a Nazi? That’s just abuse. Anyone who disagrees is a Nazi? And you hate Nazis, of course and no Nazi was ever a socialist, even if that was the Nazis called themselves.

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              • #

                no I mean you are the sort of person who has no problem with distorting truth

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              • #
                TdeF

                Gee Aye. You are careful to avoid moderation, but that is just more intolerant and unjustified outright abuse, not logic or science or wit or facts. As always, those are missing.

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              • #

                give away your comprehension skills for christmas?

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              • #
                OriginalSteve

                Gee Aye…. its like dealing with a 5 year old….

                I suggest you either be constructive, or take your rudeness and go elsewhere.

                Run along now….

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              • #
                AndyG55

                ge-gee has never been near any truth in any of his posts.

                His whole outlook is clouded and distorted by the arrogant leftism that is the socialist agenda.

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              • #
                robert rosicka

                Gawd I’ve scared away the leaf , if you’re still here sulking somewhere ahhgee I wonder if you can tell me if you’ve ever read the MSDS about DDT that you have on your “well read blog” ?

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              • #
                yarpos

                seems to be a bit of a one trick pony

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            • #
              AndyG55

              gnats like Gee-Gee have nothing but a distorted leftist view derived from their own unreality.

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          • #
            dinn, rob

            3 types of socialism: international (Soviet Union), national (Nazis) and corporate (big Wall Street)–saith Antony Sutton, renowned author

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            • #
              el gordo

              Three types of capitalism: Contemporary economies are regarded as ‘pure’ capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism is a free hand and then we have right wing socialism, the China model.

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              • #
                TdeF

                I see it as Communist Capitalism. This was the one element never considered by Marx, that you could make everyone rich which would make the state richer through rampant consumerism. Impoverishing everyone never worked, as in Venezuela.

                Only fifteen years ago Socialist Venezuela was a first world country, arguably one of the richest, before nationalization into a worker’s paradise where the people are starving and the money is worthless and the elections are openly fraudulent. Oil rich, they are importing petrol. There is nothing to say this cannot happen in coal rich Australia. Socialism where everybody exercises their right to starvation and poverty. Ten million people have fled the country.

                For most of my life, Australia has been paying Singapore prices for petrol despite the fact that we were 100% self sufficient. Most of our energy costs have been government taxes. Was this to prepare for the future? To save for the day the oil ran out, as in Dubai? No.

                Now as in the Australian report, we have 17 days supply of petrol and diesel left. We are exporting most of our gas and coal and iron ore and dependent on imports to run governments, trucks, aircraft and submarines while we refuse to use what we have and importing German windmills and Chinese solar panels?

                So what happened? Who was in charge? How has impoverishing ourselves, wrecking our currency and turning us into a coffee shop helped anyone other than international traders in energy?

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              • #
                el gordo

                Its not communist because China has four social classes, ranked in terms of income. Beijing is a paternalistic fascist state.

                The so called ‘free market’ has the occasional glitches, Venezuela doesn’t understand the meaning of sovereign debt and has paid the price.

                Australia is a quarry, food bowl and theme park, we have to continue along with this for our survival.

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        • #
          MudCrab

          Not only were they socialist, they were environmentally aware socialists.

          Fun Fact – Germany in 1934 past a law protecting wolves, despite the fact the last known free roam wolf in Germany had been shot 30 years before.

          The real reason why political movements like this German one in discussion get labelled as ‘Right Wing’ is that the only groups ‘qualified’ to place such labels are our Educated Betters. Being predominately Socialists themselves – but the ‘nice’ type of Socialists – they deliberately distance themselves from the facts in order to, I don’t know, sleep better at night or something. They refuse to accept the practicalities of their selected beliefs have been proven time and time again to involve large amounts of death and hardship and relabel any ‘failed’ attempts as ‘not socialism’ and ‘Right Wing’.

          Problem is that for socialism to work – ie, everyone being treated equally and fairly – someone needs to be in charge to ensure that no one breaks the rules and becomes more equal than others by bypassing the system. The dream of socialism is a free and equal utopia. The practice is brutal oppression of the people for their own good.

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          • #
            TdeF

            They were outrageously Green and caring for environment too. Officially. Despite the mass destruction. My point is that the Nazis never called themselves Nazis. It was an insult, as it is today. They called themselves Socialists. Greens too. Tree worshipers. Cultists. The super race, better than everyone else. Never wrong. Born to rule and promising a new caring world. Not so different to the current Greens. Opportunists posing as caring. The environment has always been a potent argument.

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            • #
              TdeF

              Hitler had already renamed the Workers Party to the National Socialist German Workers’ party. (NSDP)
              I also note the second volume of Mein Kampf.

              “The second volume, entitled Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung (“The National Socialist Movement”), written after Hitler’s release from prison in December 1924, outlines the political program, including the terrorist methods, that National Socialism must pursue both in gaining power and in exercising it thereafter in the new Germany.”

              At no time did he call his party the NAZIs, which was a derogatory term used by his enemies. Like Mussolini, he started his career as a devoted socialist representing the workers against the establishment.

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              • #
                el gordo

                Mussolini’s dad was a founding member of the Italian socialist movement, so the fascist demagogue was a Nationalist and opportunist.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          snopessss roflmao

          They are a pair of leftist bigots, who distort everything to their fetid idea of reality.

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        • #
          Anto

          Yes, the Nazis were fascists by definition. But, then modern China is no longer communist, but fascist by the same definition.

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        • #
          Fred Streeter

          “The claim that the Nazis actually were leftists or socialists in any generally accepted sense of those terms flies in the face of historical reality.”

          Try replacing “the Nazis” with any socialist ‘Dear Leader’ – works for me.

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      • #
        Lance

        As I understand the definitions(corrections accepted if supported) :

        Socialism is an economic and social theory of governance. Everyone is welcome so long as they submit to the state.
        Nazism is a political and ideological theory of governance, requiring anti semitism and racism/eugenics as integral components. Defective persons, handicapped, elderly, ill, insane, or jewish people are to be eliminated.

        Under Socialism, the State Collective “owns” the means of production. Private ownership of production is illegal. Period.

        Under Nazism, the State “controls” the means of production. Private ownership of production is not illegal, simply controlled. Like a corporately controlled cartel. This may seem a distinction without a difference, and perhaps it is, however, under socialism there is no grey area at all. Any private property or private ownership is illegal by definition and law.

        Nazis advocated Nationalism and Racial Superiority. Socialists did not require those elements. Socialists required no racial or religious objections to membership, only absolute dedication to the expansion and belief in socialism and elimination of all Nationalist ideas except insofar as ideas supported the State. Nazis required racial, religious, and genetic/ethnic, purity.

        These are key differences. Socialism is a complete and total Totalitarian system subject only to serving the ideas and expansion of socialist power, control, and ideology. Nazism is very similar, but also requiring ethnic, racial, and religious control as additional elements. At some level of extraction, it might be held that Islamism is a sort of compendium of both from an ideological viewpoint but not so much from a “direct” economic or production viewpoint, but effectively similar.

        A good read is at: http://thefederalist.com/2018/09/11/read-pile-top-nazis-talking-love-leftist-marxism/

        OK. sling the arrows. Kevlar is my friend. 🙂

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        • #
          Anto

          Nazism is but one form of fascism. Not all fascism requires anti-Semitism and eugenics.

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        • #
          Leo Morgan

          Your sentence “Everyone is welcome as long as they submit to the state” is no part of the definition or history of socialism.
          Everyone is aware the Communists had a vastly higher murder count than the Nazis. This is true even when we consider only the race-based genocides. Stalin suppressed Russian ethnic minorities from 1924 he suppressed Soviet ethnic minorities, including the Jews, Crimean Tatars, and Ukrainians. His mass-murder of the Kulaks excited Hitler’s admiration. Three million were killed, a further five million starved.

          George Watson wrote in his 1998 book The Lost Literature of Socialism, “From Engels’ article in 1849 down… everyone who advocated genocide called himself a socialist.”

          In that book Watson reports: “[Hitler]explicitly acknowledged that “‘the whole of national socialism’ was based on Marx.”

          Following their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, wrote Watson, the Germans collected information on the immense scale of the Soviet camp system and were impressed by the “Soviet readiness to destroy whole categories of people through forced labor.”

          Engles and Marx supported genocide:
          Slavs, as well as Basques, Bretons and Scottish Highlanders, could not progress straight from feudalism to communism. They would have to be exterminated—so as not to keep everyone else back! Watson noted, They were racial trash, as Engels called them, and fit only for the dung-heap of history.
          In the New York Tribune in 1853, Karl Marx wrote: “The classes and the races, too weak to master the new conditions of life, must give way.”

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    • #
      beowulf

      Brexit has just taken another hit. An amendment was passed 303 to 296 to a Finance Bill to prohibit spending on preparations for a No Deal outcome unless authorised by the parliamentarians, who of course don’t want to spend anything on Brexit.

      Funny isn’t it how 7 (or 4) votes in parliament count for so much yet a 1,269,501 vote majority by the people counts for nothing?

      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/08/the-establishment-strikes-back-pro-eu-mps-amend-govt-bill-to-sabotage-no-deal-brexit/

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        The Brexiters might stage a yellow vest campaign if thier own.

        If a govt refuses to enact the will of the people, then surely that is grounds to remove it?

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    • #
      Leo Morgan

      I am delighted to hear that Bishop Hill is still operating.
      I’d thought he’d stopped writing completely.
      I have googled and hunted and can’t find your post, or anything more recent than 2017. Could you please post a link? I am sure many others would also relish seeing the further writings of this man.

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      • #
        Robert Swan

        Unfortunately, you’re right. Andrew Montford no longer posts there, but it still operates as a discussion forum. I mostly lurk, but posted the above comment to the unthreaded forum.

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      • #
        Ian Laidlaw

        Bishop Hill has an ongoing “unthreaded” comment section with 5000 + pages of comments still being added to by dozens each day. There are old and new discussion threads also. It is generally a pleasant community with an informed and well mannered set of contributors who maintain a good tone and often bring expert analysis. Well worth a visit. Ian

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  • #
    el gordo

    PM Morrison needs to be aware.

    ‘Australia’s economy will be among the worst affected by the Paris climate change agreement, a US report finds.’ Oz

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    • #
      PeterS

      Morrison might already know that but so far he appears to be a gutless wonder incapable of doing anything. I shall wait and see what happens just prior to the coming federal election before deciding that is the actual situation with him. So far he is a major disappointment.

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      • #
        el gordo

        He knows the way and will bide his time, this is a plank in his platform. There will now be a rush to unlock the land and overcome the tyranny of distance.

        ‘NSW is revelling in a homegrown tourism boom, with domestic travellers spending a record-breaking $20 billion across the state.

        ‘The figure represents a 13 per cent jump in just one year and experts say the new golden era for the industry is powering jobs and prosperity not just in Sydney, but right throughout the regions.’

        Daily Telegraph

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        • #
          yarpos

          absolutely, when we go to NSW we spend close to zero time in Sydney Metro. Worse case is having to transit through it.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      On for young and old in The Oz this morning – their servers can barely keep up with the comments flooding in. Some very good points being made.

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  • #
    Mark M

    The missing heat update.

    2013: Is Global Heating Hiding Out in the Oceans?

    Parts of Pacific Warming 15 Times Faster Than in Past 10,000 Years

    http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/3130

    2019: New research from WHOI has found that the deep Pacific Ocean is still cooling from the Little Ice Age:

    The long memory of the Pacific Ocean
    Historical cooling periods are still playing out in the deep Pacific
    January 4, 2019

    https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/01/long-memory-of-pacific-ocean

    via tom nelson: I guess we’re *not* allegedly setting off an atomic bomb per second in the deep Pacific

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/07/global-warming-of-oceans-equivalent-to-an-atomic-bomb-per-second

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    • #
      WXcycles

      When you continually put ice into water, the water cools. Which is what Antarctica specializes in always doing.

      Was Antarctica any colder in the LIA? Probably not.

      Did it ‘warm’ since the LIA? Probably not.

      But the oceans were being cooled, this whole time, by a continuously growing continental-scale mega-glacier? Yup.

      No fundamental changes then? None at all.

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  • #
    Robber

    Among all the great content in Jo’s presentation “Jo Nova – How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Electricity Grid in Three Easy Steps” I especially liked the clarity of the message in one slide.
    Image of coal and gas stations supplying the grid.
    Add to image lots of scattered solar panels and windmills.
    Then ask the question, which do you think is cheaper? Coal/gas, or same coal/gas plus wind/solar?
    A powerful yet simple message for Facebook, Twitter, articles – any graphic artists want to develop the image further?

    In the AEMO grid, we need reliable coal/gas to supply peak demand of 30 GW. Adding intermittent wind (0-5.4 GW, average 1.6 GW) and solar (0-8 GW, average 1.6 GW) has increased the investment but you still need the coal/gas stations for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun isn’t shining.
    Those wind farms have added about $9 billion and solar panels have added about $15 billion in investment, all seeking a return on investment alongside the essential coal/gas stations.
    Yet some people keep insisting that intermittent “renewables” will bring electricity prices down.
    The facts: SA-Vic wholesale prices 2015/16 $62-46/MWhr, 2018/19 $93-89/MWhr.

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  • #
    Neville

    Willis checks out the Greenland Holocene ice core temp record versus co2 levels.
    He finds that for about the last 7,000 years co2 has increased while temps have dropped. Rather stuffs up their theory about co2 being the strong driver of temp doesn’t it? See graph at link.
    I know the lefty extremists couldn’t care less about the science, but where are the better pollies and sensible MSM when we need them?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/01/08/greenland-is-way-cool/#comment-2581485

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      The problem with saying that temps have dropped is that we know that they have come down from an abnormal high during the 2016 El Niño. Whether they continue to drop or resume their very slight increase still remains to be seen.

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  • #
    Neville

    Another western Greenland study finds that the 19th century was the coldest of the last 10,000 years. So perhaps we are very fortunate to be living today and not 150 to 200 years ago? Here’s co2 Science’s summary of the Axford et al 2013 study.

    Holocene Temperatures at the Western Greenland Ice Sheet MarginReference
    Axford, Y., Losee, S., Briner, J.P., Francis, D.R., Langdon, P.G. and Walker, I.R. 2013. Holocene temperature history at the western Greenland Ice Sheet margin reconstructed from lake sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 59: 87-100.

    Background
    The authors write that “predicting the response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to future climate change presents a major challenge to climate science,” but they say that “paleoclimate data from Greenland can provide empirical constraints on past cryospheric responses to climate change, complementing insights from contemporary observations and from modeling.”

    What was done
    As they describe it, Axford et al. “present Holocene climate reconstructions from five lakes along the western Greenland Ice Sheet margin, near Jakobshavn Isbrae and Disko Bugt,” where “insect (chironomid) remains from North Lake are used to generate quantitative estimates of summer temperatures,” and where “changes in sediment composition at the five study lakes are interpreted as evidence for ice sheet fluctuations, changes in lake productivity, and regional climate changes throughout the Holocene.”

    What was learned
    The six scientists report that “temperature reconstructions from subfossil insect (chironomid) assemblages suggest that summer temperatures were warmer than present by at least 7.1 ka (thousands of years before present), and that the warmest millennia of the Holocene occurred in the study area between 6 and 4 ka.” They also note, in this regard, that “previous studies in the Jakobshavn region have found that the local Greenland Ice Sheet margin was most retracted behind its present position between 6 and 5 ka,” and they say that they used chironomids to estimate that “local summer temperatures were 2-3°C warmer than present during that time of minimum ice sheet extent [italics added],” while indicating that the Little Ice Age “culminated at North Lake with 19th century summer temperatures that were colder than any other period in the record since deglaciation [italics added].”

    What it means
    Against this backdrop of data-based information, it should be clear to everyone that there is nothing unusual, unnatural or unprecedented about current temperatures along the western Greenland Ice Sheet margin – or anywhere else on the planet, for that matter – for temperatures there currently fall well within the extreme bounds experienced over the course of the Holocene. And it should also be realized that starting from the coldest point of the entire Holocene (the depths of the Little Ice Age), one could well expect that once started, warming (for whatever reason) could well be anticipated to be substantial.
    Reviewed 17 July 2013

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Return of the Ice Age.

    https://www.iceagenow.info/both-arctic-antarctic-sea-ice-now-at-historic-high-levels/
    https://principia-scientific.org/arctic-antarctic-sea-ice-now-at-historic-high-levels/

    “Contrary to claims that modern day sea ice changes are “unprecedented”, alarming, and well outside the range of natural variability, biomarker proxies used to reconstruct both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice conditions since the Early Holocene increasingly reveal that there is more extensive Arctic and Antarctic sea ice during recent decades than for nearly all of the last 10,000 years.

    Looks like the graph of sea surface temperature (in the article) follows the grand solar min – max periods.

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Comment in moderation..Re sea ice extent is actually growing!.. ” more extensive Arctic and Antarctic sea ice during recent decades than for nearly all of the last 10,000 years.” iceagenow

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  • #
    Melbourne Resident

    My understanding from various reports were that the “NAZI” fringe were not part of the initial gilaut jaune movement, but opportunists that took adavantage of the disruption to put out their extreme views. Unfortunately, the MSM has jumped on it as evidence of the “extreme views” of the gilaut jaunes. Pictures can be misleading.

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  • #
    el gordo

    On the far side of the moon there are two craters, Paracelsus and Von Karman, can anyone tell me the distance between them?

    I have looked but cannot join the dots.

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  • #
    Roger

    Just a thought, we know from recent studies that 40% + of published research can’t be replicated and thus is falsified.

    We know that post-modern “science” in the western world is potentially corrupted by that philosophy. Climate science being the most vivid example.

    I doubt that either China or Russia tolerate that in their own research.

    Does that suggest that China and Russia are likely to take, or are already achieving, a significant lead over western science? If so does that pose a major problem for the West?.

    The only climate model that comes close to getting climate modelling right is Russian. And that produces no real future climate change.

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      Graeme#4

      Where did the figure of 40% come from? Not challenging you, but it would be great to have a reference to this figure.

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    Mark M

    From the “if only they had a carbon (sic) tax” file …

    This 2,300-Year-Old Egyptian Fortress Had an Unusual Task: Guarding a Port That Sent Elephants to War

    https://www.livescience.com/64407-ancient-egypt-fortress-war-elephants.html

    Within the fortress gatehouse, archaeologists found a rock-cut well and a series of drains and pools that collected, stored and distributed both groundwater and rainwater.

    “The two largest pools may have had a total capacity of over 17,000 litres,” Woźniak and Rądkowska wrote.

    The fact that rainwater was drained and collected suggests that Berenike had “a more humid climate than today,” they noted.

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    Peter Campion

    When is a weather system a tropical cyclone and when is it just a narrative-boosting exercise?

    Here’s the ABC on New Year’s Day reporting on the storm named “Tropical Cyclone Penny” – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-01/cyclone-penny/10676904.

    Tropical Cyclone Penny made landfall earlier on the Queensland coast between Weipa and Thud Point as a category one system, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds.

    Earlier on Tuesday, BOM senior forecaster Gabriel Branescu said the cyclone between Cape Keerweer to Cape York would be “short lived”.

    “It will move quickly over land just south of Weipa as a category one system, but still strong enough to carry 90kph winds, and gusts to up 120kph,” he said.

    “It should weaken pretty quick but then it’ll pop out in the northern coral sea today … or tomorrow.”

    On Wednesday January 02, 2019, the Cairns Post reported on Cyclone Penny’s direct hit on Weipa…

    Weipa hit by Penny’s first strike

    The Bureau of Meteorology reported the system made landfall at 3.30pm yesterday and weather stations on the ground recorded sustained winds at the centre of 75km/h, with gusts of up to 110km/h.

    Yet, if we visit the BoM’s weather observations data page for Weipa – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94170.shtml – and scroll down to January 01, we see the highest recorded wind is 43km/h, with gusts to 76km/h.

    More from the Cairns Post…

    Weipa business owner Sally Parr has lived in the Far North Queensland mining town for 20 years. She said worse storms had impacted the town without being labelled tropical cyclones.

    “We have a lot of trees down and had a lot of wind and rain … the eye is passing now and I think we’re going to get smashed from the other side” she said.

    In the Australia-Fiji region, category one cyclones have sustained winds of 63 to 88km/h, with gusts 91 to 125km/h – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone_scales#Australia_and_Fiji .

    Yet “Tropical Cyclone Penny” already has a Wikipedia entry – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%9319_Australian_region_cyclone_season#Tropical_Cyclone_Penny

    Tropical Cyclone Penny made landfall on the western Cape York Peninsula coastline just south of Weipa at approximately 15:30 local time on 1 January, generating maximum ten-minute sustained winds of 75 km/h (45 mph) near the centre.

    And on January 03, 2019, the Cairns Post reported that Mapoon, 72 kilometres north of Weipa, suffered the worst damage…

    Cape reels from Penny

    The small aboriginal community of Mapoon at the northern tip of Queensland copped the brunt of the cyclone as it crossed land on its journey to the Coral Sea.

    …it appeared only one house, struck by a large tree, had received structural damage.

    The nearest BoM recording site on the other side of Mapoon is Horn Island – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94174.shtml. Horn Island, being 164 kilometres north-north-east of Mapoon, probably wasn’t affected by the low pressure system. It recorded winds of 43km/h and gusts to 72km/h, while “TC Penny” was passing. These were probably from the monsoon trough.

    Horn Island’s near neighbour Thursday Island, just two kilometres away – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94181.shtml, – recorded winds of 65km/h and gusts to 91km/h for about an hour. While these were category one cyclone strength they were more likely the artefact of the TI terrain and the aforementioned monsoon trough.

    Nonetheless, the official record now says the second cyclone to hit Queensland in the 2018-19 season struck Weipa on New Year’s Day. It seems that facts don’t matter when it’s all about the narrative.

    The need for a Royal Commission into the government enterprises that have been taken over by ideologues, beginning with the BoM, the CSIRO and the ABC, has never been greater.

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      Hanrahan

      As far as I know a cyclone is defined as having the wall of wind formed not by wind strength.

      “… the eye is passing now and I think we’re going to get smashed from the other side” she said. She described a “cyclone” will a formed wall.

      I remember one in the ’50s, us kids were out playing in the street the wind was so weak and experienced the eye passing over us.

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      Or ex-cyclone Henny-Penny as I’ve been calling it for the past few weeks as it’s meandered west, then east, then back west – no! back east again – finally back westwards, the most lame, disorganised, sloppy, indecisive, harmless depression EVAH!!! Obviously it’s our fault. Meanwhile…

      https://www.metservice.com/mountain/fiordland-national-park

      10 January 2019, Thur – Snow to 1600m. Gale northwesterlies. Wind chill -3˚C
      11 January 2019, Friday – Snow possible to 1200 metres in the south
      13 January 2019, Sunday – Snow to 1600 metres. Severe or gale southwesterlies

      Whoah there Albert Gore Junior, it’s only the 2nd week of January – summer’s just arrived! – yet meteorologists are talking about SNOW on the tops of Fiordland in the South Island? [don’t panic – it always snows in summer down south – some things never change]. Yet Klimate Korp is pounding the airwaves with ‘record highs’ and an ‘alarming trend’ and 2018 was ‘the second-equal warmest on record, along with 1998.’ Bingo! Busted.

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379692/2018-climate-continues-alarming-trend-niwa

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        Greg in NZ

        Hey red thumb, what don’t you comprehend about a 20-year FLAT trend? Two decades of NO WARMING? 1998-2018 temps exactly the same? Huh? No wonder NIWA nincompoops are ‘alarmed’ by the complete and utter failure of their tosh hypothesis. Big words, eh, some with 3 or 4 syllables: maybe a dictionary might help you to understand their meaning. Or you could go outside and play, or is it time for your nap?

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      Peter Campion

      I finally got hold of someone who lives 60km south of Weipa – right in the middle of the “eye” of not-a-cyclone Penny.

      They confirmed Penny was not a cyclone, and had some colourful thoughts about the Bureau of Mediocrity…

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  • #
    pat

    if HSBC says so…it must be…?

    8 Jan: ABC: Companies, investors go green to make more money, HSBC survey finds
    By business reporter Nassim Khadem
    Four out of five Australian businesses want to meet common industry standards for sustainability and one quarter are altering their supply chains to be more environmentally responsible, according to a survey of 200 Australian business leaders.
    The survey of Australian corporates was undertaken by HSBC between August and September last year, as part of its global survey of 8,500 of the bank’s clients across 34 markets…

    The Australian results show two-thirds of business leaders believe environmental factors are the most important operational issues facing their business, which is why many of them are making changes to their operations and supply chains.
    HSBC globally has pledged $US100 billion in sustainable financing and investment by 2025, to help its clients develop and install clean energy and lower-carbon technologies.
    HSBC Australia’s head of commercial banking Steve Hughes said environmental moves were about profitability as much as social altruism.
    “As well as taking action on the very real threat of climate change, a firm’s transition into more sustainable ways of operating can offer real financial benefits,” he said…

    In November 2017, APRA executive Geoff Summerhayes warned that “should extreme weather events become more frequent and intense as scientists predict”, there could be “adverse economic impacts” that threaten financial system stability…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-08/companies2c-investors-go-green-to-make-more-money2c-hsbc-says/10692674

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Question – will EVs help or hinder peoples movement? Thoughts?

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    pat

    8 Jan: Townhall: What’s The Point of a Carbon Tax Rebate?
    by Cal Thomas
    DUBLIN, Ireland — The Irish government is proposing rebates to a carbon tax it recently imposed to households that comply with what it considers “low-carbon lifestyles.” The rebate, according to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, might be in the form of a check, an increase in welfare benefits or a tax credit for people who live the way the government thinks they should.

    Some believe that if implemented, the rebate could reduce tensions seen in many parts of Europe, but especially in France, where the “yellow vest” movement that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s big tax increase on gasoline, since rescinded, made a gallon of petrol among the most expensive in Europe with the tax accounting for more than half the cost. I’m doubtful.
    People don’t like their governments forcing them to accept a lesser lifestyle because of an ideology some believe has yet to be definitively proved, while the elites continue to live as they like…

    As the Irish Times writes, recent projections by Ireland’s Economic and Social Justice Institute found that the carbon tax would have to increase substantially — from 100 euros per person annually to 1,500 euros if the country is to meet legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

    Let’s see how that will go down with the Irish, who have only recently begun to emerge from a long economic recession.
    https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2019/01/08/whats-the-point-of-a-carbon-tax-rebate-n2538614

    reminders:

    20 Nov: Irish Times: Massive hike in carbon tax needed if Ireland to meet targets – ESRI
    by Kevin O’Sullivan
    Carbon tax will have to increase substantially – from €100 per person a year to €1,500 a year – if Ireland is to meet legally-binding targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to ESRI projections…

    Varadkar keen to avoid ‘yellow vest’ effect with carbon tax
    Irish Times-20 hours ago

    what “a dozen emails” can do to a headline in FakeNewsMSM:

    7 Jan: RTE Ireland: Taoiseach criticised by constituents over carbon tax decision
    By Mícheál Lehane, political correspondent
    Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been strongly criticised by voters in his Dublin constituency over the Government decision not to raise carbon taxes in the Budget last October.
    Correspondence to the Taoiseach in the days after the Budget show that he was warned the decision could prove costly.

    These documents released under the Freedom of Information legislation see Mr Varadkar accused of putting Fine Gael’s interests ahead of the needs of the world.

    This accusation was contained ***in a dozen emails sent to the Taoiseach on this controversial topic…
    https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2019/0107/1021750-politics/

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  • #
    Bill In Oz

    Great news ! Peer reviewed research of ice cores shows that Greenland has been cooling for the last 7,000 years while CO2 levels have been increasing…

    Look at the chart in the link. It matches temperatures for the last 9,000 years against CO2 levels in the atmosphere. And for the last 7000 years the temperature on the Greenland Ice cap has gradually been getting cooler.

    Simultaneously the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere as scientifically measured in ice cores have been rising

    CONCLUSION : CO2 does not make the Earth “Warmer” …

    Now isn’t that WONDERFUL NEWS ! We can all go back to living our normal lives without being worried about a global warming catastrophe.

    It’s just normal changing weather folks.

    We don’t have to feel guilty about & close down our reliable cheap coal fired electricity plants to save the planet !!

    We don’t have to subsidise expensive unreliable wind turbines or solar panels either !

    Here is a report of the research :https://wattsupwiththat.com/…/01/08/greenland-is-way-cool/

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      I put this coment on my local Facebok group page here in the Adelaide Hills, about 6 hours ago. The group has 17,000 members. And so far NOT One comment or like.

      I am amzed. Waht is happening. Are folks so indoctrinated that evidence showing it is all a hoax, can be completely dismissed ?

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Sad but true the lefties are taught from an early age to avoid dissent .

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      • #
        yarpos

        keep that up in The Hills and they will be outside with pitchforks and lanterns. Most will think you are a fringe looney and not engage, or get really angry.

        10

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          I also posted Tony In Oz’s chart on the power sources for the 8th of January.

          That got some people replying. A lot angry comments from a small group of Hills ( ? ) Greenists.

          The same people time and again.

          Most folks are simply not interested I suspect

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    This is heavy hitting and food for thought….

    https://canadafreepress.com/article/we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-…-not-at-all-what-we-had-expected

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  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Hello again.

    I don’t know if this has been discussed on JN before. I’m just catching up on old news. The last time the impact of electric cars was discussed here seems to be in March 2018. Another government intervention which happened in August 2018 seems relevant:

    Australian government invests in ultra-rapid charging stations
    https://electricalconnection.com.au/australian-government-invests-in-ultra-rapid-charging-stations/

    The Australian Government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will provide $6 million to Chargefox to develop 21 ultra-rapid charging stations powered by renewable energy.
    … The ultra-rapid charge will provide a range of up to 400km in just 15 minutes, compared to a current charging time of several hours.

    I guess that’s only the equivalent of 20*21=420 new houses added onto the electric grid. Not much. But the great thing about all these Green schemes is they sound great as long as they are not really implemented. You can do anything on a small scale with little consequence. I wondered what this means if projections of e-vehicle adoption actually occur.

    Firstly note that they are putting these stations away from cities to tackle the problem of taking long distance high-speed trips between regional towns. This is not the main use that electric vehicles are pitched for, which is supposedly to cut emissions from daily commutes and shopping. Petrol cars are more efficient after they’ve warmed up and are running at constant speed instead of accelerating. The vision is we’re supposed to be using e-vehicles within cities, not between them. You might think this regional focus is only to offset the low battery capacity and so politically counteract the range argument of the electric car’s detractors. Read on, dear listener, as I may have discovered another reason besides batteries.

    A hydrocarbon engined vehicle can have a tank refilled in under 2 minutes. When each vehicle takes 7 times longer to recharge than a gasoline tank, you need 7 times as many charging stations to deal with the same vehicle demand at peak times.
    There are 6400 petrol stations in Australia. I’d guesstimate an average of 5 pumps per station, given most will have 4 and a few will have 8. So that’s roughly 32000 pumps to fill our vehicles adequately.
    There are 19,200,000 motor vehicles in Australia, electrics unknown percentage but currently insignificant. This makes a baseline of 16.8421053×10⁻³
    pumps per vehicle.

    Minister Fr*denburg projected there would be 1 million electric cars in Australia by 2030. I’ll assume only 5% of all motor vehicles today become electric and of those 25% have to recharge while out and about instead of only at a private home.

    This change affects the mix of the number of chargers/pumps that are needed. The new mix is a weighted sum.
    The gas guzzlers still need 16.842×10⁻³ pumps per vehicle and the amp attackers need 7 times as many, 117.895×10⁻³ chargers per vehicle.
    # Gas guzzlers * pumps per guzzler + # amp attackers * chargers per e-vehicle = total reload points needed.

    (0.95×1.9×10⁶)×(16.8421053×10⁻³) + (0.05×1.9×10⁶)×(16.8421053×10⁻³×7) = 41600.

    That’s about (41600-32000)/5 = 1920 new service stations needed across the country, a 30% increase! Note that is only based on conversion of current vehicle fleet, not accounting for growth in vehicles over the next 12 years.

    Where these new building sites will come from is anyone’s guess, as the market research focusing on Sydney as one example stated there was “A lack of available sites at infill locations for development coupled with inner and middle ring locations being well serviced by existing operators” and that any new filling stations (of any type) would therefore have to be built in the new housing developments on the outskirts of the city.

    Still, I guess that is what is going to happen if the market demands it. It’s not like the Green crowd tend to live in inner city areas, and if they did their daily commute ought to be public transport buses and trains which will no doubt be powered by natural gas and coal for the foreseeable future.

    I just thought the real estate aspect was another less discussed barrier to the idea, in addition to the massive increase in grid demand that we’ve already talked about many times.

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      Andrew McRae

      Darn, didn’t check the math before publishing. I just now noticed the equation was missing the multiplication by 0.25 for the assumption of recharging mainly at home. That calculated figure is what would happen if everyone recharged only at servos and never at home.

      Lemme try that again.
      (0.95×1.9×10⁶)×(16.8421053×10⁻³) + (0.05×1.9×10⁶×0.25)×(16.8421053×10⁻³×7) = 33200 reload points.
      This requires (33,200−32,000)÷5 = 240 new stations, only a 3.75% increase.
      Totally changes the conclusion.

      To need 1920 new stations you have to have 40% of the fleet become electric. There is also decades more time for that size of fleet change to be absorbed by infrastructure. That’s more illustrative of the scale of the problem.

      Sorry for the wild goose chase. At least I noticed before anyone else. heh.

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      yarpos

      There are potential options to charge at work and home also which we dont have with ICE vehicles. Only works for some and does change the mix a bit. Also chargers can be (and many are already) far more distributed than being at traditional service station locations. We have seen them at supermarkets, random small car parks , wineries, MacDonalds etc.

      I like how the names are getting fancier, chargers, superchargers, ultra rapid chargers. Can hardly wait for the super duper mega zapper unicorn charger. All you have to do is drive by with 20 metres and the car is charged instatly.

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      • #
        MatrixTransform

        pushing J into a battery in shorter amounts of time?

        the faster it fills, the further back you should stand.

        10

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    pat

    the Brookings/Paris Report (see comment #8 on jo’s “cat” thread) HAS BEEN TOTALLY IGNORED BY ABC/FAIRFAX/GUARDIAN/NEWS.COM.AU/SBS/TV CHANNELS, ETC ETC.

    The Australian also has an editorial, behind paywall:

    Weighing the benefits of global action on climate
    The Australian Editorial – 9 Jan 2018
    While Australia may be responsible only for less than 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the impacts will come largely from actions …

    the headline could have said “benefits & costs”. never mind.
    however, when you click on the link and get The Australian’s subscription page, it’s even worse, as it states on the left where the headline usually appears:

    “Benefits of global climate action”

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      Graeme#4

      No, the Brookings Report was covered in The Oz, as I mentioned upstream. Lots of very interesting comments, but when I went to check it later in the day, I couldn’t find it in the online version. Strange.

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    pat

    must-watch. where are the solar panels & wind turbines, one wonders?

    VIDEO: 1min50sec: 8 Jan: Aljazeera: Germany declares state of emergency over snow storms
    Second-highest avalanche warning level in force across German Alps after seven people died during weekend of heavy snow
    by Dorsa Jabbari
    Europe is bracing for more freezing cold after seven people died in the German Alps during a weekend of heavy snow…
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/germany-declares-state-emergency-snow-storms-190108152129729.html

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    pat

    Reuters’ heart is not in this; even when it’s updated, it has nothing to the story. there’s a lengthy Reuters’ news video, with the first minute being about snow on Greek beaches, & that is the only segment in approx 11 minutes that has no narration.

    Updated 9 Jan: Reuters: Athens gets snow as Greece shivers in record cold spell
    by Michele Kambas
    VIDEO: 10min52sec: Greek beaches covered in snow as cold weather causes power cuts
    The ancient monuments in Athens got a rare dusting of snow on Tuesday as temperatures across Greece hit record lows, bringing transport to a standstill in some areas…

    In northern Greece, where an all-time low of -23 degrees Celsius (-9 Fahrenheit) was recorded in the city of Florina, highways, rail and bus services were disrupted.
    Heavy rain and snow was reported on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is more used to protracted periods of drought.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-weather/athens-gets-snow-as-greece-shivers-in-cold-spell-idUSKCN1P20NR

    u can watch it more easily here – notice it even states “no reporter narration”:

    VIDEO: 1min02sec: Reuters: Greek beaches covered in snow as cold weather causes power cuts
    Beaches on the Greek coast were covered in snow on Tuesday, as temperatures in some parts of the country dropped below minus 9.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Rough cut (no reporter narration).
    https://mobile.reuters.com/video/2019/01/08/greek-beaches-covered-in-snow-as-cold-we?videoId=500981814&videoChannel=117760

    8 Jan: Accuweather: Rare snowfall blankets beaches in Greece as Siberian air grips region
    By Kevin Byrne
    AccuWeather Meteorologist Eric Leister said the snow was rare both in terms of duration and the amount that fell all the way to the coastline.
    The normal high temperature this time of year is 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) in Athens and temperatures Monday afternoon fell to around 3 C (37 F) before falling below freezing Monday night, Leister said…

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      Annie

      I just looked at the Cyprus Mail online. There is a photo of the middle of Platres in snow and a video of driving up above Troodos village. It looks very much like it did in the winter of 1966/67 when I went on a skiing course. There had been a fair bit of snow before that Christmas too.

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      • #
        Annie

        Hi red thumb! What is red-thumbable about something that is the truth. Go to Cyprus Mail for the vid for the last few days and I have the old print pics to prove what I said about 1966/67 winter in Troodos. 🙂

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    pat

    8 Jan: Accuweather: Carbon emissions spiked in 2018, research firm finds
    By Amanda Schmidt
    United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose sharply last year. This incline follows three years of decline.
    The Rhodium Group (LINK), a research firm, released preliminary estimates that showed emissions increased by 3.4 percent in 2018 based on preliminary power generation, natural gas and oil consumption data.
    This marks the second largest annual gain in more than two decades, surpassed only by 2010 when the economy bounced back from the Great Recession…
    This slowdown in progress was noted in the group’s annual Taking Stock report (LINK) from June 2018…

    The transportation sector held its title as the largest source of U.S. emissions for the third year running. A strong growth in demand for diesel and jet fuel offset a modest decline in gasoline consumption.
    “This highlights the challenges in decarbonizing the transportation sector beyond light-duty vehicles,” the preliminary report reads…
    “While buildings have begun to attract some creative policy thinking, the industrial sector is still almost entirely ignored,” the preliminary report reads…READ ON
    https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/carbon-emissions-spiked-in-2018-research-firm-finds/70007095

    Bloomberg: Rhodium Group, LLC
    The company was formerly known as China Strategic Advisory, LLC and changed its name to Rhodium Group, LLC in April 2008. Rhodium Group was founded in 2003 and is based in New York, New York with operations in Shanghai, China; and New Delhi, India.

    8 Jan: WUWT: U.S. Carbon Emissions Skyrocketed in 2018!
    Guest “EXCELLENT!” by David Middleton
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/01/08/u-s-carbon-emissions-skyrocketed-in-2018/

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    pat

    8 Jan: UK Express: BBC weather Europe: Greece PARALYSED by RARE snowfall for first time in DECADE
    GREECE has been inundated by a wall of snow in a freak weather event that is unprecedented this decade.
    By Freddie Jordan
    The cold weather front has been dubbed “Telemachos”…

    BBC Weather has warned Europe is bracing for some “dangerous” weather conditions as some could see up to two metres of snow in the next 48 hours.
    The Italian Alps will also see the worst of the weather in the next 48 hours, BBC Weather forecaster Ben Rich has warned…
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/1068850/BBC-weather-Greece-snow-Athens-snowfall-Europe-weather-snow-winter-freeze-weather-charts

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    Another Ian

    A hard act for Canberra to follow

    “Hmmm Congress Critter builds home electrical system using a wrecked Tesla car battery, programmed it himself in C on a Pi”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/w-o-o-d-29-december-2018/#comment-106023

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    Another Ian

    “However you slice it, cars just aren’t that big a part of an ostensible CO2 problem. Personal cars sit idle 95% of the time. Planes, trains, ships, trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles account for well over half the emissions associated with the transport sector globally. And the transport sector itself accounts for only 14% of all emissions.

    Now for the knee-jerk response from groups like Union of Concerned Scientists: Yes, but road-vehicle emissions are a significant share of total emissions in the U.S. and Europe.

    This is a perfect example of the politics of the meaningless gesture, the dominant motif in climate policy. The planet doesn’t care where the emissions happen. The U.S. and Europe could ban driving altogether and it wouldn’t make a sizable difference. ”

    Links and comments at

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/01/09/y2kyoto-war-on-cars/#comments

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      Hanrahan

      Now for the knee-jerk response from groups like Union of Concerned Scientists: Yes, but road-vehicle emissions are a significant share of total emissions in the U.S. and Europe.

      But if one were to be so unkind to mention bird killers to an alarmist you will get a dismissive reply, that cars kill more birds than windmills . It seems that “being a contributor” is dismissed in one case but puts a target on the other. Same, same with health risks: There are no proven health risks from windmills so the precautionary principle need not apply which isn’t their attitude towards the unproven greenhouse effect.

      I think a lightening flash just took out my NBN. Let’s see.

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    robert rosicka

    This is hilarious, on Facebook someone is doing a poll about which senator should resign from politics.

    Either Fraser Anning or Sarah Hanson and from over fifty thousand votes so far 89% say bye bye to Hanson Young , I’m not endorsing Anning in any way but a poll like this gives food for thought .

    https://m.facebook.com/home.php

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    pat

    oops…

    9 Jan: Daily Mail: Green Deal fiasco: Thousands face ‘rip-off’ energy bills for decades after failure of the £400m energy scheme
    •Thousands of homeowners face rip-off bills for decades after being ‘scammed’
    •They joined a state-backed £400million eco-energy scheme that ‘utterly failed’
    •MPs admitted the Green Deal, scrapped after two years, was a ‘complete fiasco’
    By Tom Kelly Investigations Editor
    The Green Deal – which ministers trumpeted as the ‘biggest home improvement programme since the Second World War’ – was abandoned after two years as MPs admitted it had been a ‘complete fiasco’ that brought almost no environmental benefits.

    But more than three years after its collapse, families remain trapped repaying loans of up to £21,000 which they unwittingly took out for solar panels, replacement boilers and insulation.
    The repayments are added to monthly utility bills which in some cases have quadrupled once the loans were added to the cost of their usual fuel and will take more than 20 years to pay back.

    In some of the worst cases, the scheme was allowed to be ruthlessly exploited by Government-approved ‘gangster companies’ who conned the elderly and vulnerable, including those with dementia, MPs told the Commons…READ ON
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6571419/Thousands-face-rip-energy-bills-decades-failure-400m-energy-scheme.html

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    pat

    Updated 9 Jan: Bloomberg: In Climate Change Fight, Brazil Owes Nothing, Minister Says
    By Simone Preissler Iglesias, Mario Sergio Lima, and Bruce Douglas
    Brazil owes nothing in the fight against global climate change and should be paid for its work so far, according to the country’s new environment minister.
    For Ricardo Salles, the Paris Accord in itself is neither good nor bad, but it must bring economic benefits to Brazil. If the agreement limits production or the use of land, Brazil could withdraw…

    Salles said that he did not underestimate climate change but noted that, rather than attending global summits, on the issue, he preferred to act practically…
    “Brazil has so many basic needs to be dealt with that it is not my role to go around the world discussing climate change,” he said. “If I tackle the issue of access to sewage, aren’t I helping to deal with climate change?”
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-08/in-climate-change-fight-brazil-owes-nothing-new-minister-says

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    pat

    cherry-picking?

    8 Jan: Reuters: Forest fire insurance costs soar
    by Alexander Huebner
    MUNICH – Forest fires are becoming increasingly likely because of climate change and costing insurers more than ever, with the deadly fire that ravaged northern California the single most expensive natural disaster in 2018, Munich Re said on Tuesday…

    Worldwide natural disasters caused $160 billion in economic damage in 2018. ***That was down from $350 billion the previous year, but a number of devastating hurricanes had contributed to the high losses in 2017…

    Insurers and reinsurers paid out $80 billion for natural disaster claims last year, ***down from $140 billion a year earlier but almost double the 30-year average of $41 billion, the reinsurer said…

    Ernst Rauch, the reinsurer’s chief climatologist, told Reuters that forest fires were entering a whole new dimension, costing tens of billions of dollars.
    “Higher and higher temperatures are leading to ever greater droughts, and high humidity in the winter means that shrubbery grows quickly, creating an easily flammable material in dry summers,” he said…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-insurance-disasters/forest-fire-insurance-costs-soar-idUSKCN1P2129

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    James

    I just visited the Geological Museum in Moscow. It was nice to visit this kind of Museum and find no nonsense about Global Warming.

    I was hoping to find a display about the formation of petroleum. The old USSR had some different theories about this, some emerged from an institution in Kharkov Ukraine, which is why I say USSR.. Unfortunately all they had was a description of the oil resources that Russia has. They seemed proud of their energy resources.

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    pat

    ***formed in October, but notching up a political (virtue-signalling) victory in the UK already?

    8 Jan: ScarboroughNewsUK: Scarborough Council declares Climate Emergency in first major step to combat global warming
    by Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporting Service
    Greens Councillor and deputy mayor Dilys Cluer’s climate-focused motion passed following a lengthy period of debate at Monday’s full meeting of council.
    It means the seaside council will now declare a state of “climate emergency” – as well as committing to a target of zero carbon emissions by 2030, and seeking up to £80,000 in funding over two years for a sustainability officer to help achieve their goals.

    Speaking on her motion, Coun Cluer said the action would allow Scarborough Council “the chance to play a small part in building a more secure future for this planet”…
    She added that the motion would allow the council to send a message to other local authorities by tackling the issue with “proper resolve”…

    In response, deputy leader Coun Helen Mallory said that although she believed Coun Cluer “should be commended” for her work on addressing climate change, she thought an amended motion could make “better use of resources”…

    The amendment was rejected by Coun Cluer, who said the motion had to be passed now if it were to progress through the budget process.
    “It’s crucial to get this through now if we are going to have any money to do anything,” she said.
    Shortly after the amendment was rejected, Coun Cluer’s original motion passed to cheers from the sitting public.

    ***Many of the cheers belonged to members of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion Scarborough, which had earlier held a boisterous protest out the front of the council chambers in support of the motion.
    https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/scarborough-council-declares-climate-emergency-in-first-major-step-to-combat-global-warming-1-9525225

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    pat

    read all for further details:

    9 Jan: SMH: Records ‘blown away’ as rising power bill fears trigger solar PV surge
    By Peter Hannam
    New solar energy installations tripled in capacity in 2018 in Australia, with solid growth in rooftop solar eclipsed by a massive increase in utility-sized ventures.
    According to data collected by Green Energy Trading, the nation added just over 3775 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity last year, up from 1270MW a year earlier.

    “That’s blown away” the previous records, Tristan Edis, director of Green Energy Markets, said. “It’s going to have a significant impact on [wholesale] power prices in the middle of the day.”
    Total installations are forecast by the consultancy to rise another quarter this year to 4700MW…

    Assuming dams start to fill up this year and next, the benefit of extra renewable capacity – including the wind and solar farms that will come online in 2019 – should add to downward pressure on wholesale prices, Mr Edis said.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/records-blown-away-as-rising-power-bill-fears-trigger-solar-pv-surge-20190108-p50q8f.html

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      Bill In Oz

      When it rains there is less sunlight for solar panels to generate electricity…

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      yarpos

      Nice mix of Hannam hyperbole and the “downward pressure” meme. The natural combination really.

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      Kinky Keith

      How have we allowed our nation to get to this?

      The devilry of our dear departed former p.m. is now so clear and Peak Solar isn’t far off.

      The Tipping Point is nigh. When everyone has rooftop solar with bundles of short and long term energy certificates to sell, there will only be one problem left to solve.

      Nobody to buy them.

      To us, looking at the science, and unraveling the economics of Renewables, we can now identify the bones of another, similar, long term ripoff of Australians.

      As TdeF mentioned recently, we have been paying “Singapore” prices for our petroleum products forever!

      Assuming Singapore Prices means elevated prices, there’s an obvious question: who’s profiting from the “margin”?

      It seems that we have been Enslaved for longer than I believed and that there were Elites around in Australia even decades ago.

      Our core national utilities have been out of the hands of the people for much longer than I thought.

      No dams _ keeps farmers in a constant state of anxiety and city dwellers on rations.

      No petroleum refining _ another elite enabling arrangement making our industry uncompetitive internationally.

      Eco _ Electricity, another false premise, achieving exactly the Opposite of its public image of being eco_friendly and throttling our national industrial base.

      The Elites are having a big celebratory parti in New York at our expense.

      WHO. Who is running Australia? Does anybody know?

      KK

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    pat

    8 Jan: WSJ: Have We Got a Carbon Tax ‘Dividend’ for You
    Rent seekers, virtue signalers and green lobbyists will love it. Taxpayers not so much.
    by Mark P. Mills
    (Mr. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a partner in Cottonwood Venture Partners, an energy-tech venture fund)
    This could be the year Congress tries to enact the mother of all taxes, a carbon tax—a levy on the use of oil, natural gas and coal. Everything that is fabricated, grown, operated or moved is made possible by hydrocarbons. That makes the carbon tax different from a mere consumption or excise tax. The latter is attached to purchasing—spend more, pay more. A carbon tax is a tax on existence, because all aspects of living require energy, and hydrocarbons provide 80% of America’s energy, more for the rest of the world. And hydrocarbons are used to create or build everything else that produces energy…

    Who would support such a tax? Four intersecting constituencies: those who embrace the idea as an essential step to “fixing” the climate; those agnostic about climate claims but eager to check the box for political expediency; those in search of some “grand bargain” on tax or regulatory reform; and those eager to find more ways to extract money from the economy…

    First, cost aside, it would take decades—probably a century—to restructure America’s energy ecosystem. That means a carbon tax would be effectively permanent. The financial and physical scale of the energy infrastructure is so enormous that changing it isn’t, to use the popular analogy, like changing the course of a supertanker, but of a ship 1,000 times as large as a supertanker. The U.S. has already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on green subsidies with piddly results. Wind and solar combined, the favored alternatives to hydrocarbons, provide a mere 3% of the country’s energy.

    Second, citizens eventually react when governments raise the cost of living. The raison d’être for a carbon tax is to use price to shift consumer behavior. Ask France’s President Emmuanel Macron how that’s going—and he was shooting for a mere 5% fuel-tax hike. Even a 50% levy wouldn’t be enough to drive hydrocarbon consumption downward; it would only slow the rate of growth…

    Third, the U.S. uses such enormous quantities of hydrocarbons that even a small carbon tax would add hundreds of billions of dollars to government coffers, stimulating a rent-seeking land rush. We can already see how the battle over this cash gusher would shape up…
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/have-we-got-a-carbon-tax-dividend-for-you-11546992477

    for full article, place url in outline.com.

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    pat

    SOME LIKE IT GREEN:

    The Green New Deal Rises Again
    By Thomas L. Friedman
    The New York Times – 9 Jan 2018
    Back in 2007, I wrote a column calling for a “Green New Deal,” and I later expanded on the idea in a book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded.” Barack Obama picked up the theme and made a Green New Deal part of his 2008 platform, but the idea just never took off. So I’m excited that the new Democratic …
    (excerpt at CarbonBrief) “I like the urgency and energy she and groups like the Sunrise Movement are bringing to this task. So for now I say: Let a hundred Green New Deal ideas bloom! Let’s see what sticks and what falls by the wayside.”…

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right. A 70% tax on the rich makes sense
    by Nathan Robinson (editor of Current Affairs US)
    Guardian – 9 Jan 2018
    If we are serious about tackling climate change, this is precisely the kind of policy we need to see.

    Wikipedia: Current Affairs is an American bimonthly magazine that discusses political and cultural topics from a left-wing political standpoint…Nathan J. Robinson, a PhD student in sociology and social policy at Harvard University, founded the magazine in 2015 and is its editor-in-chief.

    IT’S FUN TAKING A LOOK AT NATHAN AND HIS TWITTER PAGE:

    Twitter: Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs
    Tweet 2017: Excited to announce that my new book, “Trump: Anatomy of a Monstrosity,” is now available for purchase…ETC
    https://twitter.com/nathanjrobinson?lang=en

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    toorightmate

    The Sydney Morning Hamas currently has a chart showing how Australia’s weather has warmed over the past 100 years.
    I refuse to pay money to Fairfax’s paywall which means I miss out on the juicy verbiage.
    Can anyone tell me what it is about?
    I am fairly certain it is doctored data because the mid 1930s and 1948 appear considerably cooler than I recall.

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    Ian Hill

    News report today – the Great Ocean Road is at risk because of erosion caused (in part) by climate change. My brackets. Nonsense. That part of the world has always been susceptible to erosion – The 12 Apostles are now fewer, the London Bridge fell down, etc – all by natural causes. Any increase in the timing of this erosion caused by man-made climate change would be zero.

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      Robber

      Much erosion also follows bush fires, like the 2015 one at Wye River. For many years the greenies stopped the CFA from doing controlled burnoffs. That area of steep hills lost all its vegetation, leading to soil erosion and slippages onto the Great Ocean Road. Parts of the road are still one way as recovery work continues.
      But of course it was “The Age” “journalist who threw in: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) current projection for sea level rise, based on high emissions, ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, is almost 90 centimetres by the year 2100, relative to an average sea level for the period 1986-2005.” “Other peer-reviewed studies have forecast a much steeper rise in sea level by 2100”. Monitoring stations at Lorne and Stony Point in Victoria have recorded rises of 2.8 millimetres per year and 2.4 millimetres per year respectively since 1991.That’s 28 cms in 100 years.
      The SW climate change portal is full of doom and gloom for the area.
      The projected warmer and drier weather in the future is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of bushfires.
      Extreme temperatures are likely to increase at a similar rate to average temperature. There will be a substantial increase in the temperature reached on hot days. There will be more hot days (greater than 35°C), and warm spells will last longer.
      Despite an overall trend of declining rainfall, more of the rain that does fall will be in increasingly extreme downpours. This is likely to lead to an increase in the incidence of flooding events, particularly in urbanised and small catchments.
      Time spent in drought to increase over the course of the century.
      Important built assets and infrastructure such as the deep water port at Portland, and natural assets along the region’s expansive coastline may be at risk due to sea level rise, coastal erosion and inundation.

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    Slithers

    Carbon Credits?
    Australia is a net exporter of Food Stuffs. The Agricultural sectors carbon emissions about 70k tons CO2 equivalent. (Notice there is no mention of how this is arrived at).
    https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/idr.7_AUS_0.pdf?download
    Australia exports lots of Food stuffs.
    Do the importers pay in $ and carbon credits? (probably not since the carbon trading system failed).

    I forgot to link where I found this but:

    The level of NDCs set by each country[8] will set that country’s targets. However the ‘contributions’ themselves are not binding as a matter of international law, as they lack the specificity, normative character, or obligatory language necessary to create binding norms
    NDCs should be consistent with national development policies
    NDCs should follow SMART design principles
    NDCs should have broad national support
    NDCs should have clear political backing
    NDC development should have clear institutional leadership
    National coordination for climate change and development actions should exist
    NDC institutions should respond to local development needs
    NDC spending should be part of national budget planning
    NDC spending should be monitored and reported
    NDC spending should be subject to national oversight and scrutiny[16]

    http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/climate-science-data/climate-science/understanding-climate-change
    Our climate is changing. Observed changes over the 20th century include increases in global average air and ocean temperature, rising global sea levels, long-term sustained widespread reduction of snow and ice cover, and changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation and regional weather patterns, which influence seasonal rainfall conditions.?

    https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/OandA/Areas/Oceans-and-climate/Climate-change-information
    Changes to the climate system have occurred and are likely to continue

    The international scientific community accepts that increases in greenhouse gases due to human activity have been the dominant cause of observed global warming since the mid-20th century. Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system.

    I think we should put on NOTICE the people who are responsible for publishing these lies!

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