China And India Will Watch The West Destroy Itself

Does anyone think China or India will rush to point out how stupid we are?  They laugh at us quietly, as we hobble ourselves with unreliable infrastructure that produces green electrons and vandalizes our cheap baseload power.

The world has 150 years of coal, and China and India are going to use it (unless they get cheap nukes, in which case, coal really will be worthless). Meanwhile the West puts white-elephants on every roof…

China And India Will Watch The West Destroy Itself

By Todd Royal, Eurasia Review

Without energy you have nothing. China and India understand this better than the west since their citizenry and leaders view energy through the lens of what will help over two-billion-combined-citizens; join the prosperous, western, consumer-driven world…

Naïve-thinking, bordering on western suicide, believes China and India will stop using fossil fuels, led by coal. Each country understands coal is plentiful (“estimated 1.1 trillion tonnes of proven coal reserves worldwide that at current rates of production will last 150 years”), and it is scalable, reliable, cost-effective to the end user, and has the best energy density of all fossil fuels or renewables available.

China is currently building hundreds of new, coal-fired power plants. To counter China, “India has 589 coal-fired power plants, they are building 446 more, bringing their total to 1,036.” These figures are after both governments signed the Paris Climate Agreement, and touted their green credentials.

Since the US, Russia, China and India have the largest global coal reserves, and each country is vying for geopolitical dominance, they will continue using coal in record amounts. Energy is then a geopolitical weapon.

Read it all at Eurasia news….

h/t Pat

9.6 out of 10 based on 69 ratings

72 comments to China And India Will Watch The West Destroy Itself

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Woohoo! Another beautiful day… with more on the way… just sayin’… : ))

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  • #
    WXcycles

    Maybe turn off all school air conditioners and remove them given teachers feel so strongly about saving the climate from capitalist carbon pollution.

    And large mines (of all sorts) and the major energy infrastructure has a 30 to 60 year development and recap time horizon. Get them wrong and it takes 10 to 20 years to get an evil capitalist economy back, to where they would have been if our incompetent meddling Western governments had actually done nothing at all, for the past 25 years of the climate-derangement-syndrome farce.

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Quote Brandolini’s Law about here

      “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. ”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit#Bullshit_asymmetry_principle

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    • #
      C. Paul Barreira

      In 1978 I took a Year 11 class for Social Studies, generally nonsensical material albeit with capable-enough students. One particular afternoon it was 106 degrees in the room which had no air conditioning, not even a fan as I recall. The best anyone could do was sleep through it.

      Since then the curriculum has been reduced to meaningless tedium, and the population generally only vaguely literate. The culture is a thing of barbarism.

      No, it was more than “meddling”. What mattered above all else was smashing the continuing significance of the British Enlightenment. And the academics, bureaucrats and other intellectuals succeeded totally.

      What have we left? More and more of ‘plenty o’nuttin’.

      60

    • #
      Terry

      Why make the kids suffer any more than they already do, being taught by abject dullards.

      No, disconnect the AC from head office. Let’s start at the source of the problem.

      50

  • #
    Dave Ward

    Join the prosperous, western, consumer-driven world…

    But once the West has destroyed itself, India & (particularly) China will find their export markets dry up…

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    • #
      Roger

      But not their new export markets to the rest of the world … and their growing home markets … and in the case of China I suspect their ultimate aim is not economic domination but eventual geo-political domination

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        The “West” (especially Europe) will be saved by the USA again; just like in 1944-45.

        Pres Trump has the measure of the totalitarian Communist China regime. The policies he’s currently applying should have been applied decades ago. However, the useful idiots with their naive view of Communism, missed the signals – either through incompetence or corruption.

        China has significant issues coming down the pike. Demography is destiny – a cliche I know, but a fundamental driver of economic development. China’s population is aging. Poverty in old age is their future. The 23-40 year old female cohort is set to reduce by 40% over the next decade. That represents a massive decline in fertility; and hence available workers to be taxed to support the inefficiency of Communism.

        The USA doesn’t face the same problem. Mexicans will ensure a ready workforce and a more balanced demographic profile. If the USA could just get that Mexican border wall built, it would be in an even stronger position since it could then implement a selective and controlled immigration policy directed at attracting the skills it needs to continue to grow its workforce. That’s what the “anti-wallers” (essentially the socialist and communist sympathizers in the Democratic Party and the Chamber of Commerce (essentially Wall Street globalists) just don’t understand.

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        • #
          cohenite

          Yes, as long as Trump stays in power and wins a second term but he has all of the demorats and some of the RINOs against him and 90% of the media.

          Australia however is stuffed. When the green disease has finished us the Chinese and Indians will squabble over the remains.

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          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            I’m sceptical of that view, cohenite.

            The Australian voter just demonstrated on May 18, that it, collectively, reads the socialist/green propaganda better than most; certainly better than the Labor Party.

            The “green disease”, as you so accurately portray it, is on its last legs. The science is showing, daily, just how fabricated the green alarmist position is. It may take a little more time before its death is recognized – just like Faulty’s parrot. But rest assured, the parrot is demised.

            Of course, they (the green fabricators) will not go away. Whingers and political activists never do. That’s one of the great benefits of democracy and the rule of law. They are allowed to exist. Which is never the case in totalitarian states such as Communist China.

            Don’t believe me? Ask those thousands of Chinese students that the great Bob Hawke MP gave refuge to after the Tiananmen Square slaughter, just 30 years ago.

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            • #
            • #
              Craig

              Actually, SS, it was QLD who delivered power to coalition. The rest of Australia voted in favour of Labour.

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Not so Craig. That’s the line of the delusional excuse-makers.

                The Coalition went into the election holding 75 seats out of the House of 151 seats – a minority government.

                The Coalition currently sits on 77 seats. A majority government.

                Queensland delivered two extra seats to the Coalition.

                That means that the Coalition held its ground in rest of the country.

                You’d need to explain how you can spin that result as a win for Labor outside Queensland. Delusion is is a self consuming root. Labor seems to have plenty of delusion in its ranks and in its supportive left wing media.

                Trust the ABC? Not me.

                21

              • #
                Craig

                SS, My comment wasn’t from group think or delusional thinking, I was reflecting on Alan Jones thoughts about QLD’s role in delivering power to the coalition while the rest of Australia was swapping and changing seats with different parties along the way. Without QLD, the coalition were toast.

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Craig.

                Who cares what Alan Jones says, or why he says it.

                The Coalition won 77 seats.

                Labor won just 68 seats. It seems to me that if there’s any toast on offer it has a distinctive smell of Labor about it.

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              • #
                Ted O'Brien.

                I’m going to back Craig here. Those extra seats in Queensland did take the coalition from a minority government to a majority. But there is more to it.

                Who convinced Queenslanders to not support the ALP? The ALP in the thoroughly inept Queensland government.

                And who put the ALP into government in Queensland? Pauline Hanson, with her very strange call to “put sitting members last”.

                Democracy they call it. Ain’t it marvellous?

                Meanwhile our Greens have in recent times put a lot of work into giving Communism a bad name. If our leaders make the right moves we may indeed see the end of Marxism.

                20

        • #
          PeterS

          The West like all empires have their day then expire. It won’t last forever. It won’t be just their economy that will implode but their society as a whole will too. One must be blind not to see the writing already on the wall. Enjoy it while the music lasts.

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        • #
          Roger

          Sam,

          I suspect the anti-wallers are the same as the left-wing in the UK who see immigrants primarily as people who will vote for them and get/keep them in government. This was revealed in secret Labour party documents during the Blair years.

          It seems that political power is more important to the ‘progressive’ left-wing than the state of their nation or the breakdown in communities which occurs when large numbers of immigrants refuse to, or are encouraged by ‘Multi-culturalism’ not to, integrate with the host community. Multiculturalism is now widely recognised in the UK, including by immigrants, as a failure that has damaged communities and society.

          What the left-wing then vehemently claim, to justify themselves, is that wanting to conserve your community is racist – it is not, it is a very natural human reaction.

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        • #
          Tom O

          The climate crisis agenda is not about destroying “western civilization,” it is about population reduction. Destroying the energy sector will effective reduce northern hemisphere population as the next mini to real deal ice age kicks in.

          With the great reduction in food production currently possible because of the energy sector, reduced dramatically through loss of land for production, the food supplied to the “developing” and “undeveloped” world will force a reduction in population there as well.

          India may not suffer as much from the loss of land available for growing food. but China will, and there is little doubt that “food” is probably the greatest driving force behind wars, so India will suffer from wars over its available land.

          I have no doubt that there are “techniques” already in use for reducing the population in the tropical regions that will suffer the least from the advancing cold, beyond the obvious loss of imported foods such as grains.

          It will be with the greatest interest, personally, that I will watch Russia and how they deal with what is coming. Their leadership seems more able to “think beyond today” better than most. They may be the only “northern hemisphere power” that survives into the cold that is on its way.

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          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Tom O

            The Chinese aren’t at all interested in AGW as shown by their building of coal fired power plants, not just in China but elsewhere. They are building influence all through Africa and are interested in Australia, both continents favourably situated for when the cold sets in.

            Russia has taken Crimea back and taken a chunk out of The Ukraine which earnt its reputation as ‘the breadbasket of Europe’ a century or more ago. Then they are building huge, nuclear powered icebreakers.

            Name any western country that is looking ahead.

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      • #
        Terry

        They will exchange their export market for a quarry and replace the difference with their very own domestic market.

        A billion+ in each market is not insignificant. Just have to drag them up out of poverty first.

        How do you do that? Cheap Energy.

        How do you do that? Coal.

        40

  • #
    Roger

    Perhaps better suited to an earlier post but this may be worth raising here:

    I can’t recall the current wholesale electricity prices in Australia but I did look into the pricing for small scale nuclear plants generating 440MW that might be interesting for comparison. With a 60 year lifespan and taking up the space of 1.5 soccer pitches the electricity cost depends on the financing costs (in US$):

    $20-$25 per MW with nil rate finance costs
    $40 per MW with 4.5% finance cost
    $60 per MW with 8% finance cost

    With a capital cost of circa £1.6b (before any commercial negotiations) it would be interesting to do a comparison to see if the current ‘renewables’ subsidies would allow a nil rate finance cost if applied. Maybe someone could do that exercise ?

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  • #
    Lionell Griffith

    The demise of the west is exactly what our so called governing elite, never having done a useful productive thing in their entire lives, want to happen.

    They yearn for the day during which they are the unquestioned tyrants over everything and everybody. They are trying to do it by destroying the very things that makes modern technological civilization and a flourishing human life possible. On that day, they will discover they have nothing. All the gold in the world won’t even buy them lunch.

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    • #
      yarpos

      The west seems to be intent on financial, cultural, racial, infrastructure , you name it suicide. So called “progressives” seem intent on regressive and self destructive measures that destroy the foundations they stand on, sort of like the cartoon character sitting on the limb of the tree while sawing it off.

      Then we have a generation of soy boys and girls that fall apart when someone calls them a nasty name on on twitter. Any sense of toughness and resilience has been long erased in the bulk of population. The are just pliable, squishy units of consumption in the main.

      40

    • #
      Greebo

      The demise of the west is exactly what our so called governing elite, never having done a useful productive thing in their entire lives, want to happen.

      Yes, and it’s hardly surprising that China is applauding them from the sidelines. The elite need to be careful what they wish for.

      20

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    Some years back I was prompted to find and read “The Art of War”, by Sun Tsu, a Chinese general in the the fifth century BC, and it was said that the book was still used as a reference in China.
    A translation, done in 1908, is a available, free, from Project Gutenberg.
    It is my observation that the Chinese are actively following at least some of Sun’s strategies against us now. Their lease of the Port of Darwin, hacking into BoM and now ANU, the friendship pact with Victoria and the proposed extradition treaty with Hong Kong all worry me.
    That China was praised by then President Obama for “agreeing to the Paris Agreement” while building hundreds of new power plants, to me it ranks as one of the greater international con jobs.

    Suggest it’s worth a read. I’ll be reading it again.
    Cheers
    Dave B

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  • #
    toorightmate

    I can fully understand why India and China do not respond to these types of comments.
    They are still laughing hysterically at what a fool Oh Bummer was.

    110

    • #
      Greebo

      I agree with Keith. O’Bummer was no fool. He did what he did with calculated deliberateness, and advanced the lefty cause far more than the eight years of his Presidency. I agree with you as well though; India and China are laughing, for sure. The West have given them plenty to amuse them in the last 15 years.

      And there is one big reason to like Trump. He confuses them, and they ain’t laughing. Only Hollywood and morons like that London Mayor bloke are laughing at Trump, and who cares what they think?

      30

  • #
    Mal

    Signing the parasites climate agreement was an economic suicide note for Australia
    We will have an economic collapse (as planned by the green activists on the UN) unless there is a wake up call.
    The tipping point will most likely be the closure of Liddel power station
    There will be likely rolling blackouts and load shedding
    If they target the inner city greens and turn off the air-conditioning and lifts in their inner city high rise and bring the urban train systems to a halt, then there maybe by sudden backlash by the masses
    There is nothing like the hip pocket nerve
    We are now living in interesting times where the idiocracy have taken over

    100

    • #
      PeterS

      If we continue the way we are going we can look forward to becoming just another province of China and then we’ll have nuclear and new coal fired power stations galore. Wake up Australia! PM Morrison please do something other than just talk talk talk.

      60

    • #
      RicDre

      “The Parasites Climate Agreement”

      Nice phrase Mal! I’ll have to remember that phrase for use in future CAGW discussions.

      50

  • #
    PeterS

    Yes but China and India must be laughing at Australia the most for being so stupid. Australia certainly is the “village idiot” of the West. No nuclear and still contemplating on shutting down more coal fired power stations despite the fact China and India are building massive amounts of new coal fired power stations plus a not too insignificant amount of nuclear ones as well.

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    • #
      WXcycles

      Yes but we have far superior levels of faux guilt-trips about imagined climate Sins for which we must wear a hair-shirt and self-flagellate while genuflecting to Gaia for the rest of the 21st century ’cause of UN ‘stuff’.

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  • #
    pat

    switched from the ODI cricket for a minute to catch the following on Sky Australia:

    6 Jun: Rita Panahi blog, Herald Sun: KPMG partner pleads guilty to stabbing Abbott volunteer
    The Daily Telegraph reports today:
    A senior partner in global tax firm KPMG’s Sydney office has pleaded guilty to stabbing one of Tony Abbott’s campaign workers with a corkscrew on the eve of the federal election….
    Police said Economides, 62, attacked the men — both volunteers — about 8pm on May 17 and tore down the posters before running from the school…
    The volunteers alleged the man told them it was independent candidate Zali Steggall’s territory and began ripping down the Liberal campaign posters…
    Economides has been a partner in KPMG’s Sydney offices since 1987.
    KPMG declined to comment when contacted by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday night…READ ON
    https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/rita-panahi/kpmg-partner-pleads-guilty-to-stabbing-abbott-volunteer/news-story/d3aa6f92635fdd691dfe323d0939e713

    6 Jun: Daily Mail: Angry voter, 62, who stabbed a Tony Abbott campaign volunteer with a corkscrew and fled the scene on the eve of the election is a senior partner at global tax firm KPMG
    A man who stabbed a Tony Abbott volunteer with a corkscrew as he was putting up campaign posters has been revealed as a senior partner at global tax firm KPMG.
    Stavros Economides, also known as Steven, pleaded guilty to poking Jonathan Malota, 31, with the corkscrew after earlier threatening 18-year-old Rafe Harrison-Murray outside a Balgowlah Heights school, according to The Daily Telegraph…

    He is currently on bail due to appear for sentencing on July 4…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7110185/Voter-62-stabbed-Tony-Abbott-volunteer-corkscrew-senior-partner-KPMG.html

    how extraordinary.
    the GetUp/Zali Steggall climate zealots certainly created an atmosphere of hate in the constituency, with ABC’s Four Corners’ mob embedded with them, no less.
    all to oust a CAGW sceptic.

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  • #
    pat

    seems DNC knows the topic is not as popular with their followers as the poll referenced in this piece tries to suggest:

    5 Jun: The Hill: DNC tells Inslee it won’t host climate debate
    By Tal Axelrod
    Democratic presidential hopeful and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is rebuffing his repeated entreaties for a primary debate focused on climate change.
    “Today, my team received a call from the Democratic National Committee letting us know that they will not host a climate debate. Further, they explained that if we participated in anyone else’s climate debate, we will not be invited to future debates,” Inslee said in a statement.

    “This is deeply disappointing. The DNC is silencing the voices of Democratic activists, many of our progressive partner organizations, and nearly half of the Democratic presidential field, who want to debate the existential crisis of our time. Democratic voters say that climate change is their top issue; the Democratic National Committee must listen to the grassroots of the party,” Inslee added…READ ON
    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/447192-dnc-tells-inslee-it-wont-host-climate-debate

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  • #
    pat

    open access at NYT – no surprise. who would pay for this nonsense?

    5 Jun: NYT: Can the Paris Climate Goals Save Lives? Yes, a Lot of Them, Researchers Say
    By Kendra Pierre-Louis
    (Kendra Pierre-Louis is a reporter on the climate team. Before joining The Times in 2017, she covered science and the environment for Popular Science)
    Summertime heat is forecast to become even deadlier without action to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, according to a new study…
    The half-degree difference between 1.5 and two degrees may not seem like much, but, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances (LINK), it could mean saving or losing thousands of lives each year in the United States alone…

    The researchers wanted to assess the benefits of the Paris Agreement “not in terms of the climate or the temperature, but in terms of how many human lives could be saved or how many heat-related deaths could be avoided by mitigating climate change,” said Eunice Lo, a research associate at the University of Bristol and lead author of the study…
    “The numbers are quite astonishing in terms of how many deaths we could afford by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees from three degrees,” Dr. Lo said. For example, she said, that would allow New York City to avoid 2,716 heat-related deaths during the most extreme temperature years…
    There are some caveats…

    “The people that are at risk in cities are the very young, the very ill, and, generally, the poor,” (Dr. Michael Wehner, a senior staff scientist in the computational research group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who was not involved in this study) said. “It’s people who don’t have access to air-conditioning.” …
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/climate/global-warming-heat-deaths.html

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  • #
    pat

    another unbelievable poll…by YouGov (no link provided)!

    6 Jun: Guardian: Public concern over environment reaches record high in UK
    Britons are more worried about climate crisis than economy, crime and immigration
    by Damian Carrington
    Public concern about the environment has soared to record levels in the UK since the visit of Greta Thunberg to parliament and the Extinction Rebellion protests in April.
    The environment is now cited by people as the third most pressing issue facing the nation in tracking data from the polling company YouGov that began in 2010. Environment was ranked after Brexit and health, but is ahead of the economy, crime and immigration…
    Young people rate environmental problems such as the climate crisis and global annihilation of wildlife even higher, placing them second behind Brexit. Almost half of 18- to 24-year-olds chose environmental issues as one of the nation’s three most pressing concerns, compared with 27% of the general population…

    A similar surge in public anxiety has taken place in Germany, where the Green party performed particularly well in the European parliament elections last month…
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/greta-thunberg-effect-public-concern-over-environment-reaches-record-high

    I don’t believe this one from Pew, either, ***because most don’t blame “journalists” for the Fake News. huh?

    5 Jun: Fox News: Americans consider ‘fake news’ a bigger problem than terrorism, climate change, illegal immigration: new survey
    by Liam Quinn
    Americans view “fake news” as a bigger problem today than terrorism and climate change, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
    In the survey, released Wednesday, 50 percent of the 6,127 respondents said “made-up news/info” is a “very big problem in the country today.”
    The figure suggests it is viewed as a bigger problem than climate change, racism, terrorism, illegal immigration and violent crime…

    The survey also found that 68 percent of respondents said “fake news” has an impact on Americans’ confidence in government, 54 percent said it affected confidence in other people, and 51 percent said it hampers political leaders’ ability to get work done, according to Pew.
    Those who took part in the survey also identified what group of people they consider most responsible for the creation and spread of such information.

    ***“U.S. adults blame political leaders and activists far more than journalists for the creation of made-up news intended to mislead the public,” a piece released along with the survey read.
    “But they believe it is primarily the responsibility of journalists to fix the problem. And they think the issue will get worse in the foreseeable future.”

    The survey also found a divide in how Republicans and Democrats view the issue.
    Republican respondents were almost three times as likely as Democratic ones to blame journalists for making up “fake news.”
    Read the full results of the survey here (LINK).
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/americans-fake-news-bigger-problem-terrorism-pew-survey

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    • #

      Pat, thanks, it’s always interesting if we can get all the data or actual questions from these surveys as often they only tell us the usual predictable carefully plucked answer.

      So if you do happen to find links to the full survey, please add them in here…

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  • #

    Superpower countries seem to become more apparent with expansion of territories nowadays, especially in the China seas, what’s trending.

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  • #
    pat

    6 Jun: Daily Mail: Have we reached solar minimum? The sun has been without spots for 16 consecutive days – and it could lead to magnetic storms that interrupt air travel, satellites and power grids
    •A solar minimum, which occurs every 11 years, has begun, according to NASA
    •They mark a period of reduced activity on the otherwise violent sun’s surface
    •At the cycle’s peak, solar maximum, the sun is continually peppered with spots
    •The minimum means more energy is being thrown thrown out into space and towards the Earth leading to magnetic storms
    By Victoria Bell
    NASA images reveal the sun’s face looks completely blank with no sunspots visible – indicating it has reached the solar minimum stage of its cycle…
    The sun goes through an 11-year cycle where it goes from very active to less active.
    It is tracked by sunspots and it is currently going through a quiet phase…
    This solar slowdown often causes temporary cooling in Earth’s atmosphere…

    When the sun entered a solar minimum between 1650 and 1710, NASA said the Earth was plunged into a ‘deep freeze’…
    ‘Already in the midst of a colder-than-average period called the Little Ice Age, Europe and North America went into a deep freeze: alpine glaciers extended over valley farmland; sea ice crept south from the Arctic; and the famous canals in the Netherlands froze regularly — an event that is rare today.’…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7107857/Have-reached-solar-minimum-sun-without-spots-16-consecutive-days.html

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    pat

    getting nervous:

    6 Jun: Reuters: Germany should cut taxes to offset costs of curbing emissions: minister
    by Vera Eckert
    Germany’s economy minister said he would support reducing or scrapping the so-called eco-tax on electricity should the government decide to raise prices on energy in its efforts to discourage carbon emissions that harm the climate.
    “Power prices are already too high, we should ensure that there will be no additional burdens,” Peter Altmaier told the annual meeting of industry association BDEW in Berlin on Wednesday.
    He said the eco-tax, which raises 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion) a year for the budget from German power bills, “should be reduced to make power prices more competitive.”

    German power bills are already among the highest in Europe mostly because they carry a 54% share of taxes and fees to support the expansion of renewable power.
    This share could rise if the government decided to raise carbon avoidance costs to meet its climate targets for 2030…

    Altmaier said Germany should take into account the social unrest in France after the French government raised energy prices.
    The minister said people in rural areas should not be disadvantaged by a regime that made transport and heating systems more expensive through enforced modernizations…READ ON
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-energy-bdew/germany-should-cut-taxes-to-offset-costs-of-curbing-emissions-minister-idUKKCN1T61U8

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Altmaier has been making such noises for some time, but nothing happens. Well, they did cut subsidies for new ‘renewables’ which led to a very reduced amount being built.

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    pat

    6 Jun: EurActiv: Climate becomes top priority in EU’s 2020 budget
    By Antoine Germain
    The European Commission proposed on Wednesday (5 June) a budget worth €168.3 billion for the bloc in 2020, aimed at promoting a more competitive European economy and solidarity and security in the EU. This is the last budget under the 2014-2020 fiscal period and put climate change at the top of the agenda.
    As much as 21% of the proposed budget will be devoted to climate change issues.
    If EU member states accept the 21% figure, that will ensure that the EU reaches a 19.7% average spend on climate change policies over the current seven-year EU budget , Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger told a press conference, meeting its target of 20%.

    ***The budget is based on the assumption that the UK will continue to participate in its implementation and financing as if it were a member state, even though the UK is scheduled to leave the EU after 31 October. In terms of commitments, the proposed budget amounts to €168.3 billion, a 1.3% increase on 2019…
    https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/climate-becomes-top-priority-in-eus-2020-budget/

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    Richard Ilfeld

    But…we’ll always have Paris.

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    Gordon

    The Communist International is still alive and kicking! Just because the old Soviet empire collapsed does not mean communism is dead. Let that settle in. There are a lot of delusional people out there, and I am willing to bet the old comrades are still working their magic behind closed doors with all the environmental loonies. The sole purpose of all this enviro BS is to destroy the west.

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    Kinky Keith

    This topic has brought out some great comments and analyses pointing to the dismal political and social degeneration of the last fifty years and thankfully, giving us hope that the expression of Trumpit, Brexit, Parijaunit and our own recent Shortit may see a return to decency and grounded community Democratic leadership.

    Enough is enough.

    KK

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      Greebo

      Hmm. I’d love to think that you are correct, but I believe we have a lot further to go. The censorship of the internet, whether it is due to the SJWs in Silicone Valley or legislation in the EU, strikes me as the next major battle, and how does one fight Google, Facebook, Apple and Brussels? Boycott? Ok, I boycott Google, although I doubt they notice. I despise Facebook, but ditto, and all my tech is Apple; my only way to protest there is I do not use their “services”.

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        Kinky Keith

        I agree with all you’ve said there Greebo.

        My own evaluation is like yours, we have a very long way to go before we get to my target, the Main point is that we, the people, have shown that we don’t like what’s happening.

        At least that gives me some hope that we may be able to turn around.

        As you say, it’s not certain and it won’t be easy, but if we pull it off it may be the largest mass movement victory of the People ever!!!

        KK

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          Greebo

          the Main point is that we, the people, have shown that we don’t like what’s happening.

          Sadly, “we” aren’t currently the people. Tomorrow I will put myself in the hands of an osteopath. As an osteopath, she is brilliant, and I doubt I’d survive without her, and I would consider her intelligent. But she is a product of her generation, staggered that the voters a few weeks ago did not concern themselves with Climate Change™ and voted Liberal. Given that she is a; a powerful woman physically, and b; she had my life in her hands I chose not to argue. But she is the epitome of what we face. Nearly 40, coupla kids, educated ( in a way ), respected in her community. It’s a powerful combination, and she has been brainwashed.

          “We, the people” is a shallow rallying cry. Please, I have no alternative; I’m just saying.

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            Greebo

            Today she was saying that if “the Government just taxed the mining companies correctlty” then health could be funded. Yet she has smart phones, laptops, comes to work in a car, goes away in a camper trailer. I guess it’s all unicorns and fairy dust.

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    RicDre

    Off topic, but on this June 6th celebration of D-day, I just want to thank all of the Australians who served in the Royal Australian Air Force or were attached to the Royal Air Force or to the Royal Navy for their contributions to D-Day. It took the efforts of all of the allies for D-Day to be successful.

    From Wikipedia: Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy

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      Bill in Oz

      Ric, I suspect that lots of former Royal Airforce or Royal Navy or army personnel migrated here to Oz after the war.
      My father who served in Bomber Command certainly did.
      There are not many left alive now.
      But largely forgotten here in Oz & the UK.

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        yarpos

        There was recently a multi part documentary on Foxtel about Bomber Command history and operations focussing a lot on night operations.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    According to World Nuclear Association: “Australia’s known uranium resources are the world’s largest – almost one-third of the world total”.

    From Investing News Network: Australia is one of the worlds top producers of thermal coal. This should be a great blessing for Australians- but it is not. Why is that?

    According to an article by Perry Williams of Bloomberg, 6 October 2017:

    “A bungled transition from coal to clean energy has left resource-rich Australia with an unwanted crown: the highest power prices in the world.

    New Yorkers pay half as much as Sydneysiders to keep the lights on, despite Australia boasting among the world’s largest coal and natural gas reserves, as well as ideal conditions for clean power generation. A decade of political dithering and climate policy missteps have set its patchwork power system adrift, ratcheting up manufacturing costs and hurting consumers with a doubling in electricity prices since last year and rising risks of blackouts”.

    The Bloomberg article accounts for part of the “unwanted crown” but then the fact that Australia has the worlds largest uranium resources but no nuclear electricity generation is damnable. It appears that Australia has become the worlds go to resource for cheap energy at the expense of our own population.

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    Terry

    “Does anyone think China or India will rush to point out how stupid we are?”

    Why would they?

    Why should they take responsibility for the stupidity of the West?

    “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
    ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

    The rampant “Leftard” infection we have allowed to metastasise, unchecked throughout our society to the point of undermining our culture, is not their problem. It is ours.

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      Kinky Keith

      The first step to fixing a problem is define it: you’ve done that very well in terms that should be understood and appreciated by most.

      KK

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    markx

    “This new evidence that China’s central government hasn’t been able to stop the runaway coal-fired power plant building is alarming – ……..”, said Ted Nace, executive director of CoalSwarm, which is funded by international green groups and private donations.

    “….hasn’t been able to…” !!!!

    That is hilarious. Surely they don’t really believe that explanation. It is obvious China is simply paying lip service to the agreements, but forging ahead with coal power in the background. As well they might. Why speak out and risk derailing their best chance of economic and political dominance?

    They are probably amazed, amused, and very, very pleased to watch the west slowly strangle its own industrial capabilities.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/26/satellite-images-show-runaway-expansion-of-coal-power-in-china

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    Zane

    3000 billion tonnes of coal lie off Norway’s coast. That’s 3 trillion tonnes!

    That be some serious energy reserves you be talkin about, mon!

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    DOC

    ~1970, 4Billion people. The world was cooling and would be unable to feed itself.
    ~2019, Almost 8Billion people. The world has warmed and starvation in non violent countries is rare.
    Global Emergency declared by activists, yet give the biggest ‘polluters’ license to do what they like.
    Ruminants are next for the chop! Try THAT in hindu India or in Africa where animals are stores of wealth.
    BUrn biomass for double the CO2 release and no penalty. Only Australia takes this stuff seriously.

    The point is, politicians are totally delusional, blind, live in a goldfish bowl or so tied up with their
    own world of deceptions to win votes that the rest of us, society itself, is sacrificed at their alter.
    The actual delusion is mind boggling. They see no deception in a system built upon a totally unproven base.
    They obey the dictates of the loudest voices and in the West they kill the greatest source of wellness and wealth,
    ie cheap power and are destroying their national economies whilest the biggest enemies to our systems achieve
    what historically they have been unable to achieve in ideology and battle.
    Even when the evidence is in that their replacement system of renewables won’t work, the politicians persist!
    Even when it is pointed out that if they believe this stuff, electric vehicles, windmills and solar panels cost
    more in CO2 in manufacturing them than they save, are visually polluting, the mineral extraction of rare earths
    is environmentally destructive, the left overs after redundancy are massive headaches and the land requirements
    are huge, yet our politicians learn nothing and say less.

    The bottom line seems to have become one of ideological enforcement, no longer to ‘save the planet’ but in fact to change
    the systems we use to survive without consideration of the damage done. The blind ideological belief that particularly the
    Western world must convert to living by systems seen as totally harmonising with the environment, whether they work or not,
    and totally ignoring the distress involved whether in deaths or shortened life times, is now the go. When science seems
    blinded to reality,such that all endeavour seems to be based on faith in the ability to computerise reality and have people
    live by that artificial reality of human minds even when it has never been able to predict anything reliably nor correctly,
    to me is human egotistical derangement. The fact that the politicians seem too intimidated to challenge the nonsense
    or so full of the belief in the creed that they apply its stupidities to the nation, is unbelievable. Indeed, I think the
    politicians in Australia in particular have taken us so far down the track of destruction that they are now too frightened
    to own the mess they have created in the name of saving the planet. No other nation anywhere has so crippled itself as have
    we. Most other nations speak loudly of the creed and participate minimally. Not for them is causing political unrest and their
    own demise. This is where the last thing Australia needs is cooperative parliamentary parties attempting to bring destruction
    to our systems in the name of a failing creed. The problem is, nobody in our Parliament, nor beyond, has the courage to do a Trump!

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    Cody

    The current events right now involving the Philippines boat being accidentally or intentionally collided with China is really alarming, considering China does not take the situation seriously, your solution starts here.

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    Brad

    The global news always talks about India and China nowadays, considering their stats in power reserves and manpower, I believe they will really watch the west, either in good or in a bad way, they will also check us out digitally in the near future.

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