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
I was told ‘renewable’ energy would cheap and effective.
Who do I see for a refund?
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‘would cheap BE and effective.’
Sorry for the editing error.
I was distracted with perturbment over my outrageous electricity bill …
because my stupid Democrat controlled state can only meet 40% of its’ energy needs because of virtue signaling, politically expedient ‘Green’ energy fantasy goals.
Now they’re scrambling to rediscover nuclear, which will only take a decade if we’re lucky.
Dee-neye ‘Science’?
How about we not dee-neye engineering for a while.
I think the failure was intended the whole time.
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‘would BE cheap and effective.’
Mis-edited again.
Still distracted with perturbment.
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In the UK, we will be asking that question of HM Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Wonderful Mr. Miliband.
He of the Very Expensive Underwater Wires, naturally.
Whether he will have a sensible answer is, of course, moot.
But he might be able to tell us where our thousands of millions of pounds have gone!
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I was amazed that Farage is talking of a tax on windmills and solar panels.
It means they, like most Australians, do not realise half of their electricity cost is carbon tax buried in the electricity prices
and which funds the windmills and solar panels.
It was an illegal Australian invention of John Howard who while claiming to be ‘agnostic’ on man made CO2 driven Global Warming, invented the idea of certificates which turn into cash. The 2001 Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act was a master stroke of deceit, avoiding two words, carbon and tax. And it was copied in the UK.
Unfortunately as it is not a tax, it is illegal, directing people’s money to friends of the king, something called enriching third parties and forbidden since Magna Carta. Even Julia Gillard had no idea when she declared “there will be no carbon tax in a Government I lead”. This brought her down politically because no one in Australia wanted a carbon tax. And still politicans and pundits do not realise the tens of billions which have flowed. For nothing at all of benefit to Australians based on theft of which they are unaware.
Turn off the carbon taxes, fire all the carbon employees and electricity would halve overnight and the coal power plants would roar in a few years, halving CO2 output anyway. As would the use of gas.
It’s all a giant scam.
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THat’s not the attitude we expect, Honk.
You must merely scale down your energy use. The UK is leading the way
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/01/31/uk-must-cut-emissions-by-64-in-next-ten-years/#more-85563
We can give you an hour of energy per day-from renewable sources of course. Would you like it all at once or we could offer 2 half hour sessions, as long as that doesn’t include any time after sunset.
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In Australia, it’s a twit called “Blackout Bowen”. Good Luck with that.
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Do not believe your lying electricity bill! Renewables are cheaper!
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You just have to understand that most things the Left say are the opposite of objective truth.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Renewable electricity is cheap.
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And that while wind might fail in one location, it would not fail in every location at once. Which was a lie.
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Or that solar panels in winter on grey days of a few hours and covered with snow, rain, dust and low angles of incidence would be effective. The problem with mid winter in Northern Europe is that 60North is an elevation of 30degrees on the equinox and 8 degrees in mid winter and the shadow of a mouse would block the sun. But Europeans knew that and though technlogy would triumph. Its why panels are used as fencing. The whole thing is a scam.
And the sunniest place on the planet, the great empty deserts of South Australia are covered in Solar Panels and windmills which cannot power South Australia let alone anyone else. The environment will destroy them. As expected. But the people’s money flows like a river overseas.
It is daylight robbery, organized by a Green Marxist government supported by the Wets in the Liberal party. If you locked politicians up for corruption, there would be less of this. But they would plead total incompetence, which is credible. These are lawyers and activists and people who are otherwise unemployable.
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Seems the egg industry in USof A has reached total failure point because of avian flu – H5N1, a novel strain of bird flu – and this egg producer has made the call to allow H5N1 vaccines to be given to poultry. Apparently vaccinating against Newcastle disease has occurred for decades so what harm will another one do?
There is no comment in the article on Marek’s disease and many will recall the excellent articles by Jo on the fact that the Marek’s disease vaccine was a “leaky vaccine” that has led to dire consequences. The following is the Brave AI response to the search “mareks disease vaccine was a leaky vaccine”:
“The Marek’s disease vaccine is indeed a leaky vaccine, meaning it prevents the disease’s symptoms but does not stop the virus from infecting the host or spreading to other chickens. This characteristic allows the virus to continue evolving into more virulent strains, which can pose a greater risk to unvaccinated birds.”
Son of covid booster Omelettes coming to kitchens near you soon.
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This article is more optimistic:
https://amerpoultryassn.com/2022/07/mareks-disease-vaccination/
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Bumped
FWIW
“The Price of Eggs at CNN
With no real arguments left, the Left is grasping at straws to fuel anti-Trump mania.”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/02/12/the-price-of-eggs-at-cnn-n3799763
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All the chickens are being killed in Australia as well creating an egg shortage.
I don’t see the point. Avian influenza is hard for humans to get so shouldn’t be a problem. (But see note.)
And if they let chickens get it, surely the genetically resistant ones will survive and can be used to breed resistant stock.
Now, even though avian influenza is hard for humans to get, if you do a Goolag search for “avian influenza gain of function” without quote marks, you will see that they are in fact trying to make it easier for humans to catch. Not a joke.
Naturally, the extreme Left Los Angeles Times supports gain of function “research” and publishes supportive articles.
Negative image, indeed.
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I think the Left are at war against the humble chicken (chooks as they are colloquially known in Australia) because it’s a popular and inexpensive form of meat and egg protein and they want non-Elites to adopt poverty vegan and insect diets.
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https://www.scienceandfreedom.org/articles/reckless-renewables-whats-the-real-cost-to-australians/
To meet the Labor government’s goal of 80 per cent renewables by 2030, we need to overbuild using components we can’t make, to establish an inconsistent power source that will need replacing in 20 years’ time. And it’s going to cost us big time.
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As the Man said – Pipe Dreams meet up with Reality and Reality will win, Big Time.
Only 5 years to go so just not going to happen.
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If you want to see some inflation then eat out and buy flowers/chocolates today which is Valentine’s Day.
Everything costs nearly twice as much as it did yesterday.
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https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/from-chatbot-to-sexbot-lessons-from-koreas-ai-hate-speech-fiasco/
How they gonna get the bots for Hate Speech?
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and over and over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yshJn7lgVsY
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The EPA’s Titanic Blunder: A $20 Billion Betrayal of Public Trust
Charles Rotter
In a staggering revelation, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has uncovered a clandestine maneuver by the previous Biden administration, involving the allocation of approximately $20 billion in taxpayer funds to an external financial institution. This move appears to have been a deliberate attempt to circumvent potential budgetary constraints anticipated from the succeeding administration. The funds, earmarked for environmental projects under the Inflation Reduction Act, were distributed among eight entities, notably including the Climate United Fund.
…
The EPA’s actions represent a profound breach of public trust. It’s imperative that we address this misconduct head-on, not only to rectify the current situation but also to prevent such abuses in the future. The American people deserve a government that operates with integrity, transparency, and accountability—not one that throws their hard-earned “gold bars” into the abyss.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/13/the-epas-titanic-blunder-a-20-billion-betrayal-of-public-trust/
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Can those taxpayer funds be retrieved?
And people need to go to jail over this.
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Tesla fights back, at last, against copper charging canle thieves.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-has-had-enough-of-vandals-cutting-supercharger-cables-and-it-s-payback-time-246978.html
Pressurised covers, with marker dye, will deter some.
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I wonder how much of the present high price for copper is due to it being wasted in inefficient “renewables” projects where a lot of material resources like copper are used to produce very little output?
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Here is an interesting essay analysing the mental state of liberals i.e. Leftists in US terminology, not classical liberals in the European sense of the word.
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My understanding is that each MW of nameplate capacity in a wind turbine requires about 1500Kg of copper.
This, obviously, equates to much more copper per MW of actual output, all of which needs to be prospected for, mined, transported, refined, shaped/machined, insulated, and transported, again.
Siemens-Gamesa’s new 21 MW trial turbine (in Denmark), would thus need a bit north of 30 tonnes of copper, and it may average 2.5-3MW (@ 12-15% efficiency through the year).
Maybe!
https://www.rechargenews.com/innovation/new-photos-show-siemens-gamesa-s-secretive-wind-turbine-taking-shape/2-1-1776547
The picture gives an idea of the size of this thing!
Figures I have seen, perhaps two years ago:
…Per MW … Nameplate: –
1.5t copper, 1 t Aluminium, 110 t steel, 650 kg rare earth’s, about 400 t concrete.
These may be a bit out of date, but indicate the scale if the UK, say, were to overbuild to, say, 100G, in the hope of getting an average of 12MW, some of the time.
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Meant as a reply to DM @ 8.1
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