Weekend Unthreaded

….

9.7 out of 10 based on 53 ratings

138 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    Eddie

    Oh look !

    “A new paper published in the Journal of Climate reveals that the lower part of the Earth’s atmosphere has warmed much faster since 1979 than scientists relying on satellite data had previously thought.

    Researchers from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), based in California, have released a substantially revised version of their lower tropospheric temperature record.

    After correcting for problems caused by the decaying orbit of satellites, as well as other factors, they have produced a new record showing 36% faster warming since 1979 and nearly 140% faster (i.e. 2.4 times larger) warming since 1998. This is in comparison to the previous version 3 of the lower tropospheric temperature (TLT) data published in 2009. ”

    Headlined as:
    ” Major correction to satellite data shows 140% faster warming since 1998″
    Has RSS Mears been respining his satellites?

    101

    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Yet again they admit they were wrong! Another “more or less than previously thought”. And yet again they are tangled in their lies of history. They lost their credibility long before now.

      Corrections were always made for decaying orbits. Nothing new there.

      A “John” wrote a very pertinent comment on pal review in The Oz this weekend. I’ll see if I can find it.

      151

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        It wasn’t hard to find. Top of the top comments on Graham Lloyd’s story at

        http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/inconvenient-truths-surface-amid-climate-model-doubts/news-story/4fd1aef9b3a5ddaad6d28c7cf2b608e5

        And I apologies, it was Charles who wrote it. John wrote the second comment on the list, which I copy also.

        Charles 20 hours ago
        I loved that 1st statement by unnamed critics that ‘healthy scepticism and competition already exists in the peer review process’. Nothing could be further from the truth.

        After a long association with scientists in universities and the CSIRO I can say with some confidence that peer review can be more accurately defined as ‘pal’ review, and the central theories or claims that are asserted in papers are rarely reviewed. Instead most peer reviewers just check the methodology to ensure that it has been carried out to the standard or in the way they would expect it to be carried out. These are mostly trivial issues which are unrelated to central hypothesis of papers and include such things as statistical design, how many replications were used, were suitable controls included, etc. etc.

        Proof of this lack of scientific integrity can be seen with some climate papers recently publicised by the ABC and included the fate of Red Gums growing in heightened conditions of CO2. In this flight of fancy the theory was that trees growing in high CO2 conditions would experience lower levels of essential oils forming in the trees that act to protect the plant from pest invasion.

        All it really was that trees rely on a certain amount of nutrients per unit of tree biomass to form the levels of these oils to the correct level. When you have a tree with access to a finite amount of nutrients in a greenhouse, the one growing the quickest and largest is always going to have less nutrients per cell than one drawing on the same pool of nutrients but has only half the cells that require service.

        What this shows is that not only is climate science more a religion than anything else, but it also shows we have an education system that is dedicated to providing a workforce totally lacking in critical thinking skills or ability to form their own opinions.

        It is a scandal.

        68UnlikeReply
        Avatar for John
        John 21 hours ago
        “[Critics] say healthy scepticism and competi­tion already exist in the peer review process.” Whoah! That’s right up there with “The science is settled” bunkum.

        The verifiable facts are these – Journals ask authors to suggest reviewers (check websites) so those authors aren’t going to suggest anyone who might criticise. Some journals (eg. Nature) have openly declared that they will not publish papers from sceptics. The climategate emails shows that journals and their editors have been thratened with retribution if they publish papers from sceptics. Some journals were established by alarmists and those are the only papers they’ll print (e.g. Nature Climate Change). Some utter nonsense has been accepted by reviewers and published only to be slammed within days and the paper hastily withdrawn (e.g. Gergis & Karoly paper).

        332

      • #
        Ava

        ” Corrections were always made for decaying orbits. Nothing new there.”
        Corrections are needed more than was thought for a decaying concern about climate.

        Mears has been torturing the uncertaintis to come up with something since messing his own doorstep for the climate crew trying to rubbish that thorn in their side, the satellites, shortly after the COP21 failure https://twitter.com/GreatWhiteCon/status/689085507242950656

        62

        • #
          Watt

          Mears still has some way to go till he can torture the data like Ava tortures a metaphor 😉

          70

          • #
            Ava

            My expressions may seem a litte confused but they never feel so tortured they have to confess.

            120

    • #
      tom0mason

      That makes RSS data look even more unreliable, for this milti-million dollar program to overlook such an error makes me wonder what other gross errors yet to be revealed are there?

      RSS the best results money can buy, eh?

      142

      • #
        bullocky


        “… makes me wonder what other gross errors yet to be revealed are there?”

        Lifting the ‘anonymous veil of peer review’ may reveal more than just errors!

        101

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Right off at comment number 1 I get my weekend supply of laughs. 140% faster? Fake news I’ll bet because the real number is 97% faster and everyone knows it.

      40

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        I hope I didn’t need to actually state my contempt for this kind of juggling things around to make a new, far worse proclamation from the doomsayers.

        30

      • #
        Eddie

        As my old Headmaster used to say as he’d slap me round the head yet again, “Percent of what? Apples, pears, oranges? ” If the units of denominator aren’t clearly stated percentage is being used improperly, whether by ignorance or to deceive.

        You can see alarmists doing it all the time as if it’s their MO.

        30

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          And then there is that, isn’t there? What constitutes 100% needs to be defined. But that isn’t ever allowed to get in the way of a claim that a new version of a product is 25% better or a new threat is 97% worse.

          And ignorance can’t tell the difference. How did we screw up such an easy subject as percentage? What they do with the gas laws or the laws of thermodynamics heaven alone can tell.

          And for that matter how come it is that I can misspell my own name and not notice it? 🙁

          Just look down the page a ways to find out.

          20

    • #
      Uncle Gus

      Am I wrong, or is that ~140% faster than… almost nothing?

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    US history:

    History of the racist Democrat Party. The Democrats wanted to preserve slavery, the Republican Party was formed in opposition to slavery. The Democrats founded the KKK.

    https://youtu.be/9_I3IHgJT-M

    112

  • #
    Dave in the States

    A little while back, there were reports that because of climate change making it too hot that some aircraft were temporarily grounded flying out of Phoenix Az, due to density altitude precautions. A few days ago I talked to a private jet pilot that frequents Phoenix. He told me that it has always been that way and that it happens every year. There is nothing new and unprecedented about it. Same as it has always been.

    291

    • #
      David Maddison

      Leftists / warmists always lie and deceive.

      132

    • #
      James

      Look up the performance charts for the airplane and work out whether or not you have enough runway to get off the ground, plus some to spare. If you do not, then leave some luggage behind, or reschedule to a cooler part of the day, or load less fuel on and plan an additional fuel stop.

      One of the planes in my flying club returned from a fly in breakfast one hot July day, from a field with a short grass strip. It had come with a full load of people on board, plus there was some foliage in the landing gear from the trees it just skimmed over. The pilot should have made two trips and he would have been fine.

      Here is an example of a pilot who left nothing to spare. I wonder if he remembered to convert from knots (western aviation units for wind) to meters per second (the plane is a Russian design, they use m/s). If he did not, that could explain the near accident here.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThoZNxy2JZk

      90

      • #
        toorightmate

        How long will it be before the USA graduates to metric?

        30

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Never if the people get a say in it.

          If I was starting out from scratch I would certainly choose metric. But the change to metric after several hundred years of those horrid English units was tried and the people complained to their representatives in rather large numbers so the bill was repealed.

          31

          • #
            David Maddison

            My understanding is that the USA is legally metric and metric measurements are required on food items in the supermarket but there is no requirement to use them so people don’t.

            History of metrification in US:

            https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pml/wmd/metric/1136a.pdf

            00

            • #
              Roy Hogue

              David,

              Yes, metric is coming in and has been for a long time. I can’t speak for any food labeling requirements but in the auto industry metric sizes are taking over. I think that’s voluntary, law or no law and a good thing. But speed limit signs and speedometers are all still in miles/hour And I expect that to go one for a long time.

              I think that if the school systems around the country are wise (ha!) they will teach metric along with English units and then, someday just when everyone least expects it the whole country will be metic fluent and viola, the change has almost completed. You just need to have begun making cars with both MPH and kMH scales on the speedometer and change all the signs. And the speedometers in two units are already here. Even my ’98 Toyota has both scales.

              I isolated that to make the point obvious.

              But the idea of using metric speed limits, metric weeights in the grocery store and in the kitchen actually seemed unnecessary, even to me, who understands metric. And worse, it must have scared large numbers of people to be forced to change from a system that they knew well and were used to. So as I said, people complained to their representatives the law was repealed. Almost nothing else than what I just mentioned matters to the general public.

              By the way, as far as I know I can still go to my local Home Depot and find 10-32 (32 threads/inch) screws and nuts or a 1/4 inch lag bolt if I want it. Nails are still measured in inches, gas is still sold by the gallon, etc. So there’s metric and then there’s reality which is still a hybrid.

              It may be unfortunate that our beginning as a nation was pure English, influenced even by the Magna Carta, but it was and so it has gone on for a long time. We love you all in Oz, Canaday, the UK and elsewhere but we don’t yet seen the necessity to change certain things. But I think eventually we will.

              00

              • #
                Rereke Whakaaro

                The ICAO mandated the use of metric for international flight movements anywhere in the world. Even Tibet signed up for that.

                Following on from that, the metric system is used for weights and measurements on all international shipping, including from and to the continental US.

                Apart from time, that is.

                I am currently waiting for some international bureaucrat at the UN to mandate a metric system of units for time, based upon a standard SI definition of an hour, as being two tenths of one complete rotation of the earth, relative to a known star, that nobody has heard of, with 100 minutes to the hour, and 100 seconds to the minute.

                /sarc

                00

              • #
                Roy Hogue

                Good luck with that one, Rereke.

                However if the reference is relative to some star rather than high noon the times of day will not keep corresponding with solar time, which I think would make a whole lot of us ditch it in a hurry,

                And suppose you do get it. Let’s see here… …what will my clock say at noon tomorrow? How much do I need to set my alarm forward to get up in time for work tomorrow. Or is it backward? Oh nuts! I give up. 🙁

                Meter/liter/kilogram/second sounds real good to me.

                00

        • #
          James

          I doubt that aviation will never change to metric. It is easy to work with even thousand feet for IFR (instrument) traffic going west bound, and odd thousand feet for going east bound. VFR (visual) altitudes are even plus 500 feet for east bound, and odd plus 500 feet for west bound.

          Eastern bloc aviation was always metric. I think that those former members that joined EU or NATO have since changed to using knots for wind and possibly feet for altitude. Even the French use knots and feet, although I think USA Mexico and Canada are the only places using statute miles for visibility. Having both statute mile and nautical miles mixed together is great for rules testing, as it provides and additional detail that you need to watch for when selecting the answer in the multiple choice testing that they use.

          20

          • #
            Ro Hogue

            U.S. aviation had been using statute miles and MPH when I started my training in 1976. At some point after I got my license it was all changed to knots and nautical miles. The nautical mile supposedly fits around the Earth at the mean diameter of the equator an integer number of times, whereas the mile does not. I have no idea why this is important but maybe if you are a navigator it would be more obvious. Knots of course are nautical miles per hour.

            But to the point, soon I found myself renting the same model airplane with the possibility of having to use miles and MPH or nautical miles and knots, depending on the airplane because each one had an airspeed indicator reading in the units in force when it was built and a pilots manual that gave all the required speeds in the same units. The conversion is easy, one nautical mile is almost exactly 1.15 statute miles and it’s so close that the next several digits are small as I remember, making the arithmetic easy for short flights. The trouble was, you had to be very careful which airplane you had because depending on airspeed in knots when you needed MPH or vice versa could be trouble.

            And that in a nutshell is why I didn’t want to convert to metric when the congress and president wanted me to.

            40

            • #
              Dave in the States

              Yes that’s right. Nautical miles makes it nice for navigation and using nautical charts and maps. It is not only the best system for aircraft but also for ships at sea.

              I have no problem using the metric system or the miles/English systems. In fact I love the metric system for most things, and metric is the best for most scientific calculations and quantification.

              00

            • #
              James

              We have 1, and most likely 2 planes (I am not checked out in the 1946 model J3 piper cub) in the club with air speed indicators calibrated in statute MPH. One of them also has knots on it as well as MPH. The other planes are in knots.

              00

              • #
                Roy Hogue

                James.

                Oh boy! Those J3s are legendary. They may well be the most in demand airplane from the years they were made, 1946 – ~1957. You have no idea how much I’d like to get my hands on the stick in a J3 in flight for even 5 minutes. And I have no taildragger experience at all to back me up on takeoff and landing.

                My desktop background on this computer is a beautiful shot from the pilot’s position in a J3 on final for a small, probably private airstrip in Texas. I don’t know who the owner or pilot is but from placards above the windshield it’s based at Dallas Executive near Dallas Texas. But the intended landing is obviously not Dallas Executive, just a dirt strip.

                He’s about 300 feet AGL (hard to tell exactly) and holding a considerable correction for a right crosswind judging by stick position and position of the horizon relative to the wings. The panel looks original. They had tacs that read counter clockwise and that’s clearly visible in the picture.

                There’s some add-on stuff like a GPS mounted above the windshield and connections for radio and headsets. But it looks pristine in every respect that I can see. It may have an add-on starter and generator but I have no way to tell.

                I found that 1920 X 1080 picture and several others on the internet and could’t help downloading them. It’s been my wall paper ever since.

                A 1946 model would be worth a pretty penny with all its maintenance records, no damage or repair and low air time. Even worth a lot with a new engine with low air time.

                I’m drooling. Get checked out in it and enjoy it. They’re ideal for flying low and slow and anyone you take with you can see the ground from a vantage point only an airplane can provide. I had a chance at one in a flight simulator and they’re child’s play in th air. They stall gently, almost apologetically. I didn’t try to spin it but I’ll bet it recovers easily. Then I promptly ground looped in on landing — should have known better…

                00

          • #
            Ro Hogue

            Knots and nautical miles are here to stay. U.S. aviation will probably never go metric except for the military which marches to its own drummer.

            30

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          The only thing wrong with the metric system is that we ever had a different one.

          I am constantly amazed at how well younger people handle my mixed measures. Everybody knows six feet, and they seem to understand an inch.

          But nobody remembers pounds, shillings and pence!

          30

        • #
          • #
            Annie

            I believe miles, feet and inches are still the legal distance measurements in UK, so I become very grumpy when people like the BBC talk about metres. Other measurements are in metric and we were more or less cajoled into buying recipe books to match; a money-making exercise for some. Not me; I decided I was not measuring for cooking in metric and stuck to my imperial books and equipment. I often just measure ‘by eye’ these days anyway.

            10

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        Back when I was studying for my license I saw a Boeing 747 use every last inch of runway 24 left at LAX. In those days you could still drive up to the top of the sand dunes between the airport and the ocean and since I had an aircraft band radio and was temporarily working in El Segundo right across the street from the airport I would take my lunch and drive up there to eat and watch the activity.

        One day I heard ground control clear a TWA 747 to taxi to runway 24 left and then warn them that the first part of the runway was temporarily closed. So TWA starts for runway 24 L but I could see the scene in the cockpit in my head, they were scrambling to see if they would have enough runway. And sure enough, they called ground and asked to go back to the gate. A little while later the announcement came that the whole runway was usable again so TWA was cleared once again to 24 L. By then I was going to be late getting back from lunch but I stayed to watch this takeoff because I knew it would be spectacular. I was perched on the sand dune right off the end of 24 L. 7 Right, the same runway used in the opposite direction, has no displaced threshold so the end of the pavement was right in front of me. TWA would probably use most of that pavement.

        Well, here they came, full throttle and they kept coming and coming and coming until I thought I should look for a place to duck. It was beautiful. The pilot raised the nose at the last instant and it lifted off with the wingtips stirring up dust around the 7 R glideslope antenna which of course is right at the touchdown point which was maybe 25 feet from the end of the pavement.

        That 747 went over me so low I could have shaken hands with the pilot if he had his window open. After the engine noise died down I could hear the wake turbulence it left behind for a minute or more. He flew straight out to sea for a long way before raising the gear and starting to climb.

        I don’t know what the takeoff weight was but he was hunkered down with fuel for 10 1/2 hours or more over the pole to London plus fuel to his alternate in case London is unusable plus 2 more hours after that plus payload and forced to use one of the shorter runways at LAX because the longer ones couldn’t take the weight in those days. Marginal is an understatement.

        When I found myself in a similar situation several years later I remembered that TWA flight as the end of my runway was coming up at me fast.

        70

        • #
          clipe

          I spent 35 years working at Toronto YYZ

          It wasn’t unusual to see a loaded B-744 Combi use every available inch of the runway on a hot humid day.

          30

    • #
      tom0mason

      Yes Dave,

      And it got media coverage EVERYWHERE!

      However what did not get coverage was the exceptional cold in Dakotas and the Great Lakes.
      Frost damaged corn anyone?
      28 Jun 2017 – Dozens of summer cold records set in Dakotas & Great Lakes and temperatures at least 10-15F below normal … and the media remains silent.

      https://www.youtube.com/embed/1pIXVvlahyQ

      Also, global temperatures aren’t rising as expected this summer, snows in Russia (Tatarstan and Murmansk), meters of snow in South America (Argentina and Chile in particular), and atmospheric compression events at dozens of locations planet wide.
      Info from https://www.iceagenow.info.

      The times they are a-ch-changing.

      51

      • #
        Mary E

        I live up along Lake Erie – quite chilly here for much of June, yes. My corn is ok (just a small plot)and I think most, if not all, of Ohio’s corn is ok as well. But I did have to wear a coat to work several days, and when going outside for breaks or to fetch things from my car as well. About 10, 11 years ago we had a similar coolness, but I don’t think it lasted as long.

        But the new normal is ignore cold as weather and announce small bouts of hot as HEAT WAVE! and RECORD SETTING! even if the temp was barely a 10th over the old record, and for less than an hour. The spate of 90+ (F) days in NE Ohio registered in the mid to high 80s at work (5 miles inland) and just a tad cooler at home (not even a 1/4 mile inland) except for a brief surge around 4:00 pm, when the roads filled up with traffic and the heat started baking off the buildings. Of course, our official temp comes from a large airport southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, and it is usually much warmer there than almost everywhere else nearby, even in winter.

        10

  • #
    tom0mason

    Just a few NATURAL sources of CO2 not completely accounted for by UN-IPCC.
    How do these compare to the minute amount that humans produce?

    Significant efflux of carbon dioxide from streams and rivers in the United States David Butman*and Peter A. Raymond
    “These rivers breathe a lot of carbon.” —davId butman, a doctoral student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, who coauthored a recent article published in Nature Geoscience showing that rivers and streams in the United States are “supersaturated” with carbon dioxide (CO2) compared to the atmosphere, releasing an amount of CO2 equivalent to a car burning 40 million gallons of gasoline (enough to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon). Butman and coauthor Pete Raymond, a Yale professor, measured temperature, alkalinity, and pH from samples of more than 4,000 U.S. rivers and streams, and also studied the morphology and surface area of the waterways. They fed this data into a model to determine the flux of CO2 from the water and found that the amount of CO2 given off by rivers and streams “is significant enough for terrestrial modelers to take note of it,” according to Butman. The study revealed that the CO2, after being released by decomposing plants, is making its way from the ground into the rivers and streams. The researchers also determined that an increase in precipitation caused by climate change will create a cycle that leads to increasing amounts of CO2 in the waterways and subsequently in the atmosphere. (sourcE: Yale University) EchoEs “
    Included comment in ‘Recent Changes of Arctic Multiyear Sea Ice Coverage and the Likely Causes’ by Igor v. Polyakov, John E. Walsh, and ronald kWok

    Referencing this paper http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/publications/pdfs/Butman_NatureGeoscience_2011.pdf
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    …However, these studies ignored the impacts of forests on atmospheric aerosol. We use a global atmospheric model to show that, through emission of organic vapours and the resulting condensational growth of newly formed particles, boreal forests double regional cloud condensation nuclei concentrations (from approx. 100 to approx. 200 cm−3). Using a simple radiative model, we estimate that the resulting change in cloud albedo causes a radiative forcing of between −1.8 and −6.7 W m−2 of forest. This forcing may be sufficiently large to result in boreal forests having an overall cooling impact on climate. We propose that the combination of climate forcings related to boreal forests may result in an important global homeostasis. In cold climatic conditions, the snow–vegetation albedo effect dominates and boreal forests warm the climate, whereas in warmer climates they may emit sufficiently large amounts of organic vapour modifying cloud albedo and acting to cool climate.

    http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1885/4613

    Note that the VOC are IR active (aka GHGs)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The majority of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon is stored in the soil. If anthropogenic warming stimulates the loss of this carbon to the atmosphere, it could drive further planetary warming1, 2, 3, 4. Despite evidence that warming enhances carbon fluxes to and from the soil5, 6, the net global balance between these responses remains uncertain. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of warming-induced changes in soil carbon stocks by assembling data from 49 field experiments located across North America, Europe and Asia.

    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7631/full/nature20150.html
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    In 1992, it was thought that volcanic degassing released something like 100 million tons of CO2 each year. Around the turn of the millennium, this figure was getting closer to 200. The most recent estimate, released this February, comes from a team led by Mike Burton, of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology – and it’s just shy of 600 million tons. It caps a staggering trend: A six-fold increase in just two decades.

    https://www.livescience.com/40451-volcanic-co2-levels-are-staggering.html
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Then there are *estimates* about the oceans and seas…

    Contrast and compare these figures with the minuscule amount that humans emit.

    Of course as we are exiting a recent cold event, the LIA, then climate history would indicate that it is perfectly normal for atmospheric CO2 levels to climb. Climate history also indicates that atmospheric CO2 levels do not influence planetary temperature substantially, if at all.

    What is less understood is the whys, whens, and hows atmospheric CO2 levels decline. One thing is for sure, reductions in man-made CO2 will have little to no impact on nature’s determination as to where atmospheric CO2 levels will be going as humans are not in control.

    So lets all get on with de-industrializing on the back of a pseudo-scientific theory that is neither complete, nor for a large extent realistic compared to this planet’s history.

    163

    • #
      tom0mason

      Shoreline changes in reef islands of the Central Pacific are stable or getting larger? Computer models say NO.
      However a report called Shoreline changes in reef islands of the Central Pacific: Takapoto Atoll, Norther Tuamotu, French Polynesia. by Duvat, V.K.E. and Pillet, V. in 2017 Geomorphology 282: 96-118. say otherwise.

      Their report highlights that against all UN-IPCC claims to the contrary must happen, between the years 1969 and 2013, shoreline and island changes on Takapoto Atoll, Northern Tuamotu, French Polynesia, most of the reef islands “exhibited either a real stability (41%) or expansion (33%),” including the two largest islands (772 ha and 320 ha), which showed expansion and stability, respectively.
      In commenting on these findings, the two researchers say “our results therefore confirm that the reef islands of the northern Tuamotu chain are robust landforms showing no sign of widespread erosion or of positional instability as a result of contemporary sea-level rise.”

      In 44 years the island are stable or growing! Weren’t we told time and again these places were supposed to vanish with rising sea-levels?
      UN-IPCC it ain’t happening!

      Other reports on sea-levels not behaving as expected are here.

      111

    • #
      sophocles

      It’s amazing, sometimes, what one discovers by reading around. I was catching up with the latest from NoTricksZone. They quoted two papers which caught my eye, a 1997 paper from Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski
      and another from Dr. Joel M Kaufmann (Emeritus, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia,).

      Kaufmann considered the C02 to Temperature “correlation” and found it wanting. He cited Jaworowski’s paper revealing the lack of consistency in the CO2 atmospheric concentration over the early 19th Century during the Dalton Minimum, and afterwards. According to our friendly office of `propaganda, wholly propaganda and nothing but propaganda’ it’s atmospheric concentration was fixed at a value of 280 ppm at and before 1850 as the “pre-industrial content.” Kaufmann noted:

      “Compared with the so-called pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm, a level of 410 ppm was found in 1812, , rising to 450 ppm in 1825. There were levels of 370 ppm in 1857, and 4 sets of measurements gave 350–415 ppm around 1940 (Figure 10). From 1870–1920 values remained within 295–310 ppm. From 1955–1965 the values were 325 ppm.

      Not bad. 410 ppmv in 1812, just before the Year Without a Summer, and just before the last frost fair on the river Thames (1814). 1812 was Napoleon’s resounding defeat by the Russian Winter freezing his army to death (celebrated by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture), at 450ppmv (higher than at present). I can understand why the Warmists wanted something static and low, it jibes hard with their narrative.

      I had read something a couple of months ago wherein the author noted that careful scientists throughout the 19th Century had measured atmospheric concentrations of CO2, some of the order of 310ppm and others at 380 ppm, so I downloaded Jaworowski’s paper to see what light he shed. (Note: the link provided in the NoTricksZone post is not correct.)

      Wow. Dr Jaworowski doesn’t mince his words. It’s headlined: ANOTHER GLOBAL WARMING F***D EXPOSED. (The asterisks are for the moderation filters. Yes, I’m being a coward and playing it safe. 🙂 Besides, it should save Fly or Jo a bit of work and they will no doubt be in favour of that.)

      Dr Jaworowski sounds rather angry, if not a bit upset. He states:

      Attempts to support the global warming thesis with analyses of the carbon dioxide content of air bubbles in glacial ice samples, are based on fudged data and ignorance of the processes of glacial ice formation.

      and explains the behaviour of glacial ice. He also claimed:

      that he can prove the climate is going to get colder through his work excavating glaciers on six different continents, which he says indicates what we should really be worrying about is ‘The approaching new Ice Age…’.”[3] Jaworowski wrote The current sunspot cycle is weaker than the preceding cycles, and the next two cycles will be even weaker. Bashkirtsev and Mishnich (2003)[6] expect that the minimum of the secular cycle of solar activity will occur between 2021 and 2026, which will result in the minimum global temperature of the surface air. The shift from warm to cool climate might have already started..

      (Quote from Wikipedia. Links to writings relevant to these claimss are present at the bottom of the Wikipedia page.)

      This really made him popular, considering the models were predicting “Warming as Usual” all the way out to 2100. His pick of 2021-2026 is pretty good when compared to other predictions of a “Maunder Minimum” c. 2030. ( Prof Valentina Zharkov et al.).

      I’ve quickly skimmed both essays and will read them more carefully over next week.

      Atmospheric levels of CO2 can decline by SST’s dropping and the oceans re-absorbing the CO2 they have emitted. My guess is it can happen quite quickly. It’s the old soft-drink bottle in and out and in and out and put back into the fridge, problem. Take it out and the poly-carb bottle is not under pressure. Let it warm and the bottle goes rigid. Put it back and chill it again, and the CO2 is reabsorbed. The seas froth from everything dissolved in them, not least the CO2.

      Kaufmann’s essay is titled “Climate Change Re-examined”

      Jaworowski’s paper is “Ice Core Data Show No CO2 Increase”

      Enjoy.

      61

      • #
        Mary E

        that he can prove the climate is going to get colder through his work excavating glaciers on six different continents, which he says indicates what we should really be worrying about is ‘The approaching new Ice Age…’.”[3] Jaworowski wrote The current sunspot cycle is weaker than the preceding cycles, and the next two cycles will be even weaker. Bashkirtsev and Mishnich (2003)[6] expect that the minimum of the secular cycle of solar activity will occur between 2021 and 2026, which will result in the minimum global temperature of the surface air. The shift from warm to cool climate might have already started..

        I wonder if a few in the CAGW had an inkling of this – and were relying on the Paris agreements, and all countries’ adherence to CO2 reduction goals, all the while knowing that no matter what was, or wasn’t, done, the cooling would be there. Proof of their warnings and strict anti-carbon measures! The world obeyed the ruling on reduce carbon, and we are saved! More money, please, to ensure the heat doesn’t come back.

        One problem is that the extreme heat and disaster hasn’t happened yet, and the cooling is less than a decade off. Or starting now, just not widely acknowledged/noticed yet.

        It really sucks when nature doesn’t follow the plan.

        00

  • #
    James

    I find it amusing when I drive past a school and they have a wind turbine, and a few solar cells set up. I believe that so called green energy is part of the curriculum at many schools these days judging by the number of solar panels and windmills that appear on school grounds. I suggest that they try disconnecting from the grid and see how well the school runs without mains power. After a day or so of that, they should reintroduce a diesel mechanic course, so we have people who can keep all these diesel gen sets running that seem to be appearing all over the place as a result of green energy!

    331

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      The grade school near me has become a magnate school, no doubt offering a better education than the standard K – 6 school would and is now called, “Earths Magnate School.” Yet I haven’t noticed a wind turbine or solar panels either. But I sure do wonder what they teach there besides better math, English and other standard subjects — at least I hope that’s the way it is.

      I do know they have a weather station there that is tied in with a program called Weather Bug which I had on my system for a long time before removing it as more of a nuisance than a benefit.

      I searched for as long as I can spare the time and can’t find any description of what the curriculum is except a parent’s review saying animals (cool animals) are everywhere. That was not very encouraging, at least not to me about the parent’s attitude about their child’s education. Cool somehow just isn’t part of what it takes to get along as an adult in this world.

      I felt a little better about it when it was just the local Elementary School. But times have changed.

      00

  • #
    John Gross

    As a UK baby boomer, I was brought up on stories of Ausie diggers: self reliant, independent, resourceful and irreverently contemptuous of any authority.
    This is so totally at odds with the picture I am now getting, of a docile population meekly accepting any humiliation or privation their superiors see fit to load on them.
    Were these stories of a country of tough individualists just a myth? Has something happened in the last half century to tame you people? Have you somehow been domesticated, emasculated and completely house-broken or is there still a spark of revolt against this green insanity?
    Of all the heroes of my youth, you guys seem right now to be one of the biggest disappointments.
    Please tell me it ain’t so!

    80

    • #

      John, the descendants of those resourceful larrikin mavericks are still here, but as Australia became a safe place to immigrate too, people who like authority and are obedient joined them. I’m sure that all frontier lands were first settled by both the adventurous and independent (and by both the real criminals and the politically-inconvenient-“convicts”, who by definition are disobedient).

      It is a natural evolution of personality types, and Australia in 1788 was probably one of the last major landmasses to be largely resettled by a wave of adventurers and escapees from Europe.

      I would guess that California underwent a similar transformation but is years “ahead” in that process.

      ‘Where do those adventurous spirits move to now?

      151

      • #
        Reed Coray

        Heaven

        100

        • #
          Geoffrey Williams

          You mean greener pastures. . .
          GeoffW

          50

        • #
          ROM

          Thge next great wave of those adventurous types that migrated to australia were the European refugees who came out of a devastated europe to build a new life and a new home in a country they quite literally knew nothing about at all.

          One of those refugees, a german builder who became a friend of my Father told my Old Man that he knew so little about Australia when he signed up to come here that he imagined it to be a primitive, wild, undeveloped and uncivilised land.
          [ The aussie soldiers did get quite reputation in Europe during WW1 and WW2 for being fairly undisciplined and hard to handle but were regarded as amongst the toughest and most resourceful fighters amongst the european military, both allies and axis ]

          So to ensure that he had at least something to get started in his new life in that great unknown, possibly quite hostile land of Australia he even brought his own bucket of nails with him on the ship as well as a few of his carpenter’s tools.

          He and the other European migrant passengers on the migrant ship were truly astonished and flabbergasted when they berthed at Fremantle after the Indian Ocean crossing, to find a modern, up to-date city with modern port facilities, wide roads , electricuty and all the trappings of a highly developed and civilised country with every convience that the europeans had enjoyed before the WW2 destroyed so much of Europe.

          Those migrants went on to build the Snowy River Hydro scheme, listed back in the 1960’s as one of the Ten Great Wonders of the modern age, an impossibility today due to the utter stupidity of the green cult and its propoganda that has convinced city dwellers that the environment is a holy relic.
          Or at least some of the so called “environment” is but with full exemptions for turbine generated health destroying infra sound and for any ongoing environmental destruction applying to wind turbines farms and solar farms and for the greens and their running dogs when they decide to enjoy a large selection of environmentally destructive happenings to satisfy their own personal desires.

          Those migrants of the late 1940’s and 1950’s worked and created very large parts of what is now modern Australia. They built dams, roads, power stations, power lines and the grid and a lot more of the vast areas of new building construction particularly where heavy work such as concreting was involved.
          They started restaurants and eateries serving European type meals and introduced a completely new range of cuisines into our soggy british based diet.

          Most of them are gone now including some of my very good and originally migrant refugee but australianised friends but they created a new and very different Australia and completely changed the way we Australians of that older generation looked at and regarded the rest of that world out there.

          A story my nursing daughter in Darwin tells as told to her by one of the older female patients in Darwin hospital.

          The greek lady and her husband migrated to Australia to make their fortunes with the intention of retiring back to Greece to live in style and comfort for the rest of their days.

          They worked damn hard and she refused to learn English as she was only going to be here for the 20 or so years needed to make enough money to retire back to Greece and settle back amongst their extended Greek family to retire.

          More than a couple of decades passed of hard work and long hours and then there came the time when they had made their pile and it was time to go “home”, back to Greece and settle down amogst the family in retirement.

          Six weeks after landing in Greece, she told her husband that you can stay here if you like but I have had enough of this mob and I’m getting out going back home to Australia and I won’t be back.

          She a little shamefacedly told my daughter that the first thing she did when alighting from the plane in Darwin was to kneel down and kiss the ground.

          The next thing she did was to enrol in an english teaching class.

          She never went back to Greece.
          Australia was her home.

          90

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        Jo,

        California first belonged to Mexico which once belonged to Spain. The first settlers in California were those Franciscan Friars who built the mission system from San Diego all the way to San Francisco. State highway 101 is still marked with signs every so often announcing that it’s El Camino Real, The King’s Highway.

        The white settlers fought a war that took control of California away from Mexico and Mexico has resented that ever since. The first to arrive were anything but escapees from anywhere. Unfortunately they ended up doing a lot of harm but they didn’t think so at the time.

        See John C. Fremont’s leadership in that war.

        20

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      IMHO society has also been severely demasculinized, and yes I am aware this theory might tick a few people off, but so be it. That said, if you look at most things attacking the basic integrity of our society, including asking blokes to become all touchy feely ( add marxist-penned ” safeschools” and deliberate gender confusion to this ) and asking to become all “helpless/ the govt will save us” nonsense… . I blame stuff like Brokeback Mountain, that directly attacks male ruggedness and attempts to undermine it by suggesting evey rugged male us a closer feminised male, or casting sufficient doubt to destroy maleness and the sense of adventure, risk taking, assertiveness and boldness that make for a strong and stable country.

      Happy to be taken to task, but I suspect I’m correct.

      100

    • #
      Dennis

      Come on mate, we’re as tough as nails these days.

      Here I am on a lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town on the Gulf of Carpentaria, it’s over 30C outside and I am suffering from air conditioning while sipping a XXXX Gold Beer from an aluminium can.

      The Greens can yell all they like, Aluminium cans are king.

      90

  • #
  • #
    Ruairi

    Of all the things that climate-change can bring,
    It mostly makes the warmists more left-wing.

    The film ‘Climate Hustle’ can be seen,
    And viewed with others on a big wide screen.

    To make the solar panels work, one must,
    Wash each six times a year, to clean the dust.

    Australians must put power bills on hold,
    And learn to eat their dinners raw and cold.

    140

  • #
    TedM

    And the fact remains that the UAH data tracks very closely both the Radiosonde and USNCR data, whereas Mears revised dayta does not.

    100

  • #

    Whether the world is tending warmer or cooler, and whether this can be calculated, have never been matters of interest to me. It’s a slow two-horse race, so who cares.

    Nonetheless, I’m leaning to “cooler” since the late 1970s, which might make me a technical warmist…but I would curse your descendants, wither your trees and salt your fields if you ever called me that.

    What interests me is political conformism/collectivism and how it finds a way to emerge in new forms, as always with mock-scientific underpinnings. The current use of heatwaves in the service of globalism has been interesting. Once that temp gets around 50C anywhere you are going to start worrying, right? A perfect cue for green globalists.

    It goes without saying that modern measurement is more accurate than older measurement. Instead, however, of saying “we dunno” to old temperature highs, activist authorities reduce them in favour of the fresh highs. Thus “experts” are now sure that those old whopper readings such as Israel 1942 (129.2 °F Tirat Zvi) just must have been too high. After Libya’s 1922 world record was cancelled, Death Valley’s 1913 reading is now being ditched with various degrees of subtlety, though Australia’s own 1960 record seems safe for now. Note that error has never, in the tide of times, been on the low side. Oh no.

    I got thinking about this watching a doco about the unrest in Iran in 1951 when the situation was made more dramatic by temperatures of 125F. Now I’m sure the measurements weren’t up to modern scratch, and I’m not expecting anyone to accept Iran’s heatburst reading of 1967 as official (er,189 °F in Abadan). What I expect from an “expert” is history and context, the very things avoided these days for the sake of some greater global good. Or maybe I should have said globalist good.

    111

    • #

      correction: “leaning to ‘warmer’ since the late 1970s”, not “leaning to ‘cooler'”.

      Yeah, I think we might have copped a bit more warm stuff than cool stuff lately…but I don’t believe our wobbly climate began in 1980, after the grand age of stability and straight hockey stick handles.

      91

  • #
    Mark

    ‘What interests me is political conformism/collectivism and how it finds a way to emerge in new forms’
    Yes, an anthropological perspective.
    One aspect is how we tend to divide ourselves into opposing halves. If one half supports (or can be constructed as supporting) x, the other half allies itself with not-x.
    Members of the halves can adopt allegiances with different x, not-x’s.
    At the beginning of Tristes Tropiques, Levi-Strauss discusses Fire Island in terms similar to that of x, not-x, or an inverse society. We are seeing this kind of thing writ large in left v everything else.
    As I understand it, Australian Aborigines institutionalise this tendency, creating divisions of two in many aspects of life, with a single member belong to a unique combination of many divisions.

    40

  • #

    Is wind power a flop, or what!

    The article at this link earlier this Month intrigued me somewhat, when Infigen announced a profit downgrade because their wind power assets were having low output.

    Some articles remain on that ABC home page for quite some time, but this one appeared for only a very short time before it quietly disappeared into their also rans, and you had to go looking for it. Luckily I saw it not long after it did show up, and when I went back an hour or so later, it had gone.

    I wonder why!

    Intrigued, I wondered that if they were having problems, then so might all wind power.

    So, I went and did the exercise, and luckily, that Aneroid site gives good data for wind power on a daily basis.

    I checked each day for April, May, and June, now finished on the Friday just passed.

    For each day, I could work out the daily average, for each day of the Month, find the total for that Month, divide by the days in that Month, and get a daily average, and from that, work out the Capacity Factor for that Month.

    I did this for April, May, and June, and the results were pretty astonishing really.

    The Total Nameplate for all the wind power in Australia is 4395MW. So, that means there’s around 2500 individual towers, the proverbial turbines on poles.

    Now, even I understand that a daily average doesn’t take into account the good days wind power would like you to know about, but for every good day, there’s a bad day, and here I have added up all the days in those three Months, for a daily average, a Monthly average and a three monthly average.

    So here we have that end result now, the Capacity Factors for each of those three Months.

    April – 20.63%

    May – 24.1%

    June – 14.9%

    Three Monthly CF – 19.9% (worked out on the daily basis of 91 days here)

    19.9%

    That’s pretty poor really, and to get the yearly total back up to the normal average of 30%, that means the wind will need to be pretty good for the rest of the year, eh.

    That 19.9% is an average daily output of only 875MW ….. out of a total of 4395MW, and seriously, that is so bl00dy pitiful to say the least.

    However, look at June where that CF is only 14.9% for the whole MONTH. That’s an average daily output of only 655MW.

    That’s less than just ONE of the four Units at the Bayswater coal fired power plant.

    2,500 wind turbines generating less power for a whole Month than ONE turbine at ONE coal fired power plant.

    That three monthly average of 19.9%, well that’s like having a Government Department where four out of every five workers take a sickie, EVERY DAY for THREE MONTHS.

    If that happened, heads would roll.

    If it’s wind power, well, it seems to me that it’s okay.

    Well, that is NOT okay in my books.

    Wind power IS a flop, and will you see this mentioned anywhere.

    Not on your life.

    Pitiful, everything about it.

    Tony.

    381

    • #
      Bobl

      Tony, take a more engineering look, from that let’s assume 5% disappears in the transformer, 10% in transmission, 5% for the transformers from HV to LV and then 10% in distribution. Deduct an allowance for the electricity use of the wind power industry itself, manufacture, wholesale, retail, and operators including shipping services. Deduct also the usage for the utilities transmitting and retailing the energy in the ratio of renewable nameplate to total consumption and for the renewable energy people in government and industry at say 15kWh per day per person, then calculate what is left to deliver to customers.

      The point here is what really matters is how much of that production actually reaches the customer AFTER the losses caused by that renewable industry existing, I suspect that practically none of it does, that all the generation is consumed by the electrical losses and the renewable power industry itself.

      Finally, as I keep pointing out to you, you can’t live on yearly, quarterly or monthly average energy. Our grid is 99.95% reliable and it’s only practical to store around 12 hours of electricity, this means that the smallest generation over any 12 hour period is effectively the RELIABLE output of the wind industry, this is the important number, it is the amount of reliable carbon energy that can be replaced by wind. As a capacity factor what is it? This is what you need to cite – not grossed up meaningless annual averages.

      60

      • #

        Bobl,

        at the top of your Comment, you mention the losses.

        I went over the South Australian Annual Electricity Report, Issued in August for the 2015/16 year, so now almost a year out of date now, and that’s the most recent one they have.

        In that report, they mention that the State has 9% losses in its electricity generation/transmission sector, and that’s the largest losses in Australia.

        Now, even though the report didn’t allude to anything like it, my hunch is that here we have the State with the largest percentage of Wind power, and they also have the largest losses.

        When the State only consumes 12TWH a year (only 6.4% of the Australian total power consumption) that 9% loss rate a is 1.2TWH, and that’s 1,200,000MWH.

        Using 30% as the Capacity Factor for South Australian wind power, then that loss rate is the same as the three Monthly output of all of South Australia’s wind plants.

        Three Months output just to cover the loss rate for power in the State.

        And as to using Capacity Factor as a reference, I’ll keep using it because that’s the Industry Standard for electrical power generation. It’s all we have to go by, and in reality, all else is just guesswork. Even using just that CF as the reference, it still indicates the total uselessness of wind power.

        Tony.

        151

        • #

          Incidentally, that loss rate of 9% or that 1.2TWH, that further distils down to 1,200,000,000KWH and at 30 cents per KWH retail cost, that comes in at $300 Million.

          Tony.

          121

        • #
          RobK

          Tony,
          Whilst distributed inverters output unity PF, by implication the grid supplies all the reactive power, the upshot of this is that grid power factor becomes ungainly leading to large transmission losses. Finkel has recommended installation of synchronous capacitors to address this situation.

          20

    • #
      Egor the One

      ‘ well that’s like having a Government Department where four out of every five workers take a sickie, EVERY DAY’ …….Isn’t this about the norm for these entrenched do-nothings anyway ?

      40

      • #
        toorightmate

        Don’t govt employees take 4 days off as sickies each week now?

        30

        • #
          yarpos

          probably not but dont let facts get in the way

          30

        • #
          bullocky

          “Don’t govt employees take 4 days off as sickies each week now?”

          It doesn’t matter, so long as their productivity remains constant!

          30

          • #
            Greg Cavanagh

            When our bosses are in we work. When our bosses are away we read Jo Nova 🙂

            Our productivity is in line with our bosses 🙂

            30

            • #
              toorightmate

              I take it that your bosses are Government “workers”?

              30

            • #
              bullocky

              ‘When our bosses are in we work. When our bosses are away we read Jo Nova :)’

              However, when the cat’s away, the mice read skepticalscience 🙂

              20

      • #
        Dennis

        You have reminded me about a district employers meeting in the Sydney Bankstown District in the 1980s, the NSW Govermnent (Labor at the time) Chullora Railway Workshops management reported to the delegates that there was an average daily absenteeism of 60 per cent, 6 in every 10 employees absent on sick leave.

        A few years later the Greiner Coalition government closed the Chullora Workshops and put rolling stock maintenance out to tender with private enterprise with an estimated annual saving in operating costs of many $ millions.

        The unions were outraged.

        70

    • #
      TdeF

      All the hype about windpower being the new basedload and being far cheaper than oil, coal and gas is just spin. None of that is even remotely true, but as pundits like Alan Kohler have swallowed the bait, why not exploit it? No subsidies. No RET.

      140

      • #
        toorightmate

        Alan Kohler is bloody hopeless and the condition is not new.

        100

        • #
          yarpos

          you guys are very literal arent you? I doubt Kohler is a beleiever

          30

          • #
            TdeF

            That’s my point. He actually says susbsidies for ‘renewables’ are an embarassment and utterly unnecessary. The smart money is on windpower for baseload. He is serious. Great. Get rid of the RET. Let wind and solar stand on their own. Why should Australian families be beggared to pay for windmills for others to extract even more money from us. Let coal shut down from the commercial pressure from cheap wind and solar panels without LGCs, STCs and pay in rebates. Let power prices drop without subsidies.

            I Alan is not a believer, if his wide knowledge of the energy market compels him to put his support behind wind and solar and to say subsidies are a problem. agree with him. Personally I wonder why Hazelwood selling electricity at 4c kw/hr into a hundred year old distribution network had to close when consumer electricity is 40c kw/hr? Who is getting the 36c and why? Perhaps Alan could explain?

            50

      • #
        Dennis

        When will the shipping companies revert to sailing clippers?

        30

    • #
      Ian Hill

      The LOWEST air pressure for Adelaide (Kent Town 23090) at 9am for any day in June 2017 was 1020.0 kPa. That’s staggering when you think of it. That’s well above the old 30 inches (1016 hPa). No wonder the Capacity Factor given by Tony was only 14.9%

      Look at the corresponding figure for the previous 12 months, going backwards from June 2017’s 1020.0:

      1011.8
      1014.5
      1004.8
      1008.0
      1002.5
      998.5
      1003.2
      996.1
      982.3 (29 Sept 2016, day after the State blackout)
      1008.9
      1004.4
      1002.4

      Next lowest was April 2017 – cf Tony’s figure of 20.6% Capacity Factor

      Says it all!

      40

    • #
      sophocles

      The May figure, I see, is the highest of the three. Must be all the `Spring Gales!” 🙂
      Those are pretty dismal figures.

      You’re onto something, Tony, may I suggest you keep this analysis up?
      Everyone should know the wind is fickle. They need that rammed home.
      The Nameplate capacity is no real measure of wind power, it’s so seldom approached. The Actual Capacity has to broadcast widely.

      50

    • #
      Andrew McRae

      No, Tony, wind turbines are useful even when there is no wind. You’re just not taking a broader animal welfare perspective.

      http://i.imgur.com/FDcjfiw.png

      They are not a flop, they are something you can flop behind on a hot day. Wake up, sheeple! 😉
      hehee

      70

  • #
    Bobl

    Humanity always divides into the haves, and have-nots with the have-nots constantly seeking what the haves have. The best way to deliver to the have-nots historically is for the haves to offer them wealth in exchange for effort jobs/products in a fair, and free exchange, IE capitalism. Communism otherwise known as socialism just forceably steals from the haves, and gives to the have-nots while skimming 90% for the party, until the haves become have-nots and the party members become the haves. The problem is that the “party” doesn’t do anything, they are politicians and bureaucrats, hence collapse follows.

    This is what the debased UN is doing: taking from the haves to ostensibly a give to the have-nots while skimming 90% for the “party” IE the UN itself.

    China uniquely seems to have recognised the threat and introduced limited capitalism to provide incentive for personal endeavor. This will slow the collapse but not stop it. The lack of diversity of political expression will one day lead to a despot in control and it will all come tumbling down.

    Interestingly the incremental increase in the power of the US president means the US has the same problem with Obama the best example. He was able to ride roughshod over the will of the people with his pen and his phone, this should be a warning to the US states that presidential authority needs to be reigned in (or perhaps presidents should not be allowed pens, phones or sharp objects). The US seriously needs a more democratic approach where Congress members head up the administration’s departments.. IE ministers.

    30

    • #
      Mary E

      Interestingly the incremental increase in the power of the US president means the US has the same problem with Obama the best example. He was able to ride roughshod over the will of the people with his pen and his phone, this should be a warning to the US states that presidential authority needs to be reigned in (or perhaps presidents should not be allowed pens, phones or sharp objects). The US seriously needs a more democratic approach where Congress members head up the administration’s departments.. IE ministers.

      This is why so many absolutely hate Trump. And his choice of SCOTUS judge. And many of his other choices. Trump may be hoping to ride the POTUS seat to more money and respectability, but he also wants to divest as much power from the feds as possible – doing that will not only help the country recover from the agancies’ mandates and fake laws (not created by congress, not a federal law, but currently too many regs and rules and “laws” are rammed down the throats of the states, corporations, peoples) but will also help Trump maintain, and perhaps increase, his own wealth. Greed isn’t always evil.

      I doubt we will ever get the congress-critters to head-up departments on their own – the urge to create committees is too great. Spread the blame, diffuse the responsibility. But reducing the agencies and departments and removing their ability to mandate anything without congressional hearings and approval will alleviate the mess we are in and prevent another. Our constitution pretty much says no president – no one person – is to have the power that the last few (republicans included, with their over-reaction to terror and creation of another layer of inept “law’ enforcement) have grabbed for, mostly successfully.

      It’s pretty much a fact that the USAn political parties operate in a very similar vein – tax someone, give that tax to someone else, taking the fed/state percent off the top. Its only in who they tax, and why, that a difference is really seen. But it has gotten out of hand now, and not only with the taxes, but with the layers of insane regs, mandates, PC double-talk and paying huge sums of money to the elites in the world and claiming it’s all for the good of the poor, the sickly, the hungry, and so on. With what we have given away the world should be rolling in power plants, farms, healthy and educated peoples, a modicum of comfort and safety everywhere.

      20

  • #

    Diffuse, intermittent, unreliable…no wonder millers preferred water-wheels when they could get them.

    80

    • #
      David Maddison

      And tossed windmills altogether once reliable steam engines were made.

      122

      • #
        tom0mason

        But David,
        Oh but steam engines ruined it all, all those unemployed windmill owners, all the windmill maintenance crews, etc, etc.
        And it just ruined the romance of eating good old fashioned bread. How quick we are to forget…

        Don’t you just long for those long lost halcyon days when grain could only be ground to flour on windy days? Made the bread, when it was finally served, taste twice as delicious. It was perfect in those green dream days!

        😉

        70

  • #
    TdeF

    As predicted, Malcolm Turnbull will wreck the joint if he loses. He must be feeling threatened as he has made public his intention to drop out of politics and force a byelection in a one seat majority parliament. I predicted that he would, as if it was not obvious but the fact that he has made this threat public means he is grasping at straws.

    On RET news, I have been looking for the mandatory report by the Climate Change Authority which overseas all the acts. It is mandatory every two years, so we have 2012 and 2014 but no sign of 2016. I can only assume it has been suppressed.

    120

    • #
      TdeF

      Also the price of LGCs reached a low of $75 and is back on the way up to the previous high of just under $90. This is the engine of the destruction of coal and gas. 7.5c to 9.0c for kw/hr at wholesale level, so double it for retail. This is not for electricity. This is for the right to buy electricity. It is not a tax but a mandated payment to whoever can supply a certificate. Electricity is extra. It was under 2c just two years ago, which is probably why the government does not want the figures made public as RET loaded electricyt is now over 10% of the family budget. Or as Nationals Leader Joyce says, he would not tolerate a Carbon Tax. The question is then whether he has any idea what is forcing electricity prices up?

      100

      • #

        From the Greenmarkets website, on Weatherill’s mistakes with gas:

        “One single measure within the plan addresses this: hiring 200 megawatts of large diesel generators which come in shipping containers that can be quickly installed. By comparison, a new large gas turbine power plant can take over three years to construct. Compared to alternatives like batteries or gas turbines, diesel generators are cheap to install. While they cost a lot to operate, the reality is that they might not even need to be switched on.”

        Of course, they might have to be switched on. This is South Australia after all. And if oil and interest rates get out of the toilet that could be a problem for a state that’s already borrowed a dollar or two, and can’t do much except stage writers’ festivals and wine tastings with candles at the ready.

        We really need to outfit our Green Betters in full oil-man drag: stetson, bolo tie, silver-buckle belt and cowboy boots. If they’re going to talk oil they may as well look it. They just need to practice the accent:

        “Mah rancher granpappy used ter think oil wuz somth’n y’all put on salad. Now y’all know this here oil is fer savin’ the planet.”

        50

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          mosomoso:

          In today’s Sunday Mail the headlines are that the opposition leader, what’s misname? has drawn level with Weatherdill for the first time.
          Parties are neck to neck – as you would expect with both being brainless – but 38% intend voting for other than the 2 main ones.

          And that after a fortnight of announcements about future spending from the pork barrel.

          40

    • #
      Robber

      The Dept of Environment review of climate change policies commenced in February 2017 and will conclude by the end of 2017. Public submissions closed on May 5 (350 received), and are now available here. Lots of contributions from the usual suspects wanting to decarbonise the economy without regard to the affordability of energy.
      The Climate Change Authority is an independent statutory authority comprising a Chair, the Chief Scientist and up to seven members appointed by the Minister for the Environment and Energy. As noted in the Environment section, government policy is that the Authority be wound up. The performance information in this plan therefore focuses mainly on the 2016–17 and 2017–18 financial years, as it is difficult to forecast and plan the remaining reporting periods in the context of this uncertainty.
      The members of the Climate Change Authority are:
      Chair: Ms Wendy Craik
      Chief Scientist: Dr Alan Finkel
      Mr Stuart Allinson
      Ms Kate Carnell
      Professor Clive Hamilton
      Professor David Karoly
      Mr Danny Price
      Professor John Quiggin
      the Hon John Sharp.

      50

      • #
        TdeF

        Thanks. Still the mandatory next reporting was 2016. Parliament can demand a report at any time as in the Finkel report and under the act, but the 2016 report is missing, presumed hidden. As the organization existed to provide this report, I cannot believe it does not exist. Presumably it has all hit the fan.
        What a group of pro carbon tax warmists, enforcers of the world’s largest and most punitive carbon tax, up to 10% of household income because of man made Global Warming except that it is not warming and the CO2 level is not man made.

        60

    • #
      James

      If you do play by my rules, I will take my bat and ball home with me right now. Greaseball is behaving like a 10 year old.

      20

  • #
    pat

    count the anonymous people in this one! lol.
    also, extremely low level commenting.

    1 Jul: WaPo: EPA chief pushing governmentwide effort to question climate change science
    By Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin; Steven Mufson contributed to this report.
    A senior White House official, who asked for anonymity because no final decision has been made, said that while Pruitt has expressed interest in the idea, “there are no formal plans within the administration to do anything about it at this time.”…

    But officials are discussing whether the initiative would stretch across numerous federal agencies that rely on such science, according to multiple Trump administration officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement has been made.

    Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who once described the science behind human-caused climate change as a “contrived phony mess,” also is involved in the effort, two officials said…
    The idea, according to one senior administration official, is “to get other federal agencies involved in this exercise on the state of climate science” to examine “what we know, where there are holes, and what we actually don’t know.”…

    Kelly Levin, a senior associate with the World Resources Institute’s major emerging economies objective, wrote in a blog post last month that the kind of adversarial process Pruitt is advocating is better suited for policy debates than for scientific findings. Scientific arguments, she wrote, are mediated through a peer-review process in which experts in the same field evaluate one another’s work.

    “Scientific understanding, unlike proposals for what to do about a given problem, is well established through the scientific method,” wrote Levin, noting that 97 percent of peer-reviewed papers on climate change support the idea that humans play a contributing factor. “If skeptics want their voices heard in scientific discourse, they should try to get their findings published in the peer-reviewed literature. They would then be assessed on their merits through peer review.”…

    Some members of EPA’s scientific rank-and-file, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, questioned Pruitt’s plan.
    “It’s an obvious attempt to cast doubt on climate science under the guise of a common sense-sounding process,” said one EPA employee who focuses on climate issues. “But of course, we already have a process for scrutiny of the science — the peer review process is a much more robust assessment of scientific integrity than a childish color war.”
    The employee called the effort “incredibly insulting” and said the red team-blue team idea “is a weaker process than we already have in place for peer review and scientific assessment.”…

    Two people with knowledge of the “red-team blue-team” undertaking — one inside the Trump administration and one lobbyist — said its purpose was not explicitly to help target the agency’s 2009 finding that emissions of greenhouse gases linked to climate change constitute as pollutants under the Clean Air Act, though that idea is still under discussion among administration officials…
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/01/epa-chief-pushing-governmentwide-effort-to-question-climate-change-science/

    50

  • #
    liberator

    I have a question I hope you guys can help with. Our “warming” I believe is based off an arbitrary global average temperature of around 14 degrees and all the models and the reporting of the warmest year ever is based off that figure? Where did/does that figure come from? Who says it’s the right figure and has that figure ever changed? I did some googling all to no avail because I don’t really know how to pose this search to the WWW.

    40

    • #
      ROM

      That arbitary figure for the global average temperature was discussed not long ago on one of the main skeptic blogs, possibly Paul Homewood’s “NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT ” blog.

      But darned if I can find any reference to it in the archives after a short search so it might lay in the comments section of one of those posts or on another of only a couple of skeptic blog sites.

      It was pointed out that up to a couple of years ago, the global average temperature was given as around 15C plus.

      However today the average global temperature is given if you can find it, as around 14.7C, a fall in the average global tempoeratures which has not been explained and indicates they don’t know what it is or haven’t got a clue as the most likely explanation.!

      Or their models are nothing but a pile of technologically advanced pile of hot stinking non organic steamy s—t .

      Or both of the above plus many more.

      The fact they haven’t really got a clue what the global temperature actually is within a couple of degrees explains why today you will never find references to how GLOBAL temps have gone up by XYZ degrees to a new number from ann older base line number.

      Instead you will only find references to anomalies or vague unproveable numbers which is all of them in the global climate global temperature guessing game .
      It makes life a lot easier if the proles don’t have too much information to challenge the climate alarmists and scammers on.

      It is rarely that they declare the hard data base on which those anomalies are calculated and which is updated every 20 years by the climate guessers to a new base line thereby making it very difficult indeed for anybody but proffessional climate w—-rs to calculate the relativities between old and new climate anomaly base temperatures.

      40

  • #
    pat

    if u perservere, after about 34 paragraphs, Collett/SMH do briefly suggest other ways to fight back!

    2 Jul: SMH: John Collett: How to fight back against rising energy costs
    Gary and Beancaa Stanley are among the estimated 17 per cent of households that have solar.
    They run their own wallpaper supply and installation business and live in Sans Souci in Sydney’s south…
    The pair are heavy energy users. Gary, 61, estimates they are saving more than $3000 from their annual electricity bill…

    He estimates that it should take five years for savings on their electricity bills to have paid for the set-up costs of about $15,000.
    That’s a conservative estimate as it assumes power prices remain unchanged. As energy prices rise, the pay-back time will become even shorter…

    Adrian Merrick, Energy Locals, electricity retailer servicing NSW and Queensland: “Batteries are an expense that a lot of people cannot afford but if you have solar and no battery, you can still use your hot water as a form of storage.
    “Solar could charge your hot water system so that when you come home at night the hot water is available, saving money by not using expensive grid power when the sun has gone down…
    http://www.smh.com.au/money/saving/how-to-fight-back-against-rising-energy-costs-20170629-gx10sn.html

    40

    • #

      Again, as point I noted in my blog, how many people can afford to pull $15,000 out of thin air to install such setups? What about those renting, struggling with their first mortgage, or living in areas where solar is simply not viable? And if these former people receive subsidies, it’s even worse, given that the have-nots are now contributing to the haves.

      60

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        More to the point that people just put up and let the power companies brutalize them….its like not standing up to a bully….

        50

      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        The situation wholly created by the politicians is offensive to any thinking person.

        Lets see now, coal power stations produce power at 8c kWh.
        So lets bring in a law that says every roof top solar panel that contributes power to the grid gets paid 50c kWh.
        who pays this extra 42c? the people who do not have solar power.

        So 80% of people’s power cost goes up to 30c kWh, while 20% get paid to contribute 5% of the power. Bloody imbeciles our governments are. All the while nothing useful is created out of it, just that 80% of people are poorer for it.

        50

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Greg Cavanagh:
          The situation is a bit more complicated than that. So 20% of the people have solar power, but how much? Those who put in enough capacity to cover their usage (a limited no.) Those who added a good deal of capacity early so that the ridiculously generous feed-in tariff offsets their bills, so they pay nothing or those who installed some solar thinking it would cut their bills down?
          Roughly divided into 3 classes
          the first – believers in AGW thinking that it was their “moral duty” to install solar (and who collected the highest feed in tariffs).
          The second – not necessarily believers but adverse to higher and higher bills who got assigned a feed in tariff rate depending on how soon they installed solar. The early adopters got high rates which have been ‘preserved’ for at least 25 years (moi), the latter got various declining rates which subsequently got reduced – very obviously a thought by the government that early adopters are believers in AGW whereas the latter are in it for the money.
          The third class who couldn’t really afford solar but didn’t want rising bills e.g. those who got solar ‘for free’ but in limited quantities (a scam by the solar sellers to get the 15 years of small scale generation certificates). These people get the lowest feed in tariff and higher bills because the 1kW doesn’t cover their usage.
          The fourth class who couldn’t afford to install solar for financial or other reasons who get the full cost.

          Renewables are the most profitable form of electricity generation available at the moment. The LGCs issued under the RET get sold to retail electricity sellers and the installers made an imemediate profit. The sceptics will wonder whether the installer made sure he used the most reliable brand or the cheapest which wouldn’t last the 15 years. Sorry I need to sleep.

          30

    • #
      yarpos

      My solar hot water does not work that way, the sun when available heats the water directly and electricity only comes into play to heat overnight if storage hasnt hit targets temp or scheduled superheats to keep bacteria away.

      20

      • #

        We live in a rental, and you don’t realise how handy that word ‘rental’ is, until you get a call from a rep touting rooftop solar power, (three or four a week here) and as soon as you mention the word rental, it’s “oh, sorry.” Click.

        Anyway, during the Cyclone which we had, Marcia, we lost power for six days. Our daughter, visiting to see that we were okay after the blow, said, don’t worry Dad, you’ll be right for hot water at least. You have rooftop solar hot water heating. So, I asked her to look at the system on the roof and tell me what she saw. Blank look.

        For the purpose of aesthetics, all that is on the roof is the ‘cool looking’ big panel, as is the case now, with not many people wanting that hulking great water tank on their roof.

        The blank look from our daughter was followed by a please explain.

        The tank is in the normal place, on the ground near the rear wall of our home, and it’s the usual large water tank.

        So, for, umm, solar hot water, the water goes from that tank’s tap, when the low water level is reached, up to the panel, flows down the panel so the solar element can heat that water, and then, under gravity is piped back to the tank.

        All good so far with my explanation, but still the blank look.

        Umm, so, how does the water get from the ground level tank UP to the rooftop panel.

        Why, with an electrically operated pump no less, so no power, no pump, no solar hot water.

        No matter really, because when the plumber visited on an unrelated matter, I asked him about it, and he just smiled, adding that the tank had an auxilliary heating element in it anyway, which operates as per normal hot water tanks, adding that it was a standard requirement for all hot water systems. So, rooftop hot water, and no savings whatsoever.

        So, with anything to do with any sort of rooftop solar panels, please excuse my cynicism.

        A few Months back now, my good lady wife elbowed me in the ribs. We were at our local Stockland Mall, and the usual touters were in mid aisle, touting for business.

        As much as I looked around, trying to ignore him, a nice young feller walked towards me and asked if I knew anything about solar power.

        Yep, I said, what would you like to know.

        My ribs still hurt.

        Tony.

        130

        • #

          My study currently shows it’s 11.6C and while I have an electric wall heater, I’m not about to turn it on. Our lounge has a wood fire and it’s much more pleasant, but if we had to rely on electric heating only, we’d probably be sitting inside sleeping bags. When you look at it, we really are living in caves in the 21st Century.

          50

        • #
          Raven

          Yeah, I get those calls from the solar providers as well.
          I had a nice Indian lady on the phone just the other day . . or at least I think she was.

          Anyway, I let her go through her introduction where she said I’d be eligible for a Government grant of up to $3,000.
          I asked her where the Government got the money from because as far as I knew, the only money they had was from taxpayers. I went on with my deliberate lighthearted banter telling her that this grant must in fact come from my money, her money and from our neighbours money.

          The best thing about this phone call was because she went off script and we were having a real conversation. She didn’t even interrupt me to get back on track and it was all entirely pleasant.

          I came away thinking I may have changed one persons mind.
          Perhaps that’s too hopeful, but hey . .

          40

        • #
          James

          Giving the reply that you live in a rental, to scare off the salesman, makes a change from telling them that they can come and visit after I get finished speaking to the bankruptcy attorney!

          30

  • #
    tom0mason

    Some interesting comments for volcano watchers and people in Europe.

    There has been a strong earthquake swarm around Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano on 30-June-2017.

    http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=6926

    40

    • #
      beowulf

      A swarm of 800 quakes has hit Yellowstone in the past 2 weeks as well. Given its constant activity I’m not sure what a “normal” number of quakes is for Yellowstone, but if that one blows fake global warming will be the least of our worries – an early volcanic winter/ice age for all. Apparently one of the main US geological sites has crashed under heavy traffic as locals get jumpy. Probably another beat-up, but maybe not.

      https://www.iceagenow.info/earthquake-swarm-near-yellowstone-soars-800/

      40

    • #
      Glen Michel

      Ragnarøk has arrived! The serpent eats itself! Götterdämmerung .

      30

  • #
    • #
      Robber

      Excellent article by Dr. Michael Crawford.

      60

    • #
      Crakar24

      A guy at work sent me this before it was published, they are from Canberra and are fighting hard this stop a new wind plant being erected. I wish them all the best.

      The latest pipe dream to sweep South Athens is pumped hydro, they want this build a couple near my place, I think it would be easier and cheaper to build a pyramid so I am not concerned.

      60

    • #
      toorightmate

      Ian1946,
      I hope Finkel was not paid for his report.
      Over the years I have refused to pay for several consultants’ reports – because they were pure and simply RUBBISH – just like Finkel’s.
      The consultants sure didn’t like me (and still don’t like me), but why pay for RUBBISH.
      The CO2 horsesh*t has to stop.

      60

  • #
    pat

    Shepherd makes a point of mentioning evolution, but this entire piece is about CAGW under attack in Florida:

    1 Jul: Forbes: Marshall Shepherd: Two Sad Ironies In Florida Passing Its ‘Anti-Science’ Law
    (Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Dir., Atmospheric Sciences Program/GA Athletic Assoc. Distinguished Professor (Univ of Georgia), Host, Weather Channel’s Sunday Talk Show, Weather (Wx) Geeks, 2013 AMS President)

    It is officially called Florida House Bill 989, and it was signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott on June 26th, 2017 after passing both chambers of the house. According to the National Center for Science Education’s website:
    “With the law now in place, any county resident — not just any parent with a child in the country’s public schools, as was the case previously — can now file a complaint about instructional materials in the county’s public schools, and the school will now have to appoint a hearing officer to hear the complaint.”…

    (THE IRONIES)

    Many of the affidavits filed in support of the bill complained about evolution and climate change being taught. One even complained that they have seen global warming being taught as a reality. Hellooooo000, it is a reality. Numerous credible sources show that our climate system is warming, and even many conservatives are now acknowledging the threat. Sea level doesn’t care about “red” and “blue,” it just rises. This week one of the climate doubter’s signature arguments was dealt a blow. A new study by some of the pioneering satellite climate scientists found that their measurements of warming had been underestimated…

    For more on this travesty, one of my former professors at Florida State, University, Dr. Paul Ruscher, blogged his thoughts, and it is worth the read (LINK).
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/07/01/two-sad-ironies-in-florida-passing-its-anti-science-law/#697a5f975089

    42

    • #
      tom0mason

      Heres an item for you that needs a bit more investigating —

      A huge power outage plunged millions of people across Central America into darkness Saturday, as authorities from Panama to Costa Rica to El Salvador scrambled to restore electrical service.

      So far this https://sg.news.yahoo.com/massive-power-outage-hits-central-america-235450509.html is all I can find.

      20

      • #
        tom0mason

        It may or may not be connected but EARLY CME IMPACT:
        Arriving almost 24 hours earlier than expected, a CME reached Earth on July 1st at approximately 1700 UT. The cloud’s relatively weak impact has not yet sparked a geomagnetic storm. However, G1 storm conditions could develop in the hours ahead as Earth moves through the CME’s turbulent wake. Stay tuned for updates. Free: Aurora Alerts

        http://spaceweather.com/

        50

  • #
    pat

    writer Ben’s Twitter page says he also writes for The Guardian. no surprise.
    doing PR for the EXTREME left:

    2 Jul: Deutsche Welle: Ben Knight: Who’s who in Hamburg’s G20 protests
    The G20 summit has attracted a panoply of protests – even without US President Donald Trump’s first appearance in Germany. DW breaks down the main demos on the streets and waters of Hamburg next weekend

    G20: Not welcome
    Around 170 organizations will come together under the motto of the demo “Solidarity without borders instead of G20,” planned for Saturday July 8 at 11:00 a.m.
    Describing itself as a “rejection of this cold and cruel world of global capitalism,” the protest will include representatives from both of Germany’s main opposition parties, the socialist Left party and the Green party, the trade unions Verdi and IG Metall, a variety of regional peace organizations, as well as a number of other organizations somewhat further to the left, including the German Communist Party (DKP) and the International Socialist Organization (ISO)…

    G20: Not welcome
    Around 170 organizations will come together under the motto of the demo “Solidarity without borders instead of G20,” planned for Saturday July 8 at 11:00 a.m.
    Describing itself as a “rejection of this cold and cruel world of global capitalism,” the protest will include representatives from both of Germany’s main opposition parties, the socialist Left party and the Green party, the trade unions Verdi and IG Metall, a variety of regional peace organizations, as well as a number of other organizations somewhat further to the left, including the German Communist Party (DKP) and the International Socialist Organization (ISO)…

    ‘Shut down the logistics of capital’
    On Friday July 7, an attempt has been promised to “symbolically disrupt the smooth progress of capitalism” at Hamburg’s port district of Wilhelmsburg…

    G20 Wave of protest: Greenpeace, Campact, BUND, Oxfam
    Some of Germany’s leading environmental organizations will also be staging a joint demonstration as part of the “wave of protest” on July 2 – mainly to call on the G20 to step up action against climate change…
    http://www.dw.com/en/whos-who-in-hamburgs-g20-protests/a-39495922

    20

  • #
    pat

    some FakeNews fun.

    u have probably been hearing on the news that, on Friday, Germany voted in favour of the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG) law aka the Network Enforcement Act, commonly nicknamed the “Facebook law”, under which social media companies could face a fine of up to €50m (£43m; $57m) for failing to crack down on hate speech, criminal material and FAKE NEWS.
    (The law will not come into force until after the German federal elections, which will be held in September)

    reminder:

    Dec 2016: RollingStone: Facebook Partners with Fact-Checkers to Fight Fake News
    Facebook has teamed with the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network to attempt to stop the spread of fake news, The Washington Post reports.
    The social media giant has created a new tool that will allow fact-checkers at Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org, ABC News and The Associated Press to evaluate stories…
    In the weeks since the election, Facebook has come under fire for not doing enough to halt the spread of fake news, which critics believe contributed, in part, to Donald Trump’s victory…

    About: Poynter International Fact-Checking Network
    Poynter’s IFCN has received funding from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Duke Reporters’ Lab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Foundations and the Park Foundation.

    some FakeNews exposed this week:

    30 Jun: ABC America: Associated Press: Clarification: Trump-Russia stories
    In stories published April 6, June 2, June 26 and June 29, The Associated Press reported that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump. That assessment was based on information collected by three agencies — the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency — and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which represents all U.S. intelligence agencies. Not all 17 intelligence agencies were involved in reaching the assessment.

    anyone who cared for facts would have known since last year that it was FakeNews:

    20 Oct 2016: Zerohedge: Tyler Durden: The “Fact” That 17 Intelligence Agencies Confirmed Russia is Behind the Email Hacks Isn’t Actually…A “Fact”
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-20/fact-17-intelligence-agencies-confirmed-russia-behind-email-hacks-isn%E2%80%99t-actually%E2%80%A6a-f

    however, NYT and most MSM worldwide have repeatedly stated it was fact many, many times over many months:

    30 Jun: Zerohedge: Tyler Durden: New York Times Forced To Retract Longstanding ’17 Intel Agencies’ Lie About Russian Hacking
    “Seventeen intelligence agencies”? – ?if you’ve been following the maniacal #TrumpRussia coverage to any extent, you’ve heard this phrase used uncritically, time and again, regardless of your ideological loyalties. Pundits, papers and rank-and-file establishment loyalists have been unquestioningly regurgitating the nonsensical line that 17 intelligence agencies confirmed Russian interference in the US elections ever since Hillary Clinton made that baseless assertion in a debate back in October…

    To this day Politifact stands by its false claim…
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-30/new-york-times-forced-retract-longstanding-17-intel-agencies-lie-about-russian-hacki

    19 Oct 2016: Politifact: Hillary Clinton blames high-up Russians for WikiLeaks releases
    By Lauren Carroll
    “We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election.”
    — Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, October 19th, 2016 in the third 2016 presidential debate

    AUTOPLAY – CLINTON REPEATEDLY SAYING “17 INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES” BLAH BLAH

    Editor’s note: We’ve attached an update to this fact-check below in response to reader queries after subsequent testimony by James Clapper. The original fact-check and rating remain unchanged…
    We rate Clinton’s statement True…
    Update, June 6, 2017: Clapper’s May testimony was about a newer report, not October assessment
    We stand by our rating.
    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/19/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-blames-russia-putin-wikileaks-rele/

    btw how come NYT didn’t write a separate article about being incorrect, instead of just adding a note to the bottom of a days-old article?

    more to come.

    50

    • #
      pat

      1 Jul: DailyCaller: Eric Lieberman: Trump Says He Is ‘Extremely Pleased’ That ‘Fake News’ CNN Is Being Exposed
      Trump is likely referring to a number of instances in the past weeks and months in which CNN either misrepresented the facts or completely botched a story. The news conglomerate, for example, recently retracted a story about a Trump adviser being under investigation for Russia ties…
      The three employees for CNN who crafted the literary concoction were forced to resign soon after the story was published…

      The network was also forced to rewrite a story earlier in June that claimed former FBI Director James Comey would refute Trump’s claim that Comey had informed him three separate times that he was not the subject of an FBI Director James Comey would refute Trump’s claim that Comey had informed him three separate times that he was not the subject of an FBI investigation. But, in fact, Comey’s testimony corroborated Trump’s account of the events…

      Hidden cameras and secret recordings have also exposed bias from several CNN employees. CNN commentator Van Jones called the Russia story — which the outlet has been peppering its viewers with — a “nothing burger (LINK).” In a video released Tuesday, a CNN producer was caught saying (LINK) Trump is “probably right to say” the Russia stories are like a “witch hunt.”

      While there are many other instances of rushed journalism and apparent bias from CNN, these several incidences epitomize why Trump calls CNN “fake news.”
      http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/01/trump-says-he-is-extremely-pleased-that-fake-news-cnn-is-being-exposed/

      30 Jun: PageSix: CNN screws up — again
      By Oli Coleman
      Let’s call this one “‘F***!’ news.”
      We’re told CNN flew into a panic on Friday after it accidentally aired a fake National Enquirer cover during Jake Tapper’s broadcast…
      It seems that it may have been created as clickbait.
      We’re told the network is taking the matter seriously, and that it has been referred to the networks standards and practices department for review.
      CNN didn’t respond to a request for comment…

      ex-WSJ writer, Bret Stephens, part of the Stop Trump movement during the presidential campaign, who is falsely said to be a CAGW sceptic, has now taken a job at anti-Trump MSNBC/NBC:

      29 Jun: Newsbusters: Liberals Freak as MSNBC Hires NYT Columnist Bret Stephens, Who Says He’s ‘A Contrarian’
      According to an article by The Hollywood Reporter’s Jeremy Barr: “Stephens is a conservative columnist and has cast doubt on the prevailing theories about climate change, which, some argued, made him a poor fit for a newspaper that is held in such high esteem.”…

      As NewsBusters reported earlier Thursday, Stephens used his first appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to hammer the White House’s “attack on the media” and defend the Cable News Network by calling the growing scandal just “a mistake.”

      The somewhat conservative columnist claimed: Trump is “accusing US of something else. He’s accusing US of dishonesty, and that’s the way he operates. And that’s why I was so alarmed by the decision by CNN to cashier three reporters behind this Scaramucci report, which turned out to be wrong or insufficient.”…

      If Stephens really wants to be viewed as a conservative member of a panel, he should probably brush up on several things, including Donald Trump’s accomplishments in office and the way the president has been treated by the press. Otherwise, he’s just another RINO (Republican In Name Only).
      http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/randy-hall/2017/06/29/ny-times-columnist-bret-stephens-joins-msnbc-im-contrarian

      more to come.

      60

      • #
        pat

        more from the pompous Bret Stephens:

        Feb 2017: Time: Bret Stephens: Don’t Dismiss President Trump’s Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity
        When you work at The Wall Street Journal, the coins of the realm are truth and trust — the latter flowing exclusively from the former. When you read a story in the Journal, you do so with the assurance that immense reportorial and editorial effort has been expended to ensure that what you read is factual.

        Not probably factual. Not partially factual. Not alternatively factual. I mean fundamentally, comprehensively and exclusively factual. And therefore trustworthy…

        And WE honor the responsibility to separate truth from falsehood, which is never more important than when powerful people insist that falsehoods are truths, or that there is no such thing as truth to begin with.

        So that’s the business WE’RE in: the business of journalism. Or, as the 45th president of the United States likes to call US, the “disgusting and corrupt media.”…

        Today we have “dis-intermediating” technologies such as Twitter, which have cut out the media as the middleman between politicians and the public. Today, just 17% of adults aged 18-24 read a newspaper daily, down from 42% at the turn of the century. Today there are fewer than 33,000 full-time newsroom employees, a drop from 55,000 just 20 years ago.
        When Trump attacks the news media, he’s kicking a wounded animal.

        But the most interesting conversation is not about why Donald Trump lies. Many public figures lie, and he’s only a severe example of a common type.
        The interesting conversation concerns how we come to accept those lies…
        Watching this process unfold has been particularly painful for me as a conservative columnist. I find myself in the awkward position of having recently become popular among some of my liberal peers—precisely because I haven’t changed my opinions about anything…
        http://time.com/4675860/donald-trump-fake-news-attacks/

        1 Jul: Scotsman: from NYT: Bret Stephens: Donald Trump is waging war on truth itself
        Because the President has no shame, he is only too glad to participate in shaming the media when a mistake is made, says Bret Stephens
        I write this following Trump’s latest tirades against the Fourth Estate, including an early morning tweet on Tuesday denouncing “Fake News CNN” for having been “caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories.”
        That was followed 17 minutes later by a larger eruption, in which the president named NBC, CBS, ABC, The Washington Post and The New York Times as “all Fake News!”…

        In the meantime, the news media ought to take care not to underestimate the threat it faces from this White House. WE have set thourselves up as guardians of Truth, a hard job in any circumstance, made additionally difficult by OUR inevitable errors in judgment and reporting, by an earnestness often mistaken for arrogance, and by OUR conviction that WE are owed answers to whatever questions WE wish to ask…
        http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/bret-stephens-donald-trump-is-waging-war-on-truth-itself-1-4491699

        US, WE, OUR…Stephens proud to portray the MSM as a collective?

        questions:
        when will MSM admit almost every Trump supporter hate crime they reported during & after the election of President Trump was later exposed as being Fake?

        when will worldwide MSM – most of which carried the FakeNews which originated in NYT, CNN et al – make their corrections in the same loud way they pushed the original Fake News?

        how does Germany think they can crack down on FakeNews when –

        it is the very MSM which mocks Trump for calling them FakeNews, who are, themselves, the purveyors of Fake News…and yet Facebook has chosen some of these same FakeNews outlets to be the judges of FakeNews, if you get what I mean? lol.

        80

  • #
    Glen Michel

    A Panopoly he saiz ! I thought it had something to do with armoury .

    30

  • #
    Brian the Engineer

    AGW Hoax will collapse in 2030 when China, India et al are required to act.
    That they are not required to act by then is because they know it is a hoax and are playing a waiting game.
    A game that will cost them nothing and cost the West their hegemony.
    Perhaps like Charlie Brown we will never learn the lesson of Lucy’s deceit and we will find other footballs to swing at.
    Still it is now only 12.5 years and a few trillion waisted dollars away!

    30

  • #
    Software Nerd

    What is a good reference — site or book — with a concise argument against the mainstream AGW arguments and policy-recommendations? This would be for someone who is just starting to investigate the issue, and whose default position is to trust the majority/mainstream until there’s a reason not to.

    00

    • #

      Skeptics Handbooks top left are free PDF’s or I’ll post hard copies if you pay $5 or so.
      These are short intro’s.

      Good question. I’m sure people have other suggestions…

      10

  • #
    tom0mason

    One of the most prevalent misapplications of scientific language I see is the free exchange of heat and IR (Infra Red Radiation). This is a bugbear of mine. As far as I understand it —

    Infra red radiation is only a band of frequencies with the electromagnetic spectrum. It obeys all the laws pertaining to that field.
    Heat on the other hand is the effect of the action of vibrations of matter (a kinetic energy effect on the atomic/molecular scale). The thermal laws govern this effect. However, be aware that without matter there is no heat.
    Heat does not require IR radiation (you can heat matter by the application of mechanical work alone) but the action of IR radiation on matter can cause heat.
    Other loose words bandied around are ‘cooling’ and ‘warming’ wrt IR, and oh what a tangled web of sophistry some people end up writing.

    50

  • #
    Graeme #4

    VERY interesting article in this morning’s The Australian, page 1, “Clean Coal Beats Renewables Bill”. Based on a study by the Minerals Council Of Australia and Coal 21, the article states that a 1000 MW HELE coal plant could be built in Aust. for $2.2bn, generating electricity for $40-78 / MW her, compared to solar @ $90-171 / MW hr. The article also points out that RET costs us $3bn / yr.

    51

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      The usual suspects are out claiming it is wrong or will destroy the world (as they know it).

      I got censored for replying to Patrica (and if you’ve ever read the comments from her, and some others, you would know why I tried to post)

      Al Gore presents
      The Chicken Little Show
      staring
      Patricia as Gullible Goose
      and
      see the Grand Finale as
      the entire cast of 5 or 6 gather on the sinking coral island
      and do the sillydonkey dance.

      20

  • #
    Ron Cook

    Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia.

    Had frosts 2 days in a row, car windscreen iced up. Haven’t seen this since the ‘global cooling’ scare 30 – 40 years ago. Climate change in reverse thanks to an inactive sun.

    R-COO- K+

    20

    • #
      Annie

      Same here Ron, in North Central Vic and for the third morning running this morning. A sudden warming around 1000 and now it’s raining, earlier than forecast but the temperature here is still only about 7C.
      We had thick ice in a bucket of water on Saturday and Sunday.

      00

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Adelaide Hill is having a lot of frosts. Fortunately the wind and rain kept it away last night.

        10

    • #
      el gordo

      We can expect a break from the frosts for a spell, the low pressure is a normal winter pattern, but the subtropical ridge has intensified so the hot money is on the frosts returning with a vengeance.

      http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY65100.pdf

      10

  • #
    el gordo

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-03/fairfax-proceeds-with-domain-spin-off-despite-lack-of-private-e/8672800

    The Canadians and Americans don’t want to buy Fairfax, how about a Chinese consortium?

    00