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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Bodmin Moor, Drozmary Pool
13 July 2018
The sun was well up by 06:30 but there was still fog and mist about when I slipped out of the ancient stone Jamaica Inn, and took a narrow road to the south across the moor. I passed two cottages; one called Mayflower, which sounded reassuring and the other Pendragon, which didn’t. It was appropriate however as the object of my quest was the stuff of Arthurian legend. The road was flanked by banks on each side, about head high and consisting of inner stone walls heavily overgrown with grasses and blackberries.
A few minutes on my way I spied an animal sitting on the road about one hundred yards ahead. I couldn’t identify it because of some fog but I thought it might be a large dog. That caused me to hesitate because I have heard that the English are fond of keeping hounds and mastiffs, which are reputed to latch onto you with their jaws and never let go. Also it was possible that I might not be very far from Baskerville Hall. peering into the mist, I could not see whether animal had red eyes or a phosphorescent maw. I wished I had a stout staff, like Little John used to carry, but I was armed only with a camera. I wondered if I could beat the animal off with my camera but it slunk off into the hedgerow.
The moor is composed of grazing land, with pasture in parts, divided by hedgerows. The higher parts are unfenced with rough tussock grass. The banks on each side of the road became lower. I came to a cattle grid across the road. Animals and horse dawn vehicles could pass by a gate at the side. No sooner had I crossed the grid than a herd of cows came thundering up. They seemed interested, rather than threatening, but I looked at them nervously, wondering if there was a bull. There was a bull, a big black one.
The bull eyed me suspiciously, wondering perhaps if I had nefarious designs on his cows. I looked about. The banks on each side of the road had now disappeared. I was standing on the moor, devoid of any helpful cover, except a blackberry bush. The herd of about thirty cows and one bull was only ten yards away. I edged toward the bush. To my relief, after a brief standoff, the cows galloped away!
But my brush with the cows was not over yet. A few minutes later they circled back into the road and confronted me, blocking my onward path. Again they charged off, but maintained a wary watch at a distance.
I discovered a body on the moor. In this case it was dead rabbit on the road. There were no apparent wounds and no blood. One close inspection I thought that the head looked a bit flattened. I decided it had likely been run over by a car, probably not long before my discovery.
Finally the cows made their last stand, gathering in the road in front of me and
obscuring the way forward. It seemed as though the cattle had been placed by Morgan le Fay to frustrate my quest.
During the standoff, I noticed one of the cows humping the bull! Unusual behavior for a cow I decided and took another look. The cows were all young steers! That likely explained their playful behaviour and the reason why the bull was not aggressive. I supposed that the steers had been born to milking cows. After weaning they had been put out on the moor to fatten up and keep the bull company.
The steers finally moved off and then way lay clear. A short rough track along a hedgerow to the left brought me to a wooden gate on the right. Though the gate and down a slope to the shore of Drozmary pool, a near circular natural lake with gently sloping grassy edges about five hundred yards in diameter. It is one of a few sites where the legendary Lady of the Lake may have received the sword Excalibur, at the death of King Arthur.
The lake was still smoking with the early morning mist. I tried to imagine the scene;
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45325/idylls-of-the-king-the-passing-of-arthur
By now the sun had risen further and the day was warming. The fog on the moor was gone and also the cattle herd. I made my weary way back along the road. Nothing much happened apart from one event. Passing by the site where the animal had appeared on the road, I looked to the left and noticed a man in the field walking with a Labrador dog. The dog leaped into a hedgerow and disappeared. Perhaps the ghostly animal now revealed.
The tiny hamlet of Bolventnor lies near the middle of the Bodmin Moor in central Cornwall. It consists of a few stone buildings, principally those of the Jamaica Inn, a seventeenth century staging house, made famous by Daphne du Maurier in her novel of the same name. It is just off the A30 which leads at its furthest end to Lands End at the south western tip of England.
151
That is lovely to read Peter C. It’s very poetic too, about a beautiful part of England.
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and the Highway Man came riding, riding, ……
10
Hi Peter,
I’m envious.
Have read Thomas Malorys Le Morte D’Arthur a couple of times.
Someday I hope to look around Britain, perhaps when global warming makes the weather there a bit more bearable.
KK
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You should have been there this summer KK! Good ones don’t happen every year.
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Dozmary pool, not Drozmary, in sight of Brown Willy and Rough Tor the two highest hills in Cornwall and all thrèe on Bodmin moor.
A beautiful place where as a boy I caught tiny wild Brown trout at the foot of Brown Willy.
But not as beautiful as Watergate Bay on the north Cornish coast where I lived as a child. More than a mile of golden sand with the Atlantic rollers crashing against the granite cliffs.
Visit the coast between Newquay and Padstow, with the hot weather and brilliant sun we have at present, it is to me the most beautiful coastline, beaches and ocean on earth.
Enjoy this magical county, but don’t worry about the hound of the Baskerville, I think you will find that was Dartmoor not Bodmin moor.
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Dozmary, yes my mistake.
The Hound of the Baskerville’s was set in Dartmoor as you say. However that is not so far away from Bodmin moor. I am sure the fearsome hound could easily travel the distance in no time once it was off the leash.
30
The moors can be quite spooky at times. Dartmoor has a very different atmosphere from the Yorkshire Moors.
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Oh the moor!
‘Dickon began to push the wheeled chair slowly and steadily.
Mistress Mary walked beside it and Colin leaned back and lifted
his face to the sky. The arch of it looked very high and the
small snowy clouds seemed like white birds floating on outspread
wings below its crystal blueness. The wind swept in soft big
breaths down from the moor and was strange with a wild clear
scented sweetness. Colin kept lifting his thin chest to draw
it in, and his big eyes looked as if it were they which were
listening—listening, instead of his ears.
“There are so many sounds of singing and humming and calling
out,” he said. “What is that scent the puffs of wind bring?”
“It’s gorse on th’ moor that’s openin’ out,” answered Dickon.
“Eh! Th’ bees are at it wonderful today.”
(Frances Hodgson Burnett, ‘The Secret Garden.’)
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I enjoyed that little adventure Peter C.
As a walker I love to hear the tales.
I can recommend Robert Macfarlane’s “The Old Ways” as a beautifully written, evocative read, covering so many of the UK’s walking trails (and some of those abroad to boot).
30
How anyone could give your comment a “red thumb” is beyond rational explanation. All that’s left is that some irrational nobody just doesn’t like you.
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Minus 5.2 degrees @ 3.20 am. 7 km/h breeze, feels like minus 8.5.
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Just spent some time on a Cornish beach with my family, crabbing with my grandson , building sand castles , swimming in the sea , beautiful day ,but there’s one that couldn’t be with us , a twenty month old granddaughter that died last year , at first we thought she died a natural death , but now we know it was murder. What I need to know from this blog is why your prepared to accept that g!obal warming is a new faith that you can question using your logic and reason and critical thinking skills to denounce it , and yet when it comes to your own faith you turn a blind eye
56
Global Warming was and still is presented as Science. The Green House Gas Effect was claimed to be a scientific fact!
It is appropriate to argue about matters of science using rational thought and logic. But the warmists are unpertubed because it is a matter of faith with them. That is why we say it is a warmists religion.
A religious belief can and must be held separate from scientific enquiry. Religion means faith in the unknown or unknowable. Epicurus made some pertinent arguments against the existence of God centuries before the birth of Christ which are still relevant today, but no one took any notice.
I have seen some beautiful Cornish beaches over the past two days. It would would be great to spend time there with family. I am sorry to hear about your personal loss.
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Science is the search for truth and sometimes truth is inconvenient.
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In all fields of science over the centuries the search for truth has always been inconvenient. The reasons are varied and include the fact that the scientific majority at the time are reluctant to change for fear of ridicule, embarrassment, loss of job, etc.. Eventually though the truth becomes too strong to be ignored and the majority turn into the minority, and a new majority rises to the occasion, which itself more often than not is not the truth but somewhat closer to the truth. For example even today people are debating whether even Eistien’s theories are 100% accurate even though they have been shown to be more accurate than Newton’s theories. The first change has yet to happen with the so called consensus of AGW among the majority of scientists, which has to include those who are silent because they are fearful of losing their jobs if they openly spoke their mind on the topic.
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You might think the truth is wanted even if inconvenient. We call that honesty. But sometimes it would seem that the truth isn’t wanted even if inconvenient but instead someone wants a falsehood substituted in place of it. We call that politics in this year of our lord 2018.
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To paraphrase Karl Popper, a theory can stand until a better one comes along.
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Dozmary, yes my mistake.
Also the Jamaica Inn was completed about 1765, to correct another small error..
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DD please clarify without repairing to implication and generalisation?
Science provides a systematic method by which to engage and understand our surrounding World. It begins with accurate observation, which is one reason why data tampering, adjusting, modelling (inventing), adjusting, erasing, adjusting, cherry picking, adjusting, without complete declared transparency are regarded so poorly (kiss of death). There are other reasons like integrity and replicability but I’m sure that you get the point.
Gathering sufficient objective data (facts) by empirical observation permits one to use these to formulate theories and laws about the phenomena being observed (inductive reasoning). Theories and laws may then be used to make predictions and provide explanations (deductive reasoning).
At any time subsequent observations or events, may bring into question the theory or law, causing it to be discarded, refined or affirmed.
As far as global warming is concerned, it is a ship of fools with so many holes it should never have sailed. That it did sail with politics and ideology at the helm will bring enduring discredit to both for subverting human progress, prosperity, well being and science.
Faith is unfalsifiable. It simply ‘is’. Faith is subjective and personal. In fact, one begs one’s faith is never put to the test. In this respect at least, it is the opposite of science. It is also useful and important to survival. It may provide transcendence, support, comfort and hope. That is a separate discussion.
I cannot imagine your personal distress and grief. Please accept my deepest condolences.
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One has to make the distinction between blind faith and true faith. I have true faith that the blind faith of CAGW will be one day be officially denounced by the majority of scientists, just as many other scientific theories sin the past that were accepted by the majority were perpetually discarded. I have true faith that a falsehood can’t last forever.
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PeterS, I declare the distinction a moot point, while I acknowledge the point and indeed, the distinction.
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Latus, I agree. I once came across a discussion between two people–one religious, the other not. The religious person was trying to prove by scientific reasoning that his beliefs were true. The non-religious person responded: “Trying to prove a religious belief using science is not only bad science, it’s bad faith. By its very nature, faith is the belief in something that cannot be proven to be true or untrue.”
30
Again? Simply put Dave, not everyone sees the world through the black and white prism you seem to. Not everyone needs to apply there own standards and percieved logic on others.
I am an atheist but have no trouble accepting that intelligent people, with great logical thinking skills have a belief in a God of some kind. Doesnt impact me one little bit. Puzzling why you keep coming back to flog a long dead horse.
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Consider Dave that many people of no faith accept the taking of a human life before and even after birth without a second thought compared to those that do.
I have no beliefs but gladly belong to the latter on this subject, people are different.
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People do question it Dave but it is a very personal thing.
I am very sorry indeed to hear of your dreadful loss; I can’t begin to imagine what it is like.
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how tough Croatia? http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/07/poise.html
00
how ’bout: http://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-cooperative-system-is-sole-salvation.html
01
“Oceans of propaganda”
“The World Wildlife Fund and Ocean Conservancy both provided ebullient quotes for Starbucks’ press releases. Liberal magazine The New Republic praised the move as an “environmental milestone.” Slate hailed the Starbucks straw ban as evidence of as a victory for a bona fide anti-straw movement, one that would hopefully lead to bans of more things plastic in years to come.
Yet missing from this fanfare was the inconvenient fact that by ditching plastic straws, Starbucks will actually be increasing its plastic use. As it turns out, the new nitro lids that Starbucks is leaning on to replace straws are made up of more plastic than the company’s current lid/straw combination.”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/07/13/oceans-of-propaganda-2/
Similar to what Ireland found when they did their plastic bag thing in the early 2000’s IIRC
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Do you remember that computers were supposed to save on the use of paper?!
81
Paper is such a wondrous invention, it’s hard to believe how far we’ve come. Stone-age Man’s computers used to use rock walls and Egyptian ones used papyrus. These days we use reams of Silicon.
50
That rocks.
50
Scissors.
00
From, rock to paper and back to rock (silicon comes from rock)
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And emails were going to save us time!
30
ROFL!
11
The less intelligent among us will always kowtow to fads. This day and age, with the seemingly increasing scourge of the fanatical hand-waving SJW’s and their “look at moi” narcissism just to be part of the “in” crowd, it wouldn’t surprise me if THEY were largely the ones shamelessly dropping their plastic straws in places where they can cause the eco-damage they constantly wail about.
If birds of a feather flock together, those on the Left have similar qualities that allow them to do so, such as a complete lack of honesty, remorse, empathy, gratitude and intelligence. They’re more concerned with “having” than “being” and, as bookface and sh1tter proves, are more concerned about how many “likes” they get and digital “friends” they have that they’ve never met than anything their forbears have created for them.
Ugh.. Just thinking about them gives me goose bumps.
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It’s been demonstrated several times, I think it was WUWT, that those who are the most rabid environmentalists, are also the ones who waste and destroy the most.
The conclusion on those threads was that they absolves themselves for a little indiscretion because they do and support other green initiatives; not realizing that those initiatives are on paper only, like carbon credits, and do nothing to save anything.
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The Gleick-ish “noble cause corruption” comes to mind.
40
Greg
The Con-Conservationists
10
Another Ian,
Thank you for not using the Grasping at straws metaphor.
40
The camels are happy too.
20
Just on principle, I bought a couple of bags of plastic straws!
11
C’mon red thumbers! Do your worst…how many can I clock up here?
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That’s the last straw Annie…….almost.
50
Further to the Trump and CNN headlines
“CNN and MSNBC Beaten in Ratings by Children’s Cartoons”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/07/13/your-moral-and-intellectual-superiors-28/#comments
And comments
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“A Hate Trump Poll Goes Horribly Wrong”
“68% I like Trump a lot”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/07/13/a-hate-trump-poll-goes-horribly-wrong/
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🙂
30
Wonderful! 🙂
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Annie, Peter, in a word…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu1adxqUAg
20
“
”
And i wonder how many of them would let their daughters go on a date with him??
11
How about letting your daughter go on a date with Hillary Clinton?
20
No prob whatsoever. Less chance of uninvited pussy grappling at least.
11
You’ve seen this???
00
Does this happen to you?
When I go to Google, recommended news items appear. I find there are huge numbers of propaganda articles from RenewEconomy espousing how wonderful windmills and solar are and how renewables are so cheap coal cannot possibly compete etc..
Who is behind this?
90
Get this a lot when using Google search, use DuckDuckgo or Bing and get more specific results, to find out who’s behind this I suggest don’t use Google……or maybe that’s what they expect you to do?
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Found this interesting article on SERPS, Definition: Search Engine Results Page, SERP: THE 2018 GUIDE TO GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
Covers a lot, organic vs paid is interesting, oh I used DuckDuckGo to find it…….in your face Google.
40
Here’s info about who owns and runs RenewEconomy from
their own website, at least that’s what they want you to think…
It seems a very influential site read by policy makers with a view to promoting expensive unreliable energy.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/about/
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Giles Parkinson owner, journalist, appears to be involved with every pro Renewable/CAGW outlet in Aus https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Giles+Parkinson%2C+a+journalist+&t=h_&ia=web
Sophie Vorrath has a similar MO https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+Sophie+Vorrath+&t=h_&ia=twitter
David Leitch is an interesting character, https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-leitch-b18a7624
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I had an interesting run in with Giles Parkinson where he deleted one of my posts that identified the hopeless plight of grid storage in Australia. The post was reinstated after I pointed out one of the other posters made reference to a comment I had in that post. My post was eventually reinstated but it was out of sequence.
Right now the ACCC is the new enemy of reneweconomy.
Reneweconomy gives insight into the deep seated belief that ambient power sources are the lowest cost option.
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I sometimes use Bing when I’m looking for pictures of steam locomotives or airplanes. Sometimes other searches too. Last night Norton Internet Security was giving me a warning over and over that it blocked a virus from Bing’s access to the particular photo I was looking at. You can’t be too careful. But it’s pretty bad when the browser is hacked. This morning that same search gave me no more warnings.
Was someone at Microsoft modifying code? Or what? It was only about 8:00 PM local time when it happened, same time zone as Microsoft so I doubt they were fiddling with it at that time of evening when usage would be heavy.
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When I go to Google, I just get the banner and the search entry field. No adds, no news, no articles.
I don’t know how you get those at all honestly. Can you give a link to the Google you use?
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Yonnie
One suggestion I’ve heard is to use the googler to find DuckDuckGo and THEN use it.
Sort of a computer two fingers gesture.
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Google bias: “Since our search results reflect content and opinions that are already published on the web, in some instances they may surface content that contains biases, negative societal attitudes and practices, or offensive material. We are constantly working to prevent poor quality or irrelevant content rising in your search results.”
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After the discovery of UN-IPCC using non-peer-reviewed literature, there was this:
2010: Sunday Times retracts and apologizes for shameful and bogus Amazon story smearing IPCC
https://thinkprogress.org/sunday-times-retracts-and-apologizes-for-shameful-and-bogus-amazon-story-smearing-ipcc-c309d1ff326a/
“The article “UN climate panel shamed by bogus rainforest claim” (News, Jan 31) stated that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had included an “unsubstantiated claim” that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could be sensitive to future changes in rainfall.
Exclusive comments from Prof. Simon Lewis whose official complaint led to this too-rare victory of science over disinformation.”
So. How did the science of IPCC 2007 fare?
You be the judge:
Best Time of Year to Travel to the Amazon
https://www.adventure-life.com/amazon/articles/best-time-of-year-to-travel-to-the-amazon
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I’d say that’s a no-brainer, just like my body’s stench could also be sensitive to future changes in bathing. But the former can’t happen while there’s a rainforest or until tectonics steps in to move the continent into a planetary arid zone.
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Some people are of the view that dinosaurs still live in the remote jungles of Cameroon and the natives have a tradition that such animals exist. Lots of people have gone looking for them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokele-mbembe
https://youtu.be/LjSdKaDv7P4
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“They Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors”
” Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government is cancelling 758 renewable energy contracts, in what it says is an effort to reduce electricity bills in the province. […]
“For 15 years, Ontario families and businesses have been forced to pay inflated hydro prices so the government could spend on unnecessary and expensive energy schemes,” Rickford said. “Those days are over.”
They don’t need no flaming sparky cars, either.”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/07/14/ford-country-4/
Reminder on that election
“What is the similarity between the Ontario Liberal party and a Dodge Caravan? 7 seats”.
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Let’s hope a similar trend begins here soon. At the moment we are all waiting for the details of the NEG to see if it has the makings of the turning point we are all looking for or not. If it is and worded correctly is should spell the end of any new renewables project once it’s enacted. If it’s not then we are in for a lot more pain (ie, higher power prices, etc.) in spite of what Turnbull and his comrades claim. Turnbull’s and hence the LNP’s credibility is on the line now. It’s all up to him to make the choice which way it will go. If he goes the wrong way I hope it leads to a decimation of the LNP at the next election so that a new party can come out of the ashes.
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Thanks to President Trump, the scam is over.
Trump tells the Germans they are captive to the Russians for their energy whilst the Germans turn theirs into useless renewables.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbUp60CYkDE
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Trump is a breath of fresh air into the malignant growth that is the Common Market/European Community/European Union each with their own city, their own parliament and their own massively over privileged staff. Fake democracies run by the same old masters, Germany and France and parked in Belgium, the first place invaded in any war.
Now they want an army to fight the Russians. The Russians need an army to defend against their traditional enemies, France and Germany. Meanwhile Germany runs on Russian gas and oil, as ever. I didn’t see any German tourists in Stalingrad/Volgograd.
Trump is shaking them all up while at home the Democrats insist the Russians changed the result of the election by releasing valid stories from Hillary’s hacked emails. It is an odd time when the truth should never be allowed to surface in an election and affect voting. The Democrats will never accept that ordinary Americans do not want to be ruled by the elites of Washington and the puffed up moralists of Hollywood.
Weinstein is taking them on too, in his own way. He freely admits he offered roles for s*x. Ha! Now his accusers have to address their own double standards. No one knew about the casting couch, it seems. I remember George Burns who said he was so old, he knew Debbie Reynolds before she became a virgin.
Now Trump is in Scotland and the British have to admit he is actually British, not a creature from the black lagoon. Melania is as middle European as is possible. An amusing situation. Maybe they will enjoy the wind farms covering the pristine landscape, a sign of absurdity given so much of Europe’s energy comes from Russia.
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I would add that for the NEG to be worth more than the paper it will be written on it must remove the current situation where renewables are propped up financially and in effect force AGL to reverse their decision to close down Liddell. If that does not happen as a result of the NEG then it will prove that the NEG is totally useless and Turnbull will be exposed once again he is not fit to be PM and must lose the next election as punishment for him and his party for backing him. If we are to go over the cliff then let’s to it in style with the ALP.
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The NEG won’t go to the States unless new coal fired plants are in the mix, the NATs will walk away from the Coalition if they don’t get their way.
‘Andrew Gee warned he would not support the separate National Energy Guarantee – which will require energy retailers to meet reliability standards and emissions reductions targets – if the government did not implement the ACCC’s recommendations.
“We have some major power users in central western NSW, which collectively employ thousands of people, and without the Australian government guaranteeing baseload power there is a real risk of investors walking away from them in the longer term,” he said.
Fin Review
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That would be a disaster. The NEG should be technology agnostic as Turnbull promised. If it’s not then the NEG will die before even the ink dries on the paper it’s printed. The only way is for the NEG to be structured such that all incentives for renewables are eliminated immediately it’s enacted, which would given them plenty of time since it’s likely it won’t be approved until after the election assuming the public are awake enough by then to give the LNP the mandate.
If the NEG contains certain incentives for coal fired power stations and leaves the renewables untouched we would have achieved nothing other than a greater mess than we already have. If it contains the former and removes the reneweables incentives then ALP+Greens state and federal will block it without hesitation. Either way it will be much harder for Turnbull to win the next election since the people would see it either as a shambles or going too far the other way. Of course that could be his plan – lose the election and allow the ALP+Greens to continue with the renewables and CAGW scam.
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Its straight forward, the government seeks tenders for three new coal fired power stations to be up an running within three years.
If Frydenberg goes to the States and Territories with this new NEG then it will be rejected. What do you think will happen then?
11
They also stated that the NEG is meant to be a reset for the energy market, which goes contrary to the other messages from Turnbull and others. The more I look at it the more likley the NEG will be a dog’s breakfast, which is not surprising of course. Still I prefer to reserve final judgement until after we’ve seen the details.
30
Also if those coal fired power stations do end up being built while the renewables are still supported with incentives, RET schemes and the like then all that will happen is power prices will continue to rise albeit at a slower rate. We need power prices to fall dramatically. The only way that will happen is if all incentives for renewables are taken out of the market.
50
You see by keeping incentives all the new coal fired power companies will do is take advantage of the situation and cream off more money from the consumers, just as the existing ones are doing in Queensland. We need a reset. The only way to do that is to remove all incentives for renewables. Anything else is just a dog’s breakfast leaving open to further manipulation by power companies.
30
From memory Morrison said incentives will end by 2020, which gives the power companies the opportunity to squeeze the consumers until then.
It will take time to turn around, forward contracts agreed upon in a free market, so I don’t see much immediate change in that direction by this government.
The best way forward is for the ginger group to threaten the PM with a collapse of the Coalition. We want three new Hele and a revamp of Hazelwood and Liddell, a clear slap in the face for the pseudo Marxists and their running dogs (Fairfax, ABC and Guardian) and a fierce debate should begin.
On Insiders this morning Barry did his best to get Canavan to say something controversial, but he kept his cards close to his chest. Patience and perseverance is required.
20
There is some new Japaese researched and developed coal based generating technology only a few years ahead.
Commercialisation in Japan is predicted by about 2023.
From “Nikkie Asian Review”
Japanese technology squeezes more power out of coal
In another earlier press announcement it was mentioned that a number of international visitors including Australians had visited the plant to have a look at the technology!
Now Who from Australia would be very intersted in this new Japanese developed coal burning technoloy?
Would it be industry and / or would it be a political or bureacrats or researchers who want to know what the alternatives for the future generation of power might be.
It would likely tell us a lot about where we might be going as a nation with the natural gift of huge coal deposits if we knew who those Australian visitors to that japanese plant were known.
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ROM now holds the record for the longest comment (IMO)
00
Another Ian @ # 11.2.1.1.3
Are you suggesting I should take up hot air ballooning sans the gas fired heater and give away the gliding instead ?
Both are hot air dependent!
🙂
10
Now I know why there is a ‘no fly’ zone over Parliament House.
Imagine how many Australians would get their ‘Diamond Height’ badge!
Probably even do it in a Blanik, or even a Kookaburra.
Tony.
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ROM, actually CSIRO developed a clean coal technology a very long time ago but the government (ALP) ignored it. They also developed an ultra clean coal that can be directly injected into gas turbines for better results than a conventional coal-fired system. Again nothing came of it. CSIRO did have the expertise for all this type of research but of course not long ago it decided not to pursue it once they boarded to CAGW bandwagon. It would not surprise me to see Japan take on where CSIRO left off a couple or so decades ago.
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TonyfromOz @ # 11.2.1.1.5
Judging from the onrunning comments to be found around here the appearance of a mushroom cloud over Canberra would be greeted with some satisfaction particularly if occurred when Parliament was sitting
&
Hmmm! Another very switched on gentleman who is exRAAF but despite that handicap certainly knows his gliders from way back which makes me think he can posssibly fly one very well indeed.
——-
T31, Kooka short wing, Blaniks, Twin Astir, self launching Janus plus well over 60 or 70 other single and two seats types here.
I used to do the test pilot bit for any repaired and heavy maintence Gliders for our then long time local fibre glass glider repair man based here at Horsham , now based at Ballarat.
Only got rudder flutter, low frequency thankfully, once from a Diamant which sort of got my very intense interest at the time as there was nothing I did stopped it until I got the whole bucket of bolts slowed right down.
The whole damn thing was weaving wave like from side to side with my feet up front moving about 15 centimetres side to side.
Damned if I know how much the long bit at the back was waving around.
20
PeterS @ # 11 ——
Maybe that explains the quite specific mention of Australians in the press release based article I read some months ago.
Perhaps a CSIRO current or Ex employee who might be passing on the CSIRO’s findings to help the Japs get things under way with this highly efficient Japanese Coal burning development.
10
For a real challenge, shut down & gain a diamond in my tri-pacer….glide ratio of, oh, say, a lump of coal. That would be a true test of hot air — tho I did gain a little once without power in a thermal near Colorado springs. Didn’t realize so many pilots favored the site…independent types one might suppose. Blue skies.
10
I tried to go gliding a couple of times; once in England and once in Cyprus. Each time, as it came to my turn, the equipment broke down. I decided that time was too precious to spend hanging around airfields to no purpose so took up dinghy sailing instead. I would like to have learnt to fly though. I was very pleased that one son was dead set on flying from a very early age and he is now an A380 captain and loves it.
00
We in the US often are unaware how difficult it is to get into the air for fun in most parts of the world. One can fly here with a 15 minute drive, pop in, & go; no filing, no fees, no fuss (48X if anyone is curious). I think the affinity with small boats is a near universal tho, and in most of the world access to them is still free. I worry now, that we brand ourselves as old-fashioned if we insist on the real thing rather than a quick virtual experience.
10
When I got my diamond height in oct 1968, the Australian height record stood at around 32,000 feet .
A Swedish national /cum Australian had got a bit too brave and entered the bottom of a cloud in the region around central australian town of Alice Springs.
Well that itty bitty thunderstorm cloud took him to an unntended 32,000 feet before it spat him out of the side all but unconscious from the lack of O2.
Fortunately he had his sealed height recording instrument operating , a barograph which traced a record of heights on a smoked foil back in those days so he could claim the Austtralian record.
The gliding types were all young and brave back then but our guardian angels were very fit and could keep up with most of us which is why I think we survived.
10
Followed a link at Bishop Hill (unthreaded) to coverage of this story. For no obvious reason, the phrase “is a proven job creator” struck me. It’s an odd way to describe a benefit, isn’t it? A job is worthless unless it’s productive. If all you want is jobs, just arm some people with hammers and pay them to smash windows. Then pay other people to repair the damage. Lots of new jobs.
The way “renewable” energy pays for the jobs it creates (milking subsidies, etc.) is much the same as the window smashing economy.
40
I would rather give them picks and get them to work in a quarry, perhaps building a pyramid.
30
A council worker leaning on a shovel is a job creator, if you consider either of them as productively employed. Grabbermint’s mandate is always to look busy and worthwhile, so they always spout job creation. Sure there are plenty of jobs in renewables, but as you point out they’re not that productive. What ultimately flows from the renewables folly are more jobs created to fix it, more grabberint jobs created to regulate it and on it goes.
Government does things like this:
Silly idea
Build it to regulate it
Country says: Waaa! What a waste!
Leave it in place
Next silly idea
Etc.
The Health and Safety industry is similar. These are Special People of assumed authority, paid to create their own job looking for things that might go wrong, maybe, harass and write-up people that might do something wrong, maybe, push that paper around the system for justification of their existence and costliness, change the rules occasionally (or change them back again), always because “what if a small child..” and never take responsibility if anything actually does go wrong.
Hear that OHS/WHS or whatever alphabet kool-aid you are this week? I like to be “saaaafe” at work but I don’t need a nanny hiding around corners ready to pounce the moment I’m not walking exactly in the middle of a painted yellow walkway, which in most places you have ensured is the longest way around. It might help to take the price tags off your constantly brand new bright yellow garb and get some dirt on it too.
I feel better now. Back to our regular entertainment..
20
Some Council workers arrived at their first job for the day, looked through the music collection in the back of the truck and found they had forgotten to bring their shovels. The foreman phoned the engineer back at base and explained,then asked what they could do without heir shovels. The engineer replied “Then you had better lean on each other. ” Geoff
20
A Council worker breast feeding a shovel….
00
Don’t forget the Dylan Thomas view – “A job is death without dignity” as opposed to real work.
10
The farmer was driving down a local road when he saw the two council workers working along the road side so he stopped to find out what they doing out there.
As he walked over to them he saw the guy in front was dogging small holes.
The guy coming along behind him was filling the holes in again.
The farmer asked “why are you are digging those holes and then filling them in again?
“We’re planting trees” replied one of the council workers.
“But where’s the trees”? the now very puzzled farmer asks.
Ah! says one of the Council workers, Jack there digs the holes and I come along behind and fill them in.
Mick, he’s the guy who plants the trees is crook and he couldn’t come to work today.
20
The Integrated System Plan that AEMO was to deliver mid 2018 must now be regarded as overdue. I expect the NEG and the ACCC report will need to be considered within the ISP otherwise the ISP will be a waste of time and effort.
The NEG should create the situation where intermittent ambients tied to hydro and gas are competing with coal on price. I think coal is the easy winner there for any new generation. But there is already enough hydro and gas to balance the existing level of intermittents. It would be a smart move to halt the construction of any new grid scale wind and solar. Take a decade or two to see how the current lot of ambient generators survives in the test of time.
30
As I said earlier the NEG has to in effect force AGL to reverse it’s decision to close Liddell. AGL should then either sell it off to someone who will keep it open or upgrade where necessary to keep it going for much longer. If that simple change of plan does not come about form the NEG then it’s a complete waste of time. In effect what AGL finally does will be the litmus test for the NEG. Nothing else can be any clearer.
30
AGL is a private company and cannot be forced to sell Liddell, have you heard of sovereign risk?
On grounds of national security the government could send in troops to keep the plant operating after 2022, similar to Chifley sending the troops down the mine. That is someway off, but if they don’t agree to sell then this will be an option.
Most likely the guvmint will just build a new Hele next door and force AGL to reconsider the future.
10
You misunderstood. I said in effect force them to do so. I was talking about market forces not actual force by legislation or law. To be clear what I mean if the support for renewables is removed, meaning RET schemes and the like eliminated then companies will no longer have a financial incentive to move away from coal. You follow?
20
Yeah, thanx for clearing that up and I agree the free market would operate more efficiently by removing incentives for renewables, but that won’t happen anytime soon.
Anyway I can’t wait, we want a fight and I want it now.
This is the debate we have to have and it involves climate change, remember the ability of a harmless trace gas to cause global warming has been debunked.
10
Andy Vesey epitomises the ugly face of American capitalism, on $6.9 million a year he is laughing all the way to the bank.
This couldn’t happen in China, where they are experimenting with a new form of capitalism. State owned enterprises (SOE) would be more than competitive to restrict rapacious greed. How many clowns here have shares in AGL.
Liddell was owned by the people of NSW, prices remained stable for decades, then Premier Gladys gave it away to AGL for a peppercorn and prices went through the roof. Its a disgrace.
41
Electricity prices came down in NSW from the 50 to 80s primarily due to economy of scale. Prices were starting to rise in the early eighties as Elcom became bloated and the unions flexed their industry power. Prices came down again in the nineties due to Keating’s Industry Commission and maybe the recession we had to have that put a blowtorch on the bloated Elcom organisation that eventually resulted in Elcom’s corporatisation and a step removed from direct State fiddling.
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1040619013000870-gr13.jpg
The national grid followed the Industry Commission report and that added further scale and more competition. This contributed to falling prices through the 90s and naughties till the intermittents were heavily promoted by Rudd.
40
Thanks Rick, that pretty much covers it.
I’ll put this two minute Insiders vid to illustrate the current political debate.
http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/politics-of-power/9995586
20
That clip mentions “market failure” many times. It is not market failure it is government fiddling in a vain attempt to change the weather. It took a lot of effort in the 1990s to lever the power industry away from State fiddling but Rudd managed to undo all that effort in 2009 with a dramatically increased RET.
At the very end Turnbull states “the test — the only test – is, will it reduce energy prices”. It appears that Finkel’s “energy trifecta” is dead with “price” the “only” factor that matters.
It annoys me that the ACCC has not recommended abolishing the LRET. There is still potential for grid scale intermittents to withhold LGCs to control the price. With no prospect of the RET being increased in the current investment horizon they have incentive to make the most from their existing investment.
Thinking how the NEG may operate it is reasonable to believe that rooftop solar will be the priority generator because retailers are obliged to take it and will count that towards any RET target. Once a wind generator has achieved its contracted level of supply they may as well shut up shop for the assessment period nominated in the contract. That means rooftop solar will have better access to market than grid scale wind and solar but the latter will enjoy the benefit of the LGCs sale for any generation till 2030.
20
With an election coming ‘price point’ is everything, an escape hatch for Turnbull and his motley crew to embrace coal. The green/left zealots will be horrified and become very angry.
You have a good handle on all this, I accept your judgement.
01
Telstra had its Sol Trujillo. I guess the AEMO and AGL are looking for theirs.
10
I have not noticed that annoying AGL television advertisement being broadcast for a while, renewable energy transition propaganda and the annoying actor asking “are you with us?”.
Could it be that AGL Directors and Shareholders are becoming nervous?
60
I hope so but it remains to be seen what the NEG will turn out. If it’s just another smoke screen then AGL will continue with their current plans to close down Liddell. Let’s wait and see.
30
National Energy Giantsmokescreen.
20
Still a few of those annoying AGL ads on Foxtel. In one of them, the dude is out hiking with his family, enjoying the scenery, which ironically will be covered in windmills for nobody to enjoy.
50
We discussed the accounts for the two windmill Hepburn Wind subsidy farm here:
http://joannenova.com.au/2018/07/midweek-unthreaded-30/#comment-2019828
Effectively, taking into account runnings costs the only real money they make is from sales of renewables certificates and tax credits.
It would be an interesting exercise to do the same analysis on the large wind and solar subsidy farms.
71
I believe that there would be no investment into wind turbine based businesses without the subsidies, the tax concessions are of course available to any taxpayer for expenses incurred in producing income/profit.
The business plans would calculate the period over which the assets could be written off completely.
61
I expect market access is the key requirement. With gas setting the wholesale price, grid scale wind and solar can make a living. What would kill the economics is pricing the cost of new buffering for the intermittents. The only economic source of buffering is existing hydro and gas generators.
The retailers will need contracts with intermittents to get the nominated ambient production plus have contracts with dispatchable to guarantee supply.
So any new grid scale intermittent will need a matching source of dispatchable power for buffering. That will need to come from existing gas or hydro that is not already allocated to the existing wind and solar. If wind just continues to grow capacity, it will find no one will pay for output because it will need to contract its output and that cannot be done without matching dispatchable. Once the NEG is operational we should see intermittents having income capped because they cannot contract for the power produced.
Of course the cap will depend on the prescribed RET at any point in time. It appears the 2020 RET will be met so there will be pressure from ambient generator project proponents to get that increased. In any case with current LRET program destined to expire in 2030, that is already limiting the payback period and any current projects would need to be justified without the cross-subsidy. However they will need a healthy wholesale/contract price and guaranteed market access to make a new project viable and I think that those guarantees are now questionable until details of the NEG are in place.
00
2014 Set for Record Hot; Record Cold Thing of the Past
“The globe continues to warm just as climate models have long-predicted,” climate scientist Michael Mann, of Penn State, said in an email.
The steady uptick in warming, even with a relative slowdown in recent decades, means that the likelihood of seeing a record cold year in the future is, according to a quick calculation by Mann, “astronomically small.”
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2014-set-for-record-hot-record-cold-thing-of-the-past-18360
2018: “World-renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann explains why the bitter cold and snowy conditions gripping the US are “an example of precisely the sort of extreme winter weather we expect because of climate change.”
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/perfect-storm-extreme-winter-weather-bitter-cold-and-climate-change
So, “astronomically small” thing of the past is what to expect in the future, which is here, now. Or was, or will be … or something …
Got it.
131
I am not supporting Tony Abbott.
He has just said the Australian government will have to increase military spending above the current level of 2% of gross domestic product, expand its Navy and Air Force.
Currently the price tag is about $35 billion per year or equivalently about $95 million per day.
Other countries spend a lot less, like Germany (1.2%) Spain (1.2%) Belgium (0.9%) Indonesia (0.8%).
We should be giving tax cuts to our companies so they can be internationally competitive,
not spending billions more on defence.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/tony-abbott-trump-s-right-allies-are-freeloading-off-us-defence-20180712-p4zqy0.html
18
Strong Defence And National Security
To prepare for threats to our national security, this Budget delivers defence funding of $19.6 billion – and increase of 37% in real terms since 1996/96.
A commitment to a real funding increase of 3% every year for the next decade …..
Howard Coalition Government Budget 2006 announcement.
60
At the moment it is about 2% (of GDP) on defence.
This target enjoys bipartisan support in Canberra.
China spends 1.9%
Abbott wants to spend a lot more.
https://www.afr.com/news/policy/defence/will-australias-defence-budget-magic-number-stand-the-test-20180503-h0zkuz
31
Abbott is wrong, 2% is fine when you consider that within a year our biggest trading partner will be on equal footing with US sea power.
The Alliance is dead in the water and there is no value in spending beyond what we already pay.
Over at wuwt I got into an argument with an American who said the US won’t come to Australia’s aid if we don’t spend more and become a real deputy sheriff in the South Pacific. I thank him for his interest and said I’ll pass it on.
20
The USA, Russia and Israel have large weapons manufacturing industries and face more direct threats.
It makes a bit more sense for them to spend on defense.
When they spend it employs their own citizens.
When we spend on weapons, we mainly import from places like the USA.
10
The Alliance leader demands we buy their F-35 lemon, with an all up cost of $19 billion, pathetic old world thinking.
The money would be better spent building six new coal fired power stations.
30
Wow !
For a moment there i thought you were going to say.
“The money would be better spent on building six new coal fired SUBMARINES !! “. 🙂
30
That’s why Trump is asking allies to spend a lot more on defense.
The US is the largest exporter of arms in the world (34% of total) and its third largest client is Australia (6.7% of all sales).
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/top-countries-exporting-weapons-arms-sales-2018-3?r=US&IR=T
Abbott seems to be taking cues from Trump on this.
10
The US is a military industrial complex and Tony Abbott is wrong, even the white paper says we have no foreseeable enemies.
Indonesia spends $19.5 billion a year on weapons and we spend $20 billion, its a nicely balanced relationship with our nearest neighbour and it would unsettle the region if our defence budget increased because we are afraid of Beijing. Its xenophobic and ignorant.
10
Agree with everything you say.
10
World’s largest arms EXPORTERS (millions $)
1 United States 47,169
2 Russia 33,186
3 China 9,132
World’s largest arms IMPORTERS
1 India 18,239
2 Saudi Arabia 11,689
3 United Arab Emirates 6,593
4 China 6,381
5 Australia 5,636
10
Jeff,
Almost all of RAN’s fleet unit purchases came from Europe, or were built in Australia, and a lot of Airforce and Army kit came from Europe as well.
2 x LHD Flat-tops from Spain.
3 x AWD Destroyers from Spain.
9 x Hunter ASW Frigates from UK.
12 x OPVs from Germany.
12 x Barracuda from France.
8 x ANZAC frigates from Germany.
6 x Collins Class subs from Sweden.
48 x PC-21 fighter trainers are Swiss.
8 x A-330 refuel tankers from Airbus.
36 x Tiger Attack chppers from Eurocopter.
NH-90 battlefield choppers from Europe replaced the Blackhawk fleet.
ASRAAM Missiles UK
Latest Eurotorp consortium torpedo
NSM Missiles Norway.
Yes, we buy a lot of stuff from the USA, but Australia has bought much more of its modern battle equipment from Europe than the USA. It’s a general misconception that the US has Australia in its pocket as the ADF diversifies its major arms purchases specifically to prevent such a situation developing, and to maintain a soverign military force and capability.
The F-35A only won because the Europeans have nothing directly comparable to it, and won’t have for a loooong time, nor as new, and nothing anywhere as advanced as it.
As to budget GDP percentage, picking a magic number for the ‘news’ is irrelevant. There is a Constitutional requirement for the military to defend the country, and if the threat is higher, so too will be the number in billions spent. The capacity to defeat an opponent’s expeditionary force is what determins what number of billions that is.
One major way to keep that number of billions lower is to use State-Craft, Diplomacy and to have many strong Alliances. Thus to make it a much smaller number of billions than it otherwise would have to be.
The absolute percentage of GDP spent or planned actually has nothing to do with this, except as a relative measure of the burden and commitment to defend more self-reliantly.
Alliance uncertainty, like Trump deliberately sews, serves to make countries assess and percieve a need to become more self-reliant, hence spend more on their own defence.
Frankly, Abbott is not wrong on this one.
00
Add to that:
RBS-70 SAMs from Sweden.
NASAMS SAMs from Norway.
Rheinmettal Boxer CRV from Germany.
Bulk of existing and new artillery is European
Standard assult rifle is European.
BAE Hawk lead-in fighters from UK.
PC-9 trainers from Switzerland.
In fact, most of Australia’s recent-ish major US purchases have been logistics and patrol aircraft, and a couple of combat types:
C-27A Spartan.
C-130J Hercules.
C-17A Globe Master.
P-8A Poseidon.
MQ-4 Triton.
RQ-9 Reaper.
Boeing E-7A Wedgetail
F/A-18F and G.
F-35A Lightning.
Various US cruise missiles, naval SAMs, precision bombs, torpedoes, precision-guided shells.
M1A1 Abrams tank.
In short, the Navy’s equipment is almost entirely european (with US combat software systems and missiles), and the Army equipment is mosty European derived (Australian built under licence), while the Airforce is mostly US derived (except for tankers and trainers).
The reality is, the USA makes the best airforce equipment, plus the best naval-airforce equipment too, so we buy it instead of the European gear. If the European aircraft and missiles were better we would buy theirs instead.
20
The US does not spend money in our defence. The bases here are for their convenience, not ours, likewise the couple of joint exercises we have. This is not like NATO and they have no stick they can wield demanding we spend more.
But anyone who is unaware of the new hegemonic China is living under a rock. Our obligation is to ourselves, not to be able to defeat an enemy and chase them into their homeland as the allies did to Germany in ’45 but to make it not worth the effort and/or delay the attack until a US carrier group can come sailing in. If we can do that I have absolutely no doubt that the US will come to our defence.
We should work closer with Israel, nobody gets more bang for their defence $ than they.
30
From WW2 experience it takes about 3 years after the begiining of a major war before a nation hits its full war footing and its maximum production of arms and supplies.
That criteria applied to the USA who finally really started to pour out weapons and all the armed forces ancillary supplies by about 1944.
It also applied to the British who really got on a total war footing in around 1943,
Germany whose generals reapeatedly told Hitler in 1938 they would not be ready for an all out war until about 1943 or 1944,
The USSR which after Stalin’s purges of his best military officers in the great purges of 1937 found that the USSR could not function on a total war footing until his officer corp had been rebuilt and the military factories plus the very important design bureaus with their original obsolescent designs began to catch up with German military technology .
And that was only reached by around late 1943 early 1944 by which time Germany was already beginning to run short of manpower and materiel due to losses of up to 3 to 4 million troops in the Eastern front fighting .
Russian military technology was still rapidly improving by wars end on 8th May, 1945 and was continued on by Stalin whose dream it was for his troops to only stop their westward drive when they waded into the Atlantic on the French west coast.
Stalin was eventually stopped by the threat of the American nuclear power with American nuke loaded bombers eventually patrolling along Russia’s borders in western Europe. Plus the loss of supply at WW2’s end of the immense tonnages of essential war materiel supplies from the USA and the British.
Some figures of tonnages supplied by the USA to the USSR during WW2 under Lend lease arrangements.
Lend-Lease provided the soviets with 400,000 jeeps, 12,000 armoured vehicles, 11,400 aircraft and 1.75 million tons of food through three corridors.
The arctic convoy, the pacific convoy, and the Persian convoy routes.
It’s estimated that 27% of the supplies came through the Persian route, which could sustain 60 front line divisions
Doing some simple calculations, we see that all supplies provided by the US could sustain 222 divisions of the Soviet Union over the four years of lend-lease.
20
The Australian Financial Review reported a couple of years ago that Australia has become internationally uncompetitive for manufacturing industry.
The total operating cost of an Australian business on average taking into account all operating expenses, not just wages, was (rounded off) A$600/day compared to the US of A$400/day.
Government regulation compliance costs, electricity pricing, all taxes combined, not only company tax, federal, state and local government based, have priced Australia out of the world market more often than not.
Lowering company tax to world average for developed countries makes good sense for many reasons and purposes but it is not the quick fix.
50
I agree it is not a quick fix.
But it is one of the best ways to let them stay competitive.
Corporate tax rates around the world –
Asia average 21%
EU average 21%
https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/services/tax/tax-tools-and-resources/tax-rates-online/corporate-tax-rates-table.html
12
Company taxation rates, power costs, sovereign risk and skilled labour are probably the four major factors adversely affecting the expansion of Australian industry.
Sovereign risk is increasing every year as the Federal government intervenes more and more in the market and reduces investor certainty. The current example is its intervention in the electricity market but there are many other examples -the privatisation of training being a case in point and the demise of the traditional apprenticeship structure. These sorts of interventions are usually at the behest of the crony capitalists. The Wesley Mouchs of the world. Top-hat Turnbull is one of them. The Mouch of the moment.
30
Having had spent some 7 years in Australia’s military, all I can say is that budgets given every year are generally not spent wisely. The Powers That Be in every unit ensure they spend it all to justify the same budget (or more if at all possible) the following year.
30
and other countries spend more so what?
cherry picking and lacking trend context just makes these interesting factoids
Indonesia for example has been steadily increasing, and at the same time has its hand out to us for aid
other Asian countries run at 3-5%
10
13 Jul: ClimateChangeNews: ‘Trump’s climate denial threatens all of us’: protestors hit London’s streets
A massive baby Trump balloon, organised by climate activists, was part of rolling protests that greeted the president in the UK on Friday
By Soila Apparicio
An infantile president deserves an infantile protest, according to those flying a Donald Trump baby balloon around London’s Parliament Square on Friday…
“[Climate change] is the single greatest threat to anything anyone holds dear,” said Max Wakefield, one of the self-appointed ‘Trump babysitters’. “We have enough on our plate dealing with the racism, sexism, so we could do without piling ecological collapse on that.”…
“Trump is wilfully wrecking the climate. We are all at threat from what Trump is doing,” added Wakefield…
Danielle Meitiv, who has a background in climate science and policy, was visiting from the US and decided to join the protest. Not taking action, she said, is “another level of climate denial”…
Earlier on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, London mayor Sadiq Khan was asked why he gave permission to fly the deliberately insulting balloon.
“The idea that we limit the rights to protest, we limit the rights to free speech because it may cause offence to a foreign leader is a very, very slippery slope,” said Khan…
Friends of the Earth chief Craig Bennett wrote in the Huffington Post on Friday that thousands would hit the streets on Friday because “the climate denier-in-chief needs to understand that people will not stand idly by. We won’t normalise his policies, we will resist the direction in which he would take our planet, and in small, daily ways, we will make sure the world never forgets how he is in the wrong”…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/13/trumps-climate-denial-threatens-us-protestors-hit-londons-streets/
30
14 Jul: HuffPo: Greenpeace Paragliding Protester Buzzes Trump At Turnberry
Teed off by the president.
By Mary Papenfuss
Donald Trump might have hoped for a bit of a break from protesters across the pond with a golfing weekend at his Turnberry resort in Scotland. But a Greenpeace protester managed to outsmart security by circling over Trump’s digs in a motorized paraglider with a cheeky message.
“TRUMP: WELL BELOW PAR. #RESIST,” read the sign on the protester’s yellow banner. The unidentified daredevil flew about three miles over the Ayrshire countryside, then circled the Turnberry hotel grounds — three times, The Daily Mail reported. Trump had arrived a short time earlier and was on the grounds during the action.
TWEET: Greenpeace: Watch as @realDonaldTrump tries to hide from our message flying right over his head #resist #stoptrump
***Police and local air traffic control officials were reportedly alerted by Greenpeace before the protester appeared, apparently so he wouldn’t be harmed. (There were snipers guarding the area, said the Mail.)…
The flyer then left the way he came, with police in pursuit. It wasn’t immediately clear if the protester was nabbed.
Greenpeace spokesman Ben Stewart said the organization wanted to make it clear that Trump is “simply the worst president ever.” (Check out the video above.)…
The “vast majority of British people are appalled at his words and deeds,” said Stewart. “Trump calls climate change a ‘con job’ and a ‘myth.’ He’s committed to burning more dirty coal, and overturned the ban on offshore Arctic oil drilling. And that’s before you even get to talking about separating kids from their parents and caging them.”…
https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/greenpeace-paraglider-buzzes-trump-at-turnberry_us_5b499302e4b0bc69a7876502
14 Jul: GatewayPundit: Major Breach as UK Security Allowed Protesting Paraglider to Fly Within Yards of Trump in Scotland–and Then Escape!
by Kristinn Taylor
This was an appalling security breach that could have resulted in dozens killed and wounded–including President Trump…
Inexplicably, first U.K. security on the perimeter and then U.S. security on top and around the building allowed the paraglider to fly unmolested over Trump, members of his national security team, senior administration officials and dozens of guests assembled outside, and the building–and then allowed the flyer to escape!…
The Greenpeace protest banner read, “”TRUMP, WELL BELOW PAR #RESIST.”. The name Greenpeace was painted on the inside of the parachute so it could be read from the ground…READ ALL
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/major-breach-as-uk-security-allowed-protesting-paraglider-to-fly-within-yards-of-trump-in-scotland-and-then-escape/
14 Jul: Breitbart: ‘Free Speech Is Dead’ – Police in Khan’s London BAN Pro-Trump Rally at U.S. Embassy
by Jack Montgomery
Police in Sadiq Khan’s London have used the Public Order Act to prevent a rally in support of U.S. President Donald Trump outside the American embassy, despite permitting a large, ill-tempered anti-Trump rally on Friday. Protestors attending the ‘Welcome Trump’ event had planned to gather outside the embassy and march from there to Whitehall, where they would have joined in with a separate ‘Free Tommy Robinson’ event in support of the activist and independent journalist who was recently imprisoned for contempt of court after reporting on a grooming gang trial.
But the Metropolitan Police Force, which answers to a large extent to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, used the Public Order Act to impose a raft of restrictions on both groups of protesters which made this impossible — despite allowing far larger anti-Trump protests at which at least six people were arrested to go ahead on Saturday, with demonstrators carrying signs emblazoned with harsh profanity and messages such as “Die Trump Die”…
30
The Baby Trump Blimp.
More like Spinal Tap – 18″ Stonehenge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071cXxCNj5A
Perhaps if we get lots of small people to hold it …
00
and millions won’t join the protests.
40
President Trump has certainly stirred them up in the UK and Europe in the last week, and all by stating the bleeding obvious.
Those in Britain hoping to stay in the EU aren’t happy with him reminding the PM that a majority voted to exit the EU. Were Trump inclined to cite history he might have brought up the case in revolutionary France of the unwanted being tied to a corpse before being thrown into the river.
And on top of suggesting that the NATO countries should partly pay for their own defence, he pointed out that Germany was going to be more dependent than ever on Russia for fuel once the new Nord Stream 2 is built. This is certainly true for natural gas (careful readers will have noted that there is a Nord Stream 1) and also for wood pellets. Russia alone ships 1.5 million tons of pellets into western Europe, where about a third are used to warm houses, often by those unable to pay the huge rates for electricity. The remainder is used industrially as it has the advantage, inside the EU anyway, of NOT releasing CO2 when burnt. Russia has to compete with similar supplies from Finland, Slovakia, south eastern USA, Columbia and (small scale) Australia.
The advantages for the Russians are obvious, no invasion by Germany (unless they want to freeze in winter in Germany as well as on the steppes), and a steady supply of Euros or Deutschmarks if the EU breaks up. And a breakup cannot be ruled out if the ruling bureaucracy continue in their arrogance. Much of eastern Europe are doubtful about the advantages of belonging, esp. if the EU cannot set up its own defence forces. Much of western Europe are losing faith in the EU as the recession continues seemingly for ever, and ‘defence’ of the Euro leaves them with enormous rates of unemployment among the young. Britain would be well advised to get out completely rather than being tied to a corpse.
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Careful Graeme#3, Remember the vote was not compulsory with a large % not voting.
..and the result of the votes actually cast, was a very marginal win for the Brexit.
So in reality, you cannot say the majority voted for it…infact it is very likely that a minority voted for it.
But that is how a free democratic vote works..if you dont vote , you dont count.
21
Chad:
And if the vote was held again? Would the supposed flood of those REALLY in favour of remaining vote? Outside of the big urban areas what was the vote?
The whole of the North and Midlands might lose faith in democracy if the London based ‘rulers’ try to cancel their vote.
10
I may be repeating myself here so I am sorry if that is the case.
A lot of climate scientists are worried that the northern permafrost regions are thawing. This, they say, is proof of AGW.
Yet, as it thaws huge numbers of mammoth tusks, old animals, plants and seeds are being discovered. Surely this proves that not so long ago in geological terms the areas were warmer than now Warm enough to sustain life in abundance while the rest of the planet survived it seems.
So why try to prevent a return to a more pleasant past as prevailed in those latitudes?
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Because
we’re robbing you blinderr.. Climate™©®, dammit!21
Not sure if anyone noticed but as usual the government is still trying to have it both ways. On the one hand they want to reset the market and make power prices fall yet on the other hand still want to be committed to the Paris Agreement and reduce our emissions as per usual. Michael McCormack is proof of this since that’s what he said in the same breath on at least one occasion when interviewed. He must therefore believe like so many in the left that the cost of power from renewables is coming down and will soon be on par with power from coal if not already. In that case he is either a fool or a hypocrite.
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McCormack is on the Front Bench and restricted by what he can say, his cognitive dissonance is clear for all to see. If push comes to shove I think he will stand with the ginger group and cross the floor as a team.
20
I hope you’re right el gordo.
10
Me too, if McCormack stands apart from his colleagues then he will lose the leadership of the Nats. Its hypothetical of course, there maybe no need to cross the floor because the NEG will have three new Hele embedded and underwritten.
20
el gordo
“cognitive dissonance”
Isn’t that what goes on when the final drive gears in your dozer stop talking nicely to each other?
40
** chuckle **
Cognitive Dissonance is ‘the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.’
20
I too hope you are right but hope alone is not enough. We need action and soon. Otherwise Turnbull will get away yet again with another one of his cons, or worse still hand over government to ALP+Greens to perpetuate the CAGW scam.
30
Subsidies. What subsidies? As I have explained, there are none. There is just hidden and massive theft from your electricity bills at the retailer buyer level, doubled to you. This money is given for the simple fact of generating ‘approved’ power, green power. The power is extra. You have to buy these ‘certificates’ anyway, compulsory carbon indulgences.
However there are real subsidies, massive subsidies again hidden not legislated.
Subsidies to people who cannot afford to heat their homes. Subsidies to businesses which would close. Alcoa it seems get $80,000 per worker to stay open. The payments to the smelter at Port Pirie were around $350,000,000 a year. What states are paying to businesses like Liberty OneSteel in Whyalla and elsewhere is unknown. Clearly the SA government is paying the RET for the gas fired Pelican Point to keep it going.
I would guess that the total payments for the RET, doubled at retail are around $6Billion. These are not subsidies. According to the Australian, $3Billion of this goes overseas.
Plus the secret payments from the New York meeting with Alcoa last year with the Federal and State governments. I would guess another $500Million. Payments to so many people, but not subsidies. Silence money.
Total, probably $10Billion a year to pretend we don’t have a carbon tax, to pretend business is fine being forced to close. Of course your State taxes keep going or there would be no smelting, no power generation, no electricity in Australia unless the sun was shining and the wind blowing.
Now we are all waiting for the miracle of pumping the water back uphill. Loaves and fishes.
Another $12billion to make wind appear useful. More money for electrical power at the wrong place and the wrong time and generated randomly, power no one can use and a total waste of money to support Malcolm Turbull’s Green religion. The Green Guru of Canberra. But not a subsidy. Your money being thrown away. Five times the Pink Batt scheme and making Rudd and Gillard look cautious and rational. Genius.
100
Is there another word apart from traitors?
40
Turncoat, which rhymes with Turnbull.
10
Details, details. Just call it a scam with an economic suicide note attached. As I keep saying if voters are not prepared to sit up and notice by the time we have the next federal election and continue to hand over majority government to either major party as they stand then it will get much worse before it can ever get better. If LNP does change its policy on energy then we should be OK but that’s a big call. Can’t wait to see the details of the NEG. If it turns out to be crap as many of us do then we better have a leadership spill immediately afterwards and a major change on energy policy to offer a real choice at the next election.
20
Rest assured this is only the first battle, which we must win because it opens the door for debate on climate change. The corrupt msm don’t want to go there, the science is settled, but now Abbott and Kelly say we should pull out of the Paris Agreement. Never thought I would see the day.
By this time next year the punters have Morrison as Opposition leader and Abbott still on the Back Bench.
00
given Tea Party protests arguably played a part in getting Trump elected – proving protests still work – you would think BBC might have a one of their representative on board for this!
AUDIO: 52mins59secs: 14 Jul: BBC The Real Story: Do Protests Still Work?
Presenter: Ritula Shah
Donald Trump has arrived in England but he’s not getting the red carpet treatment a US president might expect. Big protests are planned in London, featuring a march to Trafalgar Square and a six metre high balloon of Donald Trump as a snarling orange baby. The protests may let people vent their feelings about the US president’s controversial style and policies, but few expect much change as a result. So, while protests still occupy a prominent place in the drama of democracy, do they really achieve anything anymore?
How have cultural forces and social media changed the way protests are organised? And can non-violent protests still force elected politicians to change?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswkdc
instead, guests were David Graeber:
Feb 2014: The Nation: From Occupy to Climate Justice
There’s a growing effort to merge economic-justice and climate activism. Call it climate democracy.
By Wen Stephenson
I was reminded of this not long ago when I came to a showstopping passage deep in the final chapter of anarchist anthropologist David Graeber’s The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, his interpretive account of the Occupy Wall Street uprising, in which he played a role not only as a core OWS organizer but as a kind of house intellectual…
Midway through a brief discourse on the nature of labor, he pauses to reflect, as though it has just occurred to him: “At the moment, probably the most pressing need is simply to slow down the engines of productivity.” Why? Because “if you consider the overall state of the world,” there are “two insoluble problems” we seem to face: “On the one hand, we have witnessed an endless series of global debt crises…to the point where the overall burden of debt…is obviously unsustainable. On the other we have an ecological crisis, a galloping process of climate change that is threatening to throw the entire planet into drought, floods, chaos, starvation, and war.” …
Graeber’s solution—“a planetary debt cancellation” and a “mass reduction in working hours: a four-hour day, perhaps, or a guaranteed five-month vacation”—may sound far-fetched, but at least he acknowledges the “galloping” climate crisis and what’s at stake in it…
guest #2 – Dana Fisher:
4 Jun: NY Post: Associated Press: Pope to meet with oil execs on climate change
Dana Fisher, a sociologist who studies environmentalism at the University of Maryland, said the pope is cementing his leadership on climate.
“He certainly is trying to lead for the planet and Lord knows we need it,” she said…
guest #3 – L.A. Kauffman – who write for Guardian & CNN etc:
7 May: Guardian: We are living through a golden age of protest
by LA Kauffman
We are seeing a level of organizing with little precedent – but it’s time for stronger forms of demonstration, such as sit-ins and street blockades…
More than 900 emergency protests are being planned all around the country if Trump should fire Robert Mueller or otherwise compromise the legal investigation into possible wrongdoing by his administration…
21 Jun: CNN: Crowd gathers at LaGuardia Airport to support children believed to be separated from families
By Madison Park and Ellie Kaufman, CNN
March 2017: thoughteconomics: How We Can Change the World
Q: What is the role of art, music & film in activism?
[L.A. Kauffman]: The people’s climate movement did a brilliant job of using the process of art making as a way to change the story about climate activism away from the narrow environmentalism that came out of majority white movements, to a profoundly inclusive vision of climate justice led by the communities most affected by climate change…
guest #4 – Fatima Shabodien, Country Director: ActionAid South Africa; feminist political activist – who isn’t too impressed by the other three guests.
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should have add The Tea Party did get a mention, but it was shut down instantly:
around 45min –
Dana Fisher admits American “resistance” is too connected to the Dem Party & that protests in US are basically the Democrats taking to the streets.
BBC Ritula Shah: but you get movements within political parties, if you think of the tea party movement. was that a protest movement within the Republican Party?
Dana Fisher: in my view, not at all.
L.A. Kauffman: i don’t think the “resistance” is really within the Democrat Party either.
—
end of that topic.
00
https://tinyurl.com/ycvjf47r
Above is NOAA’s graph of past temps based on marine sediments. You get a similar (but not the same) story from other sources and bases (ice cores etc).
Here is a comment I made today on an open thread at WUWT, repeated here because something has been on my mind:
Okay, here are some thoughts I’ve had lately. It’s about hiding something enormous in plain sight.
We live in a period, the Quaternary, where temps fluctuate but where most of the time they are well below present temps. Been thus for a few million years. A mere twenty-odd thousand years back we went full-glaciation and a mere twelve thousand years back things were pretty chilly. You could walk to Tasmania from Victoria.
Within this period we live in yet another interglacial, unremarkable compared to the two previous named interglacials, not that long ago. The Holsteinian and Eemian got a bit warmer, but no biggie.
Within this interglacial, the Holocene, we’ve had temps higher than now (eight thousand years back markedly higher) and some three hundred years back there was a noticeable chill.
No big deal, because over the last ten thousand years homo sapiens, who has survived the highs of the Eemian and Holocene Optimum as well as the lows of eg the Toba eruption and last ice age, has been able to use a brief warm plateau to do something very different: stay in one place, populate heavily and build up these semi-permanent arrangements called civilisations.
Does anyone have ideas on why we should expect this present gig to last? We’ve had over ten thousand years, more or less the ration, and while we might get more millennia of relative warmth it’s hard to see how we can defy nature as revealed by geology, stratigraphy etc for very long.
Those who live in fear of a smirk by Brian Cox or DeGrasse-Tyson think “science” is telling us all sorts of things about climate. But doesn’t science (without quotes) tell us something very different? Namely, that there is nothing whatever remarkable about the present warmth, either as interglacial or upward blip within the interglacial, but that it will soon be impossible eg to have farms in Europe and Canada and that cold (thus drought) will make large-scale civilisation too tough everywhere. We survived the last major cooling as nomads in small numbers…that’s all we know.
Look I’m sure I’ve got details askew and I’m painting with too broad a brush for any expert. But is this summary of things so wrong?
One last question: is it possible that something so large and obvious really is invisible to those in authority, both intellectual and political? The end of the Holocene isn’t the elephant in the room. It’s the brontosaurus in the Volkswagen.
End of quote.
I know I’ve said as much here previously but I think it’s so important to keep throwing these questions that out I’m repeating them. Because they beg one final question.
What if the whole climate kerfuffle is a distraction from something nothing and nobody can do anything about? Not an oversight but a deliberate distraction from something so big it can only be hidden in plain sight.
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Excellent post and I agree totally. I’ve often pointed at the herd of interglacials in the room and warmists that simply fail to think laterally reply: “Aww.. But it’s all different now. We’ve changed things”, without detailing anything – because they can’t. All they know is CO2 = bad, very bad, because that’s all they’ve been taught. They haven’t got free minds capable of self-discovery.
Many so-called laws have been passed during distraction events, even while London burned in 1666. Recently, the media everywhere was squawking about a piece of sticky tape on a cricket ball, Parliament was doing stuff in the background, something to do with LGBT or other nonsense.
This Climate™©® thing is likely to do with Agenda 21/30. But I’m not sure why all Western countries are importing refugees that aren’t by the millions like never before. It’s probably to cause unrest, civil war, destabilisation, depopulation and creation of new legislation “required” to control us naughty, angry children because we can’t behave ourselves like the “elites” do, that caused all this in the first place. Maurice Strong comes to mind.
I’m not sure what exactly the payoff is/will be for Western leaders that are playing this game though. Time will tell if we need to rearm our people.
41
They should never have been dis-armed in the first place. There should have been a rebellion at that point.
Howard got away with a greatest anti-freedom swindle Australian’s have ever seen.
32
The red thumber is upset at my misuse of the possessive?
21
This point about the ending of the current interglacial has been put up a few times here and we probably don’t have more than a thousand years, or two, before we find out whether the past will repeat with another 100,000 ice age.
Orbital Mechanics has provided the understanding for the repeated cycles but sometime in the future a new cycle will begin.
Currently the orbital mechanics of the system relates well to the glacial cycles and this relationship is the only current working model of Climate change.
KK
42
Thanks for responses.
Here’s another commonly seen reconstruction. As far as I know Hansen was involved (not sure) and you are likely to find it on a warmist site. https://tinyurl.com/y9qqupuy
It’s like they’re defying us, certain that decades of media conditioning will convince us that there is no brontosaurus in the Volkswagen…even though they show that very dinosaur in that very beetle with their graph.
Warm now? Warmer than Greenland settlement times a mere millennium back? How?
When temps were really warm lately (before the cooling of 5600 BC) you could graze livestock on the Sahara. You just had to watch out for your coast getting swamped and Doggerland disappearing. We’re not supposed to know or notice, even though they tell us?
The real mystery lies in the mad globalist agendas which seem to be not just crossing but dissolving all familiar lines, lines which would have been firm a mere fifteen years ago. Who are these people and why would they bother? Like I said, a mystery. So much trouble for negative results, and climate seems to be the major pivot. You can’t create the slightest entropy in the cause of human need, but you can wreck in the cause of Gaia.
And what a wreckage they’ve made.
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You are placing far too much importance on someone pulling the strings.
The popular politics and government funded scientific research are the root causes. Rudd provides the perfect example. An ego bigger than Trump and Global Warming provided the perfect horse for him charging in to save the planet for all mankind. By 2016 it was reasonably apparent to Trump that Global Warming/Climate Change was no longer the white charger of a decade earlier so he did not hop on board.
Turnbull is a banker. International banks would benefit hugely from a carbon trading scheme. Look at how quickly Clive Palmer change tack once Al Gore whispered to him. Here the motive is greed. All of the ambient energy industry is driven by greed; albeit with a mask of saving the planet. The proponents are willing to inflict endless harm on poor soles as long as they line their pockets; look at how Alex Turnbull made windfall gains out of Infigen.
One thought I had today was the limited thinking of people stuck in academia – Trump is almost universally derided by those in academia. I am reasonably confident that the vast majority lose the ability to think once they have completed their PhD. The majority believe what they read from an “authoritative” source. Look how readily the “consensus” caught on. There is no longer the need for constant problem solving that is required at all levels in business and industry. There is no constant testing of their work. Again credibility of academia has been exposed by the small minds with big egos like Mann.
A lot of people have been swept up in the consensus on Climate Change without giving it a second thought. It was not till 1999 that I started looking at temperature trends in remote locations across Australia that convinced me 1998 was not uniquely hot. I later read a booklet produced by a disgruntled ex CSIRO employee that shone a light on how crazy the whole Global Warming gravy train had become.
70
Farage begins around 1min mark:
Nigel Farage And Sean Hannity Joke About Protesters, Discuss EU Army, NATO, BREXIT
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yc_eomz9PwU?autoplay=1&rel=0&showinfo=1
20
Government interventions have caused problems in the electricity market? Surely not. On the other hand:
1. The RET forces increased use of unreliable wind and solar.
2. Excessive solar upfront credits and feed in tariffs have encouraged intermittent solar without backup.
3. State governments increased taxes and charges on coal generators.
4. The AER allowed over-investment in networks while guaranteeing return on investment for monopoly providers..
5. Banning investment in new gas exploration and allowing excessive gas exports, forcing up prices.
6. Threats by governments and oppositions to further increase requirements for intermittent wind and solar with no requirement for dispatchable and affordable supply.
7. There has been no long term strategy for affordable electricity despite all the regulations.
8. No consideration of nuclear.
9. Disparagement of coal, that still supplies over 75% of our electricity and powered the development of competitive manufacturing in Australia.
Can anyone think of any positive outcomes from government intervention in the electricity market?
The only response from governments and oppositions? We feel good because we are meeting our Paris commitment. As the plebs struggle to pay their bills and industry moves offshore.
And still no meaningful response to the ACCC report that does have some recommendations that would reduce electricity prices. See previous comments at Midweek Unthreaded
100
You couldn’t have said it better, the ACCC said the same thing, oh and Queensland making hay out of their coal. I was surprised by the contribution of network construction subsidies to the bill, at least some of that rorting has already been stopped in some states.
The ACCC also missed Queensland.gov dumping 40 billion of its debt onto our water and electricity bills.
20
I doubt anyone really expects the NEG will actually fix any of the issues on the list, and there are more that could be added. Thanks Robber I feel despondent but I do realize I shouldn’t be surprised given Turnbull and his party who are hell bent on reducing our CO2 emissions even if it means the destruction of what’s left of our industries and eventually our economy.
20
‘Can anyone think of any positive outcomes from government intervention in the electricity market?’
Sir, if AGL won’t sell Liddell and is intent on pulling it down, then the government should send in the troops.
30
UNFCCC: UN Climate Press Release / 13 Jul, 2018
Asia Pacific Climate Week Galvanizes Regional Climate Action
Singapore, 14 July 2018 – Today marks the close of the Asia Pacific Climate Week, which has been showcasing groundbreaking action underway in the region to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
Delegates attending the event called for a regional ‘culture change’, underpinned by a newly-energized, multi-stakeholder approach to implement of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
All this comes amid reports from Japan of the highest death toll caused by rain in the country since 1982 – a stark reminder of the realities many nations now increasingly face.
Extreme weather events are becoming the ‘new normal’ and Ambassador Luke Daunivalu told those attending the Asia Pacific Climate Week that, “Climate change does not respect religion, race, national boundaries, or even the state of economic development.”…
Such solutions and events have the potential to turn the fortunes of the region, including the hallmark Asia Pacific Carbon Forum, a High-Level event on Financial Markets, and, by way of conclusion, a local edition of the Talanoa Dialogue on Green Financing…
Actors seized on the opportunity of the Climate Week to make a number of bold new announcements that, ahead of September’s Global Climate Action Summit and the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 in Katowice, Poland at the end of the year are lending credence to the idea that there is a global resolve to take ambition to the next level this year. For example:
•60 businesses, making up nearly 50% of New Zealand’s emissions have joined forces to form the Climate Leaders Coalition to make their organizations compliant with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
•ASEAN Smart Cities Network signed five agreements, highlighting south-south collaboration, including around the establishment of a smart energy management system.
•On carbon markets, the World Bank reaffirmed that, to date, 51 carbon pricing initiatives have been implemented or are scheduled for implementation, representing a fivefold increase in the past 10 years…
“Asia is a continent that should, can and will be a hub for renewable energy, innovation and engagement of all actors for better life that change the environment. It is a continent of opportunities – climate change is a threat but acting on… it is an opportunity, be it in any sector,” said Tomasz Chruszczow (Poland’s top climate negotiator and 2018 UN climate champion).
Throughout the course of the week, carbon markets formed a major part of discussions and delegates openly called for strong leadership on the issue. With signs that Singapore is already leading the charge regionally, UN Climate Change is now seeking to develop a local carbon market with comparable baselines – using Clean Development Mechanism standards — which would accelerate progress towards a global carbon price.
Elsewhere, highlights from the Climate Week included Alysha Bagasra (Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, New Zealand) announcing that, “a just transition is an enabler for climate action as it gives social license to act faster,” and the High-Level Event on Finance asking financial institutions to put sustainability at the heart of their strategic planning to spur green investments and align financial markets with climate markets.
Asia Pacific Climate Week will be followed by the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week 2018, which is being convened from 20–23 August in Montevideo, Uruguay.
https://unfccc.int/news/asia-pacific-climate-week-galvanizes-regional-climate-action
10 Jul: UNFCCC: UN Press Release: Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week Set to Galvanize Regional Climate Action
Today, the full agenda has been released for the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week 2018 (LACCW2018), which is being convened from 20–23 August in Montevideo, Uruguay.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, will participate in the event, alongside the High-Level Climate Champions, H.E. Minister Inia Seruiratu from Fiji and Mr. Tomasz Chruszczow, Special Envoy for Climate Change from Poland, as well as city and business leaders…
The theme of LACCW2018 is “Climate Action for Sustainable Development: Driving Change in Latin America and the Caribbean”. The high-level segment that takes place on Wednesday, 22 August will bring together the business community and focus on areas, such as: visions for NDC enhancement and implementation; challenges and opportunities for cities in the Latin America & Caribbean region; the role of transport for sustainable development and climate action; and climate finance.
Other highlights at the event include the Latin America Carbon Forum and a technical session on the cross-linkages between markets and the Sustainable Development Goals. More details on LACCW2018 and its program will shortly be made available via the event website (LINKS TO LATIN AMERICA CARBON FORUM)…
https://unfccc.int/news/latin-america-and-caribbean-climate-week-set-to-galvanize-regional-climate-action
00
I have been thinking about our energy mix. Well, Snowy is getting used. A lot! Basically whenever winds dies in the a$$, they crank up Snowy! I recall seeing pic on FB recently, that showed Lake Eucumbene at very low levels.
So, I had a look at this official Snowy storage site, and found this;
http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/our-energy/water/storages/lake-levels-calculator/
We are currently in a dry spell, in fact a dry winter is forecast. If the dry continues, as I suspect, then we are using a finite resource to supplement our power needs. But for how long? That question, I don’t have an answer for!
But, if we do run short on water for the Snowy, then that makes a mockery of Snowy 2.0?
I mean, Tassie had a similar predicament in 2016, and used very expensive diesel gens to keep the lights on!
Does Australia have the generating capacity to survive, if we have no Snowy?
I don’t know. Maybe it will never happen. But, in my mind, it is worth thinking about!
40
If you look at just how little the existing pumped storage hydro is used, you can’t help but wonder just how useless this new proposal for Snowy 2.0 really is.
There are only three of them, the big one at Tumut Three, one at Shoalhaven, and one at Wivenhoe in Queensland.
They are hardly ever in operation.
I have noticed however that they do have a major use, if ever one of those big coal fired Units goes down in a hurry, they are the first things to come on line, all but instantly, and even then, only for short times, until those fast to on OCGT gas fired plants can run up, and that is something they are perfect for, and once the gas plants are up and running the pumped hydro gets switched straight back off.
But when you have something that is a net power consumer, it sometimes makes you scratch your head and wonder.
Still, I guess it will provide a lot of jobs in construction.
Can’t have anyone speaking against it though ….. party unity and all that.
Tony.
70
Hydro is another intermittent supply, just not as intermittent as some others. Of course, if you point to failed rains in Tasmania or Norway now you will be told in the usual evasive way that it’s sorta kinda due to recent warming – which is a big fib.
Australia’s worst years for drought in recent centuries according to a number of studies of tree rings, corals etc were likely in the 1790s. And we have details from the First Fleet officers to confirm that much was amiss with rainfall and water supply in the very early colony. There were a number of bad patches for Australian rain in that century, possibly more severe than conditions around 1900. (Hydro-rich Switzerland actually experienced drought in the cooler part of the LIA, and hydro-rich NZ was so parched in the late 1870s that the normally soggy Kiwis bought water by the bucket. With all that rain in the south-west hydro is a great deal for Tassie but when the system, like any system, gets flogged…)
One can’t legislate or engineer away from common sense. Dam energy is intermittent everywhere and doubly so in Oz. And if one wants to live on this continent…don’t waste water. A bit like having to tell a grown adult to look before crossing the road, isn’t it?
Of course there is one energy source which can be cheap, domestic and constant for centuries. I dare not speak its name.
50
I read a report a while back that during the last northern winter Norway had hydro troubles not caused by a lack of rain/snow, but by their hydro dams and pipes being way too frozen. They had a lack of hydro because their ice refused to run downhill.
20
GenEx has been talking up their project at Kidston for years with 400 MW capacity. In the “good old days” we didn’t need these bandaids for self inflicted wounds but maybe we do now with such a distorted market. The old mine has all the infrastructure needed so if it is viable anywhere it would be here.
20
Pumped hydro. Certainly not a power supply you would call upon on a daily basis! Especially when the power losses are so high! I fail too see where it makes economic sense. And probably not practical sense either!
Maybe, just maybe, since this ACCC report has been released, we might see some practical decisions come from it!
Baseload power! Could it be possible?
60
The ACCC findings should cause the government to drop the pumped hydro idea for a number of reasons. We’ll see if Turnbull is true to his word when he said he accepts all the findings of the report. His credibility, if he has any left, is now on the line.
50
Pumped hydro lacks ‘firmness’ and should be discontinued immediately. The humiliation, not sure if Turnbull knows what to do.
40
It’s a nice little earner for Norway, trading the arbitrage between when the wind blows and when it don’t.
10
‘New South Wales has been gripped by freezing conditions with some parts of the state dipping below -10 degrees Celsius and others experiencing their coldest temperatures in decades.
‘The coldest place overnight was at Marangaroo, not far from Lithgow, where the Defence weather station registered a low of -11.1C at around 7:20am.’
Weatherzone
———-
Nice little kart circuit at Marangaroo, I live 50k further west and the temp got down to -8, so I’m calling this a regional cooling signal.
30
NSW is experiencing cold weather.
In summer they will experience hot climate change.
40
Ah yes, but last year at this time the record was broken at -7.5C and now we see it broken again. The last time this happened was back in 1971, just before the great climate shift of 1976.
Coincidence? I think not.
20
I’ll bet Oberon was even colder Gordo. Many moons ago I lived for a while near Capertee on the site of the old Airlie oil shale mine when they were assessing the coal seam above the oil shale seam. It was a cold hole surrounded by high ridges.
Let’s see if the -11.1 figure makes it onto the ABC news or if it gets lost on the way. Your global cooling hypothesis is looking better by the day. No sunspots lately either.
10
Wonderful to hear that the Thai cave rescuers told Elon Musk where to stick his midget submarine.
At least they did not fall for a cheap Musk PR stunt – as did the people of South Australia.
When are people going to start learning how to pick a confidence trickster?
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great news. read all:
14 Jul: WUWT: Rejecting carbon colonialism
African Development Bank breaks with anti-fossil fuel banks to fund coal power, prosperity
by Paul Driessen and David Wojick
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/07/14/rejecting-carbon-colonialism/
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behind paywall – new Govt?
15 Jul: Adelaide Advertiser: SA’s ‘virtual power plant’ starting to become a reality
SOLAR panels and Tesla batteries have been installed on 100 Housing SA homes to deliver the first phase of a State Government-backed virtual power plant…
15 Jul: RenewEconomy: Tesla builds case for 250MW virtual power plant after first trial success
By Giles Parkinson
The prospects for Tesla’s proposed 250MW “virtual power plant” in South Australia look significantly brighter after the success of its first trial and an enthusiastic response from the South Australia government.
So far, some 100 Housing SA homes have received their 5kW of rooftop solar and the 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall batteries, with another 1,000 homes to receive solar and battery storage under an agreement locked in by the previous state Labor government.
The original plan was to install a total of 50,000 Housing SA and low-income homes with solar and storage, slashing bills for those homes by around 30 per cent and creating a 250MW “virtual power plant” that could be used to boost security and reliability on the state’s grid.
The fate of the third phase – which will rely on private finance, and the emergence of another retailer – was clouded when the Liberal state government won the state election in March, and said then it would favour its own proposal of giving subsidies in the form of grants for battery storage to 40,000 homes.
An announcement on the $100 million grants for 40,000 homes is expected in coming months, but it now seems clear that the new government is interested in doing both – a result that would see at least 90,000 subsidised and supported battery storage installations across the state…
There are also ongoing talks about a different scheme proposed by German manufacturer sonnen, which could see another 10,000 batteries brought into the market.
In a statement on Sunday, the state government hailed Tesla’s first VPP trials for “delivering cheaper energy to South Australians who need it most”, and increasing the reliability of the state’s energy network…
The results are also timely given the recent price spikes in South Australia, artificial surges more or less engineered by the gas cartel when competition is removed through network constraints…
It’s also heartening to see such process in light of reports from the ACCC last week, which sought to put a handbrake on distributed energy, ending subsidies for rooftop solar. Its 370-page report focused only on the health and returns for centralised generators.
Yet most analysis, including from the CSIRO, network owners and the Australian Energy Market Operator, and their equivalents overseas, expect up to half of all demand to be met by distributed generation – rooftop solar, battery stooges demand management – over the next few decades.
The Tesla VPP proposes to install rooftop solar and Powerwall batteries for free. The funders get their money back through bills for the use of electricity, but it still reduces the cost to those low income households – who would otherwise not afford either solar or storage – by around 30 per cent.
South Australia’s minister for Human Services Michelle Lensink said the Tesla VPP project was “incredibly beneficial” in offering much-needed bill relief for Housing SA tenants…READ ALL
https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-builds-case-250mw-virtual-power-plant-first-trial-success-63950/
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I read that report by Giles, over at Renew, and I started to ponder about all that extra power being dribbled into the grid, in such an uncontrolled manner? I mean, Giles seems to think that it will provide decent, backup power, and relieve the strain on the grid.
Somehow, I think that it will be more disruptive, than helpful!
Now, I am no electrical engineer, but maybe someone with more insight, can provide us with a reasonable scenario, as to whether this will work, or not?
Does feeding excess power back into the grid, at the user end, cause issues? How is it managed? Or is the reality, that it is such a piffling amount, that it is ‘absorbed’ into the grid with minimal issues?
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Rob, a few thing to remember ..
The 250 MW is a “nameplate ” value of the panels.
So, in reality the total output will be 50MW or less, most of which will be used directly by the households internally ( daytime use and battery charging for nighttime use)
So the main impact on the grid will be a slight (50MW) reduction in demand.
Once again Musk scams the Aussie public purse for a PR exercise and political headlines.
50,000 Powerwalls , at $10,000 each = $500 million …for 50MW equivalent. !
Nice one Elon !
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MSM apparently not at all interested in reporting the following, as far as I can tell:
14 Jul: EnergyVoice: Offshore wind decommissioning costs could top £3bn, report finds
by David McPhee
Cost Estimation and Liabilities in Decommissioning Offshore Wind Installations report, published by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) concluded that the cost of of offshore wind decommissioning could be between £1.28bn and £3.64bn.
It concluded that “highly volatile” vessel rates, coupled with a lack of knowledge given no large scale decommissioning projects have taken place, could both affect the future cost.
The report said: “The total decommissioning liability in real (2017) terms, based on the base line assumptions in the cost model, is forecast to be £1.82bn. However, applying a range of uncertainty commensurate with a class 4/5 estimate a range of £1.28bn to £3.64bn is anticipated.”…
There was also uncertainty around the timing of offshore wind decommissioning due to the fact that it is “likely that improved late life management and repowering could extend the operational life of many offshore wind farms” but that “uncertainty can be managed through regular review of proposed offshore wind farm decommissioning dates”.
The report took a number of UK wind developments into account, including Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm, Robin Rigg and the Beatrice Demonstrator project
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/176827/offshore-wind-decommissioning-could-top-3bn-report-finds/
13 Jul: UK Govt: Decommissioning offshore wind installations: cost estimation
Report estimating the total costs for decommissioning offshore wind farms in the UK.
From: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
DOWNLOAD PDF 39 PAGES
BEIS commissioned ARUP to provide estimates of the total costs for decommissioning offshore wind farms in the UK. The aim of this study is to increase understanding of the range of costs to decommission projects individually and collectively. This is an anonymised report of their findings.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/decommissioning-offshore-wind-installations-cost-estimation
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wonderful summary of the the Australian power supply “journey” over at Catallaxy.
title may push it into moderation, we will see
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2018/07/15/david-bidstrup-the-dickhead-factor/
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Someone in a post above mentioned Musk and his mini submarine in Thailand. It seems he does not take rejection well.
From the Daily Mail via Drudge:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5955753/British-caver-helped-save-Thai-boys-says-Elon-Musk-stick-submarine-hurt.html
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I wonder if these scientists are trying to genetically alter some crop plants to be nitrogen fixing or symbiotic with beneficial bacteria, or if they just aren’t aware of those crop plants that already are (via beneficial symbioses with bacteria) like the legumes and alfalfa.
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-bacteria-fertilizer-thin-air.html
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