Midweek Unthreaded

OK. Bit late. Sorry about that.

9.1 out of 10 based on 17 ratings

108 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
  • #
    joseph

    And I thought I knew what midweek meant.

    60

  • #

    Okay then, ever wondered why maths is beyond most people, even simple basic maths comprehension. You don’t even have to know how to do it, just recognise what it’s about, and if you then want to understand it, you follow up on it. I get it all the time. The maths with respect to electrical power generation is just so huge. The numbers are so astronomical that people just cannot comprehend the scale of it all, and it’s just maths.

    The media help contribute to it in a big way, and I’m not specifically blaming them, but it’s sort of like the ‘boy who cried wolf’ principle. Say it often enough and people become used to it.

    There was a story this week about Westpac, part of the usual bash the banks thing I guess, and people nod their heads and agree. it always makes news, so the media sort of pushes it at every chance.

    So anyway, Westpac made 25 Million bad transactions in the last five years, with specific respect to money laundering.

    25 million of them, and the number rolled off the news readers tongue ….. and the people nodded their heads and went hmm!

    25 MILLION dud transactions in five years related to money laundering.

    25 Million.

    Umm, that’s one bad transaction related to money laundering every 6.3 seconds, for 24 hours of every day for those last five years.

    6.3 seconds.

    Tell me. No one’s going to notice that are they.

    And no one asked the question. Not how could the bank not see this, but hey, that’s one every six seconds

    Tony.

    150

    • #

      Maybe Tony, ask yourself, “what is a transaction” and you’ll find the numbers fit a lot better as many of them are hidden within the system. They are not all money from person a going to entity b. The appalling thing about westpac is 3 fold.

      1. Many of these have a signature that suggests money was going into the hands of people doing unspeakable things to other humans.
      2. The signature is well known, is required by law to be actively monitored and not difficult to detect using automation.
      3. Westpac did not have processes in place to act on detection.

      41

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        How convenient…..perhaps the police might look deeper into any bank and its employees allegedly routing money to do with horrible things.

        One of the side effects of an “open europe borders” is ease of sex trafficing ( forced prostitution ). Organizations like A21 work to rescue girls from this horrible trade.

        30

      • #
        Peter C

        3. Westpac did not have processes in place to act on detection.

        Why should they?

        Is it the job of our bank to conduct surveillance on us? If so how did that come about?

        10

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Hate to break to you but how do you think banks detect fraudulant transactions? Through analysing past transactiobs and monitoring current ones.

          I find it impossible to believe if there known bad people known to poluce, that they weent monitored.

          That said, some people are slso protected by the Establishment. Evenbroyals arent immune from falling face down occasinally, but if you dig into the Epstirn thing, he had s global list of the whos who of society as clients. This tells me society at thd top is heavily perverted and degenerate. At that point, Epstien makes more sense. It also makes more sense as to why europe has open borders…ease of people smuggling.

          No wonder people look at the west and consider it a bit sick….

          10

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Westpac & the other banks
      Is NOT the way
      That most people
      Transfer money to the Philippines.
      The most popular way is via
      Western Union
      Which uses Australia Post as it’s agents all over Australia.

      50

    • #
      Serp

      It would all have stopped by now were had legislation been in place to gaol a bank’s CEO on whose watch these shenanigans occurred. Due diligence eh, what a joke it has become in the financial sector with regard to the big banks in Australia. As to the fat four auditors don’t even begin looking there…

      20

      • #
        Serp

        oops “were had” (i.e. rub out the “were”)

        00

      • #
        disorganise

        Perhaps. My reading was that staff turnover was a big part of the problem. A poorly run project ground to a halt, outsourcing happened, new people lacked the knowledge and background to realise anything was wrong when key pieces were descoped.
        A subsequent audit also failed to notice – but that’s hardly a surprise to be honest; audits generally check you are doing what you said you’d be doing – so if no-one knew they should be reported a type of transaction, it wasn’t written down and audit would not have known to look either.

        In a world of checks and balances, you’d have to wonder how Austrac didn’t notice that Westpac were reporting far fewer incidences (one would assume) than their competitors.

        00

  • #
    TdeF

    I wonder what proportion of man made Climate Change/Global Warming enthusiasts/experts actually believe it?

    Do they recognize that CO2 went up for two decades and temperature didn’t?

    Do they recognize that the oceans are warming without explanation, except sunshine? Greenhouse gases do not affect ocean warming, except to reduce it?

    Do they understand that most CO2, 98% of it is dissolved in the oceans and has nowhere else to go but back into the air?

    Do they realise that all life on earth is carbon based, made almost entirely from CO2 except for bones? All our energy, our muscles, our heart, our brains are powered by CO2 production. And to call CO2 poison, toxic and pollution is past absurd?

    And has anyone understood that you can prove there is almost no man made CO2 in the air today, so the increase is not man made.

    Then finally, as the increase in CO2 is demonstrably not man made, what do they propose to do about this terrible warming?

    Or do they know all this already?

    I am pretty sure they do, but how many high priests in many religions are athiests?
    L. Ron Hubbard for one. I have real concerns about the Catholic Pope as well. And it appears that it is an essential qualification for the Archbishop of Canterbury, if you can believe Yes Minister.

    But we have reached the end game. No science is needed. The armies of true believers are at the gates and they permeate the media, the public service and the big end of town is extorted into believing.

    It will end in 2030 when the cold becomes unbearable and the ice cover extends, the winters deepen and lengthen and the summers shorten. They will blame CO2.

    150

    • #
      disorganise

      Do they recognize that CO2 went up for two decades and temperature didn’t?

      I thought it stayed flat for a decade or so, but then did start going up again? Or is that all part of the ‘recalibration’ of averages that made it appear to go up?

      Do they recognize that the oceans are warming without explanation, except sunshine? Greenhouse gases do not affect ocean warming, except to reduce it?

      I’ve come across this one yet. How does that work? If the Earth as whole was warming, wouldn’t the ocean absorb some of that heat as well?

      And has anyone understood that you can prove there is almost no man made CO2 in the air today, so the increase is not man made.

      Do you have a link to this? How do you differentiate the difference sources? This would surely be a slam dunk.

      00

      • #
        Screaming Nutbag

        1/ If you choose to start a trend calculation starting on an outlier year, your trend will be rubbish. People who want to be dishonest create a trend from 1998.

        2/ This is the usual denial-of-physics gobbledigook.

        3/ The environment is currently acting as a net sink, seeing as we can observe the carbon fertilisation effect occurring.
        We knew to look for the carbon fertilisation effect seeing as how easily we can calculate that atmospheric CO2 is only increasing at half the rate we are emitting CO2.
        Of course, denial-of-physics comes into play here too, seeing as the carbon isotope ratio is a 100% giveaway that the CO2 increase is definitely man-made.

        00

  • #

    midweek? I am 2 hours from the weekend! Hoping for some dust laden rain.

    21

    • #
      Dennis

      I can provide the dust from my back porch and front verandah, how many buckets would you like?

      40

      • #

        it’s not really the dust I want but thanks for the offer. On the other hand what colour is it? It might be nice to have something contrasting. Ours is a sort of sandy orange with a hint of pink. I think this has come from further afield than our usual dust from the new suburb wastelands.

        I’ve been breathing in Whitlam* since well before this current dust problem.

        *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitlam,_Australian_Capital_Territory

        31

    • #
      Annie

      We had some dust-laden rain yesterday, but not enough to be recorded by our little weather station. It’s made a heck of a mess though. Reminds me of the times Sahara dust-laden rain came over England; made the cars filthy! Originally, it was just one of those things that happened from time to time. Now it’s a panic, panic situation demanding the waste of stupendous amounts of money.
      Yesterday here was certainly a very unpleasant day weatherwise; today is beautiful.

      70

      • #
        robert rosicka

        I still remember a few years back when a big dust storm hit Bedourie and the ABC reported it as unprecedented but a quick check revealed that Bedourie in the local language is place of dust storms .

        90

        • #
          Greg in NZ

          One day in the not-so-distant future, people will say:

          ‘unprecedented’ in the 2019 local lingo meant –

          ‘just like last time’ or ‘Groundhog Day’.

          I must be getting old coz I’ve seen it all before

          81

          • #
            Screaming Nutbag

            You can’t have seen it all before, seeing as last month was the driest October ever for the Southern Half of Australia (which is where the vast majority of us live).
            My family in Armidale is rationed to 6 litres per day. The rivers aren’t running.
            Now would be a good time for Angus Taylor to give us thet $50mill-worth of water he paid himself for last year and never gave us.

            00

      • #
        Another Ian

        Recent dust storms in western Qld at least haven’t been a patch on those of the 1965 drought.

        So if grazing was the problem there has been a considerable improvement since then.

        00

      • #
        Serp

        The biggest Melbourne dust storm in memory was February 8, 1983. At the peak of the blow a race was run at Moonee Valley and from the stand the horses were not visible in the back straight. Appropriately enough the seeming race from Hell was won by a nag named Fiery Fiend.

        20

  • #
    el gordo

    There are sea level fluctuations with clear cycles and a solar influence is implied.

    ‘The question of whether sea levels and global temperatures are accelerating or decelerating is a major source of current debate. Single taper and multi-taper spectral analysis from seventeen globally distributed tidal stations and twenty climate proxies show aggregate significant common periodicities in mean sea level fluctuations and the climate proxies of approximately 7yr, 13yr, 23yr, 32yr, 41yr, 53yr, 66yr, 88yr, 105yr and 132 yr, respectively.’

    Robert Baker (UNE)

    20

  • #
    Another Ian

    Maybe the message needs to be put this way?

    “Tree Farm

    Posted by Jeff Id on November 14, 2019

    So I was talking to a gentlemen who somewhat smugly claimed ‘I don’t use paper’, I had to question whether he was against tree farmers. I mean that’s what paper companies do right, they grow trees, cut them and make paper while planting more trees. This process repeats at a rate that sustains their future business or they lose out. That makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately for my sense, I work with a smart engineer who while telling him my logic, pointed out how wrong I am on the matter. I was not thinking right…

    It starts like this —The trees provide us humans a lot of things:

    Food in the form of fruits, nuts and various tree-made ingredients and spices
    Warmth as firewood, coal, various oil based energy.
    Odd and useful chemicals as medicines and industrial products. Rubber, Quinine– so many really.
    Oxygen to breath.
    Shade and construction materials.

    So from that input we give trees:

    CO2 to make strong trunks and big leaves
    Firefighters to make sure they don’t burn
    Protection areas to make sure they grow unhindered
    Active planting of new trees and insect blocking pesticides to insure their continued bloodlines

    And in exchange for these amazing services, when we die, they eat us!

    So, he explained, I’ve had it all wrong — the trees are the ones farming us.

    It’s so clear now.”

    https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2019/11/14/tree-farm/

    Best explanation I’ve seen for the Qld vegetation management act so far

    51

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Thoughts on Climate

    Posted by Jeff Id on November 8, 2019

    So I don’t watch TV anymore, I mostly work but I do have an amazing new laptop which deserves some kind of purpose in its short life. The company exploded and we’ve taken on a lot of customers. I’m actually afraid of inciting another Climategate splash here, not for me but for my fellow employees who deserve nothing but the best. I still have the same ridiculous attitude and still think Michael Mann needs to apologize to Earth for the damage he’s done to our lives. Not that his now millionaire status will be put at risk for anything resembling the truth.

    At the same time, climate still refuses to change. I mean what the hell, I am an absolute believer in the basic fact that CO2 will “capture” heat and make the planet warmer than it otherwise would have been. I also fully understand that we DO NOT KNOW the amount of heat it will capture. Do not know, turned out to be amazingly true since 2009 climategate days, because NOTHING happened. ZERO. Still no melting. Still no change in sea level rise. Still no increase in tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, floods, shrinking fish, insects blah..blah.. blah…

    Complete NOTHING.

    How is that possible. How could I have been so wrong …. and right… at the same time?

    Well the answer is that climate stabilization mechanisms are more powerful than anyone predicted. We have completely FAILED to warm the planet despite our best efforts. We gave it one hell of an effort, but we failed spectacularly. The best humans could do is get ourselves confused and upset about a now obvious non-issue. How ridiculous that it took so much of our time and money. Even worse, common sense is still losing the non-argument.”

    https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2019/11/08/15163/

    50

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Aussie PM: There is a Link between Bushfires and Global CO2 Emissions”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/21/aussie-pm-no-link-between-bushfires-and-aussie-co2-emissions/

    10

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    The nearest of the current NSW bushfires to me is named the “Gospers Mountain” fire, which is within the Wollemi National Park. It’s status is “being controlled”, but it’s still expanding, and was reported, at 1:54 pm pm as being 185,980ha, up from 183,097 at about noon.
    It appears to have crossed the Colo River and be heading south into the northern section of the Blue Mountains National park (although that section might actually be called the Wollangambe), very rough country and I suspect, very rich in fuel.
    The app estimates the fire is 98 kms from me, but I reckon its western edge is closer at about 84. They seem to taking the distance from the original point of ignition, attributed to a lightning strike in this instance.
    Starting in the Wollemi, it jumped the Putty Road to the east into the Yengo, the Parr and now south into the Wollangambe.
    As I understand it, the old fire trails have been destroyed.
    But still we have people blaming cimate change.
    The mind boggles.
    Cheers.
    Dave B

    90

    • #
      robert rosicka

      That name is synonymous with the Wollemi pine and I’m sure that area would be a no fuel reduction allowed area .
      We have them in Victoriastan they are called “reference area” from memory .

      40

    • #
      beowulf

      I have been watching the NSW Rural Fire Service “Fires near me” map like a hawk for the past few weeks and I have noticed an interesting trend. Icons for fires in my vicinity that have been blacked out for days are still left on the map as “advice” or “not applicable” categories.

      A simple 1ha grass fire up the road was left to clutter the map for 3 or 4 days after it was extinguished. A bushfire behind my place was on the map for 3 days after the last ember was cold. If its alert level is “not applicable” then what is it still doing on the map?

      Far be it from me to suggest that the RFS big brass would clutter the map with bushfire icons of dead fires to make things look more dire than they really are, but the thought has crossed my mind. Bad publicity is good publicity to a Bushfire Commissioner who has to justify his big shiny toys and his billion $$ budget, and his new RFS headquarters.

      The Wollemi Pines are in a deep gorge which is probably why they survived in the first place. I wouldn’t worry too much about something that has survived since the dinosaurs. Is there ever a year when Putty doesn’t burn?

      We have just had — within the last hour — a line of dry storms come through with a lot of lightning, and a new fire has sprung up in the bush a few km away. So it begins again.

      60

  • #
  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: Townhall: Tom Steyer Explains Why Climate Change Is His ‘Number One Priority’
    by Beth Baumann
    “I’m the only person on this stage who will say climate [change] is the number one priority for me. Vice President Biden won’t say it. Sen. Warren won’t say it. It’s a state of emergency and I would declare a state of emergency on day one,” Steyer said. “I would use the emergency powers of the presidency.”
    The billionaire touted his record fighting climate change, saying he has “spent a decade fighting oil and tech companies, stopping pipelines, stopping fossil fuel plants, ensuring clean energy across the country.”…
    Steyer said it’s possible to bring people together by “taking on the biggest challenge in history, we save the world and we do it together.”…

    11 Jun: Guardian: The problem with billionaires fighting climate change? The billionaires
    It’s great that philanthropists are pouring money into environmental causes. But it would be better for the planet if billionaires didn’t exist at all
    by Kate Aronoff
    (Kate Aronoff is a Brooklyn-based writing fellow at In These Times magazine and a contributing writer for The Intercept, where she covers American politics and the politics of climate change. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in economics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Among other outlets, her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harpers, The Nation, Jacobin, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Dissent and Rolling Stone – Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Washington DC)
    During a commencement address this week, Michael Bloomberg announced that he’s spending $500m to help the United States move closer to a carbon-neutral future. We should be very grateful that Bloomberg isn’t running for president…

    OOPS:

    TWEET: Kate Aronoff
    TWEET: Kate Aronoff
    Michael Bloomberg is just what this primary cycle needs: a tiny, sentient yacht who is friends with your landlord
    7 Nov 2018

    21 Sept: Bloomberg: Billionaire Candidate Steyer Admits to Carbon ‘Dregs’ From His Hedge Fund Days
    By Bill Allison and Tom Maloney
    Appearing at an MSNBC Climate Forum on Friday, Steyer — who has made the environment a centerpiece of his 2020 presidential campaign — was asked whether he had completely liquidated his holdings in oil, gas and coal, some of which were acquired while he ran Farallon Capital Management, an investment company.
    “There’s probably some dregs left,” he said, adding that any income he receives from such investments is donated to charity.
    The former hedge fund manager listed his assets in a filing to the Federal Election Commission on Monday. The disclosure shows he still has holdings in the kinds of companies whose work he rails against on the campaign trail…

    Connections to the fossil fuel industry have caused problems for another candidate at a similar event. Front-runner Joe Biden faced pointed questions at a climate town hall held by CNN on Sept. 4 about a fundraiser for him co-hosted by Andrew Goldman, who co-founded Western LNG, a Houston-based company that develops liquefied natural gas export facilities.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-20/steyer-invests-in-companies-he-says-are-part-of-the-problem

    30

    • #
      pat

      anti-billionaire writer of the Guardian piece, Kate Aronoff, writing for Heinrich Boll Stiftung, affiliate of the German Green Party:

      12 Dec 2018: Heinrich Boll Stiftung: Is Nationalization an Answer to Climate Change?
      ***Transatlantic Media Fellowship: What’s unique about Labour’s nationalization plans with regard to energy is that they would make Britain the first country to nationalize its power sector with the express intention of weaning it off fossil fuels and with an eye toward decarbonizing the economy.
      by Kate Aronoff
      https://us.boell.org/en/2018/12/12/nationalization-answer-climate-change

      Heinrich Boll: ***Transatlantic Media Fellowships: Each year, we sponsor a select number of journalists from the US and Europe for an independent, transatlantic trip to research stories relevant to the foundation’s work on climate and energy policy, democracy and social policy, foreign and security policy, or technology and digital policy. Fellowships are selected annually and are open to journalists in any medium.

      20 Nov: TheConversation: Nationalising Britain’s energy networks could be one way to end consumer rip-off – here’s why
      by Aimee Ambrose, Reader in Energy Policy, Sheffield Hallam University
      For many people, winter means trying to keep the cold out and the heat in. But for the one in ten households in the UK living in fuel poverty, who are unable to afford to properly heat their homes, it can mean the difference between life and death.
      Indeed, research by National Energy Action and climate-change charity E3G found that there were 17,000 deaths in the UK due to cold housing conditions last winter. The charity has called for urgent action to put an end to this “entirely preventable” tragedy.

      My recent report (LINK), conducted with Citizens’ Advice, also shows that energy companies are failing to meet their statutory obligations to protect vulnerable customers – and that this is harming people’s mental and physical health…

      ***As part of our research, we interviewed ***26 adults in Bristol and Sheffield and the people we spoke to reported a range of economic and social difficulties, mental and physical health problems and other vulnerabilities…
      Nationalise the system…
      https://theconversation.com/nationalising-britains-energy-networks-could-be-one-way-to-end-consumer-rip-off-heres-why-126958

      30

  • #
    Annie

    Why not consider this unthreaded a combined one, to be current over the weekend as well as ‘midweek’? There have been plenty of topics to read this week.
    I want to catch up with Ian Plimer’s article in The Australian, presumably paywalled to non’subscribers.

    60

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Please keep us who are not subscribers
      In the loop Annie

      80

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Great idea Annie combine the two.
      Fires in the alpine national park between where we live and roughly where you are but not sure any current danger .
      I do know around Abbeyyards is horribly overgrown although some of it was burnt out a few years back .

      40

    • #
      Graeme#4

      The Ian Plimer article in today’s Oz is one of the best summaries I have seen on the subject. Naturally it brought all the alarmists out of their holes to try and discredit him. Certainly generated a lot of discussion. Would be great if Jo could obtain Prof Plimer’s agreement to publish the full text here, but The Oz may also have the rights.

      80

      • #
        Serp

        Plimer and Tim Ball are excellent communicators who know the AGW refutations backwards which is why we receive so little of their work from the MSM. The beat goes on…

        10

        • #
          Screaming Nutbag

          This is the same Tim Ball who likes to fudge his CV and was recently found by a Court to be not even remotely credible?

          And the same Ian Plimer who published a book claiming the Sun has an iron core, and who despite being a geologist apparently has no idea how much CO2 is emitted by volcanoes?

          Neither of those two pass the sceptic sniff test. If you believe something that those two say is true, you should have a re-think about what you believe.

          00

  • #
    pat

    20 Nov: BBC: Liberal Democrat manifesto 2019: 12 key policies explained
    1. Stop Brexit
    Article 50 would be revoked and Brexit cancelled…

    4. Generate 80% of electricity from renewables
    Achieve this target by 2030 to reduce carbon emissions.
    Analysis by David Shukman, Science editor
    Even by the standards of an election busy this target is ambitious. We are already on a path of rapid decarbonisation – with 40% of our electricity produced by wind, solar and biomass in the third quarter of this year.

    And recent government projections suggest that contribution is set to rise to just under 50% over the next decade. So the Liberal Democrats’ plan for 80% would mean the extremely rapid construction of many more solar farms and wind turbines on land and out at sea. Only the Green Party envisages a faster transition…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50459123

    20 Nov: BBC Future: How climate change could kill the red apple
    by Veronique Greenwood
    Intriguingly, colour also depends on temperature. To get an apple that’s fully red, temperatures must stay cool, (David Chagne, a geneticist at Plant and Food Research in New Zealand) says, because if they climb to above about 40C (104F), MYB10 and anthocyanin levels crash. In the Pyrenees region of Spain, he and his colleagues found normally vividly red striped apples were completely pale after a particularly hot July. As temperatures warm, he suggests, it could become more difficult for apples to turn red.

    He and colleagues are nonetheless looking to breed red-as-red-can-be fruits ***for the Asian market, where a deep ruby is a popular colour, using their understanding of the biology behind colour…

    When you see the wild variety of colours that is possible, and recognise the danger of an ever-redder drift disconnected from true flavour, it can make you hope for better days to come for apple eaters. Will the apple’s true, weird nature ever triumph over the hunt for red? History suggests it will be an uphill battle, but we can all dream.
    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191119-how-climate-change-could-kill-the-red-apple

    30

  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: ABC: How Westpac’s LitePay service inadvertently helped Australian paedophiles abuse Filipino children
    By business reporter Michael Janda
    Aside from the lack of reporting around suspicious transactions that should have raised child abuse red flags, Westpac is also in AUSTRAC’s firing line for the non-reporting of around 19.5 million international funds transfers, plus numerous other alleged breaches of the law, taking the total to 23 million.
    Given that each breach of the law carries a maximum penalty of $17 million to $21 million, that exposes the bank to a theoretical liability in the range of $400 trillion — equal to about a century of Australia’s total current annual economic output.
    That obviously isn’t practical. So the more likely outcome is a settlement or court-determined penalty based on the precedent of CBA’s $700 million AUSTRAC fine in 2018…

    28 Apr 2017: ABC: Westpac’s new climate change policy is bad news for Adani’s Carmichael mine in Queensland
    By Stephen Long
    The policy also commits Westpac to actively reduce the emissions of the power generation sector and to support a price on carbon, as well as a transition to a “net zero-emissions economy…
    Green activists claim victory but say more needs to be done…

    7 Mar 2011: ABC: Westpac boss backs carbon tax
    Westpac’s chief executive Gail Kelly has backed the Federal Government’s plan to price carbon but she wants it to move to emissions trading sooner…

    23 Sept 2019: Press release: Westpac is proud signatory to the Principles for Responsible Banking launched today
    Westpac has officially become a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Banking, which were launched today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
    As a founding bank and signatory, Westpac will be one of 130 banks, collectively holding USD 47 trillion in assets, or one third of the global banking sector, to sign up to the Principles.
    In the Principles, launched one day ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit, signatories commit to strategically align their business with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals…

    “To transit to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies that support the goals of the Paris Agreement requires an additional investment of at least USD 60 trillion from now until 2050,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “As the banking sector provides over 90 per cent of the financing in developing countries and over two thirds worldwide, the Principles are a crucial step towards meeting the world’s sustainable development financing requirements.”…

    Westpac has been a founding member of the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Equator Principles, the Principles for Responsible Investment – and now the Principles for Responsible Banking. We have a strong track record of integrating sustainability into our core business and operations, and were recently named Australia’s most sustainable bank in the 2019 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices…
    https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/media/media-releases/2019/23-september/

    30

  • #
    el gordo

    The bushfires have produced a lot of CO2, but apart from that our human induced footprint is minuscule and bushfires have nothing to do with AGW.

    ” … to suggest that at just 1.3% of emissions, that Australia doing something more or less would change the fire outcome this season – I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all.”

    Scott Morrison

    50

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘The amount of greenhouse gases released from lakes by microbes and sunlight is huge. Initial estimates were about 9% of the net carbon released from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere—that is, the amount released over and above the Earth’s carbon-storing processes.

    ‘But, thanks to improved measurements, recent research has revised the figure to as high as 25%. These numbers are substantial given that that lakes only comprise about 4% of the global land surface.’

    Phys.org

    70

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Strangely, the BoM lost this data recorded by the incompetent Sir Charles Todd …

    Adelaide Observer, Dec 1900
    NOTES FOR NOVEMBER.
    DRY AND HOT MONTH.

    The following are the chief meteorological elements of the month at the Observatory: –

    Mean barometer (corrected ‘to sea level); 30.028.

    Highest reading, on the 20th, 30.319.
    Lowest reading, on the 13tn, -29.042.
    Mean temperature, 68.8.

    Mean of daily maxima, 82.1.
    Mean of daily minima, 55.6.

    Highest readinig in shade, 105.6.
    Lowest reading in shade, 47.8.

    Mean relative humidity (0-100), 47 percent.

    Mean amount of cloud (0-100), 31 percent.

    Total amount of sunshine, 334.1 hours.

    Total rain, 0.556 in.

    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162419383

    80

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Sounds like he was a meticulous sort of bloke.

      50

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Travis:
      I caught the Weather Forecast and the girl read the script (for last Wed. Adelaide). “Very hot and the temperature might eclipse the record for November of 44.7℃. It is unusual because we don’t normally have such heat in November”.

      As it was the temperature got nowhere near the record. Can we claim it was due to climate change?

      40

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Yet again the experts fail:

    https://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/world-snow-overview

    It’s snowing all over the world! Ski areas opening early, ski areas on-hold due to TOO MUCH SNOW, record snowfalls… on the anniverary of Climategate the data shysters are gonna have to pull out a (magic rabbit) extra-special “Mike’s nature trick” to hide the decline, hide the blizzard, hide the deep deep powder, hide cold hard reality.

    As an aside, one of the fathers of snowboarding, Jake Burton, died this week (the big C) in the US of A. Legend amongst giants, he took an offbeat alternative to skiing and turned ‘surfing on snow’ into the mega-business mega-buzz it is today (I celebrated my 30th season boarding this year, hoot!). As a carbon-intensive industry, I dont think he ever fell for the nonsense of CO2 equals ‘pollution’.

    Gravity sucks: go with it!

    70

  • #
    el gordo

    For those among you who maybe interested in Australian weather since 1788.

    joellegergis.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Fenby_Gergis_IJC_2013.pdf

    joellegergis.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/Gergis_Ashcroft_IJC_2013.pdf

    30

  • #
  • #
    robert rosicka

    “Bushfires a sign of climate change says Albo” , has he finally made a decision on coal ? , well it’s clear as mud but looks like lil Bill and Albo are on a unity ticket .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-22/anthony-albanese-economic-vision-for-labor/11729354

    20

  • #
    Serp

    Extraordinary technical ignorance on show at today’s COAG endorsement of Finkel’s hare-brained hydrogen scheme. Hell the politicians may be excused for taking at face value the recommendation of Australia’s Chief Scientist. But the dismal economics of hydrogen manufacture, storage and export have already been canvassed a few times here at Jo’s site. A key paper is https://afdc.energy.gov/files/pdfs/hyd_economy_bossel_eliasson.pdf.

    The economics of the Latrobe Valley pilot scheme for hydrogen from lignite are opaque but surely the tripled royalties which made Hazelwood unviable no longer obtain –I daresay the brown coal is being gifted to the project. But its real mystery is how the geosequestration of carbon dioxide will be accomplished without any risk of a recurrence of the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster.

    Australia a banana republic with policy dictated by shysters, conmen and charlatans? And on the very day Eddie Obeid’s parole is announced! And, no, it’s not April the First.

    50

  • #
    dinn, rob

    important stuff if we are to stop assassinations
    4-30-2019 I awaited the promise of the JFK Records Act of 1992: full disclosure. The law, passed unanimously by Congress, mandated the release of all of the government’s JFK files within 25 years, that is to say, by 2017. The promise, alas, was betrayed by President Trump. He used the one loophole provided in the law, allowing for continued postponement of release of assassination records. Trump, the conspiracy theorist, certified that disclosure would cause “an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or conduct of foreign relations” and that “the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
    In his October 2017 White House directive Trump stated he had “no choice” (curious phrase) but to allow federal agencies to continue to withhold thousands of JFK assassination files from public view– including the Joannides files. In April 2018 the National Archives reported that 15,834 assassination records remain redacted, most of them by CIA and FBI. These files will remain sealed until April 2021 at the earliest https://www.justsecurity.org/63826/jfk-records-suit-tests-cia-secrecy-on-assassination/
    ………………………………………..
    Mark Prophet told some of us that JFK was killed “because he stood up to the Russians.” -r, mt. shasta
    ……
    https://balance10.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-two-guys-who-killed-tippit-and-jfk.html

    00

    • #
      Screaming Nutbag

      Never mind that, when are the bent cops who tricked up a case against convenient nutter David Eastman going to gaol?

      00

  • #
    Ian George

    An example of how one-second response times from e-thermometers can increase max temps.

    Casino Nov 21, 2019. Time 2:10pm

    High temp – 35.1C
    Low temp – 33.4C

    That’s 1.7C change in the same minute.

    The highest 10 min recording for the day was 33.7C. The screen temp showed no temp near 35.0C.
    Weatherzone 10 min observations
    Thu 14:10 EDT
    E 28 33 33.4
    BoM highest for Nov 21st.
    21/02:40pm 35.1

    20

  • #
    philf

    IPCC Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change
    GCM General Circulation Model (many, based on IPCC CO2 assertions)
    ——————————-
    These eight links from five authors are all you really need to understand global warming.
    My speculation: As the temperature went down into the Little Ice Age, limestone was deposited around the edges of bodies of water. As the temperature has recovered since, the limestone dissolved and added CO2 to the oceans, with a delay of 300-400 years. It was just an accident that this added CO2 coincided with our industrial revolution. Temperature creates CO2, not the other way around. There is proof of that. Read on.
    —————————-
    Pangburn
    Shows that temperature change over the last 170 years is due to 3 things: 1) cycling of the ocean temperature, 2) sun variations and 3) moisture in the air. There is no significant dependence of temperature on CO2.

    https://globalclimatedrivers2.blogspot.com/

    —————————–
    Connolly father & son
    Shows the vertical temperature profile follows the ideal gas laws and is not caused by CO2. Millions of weather balloon scans and trillions of data points have been analyzed to come to these conclusions. One important conclusion is that there is no green house gas effect.

    https://globalwarmingsolved.com/2013/11/summary-the-physics-of-the-earths-atmosphere-papers-1-3/

    utube:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRBr7PEawY

    ——————————
    Pat Frank
    Shows that GCM results cannot be extrapolated a few years, let alone 50 or 100.

    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00223/full

    and

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/15/why-roy-spencers-criticism-is-wrong/

    ———————————
    Joe Postma
    Shows that the “flat earth model”of the IPCC is too simple. Their real models are built into the GCMs which don’t fit the real data.

    https://climateofsophistry.com/2019/10/19/the-thing-without-the-thing/

    https://climateofsophistry.com/2019/09/05/real-climate-physics-vs-fake-political-physics/

    https://principia-scientific.org/webcast-no-radiative-greenhouse-effect/

    10

  • #
    el gordo

    Malcolm Turnbull wonders why people in the regions can’t see climate change.

    “There are plenty of odd beliefs out there and conspiracy theories but what I have always struggled to understand is why climate denialism still has the currency that it has, particularly given the evidence of the impact of climate change is now so apparent, and it is particularly apparent to people living in regional and rural Australia.

    “Precisely what has been forecast is happening.”

    10

    • #
      PeterW

      Maybe it has something to do with the fact that weather is something that we pay attention to…. something that we live with, not something that only gets our attention when the media headlines shout that it’s important. When you pay attention, you have a better memory and a better perspective.

      Likewise, it’s not just numbers. It is related to real things and we grow up with stories about real things. So when my father talks about the time that birds were falling out of trees – dead – from heat-stress – and I’m not seeing that….. I have reason to be sceptical that it’s hotter now.

      When a fire travelled 90 kilometres in two days, back in 1952, or overtook the hard-driven firetruck that my cousin was riding in, in 1983,,,, I have reason to be sceptical that current conditions are
      “unprecedented”.

      When I have local history of the “reliable” creek below my home going so dry during the Federation drought, that people were shovelling sand out of the creek bed to create seepage holes to water themselves and their livestock….. I have reason to be sceptical that the current drought is unprecedented.

      In fact, I have a whole history of reasons to be sceptical of “experts” who insist on telling us what we should do, without having skin in the game. Without having to deal with the economic consequences of getting their recommendations and predictions wrong.

      80

      • #
        PeterW

        It says something that I need to clarify my use of the term “sceptical”.

        It does not mean that I reject a proposition out of hand. What it means is that I am withholding judgement because I do not find the evidence compelling .

        The more anyone tells me that what records we have are “unreliable” or in need of “adjusting”… the more I am hearing that they don’t really know whether the past was cooler OR hotter. It is important to admit what we don’t know.

        30

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Agreed. The other co-dependent part of the puzzle is that we need to openly acknowledge that the powers that be are partially psychotic, and in a thirst for power, will happily bend the truth or distort it to suit thier own agendas.

          Just the acknowledgement that govt often does poweful peoples bidding is a start….from a Christian perspective, note who owns the govts:

          8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
          9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
          10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” ( matthew 48-10)

          30

        • #
          el gordo

          ‘It is important to admit what we don’t know.’

          Nobody is game to pull the tent down, there is too much at stake, NSW wants to be a virtue signalling state too.

          https://www.ecogeneration.com.au/nsw-electricity-strategy-a-shot-in-the-arm-for-clean-energy-cec

          The rearguard action fought by skeptics over decades has gotten us into a position where we can go on the offensive. Rest assured the denialati faction will be on the front line.

          Essentially we have to forecast world weather for the approaching decade and back it up with science. How hard could it be?

          10

          • #
            PeterW

            Gordo….

            Too much invested for people to give up ideas like this easily. Too much ego, too much money. Too much expectation of political benefit,

            50

            • #
              el gordo

              We have to get the MSM onside, then politics and science will fall into line.

              10

              • #
                PeterW

                EG….

                It seems likely that the traditional MSM is becoming even more addicted to headlines and catastrophism, than less. Audiences and revenue are apparently dropping as the net provides alternative sources of information, so the MSM has fewer quality journalists, researchers and fact-checkers.

                Good luck getting them onside with a message of “Keep calm and carry on… there’s no reason to panic”

                20

            • #
              el gordo

              The Murdochs are cashed up and keen to expand into TV. They helped the Coalition win the Federal election, Rupert is a kingmaker.

              00

          • #
            robert rosicka

            Went looking for the most ridiculous (caused by climate change) paper I could find and came across this study of plate tectonics.
            Lengthy read and have only flicked through a few pages but interesting.

            https://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/papers2/deconto_tectonics&climate.pdf

            10

    • #
      yarpos

      Mr Harborside Mansion thinks he has a better appreciation of climate than people living regionally? Good grief.

      30

  • #
    beowulf

    Another green Klimate Kretin blames Morrison for the bushfires. The words “FU Scott Morrison”, something about “climate catastrophe” and “quiet Aussies lead to homes on fire” are visible on the sign.

    If you save and scale up the photo you can see the proximity and density of the bush in the immediate vicinity of the burnt-out house. Note too the size/age of the trees. This is young re-growth that this green genius has either plonked his house in the middle of or allowed to grow up around his house, all the while blaming climate change for the consequences of his own stupidity and that of his beliefs.

    The Daily Mail headline “Quiet Australians lead to homes on fire” is apt, but not in the way the Mail imagines. Time we all jumped up and down and demanded a vastly increased hazard reduction regime across the country. We’ve been walked all over by the Greens for too long with their hold on the balance of power in the Senate, their infiltration of local councils and their stacking of key government departments that control and can veto hazard reduction.

    Mind you Morrison has not helped his cause by “offering his thoughts and prayers as well as suggesting victims ‘cheer on’ the national cricket team for comfort.” I don’t know what planet he’s from, but I wish he’d go back there so we could get a real PM, someone with grunt.

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/quiet-australians-lead-to-homes-on-fire-father-sends-a-powerful-message-to-scott-morrison-using-the-remains-of-his-burnt-out-home-after-a-bushfire-tore-through-it/ar-BBX9vUN?ocid=spartandhp

    30

  • #
    el gordo

    BoM reckons its going to be a dry summer in Queensland, but The Long Paddock thinks it’ll be wet.

    https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/seasonal-climate-outlook/monthly-climate-statements/2019/11/15/monthly-climate-statement-for-november-2019/

    My money is on TLP.

    20

    • #
      PeterW

      None of the forecasters have enough skill out beyond about 2 weeks, to reliably guide business decisions.

      10

      • #
        el gordo

        Being a lay forecaster, this time next year La Nina should be in full stride.

        In the meantime, with ENSO neutral, Queensland will get average rain.

        10

  • #
    el gordo

    The NAO is about to slip below the line and the cool wet conditions in the UK should become cold and dry.

    https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao_index.html

    00

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Did anyone see this when it was new back on the 11th?

    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/the-day-it-forgot-to-rain-on-australia-20191111-p539cy.html

    The Bureau of Meteorology had forecast Australia to be all but rainless for the day – aside from a tiny splotch off the Kimberley and western Tasmania.
    The unusual reading, especially for the mainland of roughly 7.6 million square kilometres, had the agency’s boffins poring over their record books.
    “The team can’t comprehensively identify a day in our records where there hasn’t been rain somewhere on continental Australia,” a bureau spokesman said.

    Reactions in the Twittersphere were as one would expect.

    https://twitter.com/jmil400/status/1193800096766251008

    Absence of evidence is evidence of absence, obviously.

    So far on Monday, the Northern Territory has had “no rain anywhere” since 9am, while Point Hicks in far-eastern Victoria is the wettest place in Australia with just 4 millimetres so far.

    Zero rain, for large values of “Zero”.

    20

  • #
    el gordo

    El Nino becoming stronger since the beginning of the industrial revolution, hogwash.

    https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2019/11/23/el-ninos-stronger-in-the-industrial-age-say-researchers/

    00