Surprise: 17,000 lost wallets show humans are nice people (mostly)

Humans are a gregarious species. Most people do the right thing, and it’s this altruism, or self-identification as a “good person” that the climate industry preys on.

In a new study, researchers pretended to be tourists dropping 17,000 wallets they’d “found” into banks, offices, theatres and such, then tracking which ones got returned. To most people’s astonishment (lay person and expert) not only were a lot of wallets returned but the ones with the most money ($94) in them were returned more often.

What nobody seems to have remarked on is that these wallets were just plastic pouches. Which makes it all the more amazing that in so many nations a mere $13 in a plastic envelope might prompt half the population (or more) to send an email. How many people couldn’t be bothered, not because they are dishonest, but they figure, with petrol and parking, it’s not worth the owners time to come collect this? Indeed, people even sent off an email to return the “wallets” which didn’t have money to begin with.

Ed Cara at Gizmodo inadvertently summed up the zeitgeist of Western self hate, saying that this new study shows ” …maybe we’re not as awful a species as we think we are. Or to rephrase, maybe we’re not as awful as the politically correct want us to think we are?

Kennedy said: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country, but who says that anymore? It would be a brave politicians who put in a plea for a sacrifice for “the team”. Yet, people clearly like the idea of helping others.

The World of Wallet Returns

It’s really amazing how many almost worthless wallets were reported to their owners. Given that both wallets in the graph below were worth $0 and $13, it’s also possible that this test was not measuring honesty, so much as conscientiousness and organisation. Some of the lower scoring countries may have more participants living in a state of chaos. Some wallets will just have been forgotten and lost.

The amount of money in the wallet was adjusted to purchasing power parity for each country.

Research into honesty, Graph. Wallets returned.

Dark blue dots are the return rates of wallets with $0. The lighter blue had $13. | Click to enlarge.

 

The $94 dollar test wallet was only left in three countries. In all three, people made more effort to return the more valuable wallet. If the wallets had been real ones (instead of just plastic disposable ones) the returns rates would presumably be higher still, especially for the “no money” test.

Graph, Poland, UK, US, big money, honesty.

Fig. 2Reporting rates as a function of monetary stakes.Share of wallets reported in the No-Money (US $0) Money (US $13.45), and Big-Money (US $94.15) conditions.

 

Lots can be said about the value of a high trust society. It’s not just nice to live in, and safer, but it’s so much more efficient.

Sadly, lots can’t be said here in Australia about why some nations might rate higher or lower on this list. Culture matters, but section 18C means that we can’t offend people even if we want to help them live a less corrupt and depressing existence.

This was a fairly exhaustive study. The researchers changed the names, currency and languages in every country to try to make the wallet appear to belong to a local. They also tried to control for the use of security cameras, onlookers, and penalties. They cross correlated the data in so many ways. In the supplementary file they compared and controlled for email use, GDP, soil fertility, temperature, hotel ranking, geography, years of democracy, family ties, pathogens, and even rainfall. (Read the supplement file). Despite all these variables, mostly, the response was explained by people just being nice.

The researchers commented that a big motivator is that people don’t want to feel like they are stealing. This is called “theft aversion”. Imagine how good people are going to feel here in Australia when they find out their neighbours have been forced to pay for half their solar panels?

The wallets without “big” money or a key were pretty worthless

Wallet and contents. Pictured.

I wouldn’t really call this a wallet myself.

Climate, geography and weather

The most trustworthy groups lived closer to the poles, in colder climates and with more weather variability. I expect that preindustrial people competing against the weather have to cooperate more with strangers to survive.

Peoples with more pathogens in their recent history were also less likely to reach out to strangers to return the wallet. There’s a certain sense to that if you live in a world with cholera, typhoid and dysentery.

Experts mostly didn’t predict this

Clare Feisler Washington Post

The fact that people were more likely to return wallets that included money (especially a lot of money) surprised the researchers. It also surprised the 300 top academic economists they surveyed, who predicted people would be more likely to keep the wallets with money.

In 38 of the 40 countries studied, wallets with money were returned more often than wallets without money, which supports the idea that people are not purely selfish. Moreover, wallets with more money ($94.15) were more likely to be returned than wallets with less money ($13.45). The effect not only contradicts rational economic thinking, it is rather surprising. Both laypeople and expert economists predicted the exact opposite pattern of results in surveys reported by the authors.

Brianna, Abbott, Wall St Journal

The findings add to a growing body of research exploring, mainly in Western countries, how people balance their sense of honesty and self-interest. Most of these people who were studied proved willing to be dishonest to get ahead, so long as their self-interested pursuits didn’t leave them feeling like a cheater or damage their moral self-image.

Researchers also physically collected 172 wallets from the Czech Republic and Switzerland and found more than 98% of the money still inside.

They didn’t collect the wallets in most countries so they couldn’t tell if the money was still inside. But they selected Switzerland and the Czech Republic to test that, and found 98% or 99% returned the cash with the wallet.

Ed Cara, Gizmodo

The team also tried to rule out as many other possible explanations as they could. The list of factors that seemingly didn’t influence people’s willingness to return the wallet included the presence of a security camera or other bystanders where the wallet was returned, whether the country’s laws punished people for holding onto lost property, the age of the recipient who took the lost wallet and whether they were likely a local resident, and the identity of the research assistant who turned the wallet in

Still, the authors warned, these are only correlations. But if our propensity to return a lost wallet really does indicate just how altruistic and moral we can be to strangers, then maybe we’re not as awful a species as we think we are. At the very least, we might be underestimating our collective willingness to do the right thing.

What do you know: we are good people, and political correctness is wrong, again.

Does any western politician today play to this common altruism? Who offers a vision of putting it out “for the nation”– of being better people so we are all raised up?

The EcoWorriers ask people to save the world, to do the “right thing”, so they play upon it — but they also call people deniers, bully, scare, prophesy death and disease, rising floods, plus promises of jobs and riches. In other words it’s a random shotgun approach: carrots, sticks, everything.

REFERENCE

Cohn et al (2019) Civic honesty around the globe, Science 20 Jun 2019: eaau8712 DOI: 10.1126/science.aau8712

Supplementary info

Shaul Shalvi (2019) Financial temptation increases civic honesty, Science 20 Jun 2019: eaax5034 DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5034
10 out of 10 based on 48 ratings

101 comments to Surprise: 17,000 lost wallets show humans are nice people (mostly)

  • #
    wert

    Poland overperformed against expectations. Finland was not tested, sadly.

    What this says about Mexico and Peru is interesting.

    However, this data varies city by city and bus line by bus line.

    70

    • #
      Tezza

      Poland has a strong Catholic presence. The strength this provided to a coherent Polish civil society is one reason Poland bounced back from Communism so strongly. It is also a foundation to ethical thinking that one is responsible for one’s actions.

      111

      • #
        Bobl

        Except of course for the current anti-Pope who is content pushing eco indulgences onto an unsuspecting population and praying before the false idol of earth worship.

        30

      • #
        wert

        My expectation was that communism destroyed all this, but obviously not. Go Poland go!

        00

  • #
    NuThink

    It would be interesting if the test could be broken down by profession to see how various professions fare. For example lawyers and politicians.

    140

    • #
      Yonniestone

      That’s what I first thought too, the demographics and peoples backgrounds can influence behaviour but really it comes down to the personality of the person.

      90

  • #
    Yonniestone

    What’s up with China?, here we are allowing them the purchase of land, building of infrastructure and flooding our markets with their products only to find out they can’t be trusted with a plastic wallet!…/sarc.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Do you think it might have something to do with their heathenish culture?

      20

      • #
        Yonniestone

        Well I’d classify as a heathen but I’ve handed a wallet in and returned a tradesman’s tools left on a job, maybe its just surviving in a massive population?

        20

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Or perhaps the name on the wallet led the finders to believe it was a relative of theirs, I mean how many Chan’s would be in the average Chinese family?

          Was there a photograph? that would be confusing too especially if its a blurry one.

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          • #
            Yonniestone

            Oh also recently I found a 1 Yuan coin on the footpath in town, I’d try to find the owner but its a 1.4 billion in one shot………

            20

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        it might have something to do with their heathenish culture?

        Maybe.

        Don’t ever forget the current generation in China is made up of those who carried Mao’s little Red Book and were prepared to sell out their parents, grandparents, siblings and friends if it meant they survived the purges and the “re-education”. Viciousness in spades.

        The current population in China is under constant surveillance, yet even that makes no difference. Every community is awash with Communist spies, listening in on all that is said. Watching for any sign of independent thinking.

        This is a country that accepts the indiscriminate shooting and crushing of its citizens. Killing thousands of them in Tiananmen Square. Currently concentrating millions of them into Uyghur “re-education” camps. Walking away from its “One country – two systems” agreement with Hong Kong. Undertaking massive environmental vandalism in building islands out of reefs in the international waters of the South China Sea. Stealing intellectual property, manipulating its currency and subsidizing its industries in direct contravention of the rules of the World Trade Organisation, of which it is a member.

        Trust? In China?

        If you think it exists, you’ve probably never been there and probably have never done business there.

        Either that, or like Bob Carr the ex-Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, you’re a fellow traveller; one of Mao’s “useful fools”.

        31

    • #
      Neville

      It’d have to be the culture, I’d imagine; thousands of years of ‘stand on the other person’s face if it means ME, and MY family, stay alive’.

      30

    • #
      observa

      They’re Commies so to each according to their need and Commies are always needy. Besides it must have come from the generous Fearless Leader because he’s the one that distributes everything.

      00

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Walking early morning around the suburb through parks, I have found a few mobile phones, and have returned them.

    I now walk past them for someone else to find.

    Wallets, if they look untouched I will pick up & turn in, but, again, if it looks dumped, I now walk past.

    50

  • #
    David Maddison

    On a related note it is interesting how conservatives are known to be more generous with charity donations than Leftists and Leftists in general do little if any charity works. There is a good reason I don’t trust Leftists or associate with them and almost every experience I ever have with them confirms that I am correct. In dealings with them I also always assume in the first instance that they are lying until if an when I establish that they aren’t.

    121

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      We were watching a Grand Designs once, and my wife, who is a little left leaning, commented on how the people who were greenies/eco-zealots who were building their dream house, were quite mean in spirit.

      Funny, I had noticed the same thing…..

      Smoke….fire…..

      101

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    It would also appear that capitalist countries with stronger social programs do better than those with weaker social programs, which do better than socialist/communist countries.

    This would suggest the results are a manifestation of societal needs.

    It is further suggested via the return rate increase of the larger amounts, as it has a reducing impact on those immediate social needs.

    However this does not mean we need ‘big government’ or ‘big taxes’ to drive such strong social programs – but that the carefully targeting of social needs reduces social disunity & anxiety.

    Then again, I could just be talking outta my arse!

    20

    • #
      Neville

      And so could I, but …
      socialist/communist countries tend to develop (often quite quickly) a culture of “not my problem, the govt will provide for me [after all, THAT’S what ‘socialism’ promises], but then again, the govt is obviously (coz it CAN’T under socialism) NOT providing for me [as much as I aspire to] so I’m gunna keep this little windfall”

      30

  • #
    KinkyKeith

    “Most people do the right thing, and it’s this altruism, or self-identification as a “good person” that the climate industry preys on”.

    When the average member of society eventually becomes aware that the Elites have perpetrated a gigantic ripoff, they will not be happy.

    It’s all about perception: where Joe public looks at a wind turbine and sees a thing of massive power, function and even beauty along with the environmental image, all they see is good.

    When a scientist looks at a wind turbine and sees an ungainly structure designed to create metal fatigue in the tower, variable output, low working life, the “hidden” environmental costs of construction and eventual disposal and the hidden pulsing that’s unnatural and damaging to human, and animal, health, they’re totally dumbfounded that the Scam has been so successful.

    Trillions of dollars diverted. The Greatest Evah.

    World War 111.

    KK

    120

  • #
    pat

    according to ABC this morning, we’re not so good when it comes to CAGW.
    SMH’s Nick O’Malley, who went to the UK courtesy of the Climate Council, and ABC’s Hamish Macdonald, lots of misinfo/disinfo about cheap RE, etc. Thatcher as CAGW warrior, yet O’Malley says she shut down coal for purely pragmatic reasons, because Britain didn’t have cheap extractive industries like Australia; says Germany turning away from coal for the same pragmatic reason.
    surely then, Australia should continue extracting and using coal for purely pragmatic reasons!

    audio not up as yet.

    22 Jun: ABC: SaturdayExtra: How the UK went green
    Presenter: Hamish Macdonald
    Australia’s politicians are still squabbling over climate change – meanwhile the UK – have marched boldly towards solutions. And they’re following the lead of an unlikely greenie.
    Guest:
    Nick O’ Malley, senior writer, Sydney Morning Herald
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/how-the-uk-went-green/11236154

    much of what was said is in this piece:

    15 Jun: SMH: A disorienting sight to an Australian: How the UK got on with the climate change challenge
    by Nick O’Malley, Senior writer
    (Nick O’Malley travelled to the UK as a guest of the Climate Council)
    At 9.20 pm on Tuesday, June 4, the United Kingdom used coal-fired power for the first time in 18 days, six hours and 10 minutes. This was the longest period the UK had gone without coal since 1882 when the nation’s first coal power plant opened at Holborn in London…

    Another significant climate change milestone was passed in the UK a week and a day later on Wednesday, June 12, when the Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced that the UK would abandon the emissions reduction target it had set a decade earlier – to bring down emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 – and instead pursue a target of net zero by the same year…

    Reporting the news that morning the BBC showed footage of bushfire and flood in Australia and said that Australia’s bizarre weather conditions over the southern summer had been among the reasons the government had decided to move to ramp up its already considerable commitment…

    Politicians in the UK have been overwhelmingly united in accepting the scientific consensus on climate change since at least 1989, when Margaret Thatcher – herself a scientist before entering politics – became the first leader of a major nation to call for a United Nations treaty to combat climate change…
    And that is what British politicians have been able to do, doubtless aided by the fact that Thatcher herself shut down the UK’s ailing coal sector in the mid-1980s…

    But, as one member of the CCC, Baroness Julia Brown, a crossbencher in the House of Lords and a distinguished academic and engineer, explained ***to visiting Australian journalists in London hours after May’s announcement, the benefits of the nation’s climate policy extend far beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She cites as an example the experience of the UK’s offshore wind energy sector, which between 2015 and 2017 reduced the cost of the power it generated by half, from about £120 to £57 a megawatt hour…READ ALL
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/a-disorienting-sight-to-an-australian-how-the-uk-got-on-with-the-climate-change-challenge-20190614-p51xqf.html

    01

    • #
      Another Ian

      Pat

      Only slightly O/T (IMO)

      Socialism

      https://realclimatescience.com/2019/06/this-time-they-will-do-it-right/

      And comments

      10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      The Left arent interested in actually dealing with climate issues ( if they existed ) , if they were there would be a proper and exhaustive explortation of hyderogen tech and plasma technology or thorium tech – but no….same old “keep people enslaved and cringing in the corner” paradigm…..

      20

    • #
      StephenP

      I think you will find that quite a lot of electricity was still derived from coal via the Dutch Interconnector.
      So we just exported out coal use, as we have exported much of our CO2 emissions.
      Virtue signalling rules OK!

      20

  • #
    Robert Swan

    This puts me in mind of the most recent EconTalk podcast with Anja Shortland on kidnapping. Apparently it’s not all just greed and extortion. While it’s often overseen by people we might call “warlords”, it seems to be carried out with a lot in common with what we call “government”. E.g., a fellow trying to avoid paying the local warlord a fee to allow him to ship in some equipment, “smuggled” it in successfully. But then his buddy was kidnapped. Money changed hands, including the fee. Buddy was returned unharmed. Not terribly much to pick between this and being taken into custody for non-payment of taxes until tax + penalty are paid.

    Left me thinking that there is probably nowhere that is truly an anarchy. Order of a sort always emerges from somewhere. As Jo says, we are a gregarious species; we learn to get along with our fellow humans be it by returning wallets or putting up with the arbitrary rule of governments/warlords.

    Incidentally, the EconTalk before this one was with Bjorn Lomborg. Well worth a listen too.

    30

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Well, put it in perspective, think about car rego and fuel taxes…..

      If a car goes without rego and you get done for it, in eessence is a tax violation, nothing more.

      The govt then ties criminal charges to it as a way of ensuring gauaranteed tax flow.

      The word “rackeeting” comes to mind…..

      10

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        in eessence is a tax violation, nothing more.

        Not quite OS.

        It also means you don’t carry Third Party Personal Insurance – which is incorporated into your Rego fee. That means the poor sod you maim in any mishap you’re responsible for, has to take you through the civil courts to get redress. If you’re you have no assets them the poor bugger whistles.

        00

    • #
      Neville

      And yet the contrasting examples illustrate perfectly the difference between the moral judgments exercised – namely, one is a single ‘gimmedat’ warlord bandit, and the other is the application of the rule of law agreed to by all citizens participating in a democratic-derived rule of law, which applies to all citizens equally.
      Just sayin’

      10

      • #
        Robert Swan

        Neville, not such a perfect illustration because you see a difference that I don’t.

        At heart, the reason we need a government is to protect/enforce our property rights. From that flows police, army, regulations, courts, and all the rest. And taxes are levied to pay for it. In the interview it was apparent that the warlord DID uphold people’s property rights as long as they paid their “taxes”; it was reasonably orderly and predictable, not just day-in, day-out, bleed-em-dry theft.

        Democracy is only one form of government, of course. I’m not sure that life under the reign of a Colombian warlord would be worse than under the formal government in North Korea, for example.

        00

  • #
    BernardP

    Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Peru, behave differently. Somehow, this make these countries appear less attractive as vacation destinations.

    30

  • #
    Lance

    Apparently, we could all learn something from Poland.

    I suppose this is quite the advertising advantage for Polish honesty.

    China, not so much.

    USA, I’m not surprised, but rather more ashamed.

    20

  • #
    pat

    21 Jun: ABC: Adani protesters arrested after gluing themselves to Brisbane road during rally
    Several people have been arrested and released ***without charge after gluing themselves to a Brisbane road during a protest against the Queensland Government’s approval of the Adani coal mine.
    More than 700 people rallied in the state’s capital on Friday evening, marching over one of the CBD’s main bridges at peak hour and causing major delays…

    Greens councillor urged protesters to ‘get arrested’
    Speaking at the protest’s starting point in the CBD’s Brisbane Square, Greens councillor Jonathan Sri told the crowd they would not be able to stop the project “without mass civil disobedience”…
    Bob Carnegie from the Maritime Union Australia (MUA) urged the crowd not to lose hope…
    Peak hour traffic brought to a standstill…

    A second sit-down was held on the corner Russell and Grey streets outside the ABC’s South Bank office where the group ***had wanted a live-cross in the 7:00pm TV bulletin.
    Queensland Police said the last road closure in South Brisbane ended at about 9.20pm.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-21/adani-protest-in-brisbane-cbd/11236554

    ***2GB has a news item saying ABC did not cross over “live”. I wouldn’t know, but ABC seems unwilling to say in the above.

    SBS/AAP: A further action is planned for July 5, with organisers calling to “stop the cities to stop Adani” after labelling the protest a success…

    21 Jun: Daily Mail: Five protesters, including a 73-year-old man, GLUE themselves to the road during a rally against Adani mine, as activists warn the marches will continue
    by Brett Lackey
    One woman and six men, among them a 73-year-old, were detained by police for breaching the peace during the protest but have been released without charge.
    One of the protesters who glued himself to Russell Street, Daniel Heggie, told The Courier Mail there will be more protests in the near future…
    ‘I’m not trying to change people’s views but show our leaders that they need to lead or more non violent actions will occur.’…

    More than 700 people gathered in Brisbane Square in the CBD from about 4pm and then marched across Victoria Bridge to the ABC studios in Southbank at about 6pm.
    It is understood the group wanted a live cross on the 7pm bulletin…
    One of those two (earlier) protesters, Eric Herbert, was taken into custody and released Wednesday morning after a court appearance.
    He has also attended Friday night’s protest, The Courier Mail reports…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7166847/Three-protesters-GLUE-road-rally-against-Adani.html

    21

    • #
      pat

      21 Jun: SBS: Extinction Rebellion activists occupy four Australian cities protesting Adani
      Protesters are ramping up anti-Adani demonstrations – tonight taking over four major CBDs – as works on the controversial mine get underway.
      By Charlotte Lam
      Hundreds of activists have stormed Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide CBDs on Friday evening, protesting the controversial Adani mine, which was given the green-light to begin construction last week.
      ***Socio-political*** movement Extinction Rebellion is hoping to pressure the Federal Government to declare a climate emergency and “end its reliance on coal”…

      Around 60 people have begun construction activity that includes work on the (Carmichael) mine access road…

      (Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman ***Miriam) Robinson said Australia entering “emergency mode” would allow focus on a bipartisan sustained effort to address the climate crisis.
      https://www.sbs.com.au/news/extinction-rebellion-activists-occupy-four-australian-cities-protesting-adani

      27 Jan: Guardian: Warming world gets older, wiser, richer activists hot under the collar
      A growing number of older protesters are standing up and fighting for the environment
      by Ben Smee
      Unprecedented amounts of time, money and motivation
      ***Miriam Robinson, 58, is the spokeswoman for the ***Grey Power Climate Protectors (LINK). She says one of the group’s first aims is to encourage grandparents to attend the next school strike on 15 March.
      “Many kids couldn’t attend [last time] because their parents work,” Robinson says. “Grandparents bringing their grandkids to the … strike will be a powerful moral statement that all ages are concerned about the effects of climate change.
      “Heatwaves can be deadly for the elderly and infants. Older people will change their vote for their own sake but also [for] their kids and grandkids.”

      Native title holders back Greens’ call for royal commission into Murray-Darling
      A former Greens leader, Bob Brown, says older Australians look at the world “with mixed feelings of amazed horror”.
      “The money-driven absurdity of Adani is on a collision course with thousands of environment-alarmed older Australians who are prepared to give up time, money and comfort to help save the planet.”…
      https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/27/warming-world-gets-older-wiser-richer-activists-hot-under-the-collar

      tons of stuff in here, but they can’t get the Brisbane figure right!

      Facebook: ***Grey Power Climate Protectors
      16h ago – 2000 citizens are BLOCKING THE STREETS of Brisbane…
      https://www.facebook.com/GreyPowerEarth/

      ClimateActionNetworkAustralia: Our Members: Grey Power Climate Protectors
      The photos on this site come from our members such as the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, GetUp, and Seed and remain subject to their licences and conditions.
      CLICK ON ‘OUR TEAM’ FOR THE HOMOGENOUS, MIDDLE CLASS BUNCH OF ACTIVISTS
      https://www.cana.net.au/grey_power_climate_protectors

      lots more stuff:

      Twitter: Miriam Robinson
      https://twitter.com/tanganista

      read all. how simple it was to take over the CAGW movement in months!

      24 Apr: Lexology: Civil Disobedience Required: An Interview With Extinction Rebellion’s ***Miriam Robinson
      by Sydney Criminal Lawyers – Paul Gregoire
      As the mobilising in London – as well as in 80 other cities around the world – was about to get underway, renowned environmental and political activist George Monbiot wrote, “Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse”…

      ROBINSON: The police being overwhelmed by the numbers of people on the street was a good thing. The police need to realise that citizens are going to have to do these things in self-defence.
      I’d actually like to see the police join us, and be on our side, rather than being instruments to crack down on people trying to save everyone’s lives…
      Q: And how long has the movement been active?
      ROBINSON: London started it. They had their first actions in November last year. But, they had been planning and building up the movement for about six months before that…
      In Melbourne, we started up in November, as we saw it all happening in the UK. So, we started organising here about 5 months ago…
      https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a5e196e0-69b2-47da-8cf0-833d5659ae7b

      11

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    No where to carry a wallet on the coldest swim, evah …

    Hundreds skinny-dip in Tasmania for this year’s Dark Mofo Winter Solstice nude swim

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/hundreds-skinny-dip-in-tasmania-for-this-years/11237542

    21

  • #
    pat

    theirABC really cares about us. this was one of the leading stories on their news bulletins this morning:

    22 Jun: ABC: Temperature rises will make Brisbane a ‘difficult place to live’ within 30 years, report finds
    By Shelley Lloyd
    An alarming report has found temperature increases from climate change and urban growth will make Brisbane “a difficult place to live” within the next 30 years, and more people will be at risk of dying from extreme heat.
    The long-term climate modelling also found the number of hot days and nights will double in Australia’s third largest city by 2050, and people will need to avoid outdoor activities throughout most of summer.

    The peer-reviewed study, which was published recently in the International Journal of Climatology…
    Dr Sarah Chapman’s four-year study found the number of hot days and nights doubled with climate change…
    Dr Chapman completed the study as part of her PhD at the University of Queensland, and said she was “alarmed by the findings”…

    Dr Chapman is now a research fellow at the Institute of Climate and Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds in the UK.
    The Brisbane raised academic said she still considered Brisbane her home, but is questioning if she’ll want to live in the Queensland capital in the future.
    “I might have to move further south if I did go back to Australia,” she said.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/temperature-increases-from-climate-change-brisbane-unliveable/11227404

    headline on ABC “Just In” –

    How to stay warm at home without breaking the bank
    ABC Radio Hobart By Georgie Burgess

    22 Jun: ABC: Energy-efficient ways of heating your home this winter
    ABC Radio Hobart By Georgie Burgess
    Keeping houses warm without breaking the bank can be challenging, especially during cold snaps like the one currently affecting much of southern Australia.
    The winter quarterly power bill makes up a significant proportion of energy costs in Tasmania, where a typical electricity account is just over $2,000 a year…

    Aurora Energy’s Kaitlin Ransley: “We recommend customers turn their heat pump off at night — over a quarterly bill, you’re saving 720 hours of electricity usage.”…

    Meanwhile, wood heaters or fire places were a nice idea but not always efficient, (Marc White from Goanna Energy) said.
    “They are lovely, but the fact is in terms of the cost of wood compared to a heat pump, they are a luxury.
    “At $100 per tonne of wood, they aren’t that efficient.”
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/how-to-keep-your-house-warm-and-stay-in-budget/11224778

    20

  • #
    toorightmate

    Can I conclude from this research that Gore will refund the monies he has extracted from peoples’ wallets?

    90

  • #
  • #
    Chad

    The peer-reviewed study, which was published recently in the International Journal of Climatology…
    Dr Sarah Chapman’s four-year study found the number of hot days and nights doubled with climate change…
    Dr Chapman completed the study as part of her PhD at the University of Queensland, and said she was “alarmed by the findings”…

    Dr Chapman is now a research fellow at the Institute of Climate and Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds in the UK.
    The Brisbane raised academic said she still considered Brisbane her home, but is questioning if she’ll want to live in the Queensland capital in the future.
    “I might have to move further south if I did go back to Australia,” she said.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/temperature-increases-from-climate-change-brisbane-unliveable/11227404

    This story was repeated several times on both the news and as a discussion topic on the ABC.
    Dr Chapman continually refered to “Climate change” and greenhous emmissions as making Brisbane uninhabitable within 30 yrs…..
    … not that her research had investigated the actual possible causes of any increase in hot days/nights.

    Maybe after a winter in Leeds she will appreciate a warm night or two !

    And where is Ita ?….. she was supposed to sort this out !

    40

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Ita diud a good job with the women’s weekly
      And is missed there.
      Sarc /

      00

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        As I somewhat weakly remember the Women’s Weekly eventually became a monthly, but kept the name.

        That’s Ita for you.

        Same, same for ABC. It used to be a green/left broadcaster. Now, under Ita, it’s a left/green one.

        10

  • #
    Chad

    I wonder if Dr Chapman has ever been to Darwin ?
    ..or Burke
    ..or Singapore
    ..or maybe she should lean about Air conditioning ?
    After a winter in Leeds, she may be a little more appreciative of Brisbane weather.

    40

    • #
      GreatAuntJanet

      Don’t need to be in Leeds; this morning we had our first 0 degrees in many years in outback Qld. Blimey, it feels horrible to be so cold.

      40

      • #
        pat

        this is what Dr. Chapman is working on now:

        18 Feb: AFRICAP: Climate Modelling 101
        by Dr Sarah Chapman, University of Leeds
        The GCRF-AFRICAP team boasts ten postdoctoral research associates including climate expert Dr Sarah Chapman at the University of Leeds. Sarah presented on her work at the programme’s inaugural knowledge-sharing seminar on 30 January 2019. We wanted to know more so sent along our non-expert interviewer for some climate modelling 101…
        CHAPMAN: We are using climate models to understand future climate in the partner countries (Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia) and what this means for agriculture. We want to know what the most important aspects of climate are for agriculture in these countries, how climate will change in the future, and why.

        Q: Sounds like a big job! How will you go about this?

        CHAPMAN: We are going to answer these questions using climate models – these are computer programmes that use equations to represent the processes driving our climate system. At first, we’ll be using two regional climate models…READ ON
        https://africap.info/climate-modelling-101/

        00

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Janet here in the Adelaide Hills of SA I have been clearing frost off the windows of my car every morning since last Tuesday.
        Some think this proves ‘climate change’ is happening.
        But No !
        It’s just the normal weather of Winter.

        30

  • #
    Zane

    Nikki Gemmell in her column in the Weekend Australian magazine today rabbiting about the evil climate change deniers. Apparently she believes she has seen the climate change with her own eyes. I wish people with zero science qualifications would stop pontificating in the public space about matters of which they are absolutely clueless. These people are far less smart than they think they are, and cannot hold a candle to qualified scientists like Ian Plimer and the late Bob Carter.

    Please stop demonstrating your ignorance and spreading dangerous green-marxist propaganda.

    151

    • #
      Tezza

      Gemmell is a shocker. Last week she was filling her column with the view that men who were gynaecologists were weird. She’s getting sillier by the week.

      50

      • #
        Serp

        Writing a scheduled regular column must be a horrible job continually beset by writer’s block. I can’t imagine how Jo keeps doing it without going completely ratty.

        20

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Well….yes…..dont you know that men are….. toxic……or something….

        rabbit rabbit rabbit……waffle waffle waffle……

        Will someone please put the adults back in charge? This is what happens when you leave coloured crayons lying around unsecured at the Oz…..

        50

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      I gave up reading her column years ago.
      Her target audience is youngish female wanabe’s

      20

    • #
      Graeme#4

      Stopped reading Gemell’s column a long time ago. A very bitter person.

      10

  • #
    neil

    I lost my smart phone in St Kilda last month and figured that’s the last I would see of that, but a group of Irish backpackers found it redialed the last call a friend picked it up and returned it to me within an hour.

    120

    • #
      toorightmate

      Thank you for that.
      It must be good news week.

      70

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Cool….although I think a $50 smart phone from the local telstra shop might be the go…..if you think about it, a normal smart phone is a con…who wants topay $1000 for in effect a free BSD Linux distro?

        So $50 I think coveres the true cost of the phone.

        The other day I used my smartphone to scrape the frost off my car window…teenage daughter was horrified….but at least for a chnage the phone was actually *useful* for something …that and putting my coffee cup on….and I work in IT…..go figure….I should be “worshipping” tech…but nope…..

        I do own an Iridium sat phone…I wonder if that re-establishes my cred?

        20

  • #
    Tezza

    The development economist Paul Collier would regard these charts as indicative of whether a society is low trust or high trust. High trust is important for transactions with people you don’t know and may never encounter again, and a foundation for the development of highly specialised markets where people transact at a distance in the framework of impartially enforced rules.
    Where trust is low, transactions tend to be limited to those one can trust within one’s own clan, tribe, religious sect, culture or region. In low-trust societies, no one trusts government to be an enforcer of contracts across boundaries of kinship. Rather, government is an instrument of force to be captured by your clan and used against rival clans, before they capture government and use it against you.

    This is an interesting framework for thinking about migration. Where is Australia, for example, sourcing its migrants from at the margin? Low trust societies. They will struggle to transition to the mindset of a high trust in the country of their destination.

    If you find these ideas intriguing, read Paul Collier’s ‘Exodus’.

    30

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    So rich socialist leaning countries tend to be the highest returners, while rich democratic countries tend to be around the 50% mark, and poor countries of any stripe are the least likely to return your wallet. As to the temperature hypothesis, it is cold in China (low score) and the lower countries in South America (also low scores). So I would suggest that you are more likely to return a wallet if most of your needs are being met, and you feel secure.

    20

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Does a person in China in possession a free-thinking independent mind feel secure?

      In Venezuela?

      In Korea?

      In Laos?

      In Cuba?

      20

    • #
      AndyG55

      WOW PF, talk about bending facts to suit your childish mentality.

      The Nordic countries are probably the most Capitalist countries in the world.

      “The myth of Nordic socialism is partially created by a confusion between socialism, meaning government exerting control or ownership of businesses, and the welfare state in the form of government-provided social safety net programs. However, the left’s embrace of socialism is not merely a case of redefining a word. Simply look at the long-running affinity of leftists with socialist dictators in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela for proof many on the left long for real socialism.

      First, it is worth noting that the Nordic counties were economic successes before they built their welfare states. Those productive economies, generating good incomes for their workers, allowed the governments to raise the tax revenue needed to pay for the social benefits. It was not the government benefits that created wealth, but wealth that allowed the luxury of such generous government programs. (eg Norway OIL)

      Second, as evidence of the lack of government interference in business affairs, there is the fact that none of these countries have minimum wage laws. Unions are reasonably powerful in many industries and negotiate contracts, but the government does nothing to ensure any particular outcome from those negotiations. Workers are paid what they are worth, not based on government’s perception of what is fair.”

      The top countries on the list are ALL highly capitalist countries.

      30

      • #
        wert

        Andy, no, Nordic countries are more leftist than New Hampshire but they had single language, single culture, single identity largely for most population. It’s now gone or going, and results losses in future.

        What is leftism? It’s when you pay 35% income tax and 80% tax in gasoline. And 4% from land in every transaction, more if you got a gift or inherited. And you don’t own it, you rent it. With gov’ment having all rights to take it.

        00

    • #
      AndyG55

      A little something for you to read, PF, in case you ever want to actually educate yourself.

      https://thefederalist.com/2015/08/11/scandinavia-isnt-a-socialist-paradise/

      10

  • #
    Zane

    The climate nutters want to sow the sea with iron filings to create massive algal blooms. They want to refreeze the Arctic. They want to use machinery to take CO2 out of the air and put it in soft drinks or sequester it beneath the ocean floor.

    They are certifiably insane.

    70

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Welll….you could harvest the iron filings after a few weeks, heat them red hot and squirt with water to release hydrogen….but might require more energy in than out….

      40

    • #
      el gordo

      The world may well have pulled out of the last glacial max when iron ore dust from Australia settled in the southern ocean.

      20

  • #
  • #
    Komrade Kuma

    In early 1977 I was hitch hiking from near Gundagai back home to Perth after the gearbox on my motorbike ‘shat itself’ and I threw it in a ditch. I was all but broke and could not even dream of repairs. I dropped my wallet outside a roadhouse in Port Augusta after buying some food and stuck my thumb out.

    It was halway across the nullabor before I realised it was gone. I was in luck with the lift I got from Port Augyusta, he dropped me off at my folks house in Perth.

    A week or so later my wallet turned up, I think the police dropped it around. I had been in Sydney for a couple of years after a year in the Pilbara. It had very little money in it if any but must have had some ID.

    Such is life.

    🙂

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  • #
    pat

    Qld Govt triggering farmers!

    headline on ABC “Just In” page –

    Could a few blue dots on a map lock up farmers’ land?
    ABC Rural By Lydia Burton, Kallee Buchanan and Amy McCosker

    22 Jun: ABC Rural: Flora trigger map prompts backlash from farmers who fear it will lock up their land
    By Lydia Burton, Kallee Buchanan and Amy McCosker
    Queensland landholders are afraid that new government mapping could lock up their land and force them to stop farming and grazing.
    The protected plants flora survey trigger map (LINK) identifies “high-risk” areas where endangered, vulnerable or near-threatened plant species are present or likely to be present.
    The map displays such areas with a blue dot.

    Rural lobby group AgForce said these locations were classified as protected and therefore no farming or grazing could take place.
    Chief executive Michael Guerin said some producers had suddenly found that more than 90 per cent of their land was covered with the blue dots.
    ‘Impossible to farm’…

    Landholder has to prove plant does not exist
    The Minister for Environment and Science, Leanne Enoch, has not commented on the updated trigger map…
    Entire property under one blue dot…
    “All of a sudden we’re in a nightmare”…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-06-22/flora-survey-trigger-map-prompts-backlash-from-landholders/11235884

    10

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      This is a typical Labor/greenist sponsored stuff up
      The answer will have to be :
      1 : A steel capped boot in the bum of the Labor government
      2: An new act of parliament revoking these legislation and regulations
      3: Re-creation of a a legislative Council in Queensland that gives a balance to all the regions of Queensland and reduces the impact of big city greenism.

      40

    • #

      Locking up farmers’ land. Yes Pat, part of Agenda 21 389 page UN blueprint for their Globalist Master Plan adopted by governments and local councils around the world.

      Here’s the UN Wildlands Project, land takeover policy for the US. http://allnewspipeline.com/images/UN_SimulationMap21.jpg See also, re details of Agenda 21 my 55th Edition, Serf Under_Ground Journal.

      10

  • #
    pat

    22 Jun: ABC: Latrobe Valley workers face legacy of unstable work two years after Hazelwood closure
    ABC Gippsland By Jarrod Whittaker
    Less than half of the participants in a scheme set up to help former workers at the Hazelwood power station are in full-time work, more than two years after the coal-fired plant’s closure…

    On Wednesday, (Jobs Minister Martin) Pakula told Parliament the scheme was “ongoing and there is more than a year of it remaining”.
    On Friday, the Government confirmed the scheme closed to new entrants in March this year…
    Latrobe City mayor Graeme Middlemiss said the Latrobe Valley community would be disappointed to learn of the scheme’s closure…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/hazelwood-workers-in-unstable-work-two-years-on/11235112

    10

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    JO…suggestion for a new topic?

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-22/chennais-telling-the-globe-a-story-about-water-scarcity/11229084

    “This week, taps ran dry as water levels in its four major reservoirs fell to one-hundredth of what they were this time last year, caused by a devastating drought.”

    “Abroad, climate change — coupled with rapid urbanisation and population growth — have brought issues around water scarcity and security into focus.

    “Amid this context, attention has been cast on how municipal authorities have mismanaged the responses to these mounting ecological crises.

    **** Lack of advanced planning by officials to take into account population growth? What other factors have been factors? Not enlarging reserviors?

    “Experts have said that Cape Town-style crisis could theoretically play out in Perth, which shares the problem of a drying climate.

    “The construction of two large desalination plants, however, will likely mean that the West Australian capital is better prepared for climate change than its South African counterpart.

    **** We know CAGW is pure nonsense, so what else is going on?
    **** Has infrastructure been under-developed to effectively create an artificial crisis?

    11

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      1: Massive growth in Chennai’s population in the past 50 years
      2: Massive growth in the amount of water used per person/family as the economy has grown and living standards have risen
      3: Bugger all additional infrastructure to cope with the additional demand & population
      4 : A poor monsoon, which happens pretty regularly but erratically, last year.

      For India this is SNAFU -“Situation normal -All stuffed Up” !

      40

    • #
      Graeme#4

      The Desal plants in WA’s SW are doing very nicely thank you. Now that we don’t have to drink the bore water in summer, our water tastes a lot better.

      10

  • #
    pat

    AUDIO: 3min 9sec: 22 Jun: ABC AM: Face climate change now or pay later: prudential regulator
    By Peter Ryan on AM
    A top prudential regulator has that warned climate change pain is inevitable for Australian business, with the only questions facing the private sector being: “How much and when?”
    Australian Prudential Regulation Authority executive Geoff Summerhayes says businesses that ignore the climate change risks could confront their own ‘Kodak moment’: a reference to the film giant that failed to foresee the rapid rise of the digital world and paid a heavy price.
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/face-climate-change-now-or-pay-later-prudential-regulator/11237552

    18 Jun: ABC Science: We still have time to act on climate change — but records will tumble for next 20 years regardless of emissions: study
    Our last summer was the hottest on record in Australia, and we can expect the record breaking weather to continue for at least the next 20 years, new climate change research has found…
    Immediate action to drastically reduce emissions would rein in the temperature record-breaking from around 2040, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change today…

    Hearing how fire agencies across the country were struggling to manage unprecedented bushfires motivated lead author Scott Power from the Bureau of Meteorology to undertake the study…
    Dr Power used 22 climate models to project how often we would break temperature records in the next century, under both high (business as usual) and low emissions scenarios…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-06-18/climate-change-emissions-smashing-temperature-records-study/11160340

    01

  • #
    pat

    DM can’t help itself:

    22 Jun: Daily Mail: Shocking portrait of Brisbane in 2050: Alarming report finds the Queensland capital will be a ‘difficult place to live in’ within 30 years due to extreme heat
    •Within next 30-years, Queensland’s hot days and nights are expected to double
    •According to report the state’s hot days and nights are expected to double
    •Australians will be avoiding the outdoors due to the risk of illness and death
    •Dr Sarah Chapman blamed climate change and called on politicians to do more
    By Sahar Mourad
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7169201/Report-finds-Queensland-difficult-place-live-2050-killer-extreme-heat.html

    01

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Driver farmers off the land…one “endangered species” at a time? UN rewilding program ( emptying the countryside of people ) lurches ever forward like the undead of zombie movies….

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-06-22/flora-survey-trigger-map-prompts-backlash-from-landholders/11235884?pfmredir=ms

    “Flora trigger map prompts backlash from farmers who fear it will lock up their land

    “Queensland landholders are afraid that new government mapping could lock up their land and force them to stop farming and grazing.

    “The protected plants flora survey trigger map identifies “high-risk” areas where endangered, vulnerable or near-threatened plant species are present or likely to be present.

    “The map displays such areas with a blue dot.

    “Rural lobby group AgForce said these locations were classified as protected and therefore no farming or grazing could take place.

    “Chief executive Michael Guerin said some producers had suddenly found that more than 90 per cent of their land was covered with the blue dots.

    ‘Impossible to farm’

    “If the Government has suspicion that there might be a valuable plant or something that’s important ecologically on your property, they can, without proving … put a blue dot on your map … which does not allow you to carry on farming that land the way you have been up until now,” Mr Guerin said.

    “Farming is about planning over a number of years to manage the landscape, thinking about the ecology, the biodiversity, thinking about productive use of land.

    “But now, every so often, these maps are updated, and what you were doing yesterday, you might not be able to do tomorrow — so it makes it almost impossible to farm.”

    31

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Killing farms by bureaucratic whim….but the UN will be happy….

      20

      • #
        Annie

        Time to stand up to the eco-bullies.

        10

        • #
          Annie

          All human beings have a right to sufficient food, clothing, housing, heating/cooling, healthcare. No eco-bully has any right to deny this, even if some little flower or another might disappear. The well-being of humanity is top priority and anything that goes against the common good is evil, nothing less.

          30

          • #
            Neville

            Don’t quite agree, Annie.
            If “all” human beings have a right to these things, then that would mean they each and all have a demand on [someone] to ‘give’ it to them; now who would that ‘someone’ be, I wonder … ?
            And what happens when we all run out of other peoples’ [money] things … ?

            00

            • #
              Annie

              I mean, in comparison to a wild flower Neville. I did overstate that, in that I didn’t mean a supposed ‘right’ that depends on socialist sucking out of OPM. As St Paul said, ‘if a man will not work, neither will he eat’ (or words to that effect). What I meant is a human being’s right to existence and live by his/her own efforts is paramount, not to be thwarted by unfair emphasis on little flowers, etc. by people with an evil intent against their fellow human beings.

              00

      • #
        Neville

        Sounds a lot like Agenda 21/30 …

        20

  • #
    MarkMcD

    Hm… I do notice one thing…

    Unless some have changed, there are no Islamic countries in the upper part of the list. Turkey ranks highest of them and it’s way down the list.

    Just saying. 😀

    10

  • #
    A Crooks

    Its interesting to group the countries – Christian vs No-Christian
    There is something fundamental underneath “good” social behaviour that is not accidental if only someone actually valued it.

    30

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Scientific journals” however – –

    “We Tried to Publish a Replication of a Science Paper in Science. The Journal Refused.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/06/21/we-tried-to-publish-a-replication-of-a-science-paper-in-science-the-journal-refused/

    10

  • #
    Ian Hill

    I’m travelling at the moment and therefore a latecomer to reading this thread.

    I’m sorry but I question the validity of this research. It’s about the honesty of the employees of the places where the wallets were handed in, not the general public at large.

    Or have I missed something?

    20

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    So much positivity here.
    “humans are nice people (mostly)”
    “maybe we’re not as awful a species as we think we are.”

    Yeah yeah, you’d like to believe that. The Swiss aren’t the only humans in the world. Make a global average for all humans and weight those country results by the populations of those countries and watch your opinion plummet.

    Using just the 5 largest countries in the world (China,India,USA,Indo,Brazil), which accounts for 46% of world population, and just eyeballing their data off the chart, and weighting the percentage of no-money wallet returns by the fraction of world population in that country, the weighted average is:
    0.18×8 + 0.175×22 + 0.043×39 + 0.035×17 + 0.027×35 = 8.5% honesty.
    The other 54% of the humans would have to average at least a 77% return rate to bring the all-humans average over 50% (ie “mostly nice”). But even the most honest country in the survey, the Swiss with all their gun-owning UN-hosting cow-belling honesty, had not managed higher than 75%, and they are only 0.11% of the world.

    The “mostly nice” description is busted, and anyone who assumed that cynical view was proven correct.

    The prediction ability is much more interesting. Even though the only prediction which turned out to be close to correct was the expert prediction of returns of a fat wallet, the experts put little importance on the dollar amount. I think the hilarious part is that while the non-experts got the direction of proportionality wrong, at least they knew the amount of money was important in the decision and therefore they knew more than the experts.

    21

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      And, you’re more likely to receive a “reward for returning” out of a fat wallet than an empty one, in my experience.

      But that’s just N=1.

      00

  • #
    sophocles

    I wonder if the wallet “honesty” plays into a country’s politics and political relationships?

    20

  • #
    pat

    lengthy, read all:

    22 Jun: Ballarat Courier: Wind farm commissioner’s 2018 report released, debunks misconceptions
    by Alex Ford
    Australia’s independent wind farm commissioner released his 2018 report on Thursday, which indicates there are still worries from people about wind turbines.
    As well as recommendations and extensive notes on how companies can best work with communities, Commissioner Andrew Dyer included an analysis of complaints.
    The numbers reveal the majority of complaints in 2018 came from Victoria, and most referred to proposed wind farms…
    https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/6233954/commissioners-report-helps-debunk-wind-farm-misconceptions/

    Sky News “Front Page” has just mentined Age has story tomorrow about Victorian wind farm that is blowing toxic soil around. can’t find it as yet.

    01

  • #
    pat

    re Suzlon
    Suzlon Energy Ltd. is a wind turbine supplier based in Pune, India. It was formerly ranked by MAKE as the world’s fifth largest wind turbine supplier. It has since dropped out of the Global top ten rankings (as of 2014) due to extensive losses and inability to repay debts. The company’s website claims to have over 17,000 MW of wind energy capacity installed – Wikipedia:

    20 Jun: Bloomberg: Suzlon Jumps Ahead of Bankers’ Meet to Resolve $1.4 Billion Debt
    By Baiju Kalesh and P R Sanjai
    Suzlon Energy Ltd. jumped the most in five months a day before its lenders are poised to consider the beleaguered wind-turbine maker’s plan to sell its operations and maintenance business to pare debt
    Suzlon shares gained 22.4% Thursday to close at 4.1 rupees in Mumbai paring its losses for the year to 24%…
    The company plans to offer a so-called one time settlement to the lenders led by State Bank of India using the proceeds of the sale, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Suzlon had a net debt of 95 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) as on March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…ETC

    10 Jun: HinduBusinessLine: Suzlon Energy sinks on no takers buzz
    Shares of renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon plunged over 20 per cent intra-day on Monday. Investors pressed the sell button on the stock on reports that Danish Vestas Wind Energy has withdrawn from its agreement to buy a stake in the debt-ridden firm…

    22 Jun: BusinessStandard: Brookfield to bid for Suzlon; offers one-time Rs 9,500-crore settlement
    The one-time settlement offer was made after the company defaulted to Indian lenders in the March quarter
    by Dev Chatterjee & Raghavendra Kamath, Mumbai
    Brookfield is making a bid for Suzlon Energy but would require 45 days to complete the due diligence, the company’s lenders were informed on Friday. This would make it difficult for Suzlon to pay back the $172 million foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), due on July 16, to its bond holders.

    Considering the current market price, FCCB holders will not convert bonds into equity and Suzlon will have to repay the principal, which will be challenging, said a source…
    https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/brookfield-to-bid-for-suzlon-offers-one-time-rs-9500-crore-settlement-119062101333_1.html

    00

  • #
    pat

    CAGW believers debate:

    21 Jun: MIT Technology Review: Carbon farming is the hot (and overhyped) tool to fight climate change
    Using farms to capture and store more carbon in soil is becoming trendy, but the science is still not settled on how much it can help to address climate change.
    by James Temple
    But there is still huge uncertainty concerning how much of a climate benefit these efforts provide, what practices work best under different soil and climate conditions, and whether there are more reliable ways to balance out the industry’s greenhouse-gas emissions, according to panelists at a session on “carbon farming” at the Breakthrough Institute’s annual conference in Sausalito, California, on Thursday…

    Tim Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton who closely studied the potential of carbon farming for an upcoming World Resources Institute report, took an even more skeptical stance…
    https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613850/carbon-farming-is-the-hot-and-overhyped-tool-to-fight-climate-change/

    01

  • #
    pat

    22 Jun: Yahoo 7 News: AFP: UN food agency to elect chief as climate change ups hunger
    by Isabel MALSANG
    Candidates from China, France and Georgia are vying to head the UN’s food agency, as the fight to eradicate world hunger takes a blow from global warming and wars.
    The election of the new chief of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will be held Sunday at the headquarters in Rome during the agency’s 41st conference, which brings together 194 member countries.
    Global hunger has risen for the past three years due to the combined effects of extreme and erratic weather, economic slowdowns, and conflicts, particularly in Africa and the Middle East…READ ON
    https://au.news.yahoo.com/un-food-agency-elect-chief-climate-change-ups-032336258–spt.html

    22 Jun: Bloomberg: Trump Cuts Weight of Climate Change in Environmental Reviews (1)
    By Bobby Magill
    White House proposes agencies minimize analysis of how federal actions contribute to climate change
    Draft guidance replaces an Obama-era guidance
    The proposed guidance comes as President Donald Trump seeks to expand the use and development of the fossil fuels that cause climate change and roll back regulations that would rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Trump has cast doubt on established science that shows global warming is quickly becoming a global humanitarian, ecological and economic crisis.
    If the guidance is finalized, agencies would have to project a federal project’s greenhouse gas emissions only when they are “substantial enough to warrant quantification, and when it is practicable” to do so…
    https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/trump-cuts-weight-of-climate-change-in-environmental-reviews

    21 Jun: Brighton&HoveIndependent: ‘We have to listen to young people on climate change’ – Hove MP
    by Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove
    I wrote last month about the climate emergency confronting our planet and my admiration for the thousands of schoolchildren who have joined the climate strikes around the world who are forcing politicians to take notice.
    Since then, I’m proud to have joined a youth strike in Brighton where I learned so much – it was clear that the young people had so much to teach the adults about this single most important issue of our time, and I want every young person to know that I’m listening to their wake up call.
    I’ve also met activists from Extinction Rebellion and pledged support for their three demands for Government: to tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency…
    https://www.brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/news/politics/we-have-to-listen-to-young-people-on-climate-change-hove-mp-1-8972126

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    Returning a found wallet is is honesty, not altruism. “Beware of altruism, it is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.”–Robert A. Heinlein

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    Liz

    I left a wallet with $580 on top of a newspaper stand, and I also left a wallet with $350 in a phone booth once. Both were returned and fairly quickly. The people that returned my wallet that had $580 in I became close friends with and would send a card for their birthday’s and Christmas. I would visit if I had the chance we kept in touch for over 30 years until they passed away. Unfortunately I live in California and the invasion has changed our state I worry about going for a walk, forget a vacation, you’ll come back to a robbed home and your car stolen…Not a exaggeration it’s happened to me several times. I would say the states that are the worst are New York, California and Illinois..Democrat demons….

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    ATheoK

    $13 is barely worth an email in time and effort for both.
    Unless, I had reason to believe it was a child’s savings.

    Identification cards would be terribly important. Business cards are not generally acceptable as personal identification and not important to return.

    That blank key would really bother me.
    Why carry an ineffectual blank key?

    If these wallets were dropped into mailboxes, I would assume that the Postal Service Inspection Service was testing mailman honesty; which they do fairly frequently. Though they are more likely to salt a clerk’s cash box, they also test carriers.

    This would be an entirely different matter if the wallets were quality men’s/women’s leather wallets with a month’s rent/food money involved. Along with credit cards, driver’s license and Social Security Identification cards.

    Not long ago, while doing some grocery shopping I went to pick up an empty cart on my way into a store.
    The cart’s basket held a lady’s purse. Filled with credit cards, license, plenty of cash and even some jewelry.
    I had seen the older lady who dropped off that cart as I parked, but she was gone before I collected the cart. I took the purse into the grocery store and spent over half an hour getting one of their customer reps to log the contents and call the owner.

    A plastic wallet, a few bucks, blank key and business cards? Stuffed into the “Lost & Found” box is fine with me.

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