At the turn of last century people didn’t know what a radio was

Predicting 2100?

Doug McKelway  — Fox News

Novelist Michael Crichton, in the Caltech Michelin lecture in 1993, offered what some might see as a calming reassurance about the future of the earths’ climate. He looked back to the turn of the last century when people, “didn’t know what radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD,  or what IBM was…”

Crichton went on, presenting a long list of the scientific inventions of the 20th century that changed human life for the better. Toward the end of the lecture he asked, “Now, you tell me you can predict the world of 2100?”

Green New Deal rollout rattles both sides of climate change debate

x-35 Jet.

 

In 1993, when Crichton spoke, many thought it was impossible to clone a mammal from an adult cell.

Feb 23 1997: SCIENTIST REPORTS FIRST CLONING EVER OF ADULT MAMMAL

In a feat that may be the one bit of genetic engineering that has been anticipated and dreaded more than any other, researchers in Britain are reporting that they have cloned an adult mammal for the first time.

The group, led by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a 52-year-old embryologist at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, created a lamb using DNA from an adult sheep. The achievement shocked leading researchers who had said it could not be done. The researchers had assumed that the DNA of adult cells would not act like the DNA formed when a sperm’s genes first mingle with those of an egg.

The paper was published on Feb 27th 1997.

Another consensus, busted.

h/t ClimateDepot

9.8 out of 10 based on 64 ratings

215 comments to At the turn of last century people didn’t know what a radio was

  • #

    The climate of our planet
    was perfect on June 15, 1750,
    and it’s been downhill from there.

    I predict the average temperature in 2100
    will be warmer than today …
    unless it is colder than today.

    I also predict the interglacial will
    eventually end and the planet
    will get colder, either next week,
    or in a thousand years, I’m not sure which.

    One thing about predicting the future climate
    will bring us a climate catastrophe, which has been
    the most common prediction since the 1960’s,
    is that the predictions are always wrong !

    My climate science blog:
    http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com

    160

    • #

      When the next ice age inevitably arrives and km’s thick glaciers are bearing down on NYC, it will definitely be a climate catastrophe. We know with absolute certainty that this has happened many times before, will definitely happen again and there won’t be a damn thing we can do about it.

      190

    • #
      czechlist

      “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”
      “you can observe a lot just by watching”
      “we made too many wrong mistakes”
      “the future ain’t what it used to be”
      “I never said most of the things I said”
      -Yogi Berra

      90

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        “When you see a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi Berra.

        The alarmists have been going down the anti-science road for decades. There’s a fork up ahead.

        Will they be as wise as Yogi Berra?

        60

      • #
        sophocles

        Barring any huge disaster, I can make two predictions with reasonable but not total certainty, for 2100.

        1. The sun will rise in the east in the morning,
        2. There will be weather everywhere, (as usual.)

        I offer no prediction about the weather.

        70

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Humanity has done amazing things over the last 12,000 years of records that can be seen, and deduced, from archeological exploration.

    Cloning of a sheep is perhaps the climax of human achievement because in contrast to much previous work, like the the Giza Pyramids and the much earlier structures at Gobekli Tepe, it involved mechanisms that were essentially invisible to those doing the work.

    But despite all of this wonderful human progress we still have not resolved the control system that allows us to function.

    As an example of the lack of progress made in this area I was unfortunately witness to an incident last weekend where people have been caught up in the drug culture, the victmhood culture and the violence of mind that ensues. A truly ugly scene.

    I was left wondering where society is headed and why we don’t seem to be making progress towards a better world.

    Words like fairness, equality and so on are put out by politicians and social justice warriors but instead of moving Towards that ideal place we are rapidly heading away towards anger and Chaos.

    KK

    250

    • #
      jack

      The application of Reason has given us tremendous strides in science & technology.
      But morally we continue to hover around this subjective impasse.

      We are witch doctors with our finger hovering over the button.

      70

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Yep, we don’t know where to go and we don’t know how to get there, so we are stuck in the mental mud and leaderless.

        40

        • #
          jack

          There is a path, and well document by some great minds.

          But as we ‘meander’ down this path, we find it fraught with constant road blocks.
          These road blocks send us on detours that are a catastrophe for all involved.

          When you abandon Reason, any atrocity is justifiable.

          60

          • #
            Phoenix 44

            I don’t think that is right. It is the embrace of certainty that gas caused atrocities and now xauses both Alarmist craziness and the Internet witch hunts that try and shut down free speech.

            On a lesser scale it is happening in the UK with Brexit this week, those who are certain they know best are wrecking any remaining public trust in our politics and ignoring the biggest ever vote, because they “know” we should do what they think.

            20

            • #
              jack

              Hi Phoenix 44
              Someone being certain of something or “they know”, in no way means they have come to that conclusion by reason.
              If fact you will find that most peoples ‘positions’ are not fully reasoned propositions at all.
              Feelings, undefined beliefs, emotions, culture, play a very strong part in what most people believe.
              In science reason is paramount.(lets just accept this for now).

              In human interaction Reason is a very good common ground for a moral bases.
              For example if we to accept the precepts “All people are equal” and “Do on to others as you have done to your self”.
              We could reason it is wrong to treat another person in a way you would not like to be treated yourself.
              So if you have agreed and good(rational) base precepts, with reason, you would have a moral society.
              A bad precept is generally dogmatic “I believe X and I can kill anyone who disagrees”, this would be unacceptable to a rational person.

              And so on the other hand if you throw reason out, any thing is a ‘truth’ and any action is justifiable.

              In regards to Britain exiting from the EU you need to be clear of the base premises and have rational discussion.
              This requires effort because thinking is not easy.

              20

        • #
          Hivemind

          Leaderless? You must be living in Australia.

          00

  • #
    Mark M

    Q. Who remembers the CSIRO/BoM drought vortex?
    A. No one.

    “Is a mysterious new weather system causing the drought in southern Australia?

    Climatologists are desperately trying to explain the mystery of where southern Australia’s winter rainfall is going.
    They’ve known the rain is being pulled south by an unexplained force.
    Now they’ve devised a revolutionary new theory to explain why.”

    It’s 2003, and those who claim to see 100 years in the future claim the future is here, now …

    Kevin Hennesy, CSIRO: It’s very clear from the consensus of many thousands of scientists that global warming is real, it’s actually under way now, it’s not just something that’s going to happen in the future.

    Dr David Jones, Bureau of Meteorology: We’re just going to have to accept that life in the future may not provide us with as much water as we had in the past.

    DROUGHT VORTEX

    http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s948858.htm

    ENSO Wrap-Up
    Current state of the Pacific and Indian oceans
    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/

    Accountability now.

    140

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Didn’t someone comment on this moving rain front here a month ago. It was observed and accepted by farmers.

      Perhaps our “scientists”™ will soon be tempted to find an explanation for the daily change in sea levels and the morning Westerly winds and afternoon East wind?

      Science has no boundaries, when the money is unlimited.

      KK

      160

      • #
        AndyG55

        These guys really are making total idiots of themselves.

        Blatant scientifically unsupportable propaganda pap.

        Santer is nothing but a parrot-like JOKE… and a Travesty !!

        72

    • #
      Mark M

      Update! 25 February, 2019:

      “The narrative out there that scientists don’t know the cause of climate change is wrong,” he said. “We do.”
      There is a vast scientific consensus that humans have causes global warming.

      Benjamin Santer, lead author of the study at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, told the news service he hoped the findings would convince the last remaining skeptics.”

      Evidence of humans causing global warming hits ‘gold standard’: report

      https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/431439-evidence-of-global-warming-caused-by-humans-hits-gold-standard

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      • #
        Destroyer D69

        “The narrative out there that scientists don’t know the cause of climate change is wrong,” he said. “We do.”
        There is a vast scientific consensus that humans have causes global warming. (and rely on this “consencus” to keep the gravy boat afloat.)

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        • #
          theRealUniverse

          There is NO scientific consensus about climate change. Just for those who accept LARGE gov handouts for that gravy chain.
          Science isnt about consensus.

          80

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Mark when will you stop posting links to US rubbish here at Jonov’a Australian website ?

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        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Hi Bill,

          I don’t go to other news sites much so I found the link interesting. My pet irritation is the presence of perpetual non-contributors, blogg-cloggers, and some who are advertising their own blogs.

          But then there are no doubt a few who wouldn’t miss me if I went. That’s life.

          KK

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        • #
          Geoffrey Williams

          I have to agree with Bill ; Mark’s link is really unnecessary and I for one am not interested in its content.
          GeoffW

          21

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        “hits ‘gold standard’: FAKE report”

        30

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          That article is just more nonsense propaganda regurgitated from the IPCC FAKE report. Its old hat now. Move on.

          30

    • #
      Geoff

      As the free money moves so to the story. Government continues to ignore real problems to pay for headlines in agreement with noisy government departments. They believe this makes them popular. Meanwhile there is constant turnover of politicians and more instability.

      100

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘Climatologists are desperately trying to explain the mystery of where southern Australia’s winter rainfall is going.’

      The intensification of the subtropical ridge was real and it drove winter rains further south, but all that came to an end in 2017 with a loss of intensity in the STR.

      Normal weather has resumed.

      90

    • #
      sophocles

      My grandfather emigrated to South Australia from Ireland in 1903. He tried carving a farm out of the SA countryside and was wiped out by drought c. 1910. He moved to Taranaki in NZ. Good move: there was no drought there. (It also helped that the girl he had been sweet on in Ireland had just arrived there, her family having emigrated to NZ.)

      Here was me thinking from that family history, that drought was common in SA. Every time I’ve looked at SA, since the early 1960’s, it was having a drought, so, to give everyone there a chance, I stopped looking. It didn’t work … ?

      20

  • #

    I can predict Autumn coming on.

    170

  • #
    Another Ian

    Don’t forget the mathematical proofs. Two come to mind:-

    Heavier than air flight not possible

    And for the petrol heads – around the 1960 – 70 era a slingshot dragster could not accelerate at more than 1G. A quick check via the duck mentions 3.3G

    https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/AnamAhmed.shtml

    60

    • #
      yarpos

      Nobody will ever need more than 640kB of RAM

      170

      • #
        TdeF

        My first invention used 2.5Kbyte of RAM. It was amazing. As much again for the code on a 1Mhz CPU.

        50

      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        My first computer, bought in 1970, had 8K of memory, total. Tiny loops of ferrite, like microscopic donuts, had wires fed through them heading N-S, E-W, NE-SW, NW-SE, four wires through every donut. If one loop failed, we would fly to LA where some lasses with steady hands would take much of the circuit board apart and replace the loop.
        You would be surprised how much science was able to advance using technology like this. First Man on the Moon, 1969, was fundamentally achieved with similar technology and very clever programmers. I dips me hat. Geoff

        100

        • #
          TdeF

          Probably a Digital Equipment PDP-8 or 9? The extra 8K cost $32,000 at the time. That was about equivalent to half a million $ today.
          The astronauts also took a HP-65 calculator on the Appollo Soyuz flight in 1975. You hit SINe and it took 20 seconds, but amazing. It was also the backup computer on the flight.

          60

        • #
          TdeF

          Also there is a great museum of computers in the amazing Grande Arche de la Defense in Paris in the main business district. This is the counter point to the Loire Palace at the other end of the Champs Elysee, equidistant from the Arc de Triomphe.
          I found it by accident. I also found that I had owned nearly every computer in the exhibition, which was a bit depressing as I was now also museum fodder.

          80

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            Been in la defense, but a long time ago.

            10

          • #
            NuThink

            What a great name for a French Computer company.

            Bull SAS (also known as Groupe Bull, Bull Information Systems, or simply Bull) is a French-owned computer company headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, in the western suburbs of Paris. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General Electric, Honeywell Bull, CII Honeywell Bull, and Bull HN. Bull was founded in 1931, as H.W. Egli – Bull, to capitalize on the punched card technology patents of Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull (1882–1925).[1] After a reorganization in 1933, with new owners coming in, the name was changed to Compagnie des Machines Bull (CMB).

            00

          • #

            sorry tdef but not any more

            The roof, when it was open to the public, was also popular for its views of Paris. However, after an accident without injury in the elevators in April 2010, the Department of Ecology, owner of the roof of the Grande Arche, decided to permanently close the computer museum, restaurant, and viewing deck.

            10

        • #
          NuThink

          Geoff, there were some very interesting and inventive techniques to store data, such as Magnetostrictive delay lines, Mercury delay lines, Piezoelectric delay lines, Electric delay lines, Optical persistence delay lines.

          https://www.ampronix.com/conrac-brand
          We used rebadged Conrac displays with Magnetostrictive memories to store a whole screen full of data. The cost of the memory for that was about $300 in the early 1970s.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory

          10

      • #
        sophocles

        … and the world will end in 2000 when all the computers crash …

        40

    • #
      TdeF

      The most famous was the Cambridge Physics professor who calculated that a steam ship could not make it to New York. In his proof the extra coal needed increased the size of the boat which increased the drag which in turn increased the amount of coal needed. A steamship arrived in New York two weeks later.

      230

      • #
        sophocles

        The Americans have need of the telephone, but we [the British] do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.

        – William Preece

        Yep, it’s hard to predict the future …

        40

      • #
        sophocles

        The Americans have need of the telephone, but we [the British] do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.

        – William Preece

        One more of the famous technological predictive blunders/’disasters’ at the end of the nineteenth century. Lord Thompson didn’t do well with the age of the sun either, but then he didn’t know about nuclear reactions.

        Yep, it’s hard to predict the future … as the IPCC and it’s 97% scientists are beginning to discover …

        40

        • #
          sophocles

          Several Expletives Deleted. Let’s see: v. 65.0.1 of Firefox released 12 days ago, so there must be another version due out any day now …

          30

    • #
      NuThink

      Heavier than air flight not possible

      Funny that the persons making this claim never looked at any birds. They don’t even have to be as heavy as Seagulls or Eagles or Pelicans or Andean Condors to be heavier than air.

      Although it (Andean Condor) is on average about seven to eight cm shorter from beak to tail than the California condor, the Andean condor is larger in wingspan, which ranges from 270 to 320 cm (8 ft 10 in to 10 ft 6 in).[3] It is also typically heavier, reaching a weight of 11 to 15 kg (24 to 33 lb) for males and 8 to 11 kg (18 to 24 lb) for females.[15]

      I do not know if this is true or folklore, but did the Wright Brothers not reply when told that heavier than air flight was impossible “I guess that we are just too stupid to know that“.

      10

  • #
    Another Ian

    ANd at the turn of last century the BBC wasn’t invented either. BUT

    “Delingpole: BBC Caught Lying Again. And Again…”

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/25/bbc-caught-lying-again-about-climate-change/

    110

  • #
    PeterS

    Peak oil. What a joke that was and still is.

    140

    • #
      el gordo

      Ozone depletion caused by CFCs was another doosey.

      Terraforming Mars and Venus is on the agenda in 2097.

      80

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        ‘Terraforming Mars and Venus is on the agenda in 2097.’ In there dreams…cant terraform Earth yet. So how do you manage that at 450C?

        CFC ozone depletion was the earlier SCAM pre CO2 SCAM. Based on one flawed paper. NASA never proved it. Now we have to put up with poor refrigerants.

        Peak Oil is another SCAM, the oil companies WANT you to believe it is limited in supply. Same as GAS. Gas supply (maybe oil) is probably nearly inexhaustible. The argument that natural gas is fossil in origin is absurd as there are several moons and planets, and inter stellar nebula, that have the SAME gas.

        80

        • #
          el gordo

          A large reflecting mirror between Venus and the sun would cool the planet, the CO2 settling on the surface as dry ice.

          Venus is roughly the same size as earth and its in the habitable zone, but we’ll need to increase its rotation a tad. Length of day is a big deal.

          30

          • #
            PeterS

            The extreme atmospheric pressure at the surface is the biggest problem. It would not be suitable for life forms such as ourselves. We would need to remove much of the atmosphere.

            40

        • #
          Phoenix 44

          Peak oil isn’t a scam, just a total misunderstanding of how mineral companiesbook reserves and resources.

          20

  • #
    yarpos

    I am amazed by the advances in materials science just in my adult lifetime. The things that can be done now vs my 20s are quite amazing. Just the simple example of highly reliable consumer cars. We take off granted there are millions of cars in big cities but we rarely see a smoking exhaust, they go further, weigh less and provide more crash protection.

    Then of course there is that whole Internet thingy, but thats just a fad.

    140

    • #
      GD

      I am amazed by the advances in material science just in my adult lifetime.

      I agree. Born in 1956, I have been amazed, not by television, I was too young to appreciate it, but certainly by colour television in 1975. I remember visiting friends who had colour TV, just so we could watch ‘Happy Days’ or the Sunday night movie in colour.

      But the biggie for me has got to be the internet. At the tail end of the 20th Century came this hooking up of computers in universities. Then the networking of computers worldwide. I remember reading Paul Keating, then PM, spruiking ‘the information super-highway’.

      That has to be the one thing he got right. I was sold, hook, line and sinker. After reading his article in the SMH, I raced across town to an Elizabeth Street address where I purchased some hardware and software and that afternoon I was online and surfing the web.

      It was an amazing experience, made all the more amazing when I stumbled on the Swatch Watch website. They ran a worldwide competition to win prizes for surfing the web. Within a day I had partners in Europe, California, and Hawaii.

      It was silly, it was fun, and it opened up the internet for us newbies. Some of those relationships lasted for years.

      The 20th Century has seen a succession of giant leaps in technology. The only regret I have about growing old is that I won’t be around to see the next giant leap or the one after that.

      Just imagine.

      70

  • #
    Zigmaster

    It’s one thing to predict the future but another to predict the past . Just ask the BOM they have to keep changing the past .

    220

    • #
      Dennis

      BoM deceptive data being reported to politicians and published by media and the politicians ignore it.

      UN Official admits to the the IPCC deception and that the agenda is socialism masquerading as environmentalism.

      But still the political system maintains momentum.

      120

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        FACTS:
        The sun is a mainline star, therefore its output (of energy) can vary.
        We know that when it has varied cooler in the past, the Earth has got cooler.
        The sun is showing all the signs of cooling.

        Therefore according to “THE SCIENCE” the Earth MUST get warmer.

        I would give them 2 more northern winters before the whole thing collapses and a number of activists are suddenly worried about criminal convictions.

        50

    • #
      TdeF

      They have no choice. They are the custodians of the past where the present is determined by satellites they do not control.

      90

    • #
      yarpos

      Once your models for the future are shown to be so much fertiliser there isnt much left except adjust the past and/or change the narrative along the lines of change/extreme/unprecedented rather than focussing to much on temperature.

      50

    • #
      PeterS

      “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984

      30

  • #
    TdeF

    20th century achievements for man himself

    North Pole. Frederick Cook and two Inuit. 1908
    South Pole. Roald Amundsen, 1911
    Break the speed of sound, Chuck Yeager 1947
    Everest 1953
    First man in space, Yuri Gagarin 1961
    First man on the moon, Neil Armstrong 1969

    then four very significant inventions which have changed our world forever

    The Atom bomb 1945
    First satellite 1957
    First 8 bit CPU, Intel 8080 1972
    World Wide web 1990.

    which have allowed humans to claim we are Masters of the Universe, all knowing and all wise and now even control the planetary weather. Like children on the freeway.

    From ignorance to incredible arrogance and peril. Less than 100 years.

    Of course we do not control the planet! It was there before us. It will be there long after we are gone.

    100

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      The ultimate analogy;
      “Like children on the freeway”.

      Then beaten by:
      “From ignorance to incredible arrogance and peril.
      Less than 100 years.”

      I fear for many whose only contact with reality has been through the TV screen or computer.

      Then, when those people become our leaders we are like a nation standing in the middle of the freeway waiting for a Social Security handout.

      Reality got lost somewhere many years ago.

      KK

      120

    • #
      Environment Skeptic

      Another incredible achievement that could never be predicted was that Bacillus Subtilis (responsible for producing more vitamin K2 than any other source amongst a huge list of other things B Subtilis can do.) would save the germans from Dysentery during world war 1

      https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/german-soldiers-eat-poop.html
      “Nazi soldiers were dying by the hundreds from severe dysentery alone without the help of dung decoy landmines or combat wounds. The German army was so “beside itself in trying to figure out what to do that they flew in the Nazi medical corps to try and staunch the disturbing outbreak.

      “When the group of various types of scientists and physicians arrived, they set to work trying to figure out how to cure the suffering soldiers. There “were no antibiotics that would cure it so they had to find another way. Observing that the locals weren’t dropping like flies, they paid close “attention to their behaviors when they became ill.

      “Imagine their surprise when they watched the sick following around camels. It must have been baffling – especially when they stooped to pick up that “fresh camel apple and then scarfed it down.

      “There was no question that it was effective. Every time, it resulted in restored health by the next day. The scientists questioned the Arabs and found “that they didn’t understand what it was that worked to cure the dysentery and that the camels were not fed any special herb or plant that the Germans “could use instead without the fecal accompaniment. The Arabs responded that they were only doing what they had been taught for generations and that the “only rule was that it had to be warm and fresh, or it wouldn’t work.

      Being as fastidious as they were perfect Aryans, the Nazi scientists decided to identify what in the camel dung was responsible for the cure so that it could be extracted and taken in a less dirty way. This discovery is still important to science and medicine today. What they discovered was Bacillus subtilis – a bacterial organism with super-strength that eats any other bacteria or virus that gets in its way, particularly any of the pathogenic variety.

      B Subtilis is still used to treat children with nutritional disorders and is used in agriculture and added to chook feed to improve thier digestion also…the list of medical applications is seemingly endless, except in Australia where products like BactiSubtil are not available due to strict quarantine laws which don’t make much sense with respect to B Subtilis…but anyway, there might be some other reason..agriculture use it and we can still get Natto, the Japanese super food in asian food stores…

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      You can add to that:

      1. The Pill;

      2. Antibiotics.

      20

    • #
      jack

      I believe you are mixing together our quest to understand the nature of the universe, with
      how do we use it.
      It is interesting that you said that a great achievement was the atomic bomb rather than controlled fission.

      Many years ago I work at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. The scientists there in no way could be describe as arrogant. They know we don’t know. The arrogant ones were the green peace protestors outside the gate, riding their high horse of moral superiority.

      I am proud of our increased understanding of the physical world.
      I am not happy with the moral/political thought pervading our world. If you judge humanity by that alone, it is a very sad picture.

      And with all respect,
      I think you left off Controlled flight (Dec 1903) from your list.
      And IMHO the transistor and therefore the ability to make very, very small gates.

      20

  • #
    pat

    Dave Sharma knows:

    26 Feb: SMH: ‘We should be doing more’: Liberal candidate Dave Sharma breaks ranks on climate change
    By Michael Koziol
    Liberal hopeful Dave Sharma has demanded the Coalition do more to tackle climate change, arguing Australia must put itself in a “credible” position to convince other countries of the merits of stronger international action.
    In a major speech designed to separate himself from the Liberals ahead of a rematch against Kerryn Phelps in the seat of Wentworth in May, Mr Sharma will suggest his diplomatic skills could be useful in convincing US President Donald Trump to rejoin the Paris Agreement…

    In particular, Mr Sharma – a former ambassador to Israel – will say Australia should “be more ambitious and invest greater effort” into ensuring other countries meet their commitments and “raise the level of ambition over time”, beyond the 2030 Paris targets.
    This included “persuading countries that have pulled out of the Paris agreement – including the United States – to come back in”, Mr Sharma will tell a Coalition for Conservation event at Oxford Street’s Beauchamp Hotel…

    In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Mr Sharma said Australia needed to show the world it is a credible participant in the fight against global warming.
    “I think we can certainly be more credible. It’s a bit hard for us to convince other countries to stay the course if we flip-flop around – and we have been for the last 12 years,” he said.
    “We’ve allowed something that should really be a conventional policy challenge to become a kind of culture and values issue. It shouldn’t be the third rail of Australian politics.”

    Mr Sharma said there was “plenty of blame to go around on all sides”, including ideologues and extremists on his own side of politics…
    Mr Sharma praised Mr Morrison’s major climate announcement on Monday as “a credible package that we should be able to get behind”…

    But he will also argue that meeting those targets requires giving investors “confidence to continue the record levels of clean energy investment”…
    He agreed with Dr Phelps, his independent rival and the incumbent MP in Wentworth, that taxpayers’ money should not go toward new coal fired power plants or propping up existing stations…
    Dr Phelps said on Monday that the Coalition’s biggest problem was it was “dominated by climate change deniers” – a charge Mr Sharma rejected.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-should-be-doing-more-liberal-candidate-dave-sharma-breaks-ranks-on-climate-change-20190225-p50zzz.html

    30

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      There are none so blind as those who will not see.

      He obviously didn’t deserve to win the first time.

      110

    • #
      Ian1946

      Dave Sharma should join the ALP, he should be dis-endorsed now. The last thing we need are more socialist’s in the LNP.

      100

  • #
    robert rosicka

    This is OT but leaves no doubt about which political parties the AEC seems to favour , given the recent decision to rule that getup was not a political organisation and now this .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-26/facebook-electoral-commission-emails-reveal-political-ad-concern/10834736

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    And not to be outdone there’s this scheme that removes Co2 from the air ,heats it up then bottles it and to help pay for it all it sells the Co2 to soft drink makers and greenhouses .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-26/foreign-correspondent-climate-change-geoengineering/10833878

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    • #
      TdeF

      As all life on earth is made almost entirely from CO2 and water, banning CO2 is like fish banning water. The

      total lack of science and self awareness shows how science ignorant activists have succeeded in scaring science ignorant people. Even our allegedly conservative government is planning on spending $2 Billion of our money on reducing CO2, a harmless and absolutely essential gas. This is on top of the $6 Billion stolen from our electricity bills every year under government orders.

      As Dr. Patrick Moore wrote in his “Confessions of a Greenpeace dropout”, the Greens have no science. In his years from founding Greenpeace with a PhD in ecology, he knew only one other scientist, a German chemist. The rest were science ignorant, then communists, then lawyers who fought over control and the trademark, then businessmen who took over the multi billion dollar businesses.

      So while people play on their electronic equipment, North Korea and Pakistan and Iran work on improving their nuclear arsenals and Hollywood actors pretend they care about anyone else, we are spending massively on something which is a complete waste of time and masses of cash. More than $8 Billion a year of our cash on supposedly reducing our Carbon Dioxide output, just not called a Carbon Tax.

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    • #
      Maptram

      Sucking the CO2 through filters as well as heating and bottling it requires energy, nothing said about the source of the energy. Also transport of the CO2 to users requires energy.

      50

  • #

    … all life on earth made almost entirely from CO2 and water, banning CO2 is like…

    An oldie and a goody re trust and gullibility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

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  • #

    In 1993 most, if not all, people working in the area of genetics and embryogenesis didn’t just “think” that cloning a mammal was possible, they new it was. What they didn’t know was when would the technical difficulties be overcome to enable it to happen. Possibly many were surprised that it was done when it was done.

    Who were these “most people”? Probably people who knew nothing about it.

    25

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Undoubtedly.

      10

    • #
      Peter C

      In 1993 most, if not all, people working in the area of genetics and embryogenesis didn’t just “think” that cloning a mammal was possible, they new it was.

      Really? How did they know that? Were you one of the cognoscenti of the time?

      20

      • #

        yes I was. Funnily enough Jo was close enough connected to this research from her time at JCSMR that she would have been aware of this.

        You can get into a library and find discussion in annual reviews, nature letters etc from the time.

        00

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    “researchers in Britain are reporting that they have cloned an adult mammal for the first time.”
    What happened to Dolly the sheep? I remember that in the 90s. Did she taste as good as a non cloned one? 😉

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  • #
    pat

    2GB – Adani dazed and confused:

    on the one hand, yesterday –

    AUDIO: 9min31sec: 25 Feb: 2GB: Ray Hadley Show: Adani explained: CEO is an Aussie engineer, not an Indian billionaire
    The boss of mining giant Adani says protests against his company are being fuelled by misinformation.
    The controversial Carmichael project in the Galilee Basin project has faced countless roadblocks, including legal challenges, protests and financial hurdles, resulting in years of delays…
    Adani CEO Lucas Dow says more they’re just standing in the way of jobs and that more than 14,000 people have expressed an interest in working on the project.
    https://www.2gb.com/adani-explained-ceo-is-an-aussie-engineer-not-an-indian-billionaire/

    on the other hand, today we had yet another vicious attack on Adani by Alan Jones, who was once the face of a Lock The Gate ad, which was based on opposition to govt money going to Adani.
    no govt money is going to Adani now!

    listen from 19min44sec to 24min12sec:

    AUDIO: 26 Feb: 2GB: Alan Jones Show
    https://www.2gb.com/podcast/alan-jones-full-show-february-26th-2/

    reminder:

    Sept 2017: news.com.au: Alan Jones fronts campaign against Adani’s controversial coal mine in Queensland
    HE’S no greenie, but shock jock Alan Jones has a surprising message: “If you think we’re that stupid, think again”.
    by Charis Chang; with AAP
    But a TV ad that seeks to ‘stop the taxpayer loan to Adani’ features conservative broadcaster Alan Jones as the face of a new campaign from Lock the Gate…

    meanwhile, Alan Jones’s partner on Jones & Co (Sky News) – Peta Credlin – last nite:

    Adani segment. Vox Pop Townsville plus CEO Lucas Dow on Carmichael mine myths – from 21min15sec to 33min10sec:

    AUDIO: 25 Feb: Sky News: Peta Credlin
    http://more.skynews.com.au/podcasts/credlin-podcast/

    10

  • #
    Maptram

    As discussed a few days ago, in 2010 Darwin people thought their maximum temperature on 1st January was 34.2. They didn’t know that it was only 33.8 then 32.8

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    • #
      PeterS

      Perhaps in time it will drop down to -40. The scam being perpetrated by various groups is amazing in their brazenness. They have no shame. The belong in prison for life.

      40

  • #
    pat

    XR & school children run things:

    22 Feb: CambridgeIndependent: Cambridge City Council declares climate emergency
    by Mike Scialom
    PIC: Extinction Rebellion outside Guildhall – critical mass sees new declaration.
    The declaration followed the debate of a petition organised by Extinction Rebellion that gathered more than 2,100 signatures from people who live and work in Cambridge.

    Cllr Rosy Moore, executive councillor for Environmental Services and City Centre, said: “We welcome the petition we have received and thank the over 2,000 Cambridge residents who signed it, calling on us to declare a climate emergency.
    “We are proud that hundreds of local children and young people also marched through Cambridge last Friday as part of ‘Youth Strike 4 Climate’ calling for urgent action to protect the environment from destruction and to halt climate change.”…

    “But real progress towards net zero carbon can only come from major changes in the way that energy is generated, distributed and used at the national level. So we call upon the Government to give us greater powers and to provide the national policies and the investment in renewable energy sources, home energy efficiency, public transport and low-emission vehicles needed to reach net zero carbon by 2030.”…
    PIC: Extinction Rebellion hands in petition to council environmental officer Rosy Moore…

    XR Cambridge: “We want to help the council, but we need to see a commitment from them that they accept the urgent need to cut emissions and clean up Cambridge’s air. A 2050 carbon target doesn’t demonstrate that commitment. Scientists say the entire world needs to be zero carbon by 2050. A city with the resources and skills of Cambridge can and must hit zero carbon long before then.”

    PIC: Extinction Rebellion on Market Street.
    Extinction Rebellion Cambridge will host a family-friendly street party on March 2 to drive forward the need for Cambridge to reach zero carbon emissions urgently.
    PIC: YouthStrike4Climate in Market Square on February 15.
    https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge-city-council-declares-climate-emergency-9062728/

    10

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Extinction Rebellion.

      The first stage for all true believers in reducing CO2 would obviously be in the personal efforts made by those leading the charge. You would expect a huge demonstration to hand in all personal computers and Mobil phones at the local council building.

      Let me know when it happens.

      KK

      20

  • #
    jack

    Let me have a guess for a few technologies in 100 years time.
    Assuming we don’t devolve back to the dark ages first!

    Asteroid mining.
    Grab an asteroid, refine it on the way back to earth, an almost infinite supply of resources.

    Teleportation.
    Transfer of matter to energy and move it around at the speed of light.

    Human augmentation.
    Eye/brain implants that gives you a virtual screen and data on objects in your vision.

    Colonization of space.
    As sure as we advanced our horizon on earth, we will the same in the universe.

    Fusion as energy supply.
    Just got to get the “Flux gate capacitor” sorted out 🙂

    Graphene super capacitor storage for powering transport.

    Stem cell extension of useful life to over 100 years.

    Space station hydroponic farms.

    Nano materials with incredible strength/mass ratio.

    Before you laugh, remember what Lawrence Hargraves wrote in 1890 about his experiments on flight.

    “The people of Sydney who can speak of my work without a smile are very scarce. I know that succes is sure to come, and therefore do not waste time and words in trying to convince unbeleivers.”

    Less than 80 years later the SR71 flew from New York to London in 1hr 54 minutes.
    What a “I told you so”.

    30

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Teleportation.

      I wouldn’t be too keen to be on the receiving end of that.

      30

      • #
        yarpos

        Having been involved in the “tele” part most of my life neither would I. However I guess that is the old world and who knows what it will mean in 50 years. By then the NBN will probably work.

        20

      • #
        jack

        I didn’t say people, but being a little bit of a Trekie fan, may be one day.

        Beam me up Scottie.

        30

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Ok heres what I think for 2120
      Asteroid mining. Possible but still small scale and VERY expensive
      Teleportation. NO, Probably (improbability drive) not possible. (As KK said I wouldnt be the guinea pig either!)
      Human augmentation. Partly
      Fusion as energy supply. Maybe, those dam plasma bombs keep trying to escape our tubes!
      Colonization of space. NO, unless you mean Moon or Mars base , limited maybe.
      Nano materials with incredible strength/mass ratio. Probably in some form.
      Space station hydroponic farms. Small and useless.

      In 1962 I went to England as a young kid and, at a show I went to with my parents, they had a news paper (Daily Mail I think) supposedly what would be published in 2000! It had a full Moon base! And allot of things that never happened. No internet or anything like that was even mentioned.
      Its is VERY hard to predict technology as development follows a statistical path similar to finding the particle in a box!

      30

      • #
        jack

        The interesting thing is, what we have now, that would be absolutely astounding to to someone 120 years ago, we (or most) accept without a second thought.
        I’m sure many millennial’s believe the the first text message went something like this:

        “Hi Adam, were are you?”
        “Hi Eve, I’m down by the lake. What are we having for tea?”
        “Apple Pie”

        00

  • #
    pat

    Mark M comment #3.2 – posted The Hill re Benjamin Santer, which links to Reuters’ Doyle and ***”scientists” saying:

    26 Feb: Reuters: Evidence for man-made global warming hits ‘gold standard’: ***scientists
    by Alister Doyle
    Evidence for man-made global warming has reached a “gold standard” level of certainty, adding pressure for cuts in greenhouse gases to limit rising temperatures, ***scientists said on Monday.
    “Humanity cannot afford to ignore such clear signals,” the U.S.-led team wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change of satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the past 40 years.

    They said confidence that human activities were raising the heat at the Earth’s surface had reached a “five-sigma” level, a statistical gauge meaning there is only a one-in-a-million chance that the signal would appear if there was no warming.
    Such a “gold standard” was applied in 2012, for instance, to confirm the discovery of the Higgs boson subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe.

    Benjamin Santer, lead author of Monday’s study at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said he hoped the findings would win over skeptics and spur action.
    “The narrative out there that scientists don’t know the cause of climate change is wrong,” he told Reuters. “We do.”

    Mainstream ***scientists say the burning of fossil fuels is causing more floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels…
    Monday’s findings, by researchers in the United States, Canada and Scotland, said evidence for global warming reached the five sigma level by 2005 in two of three sets of satellite data widely used by researchers, and in 2016 in the third.

    Professor John Christy, of the University of Alabama in Huntsville which runs the third set of data, said there were still many gaps in understanding climate change. His data show a slower pace of warming than the other two sets.
    “You may see a certain fingerprint that indicates human influence, but that the actual intensity of the influence is minor (as our satellite data indicate),” he told Reuters.

    Separately in 2013, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that it is “extremely likely”, or at least 95 percent probable, that human activities have been the main cause of climate change since the 1950s
    Peter Stott of the British Met Office, who was among the scientists drawing that conclusion and was not involved in Monday’s study, said he would favor raising the probability one notch to “virtually certain”, or 99-100 percent.
    “The alternative explanation of natural factors dominating has got even less likely,” he told Reuters…

    “I would be reluctant to raise to 99-100 percent, but there is no doubt there is more evidence of change in the global signals over a wider suite of ocean indices and atmospheric indices,” said Professor Nathan Bindoff, a climate scientist at the University of Tasmania.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-temperatures/evidence-for-man-made-global-warming-hits-gold-standard-scientists-idUSKCN1QE1ZU

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    • #
      Serp

      Yeah sure. How long will we wait for the refutation and when it arrives how widely will it be published? Thumb on the scales or what!

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    • #
      Maptram

      As always, the climate changer believers say there is evidence that human activity has caused climate change, in this case gold standard evidence, but no-one says what the evidence is.

      30

  • #
    Serp

    Three cheers for pumping water uphill to reduce power prices. The anti-science nutters are definitely on a roll these last few weeks.

    The momentum towards completing the criminalization of coal that Bandt and Di Natale advocate is not diminishing; this next one will be a very interesting, if short lived, federal parliament.

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    • #
      Sambar

      I’m with you there Serp. The whole concept seems flawed to me. The first part, build a dam, this takes several years. The second part, pump water up hill with spare, excess, surplus electricity. Now as we keep closing down coal powered stations and loosing production capacity and relie on intermittent wind /solar how will we ever have surplus power at the right time? As the country has to continuously utilise interconnectors to keep the lights on, how can it be predicted that on any given day power can be diverted to pump huge volumes of water uphill ! If its a still night in S.E. Aust and the few coal stations are working at capacity just keeping the country “ticking” where is the “spare power”. Also no comment on how long it takes to recharge the top dam. I’m no engineer but I’ll bet that it takes much longer to pump the water uphill than it does to run it down.

      P.S. Just heard on the news that Snowy 2 will generate enough power to run 500,000 homes. No mention as for how long or how often. I would also hazard a guess that there are at least 2.5 million houses in Sydney alone, so no green / renewable electricity for the rest of us!

      20

      • #

        P.S. Just heard on the news that Snowy 2 will generate enough power to run 500,000 homes.

        Hmm! And Bayswater generates enough power to supply, umm, TWO MILLION homes.

        Tony.

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      • #
        MudCrab

        Oh yes, the good old ‘home’ as a unit of measure.

        Is this before or after we are told to switch off our TVs and computers at the wall in order to save power?

        Did we ever get the official exchange rate from Home to Small Office or to Medium Sized Factory? How about Local Bottle Shop w/Wall in Fridge section? No, power generation is always expressed in ‘Homes’ because industry and infrastructure clearly run on Accidents and Tragedies.

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      • #

        Even compared to hydro, coal power is so boring and predictable. No drama, no novelty, no serendipity. No sweating on wind, sun or rain. No hoping the Strait of Hormuz stays open or the Nigerian tribes don’t mangle a pipeline.

        Nah. Just the same old same old. All the time, day night, all weathers. For centuries to come without let-up, since we’ve got so much of the stuff. In NSW alone, that 500 km long, 150 km wide Permian−Triassic Sydney–Gunnedah Basin. Just power, power, power…

        Yawn.

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        • #

          Boring old coal fired power. What has it ever given us over the years?

          In 1949, the population of the U.S. was 150 Million.

          They consumed 250TWH of electrical power. The residential sector, where that population lived, in their homes, they consumed 66TWH of that total. It was the third highest consumer, as most went to the Industrial Sector, and not far behind the Commerce Sector. A typical coal fired Unit was 10 MW, with a large one as big as perhaps 25MW. They were rudimentary, but delivered large amounts of power.

          Now, here we are in 2019.

          The population of the U.S. has doubled to 300 Million The power consumed in their homes is now 1380TWH, so while the population has doubled, the power they consume has gone up by a factor of 21. A typical large coal fired Unit is now 700MW, and the large ones up around 1200MW. The technology of coal fired power is now five levels higher than it was in 1949, and the sixth level is getting close now.

          In 1949, if an electrical engineer had have been told coal fired technology would be driving a single Unit of 1200MW, he would have laughed in your face, and told you it was absolutely impossible for that to happen. Now they are thinking that 1500MW is even probable.

          Incidentally, that total generated power in 1949 to run the U.S. was 250TWH, a little more than what we are currently generating here in Australia right now to support a Country with a population of 25 Million, one sixth of the U.S. with 150 million in 1949.

          Also incidentally, some of those Units from 1949 are still operational in the U.S. today, almost 70 years old.

          Coal fired power is most definitely NOT ancient technology. It advances at the same rate as all technology advances.

          And all you need do is feed in coal.

          And we worry about whether to fit a 5KW or a 6KW system on our roof. (Not me though)

          Tony.

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  • #
    pat

    22 Feb: IPA: Why Won’t Australia’s Ruling Elite Acknowledge The Benefits Of Coal?
    by Daniel Wild
    The hypocrisy of Australia’s anti-coal contingent was exemplified this week by Richard Marles, who is the federal Labor Party’s spokesman for Defence…
    There is a desire among many in the higher echelons of Australia’s political, corporate, and legal system who want to see coal finished once and for all…
    There are currently ***2240 coal-fired power stations in operation around the world. Last year there was a record amount of coal-fired power generated and coal is Australia’s biggest export. The business has hardly collapsed…READ ON
    https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/why-wont-australias-ruling-elite-acknowledge-the-benefits-of-coal

    ***where did Wild get the 2240 figure?

    CoalSwarm.org: The Global Coal Plant Tracker has information on 14,000 existing and proposed coal plants worldwide.
    (The Global Coal Plant Tracker provides information on all existing coal plants of 30 MW or larger, as well as every plant proposed since January 1, 2010)
    http://coalswarm.org/

    5 Jun 2018: CarbonBrief: Mapped: The world’s coal power plants
    by Simon Evans, Rosamund Pearce
    Since 2000, the world has doubled its coal-fired power capacity to 2,000 gigawatts (GW) after explosive growth in China and India. Another 200GW is being built and 450GW is planned…
    Using data from CoalSwarm’s Global Coal Plant Tracker, it features around 10,000 retired, operating and planned coal units, totalling nearly 3,000 gigawatts (GW) across 95 countries…

    Global coal capacity grew in every year between 2000 and 2017, nearly doubling from 1,063GW to 1,995GW. As far back as 1950, coal capacity has only ever risen – though this older data is less reliable…
    Coal generates 40-41% of the world’s electricity, its highest share in decades. And there are now 77 countries using coal power, up from 65 in 2000. Another 13 plan to join the club…

    All unabated coal would have to close by 2040 to stay “well below” 2C, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This would mean closing 100GW of coal capacity every year for 20 years, or roughly one coal unit every day until 2040. (Some pathways have slightly slower phaseouts.).
    Yet newspaper headlines and energy projections suggest coal growth will not stop…

    China Operating(MW): 935,472 Share: 47%
    China Pipeline(MW): 210,903 Share: 32%

    India Operating(MW): 214,910 Share: 11%
    India Pipeline(MW): 131,359 Share: 20%
    https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants

    clearly anti-Adani Carmichael mine mob are happy to see China stay ahead of India when it comes to coal.

    30

    • #
      pat

      the elitist mob:

      13 Oct 2018: ABC: Climate target set by IPCC requires 12 Australian coal-fired power stations to close: Parliamentary Library report
      Exclusive by environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak
      The implication comes from simple arithmetic, produced by the Parliamentary Library, and would require nine power stations closing before the end of their scheduled life…

      But another figure went unreported: the IPCC also said to get to zero by 2050, we need to get to 78 per cent below 2010 levels within 12 years.
      At the request of the Greens, the Parliamentary Library crunched the numbers for what that meant in Australia, assuming that reduction was shared equally among each country…

      In 2010, Australia produced about 180,000 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from coal. Cutting that by 78 per cent means we can produce just 40,000 GWh from coal in 2030.
      But economically and physically, you usually cannot just turn down the power coming out of coal power stations. So the way to reduce that power output is to reduce the total coal fleet — to close some of the stations.

      So, what does Australia’s coal-fired power plant fleet look like?
      Currently, there are 21 coal-fired power stations in Australia.
      In 2010, Australia’s coal fleet had a maximum output of about 23.6 Gigawatts.

      Assuming the plants operate at an average of about 80 per cent their maximum output, Australia would need to cut its coal fleet down to one with a maximum output of about 5.64GW.
      That means stations would have to close…

      So according to the Parliamentary Library, if the transition away from the use of coal-generation energy demanded by the IPCC was applied to Australia, there would be:

      •One coal power station in NSW
      •Five in Queensland
      •Up to three in Western Australia
      •None in Victoria.
      That’s it. It would require 12 closures, nine of which would need to happen early, or, before the end of their scheduled life…

      “As people digest the IPCC report, the penny is dropping that 2030 is the real deadline, a mere 12 years away,” said Greens climate and energy spokesman Adam Bandt, who commissioned the analysis.
      “The IPCC is telling us that of the 16 coal-fired power stations on the eastern seaboard, at least 10 need to go in the next 12 years.
      “Currently only two are scheduled to go before 2030 and some people are even talking about extending those.”…

      Mr Bandt called for a legislated timetable of orderly retirement and a transition fund to support the communities affected by the closures…
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-13/coal-power-stations-needed-to-close-to-meet-ipcc-target-report/10368194

      10

      • #
        yarpos

        If that was your objective why not just run less units and have more reserve in each power station? It not as if a power station is a single monolitihic thing you either have or have not.

        40

      • #
        AndyG55

        Why does anybody take any notice of a crazy ant-science nut-job with one seat in the HOR and an over representation in the senate.

        Let’s all hope the Australian public are awake enough to totally annihilate the Greens in the Senate at the next election. !!

        01

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        But we know tghat this IPPC report is utter Bullsh*t.

        So I will not be voting for any IPPC favored party.

        52

      • #
        AndyG55

        Let’s all hope the Australian public are awake enough to totally ann1hilate the Greens in the Senate at the next election. !!

        10

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          It will only happen when the green “power shedding” occurs, and a loved one almost dies as a result.

          Sad but true.

          20

  • #
    pat

    26 Feb: ABC: Can geoengineering slow climate change, or will it be used as an excuse not to cut emissions?
    Foreign Correspondent By Eric Campbell
    (CHECK THE PHOTO)
    But no matter how fast the world switches to renewable energy, the age of untested, high-risk geoengineering could soon be upon us.
    So what are the most likely fixes and would they really work?

    (FINAL EXAMPLE)
    ‘Clean coal’
    Who can forget the Minerals Council 2015 ad on how amazing coal was?…
    But the 40 per cent reduction claim has been questioned by environmentalists, who point out that a high-emissions gas plant is needed to power the process.
    It is a far cry from Donald Trump’s 2016 declaration: “There is a thing called clean coal. Coal will last for a thousand years in this country.”…
    PROS
    Clean coal would certainly be great.
    CONS
    There is not much evidence yet that it is ever going to actually exist.

    Climate Hackers airs on Foreign Correspondent at 8pm on ABC TV.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-26/foreign-correspondent-climate-change-geoengineering/10833878

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  • #
    pat

    25 Feb: American Thinker: The global warming pause
    By S. Fred Singer
    The non-warming of the climate has become a topic much discussed since about 2005…
    Based on all the foregoing discussion, of the log-dependence of CO2 forcing (Myhre et al., GRL, 1998, vol. 25, doi: org/10.1029/98GLO1908) and its possible climate-cooling effect, I have a simpler hypothesis on the ineffectiveness of CO2 in warming the climate. I realize that this explanation is unacceptable to the IPCC and to many climate-warming advocates. I believe that the “gap,” now 40 years long, according to Christy, has existed throughout the Industrial Revolution — and probably during the whole of the Holocene. In other words, I consider that the “pause” may be permanent.

    I also believe that the gap will continue to grow in the future and demonstrate a convincing empirical argument supporting my explanation — namely, that CO2 no longer affects the climate, except perhaps at the slow level of its log-dependence.
    This log-dependence has to be modified (1) by CO2 cooling of the climate and (2) by possible positive feedback from water vapor, as assumed by the IPCC.

    In any case, all CO2 effects are overshadowed by climate oscillations and changes in solar activity (as can be seen in fig.14, pg.12, “Nature Rules the Climate” Neff et al., 2001, “Strong Coherence…,” Nature, vol. 411, pp. 290–293).
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/the_global_warming_pause.html

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  • #
    pat

    ***just what is needed – another day of “climate action”, organised by Dr. Kerry:

    25 Feb: YaleDailyNews: Kerry talks climate change, public health
    by Madison Mahoney
    On Friday afternoon, a few hundred students, faculty and guests filled the Yale School of Medicine’s Harkness Hall to hear former Secretary of State John Kerry speak about climate change policy and its relation to public health issues.

    The event was co-sponsored by the Climate Change and Health Initiative at the Yale School of Public Health and the Yale Institute for Global Health. Moderated by Robert Dubrow, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and director of CCHI, the conversation began with introductions by Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health.
    “Secretary Kerry is a champion of an aggressive U.S. and global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Given the existential threat of global warming, his highlighting of economic and health risks was timely, along with his suggested strategies for positive responses,” Vermund wrote in an email to the News…

    “This is enormously a matter of public health. It is simply not being met adequately despite all of our efforts in Paris,” Kerry said, referencing the Paris Agreement. “We are, by acts of omission and commission, living out a mutual suicide pact. No exaggeration. We only have one planet.”…
    “We need to make 2020 the year we vote out politicians who don’t endorse a green economy,” he said…

    In his closing remarks, Kerry outlined his current plans to create ***a day of world climate action. According to Kerry, he reserved the domain for the website “One Planet Action” just a few days ago and is hoping to create something akin to “Earth Day,” an annual celebration he helped to establish during the 1970s…
    Kerry received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and currently serves as the Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale.
    https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/02/25/kerry-talks-climate-change-public-health/

    20

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    While the 1900’s were good, the 1800’s were freaking awesome:
    After the steam engine in 1804, things really took off.
    1822: Charles Babbage, considered the “father of the computer”,[235] begins building the first programmable mechanical computer.
    1853: François Coignet invents reinforced concrete
    1864: Louis Pasteur invents the pasteurization process
    1873: Zénobe Gramme invents the first commercial electrical generator
    1879: Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison both patent a functional Incandescent light bulb
    1884: Hiram Maxim invents the recoil-operated Maxim gun, ushering in the age of semi- and fully automatic firearms.
    1886: Karl Benz invents the first petrol or gasoline powered auto-mobile (car)
    1888: John J. Loud invents the ballpoint pen
    1891: Whitcomb Judson invents the zipper.
    1893: Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel engine (although Herbert Akroyd Stuart had experimented with compression ignition before Diesel)
    1898: Hans von Pechmann synthesizes polyethylene, now the most common plastic in the world

    In fact you could say that everything in following century was just refining what went before.

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    Luckily I’ll still be alive when the next big thing arrives, and actually, I can’t wait. I’ve started saving up now in fact

    Evidently, according to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, by 2030, I’ll be able to take the train from New York to Paris. I even think I’ll extend the trip and take in Lake Baikal on the Orient Express all the way to Vladivostok. Then across to, and back down through Alaska and onto LA, then onto Hawaii, and then home to Australia.

    Ahh, what a train trip that’ll be.(!)

    Tony.

    121

  • #
    David Maddison

    OFF TOPIC

    SNOWY 2.0, another Green energy disaster.

    https://www.afr.com/news/economy/why-snowy-20-is-a-writeoff-from-the-start-20180104-h0d9z4

    QUOTE
    “The feasibility study says that at capacity, Snowy 2.0 will only produce about 1 kilowatt hour for each 1.5 kilowatt hours needed to pump water to the top reservoir. Add to that 10 per cent for losses in transmitting electricity from generators in the Hunter and Latrobe valleys to pump the water uphill. And then add another 10 per cent for losses in transmitting the stored electricity back to the main load centres in Sydney and Melbourne where most of it will be consumed. In other words, Snowy 2.0 will use about 1.8 kilowatt hours for each kilowatt hour that it actually delivers to consumers. “

    70

    • #
      Serp

      Yep, and that’s going to slash the price of electricity; if you start from a high enough base price it will reduce the price but at that rate there’d long ago have been no buyers so you’re flogging a dead white elephant.

      30

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Serp:

        They need $40 a MWh to make money. In their original costing.
        SO they need electricity below $50 a MWh to NOT INCREASE wholesale prices. Let’s see, what method can guarantee supply below that cost…. well there is that old fashioned coal burners.

        20

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Graham, you, and others here, totally misunderstand pumped hydro.

          The operators can make a profit at $20/MW provided they buy power at $10, or better still -$10. They then make a profit on the arbitrage, not the ticket price.

          If this is not so why has Norway built a cable across the Kattegat? They have a nice little earner buying cheap as chips excess power from the south to pump water uphill to sell it back when the wind drops. It works. In fact it is an essential adjunct to the grid while governments are crazy enough to push untrustables.

          If our government doesn’t come to it’s senses soon, Snowy 2 will become indispensable. I agree that it SHOULDN’T but I am not the government.

          10

    • #
      Another Ian

      David

      In times agone motoring magazines used to have a lot of car add ons that were “guaranreed” to reduce your fuel consumption.

      There was also a joke about the bloke who had fitted them. He got pulled over by police – he was saving so much fuel that his tank was overflowing and spilling on the road.

      This sounds like that story in reverse.

      30

  • #

    I even used irony/sarcasm punctuation ….. the bracketed Exclamation mark.

    Tony.

    31

  • #
    pat

    am no big fan of Jordan Peterson – he seems to have been adopted by the FakeNewsMSM. didn’t watch the program, but heard some on ABC news radio, and read the transcript today.

    am interested in how CAGW got plenty of time, if not clarity:

    25 Feb: ABC Q&A: Jordan Peterson Destroys Q&A
    (SCROLL WAY DOWN)
    KATH LARKIN:
    Hi. My question is also for Peterson. And while I very much stand with the women’s advocates in the room, my question is sort of on a different topic. You have a whole lot of fans, or former fans, kind of so-called now ex-lobsters – people like Bernard Schiff – um, and a lot of these people talk about you have very simple answers to complex questions. You know, I think you often, you know, talk about, you know, individual responsibility over things that it’s impossible for individuals to actually have responsibility over. You look at the extortionate housing market, the precarious gig economy – like, things that are well out of our control.
    So, I want to know what is your answer to young people for some of the really big problems facing humanity, like the, you know, ***climate catastrophe, like economic crisis, like the precarious job market? ‘Cause I just don’t… Like, you talk all this much about individual responsibility. Most of us are never going to be able to afford to have all of these assets to have responsibility over. So, what is your advice beyond banal comments, like, “Clean your room”?…

    JORDAN PETERSON:
    Well, you know, it’s actually rather difficult to answer a question that ends with, “Your comments are banal” politely. So, you know, I would consider that more of an opinionated personal and political statement than actually a question. So, why don’t you try reformulating that so that there’s an actual question there?

    KATH LARKIN:
    What is your…? So, what is your advice to young people when you talk about, “You need to be individually responsible,” but when there are things that are so far out of our control, like ***climate catastrophe, like the precarious job economy, like, you know, the economic crisis…

    JORDAN PETERSON:
    They’re not as far out of your control as you think.

    KATH LARKIN:
    What is your answer to people who are facing these questions?

    JORDAN PETERSON:
    Do you think that you’re worse off than your grandparents? ETC…

    TONY JONES:
    So, try answering the question about ***collective responsibility on climate change, for example. Pick one part of that because the argument, I think, is that individual responsibility does not change the climate, does not fix the problem that needs global collective responsibility. So, I think that’s the core of the question. Do you have a theory about that?

    JORDAN PETERSON:
    Well, fundamentally, I’m a psychologist, and my experience has been that people can do a tremendous amount of good for themselves and for the people who are immediately around them by looking to their own inadequacies and their own flaws and the things that they’re not doing in their lives and starting to build themselves up as more powerful individuals. And if they’re capable of doing that, then they’re capable of expanding their career. And if they’re capable of expanding their career and their competence, then they’re capable of taking their place in the community as effective leaders, and then they’re capable of making wise decisions instead of unwise decisions when it comes to making collective political decisions.
    I’m not suggesting in the least, and have never suggested, that there’s no domain for social action. I’m suggesting that people who don’t have their own houses in order should be very careful before they go about reorganising the world, which happens in many ways…

    TONY JONES:
    So, can I just…? Just to… If a young person believes that the ***global warming, um, problem on the climate is something that needs to be tackled quickly, and they can’t wait until they grow up and become prime ministers to do it, do you think collective responsibility overrides individual responsibility in a huge issue like that?…

    JORDAN PETERSON:
    I don’t. I think that, generally… I think that, generally… I think that, generally, people… I think, generally, people have things that are more within their personal purview that are more difficult to deal with and that they’re avoiding and that, generally, the way they avoid them is by adopting pseudo-moralistic stances on large-scale social issues so that they look good to their friends and their neighbours. That’s what it looks like…

    TONY JONES:
    Just about out of time there. Um, Alex… can you fix a global problem like ***climate change without global action rather than individual action?

    ALEX HAWKE, LIBERAL:
    Well, obviously, global action is necessary to fix a global problem, and that’s part of the problem – that we don’t have real global sign-up from some of the biggest polluters and the biggest economies, so, obviously, global action’s necessary. But, I mean, you know, I was an Army Reserve officer. I never found any Communists and, you know, I… I hear what Van Badham’s saying, but that sounds like a Communist attack on the free market as well. Um, you know, and this is the problem. You know, constantly, the West is under this pressure. You know, we’ve got people assaulting what makes your life, as Jordan was about to say, you know, so much better than your grandparents’ life.
    The fact is, it doesn’t matter who you are in our country today. We have it so good in this country compared to the rest of the world, and… We do. You know, we’ve got more information at our fingertips. We’ve got more prosperity per person than anyone else on the planet. Sometimes, we get obsessed with our own individual problems. But you go to most of the world, it isn’t a free world, Tony…

    TERRI BUTLER, LABOR:
    Well, I think this idea that, suddenly, we all need to be scared of democratic institutions like the trade union movement, that somehow it’s a Communist plot, is pretty ridiculous. And I say that with great respect because I’m very fond of you, Alex, as you know, but it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.
    But I do want to say, I guess, this – for me, I don’t think there’s a distinction between personal responsibility and collective responsibility because it is out of a sense of duty and personal responsibility that we give up our weekends, that we give up our early mornings to go out and be part of a big movement. It’s not to make ourselves feel better. I mean, with respect, it’s just kind of an Ayn Rand formulation that all altruism is really about yourself. It’s not. It’s because people feel deeply, deeply passionately and concerned about the big challenges of our time. My six-year-old talked to me about drought and climate change the other day. He’s not doing it out of a sense of wanting to feel better and have his neighbours like him. He’s genuinely concerned about this…
    https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2019-25-02/10811138

    FOLLOWUP TO COME…

    20

    • #
      pat

      good old ABC: the questioner, Kath Larkin, who got to extend the topic of CAGW with the help of Tony Jones (program was recorded in Melbourne):

      TWEET: Victorian Socialists:
      Our federal candidate for Cooper, Kath Larkin, standing up to Jordan Peterson’s nonsense on Q&A. Fighting injustice doesn’t happen by cleaning your room. It happens though activists that organise collectively and stand up to the systematic roots of oppression and inequality. LINK ABC Q&A
      25 Feb 2019
      https://twitter.com/vic_socialists/status/1100006936576024576

      TWEET: Victorian Socialists:
      Kath Larkin, the Victorian Socialists candidate for Cooper in the federal election on Q&A pointing out the structural root of inequality! #vicsoc #QandA @QandA
      25 Feb 2019

      from replies, replying to another person on the thread:
      TWEET: Andrew C, Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology. CPSU Delegate at the Bureau of Meteorology.
      There’s fascist after fascist asking questions on live TV and you choose to attack and belittle the young woman challenging that? Great priorities there.
      https://twitter.com/vic_socialists/status/1099993506867642368

      Twitter: Andrew C, Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology. CPSU (Community and Public Sector Union) Delegate at the Bureau of Meteorology.
      (some tweets)
      Andrew C – ‏19 hours ago
      Kath Larkin is the Victorian Socialists candidate for the seat of Cooper #qanda…

      Andrew C – Kath Larkin 1, Jordan Peterson 0…

      Andrew C – Go Kath! Peterson talks a big game about structural issues but can’t answer the first question about systemic issues#QandA
      https://twitter.com/anrchars

      lol.

      20

      • #
        pat

        a final link, just to show Kath Larkin used to write for RedFlag:

        RedFlag.org: A voice of resistance
        (Red Flag is the newspaper of Socialist Alternative)
        (articles by Kath Larkin including)
        Hundreds at Socialist Alternative’s union conference
        24 Oct (2016): Kath Larkin More than 250 people attended Socialist Alternative’s Union Activism and History Conference, held at the Victorian Trades Hall on Saturday, 15 October…
        Linked sites
        Marxist Left Review
        Marxism Conference
        International Socialist Review
        Marxist Interventions
        Marxist Internet Archive
        https://redflag.org.au/author/kath-larkin

        00

      • #
        TdeF

        Amazing, they get a top psychologist on Q&A and ask him what they should do about Climate Change?
        Then belittle him for not giving them direction? He did.

        “people have things that are more within their personal purview that are more difficult to deal with and that they’re avoiding and that, generally, the way they avoid them is by adopting pseudo-moralistic stances on large-scale social issues so that they look good to their friends and their neighbours. That’s what it looks like… ”

        Or their audiences.

        50

    • #

      Says Terri Butler on Q and A: ‘My six-year-old talked to me about drought and climate change the other day. He’s not doing it out of a sense of wanting to feel better and have his neighbours like him. He’s genuinely concerned about this…’

      So where does a six tear old become ‘genuinely concerned with climate change,’ given, in his short life he hasn’nt been hit with extreme climate events like the Little Ice Age expansion of glaciers and recorded summers of crop failure or the 1840’s four famines that wiped out 45 million people in China or 20th century increase in extreme weather events that is not based on empiric evidence?

      Say, Terri, we know where he got his ‘genuine concern’ and it’s not from experience but from indoctrination at home and at school re the fear and guilt climate campaign that Christine Figures admitted was political. Shame on you, lefties for yr rules for radicals’ propaganda campaign and indoctrination of children via K-12 student make-over Core Curriculum education.

      00

    • #
  • #
    george

    I cannot believe Cardinal Pell was convicted after listening to the evidence.
    It’s all about money and lawyers, not justice.

    64

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Sounds about right.

      The first trial ended in a hung jury 10/12 for not guilty.

      The retrial ended with a 12/12 jury guilty verdict.

      The justice system in Victoriastan is anything but just.

      It’s been going on for years. Decades.

      “Lawyer X” dobs in her clients to the coppers. She’s been doing it since she was nailed as a druggy while studying law at university. The coppers seemed to have put the acid on her. How do you spell blackmail? The Crown Prosecutor uses her material to get guilty verdicts. Her clients go to gaol on the information she provided. Her name is suppressed, but the dogs are barking it on every street corner. So much for police confidentiality.

      The coppers were complicit for decades in corrupting the legal justice system it would seem.

      Then, today, on the Pell decision, we hear Scomo telling us that the verdict demonstrates that nobody in Australia is above the law!

      Julia Gillard is above the law. Her union comrades have seen to it. Investigation dropped.

      Pell has appealed today’s decision. And rightly so.

      Respect him or loath him, there is something seriously wrong with this.

      Their ABC is crowing. They may well eat crow before this is finished.

      62

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Apologies for adding to the off-topic nature of george’s post.

        However, think about it this way: at the turn of the last century people didn’t know what TV was or “social media” (better described as “unsocial media” in my view) let alone radio.

        This Pell decision has been appallingly influenced by those developments. The allegations and public hanging has been run by the media for years. Especially on their ABC. How any twelve jurors “good and true” could not be prejudiced by the incessant bias of the media on Pell must mean they were all living in a bottle.

        And, as for Lawyer X and what that means for the reputation of the Victorian justice system is anybody’s guess. Perhaps all trials are now suspect in Victoria?

        https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/10/deeper-wider-longer-lawyer-x-inquiry-reveals-corruption-of-justice-system

        41

        • #
          Annie

          If nothing else, it has been a very convenient way for their ABC to get at the RC church and someone who didn’t believe in the global warming sc@m.

          52

        • #
          george

          Yes, the ABC do the whole story ad nauseum.
          Once large amounts of money compensation enter the picture
          the truth is lost.

          30

  • #
    pat

    trillions still the CAGW prize:

    25 Feb: ClimateChangeNews: French experts propose trillion-euro EU climate finance pact
    Economist Pierre Larrouturou and climate scientist Jean Jouzel are leading a call to mobilise funds on a large scale, backed by more than 600 political figures
    By Natalie Sauer
    A group of experts has published a draft treaty (LINK) for a sweeping European climate finance pact, to inject more than a trillion euros into the fight against global warming.
    Addressing a packed launch event (LINK) in Paris last week, French economist Pierre Larrouturou and climate scientist Jean Jouzel urged European member states to mobilise funds in a similar way to the response to the 2008 financial crisis.
    “In every country, a majority of citizens have understood the gravity of the situation,” Larroturou told Le Monde. “Nevertheless, we run into a financial cliff that prevents the ecological transition.”

    The climate finance pact proposes two new tools to address global warming and social inequality: a green subsidiary of the European Investment Bank (EIB), to lend to member states, and a fund to disburse grants across Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa….
    Under the proposal, the bank subsidiary would provide concessional loans for climate projects to each EU member state worth up to 2% of their GDP. That amounts to €65 billion ($74bn) in Germany’s case or €45bn for France.

    A 2017 report by the European Court of Auditors calculated that the bloc would need to invest €1,115bn a year between 2021 and 2030 into the transport, buildings, services, energy and industrial sectors, for the bloc to meet its 2030 climate targets.
    Meanwhile the proposed grant fund would invest some €100 billion a year into research and aid to poorer neighbouring countries. Revenue would come from a 5% tax on corporate profits above a certain threshold, and a new democratic institution would decide on the beneficiaries.

    Opening the event, former French prime minister and UN climate veteran Laurent Fabius pitched it as a comprehensive plan to create greener and fairer financial structures.
    “Our ancestors after world war two decided to put steel and coal in common, precisely because they had been two tragic instruments of this conflict, to push back the war and to advance Europe,” he said. “Today it is a question of pooling our actions for the environment, reinforcing the fight against climate change, building Europe and the development of the Africa.”

    Appearing in a video message, French former environment minister Nicolas Hulot, who resigned in August over dissatisfaction with the government direction, also threw his weight behind the project.
    “Mandela used to tell us that to our playing small did not serve the world,” Hulot said. “I would like to paraphrase Mandela to say that playing small will not serve the fight against global warming. If we consider, as science reminds us every day, that the conditions of existence of humanity are at stake, we need to change scale.”…
    The call has garnered support from 600 political figures from 12 countries so far, including Spanish president Pedro Sanchez and – according to organisers – the Pope.

    French people may be starting to heed its call. Acccording to a national survey dating to 13 and 14 February, 72% of the French population who have heard about the proposal are favourable to it, while 41 French deputies across the political spectrum have backed it, including 55% from the presidential majority. Meanwhile, the school climate strikers in Belgium “Rise up for Climate” have made the climate finance pact into one of their central demands.
    Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel have yet to take a stance on the pact…

    Promotors of the pact are trying to put it on the agenda of European parliamentary elections in May, as well as of a summit dedicated to the future of Europe on 21 and 22 March…
    “When Kennedy said: ‘We’re going to the moon’, millions of people felt goosebumps and said ‘Let’s go’,” Larrouturou told the audience, “Seven years later, we had landed on the moon, created 400,000 jobs. Many people nowadays say that we need a discourse that gives goosebumps, changes everyday life and reunites Europe.”
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/02/25/french-experts-propose-trillion-euro-eu-climate-finance-pact/

    10

    • #
      pat

      some info on the two bright sparks:

      ***left-wing economist Pierre Larrouturou

      21 Feb: EurActiv: European carbon tax idea returns to election debate in France
      By Valéry Laramée de Tannenberg
      The French green think-tank La Fabrique Ecologique has published eight environmental proposals to contribute to the European election debate. EURACTIV France’s media partner the Journal de l’environnement reports…

      Following the ideas of ***left-wing economist Pierre Larrouturou, La Fabrique Ecologique has proposed launching a European investment plan “explicitly dedicated to the climate”.
      “It may be similar to what many economists are proposing,” Guibert admitted. “But never mind the modalities: it has to be done,” he said…

      “Europe could implement mechanisms to prevent competitors from countries which do not comply with the Paris Agreement from having a competitive advantage over their European competitors,” Guibert said.
      In other words, the EU could establish a carbon tariff at the borders. The idea has regularly been raised since Nicolas Sarkozy’s term as French president, and Emmanuel Macron has now picked up the baton…
      “The Commission could compel states to take complementary measures. It could potentially punish them if this additional programme proved insufficient,” said Guibert…
      The idea is gaining momentum, particularly in the Netherlands, where it is supported by the government…
      https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/idea-of-establishing-carbon-tax-in-europe-returns-to-election-debate/

      Wikipedia: Jean Jouzel
      Jean Jouzel, is a French glaciologist and climatologist. He is an authority on major climatic shifts based on his analysis of Antarctic and Greenland ice. He received with Claude Lorius the CNRS gold medal, the highest French scientific award…
      He has spent his research career in CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) which is the French nuclear public organization. In 1991 he became vice president of LMCE which is a CEA laboratory dedicated to environment and climate; in 1995 research director. He became a recipient of the Milutin Milankovic Medal in 1997. In 1998 he became director of climate research of LSCE…
      He received the 2012 Vetlesen Prize, shared with Susan Solomon…
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jouzel

      10

      • #
        pat

        mentions of Jean Jouzel:

        16 Aug 2013: WUWT: The IPCC’s new certainty is 95% What? Not 97%??
        by Anthony Watts
        FROM COMMENTS:
        TomRude August 16, 2013 at 2:00 pm
        Reuters is one of the chief propagandist media enablers: let’s recall Sir Cripsin Tickell is on their board. Of course when AR5 first draft leaked, Reuters was quite discreet. Not one article on low sensitivity or models’ fail. But facts are not the business these people are into. This selective release by Reuters is no coincidence. In France for instance, glaciologist masquerading as a climatologist ***JEAN JOUZEL who is supervising the sea level chapter in AR5, is once again touring TV sets with the most alarmist material yet, from increased droughts’ frequency and severity -no one told him that droughts are linked mainly with cold periods- to sea level rise: only the goal posts, once again have shifted since the impending 2012 doom did not happen…
        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/16/the-ipccs-new-certainty-is-95-what-not-97/

        also found on a post at WUWT:

        2004: Beijing Climate Center: The First International School on Climate System And Climate Change (ISCS)
        Author:Yan Zhang,Yiming Liu
        The First International School on Climate System And Climate Chang (ISCS), sponsored by China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and co-sponsored by the Office of IPCC Working Group I, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and National Natural Science Foundation of China, was held in CMA from August 23 to September 1, 2004. It received extensive attention from the meteorological departments and relevant scientific research institutions. More than 160 students including young researchers, doctoral candidates and master degree candidates specialized in climate system and climate change research took part in the study. They are from over 40 organizations, such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education as well as CMA National Climate Centre, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS) and eight meteorological institutes, National Satellite Meteorological Centre, seven Regional Meteorological Centres, provincial meteorological bureaus, etc.

        Fifteen world famous experts from countries including France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, U.S.A., Canada and China, were invited to serve as the lecturers of ISCS. They were: Dr. ***JEAN JOUZEL from France, Vice-Chairman of IPCC Working Group I; Dr. Robert Delmas from France, Director of the Laboratory of Glaciology and Geophysics and Environment; Dr. Ulrich Cubasch from the Meteorological Institute in Free University Berlin; Dr. In-Sik Kang, Director of the Climate Environment System Research Center of Seoul National University; Dr. Akio Kitoh, Director of the Climate Research Division of the Meteorological Research Institute in Japan Meteorological Agency; Dr. John Ogren and Dr. Zhanqing Li from U.S.A; Dr. Daniel Rosenfeld from Israel; Dr. Chung-Kyu Park and Dr. Won-Tae Yun from Korean Meteorological Agency; as well as some renowned scientists in China, namely, Prof. Ding Yihui, Dr. Dong WenJie, Prof. Lin Er’Da , Prof. Pan Jiahua, Mr. Chen ZhenLin…READ ON
        http://bcc.ncc-cma.net/channel.php?id=78

        30

    • #
      Serp

      The commissions and fees which will be extracted from this million million euro climate pact is what has driven the scam and when you’re talking that sort of money try and imagine some piece of influence that has not been bought with it.

      20

  • #
    Another Ian

    They didn’t know about AI either – particularly like this.


    A.I. – Well This Kinda Sucks…”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/a-i-well-this-kinda-sucks/

    Note Australia’s unfavourable mention

    01

  • #
    pat

    26 Feb: ClimateChangeNews: Switzerland puts geoengineering governance on UN environment agenda
    No longer the preserve of science fiction, climate-hacking technologies may need international oversight, say backers of draft resolution
    By Sara Stefanini
    Switzerland wants the world to talk about if and how to use untested technology that tampers with nature to slow climate change – and will ask the UN’s environment arm to take the lead…

    To kickstart the conversation, Switzerland will introduce a resolution at the UN Environment Assembly in Kenya in mid-March, calling for an assessment of the potential methods and governance frameworks for each one by August 2020. It would be an early step towards an international system for regulating the suite of technologies.
    “There is a risk that geoengineering could be applied by someone without any international control, and we are very concerned about that,” Franz Perrez, head of the international affairs division at Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment, told Climate Home News. “Some are already testing solar radiation management, scientific research is already going on. We cannot close our eyes anymore and say ‘This is only science fiction’.”…

    The resolution is backed by Burkina Faso, Micronesia, Georgia, Lichtenstein, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Niger, South Korea and Senegal, according to the latest version dated 25 February…
    RESOLUTIONN TEXT
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/02/26/swiss-push-talk-geoengineering-goes-sci-fi-reality/

    10

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      The insanity level is getting worse. ‘Climate Change’ belief should be a notifiable psychiatric disorder!

      50

  • #

    .
    ❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶
    ❶①❶①
    ❶①❶① . . . One sandwich short of a picnic . . .
    ❶①❶①
    ❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶①❶
    .

    Since 1980, scientists have been using satellites to monitor the number of sandwiches in the Arctic region.

    Why do scientists monitor the number of sandwiches in the Arctic region, you might ask? The answer is quite simple. What do you think polar bears eat, when they can’t hunt seals, because there is no sea ice.

    The number of sandwiches grows and decays with the seasons. There are more sandwiches in winter/spring (while the polar bears are eating seals). And there are fewer sandwiches in summer/fall (when seals are not available).

    But scientists are concerned, because over the decades, the number of sandwiches is following a decreasing trend.

    The number of sandwiches is obviously getting smaller. Not every year, of course. It does so in fits and starts. But the long term pattern (the trend), is clear. Deny it, and you are a sandwich denier.

    A bitter argument has broken out, between the 2 scientists who have been monitoring sandwich numbers.

    Dr Anne Alarmist, insists that sandwich numbers are falling rapidly, and may fall to zero within 10 to 20 years.

    But her rival, Dr A Skeptic, claims that Dr Anne Alarmist is talking “poppycock”. Dr A Skeptic agrees that there is a decreasing trend, but claims that sandwiches will continue to be available, for at least 100 to 200 years.

    Each scientist has plotted a graph of sandwich numbers from 1980 to 2018.

    https://agree-to-disagree.com/one-sandwich-short-of-a-picnic

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  • #
    Another Ian

    And they didn’t have this explanation

    “MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/02/26/montezumas-revenge/

    20

  • #
    Antoine D'Arche

    just watched “Titan” with Sam Worthington. God it was pointless. 2 hrs of my life I can never get back….

    40

  • #
    • #
      el gordo

      ‘The BBC weather forecaster Tomasz Schafernaker called Monday’s temperatures “utterly astonishing”. The broadcaster’s weather service said it amounted to a winter “heatwave”.

      The Independent

      20

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        TdeF

        Climate change. Like the freezing. Everything which is not smoothly average is… Climate Change. This is caused by Global Warming. Who needs evidence? Who needs an explanation? It is all the fault of a 50% increase in CO2 in 120 years. Obviously. CO2 is the worst kind of pollution. Invisible.

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    pat

    26 Feb: AFR: Snowy Hydro 2.0 could be ‘another NBN’
    By Phillip Coorey and Ben Potter
    Prime Minister Scott Morrision has rejected claims its multibillion-dollar investment in Snowy 2.0 was unviable among the industry and even inside the Coalition.
    One source said the government could build six coal-fired power stations for the same cost while another said “we could build a nuclear power station”.

    Power industry executives and consumer groups were worried the project could freeze investment in alternative projects that might come on line earlier to shore up the grid after AGL Energy’s Liddell power station closes in 2022. Comparisons were made with the NBN.
    Mr Morrison and his ministers said the business case for the project, which will cost up to $11 billion plus another $2 billion in transmission line upgrades, forecast a rate of return of 8 per cent.

    “We didn’t get here today because someone just drove around in a ute and had a bit of a look-around and said, ‘I reckon it will cost that much’,” Mr Morrison said.
    “We have been on this job for two years to get to this point. That’s a lot of homework has been done to go into the estimates upon which we have made our investment decision today.”…

    ‘A battery with no plug’
    Trevor St.Baker, whose Sunset Power International has proposed coal-fired generators to the government’s new generation underwriting program, dismissed Snowy 2.0 as a wasteful project and “just a further subsidy to the subsidised over-build of intermittent wind and solar in the southern States”.
    “It will not produce any new electricity. In fact it wastes about 20 per cent of the energy it pumped up, and wastes up to a further 10 per cent of wind and solar generation getting it from generation locations to Snowy and returning the 70 per cent to electricity demand centres,” Mr St Baker said…
    https://www.afr.com/news/politics/morrison-bulks-up-hydro-power-plan-20190226-h1bpqm

    26 Feb: AFR: Ben Potter: Snowy 2.0 explained: Silver bullet or white elephant?
    https://www.afr.com/news/snowy-20-explained-silver-bullet-or-white-elephant-20190226-h1bqg9

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    pat

    whatever…

    22 Feb: Mashable: Trump’s climate expert is wrong: The world’s plants don’t need more CO2
    by MARK KAUFMAN
    Earth and plant scientists, however, find Happer’s insistence that the plant kingdom would benefit from increased carbon dioxide wrong-headed and lacking evidence, at best…
    “The idea that increased CO2 is universally beneficial [to plants] is very misguided,” Jill Anderson, an evolutionary ecologist specializing in plant populations at the University of Georgia, said in an interview…
    “It’s a silly argument,” added Britton Stephens, a senior scientist in the Earth Observing Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in an interview.

    Both independent academic institutions and government agencies around disparate parts of the globe have concluded more carbon dioxide will “bring many negative impacts” to plant environments, Stephens emphasized. “If someone is going to claim it’s good, it’s incumbent upon them to show evidence.”…

    If someone, like Happer, were to ignore uncomfortable realities like drought-ravaged crops, some of the deadliest wildfires on record, and the evaporating Colorado River, they could argue that some plants — but not all plants — could see growth benefits from amassing carbon dioxide concentrations.
    “If we were to hold other environmental factors completely constant, some plants would do well, some plants would do worse, and some would outcompete other plants,” said Anderson.
    But this is a reality that doesn’t exist…

    “CO2 does “fertilize” plants and by itself causes plants to grow faster, but unchecked CO2 release into the atmosphere will lead to reduced yields and the consequences could be catastrophic,” Thomas Sharkey, a plant biochemist at Michigan State University, said over email…

    “The negatives far outweigh the positives,” added Stephens…
    As might be evident to anyone alive on the planet, plants flourish today and have flourished for hundreds of millions of years, so Happer’s suggestion that the planet’s vegetation is in need of more carbon dioxide is bizarre.
    “Obviously plants were doing just fine historically,” said Anderson. “There’s no indication plants are increasing their performance and doing better now than historically.”…

    Is more CO2 really good for plants?
    “Tell that to the trees in Paradise, California,” said Stephens.
    https://mashable.com/article/trump-climate-panel-william-happer-plants-co2.amp

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    pat

    25 Feb: EurActiv: Green taxation in France: The controversy shows it’s still a difficult issue
    By Dominique Pialot, La Tribune; translated by Rob Kirby
    In an opinion piece, 86 French MPs from across the political spectrum have called on the government to find an ‘effective and socially just carbon taxation’ after the carbon tax was abandoned at the height of the ‘yellow vest’ crisis. An interview with Matthieu Orphelin by EURACTIV France’s media partner La Tribune.
    Matthieu Orphelin is a French MP who resigned from LREM and is a friend of former French ecology minister Nicolas Hulot. He brought together 86 French MPs from a range of political groups for the opinion piece that called for effective and socially just carbon taxation.

    Q: You were behind the opinion piece which calls for “just carbon taxation.” Were you surprised by the reactions to its publication on 13 February?

    A: What happened, the commotion and the controversy around this column, was very surprising. At no point did we call for the rate of increase of carbon tax to be reviewed. We didn’t even mention the carbon tax! We only discussed support, new aid and extending carbon taxation to other sectors, among other measures. What we’re advocating is anything but another tax! For example, François de Rugy’s comments [stating on 12 February that the return of carbon tax was on the table] go much further!
    Of course, the controversy has been fuelled by some opposition MPs but the violence of the reaction shows that, even though taxation and ecology are two of the topics of the “Great debate,” trying to draw lessons from what hasn’t worked is still complicated…

    Q: What are the ways forward now?

    A: At the moment, the priority is making this taxation fair. What are the ‘yellow vests’ saying? Taxes are increasing, we don’t have any alternatives to our means of transport and heating and it isn’t clear what the revenues of this taxation are used for. We have to give people ways to change. This means better support, simplification of aid and a total advance of the cost of renovation work for disadvantaged households, among other measures…READ ON
    https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/interview/fiscalite-ecologique-la-polemique-montre-que-le-sujet-reste-difficile/

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    Mary E

    This article reports a possible result of high CO2 levels based solely on models and suppositions, and yet it is written in such a way that many will think the results are a forgone conclusion, not only that the clouds will “break apart” but that the CO2 levels needed, 1200ppm, will occur (unstated – in our lifetime, or our children’s at the latest.) So an attempt to explain high temperatures in the far-distant past will become, be read as, another future event we must all avoid.

    Vanishing cloud cover. Crocodiles in the Arctic, again. Coming to a planet near you, soon.

    As I’m in northern half of the planet, I would like to know when this will happen, for certain, as I’m really tired of below 0 (F) and snow.

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    Richard

    I believe Crichton spoke in 2003, not 1993.

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    Roy Hogue

    ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ CALLS GREEN NEW DEAL A ‘LIFE AND DEATH’ ISSUE, ATTACKS GOP ON CLIMATE CHANGE

    Of all those who speak out with their mouths engaged before first engaging their brains, this woman is the most pathetic. When she publicly makes statements such as,

    Under capitalism man oppresses man but under socialism it’s the other way around,

    you must wonder what’s between her ears. Why would anyone give the slightest attention to such bad logic? But Democrat contenders for the White House are signing on to her new green deal left and right. Life and death issue indeed. It looks like the climate change debate needs a diaper change, so low has it sunk.

    We need to get our political debate out of the kiddies sand box and back to reality.

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    WXcycles

    As we go forward, we must take the country in a new direction and in doing so, reduce the deficit. We are not here to heap mountains of debt on our children and our grandchildren. That is what was done in the last years in the Bush Administration. This budget calls a halt to that and says ‘no.’ It says no more debt; we’re going in the opposite direction. We’re reducing the deficit as we create good paying jobs in our economy, as we cut taxes for the middle class in our country.

    – Nancy Pelosi, Wednesday, April 29, 2009, when Obama’s first budget was passed.
    https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-budget-is-a-blueprint-for-the-future

    Under Obama debt rose from $10.63 trillion to $19.96 trillion. Obama grew US debt more than all previous US Presidents combined. So what did raving lunatic Nancy Pelosi have to say?

    When President Obama stood on the steps on the Capitol eight years from next week, the [budget] deficit was $1.4 trillion — one year deficit,” Pelosi said. “It’s reduced by 70 percent in his administration. Much of the increase in the national debt that has occurred from this time still springs from two unpaid-for wars, cost that we owe our veterans following that, giveaways that they gave to the pharmaceutical industry, and the high-end tax cuts that have carried forward without any job production. Absent the work of President Obama, this national debt would be even higher.

    – Nancy Pelosi.

    AOC is in good company with Pelosi, they’re really no different except maybe AOC is more transparent about how totally deceitful, batsh*t crazy and clueless she is.

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    Francis Lacan

    Benoït Rittaud, a French mathematician, published in 2015 an interesting book (La peur exponentielle — The exponential fear) analysing our subconscious relationship with any phenomena that tends to grow exponentially (population, consumption, etc.). From Maltus to the Club of Rome he cites many examples where fear developed irrationally (especially if amplified by special interest groups). We have read many times that “anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist” (Kenneth Boulding). This statement, says Rittaud, is unfounded because many resources, in the scale and context in which they are being analysed, are sufficiently large to be considered infinite (he introduces the notion of surfinite). “Context” is an important word here: consider for instance the monumental error on oil availability (foreseen to end by 2000) in the 1972 Meadows report. Technological evolution has (more than) balanced scarcity and continues to do so. But what unnerves the environmentally fragile (I am using a Taleb term deliberately here) is that future evolution is fundamentally unknown (both Taleb and Crichton have commented on the fact that our ex-post reconstruction of a predictability that ‘was there but we simply missed’ is a fiction that is only useful to our mental stability). I don’t like Taleb much but am a fan of Crichton. I regret the pages he dedicated to global warming on his web site have gone with him, they were simply excellent. I thank you for mentioning some of their contents in this post.

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    Morphy

    The big problem with all of this crap is:

    “The researchers had assumed..”

    And that’s when science loses to stupidity.

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