JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Did anyone see the ABC Television News Special Report the other night about the Brits converting their biggest coal fired power station, in Yorkshire, to wood pellets? The Special Report claimed that the percentage of electricity generated in Britain from burning coal was now down to 7% and would sink to zero percent in coming years.
The report also stated, at one point, that the wood pellets were from ‘off-cuts’ from the farmed timber industry. I deeply suspect the accuracy of this claim. I have heard that the pellets are actually from wood, purposely grown in the USA for the power station and then harvested and sent to UK by ship. Can anyone shed any light on the embedded fossil fuel energy involved in the supply chain for this wood-fired power station?
I am also concerned by some of the implications and ‘things-not-stated’ in the special report. To my mind, the lead implication contained in the special report was, ‘Look Britain is doing it. Every one is doing it. Why can’t Australia do it?’
But, from my awareness of the rate at which super critical coal fired power stations are being built in countries with leading technologies, this implication is highly misleading.
And, on the issue of the ‘things-not-stated’ what is the energy source for the other 93% of Britain’s electricity generation? How much of it is nuclear? How much of it is gas (a fossil fuel just like coal) and, how much of it truly and honestly comes from wind and solar?
I just suspect the Special Report was highly selective and highly massaged and failed to create any context by which we could judge this 7% claim?
Can anyone shed any light on these issues?
190
“and then harvested and sent to UK by ship.” Is that ship powered by wind turbines?
101
about the power mix in the UK
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
about pellet sources
https://www.carbonbrief.org/uk-now-burning-33-of-worlds-wood-pellet-imports
http://www.businessinsider.com/europe-imports-wood-biomass-from-us-for-power-2015-12/?op=1&r=AU&IR=T
about how green it all is
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/64164
70
That would be a bald faced lie.
110
It looks like I went off half cocked on that. At least in the early years it was waste they used but I found nothing newer the 2014 when the market had already doubled in a few years and, one assumes, has doubled again since.
But little has been said which is suspicious.
BTW in ’14 pellets were valued @ US$150/ton. Not cheap and I doubt it would have the calorific value of coal.
60
According to Alibaba
Sell Steam Coal – South Kalimantan, Indonesia
US $68-70 / Metric Ton
30000 Metric Tons (Min. Order)
There is a coal mine in central Kalimantan, Adaro, that sells coal with such low impurities they market it as “Envirocoal” BHP has a stake in it.
80
Yes. Already various groups are starting to protest about the destruction of forests in south east USA. The following shows an image of what “off-cuts” means. Similar operations are running in Russia, Finland and Slovakia.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-07/these-people-are-practically-last-line-defense-louisianas-endangered-cypress
The same applies in Carolina etc. I read that one petition against Drax depleting forests has over 150,000 signatures.
80
I’m horrified the UK would make its energy generation partially dependent on imported wood fuel…..
Why not just convert all its generators to nukes and run that way?
10
Probably because there are plenty of anti-nuke nutters in the UK, OS, just as there are here.
10
Right on, you gonna have one nuclear power station, why not the lot . .
GeoffW
00
As you state a highly selective, ROFL, report ignoring the approx 25% nuclear and 35% gas generation to make it look as though the rest was solar and wind generated. I can’t recall the reporter (propagandist?) quoting any figures for power sourced from wood pellets as they really just focussed on the Selby station being converted from coal, and implying that all non-coal sourced power was from renewables.
One of the most blatant, rigged reports from the ABC in a long time, and the way the ABC operates now, that is really condemning it!
100
Drax switched half of its 6 units to wood pellets, and this made a huge difference to their income. Previously they were losing money as the emissions from coal were punished with taxes. Now they make a good profit thanks partly to a reduction in penalties and more so for incentives (subsidies) for “green” electricity. Their emissions are higher because the wood has to be kept damp during shipping and storage to prevent spontaneous combustion (similarly to Collie coal in WA). Then the emissions associated with clear felling, grinding, shipping etc. mean that CO2 emissions have increased by 32-33% for those units.
50
The energy data is on this link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/695804/Renewables.pdf
“Renewables” produced 99TWh out of 348TWh consumed.
Wind produced 49.6TWh.
Solar produced 11.5TWh.
A key detail here is that the intermittent wind and solar had a market share of 17.5%. That is getting to the stage where it will be destabilising the grid and the prices begin to skyrocket. This is a sign of things to come:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/03/02/electricity-prices-hit-10-year-high-cheap-wind-power-wanes/
Getting above 20%market share really impacts on prices. Getting above 30% impacts on prices and stability. However UK is still a long way from where South Australia fell to pieces at 39% market share.
20
This is interesting but let’s look at the facts. UK relies heavily on nuclear and gas turbines. We don’t. So if we remove our coal fired power stations at anywhere like what the UK have been doing and continue to do, we might as well start building right now our own camp fires to cook our food and heat our water for showers. How long before Australians as a whole wake up to the fact the longer we keep shutting down our only real source of base load power without even just planning for let alone building new coal, gas and/or nuclear plants, the closer we will reach a point where it’s too late and it’s game over after a crash and burn scenario, assuming it’s not too late already?
60
The problem starts well before the coal power stations close down. The problem begins as soon as intermittent generation gets priority access to the market. That is worse than any amount of subsidy.
Intermittent generation annihilates based load. That means efficient thermal generation is lost for good. I figure a reasonable number of people realise that thermal generators work most economically when operating under steady state conditions. The massive boilers at coal power stations (absolute monsters for brown coal) do not like being demand driven on an hourly basis; with load ranging from zero to rated capacity in a matter of hours. Intermittency destroys base load. Accordingly it destroys economics of base load generators.
Once agains South Australia provides a view of the future. This figure shows that the minimum demand for grid scale generators will be ZERO in about 7 years:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNgnvDGKc6pGRlaHoI
This chart comes from p23of this AEMO report:
http://www.aemo.com.au/-/media/Files/Electricity/NEM/Planning_and_Forecasting/SA_Advisory/2017/South-Australian-Electricity-Report-2017.pdf
All power through the grid will be coming from distributed rooftop solar at certain times. That means even the grid scale wind and solar will have ZERO demand in the SA network.
Already the grid scale wind and solar rely heavily on the Vic interconnected for access to load. That access destroyed the economics of Hazelwood.
The new SA government want a much higher capacity link to NSW so the SA wind generators can destroy the base load in NSW.
South Australia, despite being only a small potion of the Australian economy, is driving electricity prices up across the country. Not many people understand the “INTERMITTENCY DISEASE”.
71
How does this ‘priority access to market’ work exactly?
10
The wind and solar generators have standing bids with large negative prices. That means they are the first to be dispatched. It does not matter if they are producing a little or heaps they get first priority to supply the load. In terms of normal grid nomenclature they are the highest merit order because their fuel costs nothing.
https://www.aemo.com.au/media/Files/Other/corporate/AEMO16839_FactSheet_NationalElectricityMarket_D6.pdf.pdf
The only time wind does not produce if it can is when there is a stability constraint meaning likelihood of network tripping or a load constraint meaning the total wind generation exceeds the load demand.
All generators producing at an interval get paid whatever the top bid is for every 5 minute interval, averaged over 30 minutes. That is sometimes set by coal generators when demand is low; by Closed Cycle Gas when the demand is higher; Open Cycle Gas usually during peak demand periods and Hydro will bid to make the biggest gains with the available perched water. Hydro are able to push prices very high when demand is high.
10
Yes I had an electrician explain it to me the problems and technical details associated with renewables having the potential of “killing” the grid, but there are ways to reduce the risk somewhat but are expensive and counter-productive. However, let’s keep things simple for the public. The simple fact is base load power sources like coal, gas and nuclear provide virtually round the clock power whereas renewables without such base load generation even with battery backups do not come anywhere near that unless one is prepared to spend trillions of dollars. So, we are stupid for continuing on the current path of refusing to build new coal fired power stations to augment the inevitable increase in renewables. In fact I hazard to say it’s criminal given the critical importance of providing adequate, cost effective and reliable power for the nation. People have gone to prison for far less serious impact to society, and I’m not exaggerating nor being flippant.
20
The key problem is not that their production is erratic but rather that their production can actually reach rated capacity and that can go from zero to rating in hours. That means that the degree of steady load or base load that the coal generators see is ever diminishing as more intermittents come on line. If all wind was working at capacity and all solar near capacity at the same time the demand for the coal generators would be much lower than the caseload 5 years ago.
The high cost factor with intermittents is that they destroy base load. That is something that proponents see as a good thing but do not understand the cost implications.
10
In Australia:
How many could one call electrical engineers? None, apparently.
00
.. and wood CO2 is so much preferable to dirty coal CO2 which stays in the atmosphere forever, except that apparently it is converted into wood very quickly. Coal is made from wood.
So you have to assume that trees can tell the difference and far prefer to convert recent CO2 not antique CO2. This is nonsense science.
The half life of CO2 in the ecosystem before it vanishes is not 80 years as made law apparently by the IPCC. It is a proven 14 years. Until the atom bomb tests around 1965, it was thought to be as low as 5 years. There is no difference between coal and gas and oil and petrol and wood and the breath we breathe. The amount of CO2 in the air is set by ocean surface temperature. That’s real physical chemistry, not this Green druidism.
50
Go to the link for detailed UK power generation
gridwatch.co.uk
10
For full details of UK power generation go to
gridwatch.co.uk
00
Go to YouTube and enter “envita” and a number of presentations will come up that are enlightening on the problems created by burning wood to create electricity.
Envita is a company that cuts down hard wood trees to make wood pellets for export to the UK for electric power generation. In one presentation a comment was made by a university professor to the effect that mankind was burning wood many thousands of years ago to heat his caves and isn’t it time that we moved on, this is the twenty first century.
20
Sorry. The company name is Enviva not envita. Finger or brain problems or is it because I’m past 77?
10
Amricas richest zipcode, a Florida Island.
The rich and fabulous dont seem to care much about “accelerating” seas level rise and all that extreme weather
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-10/to-visit-america-s-richest-zip-code-first-you-ll-need-a-boat
70
The US is outstanding in international affairs, forcing Kim to the peace table with personal ridicule through twitter, and now XI has accepted that they have been very bad to America and has agreed to cut tariffs.
Hilary could never have achieved these milestones, so let me be the first to say three cheers to Donald the Great.
190
Josh Frydenberg
“Sadly, positions today are being based on ideology, not engineering.”
“government should be providing no new subsidies, be it renewables or coal. Let them battle it out in a properly regulated, technology-neutral market.”
“Let them battle it out in a properly regulated, technology-neutral market”
What utter rubbish. Coal is supposedly based on ‘right wing ideology’?
Firstly, there are no subsidies. The government distorts the market by forcing people to pay heaps just for the right to buy coal power. There is no ideology in coal. It is cheaper and in place.
There is absolutely no reason to take peoples money to pay for Malcolm Turnbull’s Left wing ideology. To flip it around is absurd.
Then as Delingpole points out, the Left of politics love to accuse conservatives of Nationalization and lecture on free market principles, as if only the Left of politics can demand the government regulate. It is a required role of government to prevent monopolies and rampant profiteering by vested interests. Even the ACCC accuses AGL of profiteering but it seems stopping profiteering is the sacred role of the Left.
Liddell cost AGL nothing. They should hand it back for nothing. That is not Nationalization. It is taking back what AGL refuse to maintain and what is essential for everyone. Reliable, adequate cheap power.
For Frydenberg, the voice of Malcolm, to paint taking Liddell back from AGL as Nationalization is absurd. We built it. It was entrusted to AGL who don’t want it. It should come back, for the good of the people, not AGL investors.
160
Just to be clear
The 2,000MW coal generator the NSW government sold for $0
By Giles Parkinson on 20 August 2014
AGL Energy said on Thursday that it had effectively bought the 2,000W Liddell coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley for zero dollars.
The give-away by the NSW government – which completed the sale on Wednesday – was revealed by a triumphant AGL Energy while announcing its annual results.
Liddell, which was commissioned in the early 1970s and is located adjacent to a lake of the same name near Muswellbrook – is being purchased as part of the 4,600MW Macquarie Generation portfolio – the last major business to be sold by NSW – for a total of $1.55 billion.
Now they don’t want to sell it. Abbott says it should be bought compulsorily. Any way you look at it AGL wins. However they would rather close it than sell it. Why? Why turn down a Billion dollars profit? Explain that and you would agree with the ACCC. This profiteering ‘gentailer’ wants to make money by forcing electricity prices even higher by restricting supply and its American CEO says this will force prices lower. Now who believes that?
160
So, they bought it for nothing, by their own words. Now they would rather close it than sell it for a Billion dollars. As Pauline Hanson would say, “please explain”?
100
It must be expensive to maintain a billion dollars.
20
On the information available, AGL should not be selling Liddell, they should be paying somebody to take it over. Give it away now and they will avoid the maintenance costs from now to 2022, plus the demolition and remediation costs after it is closed. Unless, of course, they are planning to cover these costs by loading supply charges to generate worthwhile (massive) profits in the meantime (but an ethical company like AGL would never do that – and pigs don’t fly, do they?)
120
It depends how deep the eco rabbit hole big business has gone…if they have signed up to “the Cause” they will happily kill of generating capacity.
Id heard stories about wealthy people building or buying bunkers for their families, now I can start to see why…..
30
Doesnt really matter what the price was and how we feel about it, the issue is who now owns it.
If they have ownership, rather than it being held in trust , then a govt taking it over is indeed nationalisation.
00
or “resumption”. Governments need and use the right to forcibly acquire property. How do you think roads get built?
00
you play all the word games you like, my point was they own it and people need to get over the idea that they are obliged somehow to hand it over.
00
Boo Hiss
‘EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s plan to organize a “red team-blue team” exercise about climate change, consisting of a public debate over whether and to what degree human activities are causing global warming, was reportedly halted by Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff.’
The Hill
70
I’m not sure that is a good idea. To have a warmist team is surely an acknowledgment that they have a legitimate position?
20
The Klimatariat is the paradigm which needs to be demolished in the public gaze, our side would win the debate.
Kelly is a backslider and should be sacked.
10
Do you want an open debate or not? you cant ignore what is the worldwide dominant position, however stupid it is.
20
Exactly, without a debate we lose.
So even if the Americans don’t go ahead with it, we can still form a blue team down under and attach it to the Coalition ginger group.
Composed of six Australian civil heretics capable of swaying the masses, I nominate Peter Ridd and Jennifer Marohasy for starters.
00
I’d like to think this is a joke but such insanity seems completely plausible in Californiastan.
///Officials in Los Angeles have been painting streets white to reduce the effect of urban “heat islands” and combat the effects of climate change.///
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/10/los-angeles-painting-city-streets-white-in-bid-to-combat-climate-change.html
40
Of course there are no emissions nor waste during the manufacture of the paint.
40
It seems this is not a joke. They are really doing it.
Claimed benefit is that pavements will be 10-15F cooler than the 150F they can get to so less heat is reflected into houses. But surely the benefit is negligible and will certainly not change the climate.
Video: https://youtu.be/ileU–wuOd0
30
Of course you’re correct, paint compounds like this one are not cheap to manufacture and as such require large amounts of processing and energy.
However there must be benefits in reducing the Heat Island effect in any town or city. Question is are there cheaper options? Maybe more plant and tree coverage or what about lighter coloured roads to begin with.
GeoffW
40
Hmm, somebody needs to invent white asphalt. Or they could just use concrete, or perhaps concrete with a white pigment added to it. Also, we need to invent white rubber tires so that cars traveling on the roads don’t darken the roads.
20
This means that the incoming short-wave radiation will be reflected back toward space as short-wave radiation instead of being absorbed and re-emitted as long-wave radiation and thus bypass the GHG blanket and go directly back to space. It could work. Of course, I suggest everyone in La-La land purchase good polarized sun glasses as the street glare could become blinding without them. And pity the poor pilots landing at LAX, it could be like flying over the Tonopah Solar Energy station in Nevada.
60
usual liberal mindset project, imagine the upkeep. They rarely think past the virtue signalling and the messaging for that noghts news. Then they will lecture about sustainability.
10
Turnbull and Andrews and Frydenberg use the ‘market’ as the answer. The market has ‘failed’.
What sort of ‘market’ forces the biggest cheapest supplier to close because they cannot make money with a better, cheaper product?
What sort of government triples the price of (our) coal so that the company cannot afford to buy it? (Daniel Andrews)
As Turnbull explained, that is a private company matter for the owners.
What absolute nonsense. The hatred of coal starts in the Prime Minister’s office.
Frydenberg is right, it is pure ideology, not engineering. Left wing ideology. There is no ideology in coal.
150
Trumble doesn’t hate coal.
It gives him the excuse he needs to manipulate us.
50
To be even clearer, what sort of ‘market’ means the person selling exactly the same product (electricity) above cost at 1/3 of the price of the competition is forced out of business by government laws?
60
Thats a problem with government, not with markets
00
Few Americans or anyone else realise there were 15 colonies at the time of independence not 13.
https://youtu.be/5LXvzTi1aB0
10
Russia doesn’t seem to want to be part of the world community.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6018371/russian-girls-train-mass-brawls-world-cup-2018-attack-england-fans/
30
This has to be a joke.
The Russians never tire of practical jokes, some sardonic. Monty Python lives. Remember
“The Batley Townswomens’ Guild Presents the Battle of Pearl Harbour”
Humour and parody is the only thing which keeps them going in the terrible winters and every young Russian is a budding film maker/director too. Someone comes up with a wild idea or prank and they all get together. This was meant to be funny.
Ironically only the British would take it seriously. Hooli-girls. Really?
20
Oh, come on! It was in The Sun, for goodness’ sake! It must be even worse than the DM for idiot reports.
10
I still like the recreation of Pearl Harbour. I thought it was good role playing.
00
more minor detaisl: http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/04/center-for-military-technical-problems.html
10
i’m glad we have grass-roots renewal, dialogue, revelations via the net a the old order must pass away and new cycles invariably come in. Given the net we certainly can maximize opportunity and awakening. No, the traditional comparisons don’t much count now as this incoming age is moving quite a bit out of the blue. Prime example: http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/04/sosenskoye-home-to-svr.html
00
The stupid thing is that I am sure that the combustion of coal, even brown coal, would be a lot cleaner in every respect than wood in any form.
The fact that this scam has so many heads is worrying but the fact that they get away with holding up pelletised wood as greener than coal is a scam built on a scam.
They now have total control of us and are laughing at how stupid we are.
We no longer have a democracy.
KK
110
Actually we still have a Democracy and as Socrates explained Democracy is itself the problem. He argued that letting any citizen including those who have little or no understanding or skill, or worse still have little or no regard to the well-being of a nation, vote for a government is like picking out at random a group of people to take command of a sailing ship instead of choosing a group who actually know a lot about sailing. Socrates argued only those who thought rationally should vote. In reality he oversimplifies it but in the end he is still right even if we take into account the fact there are many voters who do have the right attributes. The real problem is the proportion of voters that don’t often far out-way the proportion that do. We clearly have experienced this ourselves many times. Of course the issue is how do we decide who can vote without causing a revolt by those who are prevented from voting? We can’t. Hence we are in a no-win situation. Others mistakenly believe a Republic (where the Law tries to control the government as well as the people) is a better form of government but in reality it’s not much different simply because it suffers from the exact same issues as a Democracy; namely there often too many who have little skill/understanding/interest/smarts/etc. who influence the outcome. That is why it would be slightly better if voting was not compulsory.
40
Democracy is dying because half the population have realised that they can pick the pockets of the other half via the ballot box. Abbott was, and Trump is, an aberration. The raiding of his lawyer’s office makes me fearful that he will not last his term. Pence is just another [creepy] swamp creature.
20
If Democracy is dying, it’s not dying because it’s not working. It’s dying BECAUSE it’s working as intended since the people still can and do still vote governments in and out. The trouble is as I explained there is a large group of people who simply do not understand the consequences of their selection. There are even lots of people now who truly believe communism is the answer. That’s what we have to deal with in a modern Democracy. If they get their way then and only then will Democracy die.
40
Good point; that it’s working”.
And people only believe in Communism when they have hopes of being Australia’s Putin, or at least his media rep.
KK
00
The lack of Australian mainstream news on the present Syria situation is news in itself. A good few here would agree that there is a grave situation. Yet as I comb the Murdoch, Fairfax and ABC (truly gigantic government media) no Syrian tensions are mentioned with prominence except for a minor paywalled article in Murdoch’s flagship. Just the usual stuff about China trade (serious face, happy ending), sex scandals, celebs, TV promos, Commonwealth Games, someone wanting to marry a particularly flirtatious lamp post etc. (Okay, I made up that last bit, but you get the picture.)
One can only think that they are keeping their powder dry, letting the vague notion of chemical attacks just float about without having to provide detail or proof, just some generalised emotion which can be stoked or stifled on demand.
Impossible to know who finally makes decisions to headline or bury, and their exact motives, but it’s worth looking at the timing of these news brown-outs. To be sure of my ground I’ve just checked the Daily Telegraph before posting this. If you scroll down to World you’ll get one very indirect reference to Syria in a headline about Trump cancelling a trip. It’s like they’re straining to report around Syria till they decide what our truth should be. There is the usual red meat thrown to conservatives like me about cancelling Sydney’s farcical light rail (from Turnbull booster Miranda!). If that’s to keep me coming back, Rupert…I ain’t coming back. (Whoa there. A “latest news” line in the Australian about Julie Bishop warning Russia. Think it just popped up. I’m sure it will pop down soon.)
To be fair, I’ve found a slot on Fox with Tucker Carlson roundly condemning the rush to judgement and raising the likelihood of false flag in the alleged chemical attack. Small mercy, but thanks. Please keep in mind I’m not suggesting people agree with me that this accusation of chemical use is another dud (I say it is). I’m suggesting that the present confrontation should head the news, the way, in my lifetime, Suez, Cuba etc headed the news.
By the time someone reads this there may be more stuff apparent in the MSM, but so far I’ve been struck by the non-reportage of what ought to head the news. I only get a few shreds of info by trawling through sites like Zero Hedge. If one part of the information spectrum were browning out and distracting that would be odd. When all parts are doing it that’s beyond odd. Or maybe there is only one big media spectrum now?
Have we all been sustainably head-developed and organically mind-farmed to the point where a Suez-level crisis doesn’t count nearly so much as Rusty Crowe’s divorce auction?
50
MSM news is becoming a lot like what George Orwell described in the iconic novel 1984. We should see memory holes soon to complete the picture. At least we still have the advantage to see the real news over the internet.
40
The memory holes appeared in the US MSM a long time ago. For example, in the US in the 1990’s the US MSM said there was nothing wrong with a president having an extra-marital affair and lying about it to a grand jury, but in 2018 the US MSM says its scandalous and an impeachable offense for a president to have an extra-marital affair. The Ministry of truth never lies.
50
Granted we already do have memory holes (recent classic example is what Hillary did to those emails) but not to the same extent as in the novel. We have a long way to go given the internet access is still unobstructed in most countries. If that goes along with all other forms of communications then we would be well and truly stuffed.
40
True. On the other hand, we do have television screens approaching the size of a wall and in many case we have web cams attached to them. We may be approaching the point where we can’t turn them off and the government choose what’s broadcast and the webcams are mandatory and always on. George Orwell may prove to have been amazingly accurate on where technology would eventually take us.
40
We might eventually have something far batter to monitor us; robots.
00
The MSM is waiting for Donald to take out a dictator with the blessing of the UN.
00
Honestly, I’ve lost track of anyone’s purpose. Since the old “serious” purpose – of checkmating Russia by piping the gas of friendly Qatar across a friendly Sunni corridor to a friendly Turkey – must now seem fanciful, one has to wonder what any new purpose could be. The previous administration seemed more favourable to the Muslim Brotherhood, this one is working the older connections with traditional “friendly” dictatorships. (No risk of colour revolutions in Saudi A, Oman, Bahrain, Azerbaijan etc.) The West’s barely concealed alliances with certain bad-guy groups I can’t mention without copping moderation adds to the tangle of contradiction.
Are there really dreams of a friendly Kurdistan taking control not just of oil and land but of the region’s great watershed? Surely the US and NATO couldn’t believe that Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria would tolerate Kurdish control of the Tigris and maybe the Euphrates? In the West the Kurds are portrayed as non-embarrassing Israelis, moderates with fighting chicks who just want their own nest. Their neighbours don’t feel that way at all about the Kurds. And they’re funny about water.
One hears stories of a Greater Kurdistan as a big extension of US and Israeli power…but who would invest in such an uncertain dream? Can anyone figure out why NATO is risking a conflagration when the possible goals are so far-fetched? Turkey is alienated and they’re having trouble even keeping the right Saudis in power. Can they seriously believe in a new carve-up of the ME, especially when even in the Sunni nations so many critical regions and resources are Shiite? No sense in any of this. I suspect that there is pro-war lobby which believes conflict can’t be delayed without losing economic ground. Trump is being pushed a hundred ways by this lobby, Hillary didn’t need to be pushed. Hillary was the pusher.
But to return to the subject of the media: What I’m noticing is that Murdoch, when it comes to geopolitics, is presenting us with the same cartoon show as the luvvies and ABC…that’s when they’re not all conspiring to bury the matter, as now.
20
So who did it then mosomoso?
Gavrilo Princip?
Hillary Clinton?
James Clapper?
Sadiq Khan?
Salih Muslim?
Yassmin Abdel Magied?
Angela Merkel?
George Soros?
Then there’s the question of how did they do it?
00
What are you on about Mosomoso?
The ABC news feed has had Syria among its top stories for days. It is in the fairfax and Murdoch media. It was on the radio news and world today when I listened about 20 minutes after your post. The foreign minister and the shadow FM were interviewed on breakfast radio this morning.
Are you referring to something else?
22
Nope. Checked the headlines and events were thoroughly obscured by chatter about other things. It’s not a black-out, but it’s surely a brown-out. I just checked again and the ABC does now have a Syria story at the top, right next to a Thermomix accident. Earlier today there was nothing in prominence. I checked Murdoch, Fairfax earlier and there was next to nothing. I’ve just checked the Telegraph again and there’s nothing in prominent position. On the faux right, even Drudge finds a hundred things more important.
Exception: Figaro led with three Syria stories, casting the bait about a gas attack, but at least giving due prominence to events.
I admit I haven’t listened to ABC news and talk. And I admit I never will.
50
The best way to handle the situation is to eliminate the leader of this despicable regime, while avoiding collateral damage.
The allies must know his whereabouts at any given time, so a well placed cruise missile should do the trick. Russia will then be forced to concede defeat and withdraw, handing Syria over to the UN.
10
The despicable regime is secular and elected, and would be elected again. Assad and his associates may play with a hard ball – especially when embroiled in war – but Syria has been a place where Christians have had far greater safety and freedom than in most of the ME. Same with many Yazidi, Druse and even Kurds, though certainly not all. Just like the largest and safest Jewish population in the ME outside Israel is in despicable Iran, where Christianity thrives, albeit facing hostility.
EG, we’re just handing the region over to McCain’s head-lopping mates. You know. Our moderate allies. I can’t name them without going into moderation. White helmets and blue helmets should not fool adults.
70
The 2014 election was not exactly democratic, so he is a dictator who uses chemical weapons against combatants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_presidential_election,_2014
Nobody wants anything to do with Syria, adventurism is dead because all the big players have already been burnt elsewhere in the region. So responsibility must fall to the UN.
10
EG, Assad is as legit as a president can be in that part of the world. Note that you never hear demands for free and fair elections in Syria. (It’s also worth remembering that wikipedia is a treasure trove of climate alarmism.) The previous attacks have been either not proven or disproven, and some journalists and even a Russian diplomat were actually predicting a false flag chem attack once the government got Ghouta under control. I read these predictions myself, well before the event (or non-event).
The guy’s a London-trained ophthalmologist and not know for being dumb. Yet every time there’s a turning point in Assad’s favour it seems he can’t resist staging a chemical attack that gains him no advantage and turns the tide of the interventions back against him? Very hard to believe.
By the way, just below Gee Aye’s comment I’ve got an interesting link to do with false flags. Very, very relevant. It’s not the only one of its kind of seen.
I’ve had a comment in moderation for some time where I’ve tried to lay out why I think the West’s policies and aims in Syria are futile even if they get their way. I won’t repeat it all here now, but I’ll just say that the disrespect shown to Syria’s borders could easily be shown to any and all borders, most of which are as arbitrary and fragile as Syria’s. Cooking up a justification is as easy as fiddling weather records. You can always find something.
Obama got a Peace Prize after five minutes in power. In his last year he rained down some 27,000 bombs. Yet the sanctions were the worst part. He got to do it because the adoring media found ways to shut up and/or excuse it all, even the colossal bungle and tragedy that was Libya. Are we going to buy a similar bag of mouldy apples because someone changed the bag?
30
Bashar al-Assad is a well educated mass murderer, so using chlorine and Sarin against innocent civilians is a crime against humanity.
I’ll also remind you that only Iran thought the 2014 election was free and fair.
00
Mosomo,
I have not gone into the Syrian tragedy at all. Have not watched TV for more than a year now and am not qualified to comment much.
The many deaths cause a lot of angst, but as you point out, there are other considerations that may be getting missed. The middle East is a mess, and come to think of it, European civilization has been without a Great War for only 72 years now so we don’t have a lot to crow about.
Just who is to blame in absolute moral terms in the Syria matter is hard to say.
Media reporting can miss important material and weight newscasts to reflect the current meme, today’s is justice and a fair go for all.
A recent example is the massed presence on Israel’s border of a lot of people being manipulated into playing border roulette with their lives while the organisers directed events from the rear via mobile phone.
Pick the baddy in that one.
KK
10
it has been headline news for days matey.
13
Here’s some live Syrian action the ABC can investigate after the latest Thermomix tragedy. Even has a happy ending…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCsfJdpglHE
30
Cui Bono?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAyeayfKnFE
10
Stefan Molyneux and Jordan Peterson are beacons of sanity. My lefty sons know nothing of either.
10
Cui bono.
Was very impressed when I saw that phrase being put into action in a movie about ancient Rome.
10
Are you saying that the ABC spends its time reporting on multiple news items and posts the newest ones at the top? The temerity! They should stick to reporting only what you think should be reported.
00
Mosomo
If you look at the top and bottom of this section of the thread you might feel hemmed in.
But perhaps “trapped” might be a better way of putting it.
00
Not an SBS viewer then? Not a night goes by without a who has blown up who in the ME report.
10
followup to a piece on google’s dubious claim, which I posted on earlier thread:
10 Apr: WUWT: Apple caught fibbing about running on 100% renewable energy
Guest opinion by Tim Worstall
Nonsense, Pish And Tosh – Apple Claims To Run On 100% Renewable Energy
One report has a slightly sheepish footnote to it:
“Update April 9th, 4:17PM ET: Clarified that Apple, like Google, is not actually 100 percent powered by clean energy, but it uses the term to signal that it buys enough green energy to offset its global power consumption.”…READ ON
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/10/apple-caught-fibbing-about-running-on-100-renewable-energy/
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I just did a search on why Google abandoned it’s R&D into unreliable and found this, in part:
They discovered that there was no need for research, subsidies are easier.
30
Thanks Pat,
Sounds like the way the ACT claims 100%.
Cheers,
Dave B
00
One of the renew economy fan boys wrote a while ago that it would take a “special kind of stupid” to be pounding on a keyboard in Canberra about climate denial powered by 100% renewable power.
I commented that it took a special kind of srupid to believe Canberras power was anything but the usual mix in southern NSW at any point in time.
I think that was the beginning of my posts getting blocked/deleted 🙂
10
10 Apr: ClimateDepot: Marc Morano: ‘Fat, healthy polar bears’ prompt Gore to abandon their use as a ‘global warming’ icon – New Book Excerpt
After years of campaigners’ and researchers’ claims that populations were in terminal decline, the ‘canary in the coal mine’ has been retired.”…
The New York Times is circling the wagons for the global warming establishment to smear and dismiss skeptical scientists and research showing that polar bears are not threatened by “global warming.” See: NYT: “Climate Change Denialists Say Polar Bears Are Fine. Scientists Are Pushing Back” The Times cites the usual climate campaigner suspects like environmental activist Michael Oppenheimer, a recipient of Big Hollywood funding (Barbra Streisand) and a UN lead author.
One skeptical scientist Dr. Susan Crockford is fighting back at the New York Times…READ ON
http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/04/10/fat-healthy-polar-bears-prompts-gore-to-abandon-use-as-a-global-warming-icon-new-book-excerpt/
polar bears have been co-opted by the “denialsts”? shows just how mad the CAGW mob are.
unsurprisingly, not behind a paywall:
10 Apr: NYT: Erica Goode: Climate Change Denialists Say Polar Bears Are Fine. Scientists Are Pushing Back
But at a time when established climate science is being questioned at the highest levels of government, climate denialists are turning the charismatic bears to their own uses, capitalizing on their symbolic heft to spread doubts about the threat of global warming…
But to hear climate denialists tell it, polar bears are doing just fine. On Watts Up With That, Climate Depot and other websites that dispute climate science, bloggers insist that the Arctic’s receding ice is part of a natural warming cycle unrelated to human activities. Predictions about devastating declines in polar bear populations, they say, have failed to materialize…
In effect, many scientists say, the bears have been co-opted by climate denialists, and in an article published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal BioScience, 14 prominent researchers argue that denialist blogs with wide followings are using the bears to spread misinformation about the causes and consequences of climate change…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/climate/polar-bears-climate-deniers.html
50
In summary, Climate Warmists co-opting Polar bears is GOOD, Climate Skeptics co-opting Polar bears is BAD.
60
10 Apr: ClimateChangeNews: Argentina accused of caving to Trump by dropping carbon price from G20 talks
G20 presidency denies US a factor in turn away from carbon pricing, but upcoming Japanese and Saudi leadership could mean issue is pushed off agenda for years
By Annemarie Botzki
“The Argentine G20 presidency has not planned a discussion on carbon pricing,” Carlos Gentile, Argentina’s secretary of state for climate change and sustainable development, told Climate Home News.
That means there will be no space given to the topic at the upcoming climate sustainability group meeting in Buenos Aires between 17 and 18 April. Nor when the leaders of the world’s largest economies meet in November…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/04/10/argentina-accused-caving-trump-dropping-carbon-price-g20/
10 Apr: ClimateChangeNews: Countries inch towards ‘bare minimum’ climate target for shipping
EU and island leaders are calling for more ambition at the International Maritime Organization, while major emerging economies resist a tough cap on emissions
By Sara Stefanini
But the compromise emissions reduction goal on the table — 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 — is half the level small island states say is needed to prevent the most disastrous effects of climate change in their countries. And the concern is the goal could be pulled down further in the final days of talks, a dozen national delegates and observers told Climate Home News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Yesterday and today make me less optimistic,” Green European Parliament member Bas Eickhout, from the Netherlands, told reporters on Tuesday in a barge converted into a pub across the street from the IMO headquarters. “What is on the table is the bare minimum, and it’s not good enough.”…
Failure to commit to full decarbonisation by mid-century will “create serious investment uncertainty for the industry,” said Faig Abbasov, shipping officer at the NGO Transport and Environment…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/04/10/countries-inch-towards-bare-minimum-climate-target-shipping/
20
Watching Josh Frydenberg @ the National Press Club as I type.
says that we must accept we are locked in to a carbon (sic) constrained future.
Says Australia will meet its Paris UN-IPCC targets.
We don’t need a UN emissions target, but a cheaper electricity price target.
60
“We must accept we are locked in to a carbon (sic) constrained future”
Locked in by whom? Josh Frydenberg? I didn’t know that he had the power to do that.
80
Ted Cruz gives it to Zuckerberg. It has also been suggested that Zuck may be wired with a receiver in his ear with someone telling him what to say as sometimes he appears distracted as though someone is talking in his ear.
https://youtu.be/PsKQ6FH6Y-4
40
In his exchange with Ted Cruz, Zuckerberg proved he can dance around questions without answering them as well as any politician.
20
At least he wore a coat and tie, not a T and hoodie.
20
Serious question: Do you think any politician actually knows the properties and significance of carbon and its role in nature and the carbon cycle?
40
Cruz and Inhofe more than most.
10
Ex-politican Malcolm Roberts did. Too bad he didn’t know as much about citizenship.
00
unbelievable:
10 Apr: Guardian: BBC Radio 4 broke accuracy rules in Nigel Lawson climate change interview
Ofcom says controversial claims, including on the frequency of extreme weather events, went unchallenged
by Mark Sweney
BBC Radio 4 broke accuracy rules by failing to sufficiently challenge the climate change denier Nigel Lawson’s controversial claims in an interview, the broadcasting watchdog has ruled.
Lord Lawson appeared on a Radio 4 programme last summer denying the concept of climate change, which prompted complaints from the Green party and the prominent scientists Brian Cox and Jim Al-Khalili, who said it was “irresponsible and highly misleading” to imply there was still a debate around the science supporting it…
“The editorial team could have reasonably anticipated there was a risk that Lord Lawson might raise these arguments,” said Ofcom. “The BBC should have planned for that eventuality and the presenter should have been prepared to provide challenge and context to Lord Lawson’s views as appropriate.
“The BBC’s failure to do this led to significant inaccuracies being broadcast. Critically, these inaccuracies were allowed to stand without challenge or clarification during that broadcast.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/09/bbc-radio-4-broke-impartiality-rules-in-nigel-lawson-climate-change-interview
BBC climate change interview breached broadcasting standards
BBC News· Apr 9, 2018
Media watchdog Ofcom has rebuked the BBC over a radio interview with climate change sceptic Lord Lawson last August…
It is the first time Ofcom has found the BBC in breach since taking over regulation of the corporation in 2017…
The Ofcom ruling follows an incident in 2014, when the BBC upheld a complaint over another Today programme interview with Lord Lawson about climate change…
“We’ve told the BBC we are concerned that this was the second incident of this nature, and on the same programme,” said Ofcom’s spokeswoman on Monday…
BBC broke accuracy rules in Lord Lawson climate change interview
The Times· Apr 10, 2018
BBC’s Today programme breached broadcasting rules with climate change interview, says Ofcom
Yahoo News UK· Apr 9, 2018
Today programme broke accuracy guidelines in interview with climate change sceptic Lord Lawson, Ofcom rules
Press Gazette 9 Apr 2018
BBC breached broadcasting rules by failing to challenge climate change sceptic Nigel Lawson, says Ofcom
The Independent-9 Apr. 2018
40
Hmm, “Accuracy Rules” as applied by the MSM insure the inaccuracy of their reports. Very interesting. The Ministry of Truth in action.
30
Sunlight gets bounced around and creates mirages
OK, you need a couple of sliding glass doors.
20
unhinged:
9 Apr: NYT Op-ed: Scott Pruitt’s Civilization-Threatening Lie
By Justin Gillis
(Justin Gillis, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, is a public speaker and consultant who is working on a book about how to solve global warming)
From the day he walked into Congress as the nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt has been trying to foist a colossal lie on the American public.
“Science tells us that the climate is changing, and human activity in some manner impacts that change,” he said that day, 14 months ago. “The human ability to measure with precision the extent of that impact is subject to continuing debate and dialogue, as well they should be.”
In other words: We do not know enough about the risks to take any action. Burn that coal, baby!…
This is not just any old white lie that Mr. Pruitt has been telling. This is a civilization-threatening lie, a lie that will kill people and destroy small nations, if not some large ones. Future generations will see him as a man guilty of a major historical crime, along with his enablers in Congress and their puppet masters in the fossil-fuel industry…
During his time in office, Mr. Pruitt has episodically repeated his big lie, always using weasel words — “with precision” — to try to appear more reasonable in the face of the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change…
But we do know it, no matter how much Scott Pruitt sweats under the television lights as the distortions fall from his lips.
We know in exquisite physical detail what pouring carbon dioxide into the air, something humans are doing with abandon, will do to the heat-trapping properties of the atmosphere. We know that the planet is warming at a rate with little known precedent in the geological record and that no natural factor can account for that warming.
Scientists predicted the warming many decades ago, and it is proceeding pretty much as they forecast. They also predicted that glaciers and ice caps would melt, the oceans would rise, rains would intensify, heat waves would get worse — and every bit of that has come to pass. The same scientists are telling us that failing to get emissions under control would be to risk a mass extinction of life on Earth and would be very likely to create so much chaos in the human realm as to imperil the stability of our civilization.
***Do they know everything that will happen, year by year and decade by decade? Of course not, and it is this uncertainty about the scope and rate of change that Mr. Pruitt wants to magnify into a pretext for inaction…
In other words, while no science is ever complete, any science that has proved itself by making correct predictions warrants our attention and our provisional trust. Climate scientists have done that, and they are warning us that we have entered a planetary emergency — not in 50 years, but now. We are fools not to be trying to cut emissions of greenhouse gases as fast as we possibly can…
In other words, while no science is ever complete, any science that has proved itself by making correct predictions warrants our attention and our provisional trust. Climate scientists have done that, and they are warning us that we have entered a planetary emergency — not in 50 years, but now. We are fools not to be trying to cut emissions of greenhouse gases as fast as we possibly can.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/opinion/scott-pruitt-epa-climate.html#click=https://t.co/o2d5wfeUbp
20
The biggest non-nuclear explosion detonated in Australia in 1963. Operation Blowdown.
https://youtu.be/bIQr62lZbsM
30
Did they put a manhole cover over it?
10
it still hasnt landed, although I hear it winged a Chinese space station.
10
I know what you are referring to. It’s thought that the manhole cover in question probably vapourised due to aerodynamic heating before it reached space. The one single photo frame in which the manhole cover appeared did suggest that it was moving at escape velocity.
00
That’s the logical answer. Their guesstimate was that it was doing many times escape velocity, but unlike a rocket, it’s highest speed was in the densest air and it was hardly aerodynamic.
00
from the Green Queen to the Green Prince
9 Apr: UK Telegraph: Prince Albert of Monaco warns of ‘irreversible tragedies’ facing world’s oceans with up to 500 ‘dead zones’
By Simon Johnson
The Prince told the gathering of academics, senior officials and ministers in Edinburgh that the threats facing the oceans were “increasingly alarming” and people must stop believing it was possible to pour “anything and everything” into them “without consequences.”
His outspoken warning was echoed by Peter Thomson, the UN’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, who compared the situation to all the historic architecture in Scotland’s capital being wiped out by a massive earthquake…
The conference was held at the University of Edinburgh by the Monaco Blue Initiative, a think tank that aims to bring together experts and decision makers to find practical solutions.
It was set up by the prince’s foundation and the Oceanographic Institute…
Prince Albert II, who is often referred to as ‘the green prince’ for his efforts to tackle climate change and ocean pollution, used his opening address to warn that swift action was required to reconcile “the needs of man with those of nature” in the face of increasing threats…
The prince praised a series of initiatives that have shown a “spirit of collective responsibility”, such as the Paris Agreement, but said this must now be “extended beyond diplomatic and political circles” to business and civil society…
Mr Thomson, a Fijian diplomat who served as President of the UN General Assembly until last September, told the conference that the death of coral reefs was an “observable tragedy” in his country.
He said: “It would be akin to somebody from Edinburgh, seeing all these beautiful buildings we’re surrounded by just demolished in an earthquake in one day.”
But Mr Thomson argued that technology meant that there could be “massive data collection” from the seas by 2021 to measure temperature and acidification levels.
He said this could involve fitting “sensors and transmitters on the hull of every pleasure craft, every commercial craft, every buoy, every beacon in the world” and an upcoming UN conference will create for the first time “law on the high seas that covers everybody”.
Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian fisheries minister, told the conference that further talks will be held at June’s G7 summit in Quebec and a ministerial meeting in the autumn that aims to increase ocean observation and cut unauthorised fishing.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/09/prince-albert-monaco-warns-irreversible-tragedies-facing-worlds/
00
behind paywall. a few excerpts found at EuropeBreakingNews website:
10 Apr: Bloomberg: Biggest Problem for U.S. Offshore Wind? Ports Are Too Small
By Jim Efstathiou Jr
U.S. offshore wind developers have a space problem. Giant windmills with rotors that can stretch as high as 600 feet (180 meters) above the ocean’s surface will dwarf the existing port structure. Finding locations big enough to assemble the huge towers and turbines and handle ships that can deliver the hardware to offshore farms is the biggest hurdle for companies eyeing a slice of the emerging market, according to Jeff Grybowski, chief executive officer of Deepwater Wind LLC, which developed the first U.S. offshore project.
“Our real challenge is finding enough port space to fit these projects,’’ Grybowski said Monday in an interview at the BNEF Future of Energy Summit in New York…
States have begun refitting ports to handle the giant towers and turbines…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-09/biggest-problem-for-u-s-offshore-wind-ports-are-too-small
10
10 Apr: Daily Mail: The $20 MILLION competition to fight climate change heats up: XPrize picks
10 finalists to test technologies that turn emissions into everyday objects, from shoes to 3D-printed concrete
Competition challenges teams with harnessing CO2 emissions to build products
XPrize Foundation selected the ten teams who will proceed to the final round
Teams will now test their products at real power plants in Canada and Wyoming
By Annie Palmer
As part of the last leg of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize competition, the teams will now test their technologies at real power plants in the US and Canada.
XPrize hopes that the competition will unlock a bevvy of new technologies that can cut back on the world’s CO2 emissions — a known to threat to Earth’s future climate and long considered a major catalyst for climate change.
PHOTO CHIMNEYS SMOKE)
Finalists include India-based Breathe, China-based C4X, Scotland-based Carbon Capture Machine, Canada-based CarbonCure, Los Angeles-based Carbon Upcycling UCLA, Virginia-based C2CNT, Canada-based Carbicrete, Canada-based Carbon Upcycling Technologies, California-based Newlight and Canada-based CERT.
The ten teams each took home an equal share of a $5 million milestone prize on Monday as a reward for making it to the final stage, according to the XPrize Foundation, an organization that encourages innovation and has partnered with Google and IBM in the past…
Now, finalists will be split up into two tracks — one that will work at a coal-fired power plant in Gillette, Wyoming and another that will work at a natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta, Canada…READ ON
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5587933/20M-XPrize-selects-finalists-competition-transform-carbon-emissions-useful-products.html
10
I am slightly confused here – power plant emissions contain more than CO2; several other gases and particulate matter are part of the mix, and several of those are classed as fairly noxious in “large” amounts (for varying values of large.) Are these kids separating the CO2 out from the entire emissions stream? That, in itself, would be an awesome and notable feat. If they aren’t, we are faced with the idea that these kids are making things out of toxic (labeled as such by EPA et al) materials, meaning the items made will also be toxic, yes?
I do not think that is such a good idea. Unless the plans is to landfill all the things the kids make and let their kids deal with that mess. Which is what some are doing with the remains of rare-earths refining and broken solar panels and windmills.
A pox on all such silliness.
00
The absurdity of painting *roads* to combat “global warming” is simply beyond belief. Does Californiastan get some sort of award for the most insane idea to date?
21
I’m sure it rains in Cal sometimes. Combining three thoughts: California, painted roads and Darwin I see a prediction coming true.
10
I hear that California has been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement award for the most insane ideas proposed by a State during its lifetime. New York and Massachusetts better get moving if they want to have any chance of overtaking California in the competition.
10
Neutral ENSO all the way to Xmas.
https://curryja.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/slide2.png
10
Cleaning bathroom tiles: The nuclear option.
Started cleaning the tiles in the shower today and I got to using a tooth brush and a spray bottle on the grouting but as the cleaner dried it streaked, apart from being tedious. Being a man of many talents I brought up the gurney and the garden hose, problem solved. Recommended! 🙂
00
You might want to try a pressure washer next time. Be sure to keep the windows open to vent the exhaust from the gas engine.
00
Speaking of Nuclear Options, I am reminded of the story of the Purdue University engineer’s attempts at setting the world record for lighting a Charcoal Grill.
http://www.baetzler.de/humor/litegrill.html
20
Toyota Hydrogen Powered Vehicle ….
https://ssl.toyota.com/mirai/fcv.html
00
saw an item on our ABC tonight about a proposed trial (yes two indefinites) brown coal > hydrogen conversion plant in the Latrobe Valley. In true Aussie style the proposed use is not for anything within our own borders but just for shipping off to Japan. Just a quarry, one more time. Maybe if they build it, something will come for the ever patient citizens.
10
It’s Alan Finkel’s group that’s promoting the generation of hydrogen. Many comments in The Oz today about the myriad problems of safely generating, storing and transporting hydrogen.
00
Seasonal Forecast
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/weather-outlook-ocean-heat-wave/9644290
They mention that a warm Tasman Sea is keeping temperatures well above average, but not a word on ‘blocking highs’.
00
Can anyone explain what AEMO dictates through these uninformative directions?
Market Notice 62267
AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE.
Direction – South Australia Region 12/04/18
Refer to AEMO Electricity Market Notices 62258, 62259
In accordance with section 116 of the National Electricity Law AEMO has issued a third direction to a participant in the South Australia region.
The direction was necessary to maintain the power system in a secure operating state. The direction was issued at 1630 hrs 12/04/18, with effect from 1000 hrs 13/04/18. The direction is expected to stay in place until 1700 hrs 15/04/18.
00
I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than I would answer but I assume it is a directive to a gas generator to contribute to ensure grid stability, something wind can’t provide. They need turbines to sync with.
00
MAJOR ALERT: Celente Just Warned Global War May Break Out Within Days
https://kingworldnews.com/urgent-alert-celente-just-warned-war-may-break-out-within-days/
I’m not a Celente fan but I’m getting edgy. I never thought Russia and the US were going to bomb each other into oblivion during the cold war [maybe I was “young and naive”] except during the Cuban Crisis and that needed a crazy third party. Today we have crazy fourth, fifth and sixth parties.
I watched a Stefan Molyneux video y’day and I have never heard anyone so depressed. The US hawks are intent on war. They are forcing Trump into it by accusing him of being soft on Russia. If he said he distrusted the “intelligence” that blamed Assad for the recent gassing they would shout “impeach” even louder. Are there people crazy enough to think a modern war could be won, even if for just a privileged few?
20
Its a calculated risk, a testing ground for the latest smart missiles and intelligence against what the Russians have. The aim of the game is to avoid collateral damage, directly targeting the regime.
I have faith in Donald’s foreign policy and its very unlikely that he’ll get embroiled because of hawkish nagging.
10
I hope you are right Gordo.
10
Celente is just a doomster who will say anything for clicks and media spots. He trots out the same garbage on a regular basis. I guess like my lotto numbers it may be right one day.
20
That’s what they were saying in ’07 too.
You can lose years of good profits in one plunge, especially with margin. I only saved $10 grand out of my margin a/c and I was selling daily, not resisting. It hurts when you were planning on retiring soon.
00