Saving the planet one $2,000 cat door at a time

Go on. Prove how much you love the planet, or maybe just outdo the Jones’s and get yourself a $2,000 automatic designer cat door that is draft free, radio controlled and evens opens the door for the cat in case your cat is intellectually challenged.

How many storms will this cat door prevent?

Couple pay $2000 for a cat door to help fight climate change

This story was first reported on CBC by Greg Rasmussen. What else are public broadcasters for?

Sometimes being energy conscious can mean geeking out on gigawatts, or studying the latest heat exchanger technology. But in this case, it involved splurging on a $2,000 cat door.

The super-insulated, radio-frequency-controlled designer cat passageway is one of many energy saving features in a super energy efficient house being built in West Vancouver.

I thought climate warriors weren’t supposed to have a cat?

Just three million dollars to build a passive “net zero” house:

Costing about $3 million to build, it’s not far out of line in pricey West Vancouver. James said he kept close watch on the extras and said it only cost about 4 per cent more than it would have to build a similar home that meets existing building codes.

They didn’t want the dingy small windows common to “passive houses”. So they got large windows, even floor to ceiling windows. And then they flew these floor-to-ceiling, triple glazed windows across the Atlantic:

… the huge triple glazed windows had to be brought in from Europe because no one could supply them locally.

Wonder what the lifetime emissions are on that?

Note the fine print:

“We’re going to be what’s called net zero energy, so we’ll generate more electricity over the year, and sell it back to BC Hydro, than we use,” said Dean

What he really means is that they will be 100% dependent on the Grid to be there when they need it.

Net freeloaders on the system?

The designer cat door is apparently a “PetWalk” one.

I fear it’s going to lead to mental health issues in Pets:

Within the same household, different pet’s chips can be set to different programs. So if, say, one of your dogs or cats needs a bit more exercise, you can program the door to let one pet back inside but not the other. This may seem either unfair treatment or a brilliant solution to pet obesity and indolence, but the people at Petwalk feel that it’s something pet owners might like to control.

First world problem.

 

10 out of 10 based on 53 ratings

80 comments to Saving the planet one $2,000 cat door at a time

  • #
    Gordon

    Truly a first world problem! Wow!

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    • #

      I’m actually beginning to think that climate worriers are becoming afflicted by a communicable disease that affects rational thought.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Aren’t you assuming that they were capable of rational thought in the first place?

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      • #
        MudCrab

        Actually an interesting question.

        We have as most people know the concept known as the Conservative Advantage. In brief summary this is the observation that ‘conservative’ people are better able to guess a ‘progressive’s’ point of view on a subject compared to ‘progressive’ being able to think like a ‘conservative’.

        This suggests that conservative types are actually more open minded that Lefts but also are more willing to rationalise and choose when faced with multiple options.

        A Left/Progressive by comparison often seems to be literally unable to understand how an opposing point of view can even exist and often, rather than classing unwanted choices as simple opinions not taken, resort to classing foreign ideas as simply ‘wrong’.

        So, if we are to accept that the Conservative Advantage is real we then move onto the chicken and egg part of the process. Does one turn conservative because they are mental wired to be consider multiple ideas, or does one who embraces the conservative mindset learn to think more deeply and openly about problems?

        Alternatively, are Lefts naturally narrow minded and prone to latch onto single concepts because complex concepts are beyond them, or is it that to survive in a Left environment one needs to publically follow the party line at all times or face peer hostility?

        Unfortunately to prove this sort of thing in a formal scientific manner you would need to be part of the Educated Elite and given they are packed to the rim by open and proud Lefties already, I doubt any of them would be willing to support any research that outs them as close minded bigots with poor rationalising abilities.

        Interesting open question.

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        • #
          MudCrab

          As an extension to this thought experiment considering if Lefts are even able to hold multiple points of view and opinions is the question as to if Lefts are even able to do humour.

          It can be argued that Conservative humour, while often deliberately politically correct, is at least very observational, cutting and most importantly, funny. Left humour by comparison usually seems to consist of repeating how horrible a person Tony Abbott is and laughing at his red speedos.

          Now, to step back a bit first, let us remember what exposing the teeth means in most other mammals – nervous fear. It is a sign that the animal in question does not actually feel they can dominate you, but as sure as gosh not ready to submit. You are possibly a friend, possibly a threat and if you are a threat then they are willing to bite you.

          Now in humans exposing the teeth is part of smiling, which with us is a sign we are happy and not openly aggressive or hostile. The evolution of this expression has been suggested to have come from the nervous fear displayed when first meeting a stranger.

          “Hi. We just met. You are not going to club me, right?”

          By getting the new stranger to display a similar expression suggests to both parties that neither was actually about to club the other, hence neither really wanted to be a threat and hey, what say you and me hang out and hunt sabre tooths together.

          So if you want to convince a stranger to work with you, then you need to get them to also show mutual nervous fear (aka showing the teeth aka smiling) and one of the easier ways was be invoking nervous laughter. Or non nervous laugher. Or telling a half decent joke.

          So, if you want to successfully work in a group with people not immediately aligned with you, the quickest way was to be funny.

          Now, hold that thought and revise the thought that suggests that Conservatives are more open to alternative points of views and opinions. You like tea. They like coffee. So you don’t club each other at the kettle each morning you both need to get along, and what better ice breaker than laughing with each other. I don’t agree with everything you say, but we get along and can joke about things.

          Now if you are a Leftie you are likely to display a more closed mind to problems. You already have the correct answer and all other answers are WRONG. By being unable or unwilling to socialise for extended periods with Wrong People a Left has less need to find a way to socially relax when dealing with other people. Since they are finding little need to expand their interactions they find little need to learn how to get them to stop being hostile and start showing nervous fear, and why should they? To their mind set they do not need you and your foreign ideas. You are wrong. They are correct. The world would be better if WrongThinkers were simply not allowed to vote.

          So they never feel the need to relax strangers with humour and by extension never fully develop the ability to tell good jokes.

          So there you have it. The idea that Lefts don’t do good humour because they have no social evolutionary need.

          Or… Two guys walk into a bar… 😀

          90

    • #
      Geoff

      What happens if they get an electric dog?

      40

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    • #
      ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

      People will believe just about anything these days. They were far smarter before they came down from the trees. Cave dwelling is what started the brain rot methinks.

      I remember seeing a doco of a family somewhere in the depths of poorest China (I think it was China) where their daily subsistence was living in a “house” dug out the side of a hill, hubby’s work consisted of digging yet more holes and extracting quartz crystals to sell. One day, he’s managed to scrape enough together so the family can have a TV. He travelled about 500 miles to the next major town, bought the TV and all was well. Now they just had to wait until technology arrived in their area capable of running the TV, called electricity. Talk about being desperate to keep up with the Jones’ (or the Yangs’).

      As for the cat door attached to that $3M house and the enormous accompanying waste of being “eco”, I could be just as clever as the builder and burn my house down and completely rebuild it 30 times for that price simply because I didn’t like the paint colour. They’re not called eco-nuts for nothing.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    “…or a brilliant solution to pet obesity…”

    Or…..you could just get feed your cat less…..old school common sense….who’d have thought?

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    • #
      sophocles

      … or not have a cat. Even older-school commoner sense :-).

      Besides, I have an excellent walking machine: a large dog. It adds a great Security feature to the Company and Exercise ones. I just have to put up with a more or less daily false positive from the Security module when next door’s cat thinks the dog and I are out for our daily, or he’s intside. That’s when the dog’s food bowl has to be checked.

      The cat still hasn’t figured out that there are never any left-overs and the bowl is polished beautifully after each meal; it just has to check for itself. That doesn’t last at all long but it’s amusing when it happens:
      In the food stakes:
      Cat = 0
      Dog = 1

      In the immediately subsequent obstacle course stakes:
      Cat = 1
      Dog = 0.

      The cat is just that tiniest bit faster in the 10m bowl-to-fence sprint, despite much shorter legs, through having better initial acceleration from a standing start. I ascribe that to being quite a bit lighter and having initially better grip … although I admit not having considered the thrust or drag component engendered by the explosive tail fluffing, sort of a feline `after-burner’ or parachute?

      From the times returned by both, there is some room to move the bowl around in without enabling cat capture but not a lot. That `clack’ of large teeth not quite closing on the feline tail seems to serve improved vertical effort over the final obstacle. 🙂

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      • #
        Annie

        I was already laughing before getting to your comment Sophocles but was really in stiches while I read yours! That describes our dog and cat to a tee. The cat is too much of a wuss to stand his ground and give the dog a scratched nose, so over the low plant trough, scarper through the apple trees and up the large deodar cedar by the chookhouse!
        The cat really belongs to our daughter’s friend. He was being tormented by her neighbour so sought refuge. Now the dog is a pain to him.

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        • #
          sophocles

          I’m glad you were amused. Remember: it’s an almost daily performance. 🙂

          Most cats and dogs need to grow up together to make it in the mates stakes, but not all. I had one dog, Bruno, a long-haired German Shepherd (all my dogs have been GSs) back in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. I managed to convince a friend’s family—through outright emotional blackmail lightly lubricated with a wad of cash (for the dog’s food, paid in advance)—to look after him while I was in Melbourne (Jun 1990 – Apr 1991.) They weren’t at all easy to convince because they were owned by a (very) large silver tabby, a neutered tom, they called Ogri (after a cartoon character—a Rocker—in the English “Motorcycle” magazine).

          Ogri was … umm … notorious/infamous for attacking and shredding the neighbourhood dogs, so worrying about him was a great concern. I couldn’t ask the neighbourhood cats, there were none at all around to question; ever. But not to worry. Ogri and Bruno bumped noses as soon as I let Bruno out of the car and they were inseparable. Just like that. I think I briefly saw a thought balloon over Ogri’s head—something about a “woolly blanket” or “woolly mammoth,” I never did get that one clear. After that, they only needed to reach some minor accommodations to settle in together, like, Ogri washed himself, thank you very much. They ate together, slept together and generally lazed around together. The only activity Ogri didn’t partake of with Bruno was a daily walk.

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          • #
            Annie

            I love GSD’s too! We had a wonderful long-haired one in Melbourne (eventually buried up here at our little farm). He was a wonderful dog and very protective of our son’s semi-feral black cat. When the cat was ill (attacked by a neighbour’s dog) Shep used to put protective paws around Ralph…a wonderful thing to see.
            Our Border Collie Bess in England got on well with the cat too but Jack, well Jack thinks Seb is fair game. I can’t get through to him that you don’t chase family cats! Strangely, he is very good with the chooks.

            10

          • #
            ivan

            I have seen something like that with my large Newfoundland. I was warned about a certain cat that lived at the start of the best 2 km walk in the village, it was supposed to attack all dogs regardless of size.

            Storm wasn’t a small dog standing 76 cm at the shoulder and weighing in at 75 kg so I thought I would try that walk with him. The cat appeared and rushed in, Storm raised one large paw and placed it on the cats back, cat was pushed flat to the ground protesting loudly. Storm then washed it, a rather dampening experience for the cat – Newfies can drool a lot. The cat shut up, storm released it and the rather damp cat staggered off. We continued on our walk.

            the next day we went on the same walk, no cat but part way along I noted the cat was following us. This went on for several days until we went out on a wet day then the cat came and walked with us – under neath Storm so it wouldn’t get wet.

            After that they became friends, the cat was always with us on our walks.

            30

      • #
        robert rosicka

        Had a big old and very mean Ginger tomcat forced upon us when we first moved out here and it actually used to stalk dogs regardless of size or number .
        The pit bull next door just wanted to be friends and so did the labs but the cat had a mean streak a mile wide , best I seen was a new neighbor with three dogs one a whippet and a mongrel from over the back tried to take it on .
        Funniest and quickest fight betweeen one cat and four dogs ever and wish I had been able to video just how the cat sucked the dogs in to come closer , closer , closer then bang nothing but yelps and dog fur .
        Any dog stupid enough to intrude on its turf was sent packing quick smart .

        20

        • #
          sophocles

          I have/had a ginger and white one of those across the road. It doesn’t set paw on my place, not after it and another tom started entertaining themselves and each other, at 3:30am under my car (which was parked outside the gates that night). The noise was horrendous. I broke up that fight with some vigour and my dog saw it off. It hasn’t been back since. But it regards every other dog being walked up or down the street, as fair game.

          (I haven’t seen it around for a couple of months, now, hence the qualification …it’s not a young cat …)

          30

        • #
          Annie

          Was it called Garfield?

          00

    • #
      Salome

      In my experience, cats and dogs are just as good at getting no exercise outside as inside. They are not children, who are glued to a screen inside but need physical activity to keep them amused outside. They can sleep anywhere.

      30

      • #
        sophocles

        Cats are naturally nocturnal animals and are most active at night. Those “things which go bump in the night” are usually cats, which is why, in more superstitious times, they are associated with the dire “critters” of the mythology. Two tom cats having at each other in the wee hours after midnight do a darned good imitation of ye olde bean sidhe (banshee).

        Dogs are dawn and dusk hunters so are quite happy to sleep through midnight and laze around midday.

        30

        • #
          Salome

          Actually, both cats and dogs are crepuscular rather than nocturnal, and cats sleep even more than dogs. Tom cats going to it at night, though, at those times when they are living on sweet lurve, is no surprise.

          30

        • #
          Annie

          It’s generally possums that make a nighttime racket here. A roaming feral cat sometimes comes around and yowls too. No expensive Gaia-sensitive or otherwise catflaps hereabouts (thank goodness) so it can’t come in.

          20

  • #
    AndyG55

    Much cheaper to just leave a window partly open.

    Also, NO..I’m not buying one

    .
    .
    .
    .
    .

    I don’t have a cat !

    61

  • #
    Dennis

    Catastrophic.

    150

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Airfreighting windows from Europe??? Very environmentally conscious that is.

    Perhaps we need an “Advance in Green Pratitude” award equivalent to the Darwin Awards.

    130

  • #
    Lance

    Next week, cat gone, killed by coyote!

    40

  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    Paris Agreement to shrink economy, says US’s Brookings Institution
    The Australian-6 hours ago
    Australia’s economy will be among the worst affected by the Paris … The report by the Washington-based Brookings Institution also finds the treaty will fail to cut carbon emissions on 2015 levels or put the world …

    Jotzo spin:

    TWEET: Frank Jotzo: Paris Agreement modelling by @WarwickMcKibbin and colleagues: meeting 2030 emissions targets to yield net economic benefits to individual countries (before taking into account avoided climate change damages)
    LINK 52-page REPORT
    https://twitter.com/frankjotzo/status/1082529334152347648?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

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    • #
      pat

      a couple of excerpts from the report:

      Because Australia relies heavily on fossil fuels for its own use and as a source of export revenue, it experiences a large fall in investment, a significant capital outflow, and the largest depreciation of the real exchange rate (see Figure 14)…

      Figure 14 shows effects on real exchange rates. The real depreciation of the Australian currency is notable. Australia is a large exporter of coal and gas, and the implicit tax on Australia’s exports through the CO2 tax causes a substantial loss in the terms of trade in both the short and long run…

      40

      • #
        pat

        a couple more:

        All regions except Australia and OPEC experience positive net benefits from participating in the Paris Agreement…

        Since its exports of fossil fuels are taxed whether or not Australia itself participates in the agreement, Australia’s withdrawal has little impact on global emissions…

        80

        • #
          David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

          G’day Pat,
          I can’t detect any major difference between:

          ” Since its exports of fossil fuels are taxed whether or not Australia itself participates in the agreement, Australia’s withdrawal has little impact on global emissions…”
          and
          ” Australia’s withdrawal has little impact on global emissions… ”

          Although I suppose there is an intent to mislead in the former.
          And I could equally omit “withdrawal” from the latter.
          Cheers,
          Dave B

          30

  • #
    Ruairi

    A cat-door that’s way out of sight,
    Was designed for the climate-change fight,
    Costing only two grand,
    And electrically manned,
    It’s a must-have and gets the Green light.

    160

  • #
  • #
    Mark M

    Q. “I thought climate warriors weren’t supposed to have a cat?”

    A. Climate justice is not paid by virtue signalling elitist planet savers, but by the dregs of society.

    > “A medium-sized dog has the same impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, while a cat is equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.

    Owners should consider doing without, downsizing or even eating their pets to help save the planet, according to a new book.” <

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/6416683/Pet-dogs-as-bad-for-planet-as-driving-4x4s-book-claims.html

    NB. Any jokes about eating cats will be considered bad taste.

    110

    • #
      Annie

      Back in the 1960’s we used to wonder if the kebabs in Cyprus included cat. They were very cheap and tasty anyway!

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      • #
        Annie

        Another time in Cyprus we inherited a neighbour’s cat (they were off back to England). He was a grey tabby with very long legs and an Egyption Mau look (cats in Cyprus were originally imported from Egypt to deal with the snake problem). His name was LGC, for Little Grey Cat. He became known as DGM, Damn Great Moggie, being named that by the new neighbours in his old home after they looked after him for a week.
        LGC was a good hunter and brought his capture into the dining room to eat. The trouble is, I had to clean up the gory remnants of large rats! Once I saw what looked like a chunk of Troodos rock under a chair…stopped just in time when I realised it was a chameleon…yuk.

        41

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          Wouldnt the snakes have dealt with the cat problem? 😀

          20

          • #
            Annie

            Not there! Cape Gata (Cape of Cats) on the Akrotiri Peninsular is the reputed place of import.
            There are still lots of snakes; nearly tripped over a Couphi up by one of the castles on the Kyrenia Range once. That’s a sort of adder I believe. There were Phidis too, longer black snakes you would see squished along the roads occasionally. I think there are some other sorts too but haven’t delved into learning about them.
            For what it’s worth, despite the snakes there are many cats there. Cats are very clever about snakes.

            41

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Annie you should have called him Kitty Nutkin’s ?? 😉

          30

    • #
      MudCrab

      If they are a bad taste you are probably not cooking them properly…

      Cough…

      I’ll get my coat.

      40

      • #
        sophocles

        … aging them for a few months at the back of the refrigerator could improve the flavour.

        Cough …
        Hang on, I’ll get mine too.

        20

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      All this nonsense is predicated on climate change….its the UN-sponsored lie that just keeps on giving…mind you, you do need a lot of “Collaborators” who are happy to go along with the Big Lie too….

      Evil is ineffectove without willing hands to make it thrive….

      70

    • #
      dennisambler

      This cat just has to be Vegan…

      10

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    This is because homage to “green” energy has become thoughtless.

    From WSJ
    “The Energy Department has placed a priority on support for advanced reactors, but it comes with risks. The business is still likely years away from proving whether its reactors can catch on, especially as the price of wind, solar and gas-fired power is dropping.”

    If I am developing a compact nuclear plant, I’m not going to worry about wind and solar. I’m not a supplement, I primary dispatch power. The gas folks are a concern. The writer has the phrase “wind and solar” imprinted on brain, & must kneel to same in every article with he word “energy” in it.

    In the same way every marketer must somehow insert “green” into the product pitch.

    AS usual, Kermit (the Frog) was right!

    100

  • #
    Latus Dextro

    So, a West Vancouver virtue-signalling eco-sophisticate now has an internet-of-things controlled pet airlock with which to secure their triple glazed hermetically sealed safe-space with delusions of net zero energy while ignoring a construction carbon footprint the size of T.Rex.
    All makes perfect sense when thought of in the context of the UK Drax power station that imports wood chip biomass from North America to generate sustainable low carbon green electrons.

    Media paragons of globalism like the CBC, and bedfellows on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC, or in the Southern Hemisphere, the ABC / Radio_TV/NZ revealingly never miss a quick climatism Amen.

    And as for Canada, yet another articulate Canadian Adam Daniel Mezei joins a line up of capable online broadcasters like Stefan Molyneux, Prof. Jordan Peterson et al. to present his entertainingly gritty views, commentary and observations about current Canadian life and times under the globalist rainbow boy-wonder whose pending day of judgement of the 43rd Canadian federal election later this year will decide whether Canada joins the growing list of countries rejecting secular globalism or continues on its current unsustainable degrading trajectory of upwardly spiralling power prices, and the super-division of identity politics and controlled speech.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Latus Dextro:

      The Netherlands has a good approach to reducing CO2 emissions. First construct a few (virtue signalling) off shore wind farms. They even go so far as to connect them to their grid.
      Meanwhile Norway gets 98% of its electricity from hydro which is now GREEN,so it gets rewarded with Green generation certificates, which they might use to offset thermal generation, if they had any. Instead they sell those certificates to the Netherlands, so the Dutch can offset nearly half their generation (In fact with wind and a bit of biofuel they can claim about 65% goody, goody gum drop status and get a green elephant stamp).
      See the advantages
      Norway gets a bit more money.
      Holland gets green status at a minor cost.
      The Dutch grid doesn’t get destabilised by renewables, and remains cheaper than the Green Loonies Germany, France, the UK etc. (In fact Dutch electricity prices have dropped in the last 10 years and are now approx.45% of those in Germany and Denmark).
      And the total amount of CO2 is barely reduced (much joy for plants).

      60

  • #
    markx

    This article pretty well sums up the hypocrisy and dissonance of this whole sorry theme; “we must save the future world for future generations”.

    In Australia the builders of gigantic homes and high tech cat doors are demanding that farmers cease clearing and only grow trees for them, so they can happily go about their virtue-signalling lives in the comfort of their air-conditioned world of concrete, steel and glass.

    150

    • #
      Annie

      You do have to wonder where these urban eco-warriors think their food is going to come from?! Perhaps they think they can get by with a couple of jars of bean-sprouts in the kitchen and a couple of tomato plants in a tub on the verandah. How were their apartments built, how were their mobile ‘phones made and are recharged, etc. etc? Public transport must just appear like magic, with roads and rails appearing courtesy of unicorns sprinkling pixie-dust.
      No, no need for farmers, engineers, miners….

      122

      • #
        MudCrab

        Don’t ask them how their apartments were built, ask them how wind farms and solar panels are made.

        90

      • #
        ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

        It all comes down to demand and supply. The eco-worriers demand nobody uses Tassie Oak except them and they don’t usually eat from their Tassie Oak dining setting, glancing occasionally at their 100kw 4K LG flat screen sitting atop their Tassie Oak entertainment centre. They know they can gorge their silly heads on smashed avo for a small fortune in a tiny shop furnished to the hilt with the same Tassie Oak they keep protesting should be protected at all costs, from the less deserving of course. All the while planning a big, multi-SUV fossil-burning drive out to the wilderness, big tyres trampling everything in their path to protest Tassie oak loggers by nailing big spikes into the trees to stop the fossil-burning chainsaws that use an almost incalculably small fraction of the fossils that the eco-worriers used to get there to complain – loudly and probably munching on yet more smashed avo and imported coffee, burning more fossils to heat the water.

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      • #
        ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

        These avo-munchers are a bit of a paradox. They demand everyone of this generation tighten belts and suffer so the next generation (theirs most likely) can waste it all. There’s just one way to come into this world and about 7 billion ways out. They could always lower themselves on the food chain and see how that works for them. Then they won’t have to worry anymore. If the planet doesn’t need humans then maybe they should lead by example and prove it.

        40

  • #
    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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    • #
      Mark M

      Oops.
      This comment was meant for the wednesday unthreaded.
      Ima gonna re-post it there.
      ty.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      This is a sign of total desperation from the warmists. Heat hides somewhere. Of course there IS no heat hiding anywhere. It looks good, and boy it gets research grants flowing.

      40

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    Considering the damage domestic cats do to the environment how could any cat owner claim to care about global warming?

    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/the-effect-of-domestic-cats-on-australian-wildlife/3555788#transcript

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  • #
    jeff

    I would say the guy built his house as an advertisement for his business, so its not surprising he spared no expense.

    CORE Energy Recovery Solutions CEO James Dean knew all about heat exchangers and in-structure climate control when he considered building a passive house.

    Anyway I personally haven’t really got a problem with people spending a lot on their house,
    when a lot of other people would just spend it on something like a european holiday, and noone has a problem with that.

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    • #
      Annie

      No problem, except when building it is touted as virtue-signalling. Then I have a problem with it. It costs a lot of money and resources to build a large ‘energy-saving’ house. Build it by all means, if you want a comfortable house and can afford it, but spare me the adopted haloes.

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      • #
        jeff

        The most worrying thing is the Canadian “zero emissions building plan” which will mean more expense and more rules to reduce emissions.

        “The city has what’s called a zero emissions building plan, and that’s a roadmap out to 2030, so between 2025 and 2030, depending on the building type, all new construction would be zero emissions,”

        Horne said in Vancouver, emissions from homes and businesses add up to about 55 per cent of the total produced, so they’re a focus for those writing building codes across the country.

        That worries David Foster, a spokesperson for the Canadian Home Builders Association. He said higher upfront costs might never be recovered through lower energy bills.

        “We need to make sure the industry is ready, the building science is solid, the economics are there for home buyers so they can afford to get into these houses.”

        He points to past mistakes such as the west coast’s leaky condo crisis, where thousands of units rotted due to a mix of bad design and poor building quality as an example of the need for caution before bringing in widespread changes.

        Foster said currently the cost of transforming a 2,000 square foot single family home constructed from the current building code to the proposed standard of “net zero ready” is about $30,000. Net zero ready is a step below the passive house in terms of efficiency.

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        • #
          ivan

          The big question about the proposed changes that no one asks is Why?, since they are not saving the world but are trying to turn it into a dust bowl since all green things require CO2 to live.

          10

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Could be he thinks it will save him 10c a day in his electric bill? thatll take a few years to get the 2 grand back.

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  • #
    kevin george

    Their cherished furball can prance from the house to the lawn and back whenever it takes it into its whiskered little head to do so, with an absolute minimum of atmospheric displacement.

    Rex Murphy: How the Liberal carbon tax is not unlike a $2,000 cat door

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  • #
    MudCrab

    So, we are allowed to Fat Shame our pets now, but being Plus Sized in humans is just a lifestyle choice?

    okayyyy…

    I get it shows just how forward thinking Channel 10 was back in the day when they axed Fat Cat.

    30

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    We have a swinging door (double set) for dogs and cats with an outside ramp to a window.
    I’d like to have a US$ for each use of it over the last 20 years.
    We raised pointing dogs (Brittanys), so not just one animal.
    This saves a lot of getting up from a chair to let the animal in or out.
    I used recycled materials, so the cost was free, except for my time.
    We had to show the adult dogs how to go in and out. Cats and younger dogs learned by watching.

    We get a hand written note from “The Climate” each year thanking us for this climate saving structure!

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  • #
    Dean

    Net means only ongoing energy needs.

    It completely misses the huge amount of energy required to manufacture all the materials in the house. Its the modern equivalent of penny wise, pound foolish.

    60

  • #
    Sonny

    This is baffling to me. How does this save energy if every time the cat goes near the car door it opens? I used to have both cata and dogs who would hang around the dog door for no obvious reason without wanting to go in or out. Alternatively my dog likes to just put his head out and keep his body in.

    Therefore, while this door may have a 5 to 10% better insulation rate, this would be totally undone by unnecessary opens and closes.

    This $2000 door is for very rich pussys indeed.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    In the cats defence it won’t know if it’s a $25 Bunnings jobbie or a two grand bespoke cat door it’s only the pretentious owner that knows the difference .

    40