Midweek Unthreaded

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110 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #

    Some names on that list of 110000 scientists… what esteemed company! -as much quality control as any other piece of climate science.
    http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/climate-signators
    [The Link or the site linked seems to be broken]ED

    Mouse, Micky
    Professor
    Micky Mouse Institute for the Blind
    Namibia

    Dumbledore , Albus
    Headmaster
    Hogwarts
    United States of America (the)

    Aadvark, Araminta
    Professor of zoology
    University of Neasden
    United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

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    • #
      Serp

      Yeah, collated all the lies they could recollect on the one document and then sought signatures; His (yes, the deity) ABC is running hard on the mention of sea level rise and ocean acidification, curiously enough the easiest two fabrications to prove false.

      The relentless propaganda effort continues.

      Ah well give it another decade until the renewable installations have degenerated into imbroglios of scrap metal and toxic solar waste and then rebuild the hydrocarbon burning systems I guess…

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Serp,

        “Ah well give it another decade until the renewable installations have degenerated into imbroglios of scrap metal and toxic solar waste”.

        The important thing is to make all of the costs of demolition and chemical neutralisation of renewables debris highly visible to the public.

        Link it to the outrageous cost of Electricity.

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    • #

      might want to check that link

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      Marc I went through the list looking for our Fitz but alas his name wasn’t there but did see –

      Quite a few PHD candidates

      Vets etc so as first thought very few in the field in question , heard an interview about this subject on radio and the “scientist” interviewed when asked where the emergency actually was he pointed to the disappearing Pacific islands .

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      robert rosicka

      It’s odd that this petition of over 30,000 scientists that say the opposite never had a big run in the media .

      http://www.petitionproject.org/

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      • #
        PeterS

        Does not fit their agenda. If memory holes were fully put into practice that petition would have been removed. That I suspect is where we might be heading with the internet, especially if it ever falls into the hand of our elite masters.

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        • #
          Greebo

          That I suspect is where we might be heading with the internet, especially if it ever falls into the hand of our elite masters.

          I fear it already has, as our “elite masters” would appear to be Google, FaceBook, Apple and Hollywood.

          00

    • #
      TdeF

      “rising GHGs from burning fossil fuels (Hansen et al. 2013) Note this is M.C. Hansen, not the original James Hansen man made Global Warming inventor. And there is categoric proof that rising CO2 has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Less than 2% of aerial CO2 is man released. You can measure it with radio carbon dating. Simple. Not arguable.

      However the 2013 Hansen article is mainly a whinge about loss of trees. I guess modern ‘environmental scientists’ would have stopped all development of farming since 10,000 years ago too because agriculture is about removing trees. That then removes habitats and you get species loss. However it is to feed people or you get people loss from starvation, but that’s the balance.

      So this is more from the STWIWTGO (Stop the world I want to get off) crowd who want to take us back to a time before weaving and cloth and even underpants. But also without animal skins. And as Greenpeace originator Dr. Patrick Moore explains, at 20C naked humans will die from hypthermia.

      Still, they long for an older world before cars and planes, freeways and multistorey buildings and food in stores. Perhaps they can all move to the Amazon and enjoy themselves, for as long as they last?

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      • #
        RickWill

        I have ver simple and clear evidence that water is not a “greenhouse” gas.

        This table, simplyy extracted from NASA global satellite data for 2018 shows the OLR is strongly positively correlated with increasing atmospheric water vapour.
        Mnth TPW- OLR
        Jan 17.04 236.8
        Feb 17.29 236.5
        Mar 17.73 237.9
        Apr 18.19 238.7
        May 20.40 240.6
        Jun 20.92 243
        Jul 21.89 243.9
        Aug 21.04 243.4
        Sep 20.54 242.2
        Oct 19.68 239.5
        Nov 18.93 237.1
        Dec 18.91 236.5

        Water vapour starts the year at its minimum of 17.04mm and OLR just above its minimum 236.5W/sq,m, which occurs in February. Water vapour rises to its maximum in July as does OLR. They both then decrease to December to be close to minimum for another annual cycle.

        When plotted to a linear trend, the R-squared regression coefficient is 83%. You cannot get any clearer empirical evidence that “greenhouse” gas is a fairy tale in relation to climate on earth. Over the globe, it does the exact opposite of what is expected from determining the OLR absorption through a US Standard Atmosphere; the bases of the fairy tale.

        If you know any so-named climate experts, show them this table and let them explain how reality could be so far separated from theory. In fact is is the exact opposite of the prediction.

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        5 November 2019: Guy Fawkes Day and Melbourne Cup race day –
        freezing snowfalls on the Snowy Mountains: hello consensus scientology?

        Next few days, more freezing snow for Australia’s Alps – in November:

        https://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Mount-Buller/6day/top

        Freezing/snowing all week on our Southern Alps too. Emergency? Crisis? Crock Of Consensus Krazies (you know what it spells):

        https://www.metservice.com/mountain/aoraki-mount-cook-national-park

        Had my first swim of ‘summer’ today – dang it was cold – in and out and gone: I’ll wait another month or two, thank you.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Is this post referencing The Oregon Petition? It doesn’t have M. Mouse contributing. It DOES have well known/film star names. There were 31,000 names added so of course you will have duplicates.

      http://www.petitionproject.org/

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “It appears that Gab has made a move to create an alternative to Drudge Report since Drudge recently has turned his back on conservatives (rumor is he got bought out by someone with a leftist agenda), so they are creating a “people powered” news aggregator site.

    https://trends.gab.com/

    Might be a one stop place to check out what is going on each day outside the mass media globalist bubble.”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/w-o-o-d-30-october-2019/#comment-119158

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  • #
    Another Ian

    More unicorns

    “Guest Post from David Bidstrup. Will Tasmania save us from a dark future?”

    http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/11/05/guest-post-from-david-bidstrup-will-tasmania-save-us-from-a-dark-future/

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  • #
    Another Ian

    And still they come

    “The Giga And Terra Scam Of Offshore Wind Energy”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/04/the-giga-and-terra-scam-of-offshore-wind-energy/

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  • #
    liberator

    The ABC ran a recent “story” about London/England – I don’t recall which one it was now, running their power coal free for a week or so. I didn’t bother reading it but do wonder if they weren’t getting their power from electricity provided by coal – where were they getting it? Certainly not 100% renewables as that would never be enough to power the place. I’ll Google it one day to see the sources of energy supply that they use to keep the lights on. Maybe Tony knows?

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    • #
      Chad

      The UK have little (at times zero) coal generation.
      However, they do have Nuclear, Gas, and have converted their biggest caol generator plant (Drax) to burn wood chips. ( which produce even more CO@ !)
      They also have HVDC interconnectors to France and Europe , so if they run short, they just ask their neighbours for a little help !

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      • #
        Chad

        That should read.. “ Drax .burning wood chips which produced even more CO2 than it did burning coal “
        And , to add that the UK has a lot of wind generation , especially offshore.

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          They also get electricity from Europe, i.e. The Netherlands (60+% coal fired). But that is O.K. as The Netherlands has “CARBON FREE” electricity, i.e. they buy certificates from Norway who get oodles from their Hydro scheme.
          The French nuclear stream runs pretty much one way at capacity into the UK.

          I wonder what happens after BREXIT? Can the UK still count on those Certificates (or will the Dutch sell them elsewhere in Europe? Will the French plan to quit nuclear leave the UK in the lurch? I mean, who in their right mind would rely on wind?

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  • #
    TdeF

    Love the idea that Greta has to face the problem of cross the Atlantic without modern technology or fossil fuels.
    The great thing about the spoiled, indulged and self justifying Extinction Crisis pushers is that they are truly threatened.
    They may have to get jobs and grow up, like Greta and her Grimm fairy tales.

    If you discount nuclear weapons and perhaps because of them, the world is not about to end. The place is not hopelessly polluted. The seas are not rising and it is not getting any warmer. It is cleaner now by far than in the 1970s in every way and no thanks to these cranks. It is possible that they simply have nothing better and certainly nothing else to do. Meanwhile the #metoo movement has discovered that sex is involved in human affairs, especially in Hollywood. And the #jesuicharlie people have just vanished without a trace. And the people against Trump’s wall live nowhere near the border. The Americans are ready to pull up stumps in the Middle East. They are not the world’s policemen.

    There should be a Nobel prize for hypocrisy. The trouble is that it would go to violent, mysogynist, sexist, casting couch Hollywood every time. Or perhaps China with demand for Climate Change cash reparations.

    Then I wonder if anyone has noticed that the world is getting noticeably cooler and cooler earlier? Though Global Cooling would be Climate Change?

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Aunty Bullklllsyte news again.
    11000 thats eleven thousand…where did they get that from? Klimate Emergency,CO2 is evil!. lies lies lies. where are the skeptics? if theres 11000 probably a made up number. REAL data proves it wrong.
    NO, its noting to do with climate, its to do with REMOVAL of HYDROCARBON ENERGY from the economy! PERIOD!
    The usual cabal of crooks will be behind it.

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  • #

    It’s clear to many that the climate beat-up is the pointy end of an ambitious political agenda. While the grass roots GeeUppers and other footsoldiers may have genuine concerns, those behind that agenda could not care less about climate or ecology. Control, control and control are their aims. If I understood that urge, I’d be ashamed. Enough to know that there are those who cannot rest without controlling, and even go to their graves passing on their agenda for control like a sacred flame.

    So we worry rightly about being controlled, but it is the other side of globalism which should worry us as much. You can live in a prison and find things to do, have some kind of life. The real problem with technocracy is its mad faith in calculation, statistics and simplistic levers. Think post NEP-Soviet Union, McNamara’s Vietnam-by-the-numbers, Mao’s sparrow kill.

    Now the controllers have a GameBoy generation who rose through the education ranks ticking boxes and answering true/false. Now tell me that’s not perfect human material for the final surge!

    So the loss of freedom is just one worry. The other worry is that the technocrats are born bunglers. The waste and white elephants will never stop, because technocrats are capable of endless calculation but they are incapable of sustained thought.

    Yes, we will be in a prison of surveillance and regulation. But it will also be a prison which is hopelessly mismanaged. We need to think (because we can think) about what “smart” and “sustainable” will be like when we are governed by those who feel themselves above common judgement and whose mental processes are disconnected from experience, sense, memory and anticipation.

    Globalism is evil. But it is even more of a colossal bungle in the making.

    STOP GLOBALISM. Do tradition, privacy, family, property. Do coal.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Since they denied that there were any polar bears nearby the last time they were caught lying, does that mean these were invisible polar bears?
      And since polar bears are supposed to be endangered and dying out (in AGW covens) does this make them polar bear extinction deniers?

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “Is “Consensus” in Climate Science Good or Bad? It Depends on What Year It Is”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/05/is-consensus-in-climate-science-good-or-bad-it-depends-on-what-year-it-is/

    Along the lines of Sidney Hook’s “What did Bertrand Russell believe? You tell me the year and I’ll tell you what he believed”

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  • #
    Chad

    If there is to be any effective counter movement to argue the case against these Alarmist voices, then we all need to be better organised.
    There is no point “preaching to the converted” on here, since few of the Alarmists are likely to visit , and even if they did, they would have a hard time followinf any topic thread with the way we just randomly jump from one subject to another within a thread.
    I know why it happens, because there is no organised index of topics, or structured format to enable continuation of multiple topic threads going forward.
    Personally i get frustrated knowing there is useful reference information previously posted in a topic, but finding it again is a needle in a haystack exercise.
    We need a better organised “Forum” type format… if anyone has a suitable skillset to set that up ?
    Then we need to work at feeding solid information to suitable popular media sources.. there are several prominent national TV and Radio stations preseenters who are obviously on our side as Jo has demonstrated with A Bolt, but many of them just do not have the “Ammunition” that we can provide to fight the arguments thrown around glibly by the ABC etc.
    Anyone with suitable contacts, Emails, Fbook links , etc should help compile a easily acessable “Contacts” reference list .

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    • #
      Serp

      While I am in broad agreement Chad I think that we’re better served by standing back kibitzing while the inevitable collapse of the inadequate technologies spawned by decarbonization policy plays out over the next decade.

      Even if we could purchase influence, the only way to influence events in this world, indications are that there’s too much bubble money already involved for actual knowledge or reasoning to have any bearing on the continually expanding mob of demented financiers in blind pursuit of riches heedless of the certain catastrophic financial denouement we’ll wish we hadn’t lived to witness though we’ll be obliged, as ever, to learn to love it.

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      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Serp, that will take ages..for nature to prove them wrong (which it is already doing) good things take time. PROBLEM is they are STEALING OUR MONEY and collapsing the economies with idiotic schemes including fake renewable energy, which we are ALL going to pay for dearly. Yes action is required nature is too slow… unless we have an impactor!

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        ” indications are that there’s too much bubble money already involved ”

        Big money, placed by Union Super on the Left, Hon Hewson, MalEx444 on the right, and many other lesser known “influencers”, all who will exert pressure to avoid loss.

        It’s unethical, not lawful and not based on public best interest and should be stoppable except for the obvious fact that our democracy has been hijacked.

        The only way out is to thoroughly expose one small part of the mess, prosecute, and keep going.

        But Abbott is gone.

        KK

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  • #
    dinn, rob

    Viewpoint on China worth consideration:
    Casey Fleming, espionage expert and CEO of BlackOps Partners, said that every American needs to understand that China is a Communist country governed by a party that has been running a covert war against the United States.
    While most Americans may subscribe to the concept of “win or lose,” he said “the Chinese Communist Party is another level above that. “They believe in ‘live or die: I must live, you must die, never to fight again.’” https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-authorities-close-in-on-chinese-espionage_3125374.html

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    • #
      el gordo

      ‘China is a Communist country governed by a party that has been running a covert war against the United States.’

      That is complete rubbish, Beijing is a fascist dictatorship and has no intention of undermining America.

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      • #
        dinn, rob

        what’s your field, gordo?

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      • #
        PeterS

        Splitting hairs. Other face of the same coin, namely authoritarian dictatorial power that forcible suppresses any opposition.

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        • #
          el gordo

          Yeah but democracies around the world are faltering and to save the planet a lot of millennials think we need a dictatorship. Morrison has taken the helm and should steady the ship of state.

          Beijing is an authoritarian dictatorship and China is our biggest trading partner. We are being absorbed into an Asian co-prosperity sphere and I was wondering if the American Alliance has reached its used by date?

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          • #
            PeterW

            Communism is inherently dictatorial, whether run by one or a committee. How else DO you achieve government control of all forms of production, distribution and exchange, other than by force?

            Until it became politically necessary to distance Comminist Russia from the German Nazis and Italian Fascists it was not even mildly controversial to point out that they were breaches from the same root. They are all dictatorial, violent and based on identity-group conflict. Only the nominal identities varied.

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            • #
              el gordo

              Yeah, but what about socialism with Chinese characteristics, the new world order with a benevolent dictator at the helm. Australia’s democracy is sound and we can influence Xi into adopting our system.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      ‘China is a Communist confucianist country governed by a party that has been running avoiding a covert war against the United States.’
      In fact its the other way around. USA with CIA, NED have been running a covert war against China, Russia, Iran, and a few other ones..

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  • #
    el gordo

    ‘Australian Community Media executive chairman Antony Catalano has bought up more shares in Prime Media ahead of the regional broadcaster’s planned merger with Seven.’ SMH

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  • #
    Zane

    A fool in the Guardian claims by not flying for a year he ” saved ” 19 tonnes of CO2. Saved from what?

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    • #
      Greebo

      So, he assumes that his seat wasn’t filled by somebody else? Or, did the aircraft not fly at all due to his boycott?

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  • #
    Brian the Engineer

    I slept in yesterday and saved a heap of CO2…. Then I ate a bagel and ruined my record, I’m CO2 user positive again..

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Meanwhile, those of us who livein reality shall be buying up ocean front property as fast as we can…..Doesnt FlimFLam have ocean frontage…and Saint AL?

    “We’ll all be ruinined” – said Hanrahan – “before the year is out….”

    https://www.abc.net.au/life/climate-risks-to-think-about-before-you-buy-property/11617296

    “The risk of rising seas and coastal flooding
    One key risk to property in coastal areas is damage from rising sea levels and coastal flooding.

    “If current trends continue, climate scientists expect sea levels to rise one metre on average by the end of century, which would see many properties in low-lying coastal areas frequently flooded.

    “”A one-metre sea level rise, depending on the topography, means that a current 1-in-100 year flooding event could occur every year, or even every month in some cases,” says Will Steffen, a councillor with the Climate Council of Australia and researcher at the Australian National University.

    “In some parts of Australia, councils or insurance companies have already started taking measures to reduce risks.

    Start of Tongue_In_Cheek_Section here :

    What you can do about it :

    * run around screaming incoherently about climate…climate…climate……
    * Scream at the sky
    * Apply for govt funding – apparently its quite a lucrative jolly
    * Enhance your tenure at left leaning university by denouncing anyone who actually knows science
    * Denounce sea level rise , as being caused by the usual suspects
    * Glue yourself to a bridge
    * Glue yourself to a road
    * Feel smug, while waiting for global cooling to arrive and you starve to death
    * Buy an electric car, then not be able to afford to charge it….
    * Find a useless cause and sign up to it, coz there was some cute girl you liked who was into it and was equally clueless about science…..

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    • #
      tom0mason

      So how much difference can Australia make on the world.
      A world where —
      The polar Bears are thriving.
      The penguins are thriving.
      The ice is still here.
      New Antarctic maximum 2014.
      Earth is greening.
      Most people are living longer.
      Kids still seeing Snow.

      But now we must all screech “Climate Emergency”!
      The problem is Where?
      Just show me where?
      Where are the verified correct predictions to show climate changed because of humans?
      Exactly WHERE has the climate (not weather) changed because of humans?

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      • #
        AndyG55

        “Exactly WHERE has the climate (not weather) changed because of humans?”

        I keeps asking the mindless PF trollette that same question, but NEVER get an answer.

        How has the global climate changed in the last 40 years that can be scientifically shown to be from human released CO2?

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      So exactly where is all this water coming from that is supposed to raise sea levels by several meters? The Antarctic land ice aint melting anytime soon nor is Greenland.

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  • #

    Sometimes, it’s worth reminding people of what is happening in China with respect to power generation.

    It took till 2010/2011 (part way through that recording year) for China to finally overtake the U.S. as the largest generator of electrical power on Earth. That was around 4125TWH of generated power a year, and for some perspective, that’s 19.65 times the total generated power for Australia.

    Now here we are barely eight years later, and the totals are:

    U.S.- 4170TWH
    China – 6994TWH

    So, China is now U.S. plus 67%, and each year China powers away.

    The vast bulk of that increase in China came from coal fired power, and now just from coal fired power in China, they generate, wait for it, 4923TWH of power, just over 70% of all its power, and more in fact from coal fired power than from every source in the U.S.

    The one big advantage from all of this is that while China is increasing all its power to Industrialise, power is also now going to the residential sector as well.

    This is ….. EXACTLY what happened in the U.S. starting at the end of the Second Great War in the late 40s. Most power generation went to the Industrial sector, and then Commerce with the residential sector having the smallest percentage of power, Over the next years as huge numbers of large scale coal fired plants went in, more and more homes had grid power connected, until most power went to that residential sector, and now Industry in the U.S. gets the smallest percentage of power, while the residential gets the greatest percentage, a little ahead of Commerce.

    Back in 2010, when generation in China was less than in the US, barely 10% of power went into that Residential sector, and now that percentage to the residential sector is closer to 18%, and even now, there are still hundreds of millions with no electrical power or a minute amount in their homes.

    While China has been increasing its coal fired power it has also being powering ahead with hydro, and if it wasn’t for just China Hydro, the World total percentage from renewables would be nowhere near as high as it is, as hydro is the largest percentage of that renewable sector. Even in China, Hydro makes up 18% of all power generation, the second highest percentage when it comes to power generation, more than two and a half times that of wind and solar combined. Here in Australia, hydro power generates less than wind power.

    When it comes to hydro in China, you can actually see how the availability of electricity has changed things so that Industry, Commerce and the residential sectors now have access to electricity.

    Back in 2008. I wrote a four part series on The Three Gorges Hydro plant.

    In Part 2 I took a copy of an image from Google Earth of the Three Gorges Dam, and that image is at this link.

    For those of you who have Google Earth, go there and type Three Gorges Dam and see what it looks like now. The difference is astonishing. There’s a city there now with a population of around 400,000 people so probably around a million people are in that dam area now.

    Electrical power availability is what brings people into a situation we have had now for generations here in Australia, and it was coal fired power that did all that for us, and also for America, and it is doing the same for people in China, and in fact all across the Asian area while here in Australia, due to the pandering to a loud minority who have no clue whatsoever, we are reverting to the past.

    Keep in mind that this coal fired power, now huge huge huge in China, has a lifespan of 50 years and they are still powering ahead with more of it.

    So much for the Climate emergency. If China actually believed that, do you seriously think they would be doing this if the World ends in, well whenever it is that the true believers think it will be.

    Tony.

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      Peter Fitzroy

      Very informative post.

      I do wish you had left the last paragraph off though, it is a gratuitous insult.

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      • #
        Travis T. Jones

        “I do wish you had left the last paragraph off though, it is a gratuitous insult.”

        … and what do you think ‘untold suffering’ entails, if not more failed apocalypse predictions?

        Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’

        https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering

        > Think about it. If they were correct, would we be here talking about the apocalypse still?

        UN 1982 : World To End Before The Year 2000

        https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=o5tlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TYwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5103,351973&dq=ecological+holocaust&hl=en

        In 40 years, ‘climate scientists’ cannot point to one apocalyptic climate prediction that has come to pass!

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        Chad

        it is a gratuitous insult.

        …you may take it as such..
        I will read it as reality !

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        Graeme No.3

        Peter Fitzroy:

        What makes you think that China believes in global warming? I admit they are hoping for some warming because that would benefit their agriculture (as they know from their historical records) but in the meantime they are boosting the stndard of living of as many of their people as they can (except non-Han).

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        robert rosicka

        Fitz if that’s insulting you really need to get out more .

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          I’m not lowering myself to your world

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          • #
            AndyG55

            You are already right at the bottom of a very dark fetid, slimy abyss, PF

            At the very bottom rank of human existence.

            One you have dug all for yourself.

            … and yet you still just keep digging deeper.

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              Bruce

              Comedienne Erma Bombeck had some thoughts on this:

              “The grass always is greener over the septic tank.

              But it is greenest over the mass graves”

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          Kalm Keith

          Robert, it’s interesting that he has acknowledged his occupation of a fantasy world up there so far from our world of solid education, science and concern for the best interests of the community.

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            AndyG55

            I suspect he spend his time high as a kite !!

            Certainly in a very wacked-out little fantasy world created by his own fevered little mind.

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              Kalm Keith

              There’s a lot of Smokey peat bogs up there.

              Who knows what’s burning.

              And on another note, or whatever, I can remember the days in Laurieton when the pan system was in operation. That’s reality.

              The old song was “They asked me how I knew ” ; Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

              Now they go looking for smoke and can’t remember a thing afterwards.

              Life can be very confusing when it’s controlled by Smoke.

              KK

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        AndyG55

        There is no insult there at all.

        You “feeling” out of your “safe” space or something, petal ?

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      Hanrahan

      If China actually believed that, do you seriously think they would be doing this if the World ends in, well whenever ……….

      I’m reminded of Neville Shute’s On The Beach, a book, a film with Ava Gardner and a TV special. In the dying world he wrote of there was no Mad Max chaos but a breakdown of norms none the less. The last Australian GP car race and the museum curator allowing an art enthusiast to help himself to the art were classic .

      I think you are right Tony, if people really believed The End Of The World Is Nigh we would be seeing some behavioural changes. I don’t see them. Brainwashing of school kids doesn’t count.

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    Another Ian

    On education v/s intelligence

    “Smart people survive. The average or below average win Darwin awards.

    We are dullards compared to our great-grandfathers in our awareness and possession of useful knowledge. We don’t get culled like dumbasses did in the old days. Back then, you only got one stupid mistake. Now, you get a parking ticket or a Nobel Peace Prize.”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/11/05/kortik-tepe/#comment-119262

    Interesting thread on archeology

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      Hanrahan

      There is no environment for Great Minds today. Bill Gates was an entrepreneur who hired better lawyers than engineers. The brightest simply become nameless team members with a [prolly] socialist billionaire boss.

      Is Elon Musk the standout? Maybe but to me he looks to have more in common with Bernie Madoff than Nikola Tesla. Willing to be proven wrong although I have no interest in his sparky cars.

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    el gordo

    As newsprint and free to air struggle to stay relevant, government money flows to subsidise intellectual property in the bush.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/06/coalition-to-extend-taxpayer-assistance-for-regional-newspapers-but-wont-cut-tv-licence-fees

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    Another Ian

    For anyone interested in the “rise of CO2″ I’d suggest a read of Ian Plimer’s ” Heaven and Earth” Chapter “Air” and the section “Measurement of CO2”.

    Particularly what goes into the Mauna Loa results – or maybe more importantly what doesn’t

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      Another Ian

      Quoted from above, references given in text

      “The raw data from Mauna Loa is “edited” by an operator who deletes what may be considered poor data. Some 82% of the raw infra-red CO2 measurement data is “edited” leaving just 18% of the raw data measurements for statistical analysis. With such a savage editing of raw data, whatever trend one wants to show can be shown.”

      An early onset of “feelings”?

      See

      https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/Langmuir/langmuir.htm

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        theRealUniverse

        I never believed the Mauna Loa CO2 data it looks far too..convenient…ever upwards increase of CO2 since so called industrial times, contrary to natures CO2 ‘half life’ by Ed Berry.

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      Kalm Keith

      A good book.

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    Another Ian

    As dinner time is approaching

    “Public Health Conf. 2019 – Blaming Salt For What Sugar Did?”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/public-health-conf-2019-blaming-salt-for-what-sugar-did/

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    pat

    5 Nov: HawaiiNewsNow: City to sue fossil fuel companies in bid to hold them ‘accountable’ for climate change
    The city plans to file a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies aimed at holding them “accountable for the costs and consequences” of climate change.
    Maui County previously announced similar plans, and other municipalities and states have done the same in a bid to recoup and the real and anticipated costs of a warming planet.
    Oil companies have called the suits baseless…

    “We’re starting the first steps to protect our island of Oahu, our state of Hawaii and our planet,” Caldwell said.
    Josh Stanbro, Honolulu’s chief resilience officer, said the islands are already starting to feel the impacts of climate change.
    “California is on fire, the Bahamas were nearly wiped off the map, and Houston has been hit by three 500-year floods in the past three years,” Stanbro said.

    “It is devastating to find out that big oil knew these impacts would occur as far back as the 1960s, and yet they chose to undermine the science and sow confusion instead of becoming responsible corporate citizens. This lawsuit won’t stop climate change from happening, but it will help pay for the protection and preparation of our citizens as climate disasters continue to come our way.”

    A resolution will be introduced to the full City Council to support the lawsuit.
    The city then plans to seek outside counsel on a contingency basis, which means there will be no legal costs to taxpayers.
    https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/11/06/city-sue-fossil-fuel-companies-bid-hold-them-accountable-climate-change/

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    pat

    5 Nov: Reuters: Macron says Europe-China climate cooperation ‘decisive’
    by Marine Pennetier; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Lincoln Feast and Raju Gopalakrishnan
    SHANGHAI – Cooperation between Europe and China on reducing climate-warming emissions will be “decisive”, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, after the Trump administration filed paperwork to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement
    China and France pledged at this year’s G20 summit to “update” their contributions against climate change beyond their current ones to reflect “their highest possible ambition”…

    Speaking in Shanghai at a major trade fair, just after a keynote address by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Macron said commitments will need to be enhanced.
    “If we want to be in compliance with the Paris agreement, we will need next year to enhance our commitments to reduce emissions, and we must confirm new commitments for 2030 and 2050,” he said.
    “The cooperation between China and the European Union in this respect is decisive,” Macron added. “Next year, we need, in the agenda of enhancement, to be collectively up to the task.”

    Speaking to reporters earlier, a French presidential office official expressed regret at the U.S. move, and said Macron and Xi will reaffirm their commitment to the Paris agreement.
    “We regret this and this only makes the Franco-Chinese partnership on the climate and biodiversity more necessary,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
    “The text that will be signed tomorrow includes a paragraph on the irreversibility of the Paris agreement.”
    Macron and Xi are due to hold a formal meeting in Beijing on Wednesday..
    China aims to bring emissions to a peak by “around 2030” and raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its total energy mix to 20% by the end of the next decade, up from 15% in 2020…

    Speaking in Beijing at a daily news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed regret at the U.S. decision, and said climate change was a common challenge faced by all of humankind.
    “All members of the international community should join hands to cooperate, each doing their best according to their ability, to jointly deal with it,” he said…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-france/macron-says-europe-china-climate-cooperation-decisive-idUSKBN1XF02S

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      theRealUniverse

      I think China pretends to go along with it. China has done/doing allot to clean up its air, nothing with CO2. Its emissions (to reduce particulates) just ‘happen’ to also reduce CO2 but that is an aside.

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    pat

    5 Nov: TheNationalInterest: China Is Positioned to Lead on Climate Change as the U.S. Rolls Back Its Policies
    Smoke from a coal-fired Beijing power plant that closed in 2017 as part of China’s transition to cleaner energy.
    by Kelly Sims Gallagher, Fang Zhang
    (Kelly Sims Gallagher, Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy and Director, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University and Fang Zhang, China Research Coordinator and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tufts University. This article is republished from The Conversation)

    We study many aspects of China’s energy and climate policy, including industrial energy efficiency and reforestration. Our analysis indicates that if China fully executes existing policies and finishes reforming its electric power sector into a market-based system, its carbon dioxide emissions are likely to peak well before its 2030 target.

    Over the last decade China has positioned itself as a global leader on climate action through aggressive investments and a bold mix of climate, renewable energy, energy efficiency and economic policies. As one of us (Kelly Sims Gallagher) documents in the recent book “Titans of the Climate,” China has implemented more than 100 policies related to lowering its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

    Notable examples include a feed-in-tariff policy for renewable energy generators, which offers them a guaranteed price for their power; energy efficiency standards for power plants, motor vehicles, buildings and equipment; targets for energy production from non-fossil sources; and mandated caps on coal consumption.

    China has added vast wind and solar installations to its grid and developed large domestic industries to manufacture solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles. In late 2017 it launched a national emissions trading system, which creates a market for buying and selling carbon dioxide emissions allowances. This was a profoundly symbolic step, given that the United States still has not adopted a national market-based climate policy…

    Even as China made big investments in wind and solar power in recent years, it also kept building coal plants…
    There is political resistance from owners of existing coal-fired power plants and from provinces that produce and use a lot of coal…

    China’s emissions trading system has had a very modest impact so far because it set a low initial price on carbon dioxide emissions: US$7 per ton, increasing by 3% annually through 2030. But our analysis found that emissions trading, which allows low-carbon generators to make money by selling emissions allowances that they don’t need, could become influential over the longer term if it can sustain a much higher price…

    And China is contributing to emissions outside of its borders by exporting coal equipment and directly financing overseas coal plants through its Belt and Road Initiative. No nation, including China, currently reports emissions generated abroad in its national emissions inventory…
    (Robbie Orvis and Jeffrey Rissman from Energy Innovation and Qiang Lu from the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation in China co-authored the study described in this article)
    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/china-positioned-lead-climate-change-us-rolls-back-its-policies-93531

    5 Nov: TheNationalInterest: Pay Up: The Realist Case for Ending the UN Liquidity Crisis
    It is in the best interest of the United States to pay its UN member dues and rally other delinquent member states to follow suit. Of the many products the United States exports, its model of government shutdowns should not be one.
    by Alexandra Marksteiner
    (Alexandra Marksteiner is a Master of Arts candidate in Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS​)
    In a letter sent to UN staff last week, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the organization is facing a cash shortage and may deplete its liquidity reserves by the end of the month. He urged his staff to take additional measures, such as limiting official travel and saving energy, to further curtail expenses…

    Presently, only two-thirds of UN Member States have paid their annual dues in full…
    What is now being called the worst cash crisis in nearly a decade is not only jeopardizing payments to vendors and staff salaries, but also undermining the implementation of mandates and reform efforts. Conferences are being postponed…

    The biggest culprit in this entire debacle is, by scale, the United States. Responsible for 22 percent of the budget, the US government currently owes $674 million on top of $1.2 billion accumulated in arrears. Again, this is not news. The United States has defaulted on its payments before, under both Republican and Democratic presidents. However, with the debt owed totaling almost $4.5 billion (including contributions to the peacekeeping budget), the situation has taken on dramatic proportions.

    The current administration’s reluctance to pay its dues is an expression of its skepticism towards multilateral institutions and its broader withdrawal from the international stage. Yet, the United States is not doing itself any favors by failing to make its assessed contributions. The budget process is a battle for influence and, right now, the United States is losing…

    By defaulting on its payments, the United States is creating a vacuum for China to fill, thereby allowing China to tighten its grip on the organization. Over the last couple of years, China has made every effort to step up its presence in the UN system. It sends representatives to almost every meeting and is funneling more nationals into the UN civil service than ever before. By defaulting on its payments, the United States is creating a vacuum for China to fill, thereby allowing China to tighten its grip on the organization. Over the last couple of years, China has made every effort to step up its presence in the UN system. It sends representatives to almost every meeting and is funneling more nationals into the UN civil service than ever before…

    It now supplies more troops than any other permanent member of the Security Council. This has enabled China not only to showcase its military prowess but also to smoothen its pivot to Africa and build up international clout.
    At the end of the day, decisions are made by those who show up and pay up. That does not stop holding true in the halls of the UN Secretariat. Those who show face and make the largest financial contributions are the ones who have the most say in the design and execution of UN mandates…

    Withholding payments will also not compel the United Nations to adopt more sustainable budgeting practices, remove bureaucratic barriers, and become all-around more efficient. Owing to the current crisis, the organization will wind down a subset of its activities, just to restart them in January, when Member States start paying their dues for the next fiscal year. This creates bottlenecks and logjams. It is much like driving a car. Drivers waste more gasoline in stop-and-go traffic than they do cruising down the highway…
    https://nationalinterest.org/feature/pay-realist-case-ending-un-liquidity-crisis-93886

    5 Nov: InsideClimateNews: Trump’s Paris Climate Accord Divorce: Why It Hasn’t Happened Yet and What to Expect
    No, the U.S. isn’t out of the Paris climate agreement yet. Here’s what’s happening and what comes next.
    By Marianne Lavelle
    How are other countries responding?
    Two things seem apparent—an increasing role for China and a shortfall in ambition…
    China, currently the largest carbon emitter, has stepped into the void—co-chairing discussions and helping to shape the technical rules for the accord.

    However, at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September, it became clear that the world’s major polluters, including China, have not made the needed moves to increase their commitments…
    https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04112019/trump-pull-out-paris-climate-agreement-timing-rules

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    pat

    nothing more to read:

    6 Nov: Reuters: China, France reaffirm support of Paris climate agreement, call it ‘irreversible’
    by Marine Pennetier
    French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday issued a joint statement reaffirming their strong support for the “irreversible” Paris Agreement on climate change, from which the U.S. announced its exit this week.
    The two countries “reaffirm their strong support for the Paris Agreement, which they consider an irreversible process and a compass for strong action on the climate,” the statement said…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-france-paris-agreement/china-france-reaffirm-support-of-paris-climate-agreement-call-it-irreversible-idUSKBN1XG0QJ

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    tom0mason

    From https://www.sott.net/article/423335-Scientists-probe-the-limits-of-ice

    Unexpected oscillation

    Unexpectedly, the researchers found in both simulation and experiment that the coexistence of ice behaves differently in clusters from 90 to 150 water molecules from the sharp, well-defined melting transition we experience with macroscopic (large-scale) ice and water occurring at 0° C. The clusters were found to instead transition over a range of temperatures and oscillate in time between the liquid and ice states, an effect of their small size that was first predicted three decades ago, but lacked experimental evidence until now.

    Thomas Zeuch of the Universität Göttingen notes, “Macroscopic systems have no analogous mechanism; water is either liquid or solid. This oscillating behavior seems unique to clusters in this size and temperature range.”

    “There is nothing like these oscillations in our experience of phase coexistence in the macroscopic world!” Molinero adds. In a glass of water, she says, both the ice and water are stable and can coexist, regardless of the size of the ice chunks. But in a nanodroplet that contains both liquid and ice, most of the water molecules would be at the interface between ice and water — so the entire two-phase cluster becomes unstable and oscillates between a solid and a liquid.

    When ice gets weird

    Water clusters of the sizes and temperatures in the experiment are common in interstellar objects and in planetary atmospheres, including our own, Molinero says. They also exist in the mesosphere, an atmospheric layer above the stratosphere.

    “They can also exist as pockets of water in a matrix of a material, including in cavities of proteins,” she says.

    If the oscillatory transitions could be controlled, Molinero says, they could conceivably form the basis of a nano valve that allows the passage of materials when a liquid and stops the flow when a solid.

    The results go beyond just ice and water. Molinero says that the small-scale phenomena should happen for any substance at the same scales. “In that sense,” she says, “our work goes beyond water and looks more generally to the coda of a phase transition, how it transforms from sharp to oscillatory and then the phases themselves disappear and the system behaves as a large molecule.”

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      Greg in NZ

      Climbers probe the limits of ice – and pay the ultimate price:
      “The pair were climbing an area known as the Grand Traverse when they fell”.

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/402684/two-climbers-dead-after-falling-from-cliff-in-the-remarkables

      My old stomping ground, except I’d be on the other side of Double Cone (the summit, above the ski area) climbing near-vertical headwalls above Lake Alta to access the out of bounds double-black diamond chutes: scary as yet some of the finest extreme terrain in the country for crazies like myself. The Grand Traverse is on the outside face, the one visible from Queenstown, popular with ice-climbers and other competent alpinists.

      Today’s webcam pic from the airport shows a small amount of snow/ice remaining on the ledge (top left-of-centre just below summit, partially hidden by date stamp). Schist hurts no matter how much protective clothing you’re wearing.

      https://www.lookr.com/lookout/1495854429-Queenstown

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    Bruce

    Speaking of the Antarctic:
    Unlike the “North Pole, Antarctica appears to be a vast slab of ice and snow sitting on top of actual rock substrate.

    Those of us who have glided stylishly (or otherwise) around an ice-skating rink will understand what happens to make ice skates work and the really clued-up will know that is is very difficult to skate at seriously low temperatures.

    Now, turn that concept upside down. Plonk hundreds of metres or more on top of a rocky substrate. The ice at the interface will melt and move as long is the pressure of the ice mass is present.

    Now, consider said ice-mass completely surrounded by a vast mass of salty, LIQUID water.

    At the periphery of the ice/rock interface, the meltwater will flow into the sea-water (at above freezing point itself), carrying with it, a steady stream of detritus: Penguin and seal droppings, dead penguins and lost Antarctic explorers, etc. NUTRIENTS; eagerly snaffled up by a surprisingly lively food chain. Microbes, dinky critters, Krill, fish, seals, whales, etc.

    The more it snows on Antarctica, the faster the nutrient extrusion process runs.

    Ice ages are DRY times: Lower temperatures – diminished evaporation. Less evaporation, less precipitation. Glaciers stop advancing, BUT continue to melt from BENEATH because of the “pressure-melt” effect. No snow at the Neve; no extra mass to shove the glacier down the valley.

    A closer look at the effect of Ice Ages on vast swathes of real estate is enlightening.

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