JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
“Ode To The Welfare State”
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/redpowerphotos/monthly_2019_02/image.thumb.png.09b52355806a0e77627266ff603f5025.png
Via Red Power. Note the date
40
Partly continuing the theme. I have just finished an audio book; Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee.
Scout comes to think of her father as an extreme bigot because he has some segregationalist literature and he dislikes the actions of the National Association for Advancement of Coloured People. She is totally shocked by this and lashes out angrily.
Reading (or listening) to the book now, instead of the late 1950’s when it was written I put a different interpretation on it. Scout (and I suspect Harper Lee) is definitely a young Liberal Democrat and inflexible in her views.
Atticus and his brother Uncle Jack are much older and are deeply concerned already by the rise of Victim hood and Identity politics and fear their destructive effects on society. Jack has interesting observations on the Big Government, Individual Freedom and Social identity.
I already knew that the Civil war in America was not primarily about slavery. Jack explains why so many men in the south fought to preserve their identity against the oppressive dictates of Federal government in the North.
It is not just history, even now.
111
Ode to the Welfare State is a good reminder that such thinking has been around for a long time. Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. The world didn’t take the danger that philosophy represented as a serious threat even after it took over a large piece of the world.
I think we’re still not taking it as seriously as we should. Those of us who believe a man should profit and prosper from the fruit of his own labor instead of someone else are becoming fewer and fewer as shown by the fact that Bernie Sanders could get on the general election ballot as candidate for president and a total loser like AOC could be elected to the House of Representatives. And I could name others.
The future of western civilization is very much up for grabs as the last of those who think as we do, die off leaving a vacuum in our place. What will we bequeath to our grand and great grandchildren?
90
That’s ok Jo! We all forget things at times…no worries. Cheers 🙂
61
Coal-fired power companies have been named as Australia’s largest polluters by the Clean Energy Regulator, dominating the list of the top 10 biggest carbon emitters.
An example of external costs
517
With the usual photoshopped photo of cooling towers all red and ominous, courtesy of The Age online…good one.
212
I agree about the cooling towers, although I would have an issue with the waste heat. Where does it go?
316
Same thing with thermal springs Peter.
130
I’m sure you understand that if you add extra heat energy, there will be a change to the equilibrium. For example, if the heat released from your wee thermal spring is not instantly moved through the atmosphere, then the heat content of the atmosphere must rise.
313
And they are insignificant Peter?
100
The point, which has not been answered, is that waste heart is another externalitiy.
29
Why the change of email address, POC !!
21
“is that waste heart is another externality”
Rubbish !!
31
I heard that when Hazelwood was closed, a lot of fish in the cooling ponds died because it got too cold for them.
71
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/12/are-sea-levels-rising-nils-axel-morner-documents-a-decided-lack-of-rising-seas/#comment-1200774
41
No, it will NOT change the equilibrium.
The gravity control pressure temperature gradient does not allow that.
You are being POC again.. wake up. !!!
52
Coal fired power stations DO NOT EMIT CARBON.
91
” is not instantly moved through the atmosphere, “
and you think that its ISN’T ?
Really, POC ???????
Are you truly that ignorant of a term called CONVECTION. !!!
41
There is a thing called
Dynamic Equilibrium.
It may take a little while but things always even out.
When the Sun has finished its daily injection of energy into the Earth’s surface and gone to bed, the very degraded Infra Red starts heading down the Energy Gradient: ultimate destination is deep space at about 1.4 K above absolute zero.
That’s the ultimate “Externality” at about 272C° below zero.
KK
70
The sun does not go to bed. It heats another part of the earth’s surface, unless you meant that the sun radiates less when it is in a “quiet” phase.
10
The waste heat evaporates water which later on falls as rain.
100
The water piping goes through the furnace where it is heated to superheated steam. That steam is then highly pressurised. That then goes to stage i of the turbine, and from there, some of it is then recycled back to the furnace, and some then goes to stage 2 of the turbine, where some is then recycled back to the furnace, and some goes to stage 3 of the turbine. From there, it goes to the huge holding pond under those concave steam towers. Some is given off into the atmosphere, hence the steam clouds. The remainder goes into the ‘lake’ where it mixes with cold water. ALL the water is used and used and used all over again during the process.
Tony.
192
Why are cooling towers needed?
The coal is burned to produce heat. Why don’t they try to preserve the heat and burn less coal?
21
Tony has outlined several stages where heat is extracted for use in progressively cooler applications.
Comes a point where the intensity of the energy in the water is too low for any further recovery to be usefully attempted.
Then the hot water is tumbled in the air to affect final cooling.
60
I think the point Peter is making is why not run the hot water through the system as there is less energy required to heat it up to meet the needs of spinning a turbine.
21
They do everything they can to get the most out of their coal within economic considerations.
And yes, heated water is used to precondition steam and coal for optimum throughput.
20
“Why don’t they try to preserve the heat “
They suck every bit of energy from the coal burning process that they currently know how to.
HELE, ultracritical, triple stage turbines, feed-back to preheat steam etc , etc.
51
Simplified: When the water is heated to become steam a lot of energy is added to it. That’s the energy you want to come out in the turbines to turn the generators. Essentially the heat energy added in the boiler changes to kinetic energy in the turbine so the rotating turbine now contains what was initially heat energy. The transfer from heat to kinetic can only happen if the steam cools down because the same energy can’t be in two places at the same time.
If that were possible you could build a perpetual motion machine.
Then there’s the matter of losses in the system that you can’t avoid. Everywhere steam from the boiler goes it’s raising the temperature of whatever it touches, pipes, turbine parts, whatever. And there’s no benefit to the system in this yet it consumes some of the heat (energy) added in the boiler.
70
You can’t both preserve the heat and use it to do work such as turn generators.
40
They do that in closed cycle gas turbines.
10
No, they do not. Heat has to be rejected somewhere which any heat engine. Combined cycle combustion turbines are highly efficient in turning heat into electricity, but they still emit at least 40% waste heat.
30
Where does the heat of a bushfire go?
Where does the heat of a jet engine go?
You are showing your ignorance of science again
You are being POC again.. wake up !!
51
the same place the heat from a solar inverter goes
30
Strange when you point out to people that the black smoke is really water from cooling towers. .Utter disbelief!
122
Hospitals and nursing homes apparently are also major polluters .
60
everyone pollutes, everything gives you cancer, life goes on
30
Odd. The previous thread was discussing the $4bill cost of Snowy 2, a cost that would be 100% “external” to the wind/solar industries. Our legacy power stations never needed this foolishness to meet demand on the hottest days.
60
There we go. I warned in the previous thread how the CAGW alarmists want to force companies to declare their impact on climate change so they can scare investors away and make them uneconomic. What better place to start than with than coal fired power companies? Excellent. We can look forward to a crash and burn happening real fast here in Australia; the land of the stupid. Meanwhile much of the rest of the world is ignoring this crap and going ahead building many hundreds of new coal fired power stations and several dozens of nuclear ones.
160
“Land of the stupid?”
Land of the political creamers: here a skimmer, there a skimmer, everywhere a skimmer.
All Australian politicians must sing from the IPCCCCC hymn book or they get no cream.
KK
70
Hmm!
This is not really new.
I have an image I posted eight years back, in March of 2011, (shown at this link) and it shows that of the top 20 emitters in Australia, 14 of them are operators of coal fired power plants. (the ones with the black square alongside the Company Name)
Recycled to keep the populace ‘conditioned’.
Tony.
141
Also, Carbon Dioxide emissions are NOT POLLUTION.
Coal fired power stations DO NOT EMIT CARBON. !!
111
“top 10 biggest carbon emitters”
Coal fired power stations DO NOT EMIT CARBON
71
“An example of external costs”
The emission of CO2 into the atmosphere is a BENEFIT to all life on Earth
It is NOT a cost.
There is no proven “cost” to the slight increase of atmospheric CO2 content from plant subsistence levels of 280, to “oh we can breathe now” levels of 400+ ppm.
51
When are Australia’s Politicians going to serve the public who elected them and correct this Scientific Fallacy?
There can be no respect for politicians while this Blatant Abuse of public trust continues.
KK
71
When we have the power of the Right of Recall……. The courage to use it… and politicians who are so truly committed to the policies that got them elected that they are prepared to bring down the Government in support of those policies.
10
On what basis does the Clean Energy Regulator substantiate its claim that coal power stations are the worst polluters? On a global basis, ALL energy production, including coal, only produces 25% of global CO2 emissions. Agriculture and farm use is also around 25%, so if coal energy is only part of the 25% due to energy, there is no way coal energy can be regarded as the worst polluter. As usual, just another baseless assertion without any data to back it up.
50
Anyone seen the article in The Australian Women’s Weekly, March 2019 page 98?
39 year old Paleoclimatologist Dr Tessa Vance claims that from her studies of ice cores dating back 800,000 years that:
“Ice cores really proved the cycles of the greenhouse system. They proved that when you have lower amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, you have lower temperatures; when you have higher amounts of CO2, you have higher temperatures. You can very clearly see the ice age cycles and the interglacial periods, like the one we’re in now.” My BOLD.
I think she’s been watching “An Inconvenient Truth” a little too much. All of my understanding of the ice core records is that temperature precedes CO2 in the ice cores by between 800 and 2,000 years.
Her assertion goes unchallenged in the article. No surprise.
190
My blood has been boiling a few times today with some of the nonsense spouted by warmists and leftists and the appalling behaviour of the Brexit-wreckers. What you quote is another example gbees; I wouldn’t spend a cent on that magazine. I remember being very annoyed at the sweetsy write-up on Julie Bishop a few months ago when it was the only vaguely woman-appeal reading on the aircraft and I already had copies of the days’ papers to hand and wanted something more relaxed to read. Hmmm!
112
“I wouldn’t spend a cent on that magazine” – My wife buys it. I had some spare time so I thought what the heck I’ll sit down with a cup of coffee and browse it. Found that article straight away. I scanned the page, stored in my files, and gave the magazine back to my lovely wife … it’s all your darling!!
70
Furthermore, and this is the real clincher…
At no stage was peak CO2 able to maintain the peak temperature.
In fact, at peak CO2, the temperature was FALLING. !!
102
And as a Dr. it’s assumed she has a PhD.
So much for the superficial quality of Australian Education.
Precession has been known by ancient cultures going back perhaps 20,000 years and the Milankovic cycles are accepted as the “push” behind the last four deep glaciations and interglacial recoveries.
What’s striking about this is that she seems aware that this is an interglacial and from past form we will soon enter a new ice age.
Modern Intelligence?
This is a Doctor of Philosophy: once an honoured qualification.
KK
50
We are getting, thank goodness, cool nights, often down to single figures, which help us to cope with the warm to hot days. Our apple crop is fantastic and the birds are loving them and so are we. The paddocks are very dry and the cattle are getting silage now. The sheep love apples too, not to mention apple prunings. This proper Aussie summer seems to have suited apple crops well. Tomatoes are another matter, very poor; courgettes (zucchini) not marvellous. French beans a total disaster after last summer’s amazing crop.
It will be interesting to see what the next few weeks’ weather holds for us.
142
As declared by the BoM this has been the hottest summer ever Annie. Now of course this late burst of sun has been call as a heat wave and once again instructions to drink water, stay inside, be careful, look out for the elderly. Remember when these late blooms of sunshine were called Indian Summers, generally a precursor to long and stable weather well into Autumn.
Re the apples, whats your secret. The flamin cockies eat every one, under netting or not, meanwhile the wild apple trees along the road side will once again be my supply. Don’t know why the birds don’t eat these, they certainly taste O.K. to me and still provide a frozen supply for winter, apple vinegar for the next twelve months and my neighbour plans to make some cider. These road side trees are just chockers.
111
Sambar
“Full confession on the left boot”
Now that I’m past my three score and ten –
When working outdoors on 40+C days I have had to convert from air cooling to water cooling
40
Worked as a fettler for a while 160 miles south of Alice Springs on the Adelaide to Alice Springs railway line. This is Sturts Stoney dessert country. Standard 24 hour period was bloody cold nights with water frozen to stinking hot days that had wooden shovel handles to hot to touch. If anyone touched the rails with bare skin you could smell the burn.The only shade was if you could crawl under a gibber stone with the lizards. Air conditioning, pfft. Just a crazy twinkle in Mr Carriers eye. Water was cooled in hessian waterbags and if you were thirsty tasted beautiful, if you just had a drink it was bloody awful. Some of the gang worked without shirt or hat, skin like green hide leather. How hot was it, dunno, the ganger just pushed for the quota each day. If we were on easy ground we could finish by 2.00p.m and go back to camp, if the ground was as hard as the hobs of hell, and it nearly always was, 10 hours on the pick and shovel was just the way it was.
100
here in the Adealdie Hills it’s been hot each day since Tuesday.
And then about 7.00 pm -8.000 pm we get a lovely cool southerly
So then I open up the hosue and het the cool breezes through it
So in the morning it’s cool ready for the next warm day.
Have not used the A/C for 4 weeks.
30
“Our apple crop is fantastic and the birds are loving them and so are we.”
Here in Northern Ohio, USA, the White-tailed Deer are a big threat to my apple tree; its amazing how high up into the tree they can reach when the get up on their hind legs.
50
I just picked two more large bags of apples off a tree that’s loaded. It’s a James Grieve (Scottish origin I believe)…a very nice variety but not suitable for commercial use as it bruises easily. The birds are all having a good time but I do chase off the cockies as they are so destructive. The trees are quite large now (I planted them nearly 21 years ago) so I just partially net them and hope for the best!
Some of the apple varieties we have are Sturmer Pippin, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Laxton’s Superb, Laxton’s Fortune, Ribston Pippin (wonderful tasty crop this year), Granny Smith, Egremont Russet, James Grieve, Orléans Reinette and a few others.
We have a flight of King Parrots, squadrons of Eastern and Crimson Rosellas, Bower Birds, wild ducks, blue wrens, crows, kookaburras, Black Cockatoos….I think we must be the best bird refuge in the area, not by design! The chooks have competition.
I’m just about to cook some more apple to go in the freezer and slice others up to dry slowly in the oven.
Our pear crop this year was pathetic and I’ve left the quinces to the parrots; they can sharpen their beaks on those.
20
Was it Louise Gray, of the UK Daily Telegraph, who thought that global warming would make it difficult to grow roses and apples in the UK? Last year we saw massive apple crops in UK friends’ gardens in the panic, panic hot summer) and now I have similar here in our hot, proper Aussie summer (with some friends not wanting ours as they have plenty too!).
20
I did a quick survey of the temperatures recorded by the BoM at my local weather station. I summed the temperatures from June 1 2017 to Feb 24 2018, and from June 1 2018 to Feb 24, 2019, then divided each result by the number of days. The 2017-8 result was an average of 19.5C for high temps and 9.3C for lows. The 2018-9 result was 19.2 and 9.1 respectively. In other words, the latest temperature set is an average of 0.3 degrees lower for highs, and 0.2 degrees lower for lows, compared with the previous year.
I know yearly figures are not representative of decades long trends, nor are they representative of anywhere but my location, but one thing is for sure, you won’t hear about a cooler eight month period year on year from the ABC!
180
🙂
Stop being so scientific.
If they catch you, it’s possible you might end up in the Gulag mending broken interconnectors between Tasmania and Victoria.
90
Free Speech in Australia
Advice from the Pickering Post is that Peter Dutton and David Coleman will be deciding on a Visa application for Tommy Robertson tonight.
http://pickeringpost.com/story/free-speech-will-cost-a-minute-of-your-time/8802
151
Peter C –
ROBINSON, not Robertson.
30
When they decline to give these blokes a visa, it means that we find out about them and make an effort to listen to what they have to say via youtube etc. If they just handed them the visa, then they would get less attention in my opinion!
30
Science. Unsettled …
Geologists have finally found exactly where some Stonehenge rocks came from, debunking old research
“It finally puts to rest long-standing arguments over whether the bluestones were moved by human agency or by glacial action,” University of Southampton Archeology Professor Joshua Pollard said in an email.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/27/uk/stonehenge-rock-origins-trnd/index.html
That still leaves the mesmerizing question of how did they move them.
60
I have seen a number of proposals over the years.
This one is the best!
http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/stonehenge-engineering/
Why did they bother? Another mesmerizing question.
50
So ball bearings were invented before the wheel!
50
I think it was Bernard Cornwell who wrote a very interesting novel about the construction of Stonehenge and the moving of the stones.
KK
30
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-au/books/bernard-cornwell/stonehenge/GOR006227616?gclid=CjwKCAiAqt7jBRAcEiwAof2uKwpJZkksh83R_wyt2gSMHJTWL_TBkCjW3oFvOoylhoR1sfK_lyKwPBoClAAQAvD_BwE
00
Please tell me Bernard Cornwell is not another fabricator of history like Peter Fitzsimons with his Australian ‘history’ novels.
10
Mods: Please cancel my last comment, if it’s possible.
10
Bill Shorten promises to boost Australia’s fuel reserves if voted into power at the next election. What absolute hypocrisy from politicians who all think they know better than the people they as supposed to represent. No suggestion of expanding Australian oil production or local refining, no just import bigger volumes from Singapore and store up to 90 days supply. Hope we never have to defend our country against invaders. If so I hope they understand any war will have to over and done with by the end of the quarter!
80
Now that is a fine example of a “government enthusiasm”
60
“Hope we never have to defend our country against invaders. ”
Don’t worry – the storage tunnels are already dug in Darwin.
(/s shouldn’t be necessary but just in case)
20
Darwin Port is controlled/leased by a Chinese company!
10
BOM’s seasonal forecast was mentioned on the TV news tonight.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/summary
Get your umbrella ready ☺
100
George
Have been playing about with monthly rainfall prediction via climate cycles. Combining the small effects from seven different cyclic rates. None of these rates is the solar cycle. Thought i would park a prediction for March here and see how it goes. Then saw your comment and the BoM prediction. Would like to say I disagree entirely but only nearly entirely.
Nearly all of the cycle rates i looked at had one thing in common. That is high rainfall in far South Western W.A. Including Perth. Some had cyclone hits around Exmouth, Onslow. Most of them show above average rainfall for the QLD coast around Gladstone and Rocky. Then inland and South West from there to South central QLD. Then down the middle of N.S.W.
Might try an April one next but it takes a lot of time to figure out. Anyway see how it goes especially far South West W.A.
20
The Virtue Signalers Take another Haircut. Sundrop eco-farming disaster. South Australia
You’d think that the biggest bank in Australia (Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)) and one of the biggest American private equity firms (KKR) would have sharper minds than to fall for the Kool Aid salesmen associated with this green energy and eco-farming catastrophe.
What could go wrong?
South Australia. Tick.
$100 million exposure in a $200 million project. Tick
Sundrop eco-farming development. 23,000 mirrors. Tick
Poof.
Smoke and mirrors.
The Commonwealth bank and KKR can’t get out of the disaster fast enough. Word on the street is that a buyer is in the wings but is offering just $30million. Now chaps, that’s what you call a haircut.
Hopefully the dills in CBA and KKR who decided to demonstrate their virtue (with other people’s money) have learnt the lesson: green energy is a fools’ sinkhole.
Details are in today’s “The Australian” (Thursday 28 February 2019). Page 17, Margin Call.
150
Ohhh Daer.. Poor SA.
Not a peep about this in any MSM in SA so far Pat
So thanks for the heads up !
40
And the poor financial results have come at the wrong time.
I assume readers know that the operation used mirrors to generate electricity which would power “the farm”. Surplus heat would be used to distill sea water which would be used to grow crops in the hydroponic greenhouses. They even signed a 10 year deal to supply tomatoes to Coles.
Despite ‘record’ temperatures around Pt. Augusta (37℃ counts as a cool change there this summer) electricity generation was less than expected, so they had to buy in electricity (and readers will know what hot days do to electricity costs in SA). There were also disease problems.
The supposed cost was $200 million but they will be lucky if they can get $30 million when sold. Nothing like solar to cause money to evaporate.
31
Marine Heatwave in the Tasman, what is the cause?
https://theconversation.com/coastal-seas-around-new-zealand-are-heading-into-a-marine-heatwave-again-110028
10
Sea level rise in Sydney harbour ‘insignificant’.
https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/sea-levels-sydney.pdf
61
As in bewdiful Sydney Harbour, so elsewhere. Sea level observations by Professor Nils Axel Morner. Problems of land rising and subsidence in places need to be factored into measurements, but of over 700 atoll islands in Pacific and Indian Oceans, hardly any are decreasing in size, as would have been the case if sea levels were rising. Morner’s empiric investigation on Ouvea Island in New Caledonia show new land zones now being added and in the process of being overgrown with vegetation.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329488438_Absolute_Evidence_of_the_Absence_of_an_on-Going_Sea_Level_Rise_on_Ouvea_Island_of_New_Caledonia
121
Also the Sonel GPS for Sydney shows a subsidence over 8 years of -0.33 mm/year.
http://www.sonel.org/spip.php?page=gps&idStation=2405
Applying this to the tide gauge decreases sea level rise even further.
50
iirc, there was also a long period, high accuracy land survey also done, that showed subsidence of -0.25mm/year over ten years.
Can’t find the reference to it though.
30
as Sydney is well known as the centre of the universe, if sea level rise is not observed there it cannot exist. Fort Denison is the canary in the coal mine, when it goes under I am heading for the higher hills.
41
searched “climate change” “trillions” this afternoon and got as top result:
VIDEO: 9min33sec: 26 Feb: YourMoney.com.au: Is your super fund fighting climate change?
Meet the $44 trillion group calling for an end to coal.
by Jack Derwin
Mining giant Glencore’s announcement last week that it would not be increasing its coal production capacity beyond current levels was hailed as a landmark moment in the fight against climate change…
Specifically, investor group Climate Action 100+ led the charge on the campaign, made up of some of Australia’s largest super funds including AustralianSuper, CBUS and First State Super…
“You are absolutely seeing some powerful large super funds having the opportunity to be a real force for good in the way they invest,” First State Super CEO Deanne Stewart told TICKY (FULLERTON) after the Glencore decision.
Climate Action 100+, which represents more than USD $32 trillion ($44.7 trillion) in collective assets under management, started off the back of the Paris Climate Agreement with big funds and investor groups combining forces to push for corporate action on climate change…
https://www.yourmoney.com.au/business/big-business/meet-the-44-trillion-group-fighting-climate-change/
Stewart gives praise to Trade Unions at the end (trying to keep them onside?).
click on Australian News Channel in the folowing for further details on them:
Wikipedia: Your Money (TV channel)
Owned by:
Australian News Channel (50%)
Nine Entertainment Co. (50%)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Money_(TV_channel)
reminder:
Wikipedia: Ticky Fullerton
Fullerton has hosted Ticky on Your Money since the channel’s launch on 1 October 2018. She previously hosted The Business on ABC News 24, Ticky on Sky News Business Channel and was also a fill in presenter of (ABC’s) Lateline…
Moving to the ABC in 1995, Fullerton worked in business journalism and for the TV show Lateline. She then became the presenter of Landline, a TV show dealing with farming issues in Australia. Following that, she moved into investigative reporting for Four Corners for five years, and later presented Lateline Business…
First State Super: Welcome Deanne Stewart
We are pleased to welcome our incoming CEO Deanne Stewart ahead of a six-week handover with Michael Dwyer AM, prior to his retirement…
Before joining First State Super, Deanne was Chief Executive Officer of MetLife Australia and previously held senior roles with BT Financial Group, Merrill Lynch Investment Management in New York and McKinsey & Company in London…
Deanne will assume the role and responsibilities of CEO following Michael Dwyer’s retirement on 30 November, 2018.
10
read all:
22 Feb: AFR: AustralianSuper targets dirty dozen in Climate Action 100+ push
by Joanna Mather; With Brad Thompson and Natasha Gillezeau
The nation’s biggest superannuation fund, $140 billion AustralianSuper, has a leadership role with Climate Action 100+, the investor group that forced Glencore to yield on coal production which is now spearheading a similar campaign against 12 other Australian companies over their carbon emissions…
It has been cheered by environmentalists but blasted as “selfish” by billionaire investor Robert Millner, Washington H Soul Pattinson chairman, who accused lobbyists of denying developing economies access to clean coal from Australia. He said he was increasing investment in coal through the New Hope Group in defiance of pressure from activist investors and green groups.
“These people are trying to live in an ideal world where they all come home to air conditioning and turn the lights on,” he said. “A lot of people in the world haven’t got that luxury and coal is providing that.”
Along with BHP and Rio Tinto Climate Action 100+ has 10 other Australian companies on its hit list including Adelaide Brighton, AGL Energy, Boral, Qantas, Santos, South32, Woodside, Woolworths, Bluescope Steel and Origin Energy…
Investor Group on Climate Change (Australia/New Zealand) chief executive Emma Herd, also a member of the Climate Action 100+ steering committee, said more companies would need to align their business decisions with the Paris Agreement…
Ben Cleary, a fund manager for global resources asset fund Tribeca, said the decision to cap coal production was a “win win” for Glencore.
“This is a fantastic way for Glencore to be able to control supply into the coal sector and at the same time appease a whole lot investors that have increasing ESG (environmental, social and governance) requirements,” he said…
Resources Minister Matt Canavan dismissed Glencore’s decision as one designed to protect its profitability rather than the planet…
In an unlikely partnership, CFMEU and Queensland Resources Council have written a letter to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk expressing their concerns about extra conditions being put on the Carmichael mine.
Climate Action 100+, members of which collectively control $32 billion, is being credited for a remarkable change of heart by hard-headed Glencore chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg, who has previously trumpeted the ongoing contribution of coal…
Climate Action 100+ member, the Church Commissioners for England, led discussions with Glencore…
The organisations, along with five investor representatives from AustralianSuper, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, HSBC Global Asset Management, Ircantec and Manulife Asset Management, form the global steering committee for the initiative. Australian members include large industry funds such as HESTA and Cbus, along with AMP Capital, BT Financial Group and Colonial First State Asset Management…
https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/superannuation-and-smsfs/australiansuper-takes-leading-role-in-climate-action-100-push-on-australian-companies-20190221-h1bjkl
10
What an opening for a billionaire who refused to be bullied to take controlling interests in coal companies, filling the vacuum left by snow-flake boards bowing to pressure.
40
The sun has been blank (no sunspots) for 28 days in a row – the whole month of February. With half of January quiet too, 73% of 2019 (so far) has been spotless, same as 2008. Surely loopy jet streams and snow in both hemispheres is mere coincidence… or the devil’s molecule. Beware, incoming cosmic rays, dudes and dudettes… bzzzt!
http://www.spaceweather.com/
40
Svensmark reckons a the cosmic ray bombardment should cause increase low cloud, but there is much scepticism.
Stephen Wilde and his meandering jet stream theory makes more sense.
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Talking of clouds.
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/stratocumulus-clouds-could-go-extinct-speeding-up-global-warming/10858850
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Thanks for the laugh, el gordo, re clouds going extinct: “according to new climate change modelling” – haha! “After two years of supercomputer calculations [the] stratocumulous clouds broke apart” – hilarious! “I think what these studies say is we simply do not want to go there” – brilliant, who wrote this stuff! “That alone would see meters of sea-level rise” – say what!? Oh, it’s the abc. Hello ABC: meters measure something, metres are how high/deep something is. FAIL! Back to school for you, abc comedy kiddies…
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Vitamin D3 in mammals.
I have become intrigued about how different mammals and birds get this vital nutrient. We, of course, synthesise it in our skin with exposure to the sun. That’s easy. But most mammals don’t have bare skin, how do they get it? The top of the food chain predators get theirs from the organs of their prey but that leaves the vast majority of life that must find another way.
Thinking of pets, the budgies I kept as a boy [under a roof] needed cod liver oil supplementation. At the time I didn’t understand why exactly but now I must believe that birds do as we do, synthesise it but in their feathers with sunlight. They then ingest it via preening. Using this logic a cat prolly does the same, ingesting by grooming. But what about my dog? He doesn’t preen or groom but he scratches, constantly, even though there are no fleas in the house and he has no eczema. Is irritating the skin allowing D3 in the hair to enter the system? Even in the heat the dogs lay in the sun, my black one got hot to touch but he was happy.
There a lot of engineer types here but I’m sure this would not be beyond their ken.
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Dogs are predators and l& need organic meats to get Vitamin D.
By the way as we age the skin’s capacity to make D3 from Cholesterol ( that NEEDED substance made in the Liver ) lessons greatly.
And D3 along with Vitamin K2, is needed to maintain bone density.
Lowered bone density = osteopena = brittle bones.
I take about 20,000 IU of DE each day. No brittle bones despite my age
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A correction of a typo ! :
“I take 20,000 IU of D3 each day. No brittle bones despite my age.’
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So what is a good amount of D3 to take as an older woman I wonder? My Dr recommended 2,000 iu each day in two separate doses. I also have short bursts of working out in the sunlight. Dosage recommended for K2? Anyone here with ideas on that?
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thought you might be interested in animals that don’t get any through meat and have fur
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20412916
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The South Pacific is not living up to its name: It ain’t peaceful. TC Oma had been wandering around west of New Caledonia, blowing big waves onto our coast for weeks and now, further east there is a severe cyclone Pola central pressure 950, [that’s low]. It is west of Tonga close to a speck on the map Ata Is.
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I LUV google earth, I open it regularly. Did so to find this island and they have yet another cyclone marked SE of Pola, TC Keni. There is still some warm water out there.
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Cyclone Keni was April of last year. How can I be getting a cached GE image? I do get a message to update, my version is not “optimised”.
Back to the drawing board. 🙁
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The art of the deal – Be prepared to walk.
And he did.
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A lesson TM could learn; perhaps she has no wish to. 🙁
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“But one thing is for sure: what happens next in China is crucial for global climate efforts” ???
Greenpeace – good old apologists for China every time.
28 Feb: GreenpeaceUnearthed: China’s CO2 emissions surged in 2018 despite clean energy gains
by Lauri Millyvirta
China’s CO2 emissions grew by approximately 3% last year, the largest rise since at least 2013, and all but ensuring global CO2 emissions also increased last year, according to an Unearthed analysis of newly released official data (LINK) [in Chinese].
There is major uncertainty around China’s coal use numbers: production increased by 4.5% in 2018 and 3.3% in 2017, according to the government data release, and the figures also show a small increase in coal imports in both years.
Output of coal-fired power and metals, the largest users of coal, increased significantly. Yet the increase in total coal use was reported at only 1% in 2018 and 0.4% in 2017. It’s likely that coal use fell more than reported until 2016 and subsequently has increased more than reported in the past two years.
But one thing is for sure: what happens next in China is crucial for global climate efforts…
The increase in coal demand was mainly driven by the power sector, which increased by 5%…
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/02/28/china-coal-renewable-energy-2018-data-trends/
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27 Feb: Deutsche Welle: Banks around the world opt to offload coal
One-hundred global financial institutions have introduced policies restricting coal funding, according to a new report. Coal companies are finding it harder to access capital markets for expansion, but China still lags
by Jo Harper
The 100 global financial companies that have cut back on coal funding include 40 percent of the top 40 global banks and at least 20 globally significant insurers, with over $6 trillion (€5.4 trillion) of investments under management, or about 20 percent of the coal industry’s global assets (LINK), a new report says.
The report by the UK-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), noted that since 2018 there had been 34 new or significantly improved announcements from global financial institutions restricting coal.
Coal accounts for almost half of global energy-related CO2 emissions…
Tim Buckley, director of Energy Finance Studies, IEEFA, said: “For environmental, reputational and financial reasons, thermal coal is a toxic asset for global investors increasingly announcing new and improved policies responding to climate change.”…
Buckley also criticized Blackrock, Vanguard, and Goldman Sachs for their efforts, which lag far behind competitors.
And Chinese financial institutions continue to hold off on coal divestment, the report noted
https://www.dw.com/en/banks-around-the-world-opt-to-offload-coal/a-47708877
26 Feb: IEEFA: IEEFA report: Every two weeks a bank, insurer or lender announces new coal restrictions
Major financial institutions restricting coal funding tops 100
http://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-every-two-weeks-a-bank-insurer-or-lender-announces-new-coal-restrictions/
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for Liebreich, Trump is a boor and AOC is a star! how hilarious. how low can the CAGW zealots go?
27 Feb: BloombergNewEnergyFinance: Michael Liebreich: Green New Deal – Trumpism With Climate Characteristics?
(Michael Liebreich is founder and senior contributor to BloombergNEF. He is a former board member of Transport for London, and an advisor to Shell New Energies)
In the decade since Copenhagen, there has been a broad political détente between major political parties around the world – an unwritten agreement that climate action is to be energetically pursued, but only to the extent that it doesn’t jeopardize the recovery from the great recession, upend the neoliberal economic model, or damage any powerful incumbent interests. Unless of course you are a U.S. Republican, Australian Liberal, Canadian Conservative or elderly U.K. Conservative, in which case the whole thing is, frankly, a huge joke and an electoral gift…
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement and his ***boorish attempts to dismantle U.S. climate programs failed to disrupt the post-Copenhagen consensus…
First, we know far more about the hard science of climate change now than we did in 2009. The so-called hiatus in global average temperatures – so misused by opponents of climate action – was well and truly blowtorched by the El Nino year of 2016. The major meteorological organizations of the world are unanimous that the most recent four years were the warmest in the 170-year instrumental record. The October 2018 UNFCCC report on the implications of a 1.5C temperature rise galvanized the need for urgent action…
Those too young to vote have caught the vibe. The Climate Strike movement, sparked by the preternaturally determined 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, has now spread to 14 countries. Anyone who thinks it will fizzle out any time soon has forgotten what it is to be young.
Also tapping into the zeitgeist – bravely and with much gusto – is up-and-coming political ***star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (known by her initials as AOC) who this month, along with veteran climate hawk Senator Ed Markey, put forward GND [Green New Deal] Resolution, H. Res 109, their sweeping vision for the decarbonization of the U.S. economy and reconstruction of society…
In particular, the Green New Deal achieves extraordinarily high polling among young voters. The Pew Research Center has even found some signs of Republican millennials peeling away from their elders on the environment, with 60% saying the government is not doing enough on the climate, versus 30% of their older party colleagues. The Climate Strike movement – to all intents and purposes the international teen chapter of the GND movement – could hardly have been better designed to embarrass the complacent and inauthentic politicians…
How will all this play out? Who knows. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who knew more than most about political timing, once said: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” After a decade of post-Copenhagen consensus, the 88 weeks through to the 2020 U.S. elections might well set the tone of climate politics for the coming few decades.
https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-green-new-deal-trumpism-climate-characteristics/
Wikipedia: Michael Liebreich
Before starting New Energy Finance, Liebreich worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company from 1990 to 1995. He also worked as a venture capitalist with Groupe Arnault, and was commercial director of Associated Press Television (now APTN), and founding director of Sports News Television (SNTV)…
Liebreich is a member of numerous energy-focused industry groups, including the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the New Energy Architecture and the UN Secretary General’s High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All.
***Liebreich is a former member of the advisory board of the Clinton Global Initiative’s Energy and Climate Change working group, the selection panel for the Zayed Future Energy Prize, Accenture’s Global Energy Board and the UN Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. He is also a visiting professor at London’s Imperial College Energy Futures Lab, a board member for Transport for London, a member of the Advisory Panel of the INSEAD Energy Club…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Liebreich
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“we know far more about the hard science of climate change now than we did in 2009”
I very much doubt that statement. Not that it was made, nor that the one stating it is a fool, but any advances in Climate Science has been very much against the hysterical Climatology©.
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No street lights tonight. It’s called a brownout and doesn’t appear on Powercor’s outage map. This is Audrey’s strategy is it, have us carry torches when we want to go out for a walk on a hot night?
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The reason the UK had such a mild winter, the North Atlantic Oscillation has remained in positive territory.
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/pna/nao_index.html
This is a problem for the solar worshippers, the NAO should be negative with a quiet sun.
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When i mentioned Labor’s 50% renewables at work stating it would be bad for the country i was told that Greenland has 100% and that’s what we should do. Does anyone know what I should reply with about Greenland.
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We should have ignored those who said the dams will never fill again and be like Greenland. Build them and it will come. Don’t and we get a flood levee tax.
Hydro power was the first stage of the green attack on our electricity supply.
“About 70% of electricity sold by Nukissiorfiit, the national energy company, comes from hydropower. This is no coincidence. Greenland has been investing 1% of its GDP in hydropower every year since 1990. ”
http://www.glispa.org/glispa-bright-spots/30-thematic-bright-spots/building-resilient-sustainable-island-communities/190-hydropower-in-greenland
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just relevance
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Why waste time having a dialogue with someone who cant see the difference between Greenland and Australia?
Seriously, there are obviously places that are blessed with hydro resources, Norway, New Zealand and Greenland come to mind. But how delusional do you have to be to think you can “be like” them when you live in one of the drier countries on the planet? Just more magical (and shallow) thinking.
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I can’t remember if I ever posted this parody (partly) of the global warming movement before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBxD7T1yU-w&t=6s
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For a person building a new home, or for a person who owns an all electric home, solar panels may save money.
However, many homes have some gas appliances, ducted heating, gas hot water, gas stove, sometimes a gas oven as well. For these houses, getting solar panels and leaving the gas connected would be a feel good option, making them feel good because they have solar, but really only running the fridge and air con from the solar, can’t even use the solar power for the lights because it’s dark when you need them. As well they would be paying for two connections.
For anyone in such a house and serious about reducing their CO2 impact, they would remove all the gas appliances and replace them with all electric, but that would probably triple or more the cost, without considering all the costs and CO2 impacts of acquiring new appliances and disposal of the old.
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You seem to be constructing your own straw man argument so you can knock it down again.
Most of the gas appliances you mention have an electrical component. Ducted heating needs a fan, most modern ovens are fan forced and have electric ignition, as do instantaneous gas heaters.
Our neighbour runs gas cooking because thats what they like to use. They also run an instantaneous gas heater in the event their solar hot water runs low.
There is much more happening electrically around the house than a fridge and an a/c. There may be multiple fridges, microwave, dishwasher, entertainment, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, pumps if you live non metro, computers, network gear, various devices recharging, yard and workshop tools.
I guess the purist sack cloth and ashes crowd might go for the non renewable aspect to banish gas.
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My aircons are connected to the regulated circuit which can be disconnected during the morning and evening peaks. Used to be the H tariff. The rate is somewhat cheaper. The down side is that my own solar generation does not feed that circuit. It’s best for me because we mainly use our aircons at night.
Just something to consider.
Just checked, I only save 5c/KWH with H tariff but I get 10 c FIT for excess generation anyway so no point in making costly changes.
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Some large manufacturers are starting to feel the pinch of high energy prices:
https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/5931762/shocking-energy-costs-diminishes-manufacturing-power-in-region/?cs=9681
They claimed these were “unprecedented” prices, so clearly they have been on a fixed-rate electricity deal until recently. Guess they had better keep a close eye on the AEMO price forecasts going forward!
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A heatwave in SA/Vic/Tas today with temperatures 35-40 degrees, and just when you want the wind to blow, it dropped from a high of 2.9 GW at 6am to a low of 1 GW at 2.45 pm, and just 0.3 GW in SA. In SA solar is contributing 0.7 GW but starting to decline as demand heads toward a peak of 2.9 GW. Current SA price is $265/MWhr, and bids are up to $14,000/MWhr around 5pm. Natural gas and other fossils – diesel and fuel oil – must fire up to cover the shortfall, plus some possible imports from Vic if NSW and Tas can support Vic. In Tas wind is close to zero, so hydro and gas are keeping the lights on and sending 0.5 GW to Vic.
While in Vic wind is delivering a miniscule 0.4 GW, solar 1.2 GW but in decline as demand rises towards the 5pm peak of 9.3 GW. Fortunately brown coal is delivering 4.7 GW and gas 1.4 GW. Spot prices in Vic/SA have just risen above $10,000/MWhr.
Bring back Hazelwood.
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Can anyone explain the prices variations in the AEMO Market?
At 1550 per AEMO time, 5 minute prices:
SA $579, Vic $584, Tas, $13, NSW $115
At 1555:
SA $12799, Vic $13049, Tas $13, NSW $102
30 minute prices 1530-1600:
SA $6764, Vic $6915, Tas $13, NSW $100
30 min prices 1600-1630
SA $12609, Vic $12635, Tas -$1, NSW $103
I understand that it’s the last generator to bid and be accepted that determines the price, but it’s odd that the high bid makes everyone a winner.
Except Tassie seems to be the big loser? I assume as it’s shipping 478 MW to Vic that it receives the high Vic price, but only $13 for 1200 MW into Tassie market?
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We have a thunderstorm blowing up nearby. I hope there is rain too, don’t want dry lightning fires. There seem to be a few around elsewhere today.
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Fires, that is. No rain but temperature has dropped from 39C to 31C. The siren is going at the CFA down the road.
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This caught my eye, the end may not be nigh.
‘Our ensemble forecast indicates cycle 25 would be similar or slightly stronger than the current cycle and peak around 2024.
‘Sunspot cycle 25 may thus reverse the substantial weakening trend in solar activity which has led to speculation of an imminent Maunder-like grand minimum and cooling global climate.
‘Our simulations demonstrate fluctuation in the tilt angle distribution of sunspots is the dominant mechanism responsible for solar cycle variability.’
Bhowmik and Nandy 2018
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On the other hand the sun has been completely blank for a month and the coolists are holding firm for a precipitous drop in temps.
http://spaceweather.com/images2019/27feb19/hmi1898.gif?PHPSESSID=i9birrn3s20rsqhk3vu3df95t6&PHPSESSID=2n1b2ml8s39fsqb1316je17nk4
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