Weekend Unthreaded

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372 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    bobl

    Today,I’d like to reflect on a comment that someone made here a few days ago (can’t remember who that was) that prompted me to make the connection between renewables and Solar flares.

    I’m an EE, I “Do” Math and I “Do” Electricity. One issue I am particularly worried about is the exposure of renewable energy scavenging devices to the environment. There is no way to defend these assets.

    If we had a Carrington level Solar Flare event directed at earth, Solar Panels are sensitive semiconductors directly aimed at the flare and windmills are huge antennas placed in the direct line of the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). It is my view that a Carrington event would take out all PV and Wind energy across at least half the planet (depending on the flare duration).

    You can’t defend these assets, in a war they would be the first targets, they are out there directly in the storms, and under the flares, and on the maps, visible by satellite, ready to be targeted by any enemy. A diesel, Coal, Gas or Nuke plant can be built anywhere a water and air supply can be made available, even under a mountain. They are single points that can be defended, they can be built inside faraday cages to protect them from EMP.

    What I want to know is how our government intends to defend renewable energy assets at say 50% penetration in the event of a war, cyclonic wind/tennis ball hail, Attack (Nuclear or not) by an adversary or an X+ class solar event aimed at earth. South Australia couldn’t even be protected against a sub cyclonic storm, let alone a Nuclear or Solar EMP event.

    Wind and Solar Energy are a National Security disaster.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Good points bobl, the laid out open aspect makes them as vulnerable as fighters lined up on the airstrip except you can’t move solar or wind plants, however with the currently low percentage of these “Renewables” generating stuff all to the grid most would be attackers wouldn’t waste their ammunition on them.

      Think back to the Dam Busters Operation Chastise 1943 where Hydroelectric, Factories, Mines and Drinking water were the only targets, had any turbines or solar panels existed they would’ve been considered not worth the effort.

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      • #
        TedM

        Considering EMP nukes are in the arsenal of most if not all nuclear armed nations, I think bobl has a valid point.

        You can also concentrate defences around localised assets, much more difficult if those assets are scattered.

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        • #
          bobl

          This is what I was getting at, we can concentrate defenses around the snowy, and coal plants, we can harden them, but you can’t build a solar or wind farm underground. This is also an argument why each state MUST be self reliant for energy, our economy must be able to continue without the major interconnectors.

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Could you make a make a lightweight metal mesh grid to act as a faraday cage to put over solar panels , so you could let enough light in but it would take a lot of the sting out of the emp? Not sure how small the holes would have to be, as an emp would have a very short wavelength I’d have thought….I know there are formulas for calculating attenuation and length of shielding….

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            • #
              sophocles

              OriginalSteve said:

              Could you make a make a lightweight metal mesh grid to act as a faraday cage to put over solar panels , so you could let enough light in but it would take a lot of the sting out of the emp?

              Go look up the Carrington Event (1859). The power involved is huge. The resistance of your grounding connection could be way too high up that pole to have any effect other than to act as a big resistor. Bobl’s thinking is definitely on the right track — it needs to be taken a lot further and I think
              it’s something which has to be looked into urgently.

              See also Suspicious 0bservers “Earth Calamity Cycle” parts 1 – 21 if you’re wondering what else might bite us.

              One thing I don’t think anybody knows yet, is how many windmills and solar panels die from `unknown causes.’ How many of those deaths can be back-tracked to magnetic storms? Power transformers die. There was a major power transformer failure (spectacular fire) in New York City recently (I think it was just before Xmas but I can’t remember …). Those items are big and rugged yet a solar event can destroy them.

              What about the big batteries, too? How vulnerable are they? I don’t know, does anybody?

              Would you like your (expensive) Power Wall to go up in flames after the first earth-facing M-class or X-class Solar Flare, as all your Solar Panels let their smoke out?. Belgium lost their big battery after it had just been installed. It burnt well.

              There’s real power slapping us around …

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    • #
      yarpos

      I doubt the military would agree that concentrating assets is good thing necessarily, distributed standalone capability isnt that easy to destroy as Vietnam and Afghanistan have shown. In reality no civilian assets are designed with those thoughts in mind.

      The whole EMP scenario is interesting. Cant help thinking its backwards a 100 years for us all if that happens on a grand scale.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        The EMP threat has been raised since the Trump Administrations handling of Pyongyang’s rocket launches and inflammatory rhetoric, theories have been thrown around of an EMP’s outcome or existence with results from Catastrophic to Not Possible.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        The grid is used to them providing little if any electricity.

        Can’t see the difference except for the litter effect.

        As Yarpos says, Really just a “why bother” scenario.

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        • #
          bobl

          Yes, Now, but lets extrapolate what happens if the greens get their way and our economy was able to be transformed to be based on renewables and Electric Vehicles.

          You can’t even throw a camouflage net over the unreliables, further you are sprinkling 100MWh Lithium Ion “napalm bombs” around the country.

          Before we decide to follow the activists advice to transform our country, don’t you think we aught to consider the national security implications of that?

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            This is going to sound odd, but I seriously think we need to reboot knowledge in steam engine gen sets, but also in steam engine powered stuff generally.

            Steam engines can burn anything pretty much – wood, coal, dried manure, coffee grounds etc – its just a furnace and a boiler, however the boiler side of things is serious stuff, think large bomb if it goes off.

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            • #
              Roy Hogue

              – its just a furnace and a boiler, however the boiler side of things is serious stuff, think large bomb if it goes off.

              I think the problem would be the maintenance required to keep it from exploding like a bomb. When any part of a steam engine is down for maintenance it’s all hard manual labor and it’s down a long time compared with anything else.

              And you dare not do the inspection and boiler maintenance. Nothing blowing up can do the extensive damage a boiler can do except real explosives. A compressed air tank rupturig at the same pressure is a lark in the park compared with the boiler.

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    • #
      Peter C

      Good points bobl.

      Renewables may be vulnerable to EMP which is a bad thing, but the wide spread nature and distribution is probably good from an energy security point of view (ie redundancy).

      Jo”s article about the Venezuela black out did not address overall design of the grid.
      There may be design features such a circuit breakers at interconnect or points which protect against a widespread grid blackout. Inter connectors at the Victorian border saved Vic from the SA blackout. I don’t know why the whole of SA blacked out.

      Multiple generator sources would be a good idea. Then there would be less need for high voltage transformers also. Those transformers seem to be a problem with getting the system up and running again.

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      • #
        bobl

        But they are not distributed – too many people think on a small scale – rooftop solar, Rooftop Solar may survive, but Gridscale will not. If we are going to have policies leading to significant capacity (45 (LNP) 50% (ALP), 100% (GREENS)) renwewables mostly in gridscale exposed assets I wan’t to know how they will be defended from Storms, attack and Solar Flares.

        The ADF needs to outline to us how they will do this trick when most of our electricity generation is from Wind and Solar and we only have electric vehicles?

        I know from the SA scenario that significant damage on Australia can be inflicted just from damage to one interconnector. What happens if the QLD interconnector, Basslink and the SA Interconnector plus all south coast renewables are taken down simultaneously.

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        • #
          yarpos

          Sure , but if you down the what if road, what if:

          All oil terminals are taken out together
          All refineries are taken out together (not that many any more)
          All the main defence bases of significance and HQ@Bungendore get taken out
          Breach one major dam in each Capital city
          The list goes on and on. In an age of alleged hypersonic missiles its entirely possible if someone is crazy enough

          On the other hand, if you had the power, via whatever means, why would you destroy the soon to be yours assets? Personally I would devastate one medium sized city of not much consequence with most of the above , and then ask “well, you surrender or what?” Its a tried and tested approach. A big Hi to all the folks in Adelaide BTW.

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          • #
            bobl

            This is true, but I have identified a single failure mode that could take down all renewables simultaneously. Because there is a common failure mode, the redundancy becomes a weakness. Because of that highly distributed nature no recovery of that is feasible without backup in the form of deployment ready fossil fuel plant. If we have that then what’s the point of the renewables.

            The state governments aren’t preserving that, they are blowing them up, I think from a national security standpoint we are making ourselves very vulnerable to many natural and man-made threats. We musn’t do that, only 70 odd years ago there was a world war

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        • #
          Peter C

          But they are not distributed – too many people think on a small scale – rooftop solar, Rooftop Solar may survive, but Gridscale will not. If we are going to have policies leading to significant capacity (45 (LNP) 50% (ALP), 100% (GREENS)) renwewables mostly in gridscale exposed assets I wan’t to know how they will be defended from Storms, attack and Solar Flares.

          Ok, Roof top solar is not distributed in reference to a Solar Flare, or possibly a Nuclear attack.

          As to how the Grid is protected from unexpected events (foreseeable or otherwise). I would like to see that too.

          I think that you are making an argument for multiple small power station in our grid, with a small geographical foot print.
          Small Modular Nuclear Reactors might fit the bill.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      Not sure that PV arrays would be taken out Bobl. The PV arrays are low impedance using direct P-N junctions, and as such, I believe they would be able to withstand high energy pulses very well. I don’t believe many PV arrays are lost due to lightning. What is more susceptible would be any device using MOSFETs and that’s all our computers, phones, tablets, servers, transport control systems, etc. Graeme#4

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      • #
        bobl

        I disagree, voltages were induced into the kilovolt region. Telegraph operators were killed. At the very least the inverters are at risk. The US military in the 70s was very worried about EMP effects on biploar transistors.

        Yes this is theoretical, but fact is we don’t know, and we need to know what the threat is.

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        • #
          Graeme#4

          I thought that we were discussing PV arrays, not the long line be interconnectors that extend from them. These long line networks are a different kettle of fish and I agree with you there.
          Also I hadn’t considered the inverters and as they most likely use MOSFET power switches, yes would also die. But the solar cells them selves? Doubt it.
          My design work with ESD prevention in early transit electronics appeared to indicate that in general, most bipolar devices would stand up to quite high short energy pulses and survive.

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      • #
        bobl

        Oh also, consider the effect of the shock wave of even a 2kT conventional explosive detonated 100 meters over a PV field – No Nuke required for PV destruction.

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        • #
          Graeme#4

          Agree, but this is not EMP, which I thought was the basis of your original discussion.

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          • #
            bobl

            One, I think the Jury is out on The flares, personally I think enough energy will be induced into the internal/external DC wiring to destroy the junctions, but my major point is the vulnerability of energy assets that are by design immobile, left out in the open and exposed to environmental threats whether that be a solar flare, storms, hail/snow/ice, dust or weapons fire.

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    • #
      Power Grab

      I have long been concerned at how vulnerable the high tension wires are that run from the wind and solar farms into metropolitan areas.

      If a terrorist wanted to deprive a city of its electrical power, couldn’t they just find a nice, unguarded, miles-long length of line and cut it or bomb it?

      Also, don’t you lose a lot of energy when you run it a long way from its point of generation to its point of use? Is that one big reason we traditionally have generation facilities located in (or near) cities of significant size?

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  • #

    What truly annoys me are people like Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins who retire, join the Climate Council and then start pushing climate change as the cause of everything bad.

    Then rather than crusading for proper bushfire mitigation strategies to reduce the incidence of severe bushfires, push for more taxpayer spending on ostensibly inefficient and ineffective solution to fight firestorms when they happen.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Sure magic windmills prevent bushfires? So do electric cars. Not eating meat. Preventing farts and getting rid of herbivores. At least the Green companies installing windmills clear all the native flora and fauna for a large distance around a windmill or a ridge without a squeak of protest from the environmentalists. You do not want disturbed air or a fire risk to the windmill. As for the yellow belied tree frogs, they are a necessary loss for the greater good. Where are the regulations, the environmental surveys, the armies of paid protesters. None to be seen. The idiocy is only exceeded by the hypocrisy.

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      • #
        Maptram

        As I’ve said a couple of times, clearing the flora for solar farms and windmills, removes an ongoing source of CO2 reduction

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        The idiocy is only exceeded by the hypocrisy.

        And the loss of investors capital.

        I’m late to the party again.

        Albany wave energy deal with Carnegie Clean Energy cancelled by West Australian Government

        This is one of the green-dream-schemes that I’ve been following. It seems like the Labor government in Western Australia has been following it too.

        As I posted a couple of weeks ago, this green-dream continues to prove the point that green energy investments are high risk. Low return. HRLR as opposed to HELE.

        http://joannenova.com.au/2019/03/weekend-unthreaded-250/#comment-2115858

        Now the latest:

        “Despite hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of investment, the value of Carnegie Clean Energy’s supposed world-leading wave technology has plummeted from $83 million to $15 million in the latest sign the company is on the edge of collapse.”

        “…independent market analyst Peter Strachan said the problems with the Carnegie contract highlighted the importance of due diligence before decisions were made to fund technologies which were not commercially viable.

        “Investors and politicians need to be wary of well-presented companies that are offering more than they can deliver,” he said.

        “They need to actually get a second or third opinion or a technical person who can actually pass the BS detector over what’s coming through, to say [whether] is this a viable company or not.”

        Surprise. Surprise. It was actually reported by their ABC!

        https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-12/carnegie-albany-wave-farm-contract-cancelled-by-wa-government/10891934?pfmredir=sm

        What these idiotic green-dream-schemes need is a strong dose of reality. That’s what sceptics provide.

        (Thanks TdeF for the cue). 🙂

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      It seems that a lot of the Powers That Be in many areas seem to have signed onto “The Cause”.

      This would baffle most of us, except it seems that to climb the political tree requires often sacrificing of common sense and decent morals.

      If the public could write the epitaph on their headstones – what would it say?

      Would their children own up to knowing them years later?

      I often think about foolish peoples cost of in effect selling their souls to the highest bidder….it implies a ruthless but incompetent & stupid view of life,
      and ultimately makes them unfit to hold any area of high office.

      Maybe that’s why they rise to where they are – the smart people lower down the food chain don’t figure its worth the personal cost……?

      Just sayin’….

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    • #
      Maptram

      The last link is interesting, seems to describe climate change perfectly

      “The British economist Roger Bootle argues that all economic activity can be classified as either “creative” or “distributive.” Creative work increases a society’s wealth. Distributive work just moves wealth from one hand to another. Every industry contains both. But activity in the financial sector is primarily distributive.
      The financial services industry also has a very high level of a form of distributive activity called “rent seeking,” which involves trying to make a profit by manipulating government policy….”

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    • #
      dinn, rob

      598. Especially when you are striving for unity leave behind every trouble-making thing, for it is not suitable to higher communions. -M: Aum 1936
      …………………………
      316. It is said that without stupidity Earth would be a paradise. It is a mistake to be consoled with thinking that nowadays there is less stupidity than in ancient times – at present it has become even more malignant. Each advanced stupidity is especially dangerous in playing with explosives. Stupidity does not think about the future. It is not disquieted by thought about epidemics. There are many kinds of new sicknesses, yet there will be still more of them. -M: Brotherhood 1937
      …………………………..
      286. Armageddon should not be understood as only a physical battle. It is full of incalculable dangers among which will be epidemics, but the most ruinous consequence will be psychic perversions. People will lose trust in one another and will compete in doing evil. They will develop a persistent hatred of all except their own kind and will sink into irresponsibility and depravity.
      413, 435. Healing and cleansing measures are needed for Earth. The infected layers must be purified, and only man can do it. If inhabitants of Earth consider the state of their finer energy and are careful not to worsen it, the process of improvement will begin. The most dangerous epidemics can be stopped by invisible forces, and one can begin such defense in one’s daily life….
      When we spoke about Armageddon we had in mind not only war but all the devastating consequences of humanity’s confusion. But one should not fall into despair, for a depressed state opens the door to all that is poisonous. It is wise to know that Armageddon is accompanied by epidemics. We cannot limit our awareness to known forms of illnesses but must be ready to face the most complicated and unusual symptoms. -Morya: Supermundane 1938

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  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Two very important issues outlined by Bobl and Bemused.
    Maybe the kids can take next Friday off school to have a rally to make politicians aware?

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    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Not to worry, Kinky. We’re old dogs.
      An old Doberman starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he’s lost.
      Wandering about, he notices a lion heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.
      The old Doberman thinks, “Oh, oh! I’m in deep shit now!”

      Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.
      Just as the lion is about to leap, the old Doberman exclaims loudly,
      “Boy, that was one delicious lion! I wonder, if there are any more around here?”
      Hearing this, the young lion halts his attack in mid-stride; a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.

      “Whew!,” says the lion, “That was close! That old Doberman nearly had me!”
      Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the lion. So, off he goes.

      The squirrel soon catches up with the lion, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the lion.
      The young lion is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!”

      Now, the old Doberman sees the lion coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, “What am I going to do now?” But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old Doberman says……..

      “Where’s that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another lion!”

      Moral of this story…
      Don’t mess with the old dogs…
      Age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery!
      Bull Shit and brilliance only come with age and experience.

      [You made today’s moderation job a pleasure. :-)] AZ

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      • #
        Latus Dextro

        Superb RS #4.1, thank you.

        Oddly, you reminded me of another story, one that might have some applicability to chattering politicians and their ruling class, the ideological bureaucrats.

        A young hunter is about his business in the bush and comes upon a clearing in which there is a small cairn of bones and a skull. He moves closer to inspect the gruesome osseous pile wondering out loud what could have been the cause of this bizarre sight. Magically the now grinning skull answers his spoken thought and exclaims, “talking brought me here.”

        The startled young hunter repeats his question and the skull, grinning even more widely, repeats, “talking brought me here.”

        The young hunter runs back to his village and goes to the wise elders to relate his startling experience. At first they don’t believe the incredulous story and consider that he may be trying to make a fool out of them. The young hunter persists and at length finally persuades the elders to follow him back to the clearing to see for themselves.

        Upon reaching the clearing the wise elders see the cairn of bones, a skull set atop, just as the young hunter described. But the skull looks quite ordinary, just like any other skull. There is no grin. They are not amused. They ask the skull, “what brought you here?”
        The black orbits stare into infinity. There is no reply. So the irritated elders ask once again,
        “what brought you here?”
        Again, there is only silence, the staring dark orbits and the wind whispering to the trees.

        The elders now angry believe they have been made fools of. The young hunter grows nervous and begs the skull to speak, or at the very least, to grin. Neither happens. He entreats the skull, becoming more desperate with each passing moment, knowing his own life may lie in balance.

        The enraged chief elder raises his axe and in the briefest moment the hapless young hunter’s head sits on the ground. As the commotion subsides and the twitching corpse bleeds out the chief announces to all gathered that he has no patience for lies or with being made to look a fool. The foolish young hunter deserved his fate. The onlookers nod their assent.

        Weeks pass in a deserted clearing deep in the forest. The young hunters bones are picked clean and the fresh skull displays a pearly gleam in the morning sunshine. The widely grinning old skull looks across at its new young companion, “what brought you here?” it asks.

        “Talking brought me here,” the young hunter answered.

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        • #

          I will not have gossip in this jungle

          While one comment leads to another going off at a tangent, then I’ll do the same.

          This is a Music Post of mine from a long while back. I couldn’t really stomach the TV comedy these two appeared in, but the voices were just amazing when they sang.

          The Sergeant Major was played by Windsor Davies, and the other was played by Don Estelle, forever known as Lofty, for the obvious reason.

          The song is Whispering Grass. It was Number One song in the UK back in 1975, in a time when this genre of music had long passed, and you wonder how it was a hit at all.

          That wondering is dispelled as soon as Don Estelle starts to sing. That voice is just beautiful.

          Windsor Davies is the person who adds that wonderful spoken word line at the top of this comment, near the end of the song

          Enjoy!

          Whispering Grass

          Tony.

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          • #
            Graeme#4

            That was great Tony. Really enjoyed the song.

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          • #
            me@home

            Thanks Tony, haven’t heard that in yonks.

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            jack

            Yet another tangent.
            I enjoyed the song and it did remind me of another story.
            The RSM with his mustache, beret and pace stick, very regimental.
            Inspecting the troops, he came across a solider not up to standards.
            Placing his pace stick on the solders chest, he says,
            “There is a piece of sh&t on the end of this stick”.
            The solider replies, “Not on this end sir”.

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          • #

            Sometimes when the gurus
            and madness of crowds
            prevail- which is
            most of the time,
            yer jest need ter
            assert that Darwin
            Award fer gettin’ it
            right,(that’s yer own
            life, yer precious
            self-possession)
            “I am here, in
            spite of yous
            gurus,” tra la.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMVjToYOjbM

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          • #

            I miss the mid-70s. Actually, I missed the mid-70s.

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      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Interesting story but I’m not sure us old guys have the time left to see this mess turned around.

        KK

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          Rod Stuart

          This diary just in from Canada.Insanity does not respect borders, even among the Great White Northern Peoplekind:
          It snowed last night:
          8:00 am: I made a snowman.
          8:10 – A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn’t make a snow woman.
          8:15 – So, I added a snow woman.
          8:17 – My feminist neighbor complained about the snow woman’s voluptuous chest, saying it objectified snow women everywhere.
          8:20 – A gay couple threw a hissy fit and moaned it should have been two snowmen instead.
          8:22 – The transgender man…women…person, asked why I didn’t just make one snow person with detachable parts.
          8:25 – The vegans at the end of the road complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with.
          8:28 – I was being called a racist because the snow couple is white
          8:30 – I used food coloring to make one member of the snow couple a different color and be more racially inclusive.
          8:37 – Accused of using a black face on the snowman…snow persons.
          8:39 – The middle eastern dude across the road demanded the snow woman be covered up.
          8:40 – The police arrived saying someone had been offended.
          8:42 – The feminist neighbor complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needed to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role.
          8:43 – The council equality officer arrived and threatened me with eviction.
          8:45 – TV news crews from MSM showed up. I was asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I replied”Snowballs” and am now called a sexist.
          9:00 – I was depicted on the news as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobe, and sensibility offender, bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather.
          9:10 – I was asked if I have any accomplices and my children were taken by social services.
          9:29 – Far left protesters offended by everything marched down the street demanding I be arrested.
          9:45 – The boss called and fired me because of the negative association with work that had been all over the news and social media.
          10:00 – I cried into my drink because all I wanted to do was build a damn snowman…
          Moral: There is no moral to this story. It is what this country has become because of a bunch of snowflakes!

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            Roy Hogue

            Maybe the moral is simply, stick your guns and give the complainers a one finger salute. If we all did that they could gain no traction and couldn’t be ruling the world as thy do now.

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        Roy Hogue

        Rod, Latus,

        I haven’t seen two more poignant or apropos tales in a long time, Pulitzer Prize material for sure.

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      Robdel

      Aware of what?

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        Kinky Keith

        Posts 1 and 2.

        The flakey nature of the renewables energy production and grid.

        The nutso, hands off, approach to fire hazard reduction.

        Both important things bypassed by politicians.

        KK

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      toorightmate

      Aren’t these children wonderfully deep thinkers, chanting “ScMo’s a wanker”.
      They would not have been taught this by some far left teachers by any chance?

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    Kinky Keith

    The main issue should be kept in the spotlight.

    CO2 is claimed to “heat the planet”.

    Any proper assessment of the claim should be dealt with as a matter of urgency because of all the expensive “mitigation” that’s occurring.

    http://joannenova.com.au/2019/03/greenpeace-lies-to-save-the-planet-erasing-patrick-moore-again/#comment-2118429

    KK

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    Mal

    Even if co2 was the problem as claimed, the cure is worse than the disease.
    In fact the current cures ( renewable energy) will kill the patient.

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    Ruairi

    The Leftists want a single party state,
    With them controlling climate and our fate.

    More Victorians are daily disconnected,
    While those who push renewables are protected.

    Some lecturers, their Leftist dogma preach,
    And then deny conservatives free speech.

    Now West Australia sets a drastic trend,
    To bring the gas that plants need to an end.

    Birth-strikers fear the changes climates bring,
    To such extent that they have no offspring.

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    Travis T. Jones

    1906 – Eucla had a Stevenson Screen, but ‘climate experts’ say Australian temperature data records only start in 1910.

    Isn’t that too bad for them …

    HEAT AT MARBLE BAR.

    The highest temperature ever recorded under a Stevenson screen in Western Australia was 123.2 at Eucla in 1906. The Stevenson screen was used by all weather bureaus in the Commonwealth for securing official shade temperatures.

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32950587

    BoM: Temperature data prior to 1910 should be used with extreme caution as many stations, prior to that date, were exposed in non-standard shelters, some of which give readings which are several degrees warmer or cooler than those measured according to post-1910 standards.

    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/cdo/about/about-airtemp-data.shtml

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  • #
    yarpos

    I was happy for the kiddies protesting on Friday. The got a nice sunny but cool day to protest catastrophic unprecedented climate change. Seeing it was coincidentally Friday , they and their indoctrinators had a nice segue into a long weekend. I’m guessing we will see more Friday “protests” in the future.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Lets hope they don’t start showing The Day After at schools or the demonization of Nuclear will be complete.

      82

      • #
        yarpos

        I like On the Beach myself, but I think kids head would explode if they had to watch a black and white non CGI’d movie. Quite partial to the post apocalyptic genre when well done.

        80

        • #
          Greebo

          Pity one hast to scroll down past 6 Americans to find the first Aussie. I agree it tells a good story, but it was almost a travesty of Shute’s great book. However, every movie based on Shute’s work could be described thus. The 1956 release of A town like Alice was OK I guess, apart from the fact that it ignored the second part of the book entirely.

          10

    • #
      Latus Dextro

      They were peddling their pathetic antics in NZ, and nauseatingly supported by the local MSM newspapers that gave them the front page presence under the banner headline, ‘we rise up with the rising sea level or some such. It helped wrap the fish ‘n chips the following day.

      Motivated Or Manipulated? Rise Of Youth Climate Activism Fuels Alarm Over Exploitation MARCH 14, 2019

      A cache of emails released Wednesday on Climate Litigation Watch showed that top climate activists at the 2012 La Jolla strategy session sought to involve children in a legal and civil offensive against the fossil fuel industry, which would include worldwide marches from the “youth climate movement.”

      Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Christopher C. Horner, who obtained the emails via an open-records request with the University of Oregon, said the presentation contained in the email is more evidence that students have been used as props.

      “It turns out that the frenzied street theater of children’s marches and schoolkids’ strikes was laid out behind closed doors years ago, at the organizational meeting of what became a climate litigation industry,” Mr. Horner said in an email.

      Thousands of student activists are preparing to skip class Friday for the Youth Climate Strike, an international protest led by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, who was nominated Wednesday by three Norwegian Socialist Left Party lawmakers for a Nobel Peace Prize.

      50

      • #
        bobl

        You mean the Foosh un Chups ?

        60

        • #
          yarpos

          We were in NZ once and it turned unseasonably cold. My wife wanted something warm for her feet when back at the house. She came back to the car giggling to herself.

          She had taken her purchase to the counter and the lady asked “Just the sluppers, then luv?”

          70

      • #
        Ross

        A comment from another blog —Friday was a clear reason why we should increase the voting age. ( as opposed to decreasing it as some, around the world, are advocating )

        142

  • #
    Peter C

    Presidential Committee on Climate Science

    According to an article at WUWT, Potus is considering a proposal for a wide ranging independent review of Climate Models and major climate research.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/16/make-america-greater-approve-the-pccs/

    If Happer makes this happen, and I sincerely hope it does happen, it would be the most important thing President Trump does during his presidency, in my opinion.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    More Chiefio

    “GHCN v3.3 Continents by Season”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/ghcn-v3-3-continents-by-season/

    40

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Chiefio is doing important work in this series of posts.

      Unpicking the data used by the global warming scammers to support their alarmist nonsense.

      What I found interesting in this post was the list of temperature readings which were over 60 degrees C.
      ” some bad data in the set. I’d not filtered for crazy highs in making these graphs, but looking at them, did this report. I look for temperatures over 60C / 140 F.”

      There was quite a list of these temperature readings. And I notice that all of the ‘bad data’ recordings were ‘modern’ ones. So probably from the electronic temperature gauges.
      I’m curious to know if there are any bad data temps for the Australia, pacific Ocean region. And what happens to the chart when they are eliminated.

      50

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘On March 5, 58 senior military and national security leaders sent a letter to President Trump denouncing his plan to form a National Security Council panel to take a critical look at the science underpinning climate change claims. Their objections to such a Red Team effort were basically that the “science is settled.”

    ‘But if the science is settled, what are they afraid of? Wouldn’t a review of the science come to the same conclusion as the supposed consensus of climate scientists?’

    Roy Spencer / Washington Times

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  • #
    Graeme No.3

    The Liberals are heading for a disaster in the forthcoming Federal election. Bill Shorten is odds on to sweep into power. Remember the saying “Oppositions don’t win elections, Governments lose them.” And given the third rate performnce of the current shower even a fourth rate collection like the Labor & Greens are odds on to win.

    A half Senate election MUST be held before May 18 or 8 weeks away. Allowing for the NSW State election and the 5 weeks notice, that means that the Federal Liberals have less than 3 weeks to change things before that date if they hold a House election on the same date (with Easter getting in the road of any campaigning). Otherwise they MUST hold the Lower House election before Nov.2.

    With their current waffle the only chance is to prolong the House election and hope for a breakdown in Labor. Unlikely at best as the Labor ranks have the scent of office in their nostrils. It would allow the public time to ‘enjoy’ rising electricity prices and a general economic slowdown.
    Alternately they might decide to boost coal generation. Their approach should be
    1. Coal is the cheapest form of generation (as countries all over the world are proving).
    2. Renewables MUST have storage, and the biggest cheapest storage is Snowy2 which won’t be ready until 2024. Do you really want 5 years of blackouts under Labor’s obsession of renewables?
    3. Insist on the upgrade of the Victorian brown coal power stations, including a new Hazelwood, as reducing emissions by 30+ %. (When Mad Dan objects point out that he’s banned gas supply which could give even more reductions).
    4. Rule out Nuclear evan though it would give the biggest reduction in emissions.

    The Greens and the ABC will go berserk (as usual) but suddenly the Government will look like one with a plan that benefits ordinary Australians. It seems to me to be their only hope.

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    • #
      Peter C

      Insurance required against Election Disaster.

      Vote for the Australain Conservatives in the Senate.

      Australian Conservatives Principles;
      “The rightful functions of government are to guarantee individual freedom, property rights , internal order, a strong national defence and the administration of justice”

      100

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        And buy a generator…you may need it….

        30

        • #

          I’ve already made changes to my bush house in preparation for less reliable grid power, and I’ll probably make a few more. Now that I have changed to gas cooktop and dusted off the wood heater I’d like to convert just one small room to optional non-grid power so I can run computer and other electronics, lights and a fan. (Would prefer a light, quiet operation but for extended period. Diesel gen would be last option. (Solar/battery or battery reserve only? Any ideas from caravaners etc?)

          Of course, all of this requires continuing to use the grid, and coal power. It just means more purchases and more consumption of goods not made in Australia. But Big Green is all about purchasing and consuming goods not made in Australia. (Kissinger wasn’t visiting China all those years ago just for the Peking Duck. No good capitalist worth his salt will let a perfectly good communist slave state go to waste.)

          Because it was never about conservation and never about CO2, right? We’ve got that straight by now, right? Never about CO2…and the diametrical opposite of conservation.

          20

          • #
            yarpos

            You could remote and enclose the generator to reduce noise , depending on neighbouring locations.

            Maintaining and exercising gens and managing fuel requires some work but well worth it when the crunch comes.

            20

            • #

              Thanks for the tip. I’ve got neighbours (family of 4) who can’t get on the grid so they’re all solar. Nothing green or cheap about it, of course, and there are all sorts of limitations.

              However it occurs to me that if I only want to run a few electronic devices and a light in one small room for the odd blackout I might not need a genny, just a much smaller version of what my neighbours have. I was wondering how it would be if I skipped the solar and just had a battery array outside, charged up from the mains ready to go. If blackouts got to be a regular thing I could add some solar panels (not on the flaming roof, of course).

              I’m basically always camped out (in the opinion of family). It wouldn’t worry me to wash clothes in a pressure washer and I could always acquire a gas fridge from somewhere just in case blackouts really got serious.

              Really, I’m a bit of a hippy when it comes to growling generators and the like. But I might take your advice.

              Peace, man.

              20

              • #
                Graeme No.3

                mosomoso:
                Look at the Honda or Yamaha small (petrol) generators. Quite quiet and generate sine wave electicity so they are safer with electronic equipment. For best life run them once or twice a week to charge your batteries.
                For even quieter operation look for a Stirling type generator. The Coast Watchers used to use them in WW2, to avoid alerting the Japs. The hot end was laid on a fire. Used to be a Philips brand but don’t know if any are made these days.

                20

              • #

                Thank you Graeme. I’ll look into that.

                10

          • #
            Lewis P Buckingham

            Solar cells are unsuitable for electricity production on my block as it is shaded by trees.
            I bought a 22 kg Kipor 2000 watt inverter for back up.We had 3 days without power due to a storm recently
            and it got our computers up and running.
            I tried it on the washing machine but it would not work, the current draw,on agitator is too great.
            I was advised that a frontloader could work as the spin is in one directiuon and the current draw not as great.
            I chose this as being a clayton’s Honda generator, started it up with the same petrol in it after a year and it ran flawlessly.
            I bought it about 5 years ago, I don’t know if they are still the best buy on price.
            http://www.generatoradvisor.com.au/reviews/portable-generator-reviews/kipor-gs2000-portable-inverter-generator/

            http://www.ybw.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-276806.html

            00

    • #

      There is one good thing about this upcoming election and the Labor Party platform to shut down 60% of coal fired power, and to do it by 2030.

      The election result will most probably be a landslide win to Labor, and that margin will ensure at least two clear terms of Government for Labor, so six years, and that takes us to 2025.

      By that time, they will be well on the way to 2030.

      They actually WILL NOT have shut down 60% of coal fired power, and will not in fact be even close to it at all, as no one in their Party has bothered to even check what that actually will result in.

      The closure of SIXTY PERCENT of coal fired power is a big ticket promise really, one they can be held to, and one that will not be achieved, and they won’t even get remotely close to it.

      They will just need constant reminding of what they promised, because this is something that they will not be delivering.

      Tony.

      150

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        This is all hypothetical ( below )…or is it?

        Australias economy will have halted by that time if we shut down 60% of coal based power.

        If they go the 60% its a 100% chance of Sovereign Risk being a reality.

        Australia will have the value of a junk bond, failing that maybe 10c at a recycling depot somewhere.

        And if the Labor govt really is serious about shutting down coal based power, it will also immediately halt ALL coal exports and shut down all coal mines.

        Then watch the Chinese invade Australia, to re-establish their safe coal supply….

        40

        • #

          It will never get to that point.

          There is absolutely no way known that they will countenance losing power on that scale.

          By that time, they will just HAVE to explain that we cannot do without coal fired power, and why.

          The probable closure of Liddell will bring it all to a head. Even ancient Liddell, which can only manage 82% of its Nameplate with (when) all four Units running delivers around 1600MW to the NSW grid.

          NSW will be hard pressed to even do without that

          Forget the closure of Loy Yang A or Yallourn W in Victoria. That won’t happen either.

          The day is coming when politicians, and I mean Labor here, because they are the most likely Government, have to take their heart in their hand and tell the public.

          The backlash will be fierce I expect.

          Tony.

          50

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Excellent….I will have my deck chair and popcorn ready.

            And a freshly hosed out divvy van to take them off to the Nuremberg Climate Trials afterward.

            10

          • #
            Analitik

            Spot on Tony. Liddell’s shutdown (which is inevitable at this point, given the way AGL are running it down) will be the thing that brings reality back to the national debate on energy.

            The frequent rolling blackouts which will take place over summer in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia (and quite possibly during winter in South Australia) will cause enough economic damage that the inadequacy of renewable generators and storage will be made plain.

            Even Giles Parkinson and his cohort at RenewEconomy won’t be able to spin the blackouts as failures of thermal plants when they are occurring every hot single weekend in those three states (plus the ACT) while Queensland merrily continues about its way with aircons and industry unabated.

            The damage will be huge with almost inevitable loss of life and the even the urban Greens will be inconvenienced. But that is what it will take and recovery will not be swift, cheap nor painless.

            20

            • #
              yarpos

              I wonder if SA will have a problem now they have blown half a billion on gens and battery, and also have declinimg demand.

              20

    • #
      yarpos

      “Renewables MUST have storage, and the biggest cheapest storage is Snowy2 which won’t be ready until 2024. Do you really want 5 years of blackouts under Labor’s obsession of renewables?”

      Even then it is only part of a supposed answer. Some storage in the Snowy helps a bit of NSW and VIC and its a national issue. ACT wont need it course as they will long have been 100% renewable if you believe in fairies.

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    • #
      Bill in Oz

      I wonder if they plan to have a half senate election on May 18th..

      And then plough on till November for the House of Reps election ?

      It would of course enrage the laborites and Greenists and so provoke them into doing stupid stuff..

      50

    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Perhaps holding off until November would give the Americans time to get the PCCS (Presidential investigation of climate change science?)underway. Since the luvvies have no rational argument to use, this might open a few eyes.
      OTH, I remain unconvinced that SCOMO actually WANTS to be Prime Minister. Everything he does suggests to me that he is frightened stiff of it.

      40

    • #
      AndyG55

      “The Liberals are heading for a disaster in the forthcoming Federal election”

      And they deserve everything that is coming to them

      Their cow-towing to the leftist agenda while under Turnbull, then Morrison refusing to get back to reality, continuing to follow the leftist agenda instead, means that there are far less people who will vote for them.

      There are NO VOTES TO BE WON by assuming a pro-climate change, pro-renewables agenda, Labor and the Greens have that vote sown up.

      There are a LOT of votes that have been lost because of it, though.

      63

      • #
        Analitik

        Indeed. The refusal to act on principle and conviction is unworthy of our vote. Even Tony Abbott has kowtowed to the mainstream with his recent statements on the Paris accord as he scrambles to face off against the former skier looking to contest his seat.

        Unfortunately, the conservative alternatives do not present a solid front so a Labor win is inevitable for the next election and the best we can hope for is that those conservatives left in The House and Senate speak out so they can retain some semblance of credibility by being proved correct when it all turns to $hit.

        Passing through catastrophe and tragedy is the only path back now.

        10

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    On the topic of CO2 and its alleged benefits:
    Free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments are confirming what has been previously seen in Laboratory and Greenhouse experimental results.
    1. CO2 will increase production in C3 plants grown in monocultures by up to 12%
    2. For C4 plants 0-4%
    3. For CAM plants 3%
    3. For mixed species, changes in community composition are found.
    4. Increased production is only available if other nutrients, are available in larger amounts

    So if you are a farmer, growing C3 crops, you could expect a benefit but so will the weeds so maybe the benefit will not be seen in increased prices, as more will be spent on weed control, and the final crop may be contaminated with weeds, which will lower the sale price.
    With plant communities expected to change this would also change the ecology of the region. An example would be that the increased growth adds to the fuel load, meaning more intense and larger fires.
    It would also be expected that some species would be replaced by others. For example the carboniferous period had CO2 levels of 800 ppm and saw the dominance of the giant tree fern.

    For these reasons I can not accept terraforming using CO2

    422

    • #
      el gordo

      If you are worried about CO2 then we should increase the sinks, young forests are better than old forests in that respect, so we should cover Australia with something other than eucalypts.

      More importantly, CO2 doesn’t cause global warming.

      https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2019/03/SvensmarkSolar2019-1.pdf

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      “4. Increased production is only available if other nutrients, are available in larger amounts”

      This explains why the deserts are greening up , someone has been sneaking in and spreading nutrients all over the place .

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    • #
      bobl

      CO2 enrichment does improve weed productivity too, but it is well demonstrated that current farming practice is able to manage increased weediness to produce continuing record crops. Peter, we must increase CO2, CO2 enrichment is probably the single most significant reason why increased population isn’t causing famine at the moment. Plant productivity increases about 1% per 2PPM increase in CO2 this offsets the 1% population increase rate. Reduce CO2 to say 360 PPM (As per 360.org propaganda) and you will trigger up to 25% reduction in food production and induce a famine. Keep CO2 constant and we will have famine within 20 years as population begins to outstrip food production. Even more so if we continue to use food production capacity to produce biofuels.

      This is a significant impact of a cooler climate, should we dip into a new LIA the oceans will begin to draw down CO2 levels and at around 380 PPM we may start to feel food shortages. That would be felt world wide. Eliminating human CO2 is a similar threat to the world.

      Perhaps your strange ideology sees a famine as a good thing as many of your peers do (I’ve spoken to some of them about it)? Reducing CO2 is Unsustainable and emitting CO2 is the ONLY sustainable way forward.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        You have to spend more on control bobl. So if you get say 10% increase in production, but it costs more than that 10% in control it’s not economic is it. As to your comment on the starving millions, got any facts there?

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        • #
          bobl

          What I’m telling you is that the evidence shows that the cost of weed control is LESS than the value of the increased production as indicated by the constant expansion of the production numbers. Glyphosate works best on growing plants, ergo CO2 most likely enhances Glyphosate effectiveness easing weed control costs.

          72

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            I’m talking about all production, measured by dry weight. Only a portion of that is valuable to humans. Glyphosate works on all plants, even those expensive ‘Roundup Ready’ versions (just not as effectively). Production by increasing acreage under cultivation is not the same as production increases in a single plant.

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            • #
              beowulf

              Fitzy the tree man, back again spouting nonsense. I imagine you’re also completely ignorant of the positive effect enhanced CO2 has on insect depredation of crops? Yeah, thought so. Hint: insect pests don’t like elevated CO2.

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              • #
                beowulf

                Nature! Ha ha. It has been known since the 1940s that plants suffer less insect attack under conditions of better fertility. Fertility includes elevated CO2.

                http://www.co2science.org/articles/V21/nov/a2.php
                “31 percent more hoverfly eggs were laid on the plant-aphid system under ambient CO2 conditions than under elevated CO2 conditions” — hover flies are insect predators by the way

                http://www.co2science.org/articles/V16/N6/B2.php
                “the combination of elevated CO2 and high temperature significantly decreased the duration of nymphal stadia,” as well as “the longevity and reproductive success of S. flava,” such that “adults produced fewer nymphs in an environment with elevated CO2 and high temperature than an environment with elevated CO2 and lower fluctuating temperatures.”
                And
                “S. flava populations will significantly decrease under future climatic conditions when both the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and temperature are projected to increase.”

                http://www.co2science.org/articles/V13/N4/B2.php
                “compared to the larvae fed on ambient CO2 foliage, the larvae fed on 700 and 550 ppm CO2 foliage exhibited greater consumption.” However, they say that the efficiency of conversion of both ingested and digested food into larval biomass “decreased in the case of larvae grown on 700 and 550 ppm CO2 foliage,” so that they “grew slower and took longer time (two days more than ambient) to pupation,” which latter phenomenon would allow significantly more time (~13%) for them to be preyed upon by still higher orders of creatures”

                http://www.co2science.org/articles/V11/N1/B2.php
                “With plant biomass increasing and herbivorous pest abundance decreasing (by +38.4% and -21.6%, respectively, in response to an approximate doubling of the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration), it would appear that in the eternal struggle to produce the food that sustains all of humanity, either directly or indirectly, man’s crops will fare ever better as the air’s CO2 content continues its upward climb. Likewise, it would appear there will be a concomitant expansion of the vegetative food base that sustains all of the biosphere.”

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              • #
              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                ‘CO2 Science’ the most oxymoronic site about CO2 that there is.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                EMPTY, and certainly MORONIC comment from the pfutz.

                So much real science at CO2Science that the little pfutz cannot relate to anything there, because he has ZERO comprehension what real science actually is.

                103

              • #
                AndyG55

                come on little pfutz

                Do you have ANY empirical evidence that increased atmospheric CO2 has any affect on the global temperature or climate in any way whatsoever?

                Why do you have this DERANGED PARANOIA about atmospheric CO2, little pfutz ?????

                93

              • #
                beowulf

                Yes that’s right Fitzy — CO2 Science, the site that gathers evidence from hundreds of scientific papers and summarises the results.

                70

              • #
                jack

                Oh Fritz,
                You do have a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock.
                :
                Much better to oxymoronic than a Carbon Di-oxymoron.

                71

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                CO2 science, a site which is funded by ExxonMobil Foundation, and has a mission statement which is plagiarized by you lot. It cherry picks, quotes out of context, and uses click bait to draw you in. Repretable. Not.

                111

              • #
                AndyG55

                And you are totally incapable of countering one single thing on the web site.

                It cherry picks THOUSANDS of studies. right, little child, whatever you say ..lol. !!

                You truly are out of your depth, little trollette.

                You wouldn’t know what “reputable” was.. it is not any part of your persona.

                And why do you have this manic deranged hatred and demented paranoia for the gas that provides for ALL LIFE ON EARTH ?

                72

              • #
                jack

                Well, well Carbon Di-oxymoron.

                CO2 science, a site …plagiarized by you lot.

                Is quite a sweeping assumption.
                If you include me in “you lot”, you are very wrong.
                I have never visited the CO2 science site, repeat never.
                Not only do have a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock.
                Your a sandwich short of a picnic.
                Also you spell “Repretable” with a “u”.
                When you catch the bus to school tomorrow, try sitting up the back.
                You may have face to face conflict with the tough kids, but who knows,
                What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          Crop yields are increasing in leaps and bounds around the world.

          And there is nothing you can do about it, pfutz. !

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “You have to spend more on control bobl.”

          NO, wrong again.

          The same dosage can be used, with the same effect.

          20

    • #
      Graeme#4

      Peter, your ratio of CO2 uptakes for C3 and C4 vegetation doesn’t take into account the huge disparity in both the global coverage and primary production of these vegetation types. For example, C4 vegetation has a global coverage of only 18.8 million sqm, while C3 vegetation has a far larger coverage of 87.7 million sqm, so C4 is only 18% of the total.
      (I’ll talk about GPP next post.)

      70

      • #
        Graeme#4

        Hmm, my swm above should have been sq km.
        Now, Global Primary Production or GPP. C4 vegetation supplies only 23% while C3 vegetation supplies the rest – 77%.
        So taking both global coverage and GPP into account, it can be seen that C3 vegetation is far more important to us than C4, and it’s C3 that is the greatest beneficiary of CO2.

        60

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Yes, Graeme#4, but I’m saying that the entire plant kingdom will be changed, the croplands are only a portion of that. Unintended consequences and all that

        116

        • #
          AndyG55

          Why are you SO, SO SCARED of NATURAL change, pfutz???

          You are PANICKING about yet another mythical nonsense.

          GET A GRIP !!!

          94

        • #
          Graeme#4

          Maybe, but then cometh the next glacial, surely that would result in an even greater change? And surely any devastation of the earth’s primary food source should be our major concern? This is not to say that I’m not concerned about loss of any greenery, it’s just that I believe we should focus on our food crops.

          100

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Peter Fitzroy:

          A little viewing for you. Don’t worry, he says CO2 effects the Climate.
          Dan Britt – Orbits and Ice Ages: The History of Climate –

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yze1YAz_LYM

          40

    • #
      Bill Burrows

      You need to bone up on Liebig’s Law of the Minimum Peter. E.g. see: https://soils.wisc.edu/facstaff/barak/soilscience326/lawofmin.htm. A feature of ‘Global Greening’ is that it has been detected across climate zones and a huge range of soil types & soil fertility levels. (Search for evidence of increased plant growth detected by satellite imagery). For such a ubiquitous response vegetation must be responding to an essential plant growth factor that is delivered via the atmosphere and that has increased in the atmosphere in ‘recent’ times. I wonder what that could be?

      80

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Most of that greening you speak of has been in Dryland ecosystems – as detailed a few posts back. Do not forget that there are other factors required for plant growth – water, is a biggie, and you have seen an increase in precipitation in a lot of the world.

        The law of minimum, or, as it is now known, limiting factors, is what I was talking about, up CO2 and nitrogen becomes limiting and you then have to supply extra.

        Now for your final point. At 800 ppm we had ecosystems dominated by giant tree ferns, as they were the fastest growing. I do not want to go back to that. I do not think that increasing the CO2 concentration, is in balance, a good idea.

        111

        • #
          bobl

          Why not, I Love Bananas

          50

        • #
          beowulf

          Do you know anything about CO2 and plants? The drivel that you spout would suggest not. Increased CO2 effectively increases water availability by reducing evapotranspiration losses in dryland plants during the hotter part of the day.

          80

          • #
            toorightmate

            Beowulf,
            The idiot you are addressing that comment to will not understand.
            He is thicker than six bricks.

            60

            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              Advancing the debate?
              I mentioned the dryland greening further up the post. If you geniuses had actually read that, or knew anything about CO2, Ecology, or Plant Physiology, I might, just might, listen to what you have to say.

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              • #
                Dave

                Peter

                What is the C4 ratio of water used in metabolism to water lost by transpiration?
                What is the C3 ratio of water used in metabolism to water lost by transpiration?

                Unfortunately I doubt whether you have even studied germination Peter!

                More LIES again from the 4 cents a KWh in Germany man!

                81

              • #
                AndyG55

                The Sahara had a LOT of vegetation before the LIA.

                Why are you SCARED of plants, chicken little ?

                And FFS, STOP pretending you know anything about plants and plant biology, because your every post makes it very obvious THAT YOU DON’T !

                62

              • #
                beowulf

                In fact I did read what you wrote. You attributed extra growth to increased precipitation; I referred to increased water use efficiency by plants in a higher-CO2 atmosphere — totally different and something you seem to deny or be unaware of; the opposite end of the water equation.

                Interesting too that you would use the term “dryland” to describe arid area vegetation when of course it simply refers to non-irrigated plants in any rainfall zone. An actual ecologist is unlikely to make that mistake.

                60

        • #
          Dave

          Peter’

          Reading all your comments so far!

          Do you know what % C4 represent of all the Earths Plant Biomass?
          And what % do they contribute to the total Carbon Fixation on Earth Peter?

          Waiting for your Eucalyptus paper “Eucalyptus grow faster in Cold Temperatures?”
          Waiting for your paper on “Tree ferns will dominate at 800ppm CO2?”

          As KK says

          You’re full of XXXXXX

          91

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            nice of you to completely miss the point of the post. If you are happy to terraform the planet, just say so. I am more worried that no one can predict what changes such terraforming will bring. For example, if the dryland plants are getting greener, what does that do for the albedo? What effect does changing said albedo have?

            112

            • #
              Dave

              Hhahhaaa

              ” if the dryland plants are getting greener?”

              Wow

              Another paper coming out Peter?

              What species of plant are GETTING GREENER?

              This will be a really great paper from you Peter!

              MORE LIES coming up!
              Waiting!

              60

            • #
              AndyG55

              No-one is terraforming the planet,

              Just returning the carbon back into the carbon cycle back up to where it should be.

              Where did this latest “terraforming” IDIOCY of yours come from, pfutz?

              Making up a new meme because all your old ones dies a natural death ??

              TERROR, PARANOIA seem to be the only effects CO2 has on you.. quite hilarious. !!

              Now, do you have any empirical evidence that increased atmospheric CO2 has any affect on global temperature or climate in any way whatsoever..

              Or are you just in some tweaked out nightmare of your own imagination !!

              PANIC !! chicken little !!!

              63

            • #
              AndyG55

              “to completely miss the point of the post”

              Your posts have NO POINT except low level trolling and attention seeking.

              73

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              XsXhXiXpX
              XXXX

              X

              41

        • #
          jack

          Oh No..
          Giant tree ferns are going to start popping up all over the planet!
          They’ll then rip themselves form their earthly bonds and, like triffids, wonder around the country side reeking havoc on humanity.
          You have convinced me CO2 is a danger.
          I’m hopping on my moral superiority powered bike, riding up to the Bowen Basin and throwing myself into the largest coal pit I can find.
          Will you join me?

          81

        • #
          Gee aye

          WHen was this giant tree fern era? Do you mean before the evolution of angiosperms?

          10

    • #
      beowulf

      Fitzy, no links to your baseless assertions on the lack of growth increase from elevated CO2?

      I rubbed your nose in this stuff a week ago, do I really need to do it all over again so soon? You claimed an upper limit of 1,000ppm for plant growth and I showed you links to 30,000ppm growth benefits of 341%. You’re still peddling the same crap?

      90

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        What are you talking about? Read my post – and if you think that high CO2 exposure for 1/2 an hour is a definitive experiment, think again.
        The upper limit stands at 1000 ppm or thereabouts
        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5799915/

        115

        • #
          AndyG55

          roflmao

          The pfutz ignorance is legendary.

          Which is why greenhouse growers use 1500ppm + at times

          Thing is, they KNOW how to use that, and its not by continuous 1000ppm levels of CO2.

          Plants draw down atmospheric CO2 in the morning, then expel the extra at night.

          Unfortunately, the highest it is ever likely to get in the atmosphere would be in the 700-800ppm range, so NOWHERE NEAR OPTIMUM PLANT GROWTH LEVELS.

          What is it with your demented PARANOIA about atmospheric plant food., pftuz ?????

          83

        • #
          beowulf

          If you think that high CO2 exposure for 1/2 an hour is a definitive experiment, think again.”

          I won’t need to think again. Experiment duration details about my original post on high CO2 levels a week or more back:
          • Wheat/cowpeas/beans – 2,800ppm for 3 months
          • Eldarica pine – 3,000ppm for 15 months
          • Loblolly pine seedlings – 350 to 30,000ppm for 30 days (until transplanting) and NO FERTILIZER with the experiment repeated annually for 3 years

          60

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            Speaking of Carp.

            There was a fishing contest on today out West to see who could hook the most carp.

            The creeks being dry and low I asked how that was possible.

            Apparently the locals have been able to dam the creek at several points and the carp were isolated and removed.

            I don’t know what the prize was for the winner but it could easily have been a few jugs of Dr. JURDS Jungle juice.

            KK

            50

            • #
              beowulf

              Gelignite for bait, or “square hooks” as they call nets out west?

              Charlie Carp is great on the garden although not so great for the neighbours.

              50

              • #
                Kinky Keith

                Wollombi Tavern.
                Got the impression they don’t eat them?

                30

              • #
                beowulf

                River rats. Bottom feeders tasting of mud, plus lots of little bones. Only harvested for fertiliser in Oz. Well regarded in starving 3rd world countries and even sold commercially in the US.

                30

  • #
    jack

    You are young, and it’s not your fault, but consider this.
    :
    Look around you and look at the benefits of what you have.
    Even 50 years ago a young person could only dream of what you have now.
    :
    Now use your imagination, go back 300 years, before the ideology you benefit from even existed.
    At 15 years old your life would be half over.
    No phones or electrical technology what so ever.
    You go to bed at dusk and get up at dawn.
    No industry.
    Woven cloth is a luxury, if you are lucky you may have a couple of pairs of clothing in a life time.
    A cold bed in winter would be the norm.
    Heating and cooking could only be done with fire wood, if you could find some.
    No transport.
    If you owned a horse you would be considered very rich.
    No sewage or running water.
    No toilet or toilet paper, what would you do?
    The only thing you have to drink is water, and that may take hours of labour each day to obtain.
    Washing yourself or your clothes would be a rare luxury.
    Scarcity of food.
    What you now consume in one meal at MacDonalds would be two weeks of food.
    You would be constantly hungry.
    Free time would be rare, for you would have to labour your waking hours just to survive.
    At that time, if the ever present climate change produced hash conditions, you would die.
    :
    At the present time, the institutions you attend are indoctrinated by a philosophy based on progressivism and Marxism.
    It’s all about radicalizing you in social justice lessons, and making you see yourselves as victims of an evil capitalistic system.
    You are their tools and if you fall into their trap, you will become an activist for the conditions of a world 300 years ago, and not even know it.
    If you want the life style of 300 years ago, continue your unquestioning obedience to their social indoctrination.
    Good luck with that.

    182

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    I would agree totally, being an EE too. Probably even less than a Carrington event could do damage.

    40

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      that was a reply to first comment..

      20

    • #
      bobl

      Yes, my point exactly, pointing semiconductors at the sun and sticking unshielded antennas around isn’t such a good idea if a solar flare is aimed at them. It’s not if… but when.

      I have to say that none of our energy infrastructure accounts for this but renewables are more exposed, expensive, immobile (unlike diesel or gas turbines) they are impossible to repair/replace quickly with like for like assets, and a solar flare could irradiate the WHOLE planet. With an 100% electrical economy a Carrington Event could be disastrous – reduce us to total Anarchy.

      The Hurricane in Puerto Rico reduced all their renewables to rubble in hours and after years this USA protectorate is still not back to where it was.

      40

      • #
        yarpos

        Puerto Rico is fascinating. After the devastation they think renewables is the answer for their power. They seem totally disconnected (pardon the pun) from recent reality and experience.

        62

        • #
          bobl

          Einstein reputedly said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome”. Climate activism seems to drown in this sort of Insanity. Nothing they do actually does anything positive Solar and Wind power don’t even save CO2 yet we keep doing these things to freeze our grannies in winter to NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER.

          61

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      A huge sun storm hit Earth in ancient times. If it happens again, we could have big trouble.

      The scientists detailed their findings online March 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

      A gigantic solar storm hit Earth about 2,600 years ago, one about 10 times stronger than any solar storm recorded in the modern day, a new study finds.

      https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/huge-sun-storm-hit-earth-ancient-times-if-it-happens-ncna982201

      The so-called Carrington Event of 1859 may have released about 10 times more energy than the one behind the Quebec blackout in 1989, making it the most powerful known geomagnetic storm , according to a 2013 study from Lloyd’s of London.

      30

  • #
    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Ah! But you see avalanches which are caused by too much snow building up.
      Too much snow is caused by extra precipitation.
      Extra precipitation is caused by more water evaporating.
      More water evaporating is caused by Global Warming;
      Therefore this is “proof” of Global Warming!

      More and more Global Warming reminds me of the old Phlogiston theory.
      Pure metals contain phlogiston which you cannot see as it is invisible and odourless.
      When they rust it is caused by loss of phlogiston.
      But they gain weight — therefore phlogiston has negative weight, along with it being odourless and invisible.
      When iron rusts in a closed system it gains weight but the whole apparatus doesn’t change in weight.
      That is because the phlogiston lost is trapped inside the apparatus and its negative weight offsets the gain in weight by the rusting iron. You are obviously a PHLOGISTON DENIER and must be ignored.

      Who said modern ‘scientists’ are any more advanced than their counterparts 250 years ago.

      80

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        phlogiston is an antimatter gloop made up of negative mass particles and ‘dark energy’ ….;)

        00

  • #
    Maptram

    Nothing much changes. Another el-nino is predicted, and climate change scientists are at a conference in Chile.

    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/monster-el-nino-a-chance-later-this-year-pointing-to-extended-dry-times-20190315-p514hi.html

    If you read the article however, they have an each way bet.

    Agus Santoso, a senior scientist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, said there were two likely outcomes from the developments in the Pacific.

    We could have an El Nino fully formed by the end of May and then it could dissipate,” Dr Santoso said.

    “The other is that by May it’s already formed and it still keeps building up… and by the end of the year we could have a monster El Nino.”

    The question in my mind is whether any of the called for action to reduce atmospheric CO2 and fix climate change would stop such an El-Nino

    60

  • #
    Kim

    @Maptram – an el-nino would be great. We’ve had 3 years of lowering temperatures (SW WA). This year – winter, spring and summer – has been awful – high cloud cover, low rain, high wind. an extra 3°C would be great.

    20

    • #
      Graeme#4

      But your livestock, strawberries and avos are loving it! Beautiful and green down there, with full farm dams everywhere, even now at the end of summer. Been that way for at least a couple of years, hasn’t it?

      40

    • #
      Graeme#4

      And also may I comment Kim, it’s not the El Niños that impact WA, it’s only if we also have a strong following La Niña, which I believe we haven’t had since 1998.

      20

    • #
      beowulf

      You’re barking up the wrong tree Kim: you want a negative Indian Ocean Dipole in WA and you’re in luck — you’re getting one. Don’t wish an El Nino on eastern Oz where it actually impacts. We have more than enough drought already thanks.

      30

      • #
        beowulf

        Cyclone Savannah that was sitting off the Cocos Islands and started to head east has now been dragged southwest by the huge high in the Indian Ocean, so northern WA will get no rain from it, nor will the Centre.

        10

  • #
    • #
      Yonniestone

      Wow, story sounds just like the the other unfortunate M&^%$#s in Western Countries that were victims of hate crimes by terrible white people……oh wait.

      54

    • #
      philthegeek

      Anning and his scum in the manure then??. 🙂

      And ScoMo desperately seeking cover for his previous race /religion baiting. Coming together nicely on a political level.

      39

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Race baiting is the realm of your ilk, when your created oppressed minorities eventually have you by the throat remember our motto, treat as you find.

        33

        • #
          philthegeek

          Race baiting is the realm of your ilk

          Then why is the RW in Australia that has been so consistent with the race /religion they are not us, be ascared of brown people in boats thing over the years??

          27

          • #
            Yonniestone

            RW as in right wing?, once again nothing to do with democracy but all about the left, the only genuine boat people that came here were the survivors of Pol Pots murderous regime that was based on Communism.

            73

          • #
            AndyG55

            How many have YOU got living in YOUR home, phlopthegoop

            You are ALWAYS the hypocrite.

            Your life must be so pathetic for you to get your jollies TROLLING realist blogs with your incessant hard-left idiocy.

            Are you really that lonely and desperate for attention !!! poor, pitiful you

            72

      • #
        robert rosicka

        Phil get a dictionary from a grown up and get them to explain to you the difference between “Race” and “Religion” , no doubt you won’t understand anyway there’s too many words over three letters .

        44

      • #
        James Murphy

        The identitarian left, and those deploying unprovoked victimhood have done more damage to Australian society than any comments by the current PM, or by the handful of genuinely far-right wing dingbats expressing their views.

        21

    • #
      yarpos

      If you bother to read the article he picked up a gun fortuitously dropped by the perp.

      If the first few the main guy encountered at the Mosque had been carrying the story may well have been different. A lot of wannabe warriors change colour when bullets start coming back.

      Or just live in la la land where its great to be a victim

      40

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    Knowing our own Australian history is the key to shooting down the shower of Global warming Greenists :

    ‘SAID HANRAHAN’
    by John O’Brien

    “We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    In accents most forlorn,
    Outside the church, ‘ere Mass began,
    One frosty Sunday morn.

    The congregation stood about,
    Coat-collars to the ears,
    And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
    As it had done for years.

    “It’s looking crook,” said Daniel Croke;
    “Begad, it’s crook, me lad,
    For never since the banks went broke
    Has seasons been so bad.”

    “It’s dry, all right,” said young O’Neil,
    With which astute remark
    He squatted down upon his heel
    And chewed a piece of bark.

    And so around the chorus ran
    “It’s keepin’ dry, no doubt.”
    “We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    “Before the year is out.”

    “The crops are done; ye’ll have your work
    To save one bag of grain;
    From here way out to Back-o’-Bourke
    They’re singin’ out for rain.

    “They’re singin’ out for rain,” he said,
    “And all the tanks are dry.”
    The congregation scratched its head,
    And gazed around the sky.

    “There won’t be grass, in any case,
    Enough to feed an ass;
    There’s not a blade on Casey’s place
    As I came down to Mass.”

    “If rain don’t come this month,” said Dan,
    And cleared his throat to speak –
    “We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    “If rain don’t come this week.”

    A heavy silence seemed to steal
    On all at this remark;
    And each man squatted on his heel,
    And chewed a piece of bark.

    “We want an inch of rain, we do,”
    O’Neil observed at last;
    But Croke “maintained” we wanted two
    To put the danger past.

    “If we don’t get three inches, man,
    Or four to break this drought,
    We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    “Before the year is out.”

    In God’s good time down came the rain;
    And all the afternoon
    On iron roof and window-pane
    It drummed a homely tune.

    And through the night it pattered still,
    And lightsome, gladsome elves
    On dripping spout and window-sill
    Kept talking to themselves.

    It pelted, pelted all day long,
    A-singing at its work,
    Till every heart took up the song
    Way out to Back-o’-Bourke.

    And every creek a banker ran,
    And dams filled overtop;
    “We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    “If this rain doesn’t stop.”

    And stop it did, in God’s good time;
    And spring came in to fold
    A mantle o’er the hills sublime
    Of green and pink and gold.

    And days went by on dancing feet,
    With harvest-hopes immense,
    And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
    Nid-nodding o’er the fence.

    And, oh, the smiles on every face,
    As happy lad and lass
    Through grass knee-deep on Casey’s place
    Went riding down to Mass.

    While round the church in clothes genteel
    Discoursed the men of mark,
    And each man squatted on his heel,
    And chewed his piece of bark.

    “There’ll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
    There will, without a doubt;
    We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan,
    “Before the year is out.”

    From “Around the Boree Log and Other Verses”.
    Published in 1921

    80

    • #
      jack

      Beauty mate, I like it.
      Just one more verse.
      :
      Carbon Dioxide, that’s my call,
      for this prolonged drought;
      We’ll all be rooned,” said Fritz Et al.,
      “Before the year is out.”

      70

    • #
      Rod Stuart

      Indeed. Ridicule might be the only way to beat this quasi-religious fervour.

      40

      • #
        jack

        Of course Rod.
        When reason is dulled by subjective fanaticism,
        what recourse do you have?
        :
        PS ‘The first cut is the deepest’ is in my top 100 favoritism songs.
        And looking at your picture, you have aged well!

        10

    • #
      Another Ian

      Or this one

      “Robber
      January 17, 2018 at 12:07 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      http://joannenova.com.au/2018/01/midweek-unthreaded-7/#comment-1974798

      90

      • #
        Peter C

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

        Thanks Ian.

        How to get the man in the street involved?

        20

      • #
        jack

        Aww.. thanks Another Ian.
        I was feeling a bit chuffed with my little verse.
        Well now… 🙁 ..were did I put that bottle of Wild Turkey? 🙂

        40

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Ian the my point and the point of the poem, is that we’ve heard it all before.
        For generations going back to the year dot of 1788.

        And every time it’s turned out to be a crock of Sh*t !

        30

        • #
          jack

          Yes Bill
          There is a small view (a human life time) of effect,
          of the large (the earths existence) cause.
          It is like trying to view an elephant through a microscope.

          30

        • #
          Another Ian

          But remember the progression tale and how that

          “crock of shit that stinketh”

          becomes translated to

          “powerful fertaliser that will do much good”

          by the time the message gets to the ministerial level.

          00

  • #
    pat

    promo-ed on ABC as being about climate change, but not summarised as such below:

    AUDIO: 29min14sec: 17 Mar: ABC Sunday Extra: The Roundtable: Industry super flexes its power
    Presenter: Liz Jackson
    By 2030 superannuation funds are expected to own 50 percent or half of all Australian Shares.
    The union-backed so-called “industry funds” control the largest portion of the super pool.
    That’s got the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, concerned industry funds are going to use their financial clout to pressure publicly listed companies to fall inline with union demands.
    He’s sounding the alarm on financial activism.
    Guests:
    Senator Jane Hume (Liberal)
    Greg Combet – Chairman of Industry Super Australia and IFM Investors
    Emma Herd – Chief Executive Officer at the Investor Group on Climate Change
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-roundtable/industry-super-flexes-its-muscle/10905716

    paraphrasing:

    Liberal senator Jane Hume the only guest with sound problems – mild whoosh whoosh.

    after Combet’s second rant – which more strongly defends considering CAGW than his first – Liz Jackson tells Hume she will come back to her soon, but wants Emma Herd to respond first;
    Emma Herd: CAGW.
    Jackson then goes to Hume, but asks her to respond to Combet saying directors obliged to make decisions based on singular focus of earning the best return for their members, could be penalised if they don’t, therefore Frydenberg’s concerns are not real.
    Hume says: I’m not sure that’s what Greg was saying blah blah.

    21.11 – back to Emma Herd: the changing future role in the economy of Super Funds. there is increasing demand by members that the Funds should be actively considering investing in social and environment and governance issues; using their money for positive social and environment impacts.
    what we’re seeing, especially millennials and post-millennials are saying it’s my money, I want you to tell me where the money is going and I want control over the kinds of companies that are being invested in with my funds. can’t just be returns at all costs.
    Jane Hume: there are already ethical investment funds out there, funds with socially responsible investment option, etc. people can invest there, but most members are disengaged.

    Liz Jackson to Combet: do you think the role of Super is changing and people’s expectations are changing around that?
    Combet: bigger than market capitalisation of ASX, etc. discussion on the nature of its role is very important etc.

    20

  • #
    pat

    Saturdays at 9am. Repeated: Sunday 4am, Tuesday 11.30am, Wednesday 1am.

    ABC’s Jonathan Green: the things that are polluting our air, are changing our climate:

    AUDIO: 13min06: 16 Mar: ABC Blueprint for Living: Jonathan Green: Toxic City
    As the global population grows rapidly, cities and the systems that sustain them are major contributors to the problem of climate change and increasing waste and pollution.
    We talk to the New York Times climate reporter Somini Sengupta about the challenges facing twenty-first century cities and artist and innovator, Daan Roosegaarde about the social role of design in responding to the climate crisis in urban environments.
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/toxic-city/10878530

    above links to:
    Victorian Govt: Melbourne Design Week 14-24 March 2019
    Toxic City? Symposium
    Presented by the NGV, Foreground and The New York Times
    Tue 19 Mar, 2.30pm–6pm
    NGV International, Great Hall
    As the global population heads towards nine billion, science heralds news of humans indelibly altering nature’s balance. Cities and the systems that sustain them – food, water, and energy – are major factors in climate change and the interlinked cycles of waste and pollution. As national governments argue, cities are leading the way and becoming testing grounds for a better future. This high-energy, provocative symposium brings together local and international experts to examine the scale of the problems ahead and to ask how we might build cleaner, healthier, more resilient cities, confronting the systemic problems that are poisoning them in the first place.
    SESSION 1: SPEAKERS
    Craig Reucassel, Jury Chair, ABC’s War on Waste
    Bonnie Herring, Director, Breathe Architecture
    Ross Harding, Founder, Finding Infinity
    Prof Sue Anne Ware, Head of School, Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
    Joost Bakker, Visionary, disruptor and environmental activist
    https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program/toxic-city-symposium/

    10

    • #
      Another Ian

      Pat

      I thought that

      “the social role of design in responding to the climate crisis”

      was one bloody big “tickling of the peter”?

      30

  • #
    pat

    there is almost nothing on theirABC that doesn’t mention some aspect of CAGW.
    also repeated broadcasts today:

    mowing/maintaining the lawn – you will be expending more energy in terms of CO2 than the lawn will sequester:

    AUDIO: 11min: 16 Mar: ABC Blueprint for Living: Native grasses create urban oases
    And would you believe it, mown grass is the worst for biodiversity, it is a net emitter of carbon, costs heaps to maintain, is under-utilised by people and is a poor vehicle for engaging local communities with the management of their local green spaces.
    Phillip Gibbons takes you to the root of the grass debate.
    Philip Gibbons, Associate Professor Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU College of Science..
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/native-grasses-create-urban-oases/10878896

    AUDIO: 25min01sec: 16 Mar: ABC Blueprint for Living: Jonathan Green: Lost and Found — Brutality
    We ask why buildings and bridges made from this most durable material are crumbling and explore the dramatic environmental impact of reinforced concrete…
    Dr Guy Keulemans, Lecturer in Art and Design, University of New South Wales
    Oliver Wainwright, architecture critic, The Guardian
    Elizabeth Farrelly, writer and architecture critic
    Tim Entwisle, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/lost-and-found-%E2%80%94-brutality/10896808

    at 16min54sec in: Dr Guy Keulemans: CAGW – concrete – limestone is made from living matter – DEAD sea creatures – so concrete is built (CHUCKLE CHUCKLE) on the lives and sufferings of billions of animals.
    concrete industry is so big; so much money; should be spending on R&D into non-steel-reinforced buildings.

    20

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    Travis T. Jones

    97% ‘science’ Permanent Drought Update:

    California is drought-free for the first time in nearly a decade

    https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rain-california-drought-conditions-20190314-story.html

    It’s official: California is 100% drought-free.

    For the first time since 2011, the state shows no areas suffering from prolonged drought and illustrates almost entirely normal conditions, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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    pat

    plenty of justification on ABC for not allowing free speech on campus, courtesy of Australian, Dr. Robert Simpson, who is now with UCL – London’s Global University.

    listen from 9min41sec: Simpson brings up 2009 example of Ben Stein, climate denier, being forced to withdraw from giving commencement speech at Uni of Vermont, etc.

    background:

    Wikipedia: Benjamin Jeremy Stein, conservative American writer, lawyer, actor, and commentator on political and economic issues. A graduate of Columbia University, Stein began his career in law, graduating as valedictorian from Yale Law School. He attained early success as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Later, he entered the entertainment field and became an actor, comedian, and Emmy Award-winning game show host.

    Jul 2017: Leiter Reports: Simpson from Monash to UCL
    Robert Mark Simpson (political and legal philosophy), currently Lecturer in Philosophy at Monash University, has accepted a permanent appointment as Lecturer in Philosophy at University College London, effective this fall. UCL is now fortunate to have two talented philosophers and delightful colleagues who we were fortunate to have here at Chicago during 2014-15 (the other is political philosopher Amanda Greene, who was our Law & Philosophy Fellow that year).

    the entire programme is loaded with “we” this and that – clearly showing which side Rutledge & Simpson are on and, of course, there is no-one with a different opinion. read the comments:

    AUDIO: 28min27sec: 10 Mar: ABC The Philosopher’s Zone: Free speech crisis on campus?
    Presented by David Rutledge
    With freedom of speech at Australian universities currently under governmental review, we explore the notion of free speech on campus. Are free speech and academic freedom the same thing? Should what gets said at universities – and who gets to say it – be regulated? Should universities reflect or resist the scrappy chaos of democratic communication? And is the supposed “free speech crisis” just a front for the culture wars?
    Guest:
    Robert Simpson, Department of Philosophy, University College London (moved to UK from Australia a year ago)
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/free-speech-on-campus/10876206

    14 Mar: ABC The Philosopher’s Zone: Free speech or troll-bait? Why university campus provocateurs lean to the right
    RN By David Rutledge
    Robert Simpson, an Australian philosopher working at University College London, specialises in this sort of debate around free speech and liberalism.
    He’s sceptical of the idea that the university campus should be an anything-goes environment.
    “This idea that university is supposed to be a microcosm of democratic society at large is contestable,” he says.

    “In the great wave of social democratic reforms that swept through Western liberal countries after World War II, there was a massive expansion of the university sector, a huge amount of public money being poured into tertiary education.”
    What was the idea behind this? Dr Simpson says Western nations were trying to improve the epistemic quality of society — in essence, to have a more informed public.
    “The thought that merely being engaged in a heated altercation attains to some democratic ideal is implausible to me,” he says.
    “Mere dissent, mere altercation doesn’t have a great deal of democratic value.
    “What we want from democracy is an exchange of ideas between different people where there’s some movement toward a shared understanding, so that we can jointly govern ourselves.”

    Dr Simpson believes it would be detrimental to universities if the culture of social media came to define debate on campus…

    Racists, misogynists and other questionable individuals are out there in the world. Surely the opportunity to hear and debate these people constitutes a valuable form of learning?

    Not so, according to Dr Simpson…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-14/free-speech-or-troll-bait-university-campus-provocateurs-right/10895628

    found this on Climate Depot:

    VIDEO: 6min33sec: Dec 2015: Fox News: Ben Stein: What if manmade climate change is a fraud?
    Economist and author asks if it’s worth crucifying American workers in the name of a false goal.
    https://video.foxnews.com/v/4661236875001/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips

    20

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    pat

    15 Mar: Paul Homewood: BBC’s Climate Lies Becoming A Habit
    They say once is an accident, twice is a conspiracy. I wonder what eight times is?
    As I revealed yesterday (LINK), the BBC has formally upheld my complaint about their African penguin story. I am pleased to see then that The Times has now picked it up…
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/bbcs-climate-lies-becoming-a-habit/

    16 Mar: Paul Homewood: BBC’s Age of Denial
    I doubt if a day goes past now without a blast of global warming propaganda from the BBC.
    Isabel Hardman has a new five part series on Radio 4, called the Age of Denial.
    Although it covers all forms of denial, it is clearly aimed at climate sceptics, as this opening episode makes obvious…READ ON
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/bbcs-age-of-denial/

    more on Paul’s homepage, including the latest from James Delingpole.

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    The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

    This is a request for assistance from any ‘tech-savvy’ people out there:

    I have been informed that there is this thing called the “Wayback Machine”, a play on a cartoon from my childhood (“Rocky and Bullwinkle”, and one of the characters, Mr. Peabody and his pet boy, Sherman, who used the ‘WayBac’ machine to time travel to historical events, and give their cartoon-ish take on events … ).

    Anyway, for a long time, there was a video on YouTube which featured Emmylou Harris, along with John Randall, and at a concert in Gstaad, Die Schweiz (Switzerland, for those of you not fluent in German), where they sang the most incredible version of The Carter Family’s original hit, Hello Stranger. I’m told the Internet never forgets, but this video has been taken down (or gone missing, or the poster of the video has had their account terminated).

    Yes, there are other versions of Emmy (and various co-artists) singing Hello Stranger, and I think I’ve heard them all, but this Gstaad version is even better than the album version (Faysoux Starling notwithstanding).

    Any help, or links, or alternate websites that might have the video are muchly appreciated.

    Regards,

    Vlad

    30

    • #

      I think this is what you are after, the 1991 (not 1993) appearance at Gstaad. You only get this short version, still pretty good. If you’re not buying the album you can easily download the clip from the site using any mp4 downloader (since it’s not YouTube).
      https://www.rockinconcerts.com/emmylou-harris-dvd-compilation-gstaad-1991-proshot.html

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        The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

        Thanks mosomoso: you nailed it! That’s the version I was able to watch until recently. The harmonies were (are?) fantastic.

        Can’t thank you enough,

        Vlad

        30

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Vlad:

      I was able to download the 1993 version (low resolution) at
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkoS6VKSY5Q

      Apparently posted by verdurita10.

      Hope this helps.

      40

      • #
        The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

        Hi Graeme: Yes, an EXCELLENT version, from the “Ladies of Country Music”, which I think was a Public Broadcasting System (PBS, over here on this side of the Big Pond) special many years back. The time frame of the two (mosomoso’s find and yours) are very similar, since there are many of the same members of the Nash Ramblers, the successors to her 1970’s – 1980’s “Hot Band”.

        Since the pun of the “Nash Ramblers” would be lost on a non-USA audience, the pun is this:

        There was once an automobile manufacturing company called Nash Motors, whose flagship line was the Rambler. Decent, robust cars, but built more for the common man, than the bank tycoon. Eventually, Nash was absorbed by American Motors, who kept the Rambler model in production.

        Still available (on YouTube) is a 1950’s song called “Beep Beep”. I think most here would get a kick out of it.

        Oh, and I should also explain, that the home of Country Music in the US is Nashville, Tennessee. Hence, “Nash” Ramblers.

        Appreciate you taking the time to look that up for me, Graeme. I try to green as many of your posts as I am able, when I stop by to visit.

        Vlad

        20

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    robert rosicka

    This is what makes leftoids stick out from the crowd , their in capability of doing simple math .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-17/fraser-anning-egging-tackled-teenager-speaks-victoria-police/10909552

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Point is regardless of your personal views the unsolicited act of laying your hands on an elected senator is an indictable offence and additionally what if that egg was a knife or hydrochloric acid?

      The electoral process exists so you have the opportunity to expel representatives that you consider not worthy of the position, behaviour like this relegates us to the methodology of broken third world political systems and short sighted reactionaries.

      141

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        seems he has support (from your article)
        “A fundraising page set up to collect donations to cover the teenager’s legal fees and to buy “more eggs” had raised almost $20,000 by 12:00pm on Sunday.
        An online petition calling for Senator Anning to be removed from Parliament had garnered more than 750,000 signatures.”
        And egg boy was released without charge.

        418

        • #
          AndyG55

          “to buy “more eggs””

          Leftists advocating more VIOLENCE.

          No surprise there. !!

          Got a leftist judge, did he, lucky little child.

          142

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            It wasn’t a leftist who shot 50 people in Christchurch was it, you puerile little twit.

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            • #
              James Murphy

              ahhh…actually, the NZ shooter claimed to be an eco-fascist, and identified with / supported the Chinese political system. Does not seem to be “right wing” to me. Perhaps have a look through his “manifesto” and make your own assessment?

              152

            • #
              AndyG55

              WOW, hit a nerve, did I.

              NZ guy seems to have been a leftist who was generally confused about everything.

              Very much like you are, pfutz

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            • #
              OriginalSteve

              Now now now … language.

              2/10 – must try harder.

              20

        • #
          Yonniestone

          You must be so proud but remember every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

          70

        • #
        • #
          Kinky Keith

          XsXaXd

          X

          01

        • #

          What’s that — An online petition to remove people we don’t like? Great idea Peter F.

          One million defcons could sign a few petitions. Will that be enough to remove the Greens?

          Or maybe you might like to think again about the usual way of removing elected MPs.

          151

          • #
            Another Ian

            Might be an own goal here for Peter Fitz

            60

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            Peter C

            Frasers Annings election to, Parliament was unusual.

            He got in when Malcolm Roberts was declared ineligible. Having been elected as One Nation Senator he walked past his sponsor, Pauline Hanson and joined the Katter party.

            Then he was rejected by Bob Katter. So now he is an independent.

            Fraser Anning is supported by the Pickering Post because he has been brave enough to debate immigration.
            He is getting publicity, helped by #eggboy#. It would not surprise me if he gets returned at the next election, just 2 months away.

            I think that Malcolm Roberts will also be back, now that his citizenship is resolved.

            10

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Excellent comment.

        50

    • #
      AndyG55

      30? or TWO, the correct number for restraint of one thug, a third only if necessary or the thug is drunk.

      One day, I hope pfutz gets an egg cracked on the back of his head.

      [snip. No!]

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        robert rosicka

        Andy I’ll go as far as to say three but no idea where the thirty came from , same maths they use to promote their ideology maybe .

        101

      • #
        AndyG55

        My point was that being unexpected hit on the back of the head, even with an open palm of the hand, can jar the neck, and is actually quite dangerous. It can also be very disorienting.

        It is a cowardly form of attack, and I am not at all surprised that Anning reacted the way he did.

        132

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Anning may be an idiot but there are no laws that say you can’t be an idiot in this country , if there was Fitz and goop would be annoying us from the big house .
          However attacking an elected official is an offence and usually brings a decent judiciary slap on the face but judges nowadays seem to be giving the lefty anarchists and law breakers a free reign .
          Last week a lefty vegan who stole a farmers livestock was fined a dollar .

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    pat

    Deep State updates:

    15 Mar: Washington Examiner: Christopher Steele admitted using posts by ‘random individuals’ on CNN website to back up Trump dossier
    by Jerry Dunleavy
    According to deposition transcripts (LINK) released this week, Steele said last year he used a 2009 report he found on CNN’s iReport website and said he wasn’t aware that submissions to that site are posted by members of the public and are not checked for accuracy…

    He was pressed on this further: “Do you understand that CNN iReports are or were nothing more than any random individuals’ assertions on the Internet?” Steele replied: “No, I obviously presume that if it is on a CNN site that it may has some kind of CNN status. Albeit that it may be an independent person posting on the site.”…

    Steele said his dossier contained “raw intelligence” that he admitted could contain untrue or even “deliberately false information.”…
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/steele-admitted-in-court-he-used-unverified-website-to-support-the-trump-dossier

    15 Mar: Daily Caller: Judge Unseals Portions Of Christopher Steele’s Deposition In Dossier Lawsuit
    by Chuck Ross
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/15/christopher-steele-deposition-lawsuit/

    15 Mar: Daily Caller: EXCLUSIVE: Internal Fusion GPS Report Undercut Steele Dossier Allegation Against Russian Executive
    by Chuck Ross
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/15/fusion-gps-gubarev-dossier-steele/

    15 Mar: Breitbart: Bruce Ohr Testimony: I Informed FBI that Christopher Steele’s Dossier Was Based on ‘Hearsay’
    by Aaron Klein
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/15/bruce-ohr-testimony-i-informed-fbi-that-christopher-steeles-dossier-was-based-on-hearsay/

    15 Mar: Fox News: Court files reveal role of McCain, associate in spreading anti-Trump dossier
    By Adam Shaw; Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Lukas Mikelionis and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/court-files-reveal-role-of-mccain-aide-in-spreading-anti-trump-dossier

    15 Mar: Sara Carter: Lawmakers Request Documents From DOJ Regarding Top Special Counsel Prosecutor
    https://saraacarter.com/lawmakers-request-documents-from-doj-regarding-top-special-counsel-prosecutor/

    14 Mar: Sara Carter: Strzok: Defended Affair, Said Mueller Never Questioned Him On Bias and Revealed A DOJ Deal With FBI
    https://saraacarter.com/strzok-defended-affair-said-mueller-never-questioned-him-on-bias-and-revealed-a-doj-deal-with-fbi/

    30

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Why would Apple drop from its App Store a smartphone application that had drawn high praise from users and reviewers, generated thousands of downloads and provided rigorously documented facts on an important topic?

    The answer surely lies in the app’s subject matter, which is drawn from the book “Inconvenient Facts – the science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know”.
    (Another hint: Al Gore is on Apple’s board of directors.)

    Yes, it appears that Apple has chosen to weaponize its control over purchasing apps to stifle science that doesn’t conform to its politically correct notions.

    https://www.patownhall.com/apple-censors-inconvenient-climate-change-app-from-app-store/

    71

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Travis if you want to see something really sad go to putzez Facebook page and read all the Apple news clips the putz has downloaded , sort of the ABC on steroids with no facts no science just loads of faith based drivel like the 97% of all scientists drivel .

      31

  • #
  • #
    el gordo

    Jennifer Marohasy takes a swipe at Environment Minister Price.

    https://jennifermarohasy.com/2019/03/hottest-summer/

    50

    • #
      el gordo

      Warwick Hughes blames faulty BoM data for the hottest summer evah.

      http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=6118

      51

    • #
      Maptram

      A comment on a couple of paragraphs from the article.

      “At Rutherglen, the first big change happened on 29 January 1998. That is when the mercury and alcohol thermometers were replaced with an electronic probe – custom built to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s own standard, with the specifications still yet to be made public.

      According to Bureau policy, when such a major equipment change occurs there should be at least three years (preferably five) of overlapping/parallel temperature recordings, except the mercury and alcohol thermometers (used to measure maximum and minimum temperatures, respectively) were removed on exactly the same day the custom-built probe was placed into the Stevenson screen at Rutherglen, in direct contravention of this policy.”

      It appears that the BOM has changed over the custom built equipment without any testing of the new equipment alongside the old equipment to determine accuracy on site. I noticed something similar a couple of weeks ago in the Blog about how Darwin’s maximum temp in January 1910 was adjusted down, twice I think. I that case, the old equipment was moved from the post office site to the airport site but there appears to have been no readings at both sites simultaneously to check the equipment

      50

  • #
  • #
  • #
    Another Ian

    “Planet-Sized Experiments – we’ve already done the 2°C test”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/17/planet-sized-experiments/

    20

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  • #
    Robert Swan

    Paging through the thread this morning, I’m not surprised to see lots of Peter Fitzroy’s comments, but I am puzzled why so regulars respond do them. Sure, he’s a baiter, but a pretty dim one. You’re not exactly honing your arguments against a strong opponent, are you?

    He lives to distract. Not that he should be banned, but he should be ignored.

    120

    • #
      Robert Swan

      … why so many regulars respond to them.

      Sheesh. Why are these mistakes invisible on preview, and glaringly obvious after posting!

      70

    • #
      el gordo

      Its a sad state off affairs, we want a debate to sharpen our wit and wisdom, and the gods gave us Fitz.

      Anyway, here is the latest week in review from Curry.

      https://judithcurry.com/2019/03/17/week-in-review-science-edition-97/#more-24824

      51

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      I Agree completely.
      Far better to shun the such dopiness.
      And far less time wasted.

      80

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Hi Robert,
      I’ve suggested that he be “disparu” a few times.
      It’s still here.
      It’s Jo’s blog, maybe she has her reasons?

      20

      • #
        Robert Swan

        Hi KK,

        I don’t want him banished.

        By and large, people here are free market enthusiasts, but this market is sending all the wrong signals to PF. I expect that his response to being ignored would be to redouble his efforts, making ever dafter comments hoping to provoke some attention. It would soon be plain for all to see that there is no point trying to reason with him. I came to that conclusion myself after a couple of fruitless exchanges.

        You’re free to join AndyG55 and ridicule him, of course, but are you sure you won’t both be “wrestling with a pig”?

        20

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          I do resent the fact that it’s still here.
          Currently I just indicate a noxious presence with crosses i.e. No comment.

          Itz presence, I feel, is insulting to Jo.

          KK

          22

          • #
            Gee aye

            I reckon what would be insulting you put in an opinion piece with comments allowed and all you got was congratulations and agreement. In other words there was no point writing it in the first place – a waste of time. Your problem KK is that Peter actually engages in the topic of Jo’s post and replies to responses to his remarks/opinions on the topic of the responder.

            I just had a look at the first hundred comments in the previous thread about Greenpeace.From post 6 onwards it is almost exclusively hijacking the thread for personal topics, none of which were started by PF. He participated in commenting on some of them on their topic. The responses to his comments were mostly derogatory and name calling. And then there is pat the spam bot.

            Why would you want to exclude PF from that typical scenario? Because he persists? Is that the whole reason for your dislike?

            45

            • #
              AndyG55

              Yet another post from geegee showing his complete and utter mis-reading of the situation

              pfitz is here PURELY as a troll. He very rarely puts forward anything that is not purposely designed to aggravate or slime, and most of his comments are almost always instantly provable as WRONG.

              his brain-washed hard-leftist viewpoint, like yours, does not allow for anything rational to be presented.

              When asked to present actual science to support his mindless yabbering, he invariable goes MIA. !!

              He is a petty deceitful TROLL, nothing more. No wonder you are attracted to him.

              44

              • #
                Gee aye

                thanks you for your, s usual, considered and constructive opinion

                54

              • #
                AndyG55

                Thank you for yet another EMPTY, meaningless post, little nag.

                We expect nothing else from you.

                46

              • #
                Gee aye

                do you just copy and paste the from your notepad app?

                The thing is your comment is just a statement that is itself empty and pointless. Saying something, because it is you saying it, does not make it so. Does it make you feel good to annoy me and others?

                43

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Hey Andy your annoying the trollette .

                13

              • #
                AndyG55

                Poor little future-glue.

                You saying something, basically guarantees it will be a load of codswallop.

                Its all you have ever contributed.

                Go back to licking pfutz’s boots… at least that is funny to watch. 🙂

                Oh dear, have I annoyed you or pfutz or phloop. Diddums !!!

                The three of you come here with the single intent to troll and disrupt, and then start crying when someone kicks back. You are like 5 year olds chucking a tantrum in a supermarket.

                02

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              On one or two very recent occasions he has said something relevant.

              As mentioned earlier, he has buddied up with a couple of people with a few innocuous comments and later repaid their trust stabbing them in the back.

              Apart from those brief, recent distractions, his comments have been entirely aimed at disruption.

              The only good news is that now we have another participant here we can feel relieved that the financial obligation is more evenly held and can adjust accordingly.

              Verbalisation of issues is there to give the appearance of dealing with reality and truth when, in fact, the politician/blogger/gender defender is solely out to mislead and control.

              The first real gang problems here in Australia are linked to politicians buying votes under the banner of “compassion”™. The method, so ably demonstrated by the Victorian brotherhood, involves “hands off” policing of special cases.

              Meanwhile all the decent hardworking voters are left to suffer the consequences of this faux compassion.

              Very few Australian politicians could not have a police squad on hand inside five minutes in an emergency. The Robbie Carr example on the previous thread is the prime example of how service to the “important” ones far exceeds what we can expect down here in SerfLand.

              There’s No Content in any of ixxtxxzs comments that contribute in any way.

              KK

              52

              • #
                Gee aye

                Maybe you should try out as a moderator. You can also contact them directly.

                btw, you might want to look up gang history in Australia. You must have had a very sheltered upbringing.

                38

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              He’s a Deceitful, dishonest, blogg clogger.
              Content free.

              23

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Well put KK , I’ve spent mind numbing hours reading his faceache page and “Get up” figure prominently also Greenpiss , make of that what you will .

                33

              • #
                Gee aye

                Here we have all three together. You all rebut a comment you don’t like by claiming “content free”. You all laugh at any attempts to provide evidence as unreliable or “I wouldn’t believe anything from that source”. It is quite risible. What is funniest though is how all three of you jump in while others are having a debate to tell PF or whoever your usual invective laden, evidence free statements thereby stopping someone else having a debate. It is quite pathetic and obvious and poorly moderated by the standards of this blog.

                58

              • #
                robert rosicka

                What you call evidence is based loosely on the someone said principle and therefore it must be right .
                Find something that doesn’t use words like –

                Research suggests

                Could

                Likely

                May

                We have lost our data

                The dog ate it

                It’s possible

                Et etc

                23

              • #
                AndyG55

                WOW, That was an incredible load of mind-numbed gibberish, seen from the far-left side of a wacky mirror.

                You have NOTHING worthwhile saying, little nag.. so STOP.

                pfutz has filled you with such fake bravado, that you are making a FOOL of yourself.

                And you don’t even realise it.

                Now, Do you have any empirical evidence that atmospheric CO2 causes changes in the “climate” in any way whatsoever.

                Or will you remain as EVIDENCE FREE as always. !!

                55

              • #
                Gee aye

                again Robert and AyeGee. Just because you say that, doesn’t make it so.

                23

              • #
                AndyG55

                So, no counter whatsoever, little nag ?

                Nothing but a sad EMPTY post. All you have left.

                11

              • #
                AndyG55

                “evidence free statements “

                You mean like statements of CO2 warming, little geegee ?

                STILL WAITING for one of you three stooges to come up with some actual EVIDENCE.

                11

  • #
    tom0mason

    Just as a point of interest the site Principia Scientific.org people (Slaying the Sky Dragons people) have launch an Australian site
    Announcement at —
    https://principia-scientific.org/announcement-principia-scientific-australia-launched/
    and …
    The site is at https://principia-australia.org/

    10

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    I have not read this yet. Burt EM Smith has turned his attention to Australian temperature records.
    The last few posts have been excellent work teasing apart why we should NOT believe or rely on the Bureau of Misinformation about climate.
    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/australia-oz-choice-seasons-by-month/

    60

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      el gordo

      No hockey stick.

      40

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Now I have read & thought about Chiefio’s post. Here is what I wrote there :

      E M ! Wow ! And thanks !

      This is what I would love to see publically available from BOM here in Oz. But they do not make such date or analyses available. Only the the ‘scientific’ cultic elite have that !

      Larry you are right about the plot for January. But every month, except May, August & October, shows that ‘scrunching’ over time ! July is particularly pronounced.

      This could partially be the impact of ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’ as it does tend to reduce the minimum temperatures in urban locations. But how many of these weather stations are urban as opposed to rural ? I have no idea from the station numbers. So perhaps a link to the list of weather stations by name would help.

      A separate line of thought re seasons : I’m especially glad you did this by month. Australia is huge and stretches from 40 degrees South to near the equator. So the concept of a unified set of ‘seasons’ does not make sense for the continent. So we all know that in the North there are two seasons ; the wet & the dry. But even in the South, at the regional level there is disagreement about seasons with some folks drawing input ( at the regional level ) from the Aboriginal lore on seasons. An interesting book on this issue is Tim J Entwisle’s “Sprinter of Sprummer” published in 2014 by CSIRO. He suggests that in the South Eastern region of Australia, there are 5 seasons : Winter in June/July; Sprinter in August/September; Sprummer in October/November; Summer from December to March; and Autumn in April/May.

      Here in South Australia this view is reflected in the old farming view of the growing season : It starts with the ‘Break” ( the rains ) in Autumn which can happen any time from late March to early June. It ends with harvest in November/December – depending again on whether the growing season has been a wet one or a dry one. Last year 2018, was a dry one with crops ( wheat.barley, canola, etc ) harvested early or not at all due to drought. But 2016 was a wet growing season with bumper crops still being harvested in December/early January in places.

      And as we all know local temperatures are hugely effect by the moisture in the air = rain !

      Lots of moisture in the air stabilises temperatures. Dry air conditions promote temperature variations both high & low. BOM is talking about how hot 2018 was. But I had a huge number of cold frosty nights with low low temperatures. I lost lots of garden plants due to those frosts. So I know it was cold.

      My home heating bill told me the same story. So BOM is spinning us a tall tale infested with bull dust in my EXPERIENCE..

      20

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        “In Moderation ”
        For the first time.
        Why ?

        10

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Mussellman?

          10

        • #
          el gordo

          I’ve been in moderation heaps of times, its the robotic claw seeking out particular words, don’t worry.

          Meanwhile it appears Beijing is taking the opportunity to organise the new world order.

          ‘Despite claims of no ban, price movements show Chinese importers are shunning Australian thermal coal, say analysts.’ Oz

          50

          • #
            Bill in Oz

            EG, Trying to post it a it at a time. This was about 30% of my comment :

            Wow E M !

            And thanks !

            This is what I would love to see publicly available from BOM here in Oz. But they do not make such date or analyses available. Perhaps only the the ‘scientific’ cultic elite have that !

            Larry you are right about the plot for January. But every month, except May, August & October, shows that ‘scrunching’ over time ! July is particularly pronounced.

            This could partially be the impact of ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’ as it does tend to reduce the minimum temperatures in urban locations. But how many of these weather stations are urban as opposed to rural ? I have no idea from the station numbers. So perhaps a link to the list of weather stations by name would help.

            30

            • #
              Bill in Oz

              A separate line of thought re seasons : I’m especially glad you did this by month. Australia is huge and stretches from 40 degrees South to near the equator. So the concept of a unified set of ‘seasons’ does not make sense for the continent. So we all know that in the North there are two seasons ; the wet & the dry. But even in the South, at the regional level there is disagreement about seasons with some folks drawing input ( at the regional level ) from the Aboriginal lore on seasons. An interesting book on this issue is Tim J Entwisle’s “Sprinter of Sprummer” published in 2014 by CSIRO. He suggests that in the South Eastern region of Australia, there are 5 seasons : Winter in June/July; Sprinter in August/September; Sprummer in October/November; Summer from December to March; and Autumn in April/May.

              Here in South Australia this view is reflected in the old farming view of the growing season : It starts with the ‘Break” ( the rains ) in Autumn which can happen any time from late March to early June. It ends with harvest in November/December – depending again on whether the growing season has been a wet one or a dry one. Last year 2018, was a dry one with crops ( wheat.barley, canola, etc ) harvested early or not at all due to drought. But 2016 was a wet growing season with bumper crops still being harvested in December/early January in places.

              And as we all know local temperatures are hugely effect by the moisture in the air = rain !

              Lots of moisture in the air stabilises temperatures. Dry air conditions promote temperature variations both high & low. BOM is talking about how hot 2018 was. But I had a huge number of cold frosty nights with low low temperatures. I lost lots of garden plants due to those frosts. So I know it was cold.

              My home heating bill told me the same story last Winter. So BOM is spinning us a tall tale infested with bull dust in my own personal experience..

              00

        • #
          AndyG55

          What is “moderation”???

          Is it the new name for “climate change (trademark)”

          ie we now have “Climate Moderation”

          …. since nothing else seems to be happening that is at all out of the ordinary.

          52

        • #
          Another Ian

          Shows you haven’t been trying

          00

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Heres an interesting new twist on the current politicizing of an appalling act :

    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/it-s-a-disgrace-peter-dutton-says-the-greens-are-as-bad-as-fraser-anning-on-massacre-20190318-p51510.html

    “It’s a disgrace’: Peter Dutton says the Greens are as bad as Fraser Anning on massacre”

    “Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has labelled Greens politicians “as bad as Fraser Anning” after they accused him of playing a role in the Christchurch terrorist attack by fuelling anti-Islamic sentiment in Australia.

    At the weekend, Greens MPs, including leader Richard Di Natale and NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi, said Mr Dutton should be held to account for fostering Islamophobia in Australia via his comments about Lebanese migrants and the government’s treatment of refugees.

    They also argued media outlets such as Sky News and News Corp newspapers contributed to the rise of right-wing extremism in Australia by giving a platform to far-right figures such as Blair Cottrell and Milo Yiannopoulos.

    “They can’t shrug off their responsibility. What they’ve been doing does come with a cost, it does come with consequences, because really they’ve been playing games with our lives.”

    In response, Mr Dutton said Senator Faruqi and Senator Di Natale were on the “extreme left” and equated their statements with those of Senator Anning, who blamed the mass shooting on “Muslim immigration”.

    “I’m hardly going to take morals lectures from the extreme left who frankly are just as bad in this circumstance as people like Fraser Anning, they should equally be condemned,” he said.

    “We have people on the far-left or the far-right trying to extract political advantage. I think it’s a disgrace.”

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  • #
    Kim

    @Another Ian – sorry – wanted to put in my tuppence worth on this as it’s a very important topic: What’s been happening over decades is that the extreme left has been building up strongly. And its declared enemy is not the extreme right (of which there is very little) it’s the center. That’s why its been attacking both the center left and the center right (the Conservatives). The distance between group identity socialism and ethno-nationalist fascism is very short. The left morphs very quickly into fascism as was seen in the 1930s in Italy and Germany. That’s where the fascism of the 1930s Italy and Germany came from. It’s very important for everyone, especially the identitarian left, to understand that.

    52

  • #
    pat

    wrote about John Podesta in lovefest on Sky News with Kieran Gilbert & Laura Jayes last week; still can’t find full 17-min or so video, but these two excerpts are TELLING. anti-Trump messaging. no hard questions – like where is your brother Tony? why hasn’t he been indicted by Mueller? lol:

    14 March: Facebook: Kieran Gilbert, Sky News Australia
    VIDEO: 1:47
    John Podesta warns the next President after Donald J. Trump will have a big job to do repairing relations with allies #AMagenda

    (PODESTA DOES HIS CAGW PR IN THIS ONE)
    VIDEO: 2:00
    Kieran Gilbert, Sky News Australia
    I spoke with Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chair John Podesta for his thoughts on the socialist elements within the Democrats: “There’s a sense among the American people that they want ambition, and I think they also want to know how those plans are really going to work in action”
    https://www.facebook.com/kierangilbertsky/

    TWEET: Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept:
    I’m still somewhat mystified about how Tony Podesta – intimately involved in many of Paul Manafort’s slimiest and most unscrupulous practices (because K Street sleaze is 100% bipartisan) – has just vanished from the news cycle and, apparently, legal jeopardy
    4 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1102546963680161793?lang=en

    10

  • #
    pat

    not a word of criticism for Gore!

    15 Mar: ABC America: Gore: US getting close to political shift on climate change
    By BILL BARROW Associated Press
    Former Vice President Al Gore believes the U.S. is nearing a political tipping point, with the 2020 Democratic presidential field offering voters the chance to replace President Donald Trump with someone “committed heart and soul” to combating climate change…
    But he said he’s talked to several candidates privately and is “encouraged” by what he’s hearing publicly, noting that “at least 10” have declared climate action a top priority, while Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has put the issue at the center of his bid.
    “We need a new president, and we need a president committed heart and soul to the climate crises,” Gore said during an activist training conference in Atlanta hosted by his nonprofit, nonpartisan Climate Reality Project. “I’m very happy that so many of the Democratic candidates have made it clear that’s the way they would intend to govern if they won.”

    Trump’s presidency “is unfortunate in so many ways,” Gore said, but he also credited Trump’s open contempt of the scientific consensus that human activity affects the Earth’s atmosphere with pushing many moderates and even some conservatives toward the more traditional liberal activists on the issue.
    Gore, 70, added that public opinion is moving so quickly that a new president could find the political muscle for sweeping action. “Even people who used to want to deny it in the past are saying, ‘Hey, hold on … I’ve had enough of this,'” he said, citing rising sea levels, droughts and an uptick in “once-in-1000-year” storms.
    “Every night on the news it’s like a nature walk through the Book of Revelation,” he said, referring to the last book of the Christian New Testament that forecasts the end of the Earth…

    That could mean, for example, a tax bill with incentives for business and individuals who invest in solar panels; another tax bill ending fossil fuel subsidies; an infrastructure bill prioritizing high-speed rail; a state-aid program for retrofitting existing public buildings; specific requirements for reducing industrial carbon emissions; and increasing automobile fuel efficiency. The heaviest lift likely would be taxes on carbon emissions.
    Gore dismissed Republican efforts to make climate activists out to be “socialists” because they support such ideas…

    In recent years, he has added an emphasis on environmental justice, the argument that existing environmental and economic policy is hardest on poor and often minority communities. He said he’s not sure that angle will translate into votes, but he said history suggests Americans respond when “examples of injustice and unfairness are exposed and revealed.”…
    “Almost all of the morally based reform movements in human history have had young people in the forefront. The climate movement is the premier example now,” he said. “These kids are calling to the nation’s conscience, and they’re asking us, ‘Think about us. Think about our future.’ We need to listen to them.”
    https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Technology/wireStory/gore-us-close-political-shift-climate-change-61720602

    10

  • #
    pat

    16 Mar: UK Express: Snow tracker live: SNOW BOMB to slam Britain – 60mph Beast from the West brings 20cm SNOW
    SNOW will return to Britain over the next week with a raft of Met Office weather warnings already in place as the temperatures dip. Where will it snow and will your area be affected?
    A wintry snap has returned to the UK this week, as Storm Gareth swept in with blustery winds and a dip in the mercury. Now it seems the temperatures will plunge even further, as snow is forecast to blanket parts of the country this weekend. St Patrick’s weekend is expected to be a washout as a so-called “Beast from the West” brings travel chaos with heavy rain and fierce gales.
    By Vickiie Oliphant

    Six Met Office (LINK) weather warnings have been issued today covering almost every inch of the UK, with snow, ice and heavy rain expected over the weekend.
    The incoming storm – named Storm Hannah – cause prove to be life-threatening, with the risk of widespread road and rail disruption along with the threat of flooding and heavy blizzards…

    The 500-mile wide storm was dubbed the ‘Beast from the West’ by forecasters from the Weather Outlook…
    Forecasts predicting strong winds and heavy snowfall could make this the coldest March ever recorded, according to Ladbrokes.
    With snow soon set to blanket Britain, the bookies have cut odds to just 7/4 on this being a record-breaking month on the weather front.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/1101015/Snow-tracker-live-snow-bomb-radar-beast-from-the-west-uk-weather-forecast-latest

    20

  • #
    pat

    Daily Caller picks up on Google censorship mentioned by Another Ian – #5.1:

    17 Mar: Daily Caller: ‘Tech Tyranny!’ Greenpeace Co-Founder Claims Google Scrubbed Him From List Of Founders
    by Virginia Kruta
    TWEET: PATRICK MOORE: “Oh my! @Google has removed my photo and name from the ‘Founders of @Greenpeace.’ It was still there 2 days ago but now I am erased. Tech Tyranny!!”…

    Moore explained that his first screenshot was taken a few days earlier, while the second was taken on Saturday morning. Both used the search terms “who are the founders of Greenpeace?”
    The Daily Caller was able to independently verify on Sunday that a search entering that query returned as Moore claimed, without his photo.

    Moore has face criticism recently for standing against the Green New Deal as presented by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/17/patrick-moore-claims-google-scrubbed-founders/

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  • #
    pat

    and another:

    17 Mar: GatewayPundit: Google Deletes Dr. Patrick Moore from Greenpeace Founders List Following President Trump’s Praise
    by Jim Hoft
    Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore has made headlines in the past month ripping lunatic Democrat Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal proposal to end civilization as we know it…
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/03/google-deletes-dr-patrick-moore-from-greenpeace-founders-list-following-president-trumps-praise/

    30

  • #
    pat

    not as bad as it could have been, given the 5 sub-headings! lol:

    17 Mar: Heavy.com: Patrick Moore: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
    By Kate Prengel
    1. Moore Says That Google Has ‘Erased” His Image & Name from the ‘Founder of Greenpeace’ Search Results
    2. Moore Called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a ‘Pompous Little Twit’
    3. Moore Is a Spokesman for the Nuclear Industry
    4. Moore’s Family Has Been in the Fishing & Logging Industries for Years
    5. President Trump Tweeted About How Impressed He Was by Moore
    https://heavy.com/news/2019/03/patrick-moore/

    20

  • #
    pat

    read all:

    13 Mar: Daily Caller: Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore had some harsh words for the environmental group he spent years leading.
    •Moore shot back at Greenpeace for, once again, trying to claim he was not a co-founder, despite listing him as one on their website for years.
    •“This is a case of historical revisionism,” Moore said in an interview.
    by Michael Bastasch
    Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore fired back at the environmental group he spent years leading over attempts to rewrite the history of their founding.
    “This is a case of historical revisionism,” Moore told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview…

    Greenpeace’s revised history also claims that Phil Cotes founded the group in 1970 with Irving Stowe and Jim Bohlen.
    Yet, there was never a Phil Cotes. Greenpeace is likely referring to Paul Cote, but he is not listed as a founder on the group’s website despite being mentioned (as Phil Cotes) in the group’s public statements…

    Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986, called the group “corrupt, decadent and lazy.” Indeed, Greenpeace has been rocked by scandals in recent years (LINK), including losing millions in donations speculating on international currency markets.
    “I can think of all kinds of words that are worse to describe them,” Moore said. “These guys are floating around on a $32 million boat like a bunch of college kids. Then they always forget to mention it’s powered by an 1,800-horsepower diesel engine.”…

    Now, Moore is an outspoken opponent of what he calls “fake science” that’s often used by activists to push an anti-energy, alarmist agenda…
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/13/greenpeace-patrick-moore-rewriting-history/

    30

  • #
    pat

    headline on ABC “Just In” page –

    How do I get solar panels in my school?
    ABC Radio Sydney By Amanda Hoh

    actual headline:

    18 Mar: ABC: NSW election: Getting solar in schools a vote winner for many people
    ABC Radio Sydney By Amanda Hoh
    The You Ask, We Answer election project has received more than 100 audience questions about the environment, ***with many NSW voters telling us that climate change policies will determine their decision on Saturday.

    Solar subsidies and installations have been on the minds of many respondents, including this question from Rob Domone from Denistone…

    Students leading the change…

    Photo:First-time voter Kal Glanznig says the upcoming state poll is a “climate change election”. (ABC Sydney: Amanda Hoh)…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-18/nsw-election-how-to-get-solar-panels-in-my-school/10904900

    ***you have to take ABC’s word for that.

    21

  • #
    pat

    ABC will try to make the link…over and over again:

    18 Mar: ABC: Donald Trump’s ‘not a white supremacist’, White House staffer says after Trump backs Fox host
    Updated 58 minutes ago
    President Donald Trump’s staff have rejected any attempt to link the US leader to a right-wing terrorist who is accused of killing 50 people in two New Zealand mosques, as he defended a Fox News personality who made anti-Muslim remarks…
    Hate crimes in the US jumped 17 per cent in 2017, according to FBI data.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-18/trump-allies-say-he-is-not-a-white-supremacist-post-christchurch/10910890

    18 Feb: Daily Caller: Reason Editor Explains How Hate Crime Statistics Are Misrepresented, Gives Shocking Guess On How Many Are Actually Real
    by Scott Morefield
    “If you look very carefully, it is easy to misrepresent them,” Soave continued. So, there was an increase from 2016 to 2017 in the number of hate crimes. If you look, it’s actually because more agencies reported data to the federal government. So just counting the issue more accurately will make it look like the problem is getting worse when really there were just fewer people participating in this scheme to count hate crimes than the year before.”…

    As an example, the Reason editor explained why anti-Semitic hate crimes supposedly increased by 60 percent “since Trump was elected.” …
    “Actually anti-Semitic violence was way down and what was up was that one deranged teenager who actually lived in Israel had sent a bunch of bomb threats to Jewish institutions. That was the entire swing, just him doing that.”
    Soave and Carlson discussed why a complicit media like to promote the idea of a “surge in hate crimes,” despite what often turns out to be a reality they would rather not discuss.

    “It is so hard to tell what percentage of these kinds of things are hoaxes,” said Soave. “Often times they’re just not solved. When they are solved it seems to me from my looking into it, that a lot of the time it ends up being a hoax. That is just from which ones I see get solved.”
    “Of the cases that have been solved, of the top of your head, what percentage would you say are fraudulent?” asked Carlson.
    “It could be as many as every other, probably,” Soave responded
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/18/robby-soave-hate-crime-statistics/

    Youtube: 30min59sec: 4 Mar: Q&A at BLEXITRVA
    (Candace Owens, Dinesh D’Souza, E. W. Jackson, Brandon Tatum Blexit Q&A))
    It’s time for a #BLEXITRVA … Blacks and Latinos can exit from the liberal ideology which has poisoned our respective communities. Join Candace Owens and leading Free Thinkers LIVE from the historic National Theater in Richmond, VA to discuss politics, the media’s role in brainwashing us against our own interests; PLUS how we can fully engage in spreading conservative principles into our communities.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvs04rv8xM0

    00

  • #
    Hanrahan

    The 737 Max 8, MCAS and the stabiliser jack screw explained:

    Here are two pilots explaining why the aircraft has been grounded

    The Mentour Pilot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlinocVHpzk

    Juan Browne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgkmJ1U2M_Q

    00

  • #
    robert rosicka

    I’ve seen the future and it’s full of dumb people who still cannot grasp the concept of baseload power , just what the world needs another wind operated device to save our planet .

    https://vortexbladeless.com/

    32

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Rob, Unfortunately this has always been the situation.

      Even I did not bother to find out until after the situation black here in SA in 2016

      20

  • #
    glen Michel

    Supercell.Oh, them.

    20

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    I am re-posting this link as I suggest that EM Smith has just cracked open a major failing in the Temperature record for Australia. Read especially his own comments where he develops things further.

    The BOM has over the past 50 years done two things of major significance re temperature readings

    1: It has eliminated weather stations at higher altitudes..So the average height now of all the weather stations has dropped by 140 meters…So of course there has been abserved increase in average temps over the past 150 or so years.

    2: It has also increased the number of weather stations located at airports & airfields with all their increased heat from hot plane engines.

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/australia-oz-choice-seasons-by-month/

    71

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      A red thumb !
      Some poor medieval sod does not like us exploring what the incompetent BOM has been up to with it’s alarmist climate warming crystal ball gazings.

      well mate I don’t care.

      Ahh well the Inquisition is dead.

      And your time is passed !

      51

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Should now be called “BOB” , the bureau of bullship.

      41

  • #
    Maptram

    There has been lots of discussion about the BOM adjusting temperatures, but what about the other measurements, rain, wind etc. How do we know they haven’t also been adjusted. For Darwin temperature adjustment, when the equipment was moved from the post office to the airport, was any rain measuring equipment also moved.

    One issue with BOM adjustments, and it may have been covered, is that forecasts should include actual data, if available, as a basis for the forecast. If adjustments have been made do the forecasts need adjustment as well.

    I say “actual data, if available” because where I live in Seymour Vic, from the website I can get a 7 day forecast for Seymour, but the BOM site doesn’t show observations for Seymour, the nearest actual data is for Puckapunyal which doesn’t show on the clickable town map. The BOM has two clickable town maps, one for forecasts and one for observations which are not the same. The nearest place that shows on both maps is Redesdale.

    20

    • #
      yarpos

      BOM has a strange desire to want to forecast for population centres and then not put observation points there or nearby.

      A community group here supports a private web connected weather station because of the uselessness of the nearest BOM point (useless for us through distance and altitude)

      40

  • #
    el gordo

    China and Japan are walking away from thermal coal.

    ‘Major Japanese investors, including those most indebted to coal, are seeking to back large-scale renewables projects across Asia, marking a “monumental” shift that energy market analysts say is “the start of the end for thermal coal”.

    ‘At the same time, Japanese banks and trading houses are walking away from coal investments, selling out of Australian mines and scrapping plans to build coal-fired power.’

    Guardian

    11

  • #
    el gordo

    We could be in a little bit of trouble, or it might just be hype.

    ‘Major Japanese investors, including those most indebted to coal, are seeking to back large-scale renewables projects across Asia, marking a “monumental” shift that energy market analysts say is “the start of the end for thermal coal”.

    ‘At the same time, Japanese banks and trading houses are walking away from coal investments, selling out of Australian mines and scrapping plans to build coal-fired power.’

    Guardian

    21

  • #
    el gordo

    SST anomalies gives us the escalator, so the oceans must be a major driver of atmospheric temperatures.

    https://bobtisdale.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/figure-1-3.png

    20

    • #
      AndyG55

      Each one an El Nino step or spike. ZERO trend between.

      How long have I been saying just that !!!

      The SUN does nearly all the ocean warming,

      CO2 has absolutely NOTHING to do with it at all !

      32

  • #
    yarpos

    ABC New tonight winding up the ani gun rhetoric.

    Breathlessly reporting from outside the alleged perps Rifle Club “they exclude outsiders, but welcomed him” standing there when the club is closed and the gates locked. Good grief.

    Ardern comes into a presser “not with new gun laws” (after a day and no vote) but with an announcement about gun law review. Are they really that stupid? rhetorical question BTW.

    20

    • #
      Hanrahan

      The one thing we do know about the NZ terrorist attack is that it wasn’t carried out by a farmer or a recreational shooter, but they are the ones to be regulated.

      And bluddy Howard is basking in past “glories”.

      30

    • #
      toorightmate

      Have you read about the 120 Christians killed in Northern Nigeria during the past week?
      Obviously not sufficiently important for our far left press.
      Why was not the same outpouring of grief apparent when masses were killed in Russia, Mumbai and Coptic Christians in Cairo?
      And let’s not forget how the M population was devoid of emotion when some aircraft were flown into the twin towers.

      10

  • #
    Peter C

    Presidential Committee on Climate Science (PCCS)
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/16/make-america-greater-approve-the-pccs/

    My message to President Trump;

    Winston Churchill said. “If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”

    He was referring to Adolf Hitler, but the same should be said of the proponents of the Climate Narrative who proclaim that human CO2 is the cause of manifold forthcoming misery. Their evil needs exposing now.

    The free World needs You. Please proceed with the PCCS

    40

    • #
      Peter C

      I should have added some detail about the PCCS.

      “America absolutely needs outside expert review of climate claims used to oppose fossil fuels
      John Droz
      Should the United States conduct a full, independent, expert scientific investigation into models and studies that say we face serious risks of manmade climate change and extreme weather disasters?
      As incredible as it may seem, US government climate science has never been subjected to any such examination. Instead, it has been conducted by government agencies and assorted climate, environmental, history, psychology and other “experts” paid by the same government agencies – to the tune of literally billions of dollars per year.”

      The PCCS is supposed to examine the Climate Change claims!

      30

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Australia Post has gotta be kiddin.

    They delivered a parcel, their job, their ONLY job they do millions of times a day and they ask me to rate their service 1 to 10. Wouldn’t their time be better spent finding the parcels that DON’T go according to plan?

    50

  • #
    macha

    If you have not yet seen utube videos by Geoff green, I highly recommend viewing as an example why water dominates temperature…no CO2 to be seen or felt – man made or otherwise.
    https://youtu.be/HCvUElkI6nE

    00

  • #
  • #
    Slithers

    Hoist by own hand.
    Over 40 years ago I visited the UK weather Bureau in Reading, to try recover a crashed data-base segment. I am a computer whiz.
    The Senior Forecaster explained to me why it was so important to recover data from 1920-1930.
    ‘Weather Forecasting is sort of statistics, we do a run every day just after 12:00 and have the result before the five o’clock news. We have, as the main input what the weather is exactly doing today. Temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, and direction, cloudy or sunny, rain in last 24 hrs. We then run todays data against our 100 year data base. Every time we get a match or partial match we assign a score for that date, the better the match the better the score. When the scan is complete we look at the weather data for best match, then look at the next 3 days weather and print it out. Smooth the data, cannot say it’s going to be 72.5 degrees tomorrow, ha ha. And we have our forecast. But what if we don’t have any really good high scores, well then, we select the closest date using week or even month and use that day’s weather three days in advance, print the data and use bigger error bars when we forecast what the weather will be like for the next three days. When we cannot find any close sores for day/week/month, then we consult the seaweed, ha ha! “

    I sort of knew where this was leading…

    “The reason we need that ten years data recovered is we have just had a bad sequence of poor score days and we sort of got our forecasts badly off. We have reason to suspect that this current spell of weather closely matches what happened in the summer of 1925. But that data is right in the middle of the lost data so our statistical match program is giving us bad matches! We have had to consult the seaweed far to often this summer! Please recover that data!”

    I recovered the data and the forecasts got better.

    ‘Ok Interesting,’ I hear you say, but where is the relevance to today’s BOM forecasting…. Well!

    Old Data and lots of it give better chances of getting the forecast right.

    Acorn1 data and the historical data is now going to give either false good match scores, or more go consult the seaweed scores.

    Acorn2 data and the old records become less and less accurate ways of finding a match.

    Add in the deliberate loss of pre-1910 data, the temperature conversion fudge when the data became centigrade base rather than Fahrenheit (31F=-1C;32F = 0C; 33F=0C) and the low score, consult the seaweed days increase and make the forecast rather unreliable.

    Urgent question for BOM. Has all that old data gone for ever?

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