A vasectomy as a fashion statement

Look who wanted an excuse to justify what he never felt motivated to do anyhow:

When I got engaged, my fiancée, Virginia, and I started planning for the future. It wasn’t just my dog Wiley and me against the world anymore. All of a sudden, I started thinking ten to 20 or more years ahead.

People who want kids don’t mention US presidents, forest management, or generic family pets in their decision-making:

Children are an obvious thing to plan. With a sudden focus on responsible decision-making, it no longer made sense to leave hypothetical future offspring up to chance. When should we have them? What did our careers look like on that timeline? Who’d be responsible for staying home and raising them? Couldn’t we just have one of the dogs do that?

We got engaged in June 2018, a couple months before a wildfire destroyed an entire town in California and another one wiped out sections of Malibu. Shortly after that, most of the Mississippi River basin flooded, something that might be the new normal, virtually eliminating the future for industrial agriculture throughout a region that produces much of this nation’s food. And, of course, the whole Donald Trump thing has been going on.

Is this a world we want to bring kids into? Is this a world it’s responsible to bring kids into?

Since he wasn’t going to have kids, why not score a few fashion points along the way? Carbon accounting will be a big hit on a Saturday night dinner party among unmarried, career oriented people. Might not go down so well in twenty years among a cohort that went on to have kids:

 I’d save the planet 2.4 tons of carbon emissions a year. That’d be a massive sacrifice, but it’s nowhere near the carbon emissions I’ll save by skipping becoming a daddy, which comes in at around 58 tons annually, per kid.

Luckily (for him) he can’t ask his future children what they’d prefer:

That’s because there are simply too many humans on this planet. We’ve all been told that driving an electric car or putting solar panels on our roofs will help, but that involves buying more stuff, which has a terrible impact on the environment, no matter how green the image. Two people deciding to make fewer humans eliminates the entire cycle of consumption that would fuel that kid’s life.

How self-focused is he:

 The worst part was taking a week off from the gym…

I wonder what his parents (and hers) think. He apparently doesn’t.

It might not be enough to save the polar bear

If there is a genetic component to gullible belief there might be a bit less of it in Gen-post-millenial.

h/t Dennis M

 

 

 

8.9 out of 10 based on 53 ratings

192 comments to A vasectomy as a fashion statement

  • #
    Yonniestone

    This guy is such an effeminate frightbat I’m surprised he had the balls for a vasectomy…..

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      Deano

      Yonniestone – I was wondering why he needed a vasectomy too. He sounds like the type of man (opps – person who identifies as male) who regards all sex as rape anyway. I’m just thankful he won’t be reproducing.

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      Let’s encourage leftists to not have children.
      Even better than leftist vasectomies would be leftist lobotomies.

      Both are better than my Greene New Deal plan — deporting all climate alarmists out of the United States to socialist nations around the world (excluding Australia. of course/
      .
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      I’ve been promoting this website in 2019, as being the best climate science website in the world.

      But now I’m uncomfortable with the sleazy headline for this article.
      .
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      I think “fashion statement” is misleading — this is really leftist anti-CO2 virtue signaling.

      It could also be an excuse for not wanting children, unrelated to CO2.
      Many decades ago, my wife and I decided we did not want children, and some nosy friends would ask why — it would have been easier to explain that we were trying to save the world from CO2, but that wasn’t popular at the time.

      .
      .
      Perhaps a much more conservative title would work:
      “Not having children to reduce CO2 emissions is becoming more popular”

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      • #
        Phil

        Richard:
        “I think “fashion statement” is misleading — this is really leftist anti-CO2 virtue signaling.”
        Leftists anti-CO2 policies are fashion statements. I haven’t seen one from 1.5°C being a limit, to Antarctica is melting. Virtue signaling was a lot less popular in the past. Earlier generations simply stated their opinions, only politician tried to show their goodness by saying what they thought people wanted to hear(virtue signaling). Political parties are virtue signaling. Clubs are too. So are bike riding clubs, aerobics classes, weight lifting, etc.

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      James Poulos

      I say ‘good on the guy’ and a big ‘Bravo’ for all the rest of the lefty, progressive alarmists who bravely choose to castrate themselves or support ‘Planned Parenthood’ to save the planet.

      Because that is exactly what they are doing – saving the Planet… from another generation of lefty, progressive alarmists that might otherwise have been born if not for the self indulgent, self serving, and virtue signalling of these ridiculously stupid people.

      They all deserve the Darwin Award for their efforts on improving the human genome by voluntarily removing their own genetic sequences.

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    Turtle

    Great news! Nature, in its ancient wisdom, is wiping out the post modern nihilistic misanthropists.

    Just another example of how nature finds a balance.

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  • #
    George4

    In a way I admire his commitment to actually undergo a sterilization operation.
    He also seems to admit he will not give up his gas guzzler and will not get an electric car or solar panels.

    The image of personal climate change action doesn’t really match the reality. If I gave up my 15 mpg pickup truck—basically the mascot for climate inaction—and rode my bicycle everywhere, I’d save the planet 2.4 tons of carbon emissions a year. That’d be a massive sacrifice, but it’s nowhere near the carbon emissions I’ll save by skipping becoming a daddy.
    We’ve all been told that driving an electric car or putting solar panels on our roofs will help, but that involves buying more stuff, which has a terrible impact on the environment, no matter how green the image.

    https://www.outsideonline.com/2405491/vasectomy-climate-change

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    • #

      In a way I admire his commitment to actually undergo a sterilization operation.
      [snip]ED

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      • #
        Peter C

        Did ED [snip]anything?

        Always hard to tell with Brad Keys:
        Climate Nuremberg
        RAVE, RAVE against the lying of the Right!

        Have a look at his site (with satire filter turned to max)

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          PeterC have you ever visited GeeAye at his well read blog ? .
          I’m astounded by the similarities between Brad and Gee in writing style .

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          • #
            Peter C

            robert rosicka,

            I see what you mean. However Gee Aye is not Brad Keyes.

            Brad Keyes takes irony and satire to the limits (very amusing).

            Gee Aye takes us to task over minor lapses of logic. He is a troll on the blog, but tolerated because mostly he meets the blog rules. He also contributes (very occasionally) with some useful information.

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        • #

          Yes, my comment was subjected to the cruelest cut. I have no idea why, as I simply linked to a TIME article (reprinted at CliScep) about the new SoCal trend for having children but not grandchildren. As I argued, couples who are willing to autosterilize strike me as more admirable than those who, like a donkey and a horse, merely condemn their own children to childlessness.

          If you’re interested, it should be the #1 result when you google the following:

          sick site:cliscep.com

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          • #
            Tel

            That article seems a lot like Fake News to me.

            If you check the publication dates for Time Magazine (search back issues) you get:
            * Monday, May 1, 2017
            * Monday, May 8, 2017
            * Monday, May 15, 2017
            * Monday, May 22, 2017
            * Monday, May 29, 2017

            They don’t normally publish on a Thursday and no back issue is listed for May 18, 2017.

            Unless something in that article checks out with other proof elsewhere I would presume it’s false. The author refuses to provide a link, but does not even offer a scan of the article or the table of contents. Searching on the article title goes only back to the CliScep page.

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            • #

              Very perceptive of you, Tel, to raise the possibility of newsful fakiness. Your comment echoes that of the Professor quoted in the article, who objects thereunder…

              Professor Mark Maslin (UCL)

              This is a purely made up article – a sick attempt to push a political view on climate change through fabrication. Time magazine has no record of this article and there is no record of it on any search engine. Also I have never given any of these quotes. These quotes are sick and I do not endorse any of them. In a world of fake news it is strange to find myself in the middle of a fake article. Different Political opinions are everyone’s right but not making stuff up and making up quotes of scientists just to push your view. Sick, sick, sick. This shows the desperation of some individuals for attention and validation of their world view.

              …but was sadly answerless to the follow-up question…

              Therefore, to repeat the challenge I’ve issued others on this thread: which part of this passage featuring your good self was supposed to leap out… as self-evidently factitious, faketitious, facetious or faketious?

              (QUOTE)
              MARK MASLIN IS A climate biologist at University College in London, England. He also happens to be a world authority on the dangers of human population.

              Professor Maslin says the anti-grandkid movement is “a laudable one that’s [come along] just in time, I hope, to buy the planet a future—if not for our children, then for our children’s children.”

              With fingers in a veritable empire of businesses catering to the ecological crisis, Maslin isn’t bragging when he boasts he’s “[extremely well] paid to know what I’m talking about here.”

              And he refuses to mince his words.

              “Unless we drastically reduce our numbers on this planet, and do it immediately, people are going to start dying. Not only sooner than you think, but sooner than I think.
              (END QUOTE)

              I must be a bit slow, because I’m just not seeing it.

              …and further disappointed cliscep’s readers by saying nothing in reply to…

              How did UCL’s lawyers respond? Which part of your complaint got the most laughs, would you say? If you had to pick one?

              https://twitter.com/profmarkmaslin/status/865882023826780161

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              • #
                Tel

                Therefore, to repeat the challenge I’ve issued others on this thread: which part of this passage featuring your good self was supposed to leap out… as self-evidently factitious, faketitious, facetious or faketious?

                I already pointed out that the date given does not refer to any published issue of Time Magazine at all, it isn’t even the correct day of the week.

                That appears on the face of it to be self-evidently factitious, faketitious, facetious or faketious.

                It almost could be deliberately fake, when you consider that the first step towards checking the validity might be getting hold of that particular edition of the magazine (e.g. going to a library, etc) so it’s a screening test to see whether the reader even does basic fact checking. Could be just an accident I suppose … anyone can get a date wrong … but if you expect people to believe extraordinary things you need to be willing to stand up to reasonable levels of scrutiny. If you are sloppy on one item, there’s a natural presumption that the rest of it isn’t high quality either.

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  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    The climate zombies always have a dog …

    Pet dogs as bad for planet as driving 4x4s, book claims
    “Owners should consider doing without, downsizing or even eating their pets to help save the planet, according to a new book.”

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

    Does your dog bite?

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  • #
    RickWill

    Hopeful signs that dingbats may be a dying breed.

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    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Unfortunately in 30 odd years time
      They will still be in the queue
      Demanding retirement pensions etc..
      Paid for by the working children of others who had them.

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Don’t depend on vasectomies achieving that. They’re reversible.

      Two blokes I know of had that done and opened the new campaign with twins.

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      • #
        Annie

        We knew someone who didn’t wait long enough and child Mk3 duly appeared. His car number included the letters EEF, so he was reckoned to be the ‘Extra Efficient Father’ by his friends and aquaintances.

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  • #

    Just as well they didn’t stop making rugrats when the Mississippi Basin flooded in 1851, 1874, 1882, 1927 and 1937. Hey, when you consider the scale of the 1927 flood, maybe 1851 really was a new normal. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/mississippi-river-flood-1927/

    I’m told that the 1871 Peshtigo-Chicago fires were a little before Trump’s day. Hombre, if that happened again Wiley the pooch might get culled.

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  • #
    Power Grab

    Have they really thought it all out…that having no children removes one’s genes from the gene pool?

    Traditionally, people even in undeveloped countries have several children so there will be someone to provide for them in their old age. Isn’t it naive to assume everyone’s lifestyle will remain at the current level given the current emphasis on weaning everyone off fossil-fueled energy? Look at how wonderful life is when you depend on solar and wind!

    Do they think everyone will have robotic slaves to run their errands for them and prepare their food, drive them around, and provide their entertainment when they’re so decrepit that all they can do is lie in bed or sit in a wheelchair all day?

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    • #
      PeterW

      The nanny-state will do all that for them… presuming they don’t feel the consequences of that euthanasia bill they supported “because there were too many people.”

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  • #
    PeterW

    Modern morality…… trying to make a virtue out of not doing something that he doesn’t want to do, anyway.

    Doesn’t actually DO anything worthwhile…..

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  • #
    mem

    Story didn’t have the ring of truth to me. Sounds like a guy/girl doing a writing course in between washing dogs for the local pet shop.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Exactly.

      Supposedly a super snag writing pensively about ensuring his own line’s extinction, as a serious snag should do.

      Unwittingly that would leave the planet and the future to the uncaring selfish b*stards, but nobody thinks these things through when you are virtue signalling.

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  • #
    R.B.

    Good on him. Too many little imbeciles running around.

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  • #
    WXcycles

    [Snip. Nope. Can’t say that.]

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  • #
    TdeF

    Usually you have to die to win a Darwin Award! This guy has found a way to make sure idi*cy is not passed on. Top marks. Ironically.

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  • #
    George4

    So they just got married.
    Their parents will be so pissed off with his vasectomy.
    And I bet in a few years his wife will get an overwhelming urge for children and he will have to hope a reversal works or its divorce time.

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    • #
      Peter C

      Did he actually have a vasectomy?

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      • #
        George4

        I think so, but it could all be a lie.

        So, we’re not having kids. I found a colleague’s brother here in Bozeman who performs vasectomies and made an appointment. I was afraid of getting my scrotum operated on, but the procedure ended up being quicker and less invasive than most dental appointments. I took off my pants, laid on a bed, received a local anesthetic, chatted with the doctor while he made a few incisions, then got a ride home. Once the anesthetic wore off, it felt like someone had kicked me in the balls pretty good, a feeling that dissipated over the next seven days. I took a Valium before the surgery and a few handfuls of ibuprofen afterward but otherwise didn’t need painkillers or even an ice pack. The worst part was taking a week off from the gym; I’d been making good progress.

        https://www.outsideonline.com/2405491/vasectomy-climate-change

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        • #
          Peter C

          Is this the same guy?

          If so I have some news for him.
          The spermatozoa, with no means to escape, become congested, leading to dilatation of the tubules of the testis and scrotum. A finding I have seen many times on Ultrasound.

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    Bill in Oz

    I wonder what she will think
    Twenty years down the track
    When his wandering eye
    See someone else more easy on the eye.
    He will certainly think
    “Glad there’s no kids to tie me down >”

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  • #
    pat

    100-plus replies…

    TWEET: Wes Siler, OutsideOnline
    Because of the #ClimateCrisis, I had a colleague’s brother sterilize me: LINK
    21 Nov 2019
    https://twitter.com/IndefiniteWild/status/1197598215673040897

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    Latus Dextro

    It’s Darwin Awards Night. , slogan thinker soy-boy.

    Luckily, the unhappy couple are depriving the gene pool of their intellectual low wattage pollution.
    How Green.
    Beats me why he/it/they/gender pronoun bothered getting “married” as that was the institution formerly most associated with safeguarding the creation and nurture of children but now, well, who knows or even cares in this morally degenerate post secular society?.
    Perhaps “marriage” AND vascetomies are the ultimate fashion statement ?
    I believe the neo-Marxist Left might refer to that as a “double benefit.”

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    • #

      Hello yu long line of servivers out there, ( like us serfs,) serviving FAMINE,storms and a thousand natural shocks that flesh is air to, build’n roads, bridges, aquaducts, printing presses, drains, railways, libraries, … I call the Darwin Award ‘The-Award-Fer-Gettin’-It-Right.’ I (we) are here, all those generations servivin’ thro’ thick ‘n thin, phew…tramp, tramp, tramp! Listen up, whinin’ lefties, in history yr nevah had it so good.

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        Latus Dextro

        Beth, spot on. And here’s a blast from the past. NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.
        The illiberal, virtue signalling uneducated ingrates of this age will never awaken any more than they could hope to learn from the lessons of the past.

        1957: Britons ‘have never had it so good’
        The British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, has made an optimistic speech telling fellow Conservatives that “most of our people have never had it so good”. The prime minister was speaking at a Tory rally in Bedford to mark 25 years’ service by Mr Lennox-Boyd, the Colonial Secretary, as MP for Mid-Bedfordshire. Mr Macmillan painted a rosy picture of Britain’s economy while urging wage restraint and warning inflation was the country’s most important problem of the post-war era.
        Increased production in major industries such as steel, coal and motor cars had led to a rise in wages, export earnings and investment, he said. You will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country. “Indeed let us be frank about it – most of our people have never had it so good.
        “Go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.”
        He took the opportunity to attack the “doctrinaire nightmare” of socialism and its policies of nationalisation and central planning. He reminded his audience not to forget “rationing, shortages, inflation, and one crisis after another in our international trade” under a Labour government.

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          RichardX

          Harold Macmillan was absolutely right. The post WW2 Labour government was a disaster. They went in for bulk buying contracts instead of letting private enterprise do its thing. One of their notable successes was when their socialist buying agents went to Argentina to buy beef. I think that calling the Argentinians “Dagos” and demanding special prices didn’t go down too well.

          I can remember my mother measuring out a teaspoon of orange juice concentrate per person for our weekly vitamins. An uncle who was studying in America used to send us food parcels.

          One memorable moment was soon after Macmillan became Prime Minister. I was in boarding school and nine or ten years old. The Headmaster told us that we were allowed to have jam on all our sandwiches at afternoon tea. Before that, the first sandwich was jam-free because of rationing and budgets.

          Macmillan was a brilliant guy. He was from a generation and a culture that thought self-promotion was vulgar, but results were paramount. I met him once when he was walking across the Trinity College, Cambridge Great Court after visiting his old mate, Lord Butler (RAB), who was the Master of the College. I thanked him for saving us from Labour. He gave me a nod and a smile and a chuckle. Mission accomplished 🙂

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      WXcycles

      I didn’t know that was a thing, so looked it up. It didn’t really help …

      Post-secular
      Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age is also frequently invoked as describing the postsecular, though there is sometimes disagreement over what each author meant with the term. Particularly contested is the question of whether “postsecular” refers to a new sociological phenomenon or to a new awareness of an existing phenomenon—that is, whether society was secular and now is becoming post-secular or whether society was never and is not now becoming secular even though many people had thought it was or thought it was going to be.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postsecularism

      I take it to mean approximately nothing much, which on balance is a pretty good definition of most stuff.

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        Latus Dextro

        WXcycles,
        Repairing to the WickedPedo for info is like inviting Jeffrey Epstein to provide you with an opinion on the best way to secure the development of young girls.
        An alternative perspective, achieved with a minimum of effort.
        Australia and the Post-Secular Age

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        • #
          WXcycles

          Thanks for that.

          My prior experience with both the ‘tolerant’ and also the fundamentalist versions of Christianity have cured me of all religious impulses, traditional or ad-hoc convenient ones. Though unlike the descriptive text in your link, I feel no loss of a sense of ‘identity’, nor have I entered a swoon for lack of ‘purpose’, or exhibiting a tendency to indulge in baddie behaviors.

          Mostly I’m not even concerned about mortality or eternal ‘end-states’. It just doesn’t interest me, nor what some alleged unseen God or long deceased mythical holy chap said I should, or should not do. I’m not agnostic, not an atheist, just not interested in the whole religion conversation. Though I would take strong exception to someone insisting I should be like them, and follow their ways and beliefs, “or else”. That would get a tangible and clear-cut rejection at what ever level required to remain ‘free’, for internal freedom is the only freedom there is, and the idea of enslaving myself to asserted religious ideas could not be more repulsive and objectionable.

          It seems “post-secular” does mean approximately nothing much.

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  • #
    Alice Thermopolis

    That said, population growth is surely the elephant in the greenhouse: 80 million new folk a year globally, over three times Australia’s population; 200,000 new folk a day, equal to Australia’s annual immigration intake; at least ten billion projected by 2100.

    Half a century ago it was the cause célèbre of the day. Perhaps Bertrand Russell will be right after all. Humankind, he suggested, could ‘put an end to itself by a too lavish use of H-bombs’. There was another risk too; one ‘not nearly so widely appreciated as nuclear weapon proliferation’ – dangerous anthropogenic population change.

    In a 1963 essay, Population Pressure and War, the 91-year old Russell concluded that of all the long-run problems facing the world, ‘this problem of population is the most important and fundamental, for, until it is solved, other measures of amelioration are futile.’

    Elephant in greenhouse: An obvious problem or environmental risk that is either suppressed or ignored because it might disrupt a preferred political action, narrative or paradigm.

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      PeterW

      Alice…

      We’ve been hearing prophesies of global starvation for over 50 years. It’s like the greenhouse panic merchants… every time we pass the time when it was all going to be too late, they shift the goalposts.

      And the next time it reeeeeelly reeeeeeeeeeelly will happen!

      There are so dynamics at work. The first is that we continue to get better at producing food. (Higher CO2 May be helping) …… and there is massive room for improvement as developing economies adopt higher production methods. This is my industry and I’m not just speculating.

      The second is that as people become more wealthy, there is a consisten trend toward having fewer children. That is why so many Western nations wold see their populations decrease without immigration. On current trends, the world’s population will peak at around 9 billion and there is no good reason to believe that we won be able to feed them UNLESS we go so damned bonkers over CO2 that we kill our wealt-producing industrial base and restrict our agriculture,

      There are no technologies on the horizon that offer a cost-effective alternative to diesel tractors and nitrogen fertiliser.

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        Alice Thermopolis

        Peter W

        Are you suggesting that current growth rates are “good” in some sense.

        I did not mention starvation, although availability of water is likely become a more critical issue, if not already. (This is your industry, perhaps you can give us your take on water and the ME.)

        Issue today is demographic momentum and the rate of increase in the developing world, especially ME, Africa, but also Indonesia (another 20% increase to 340+ million by 2050) and India.

        Yes, a demographic transition did occur in Europe, but it took many decades. To my knowledge, there is no is no law of nature in this space.

        BTW check the latest (2019) UN data. It is projecting around 11,000 million by 2100, assuming fertility assumptions are accurate: a ten-fold increase in two centuries.

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          ivan

          Alice, never believe any projected data from the UN they are responsible for all the global warming hysteria.

          If the UN pulled its collective finger out we would see the developing countries moving forward because of reliable energy security (coal fired power stations) so that families can earn real wages equivalent to those in the west, that way they don’t need large families to scrape a living to support the old adults. What we are seeing is the UN supporting the idea that those people you mention should be left in their poverty and not allowed to become productive nations in their own right – why is that?

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            Alice Thermopolis

            Ivan
            Agreed, but that’s another issue. If you won’t accept UN Population division data, try another source, such as folk who live there.

            Africa’s population will double in the next 35 years. By 2100, almost 40% of the world’s population will live on this one continent.

            Nigeria is projected to overtake the US to become the world’s third largest country in just 35 years. The fastest-growing nation, it is expected to be the world’s third-largest country by 2050 with 400 million people, more than doubling its current size of 180 million.

            According to a Nigerian central banker interviewed on a BBC Inquiry program, the
            “…gap between the rich and the poor has continued to grow. If conditions are so tough today for so many, what is it going to be like when twice as many live there in 2050? Yet this isn’t a question the political elite have been asking themselves. (10min.)
            “My worry is that we are not making arrangements for this rising population. There is no country in the world that I know of over 70 million people that does not have a flourishing rail network, expanding social services and the rest of it. All those things need to be in place, together with better planning for population and for families.”
            If the government did not improve opportunities for the many millions who will be living there in the next few decades, he warned the consequences could be serious. Its fast-growing young population – 108 million Nigerians are currently under 25 – could become ‘deeply frustrated’. “The sort of thing that happened in the so-called Arab spring could happen in Nigeria.” (11 min.)

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              RichardX

              If it’s on the BBC, it’s probably a slanted, climate hysteric, made-up thing.

              Most African countries with sentient governments are desperate for reliable energy. You cannot have prosperity without reliable energy. They need it and they want it. Unfortunately, they are being denied loans, by e.g. The World Bank, to build power stations because climate change. So they have to rely on e.g. burning dung to heat their cooking fires. The pollution inside their dwellings is so high that hundreds of thousands of people die. Others flee to Europe.

              If you’re interested in preventing a global catastrophe, then providing cheap, reliable, energy to Africans should be your goal.

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                Alice Thermopolis

                RichardX
                Agreed.
                Yes. It was on the BBC. It was genuine. It was not “a slanted, climate hysteric, made-up thing”.
                A Nigerian central banker recently returned from Brussels expressed deep concern about the country’s population growth rate. The rate of development, such as it is, is not keeping pace with that rate.

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      Greg in NZ

      I’m with you, Alice of Hot City,

      grew up in a ‘nukular’ family (thanks George Dubya Junior) and by the time I began horizontal folk-dancing with my sweethearts, knew I didn’t want to succeed – or become a dad, or a parent, or a mortgage slave.

      Have had to support my brother and sisters and friends through nasty court cases (protecting their children) and they wonder why I’ve never grown up and settled down and been ‘fruitful’ and multiplied. They taught me well – self control – someone’s gotta put a stop to this madness.

      Besides, I’m happy to be crazy old longhair Uncle Greg – except I fell in love with a green-eyed, blonde, Italian sweetheart today, uh-oh…

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        Peter C

        Gosh Greg.

        I’m happy to be crazy old longhair Uncle Greg,
        (I Knew I didn’t want to) become a dad, or a parent, or a mortgage slave.

        I think you told us that you live an isolated life on a headland in NZ somewhere in a caravan with no electric power nor running water.

        But somehow I never thought of you as a long haired hippie. How silly of me! Who else would live the dream like that? Strangely I can relate to all of that since it reflects some of my own thoughts as a young man.

        Fortunately I met a green eyed Irish Girl. The rest is history. Now I am a Grandfather (of one week) and very proud of it.

        So if you have a green eyed Italian blonde sweetheart (a bit unlikely I would have thought), I say go for it. The Earth does not mind and the benefits are manifold.

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          Annie

          Congrats on grandfatherhood Peter C.

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          Congratulations, Peter. you will be a terrific grandfather, lol. bts.

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        • #
          Greg in NZ

          Granddaddy Peter C,

          hippie? Longhair longboard surfer, my bro!

          Isolated off-grid caravan? Renting a suburban 100-year-old mansion across the harbour from 1.5 million other city folk (gotta earn the dollars to put diesel in my van to get the heck out of Dodge whenever I can

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            Greg in NZ

            Oops – half my comment vanished – cont’d:

            One of my fellow drivers is an (older than me!) ex-Greenpeace activist/hippie – sailed to Moruroa back in the day – she believes the CO2 doomsday nonsense as well as worshipping President Jacinda. We’ve mutually called a truce, for work’s sake, as our views are diametrically opposed. Besides, she’s mad as a hatter!

            Also, congrats on your next generation too, Pops!

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            • #
              Sambar

              Hey Greg, back to your post 19.2 last line, 50 something years ago, I was your regular youthful, ner do well. Same sort of existence that you have … until.
              That little ( 4foot 10 inches) sultry southern Italian girl decided she was going to change my life. What can I say in way of advise. Fifty something years later I am married to the hottest old granny on the planet! What did she do for me? Well, managed to smarten me up a little bit ( I still think I’m a free spirit )
              Gave me 2 kids I am proud to say are succesful in this day and age, and the thing that you cannot appreciate until you reach a certain age, grand kids.
              My beautiful daughter has 2 girls of her own, smart, beautiful and full of life. You know, the type of cross breeding improvements that is tried for.
              The wife is dark eyed and sultry, good things, like poison , come in small packages. sweet, loving, guiding, until …… Versuvius is a mere flicker.
              Am I glad I took the plunge. You betcha. Best wishes for you and your paramour.

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              • #
                Greg in NZ

                Sambar,

                some would take exception to being called a ‘never do well’ yet it’s water off a duck’s back to me: have been called worse before, my favourite being ‘Freak!’ which I take as an honour, thank you very much 🙂

                Apart from being the first – ever – in my family tree to learn/earn a degree (at the tender age of 47 no less) in an industry I’d already worked in on/off for 20 years as well as running my own one-man business, I’ve travelled around the planet, managed to avoid a police record, and have been there for friends and family when their world collapsed around them, ie. family courts and divorce proceedings, etc.

                Maybe that’s my ‘station in life’, to be available for those when they need comfort: besides, all my (now very successful) nieces and nephews have an ongoing love and appreciation of the ocean, mountains, outdoor adventure, weather, and surf/snow/skate-boarding.

                And Latus (below), I recently mentioned Patrick Moore’s name to the mad hatter and oh! the look on her face… priceless.

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              Latus Dextro

              You could encourage her to plug back into her doyen of her moment, Dr Patrick Moore, founder of GreenPeace, Dr Truth himself, so named by GreenPus, because he wouldn’t let them lie.
              Patrick Moore – The Power of Truth

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            • #
              Peter C

              Thanks Greg,

              All the best!

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Alice:

      Yes, I remember Paul Ehrlich warning us in 1967 that the world couldn’t support 2.5 billion people and by 1975 cannibals would be roaming the Mid-West of the USA. How did that work out?

      I also notice that Africa has 1.64 times the population of Europe, but 3 times the area, i.e. nearly half the population density (and that doesn’t include all that unusable frozen waste-land up north. Let’s ask the Europeans to do their bit by thinning out their numbers.

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    • #
      WXcycles

      It’s ~82 million per year and 224,650 people added per day. But so what? Those people are born in 195 recognized countries which are called home. Our annual immigration of ~210,000 is irrelevant as it’s not the responsibility of second countries to house other country’s population excesses (and you don’t seem to be suggesting we should). If their home is too crowded they need to stop having so many babies.

      When were young it was drummed into us that we lived in “The lucky country”. We believed it, you only had to look at a globe and it was apparent. And I’m not so much concerned about the population growth in Australia, or the immigration rate. The biggest problem impinging on our luckiness is not those, it is radical left politics that is ruining Australia. Without that toxic extreme-left political garbage we’d still be streets ahead of the rest of the world. And that radial lefty agenda was barely hear of in 2006, when John Howard was still in Govt.

      It is a very new and poisonous foreign ideology, it did not come from us and it appears intent on destroying us, out of lies and jealousy alone, which is now making Australia increasingly into an unlucky country, and it is all unnecessary.

      I know you are approaching it from a global concern perspective with the talk of atomic munitions use etc, but I’m not interested in things I can’t do anything about. I want Australia functioning properly, other people should work to make their particular country work. That’s their business.

      What we need to do is fight to be “the lucky country” and to stay that way. And kicking the toxic green-left political-vomit to the kurb is the path adn that is priority number #1 for Australia, to get back to that position, and stay there.

      MAGA!

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        PeterW

        I’m going to differ on a couple of issues.

        We may have been a “lucky” country in some respects, but my parents and grandparents’ generations knew that it was luck brought about by hard work and hard fighting. It’s the generations that got it all handed to them that concluded that the standards of living that they inherited could be taken for granted. Instead of work and wise management to preserve it, my generation and those following it decided that they could do anything, no matter how stupid, and the “luck” would still be there.

        You could see the seeds back in the 1940s… in a Union movement that was prepared to let our soldiers die if it supported socialism overseas. See it in the 70s when Whitlam et almthouggt they could make their own rules. Under Hawke when international treaty powers were abused to over-rule the rights of properly elected State governments to use powers retained for them by the Constitution….

        The signs have been there…

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        • #
          Geoff Sherrington

          Peter, agreed, we were not the “lucky” country.
          We were a vast country, much with poor soils, poor rainfall, few roads, hence few paths to the generation of new wealth as by developing world-scale agricultural production.
          We have had a number of good scientists who knew how to create new wealth by new mineral discoveries. Early in our history, these folk found and locked in a coal resource for the future. The oilies were not able (yet) to find another Saudi Arabia, but it was the gold mine at Mt Morgan that created the wealth that found that Saudi oil and led to British Petroleum.
          It was not luck that created this substantial new wealth, it was creative financiers coupled with good geological science people and an operating environment largely freevof government hinderance, though that rapidly got worse. Like, we succeeded despite the interfering buggers.
          Geoff S

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            WXcycles

            Geoff, that may be your perception but mining’s percent contribution to GDP was small for most of Australian history (except for gold rush times), until mining began to emerge as a force in the mid to late 1970s. But it still was not much of a contributor to GDP until the early 1980s when it finally began to make up a bigger and more significant fraction of the economy. Soon followed by tourism and the service economy, thereafter in the mid-1980s. Prior to that we were very much still riding on the sheep’s back economically, on the whole, plus other (non-mineral) primary produce. The payoff from mining was due to investments in geological science in the 1950s and 60s which paid-off 20 to 30 years later, and continues to this day. I’d call that mineral and energy resource a lucky country.

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            • #
              Geoff Sherrington

              WX,
              No sound economist compares mineral wealth with tourism.
              Minerals often generate $$$ where none existed beforehand.
              Tourism spends $$$ that did not exist before minerals (and sheep backs and wheat and more).
              Production must precede consumption.
              The tourism ‘industry’ does not generate significant income for others. Its best future move might be its scaling down, with the $$$ being spent on improved education, so people can better appreciate economic realities. Geoff S

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              • #
                WXcycles

                No sound economist compares mineral wealth with tourism.

                Not now they don’t, the scale has completely changed, but in the 1980s and early 1990s they certainly did. You should look at the proportions of the era.

                Minerals often generate $$$ where none existed beforehand.

                What it brings is jobs via foreign investment and off-shoring of a lot of those profit dollars.

                Tourism spends $$$ that did not exist before minerals (and sheep backs and wheat and more). Production must precede consumption.

                You realize tourism brought to Australia money we did not make, but ended up in our pockets as a result of people paying to visit here. I’m surprise you can’t process that. Tourism dollars were by far our most valuable import. Whereas dollars from foreign investment into mining predominantly goes overseas, even today.

                The tourism ‘industry’ does not generate significant income for others.

                Tell that to the millions of Australians who raised a family working within the tourism industry and own houses due to it.

                Its best future move might be its scaling down,

                It was not always 2019 Geoff, the 1980s and most of the 1990s were a period that saw the massive expansion in mining being over-shadowed by tourism growth, and the expansion and growth of the services industry thereafter. You may not like our history of that time, but I am a geologist who lived in tourism-central during that period.

                … with the $$$ being spent on improved education, …

                Not in tourism-central, mostly all this expansion of the tertiary education sector did was produced a strong and restrictive plus very extractive expansion of the public sector and all forms of tax, subsidy, surcharges, fines, stamp duty and economic suppression of both small and large businesses, and the bleeding of the towns and cities situated in Tourism-Central as tourism declined. You keep pulling money out of tourist towns and communities, and guess what? They end up completely broke and deeply despise those who did it to their community.

                The tourism decline is principally driven by the Australian dollar. But the rise in the AUD also combined with the removal of shark nets and the massive regrowth of the coastal crocodile population. People started to notice the wildlife was eating people on beaches and water holes, and nothing was being done to diminish it. Combined with the growing green restrictions on parks (on land and in the water), and the nascent growth of “green-tourism” which proved largely economically disastrous, as it was appealing to domestic urban greenies who innately didn’t have much money, as opposed to cashed-up less confused foreigners who wanted an experience and did have a lot of money.

                This is why central and north Queensland voters are so fed-up with the extremely stupid policies of the hard left labor/Greens clowns (both Federal and State) as these continue to push all the dumb damaging policies that have so damaged QLD towns the the Northern Australian economy as a whole and reduced its economic diversity.

                With your blinkered Southern bias and vantage-point you may be surprised to know that there was a strong call for the thinning-out of the crocodile population here during the last several elections. People here realize the tourist dollars are not returning to our communities while 6 to 15 foot crocs can be found anywhere in Tourism Central. Taking people on crocodile tours doesn’t do much except convince people they don’t want a holiday on the beach, rivers or reef in Australia.

                The other factor is the devious hard-left lie that the Great Barrier Reef is being grossly degraded, damaged and dying, which could not be further from the observable and personally verifiable truth. But perception is the reality for foreign tourists.

                … so people can better appreciate economic realities. Geoff S

                It would be nice if you actually paid attention to those economic realities, instead of presuming Australia’s economy was built on mining, because it wasn’t. Mining was one sector that expanded in a general expansion of sectors. The economy lacks such diversity now primarily due to very bad government policies (State and Federal), and we all know this because we saw that diversity and economic vibrancy disappear before our eyes, while govt’s played the fiddle and pretend things were fine.

                The Lib-Nats are more useless than tits on a bull, but when you’re expected to elect a toxic poison you’d probably elect the one that sickens you the least. But there are few sensible solutions coming from govt policy.

                Australia is a lucky country, that’s now run by political parties who seem to understand nothing, and to give a stuff even less. Whereas some of these grub politicians are coming right out of the closet now and saying they want to destroy our way of life and economy via ‘revolution’, and replace the private-sector with a massively bloating public-sector. And its occurring!

                So if you want to pick a fight about Australian economics, how about you apply your notion of ‘producing before you consume’ to that, because you’re right off the rails on this one.

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            OriginalSteve

            I worked it out one day – if you took all 7 billion people and gave them a 3m x 3m ( 10′ x 10′ ) bit of land to stand on, you could fit every person on the planet into our state of New South Wales.

            That means all other states and all other countries are devoid of humans.

            Lack of room on the planet……..meh…..idiots…..

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        • #
          WXcycles

          I’m going to differ on a couple of issues. …

          You didn’t differ too much Peter. 😉

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      World’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century

      And given that Africa has hardly even begun (actually gone backward under a recent collection of useless regimes) to develop its own resources and food production …

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    AndrewWA

    Natural selection is a wonderful thing…….

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    pat

    reminder:

    78-year-old climate activist goes on hunger strike outside Dáil
    Irish Times-20 Nov 2019

    21 Nov: SanFranciscoChronicle: Nine climate activists arrested after storming Nancy Pelosi’s office
    by Darryl Fears, The Washington Post
    On Day Four without food for eight young strikers who vowed to stay until the bitter end, Pelosi, D-Calif., had not come close to meeting their demand to talk with them for an hour about her leadership on the issue of climate change. They were allowed to squat at the entrance to her office on the plush blue carpet and quietly draw signs with Sharpies, but aside from that, it was almost as if Pelosi didn’t know they were there.
    And so, weak and dizzy for lack of food, they gathered in a circle in the hallway and came up with a plan.

    With the little energy they had left, they would storm pass two aides, barge into the wider room where the congresswoman’s chief of staff and others sat, get arrested by police and make a statement that they were there to protest the “lip service” House Democrats paid to an issue that would impact their future.
    That’s how nine members of a global organization called Extinction Rebellion ended their protest…
    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Nine-climate-activists-arrested-after-storming-14853449.php

    Extinction Rebellion hunger strikers target UK political parties
    The Guardian-18 Nov 2019

    Extinction Rebellion Threatens ‘Mass Death’ by Climate Change
    Breitbart-21 Nov 2019

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    pat

    from the socialist Morning Star:

    22 Nov: MorningStar: XR scientists call for curriculum rewrite to educate children on the climate emergency
    XR scientists donning lab coats handed in a letter at the Department for Education in London yesterday to lay out their demands before marching to Trafalgar Square.
    Outside the department, author and XR activist Dr Emily Grossman read out the movement’s Science Declaration which has been signed by 1,600 scientists worldwide…

    She highlighted the devastating role humans have played in mass species-loss “which have a knock-on effect on our ability to feed ourselves.
    “Ecosystems are like a game of Jenga — take one piece out at the bottom and the whole thing collapses.”

    Protesters also passed by political party HQs where XR activists on hunger strike have been stationed since Monday.
    On day five of the hunger strike, XR’s Sarah Lunnon said: “The Global Hunger Strike highlights those communities and families who struggle to eat today due to extremes of weather.”…
    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/xr-scientists-call-curriculum-rewrite-educate-children-climate-emergency

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    • #
      pat

      AUDIO: 11min59sec: 23 Nov: ABC Blueprint for Living: Could a meal replacement spell the end of food?
      Presenter: Jonathan Green
      A handful of enterprising Silicon Valley workers, firmly in the latter camp, have come up with a solution to the tedious chore of eating: a complete meal replacement.
      Darkly named, “Soylent”, it’s creators claim its nutritious enough to permanently subsist on.
      ***Could this be the end of food as we know it?
      Guest:
      Professor Rachel Ankeny is from the University of Adelaide and specialises in bioethics, science policy and food studies.
      https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/could-a-meal-replacement-spell-the-end-of-food/11718198

      why would Green be promoting the above?

      Wikipedia: Soylent (meal replacement)
      Soylent is a brand of meal replacement products made by Rosa Foods. Soylent was introduced in 2014 after a crowdfunding campaign.
      In January 2013, software engineer Rob Rhinehart purchased 35 chemical ingredients—including potassium gluconate, calcium carbonate, monosodium phosphate, maltodextrin, olive oil—all of which he deemed to be necessary for survival, based on his readings of biochemistry textbooks and U.S. government websites…
      Some people have experienced gastrointestinal problems from consumption of Soylent, particularly flatulence…
      Later versions of the product lowered the amount of fiber content, but this did not stop the reports of gastrointestinal problems…
      On August 13, 2015, nonprofit environmental and corporate social responsibility watchdog As You Sow filed a notice of intent to pursue a lawsuit against the makers of Soylent, claiming that Soylent did not adequately label its product given the levels of lead and cadmium present in the drink…
      Although Soylent contains levels of lead and cadmium far below the national safety levels set by the FDA, it does contain 12 to 25 times the level of lead and 4 times the level of cadmium allowable in a product without additional labeling as specified by Proposition 65…
      On October 12, 2016, the company announced it would halt sales of the Soylent Bar due to reports of gastrointestinal illness, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea…
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_(meal_replacement)

      AUDIO: 15min25sec: 16 Nov: ABC Blueprint for Living: The rise of the plant-based meat industry
      Presenter: Jonathan Green
      With roots in Silicon Valley and the backing of venture capital, the plant and cell-based meat industry is growing at a rapid rate.
      Could its new technologies help to end animal suffering, ***soften the blow of climate change and improve food security, as it claims?
      Blueprint speaks with Bruce Friedrich, co-founder and managing director of The Good Food Institute, based in Washington, USA
      https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/the-rise-of-the-plant-based-meat-industry/11653416

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      • #
        PeterW

        Apparently, we know less about the nutritional requirements of humans than we do pigs.
        Partly because it’s considered unethical to lock up hundreds of people for extended periods and feed them rigorously controlled diets

        If you want to eat frankenfoods created by ideologues, it’s no skin off my nose, but I won’t be joining you. I’ll take my nutrition in a form that takes no
        More processing than required to make it lie still on a hot pan for a few minutes without bellowing.

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        PeterW

        She highlighted the devastating role humans have played in mass species-loss “which have a knock-on effect on our ability to feed ourselves.
        “Ecosystems are like a game of Jenga — take one piece out at the bottom and the whole thing collapses.”

        Demonstrably false.
        We have seen quite a few species-level extinctions during human history, and not only have most ecosystems not collapsed as a result , but our ability to feed ourselves consistently and with a minimum of effort, has never been better.

        I don’t believe in just letting extinctions happen, but I’m bloody sick of the panic-merchants.

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        OriginalSteve

        “Some people have experienced gastrointestinal problems from consumption of Soylent, particularly flatulence…

        Later versions of the product lowered the amount of fiber content, but this did not stop the reports of gastrointestinal problems…”

        Like the barbers cat….full of pee and wind….

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    pattoh

    & that kids is how the “Great Replacement” progresses…………

    I wonder if George Soros funded that?

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    pat

    a tragic story from my area, but why this extreme language? it was not at all hot today:

    23 Nov: Brisbane Times: Two girls found dead in a car south of Brisbane
    By Jocelyn Garcia and Laura Chung, AAP
    Two toddlers have been found dead in a car south of Brisbane, leading police to suspect they suffered from exposure to extreme heat.
    Police and paramedics were called to a home on Logan Reserve Road in the Logan suburb of Waterford West about 1.30pm on Saturday.

    Temperatures in the area hit 30 degrees on Saturday, with the UV index sitting at “extreme” levels…
    “The two children exhibited evidence of being exposed to extreme heat and that is forming the direction of our investigation,” (Detective Inspector Mark White) said.
    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/two-children-found-dead-in-a-car-south-of-brisbane-20191123-p53dfo.html

    BoM: Logan City 23 November 2019
    http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60901/IDQ60901.95581.shtml

    unattributed:

    23 Nov: ABC: Two young sisters found dead in car at Logan ‘exposed to extreme heat’
    Two young sisters, aged one and two, have been found dead in a car at Logan, south of Brisbane, after being exposed to “extreme heat”.
    Queensland police and paramedics were called to a home at Waterford West shortly after 1:30pm on Saturday and found the pair unresponsive in a “hot” car.
    “The two children exhibited evidence of being exposed to extreme heat,” he said…

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  • #
    Angus Black

    Well done, my boy,

    Quality is all and you have now done your bot – well your first bit – for the population.

    [snip. No. We can’t even joke about that. – Jo]

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    yarpos

    Good on him. A great contribution to the quality of the gene pool! Climate action now!!

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    PeterS

    Let’s hope it spreads to all the fanatics so that they become extinct.

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      OriginalSteve

      Well as they all seem to have “climate rabies”, perhaps they might all turn on each other…

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      • #
        PeterS

        Wishful thinking unfortunately. The way it’s going the “climate rabies” is spreading almost everywhere. It’s following a similar approach as used by the brown shirts of Nazi Germany but this time it’s on a much grander scale. The longer it goes unabated the more the general public will be swayed towards the frenzy of CAGW. We need a “Winston Churchill” to fight the war against the evil of climate change extremists. Trump is not the answer thus far as even he is too weak on that front.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Rabies is self limiting, thankfully.

          Once the climate numpties see there is no catastrophic warming, as the earth cools and they slowly starve to death, then it will moderate behaviour.

          The emotion driven climate numpties are classic “corporate” types – big with words, but basically useless outside a sterile environment where someone does everything for them and they have no real contact with reality beyond a supermarket or maccas drive through. When the power starts to really fail, it will be on for young and old.

          They will have basically no bushcraft or survival knowledge. I predict a lot will die from lack of knowledge of basic hygiene and would have no idea how to make basic soap from animal fat and hardwood lye, how to survive outside of a city.

          It will be a horrible time, but this is what you get when you create a Jim Jones style global cult…….

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          • #
            PeterS

            It still too early to tell if this cult dies out like most do or keeps growing and escalates to some violent totalitarian regime change in the West. At the moment it’s patchy but gathering pace. How far it goes is anyone’s guess at the moment.

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  • #
    Deano

    “We have to start eating babies. We have to start now. It’s the only way to save the planet.”

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    • #
      Sambar

      I like babies, but I couldn’t eat a whole one !

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      • #
        Annie

        You might prefer the new season’s cherries Sambar. The cherry stall is operating again and I have just had some with my breakfast…delicious.

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        • #
          Sambar

          Thanks Annie, Have to go to the “smoke” this afternoon , so past the stall, I’ll grab some cash, it’s one of the few places that still accept money instead of plastic !

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  • #
    tom0mason

    Why not go the whole way and reinvent the operatic role of castrati?
    Maybe then we’ll hear Handel as was intended when he wrote many of his famous opera roles for castrati such as Senesino, or Mozart who wrote many parts for castrati, seven of his operas including Il re pastore, La finta giardiniera, Mitridate, Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, and one aria from each of these operas were presented in this concert, along with his joyful motet Exsultate, Jubilate composed for the celebrated castrato Rauzzini. There were also arias from Mozart’s near-contemporaries Thomas Arne and J.C. Bach.

    So come on you angst ridden millennials why not make something productive by having the ultimate chop!

    A new meme for the XR brigade?
    “It ain’t over till the fat castrati sings.”

    So millennials, there’s only 11 years and 10 moths to do it but at least you can be the one who is the fat castrati singing out the final days of the planet!

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    • #
      Annie

      I’ve never liked the castrato-type voice personally. I prefer the sound of female sopranos, so long as they don’t indulge in a lot of vibrato stuff, also like the sound of boy chorister sopranos and love the sound of early choral music.

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    observa

    Ive always struggled to combine the idea of personal responsibility with the overwhelming need for human society to address the threat posed by climate change. Since at least the 1970s, the massive energy corporations responsible for the vast majority of our carbon emissions have known about, and done nothing to mitigate, the harm they cause.

    Damn Big Oil for forcing me to cooperate with their nefarious activities filling my tank all those years. I’m an innocent dupe and they’ve got me addicted and in their clutches. Can small biz Tesla save me from the clutches of massive energy corporations and the evils of capitalism in future or will vasectomy man top himself and leave me his carbon credits?

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    feral_nerd

    Well played! Sets the benchmark in self-serving pretentiousness. All future such efforts will be measured against it.

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  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    When folks want to lecture us on a vas vas vas vas vasectomy (geshundheit) at least wea re dealing with a majority issue.
    Like the clime the interest of most folks can be perceived.
    Somehow, these thing tide the bus with various minority issues and get attached to them….sort a a political superglue virus I suppose.
    actually it’s pretty easy to understand. Whether I think about, or care about gay folks one way or another, they ‘ll be a minority of
    3% or so in areas where they are important politically Its hard to move the need with a group that size, no matter how righteous ones cause.
    So if an issue faced by gays can be linked to one faced by climate warriors (on either side), presto, you have vastly widened the concerned
    community.

    In a very smug a self satisfied way I would suggest that the climate skeptic side likes evidence, while the “we are doomed” warriors live on emotion,
    so some of the stranger causes are linked to “climate change”.

    Malthus, and the various cultish offshoots of his though all start with the proposition that you can make a model of the world based on a limited set of current
    trends in which it is doomed. There, is, of course, only one variable these pseudo-scientific clowns can imagine changing, and that is the nature of man.
    And they are always just the folks to be put in charge.

    It was an’t a very good book/
    I didn’t like the movie/
    The vinyl was bad/ the CD no better
    The Power-Point version sucked/
    The animated reboot bombed, as did the remake/
    The rock opera had a couple of good songs, but the rest….drek…/

    Malthus was wrong, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

    As we have mad life better for more people in each generation (indisputable)
    we have made some messes (indisputable)
    and have cleaned up some of our old messes(indisputable)
    using less net natural resources per capita (harder to measure but I’ll bet on the trend)

    We haven’t pushed the ‘carrying capacity’ of the world, partially because society seems to adapt to its environment,
    This does not surprise naturalists. Malthus might have been happiest with the Chinese ‘one-child’ policy. They do not abandon their social experiments lightly.

    Put the knives away. keep the gene pool robust. If you were good at golf, and feared it would become addictive. what would you
    think if someone advised you the sever a couple of fingers to limit your ability to improve. One could probably figure out another way to stay off the course.

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    • #
      yarpos

      Not much of an analogy with the golf. The idea isnt to stop improving its to stop a result at all. Maybe cutting of both arms may be better. The means you choose to stop having children is pretty irrelevant really and most people stop for financial reasons, unless they on the govt benefits train.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Vasectomies can be reversed. He needs to get himself castrated.

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  • #

    The World is much better off without being encumbered by the foolish offspring of these deluded people. It also makes more room in the future for intelligent people. This is a win-win outcome.

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    Deplorable Lord Kek

    This is policy schizophrenia:

    1. westerners must stop having children because climate change

    2. to fix birth rates in western countries mass immigration from low carbon footprint countries is required.

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      OriginalSteve

      Yes, its called pump and dump….this is just a theory of course…..

      Step 1 – Alter society make up through mass migration ( usually with the left over a population of a country ticked off by mass killing the immigrants relatives first )
      Step 2 – Create societal ignition point through differences between new immigrants and existing occupants so country is internally fueding
      Step 3 – The Elite bully boys then ride in with martial law to “solve” the “upheaval” problem – which is what they wanted….

      Job done.

      Climate Change is just social engineering on a massive scale.

      If you can get chunks of society at each others throats, its the old “divide and conquer” thing happening…..

      60

      • #
        WXcycles

        Steve, fed-govts impose a high-immigration rate despite strong persistent anti high-immigration domestic community sentiment, because federal Treasury knows that to reduce immigration is likely to produce recession, as well as less favorable demographic transition and lowered tax-revenue extraction options. But they do it on the cheap via not building infrastructure, while the hard-left’s barking-loons ‘cooperate’ and gleefully enable the lack of delivery, via making sure promised public spending on imprtant infrastructure upgrades or new developments mostly do not get approvals. Thus making it safer for the Lib-Nats to make hollow promises they largely will not be keeping any time soon, and to express grandiose plans and mucho ideological pro-infrastructure chest-beating talk which they will not be following through with, like so many other ‘sacred’ promises. The high immigration rate will be staying, no matter what they promise or insinuate to the contrary. And they will keep doing it on the cheap because they have no money to splash around unless it comes from taxation, or debt, then more taxation to pay for new deficits.

        40

        • #
          Deplorable Lord Kek

          federal Treasury knows that to reduce immigration is likely to produce recession, as well as less favorable demographic transition and lowered tax-revenue extraction options.

          There are a number of issues here:
          (1) the immigration rate is preposterously high, running well above replacement levels.
          (2) the immigration ponzi scheme cannot go forever because we have limited resources (eg water).
          (3) the immigration rate operates to suffocate the natural replacement rate because of its attendant cost of living pressures (increased cost of housing, diminution of wage levels due to oversupply, etc).
          (4) the government, in its ‘wisdom’ has gutted the economy and sent industry overseas. The economy now basically runs on Australia being a hole in the ground (mining) and building high rise. Good for the 1%, not so good for everyone else.

          30

          • #
            WXcycles

            (1) the immigration rate is preposterously high, running well above replacement levels.

            They are clearly not aiming for replacement, they want a bigger population which produces a growing GDP.

            (2) the immigration ponzi scheme cannot go forever because we have limited resources (eg water).

            Water is not limited, it keeps raining regardless. What is limited is storage and distribution.

            (3) the immigration rate operates to suffocate the natural replacement rate because of its attendant cost of living pressures (increased cost of housing, diminution of wage levels due to oversupply, etc).

            Maybe, but low wage growth and low disposable income and lowering aggregate demand today are also a function of voluntary choices of Citizens to enter into debt contracts rather than to spend on having optional children (maybe later).

            (4) the government, in its ‘wisdom’ has gutted the economy and sent industry overseas. The economy now basically runs on Australia being a hole in the ground (mining) and building high rise. Good for the 1%, not so good for everyone else.

            I’m not going to presume govt gutted the manufacturing sector, in fact they propped it up for as long as possible. What really trashed it, and manufacturing exports was the $AUD going over $1.00 to the USD, from 2010 to 2013 (do we blame Keating for floating the dollar?).

            https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=AUD&to=USD&view=10Y

            Plus the Australian electorate has supported many stupid Govt policies (since Howard) which cumulatively made Australia’s once more diverse economy uncompetitive. I guess you could blame Govt(s) for doing that, but as usual the Govt or opposition makes a policy, the voters vote, then bureaucrats front-run it with their own agenda.

            PeterS’s crash and burn seems more likely, except we do have an awful lot of minerals and energy to sell to many huge huge markets close by (and I don’t mean China per-sec). But the money from that mostly goes off-shore, not into our pockets. We were certainly a bunch of fools for letting bad governments get us into this position.

            Though I think virtue-vasectomy and a pitiful green-religion is perhaps not going to be any sort of resolution or even marginal improvement.

            21

            • #
              Deplorable Lord Kek

              (1) between “preposterous” and “replacement” there are historical levels.

              No one says there should be no immigration; immigration should not, however, be a net detriment to the quality of life of the people already living here (whilst lining the pockets of the 1%).

              (2) fresh water is defined as a limited resource. we do not control the weather.

              (3) that is an interesting use of the phrase ‘voluntary choice’.

              (4) yes, there are a variety of factors that trashed the manufacturing sector, in particular reliance on superfluous renewables (coal fired stations run 24/7 irrespective of renewables contribution to the grid), that have caused a completely unnecessary spike in power prices.

              10

              • #
                WXcycles

                (1) between “preposterous” and “replacement” there are historical levels. No one says there should be no immigration; immigration should not, however, be a net detriment to the quality of life of the people already living here (whilst lining the pockets of the 1%).

                Agree, but in Canberra that’s not a consideration that earns election cycle funding.

                (2) fresh water is defined as a limited resource. we do not control the weather.

                Give it up, that’s plainly not true. The availability of fresh water is strongly related to the amount of storage and distribution we decide to build. Weather is not climate, weather will be what it will so you build excess storage and get better at metering it out. Rainfall does not stop everywhere, even in a protracted drought, so evaporation is not a one-way street.

                (3) that is an interesting use of the phrase ‘voluntary choice’.

                You have never been forced to sign a hire-purchase agreement to acquire a debt. It is a personal choice, and it is completely voluntary. Mere victim rhetoric following bad voluntary choices does not change what really took place.

                (4) yes, there are a variety of factors that trashed the manufacturing sector, in particular reliance on superfluous renewables (coal fired stations run 24/7 irrespective of renewables contribution to the grid), that have caused a completely unnecessary spike in power prices.

                Agreed, this was a vast mistake, a total lapse of sanity and reason. A monument to the problem of a democracy run by idiots.

                It’s also a demonstrable fundamental lie to assert that “renewables” are economically competitive. Nor a viable replacement for existing base-load generating capacity. And also a lie to say they were ever even “renewable”, as things that don’t pay for themselves and don’t make a NET profit in generating cost in total, can not be economically recapitalized on any ‘renewable’ basis.

                They are “unaffordables”, and subsidizing them to create a fake illusion of “renewable-ness”, is just blowing your own stupid foot off for no good reason.

                00

    • #
      PeterS

      Good points. It exposes the utter stupidity of calling for a “climate emergency”. Countries like China, India, Russia are treating the so called “climate emergency” as irrelevant and false. We really need a “Winston Churchill” to call it for what it is; the climate change agenda is evil and must be destroyed. A true leader ought to make a similar speech as the one Churchill did when calling for Britain to meet the Nazi threat. We have precious little time left before the dark clouds of climate activism spread too far and ends up destroying the Western world.

      40

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Yeah although we will ultimately survive ( I cant speak for the climate numpties though ) because as society continues to eat itself, its the old school tough and hardened sceptics who actually know how stuff works in the real world and don’t take nonsense from people, who will push through the maelstrom and come out the other side.

        Society has become soft, ignorant and stupid – they don’t have older generation resourcefulness or wisdom. They also dont have the gritted determination to deal with threats as required. There is a benefit to having grown up in the bush and dealing with nasty stuff, that the iphone generation just wont be able to stomach.

        I console myself that we are way tougher than the current generation, and wisdom and outhouse rat cunning will outwit numpty emotion every time.

        50

        • #
          PeterS

          The way I see it is it will polarise the whole society to the point of civil violence getting out of hand. Neither side is giving up any time soon that’s for sure.

          30

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Well, likely that will suit the demented Elite, who appear to love bloodshed and based on history, appear to happily commit whatever acts of violence they deem necessary to achieve their sick world view.

            As such, they would be happy for emo-climate/brown shirt mobs to lynch sceptics, so it might get interesting.

            The Elite to not appear to have any discernable morals, and seem to track along a Machiavellian path.

            20

  • #
    pat

    theirABC radio news bulletin this morning thought this was powerful stuff that would influence Big Tech. set aside Big Tech’s investment in CAGW, their closeness to Preident Obama, etc:

    22 Nov: Guardian: Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full: ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’
    In a speech, the actor argued that Facebook would have run ads by Hitler. Here are his remarks in full
    In a speech last night at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen attacked Facebook and other social media platforms for enabling the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation…

    Today around the world, demagogues appeal to our worst instincts. Conspiracy theories once confined to the fringe are going mainstream. It’s as if the Age of Reason – the era of evidential argument – is ending, and now knowledge is delegitimized and scientific consensus is dismissed…

    On the internet, everything can appear equally legitimate. Breitbart resembles the BBC…
    And the rantings of a lunatic seem as credible as the findings of a Nobel prize winner…

    I’m speaking up today because I believe that our pluralistic democracies are on a precipice and that the next 12 months, and the role of social media, could be determinant. British voters will go to the polls…
    Americans will vote for president while trolls and bots perpetuate the disgusting lie of a “Hispanic invasion”. And after years of YouTube videos calling climate change a “hoax”, the United States is on track, a year from now, to formally withdraw from the Paris accords…
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/22/sacha-baron-cohen-facebook-propaganda

    30

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    If the ABC hate it, it must be good, useful and protects Australians…..

    The Reds in parliament must have howled at the moon ( or screamed at the sky ) as the Deplorables outwitted them.

    It seems Robb is a hero for common sense.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-24/10-years-of-climate-change-inertiaand-the-role-of-andrew-robb/11726072

    “The day that plunged Australia’s climate policy into 10 years of inertia

    “Ten years ago today, Andrew Robb arrived at Parliament House intent upon an act of treachery.

    “No-one was expecting him. Robb was formally on leave from the Parliament undergoing treatment for his severe depression.

    “But the plan the Liberal MP nursed to himself that morning would not only bring about the political demise of his leader, Malcolm Turnbull, but blow apart Australia’s two great parties irrevocably just as they teetered toward consensus on climate change, the most divisive issue of the Australian political century.

    “They have never again been so close.

    “A decade later, according to the ABC’s Australia Talks National Survey, climate change is a matter of urgent community concern. Eighty-four per cent of respondents said that climate change was real and that action was warranted. When offered a range of 19 issues and asked which were of gravest personal concern, climate change ranked at number one.

    “As bushfires ravage the landscape and drought once again strangles vast tracts of the continent, the inability of the Australian Parliament to reach agreement on how to answer the threat of climate change — or even discuss it rationally — may well be one of the drivers of another shrieking headline from the Australia Talks research: 84 per cent of respondents also feel that Australian politicians are out of touch with the views of the people they represent.

    “This is the story — told on its 10th birthday — of a political event that changed the course of a nation’s history.
    …………………..
    “An extraordinary tactic

    “And so it was that Andrew Robb made one of the most extraordinary and — by most conventional measures — indefensible tactical decisions in the history of political chicanery.

    “Parliament House is no stranger to mental illness. Historically, its sufferers have covered their tracks, loath to be seen as vulnerable.

    “But this must be the only recorded occasion on which mental illness has been used as a tactic.

    “Robb ripped himself a scrap of paper and scrawled a note to Turnbull.

    “”The side effects of the medication I am on now make me very tired. I’d be really grateful if you could get me to my feet soon,” he wrote.

    “Turnbull called Robb to speak soon after. He rose, and denounced the proposed scheme in forensic detail, his words carrying significant weight as the erstwhile bearer of the relevant portfolio.

    “The deal never recovered. The meeting went on for six more hours. Turnbull — a streetfighter when cornered — added the numbers of shadow Cabinet votes to the “yes” votes in the party room and declared that he had a majority.

    “The party room wasn’t buying it. Turnbull was cooked.

    60

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Common sense is never a ‘ virtue’
      In the Australian Brainwashing Corporation !
      And……
      Robb’s actions are presented as being
      A result of his mental illness.
      Just so everyone ‘knows’.
      Ita should sack Crabb so she can get a job with
      The paywalled extremist cousin
      The Saturday Paper.

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      • #

        What I can’t believe in that whole article, that whole thing, is that they let Crabb write 3300 words on it in the first place.

        After reading it for 16 hours, I scrolled down to see how far I still had to go.

        Tony.

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        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Self Indulgence
          By Approved ‘auteurs’
          Reigns supreme
          At the Australian Brainwashing Corporation.
          And someone with guts, brains and common sense
          Like Andrew Robb
          Presented as a ‘nut case’ job !

          40

    • #

      “As bushfires ravage the landscape and drought once again strangles vast tracts of the continent, the inability of the Australian Parliament to reach agreement on how to answer the threat of climate change …”

      It’s such a stunt. Best called disaster-flashing. You list a bunch of events in the first part of a sentence then make a political statement in the next part. As if there has to be a connection. The disasters, fresh in the news and covered over and over in colour, are the softening up for the politics.

      One tries to explain how there is no decade or shorter or longer period without its harvest of climate disasters. One goes to the trouble of listing them.

      The GeeUp rebuttal method is to retreat from fact into abstraction. Disasters now are more frequent, extreme, intense etc. Because look how all this stuff is happening! Mention the fact that Sydney’s driest year was 1888, that its second driest was 1862, that its third driest was 1968, that its fourth driest was 1941, that its fifth driest was 1957…and you’ll just get that glazed look that says ‘I need to phone a GeeUp friend’. Mention the Arctic melts of the post-Napoleonic and post WW1 periods and you’ll be asked to show your satellite images.

      Note the conditioning which now connects “bushfire” automatically to a a fund of guilt and a host of measures lacking any connection with actual bushfire. Mitigating the real problem has been removed from public consciousness. You may not ask. You may not even think to ask. Bushfire = guilt + white elephants. That is all you need to know.

      Should you dare to mention the drought and heat of the early 1790s, result of monsoon failures which killed millions in India and could have wiped out the first fleeters, they will ask you where were the fires. When you point out the screamingly obvious fact that Australia was a managed landscape with a venerable forest canopy over regularly fired ground…well, don’t be surprised if they ask for photos.

      You can’t deal with the great Herd of Independent Minds as if it was composed of thinking individuals. Qualifications, degrees, IQ etc don’t come into it. You are dealing with a herd when you address what you think is an individual. Protection of the herd’s position is all that counts, and any intelligence available will be directed exclusively to that end.

      50

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Dr. Steve Turley makes a good point: The liberals are losing the demographic race.

    What with [mainly] African Americans aborting millions of their babies every year and the intellectuals choosing the snip, the silent majority are outbreeding them. The difference in birth rates is so great that the effect will show in just two generations.

    40

  • #
    Rob

    Anyone seen Idiocracy? Not such a crazy movie after all…

    40

    • #
      PeterS

      Yes it exposes how the West is heading that way. Can we avoid an outcome like the one depicted in the movie? It all depends on the people of course. At the moment it’s not looking promising. Hopefully a minor shock will wake most people up. One that would do the trick would be to have the ALP+Greens in power for say a term. At the moment the LNP is allowing Australia to coast down hill towards the edge of the cliff at a slow pace. The trouble with that is once we reach the end of the road it will be too late to avoid the crash and burn. Better to hit a small rock on the way and wake people up to reverse direction quick smart.

      31

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    Off Topic :
    The Saturday Paper with Max Osprey
    Has attempted to do a hatchet job on Professor Pete Ridd
    https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2019/11/23/peter-ridd-and-the-climate-sceptics/15744276009129
    This is the propaganda the Greenists ‘pay’ for.

    20

  • #
    pat

    China shutting down coal at a rapid rate, says SHY:

    23 Nov: TrendsmapTwitter: JillX
    Well that’s a bit awkward.
    While Sarah (Hanson Young) was on Sky with Tom Connell saying this …
    ABC were running this report
    VIDEO: 58sec
    https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1198097376126197760

    following is still being repeated on 4RPH (Radio for Print Handicapped) in Brisbane.
    at 3min32sec, bushfire segment begins.
    “climate emergency” enters the picture at 6min30sec to about 16min.
    to tackle increasing natural disasters ranging from fires to monsoons to cyclones, we need some kind of federal system…which allows resources to be deployed in a reasonable manner…
    politicians argue over whether CAGW is real, whether it’s human-made etc…here we are fighting tooth and nail to protect industry that needs to be phased out RAPIDLY in order to decrease the ever-increasing threats POSED by climate change, which is leading to a climate emergency around the globe. and we continue to be the most, single, greatest, individual emitter of CO2 in the world.

    AUDIO: 13 Nov: 3CR Community Radio: Anarchist World This Week: Fire – Everybody’s an Expert
    Presenter: Dr Joe Toscano
    https://www.3cr.org.au/anarchistworld/episode-201911131000/fire-everybodys-expert

    the smug “anarchist” presenter:

    Wikipedia: Joseph “Joe” Toscano
    He was educated in Brisbane at the University of Queensland where he acquired his Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery, then his doctoral degree from University of Melbourne…
    Dr Toscano has presented the long running Anarchist World this week program on 3CR since 1977, which is also rebroadcast to community radio stations around Australia through the Community Radio Satellite managed by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)…
    Friends of OUR ABC
    During 2000 Joseph Toscano formed a lobby group, Friends of OUR ABC, to agitate against commercialisation and privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation In November he was elected unopposed to the Friends of the ABC management committee…

    He ran as an independent candidate at the 2012 Melbourne state by-election, receiving 0.75% of the vote…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Toscano

    30

  • #
    pat

    23 Nov: San Francisco Chronicle: Harvard-Yale game delayed by student protest; 20-30 arrested
    by Jimmy Golen, AP Sports Writer
    IMAGE 1 of 8: Demonstrators stage a climate change protest at the Yale Bowl delaying the start of the second half of an NCAA college football game between Harvard and Yale Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019, in in New Haven, Conn.

    Most walked off after about an hour with a police escort; about 20-30 who remained were arrested.
    A few dozen protesters initially trickled onto the field as the Yale band finished performing its halftime routine, some holding a banner asking the schools’ presidents to divest from the fossil fuel industry…
    Yale officials said in a statement handed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter that the school “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”…

    Largely of college age but with a few older protesters mixed in, the group chanted: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” One banner read “This is an emergency.” Mostly they sat or milled around near midfield, with some taking selfies; a vape pen and a crushed can of beer were left behind…

    Players tried to remain warm on the sideline in mid-40(F) temperatures, but then returned to their locker rooms…
    https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Students-storm-field-at-halftime-of-Harvard-Yale-14857788.php

    20

  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: Vice: This Solar Energy Company Fired Its Construction Crew After They Unionized
    Inspired by AOC’s Green New Deal, workers at Bright Power voted to form the first union at a solar power company in New York. On Monday, the company fired them.
    by Lauren Kaori Gurley
    In late April, a group of New York City construction workers, inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s vision for a Green New Deal, voted to form one of the first unions in the solar energy industry. On Monday, their employer Bright Power fired its entire in-house construction crew and announced that those workers, in the midst of negotiations for their first contract, would be replaced with subcontractors.

    “We have come to the conclusion that our resources have been spread too thin with so many different kinds of work all being done in-house,” Bright Power CEO Jeffrey Perlman wrote to the company in an email reviewed by Motherboard. “It makes business sense to return to a fully subcontracted solar installation model.”…

    “This is obviously retaliation for union organizing,” Chris Schroth, one of the fired solar installers from Bright Power, told Motherboard. “The total hypocrisy of their progessive mission as a green energy company is disgusting. They did everything that a big bad union busting company does. This is exactly what a coal company or any other evil company does.”

    Despite the renewable energy industry’s reputation as a progressive alternative to extractive industries, the same cannot be said for how many green energy companies treat their workers…READ ON
    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjenn/this-solar-energy-company-fired-its-construction-crew-after-they-unionized

    23 Nov: Money&Markets: AOC Inspires Workers to Form Union; Company Cans Them All
    Posted by Eugene Townes
    “Bright Power must be held accountable,” (AOC) said in a tweet Friday…READ ON
    https://moneyandmarkets.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-union-fired/

    20

  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: AlbuquerqueJournal: New Mexico climate task force releases report
    By Dan Boyd And Theresa Davis
    A New Mexico climate change task force released its first report Thursday, citing progress that has been made to combat the “climate crisis” and recommendations for the state climate strategy.
    Among other findings, the task force said New Mexico produced more than 66 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 – about 1% of the national total. The state is home to about 0.6% of the nation’s population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

    Overall, New Mexicans produce 31 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per person per year, the report found. The national average is 18 tons per person.
    “It is not hyperbole to suggest the stakes are higher than perhaps ever before in human history,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (Democrat) said in the introduction to the 28-page report, while adding that New Mexico would “step up” to the challenge…

    Meanwhile, the report’s release comes as New Mexico revenue has skyrocketed to record levels – an estimated $7.9 billion in the current budget year – due primarily to an ongoing oil production boom in the state’s southeast corner…
    “I think for (climate) activists it’s pretty terrifying to see a state pretty quickly grow to be (one of the top oil-producing states) and I can completely respect that response,” Lujan Grisham told the Journal in a recent interview…

    While environmental groups praised the report, organizations like Power the Future took issue with the state’s initiatives.
    “This is a love letter to radical environmentalists disguised as a government report,” said Larry Behrens, western states director for the group. “The ideas presented will kill energy jobs in our state while green corporations will reap the profits. In just one example, the authors of the report suggest New Mexicans spend more on adoption of all-electric vehicles while the Governor won’t give up her gas-guzzling SUV.”…
    https://www.abqjournal.com/1394073/new-mexico-climate-task-force-releases-report.html

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Say what? Who said any child had a right to be born into a world at everlasting peace with itself? No one. This is but one more crock of foolishness masquerading as new politically correct wisdom. I was born into a world spoiling for a fight, a war that would engulf every continent and every ocean we have. And a funny thing happened on my father’s way to his appointment to get his politically correct vasectomy. The thought never crossed his mind.

    Now that I’m here I can safely say that after all the trouble since my birth the world is here with me, safe and sound in spite of all its troubles.

    Why do people want to take the cowards way out and dodge their responsibility as human beings to face problems and overcome them? Yes, it’s cowardly to dodge the future because it looks dangerous or difficult. God forbid it.

    80

    • #
      Annie

      #47 was supposed to be a reply to Roy…

      10

    • #
      WXcycles

      WWI in Europe = 4 years, WWII in Europe = 5.5 years, WWII in Pacific = 3.7 years. When the world gets serious about warfare it’s mostly over in under five years then about 90 years of mostly peace, in the majority of countries, for the rest of a century. It’s not war tearing us apart during peace, it’s hard-left ideology and delusional proto-authoritarian politics, supported by the greens and loony-left.

      In this week’s Sky interview with Sarah Hanson-Young she simply refused to criticize China and avoided the topic, and merely said that maybe they could do “more”, as well. Except they aren’t doing anything, except the diametric opposite of everyone else, on official green ’causes’! But they get an unsolicited free-pass on everything they are doing (yeah, so follow the green’s money-supply and I bet it leads (indirectly) straight back to Beijing. But then she totally trashed Australia, in every unbalanced and unjustified way, the one country where the Lib-Nats are probably doing more than any other to address the fake climate-crisis, and are thus willingly carrying the green’s water for them.

      That’s what destroys peace, and unhinges the world.

      60

      • #
        Screaming Nutbag

        What “destroys peace and unhinges the world” is when gullible fools go around parroting lies for the rich and powerful.

        “China is the world leader in wind power generation, with the largest installed capacity of any nation”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_China

        “China is the world’s largest market for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. Since 2013 China has been the world’s leading installer of solar photovoltaics (PV). In 2015, China became the world’s largest producer of photovoltaic power, narrowly surpassing Germany.[1][2][3] In 2017 China was the first country to pass 100 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity,[4][5] and by the end of 2018, it had 174 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity.[6] As of May 2018, China holds the record for largest operational solar project in its 1,547-MW project at Tengger.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China

        11

        • #
          WXcycles

          (Is that you Sarah? I must say your user handle fits the profile.)

          “China is the world leader in wind power generation, with the largest installed capacity of any nation” “China is the world’s largest market for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. Since 2013 China has been the world’s leading installer of solar photovoltaics (PV). In 2015, China became the world’s largest producer of photovoltaic power, narrowly surpassing Germany.[1][2][3] In 2017 China was the first country to pass 100 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity,[4][5] and by the end of 2018, it had 174 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity.[6] As of May 2018, China holds the record for largest operational solar project in its 1,547-MW project at Tengger.”

          And nowhere near enough to be taken seriously compared to the damand.

          Plus you conveniently ignore the reality that the Chinese have concluded that the fake-“renewables”, are actually both unreliables, and unaffordables, and have curtailed investments in them except for tokenistic projects for globalist greenie propaganda consumption and messaging to deceive purposes, such as, “See, we’re being greenies too”. Not.

          What the Chinese are really doing is this:

          China Set for Massive Coal Expansion in Threat to Climate Goals

          Bloomberg News

          November 20, 2019, 3:26 AM EST

          Capacity of projects in pipeline almost match EU total: report

          New plants in China driving global addition of coal power

          China has enough coal-fired power plants in the pipeline to match the entire capacity of the European Union, driving the expansion in global coal power and confounding the movement against the polluting fossil fuel, according to a report.

          The nation has almost 148 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity under active construction or likely to be resumed after being suspended, Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit group that tracks coal stations, said in the report Thursday based on plant-by-plant data. That’s almost equivalent to 150 gigawatts of existing coal fleet capacity in the EU and more than the combined 105 gigawatts under construction in the rest of the world, it said.

          https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-20/china-set-for-massive-coal-expansion-in-threat-to-climate-goals

          20

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          And who cares? Both wind and solar make the grid more unstable if anything goes wrong.

          00

    • #
      PeterW

      Roy has a point. Conflict and suffering are normal for humanity.

      Everybody suffers….. Everyone gets to watch people they love sicken and die… it doesn’t get more basic than that.

      00

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        At first I wasn’t going to answer this But I’ve Changed my mind.

        Why are you so cynical? Certain concepts we all take for granted only have meaning if allowed in pairs.

        For instance:

        1. You cannot say you have something unless there is the possibility of not having it or losing it.
        2. You cannot say you’re happy unless there’s the possibility of being unhappy.
        3. Specifically you cannot say you have the relationship that blesses you unless there’s the possibility of not having it or losing it.

        One only exists and has any meaning if the other also exists Now are we going to be afraid to bring children into this world because something awful might happen to them? Kiss the human race goodbye.

        It strike me as foolish to look at the possible loss of something or the possible suffering as you just stated. That is a bleak and unappealing world in which you miss the best life has to offer. I refuse to go there. You should not go into that world ether.

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          PeterW

          Roy…

          Your problem is that you are (again?) attributing to me something that I did not say.

          I say that conflict and suffering are inescapable. I do NOT say that they make life not worth living. I do NOT say that that they are the overwhelming and that we cannot deal with them.

          I grew up knowing people who had – voluntarily – fought in two world wars. You have to know that there is something of value worth fighting for, to do that.
          I have buried and mourned both my parents.
          I have spent my adult life dealing with droughts, bushfires (40 year volunteer) pests and Labor Governments. I have watched my brother live life without a day’s good health in over fifty years. I’ve beaten the Black Dog.

          It’s not whether life is hard, but whether you can stand up AGAINST the hard life that makes it worthwhile.

          Doing what other people think “too hard” or “too dangerous” Kicking goals when the circumstances are against you….. The gutless wonder that this thread was started in order to discuss obviously doesn’t know how to raise children into functional adults who can cope with life. Well maybe he’s right, because you can’t reproduce in others what you’ve never done yourself.

          You want to know something interesting? POWs in Vietnam found that the pessimists survived better. The optimists – those who always expected the best – did not survive well, because they were continually disappointed. Expecting things to be hard was the superior survival trait.

          You might want to think about that.

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            Kalm Keith

            Hi Peter,

            This comment reminds me of a clash that we had a few weeks back.

            I found the interaction memorable and stuck to reading only after that.

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              PeterW

              Keith…
              That was the time you took personally something that was not applied to you.

              I still don’t know why.
              You asked a question. I answered it, but I did NOT apply my criticism to you.
              What was your problem?

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                Kalm Keith

                I didn’t ask a question. It was a statement.

                Aside from that I’ve found a lot worth reading in your comments.

                KK

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          Alice Thermopolis

          According to Buddhists that’s life or, as they say, “samsara”.
          We live in a constantly changing world where: “everything that has the nature of arising, also has the nature of passing away.”

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    Annie

    I should think there are quite a few of us here who were born to parents who were fighting in WW2. There were always difficult times and still are. I don’t regret being born despite things feeling very hard and wondering what it was all for. My Christian belief (and the backbone of Western civilisation is its Judeo-Christian heritage, like it or not) has helped me a lot. This is why Christianity and Judaism are the religions most under attack, in order to undermine our civilisation that has given so much to the world. That doesn’t mean that I believe every bit of nonsense coming from often overbearing or idiotic clergy…far from it. I despair of some of the rubbish put out by all the touchy-feely ‘woke’ brigade and despise their mindless following of it.
    I am also aware of the persecution of others too but it is Christians who are the largest by number of the groups under attack worldwide…I’ve lost the reference to a study on that so don’t waste time asking me. Note that a certain religious group seems free to migrate to many Western nations but those nations couldn’t bring themselves to give a haven to that badly persecuted Pakistani lady, whose name (Asia?) escapes me right now, until Canada finally took her in. T May was a total disgrace over that and Australia no better.

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      OriginalSteve

      Annie, it appears the powers that be are happy to forment a stoush between the main religious players. It would be interesting to know the religious affliation of a lot of the immigrants . I suspect if you go into one part of the world, lay waste to multiple countries, then later organize the survivors relatives to emmigrate to the place that started it all, no prizes for guessing over time whether revenge might be on the cards…..Im speculating of course, time will tell….

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      Screaming Nutbag

      There is no such thing as “judeo-christian”.
      We have a christian heritage, back through the scientific revolution, the enlightenment, the reformation, the renaissance, feudalism, the Holy Roman Empire, the Roman Empire, and the Greeks, all of it occurring West of Asia Minor.
      There is no “judeo” except for some weird and outlandish bits of the bible that we spent the last 1500 years learning to ignore.

      Weirdo fundies invented the “judeo-christian” thing to try to subvert our culture.

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        Kalm Keith

        Keep screaming Scro Bro, it’s funny.

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        WXcycles

        Without the Judeo beginnings, there is no Christian, the two can not be separated and pretended to be unrelated. They are totally related. Not that I’m in favor of either’s beliefs, though I do recognize that Christianity grew into a global civilization that was much better than most. Lost its way now though.

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    PeterW

    That idiot almost makes me want to have half a dozen children.

    But the prospect of finding a young lady worth marrying is abysmally low.

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      Roy Hogue

      Fear not. The problem is solvable by not going out hunting for the right woman but instead, figuring out where the right women are to be found and then go there, join in the activity, make friends and soon enough that elusive woman will show up.

      Head hunting is frustrating and at best difficult and nothing can beat having a good time with fiends and letting the headhunting take care of itself.

      I know it works from personal experience.

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        Annie

        Oh dear! I hope your friends aren’t all fiends Roy! You don’t deserve that 🙂

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          No! Emphatically no! Most of them are typographical errors that I never quite pick up on in time. I need a moderator to fix my fiends. I do keep strange friends I guess…well, there by luck I got it right. 😉

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      Annie

      There are a few but not necessarily the right ones for you, or in the right place PeterW. Our daughter is a smasher but wary now after a bad early experience. She is doing a marvellous job of bringing up her son. She works hard and has her head screwed on very straight and has lots of experience of working on farms and being part of the DELWP Vic Forest Fire Management summer crews. She loved the work but came home utterly exhausted at times.
      Not trying to match make btw; just signifying that some decent single young women of commonsense still do exist!

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        PeterW

        Annie..
        Without being personal, a failed “relationship” is a red flag…

        Roy.
        I’m 55.
        I did exactly what you suggested, yet the number of females that I’ve met who made me feel that I could maybe share a life with them AND been confident that they would stick AND that they wouldn’t try to make life a constant battle, is tiny.

        I’m not anti-marriage, but I’ve observed that the bad ones are not worth risking at any price. Every time I see friends with wives who treat them with disrespect, I wonder why you’d bother.

        Feminism has not done women any favours.

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          Roy Hogue

          I found myself a widower at 53. It took four years to get the right woman to the alter. My first wife and I had met square dancing and after her death I resolved to go back to a square dance class and start all over. But it wasn’t because I thought I would meet the right woman it was because I had always loved square dancing and I knew that I’d meet people who didn’t drink all evening because you can’t square dance and get high at the same time. So that met two of my requirements.

          Feminisms’ problem is that some of their complaints are valid and some aren’t. My wife would read you the riot act over some things but she’s not about to get excited over silly things that don’t matter. We get along well.

          I don’t know what you’ve tried or what your interests are but how far are you wiling to go? It’s possible to find a new interest or two. And remember, it only takes one.

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            PeterW

            Roy.
            Feminism is toxic, and that includes your wife imagining that she can “read the riot act “ instead of offering reasonable evidence and discussion.

            You illustrate one of my primary objections, there. I see a home as a place of rest and mutual respect. Not a place where you return after fighting dragons all day, to find another in the kitchen.

            “Evidence” in this case, might mean naming even one “right” accorded to males by not to females simply on account of their gender.

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              Screaming Nutbag

              You’re not really selling your kitchen very well.

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                PeterW

                Anyone who is put off by what I’ve said is not the kind of person I’d be attracted to, anyway.
                Why would you expect otherwise?

                I made my peace with the single state years ago.

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              Roy Hogue

              I made my peace with the single state years ago.

              In that case you need not have made the original comment. But I’m not going to be your judge beyond that.

              In spite of his recent reputation Screaming Nutbag has a point you might consider though.

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                PeterW

                Roy…

                Is there something about the word “almost” that you don’t understand?

                Or the idea that I might be making an ironic comment ON TOPIC, not seeking dating advice?

                When you find yourself agreeing with the nutter, it’s a hint that there is something about the topic that you’ve missed.

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                Roy Hogue

                This has become a confrontation I’m not willing to continue with. So I will withdraw but I need to say one thing.

                Screaming Nutbag may be an irrelevant nobody as his comments make him out to be but even a fool can sometimes hit squarely on the truth. And he’s right, you aren’t selling your position very well.

                Winning an argument and having others agree with me are not things I worry about. And I may not be selling my position effectively either so let’s agree to disagree and end this.

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      PeterW

      GC…..
      I’m familiar with the downward population trends and the dynamics which appear to be driving them.

      I’m also familiar with some of the arguments re the economic consequences…. but I get highly sceptical when they try to link that with the consequences of US trade and immigration policy.

      The US is not anti-trade or anti-immigration, and the current economic policy appears to be making the US more able to pay for the costs associated with demographic change – not less.

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    pat

    BBC doesn’t seem to understand how stupid this makes them look:

    23 Nov: BBC Entertainment & Arts: Greta Thunberg to guest edit Radio 4’s Today programme
    Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg is to appear as one of the Christmas guest editors of Radio 4’s Today programme.
    The 16-year-old campaigner will be one of five high-profile people who will take over the programme during the festive period, as is tradition.

    The others include Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry and Supreme Court president Baroness Hale of Richmond.
    George the Poet and journalist Charles Moore will also take the reins…

    Thunberg will speak to the world’s leading climate change figures and hear from frontline activists, the BBC said.
    She has also commissioned reports from the Antarctic and Zambia, as well as a Mishal Husain interview with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50515081

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    pat

    and neither he, nor the journalists, mentioned the hundreds of millions of dollars his family will make from the CAGW scam, just on the Crown Estate and offshore “windfarms”!

    22 Nov: EconomicTimesIndia: PTI: Prince Charles talks about climate change, says humans only have 10 yrs to ‘change the course’
    CHRISTCHURCH NZ: Prince Charles warned Friday that time is running out to address the impact of climate change as he prepares to visit one of the Pacific island nations most-affected by global warming…

    “We have reached a tipping point and we still have the ability to change course, but only 10 years,” said the first in line to the British throne, who has been a passionate environmentalist for decades.
    He said climate change was a scientific fact, rejecting suggestions from sceptics that “scaremongering” was dominating the debate.
    “We have abused nature, exploited her and given her nothing back in return,” he told an audience at Christchurch’s Lincoln University.
    “Nothing is sacred anymore, we are reaping a loss of biodiversity and experiencing the impacts of climate changes. We urgently need to pay the mounting debt.”…
    https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/prince-charles-talks-about-climate-change-says-humans-only-have-10-yrs-to-change-the-course/articleshow/72180888.cms

    23 Nov: Woman&Home: Prince Charles reveals he fears for his grandchildren’s future as climate change reaches ‘tipping point’
    by Georgia Farquharson
    He said, “I have always been driven by an overwhelming desire not to be confronted by my grandchildren demanding to know why I didn’t do anything to prevent them being bequeathed a poisoned and destroyed planet.
    “Now, of course, we are indeed being confronted by these very children, demanding immediate action and not just words. How much longer therefore can we dither and delay?”…

    And, given how fondly he’s spoken about his grandkids previously, it’s no surprise the Prince is concerned for their future welfare…
    https://www.womanandhome.com/life/prince-charles-heartbreaking-warning-grandchildren-340831/

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    pat

    bring on the “climate hawks”:

    23 Nov: InsideClimateNews: Bloomberg Is a Climate Leader. So Why Aren’t Activists Excited About a Run for President?
    Michael Bloomberg has poured his time and hundreds of millions of dollars into projects aimed at getting the world ‘beyond carbon,’ but can he win the presidency?
    By Marianne Lavelle
    So climate voters are naturally rallying behind the idea of a Bloomberg presidential candidacy, right?
    Not quite…

    Their concerns go beyond the general worry among Democrats that Bloomberg’s entry will prolong an internecine battle among the party’s hopefuls. They wonder if the moderate, unabashedly pro-business Bloomberg, whose personal wealth is estimated at more than $50 billion, is the right leader for the kind of climate action they believe is needed now—a sweeping transformation of the U.S. economy and its energy mix.
    “The first reaction is just a huge, ‘Why?,'” said RL Miller, political director of the advocacy group Climate Hawks Vote. “Why is he doing this?…
    The presence of Bloomberg and Steyer as voices of climate activism in the 2020 presidential race is not helpful to the movement, in Miller’s view.

    “It creates the perception that only rich white people care about climate, and we have been working so hard to overcome that assumption by bringing climate justice front and center with the Green New Deal,” Miller said…
    https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23112019/michael-bloomberg-president-climate-change-activists-concerns-green-new-deal-wealth-tax

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    David

    Wes Siler: “You can never have enough of nature.”

    Try telling that to the people who had enough exposure to nature in the form of the Gympie bush, or more than enough exposure to 100% natural fire, or overly enough exposure to nature in arctic subzero temperatures, too much exposure to radon gas for example, or asbestos, or excessive exposure to water, overly enough exposure to nature in the form of the poliovirus or the human immunodeficiency virus. What if you’ve had enough of nature in the form of brain parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, or the Naegleria fowleri amoeba, or the Rabies Virus, or the tsetse fly carrying Trypanosoma?

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    Senex

    Too bad his parents didn’t have the same idea

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    tom0mason

    Are hermaphrodites that only prefer hermaphrodites homosexual?

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    dp

    Meaning he’s unwilling to give up heterosexuality which would solve his problem without self-mutilation. Which also means he’s an idiot virtue signaller of a third kind. He’s giving up nothing, in fact.

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    Maptram

    Perhaps there should be another category for the Darwin Awards, something like “Voluntary removing oneself from the gene pool, to save planet earth.”

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