A place for you to point to climate and related news, introduce yourself to other Cliscep contributors, and suggest topics for new posts.
386 Comments
Comments are closed.
joint ideas under construction
A place for you to point to climate and related news, introduce yourself to other Cliscep contributors, and suggest topics for new posts.
Comments are closed.
Continuing from the last comment on the previous thread. The first page in the series, from early May 2021, is here.
LikeLike
As a regular critic of the nonsense spouted in the Guardian, I must say I give them full marks for allowing this piece of common sense to appear there, despite running completely counter to everything the Guardian has preached for years:
“Will Germany’s energy policy lead to economic failure?
Hans-Werner Sinn
Despite ambitious green goals, the country’s over-reliance on Russian gas has forced it back to coal and expensive imports”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/25/germany-energy-policy-economic-failure-green-russian-gas
I recommend reading it in full (I do hope all Guardian readers do, and having done so, have a good think about it). It contains some cracking lines that certainly wouldn’t be out of place on any sceptic website, e.g.:
LikeLike
Mark – re the Guardian & Germany’s “Energiewende”
they & the other MSM have gone quite on this over the last few years.
it was top story for many years, how UK should follow them to renewable nirvana.
but now the “black swan” event has even got some Guardian writers facing reality.
LikeLike
“Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion punishes the poorest”
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/sadiq-khans-ulez-expansion-punishes-the-poorest/
LikeLike
Wind Turbines are decaying faster than expected
at the leading edge of the blades
cos that’s travelling at 180mph, so dust and hailstones have major affect.
That’s from a 3 year old Discovery TV video, that YouTube just pushed at me, 8 mins
.. https://youtu.be/og2H7ZxkiMA
LikeLike
In the comments
“I worked in an area a few years ago that a lot wind turbines and to my surprise I learned that they actually require a lot of expensive maintenance. During winter windstorms when they need the power most, they actually have to shut them off.”
LikeLike
It was still and cloudy here for most of the day and I see that wind is providing a little over 1% of our electricity as I type.
Forecast looks much the same for the next few days…..Guten Tag Herr Dunkelflaute??
LikeLiked by 1 person
Irony remains alive and well:
“Prince William and Kate to visit US for climate change prize”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63760468
LikeLike
Just got the power cords running out of my window
to the Indian takeaway next door and the sunbed centre on the other side.
Why ?
Cos when the National Grid switch off bonus hours happen
I can plug both shops into my meter and I’ll just be paying the normal rate for leccy
but both shops will be getting £20 an hour, for helping reducing grid demand
You see Mickey Mouse subsidy programmes can be GAMED
LikeLike
We’re currently importing twice as much electricity as is being supplied by renewables. Gas alone is supplying 8 x as much as renewables.
LikeLike
A minister says something the BBC disapproves of, so the BBC speed-dials Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth:
“Onshore wind: Grant Shapps criticised for ‘nonsense’ claims”
Shapps says that the new turbines are too big for British roads. Mostly true. The problem is getting them around corners.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63795274
LikeLike
Two activists* glued themselves to the railing of a conductor’s platform at a Beethoven concert in Hamburg last week. The crowd started booing, one of the activists started ranting (and railing, obvz) about the end of the world – then all of a sudden it was all over.
Did the fat lady sing? No. It turned out that the railing to which she and her companion were attached wasn’t bolted to the podium. It just slotted into two holes. So someone simply unslotted it and carried it into the wings, dragging the protesters along behind it. They were on the stage for less than a minute.
Still glued to the railing, they were left in a corridor as the concert got under way. Here they are waiting to be provided with insincere pizzas by the management:
===
*Marlene Limburg and Stefan Mueller. They are part of Letzte Generation (Last Generation), so called because its members are all ‘unfreiwillige Zölibatäre’ – young people who fear that they’ll never have sex.
Bonus pic:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiRuPAwX0AQtuA-?format=jpg&name=360×360
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kathryn Porter discusses the recent close shave for the UK grid: https://watt-logic.com/2022/11/29/capacity-market-notice-and-dfs/
LikeLike
“Thurrock council ignored bankruptcy warnings and took ‘unprecedented risks’
Documents show Thurrock failed to act despite being cautioned about scale and risky nature of investments”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/30/thurrock-council-repeatedly-ignored-warnings-of-risks-to-public-money
I wonder why the headline doesn’t mention the main dodgy investment? Instead it starts with a concentration on the fact that the Council in question is a Tory one (despite that not being the most relevant fact here):
You have to read quite a way through the article before you reach the elephant in the room:
LikeLike
Extraordinary! Do they want to cripple their country’s economy?
“Up to 3,000 ‘peak polluters’ given last chance to close by Dutch government
State attempts to push through plans to shut hundreds of farms to cut nitrogen oxide emissions”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/30/peak-polluters-last-chance-close-dutch-government
LikeLike
“Atlantic Hurricane Season Below Average in Latest Blow for Net Zero Alarmists”
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/30/atlantic-hurricane-season-below-average-in-latest-blow-for-net-zero-alarmists/
LikeLike
I was on the verge of writing an article about this, but Paul Homewood has beaten me to it, and done a good job too:
“Netherlands To Close 3000 Farms To Comply With EU Climate Rules”
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/11/29/netherlands-to-close-3000-farms-to-comply-with-eu-climate-rules/
The whole thing is beyond ridiculous. Paul concludes with a question I find myself increasingly asking:
LikeLike
“World Cup: Shuttle flights cast doubts on carbon-neutral pledge”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63796634
I wonder how many BBC employees have been on those flights, and how many flights each?
LikeLike
We skeptics must be the wrong ones
cos there are large numbers of people against us
And they can’t be all CRAZY or CHEATS .. can they ?
@DavidRVetter
Bio : Climate writer; currently @UniofOxfor @TheSmithSchool
Forbes Sustainability Senior Contributor.
Insta: @ davidrvetter | DaveVetter on Mastodon dot green Oxford, UKforbes.com/sites/davidrve…
Tweeted Dec 1
Sure Twitter might be not hiding non-lefties like it often used to
His labels there are just nasty smear and don’t apply to those people.
He replied to himself
Again that is nasty smear
As usual Projection is a Libmob characteristic
..those smears DO often apply to them.
@JeffersonDean9 replied to him
Well you’re a climate writer so you know all about lies and bootlickin
I search under : @DavidRVetter and liar
Results showed he often calls people that
and that recently he’s campaigning against Steve Milloy
Nigel Williams @ChapeauToYou replied
Then debate him and reveal his lies.
You won’t because in reality you are the liars.
LikeLike
“#ClimateScam: denialism claims flooding Twitter have scientists worried
Many researchers are fleeing the platform, unnerved by the surge in climate misinformation since Musk’s chaotic takeover”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/02/climate-change-denialism-flooding-twitter-scientists
Hmm. People favouring climate action often are hypocrites. Reducing emissions in developed countries is expensive, and it certainly is pointless if the rest of the world increases emissions. How is that “misinformation”?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dave Vetter @davidrvetter
Nov 24 tweet Replying to @TiceRichard
“We don’t have any shale gas.”
That’s a Vetter lie/disinformation
LikeLike
That directly ties to the points about Vetter I just made.
LikeLike
Dame Vivienne Westwood gives us numerical and other facts about COP 27:
LikeLike
H/T Scotland Against Spin.
A Welsh Government planning document:
“Planning Implications of Renewable and Low Carbon Energy
February 2011”
And much more in similar vein. Unfortunately, neither the Scottish government, nor most Westminster MPs, seem to have received the memo.
LikeLike
Green events are being pushed at me more often
The church is well in on it.
Church bookshop is basically a green bookshop now
with slogans on posters.
Fri, December 2, 7:00pm – 9:30pm Grimsby Minster
Event: https://facebook.com/events/s/our-place-our-planet-an-evenin/2301636836652631/
Our Place, Our Planet – Spoken word and Poetry event hosted in association with Hammond House Publishing
Live performances from Green Dreaming – lively three piece band inspired by nature and the environment
North East Lincolnshire creatives take to the stage beneath Gaia to share their words inspired by the world in which we live – our place and our planet.
With guest musicians whose music explores nature and environment.
LikeLike
A good news story, relating to a climate-concerned student, for a change:
“Bristol student plogger aims to clean 30 cities in 30 days”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63822524
I remain bemused as to what it has to do with climate change, and it’s all the odder that someone concerned about climate change should fly (presumably regularly) between India and the UK. Nevertheless, his activity is laudable, and is to be commended. Well done that man.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another for the ongoing list of stories confirming that irony is alive and well:
“Just Stop Oil activists occupy beds in Harrods in protest against fuel poverty
Protesters take to luxury beds and sofas in London store to call for action on ‘sky-rocketing’ energy bills”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/03/just-stop-oil-activists-occupy-beds-in-harrods-in-protest-against-fuel-poverty
<Just Stop Oil activists tucked themselves into a Harrods display bed as part of a national day of action on fuel poverty in the UK on Saturday.
Footage of the “warm up” demonstrations also showed security guards confronting protesters lying on sofas inside the shop in Knightsbridge, London.
The eco-activists want action over “sky-rocketing” energy bills and were joined by other grassroots movements including Don’t Pay UK and Fuel Poverty Action…
…“Austerity is a political choice and the cost of living crisis is an unprovoked attack on ordinary people…
Then why are you campaigning for it?
LikeLike
Well done, Vivek Gurav, but you’ve got a lot of plogging to do before you’ll surpass David Sedaris, Britain’s greatest ever immigrant litter-picker. He has been collecting litter in Britain while walking along rural roads for almost a decade. (Also, he’s quite funny.)
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/david-sedaris-was-right-litter-is-a-class-issue/
https://archive.org/details/davidsedariswtfpodcast
Sedaris doesn’t plog, he collects litter while walking, so you could certainly catch up with him, Vivek. I wouldn’t, though. Just let Sedaris keep doing do his weird but wonderful thing and you keep doing yours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thursdays BBC local NewsPR show
had a #PRasNews item about the cable connection to Denmark being completed
The narrative was that the cable is for sharing GREEN electricity
That when there’s no wind in the UK, Danish windfarms will be sending leccy.
In reality, it’s a grid to grid connection.
Sure sometimes there will be wind in Denmark, but at others we could ultimately be getting leccy derived from German coal plants
#1 the cable takes another year to set up and test
#2 National Grid enthusiastically tweeted a prog link
but the prog is only archived for 24 hours
So that link is dead now.
LikeLike
Despite all the virtue signalling about net zero and cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, the US is getting into bed with Venezuela to import more oil. From the Toronto Globe and Mail (paywalled)
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-desperate-for-oil-joe-biden-throws-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-a/
“Desperate for oil, Joe Biden throws Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro a lifeline.”
“………After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the U.S. State Department abandoned all pretenses of seeking to oust Mr. Maduro as President Joe Biden began cozying up to the leaders of petrostates around the world to boost oil output amid soaring gasoline prices.
Thus began behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Biden administration and Mr. Maduro’s government, leading to the Nov. 26 announcement that U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp. will be allowed to resume oil production in Venezuela through a joint venture with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Chevron said it will begin shipping Venezuelan oil to the United States by the end of December.
The amount of Venezuelan crude that initially enters the U.S. market will not be enough to affect gas prices. But the Biden administration’s stealth rehabilitation of Mr. Maduro’s government suggests the Chevron deal may only be the first of many more such announcements.
Domestic politics in the United States have all but made it impossible for a Democrat such as Mr. Biden to be seen as encouraging new fossil fuel projects in North America, which explains why he has spent this year looking abroad for new supplies of oil. It should not be lost on Canadians that the U.S. President, who cancelled a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, has been willing to court dictators such as Mr. Maduro and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to do so.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
The article below is little more than a puff [piece for renewable energy in general, and for an Italian company in particular, claiming it is the key to getting energy prices down, despite all the evidence to the contrary:
“Cutting energy prices will take years – power boss”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63834755
Still, they get one thing right:
LikeLike
From a post on WUWT:
“At the end of June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition gave the green light to restart 27 coal-fired power plants until March 2024. That is quite a turnaround for a country that shunned all fossil fuels for the last three decades, shutting down its nuclear plants after the Fukushima incident as well as its coal and natural gas plants for their high carbon footprints.”
To me it’s a surprise that they have 27 coal plants which can be restarted. Obviously they haven’t sold off major components of their their old plants, or even demolished them.
LikeLike
Mikehig, Unlike the UK, where politicians of all colours delight in being photographed blowing them up, thereby demonstrating that their words about energy security are just that – words.
LikeLike
Regarding WUWT, I’ve managed to rack up 40 points of negative supply on one of my comments. Seems I am not on quite the same wavelength as most sceptics.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/03/aussie-road-disrupting-climate-protestor-sentenced-to-actual-jail-time/#comment-3645552
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark – thanks for the link – “It “will take years” to get energy prices back to pre-Ukraine war levels, the boss of one of the world’s biggest energy firms has told the BBC.”
the headline statement has been on BBC rolling news all day without naming “one of the world’s biggest energy firms”
excerpts from your/BBC love in link –
“Enel’s Francesco Starace said bringing prices down depends on new sources of energy such as renewables and heat pumps.” – BBC Tick
“But Enel is planning to leave many of those countries as it focuses on renewable energy and becoming carbon neutral by 2040. It also wants to cut its huge debts of around $63bn (£52bn).” – BBC Tick (saving the planet comes before money considerations)
then from – “Megan Richards, a former director of energy policy at the European Commission.
“A lot of work has been done” to replace Russian energy, she added, before warning: “I think Europe will not be completely domestically independent for a very, very long time, if ever” even though “renewables will increase dramatically”.
madness abounds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Protecting areas for nature is stalling, says report”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63838884
Apparently the main threats are deer and rhododendrons. Wind farms don’t merit a mention!
LikeLike
“Cold snap poses first test of Britain’s efforts to prevent winter power cuts
Alex Lawson
Energy correspondent
A mild start to winter is about to come to shivering halt, putting extra strain on the country’s power supplies”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/05/cold-snap-poses-first-test-of-britains-efforts-to-prevent-winter-power-cuts
Who’d have thought it was a bad idea to rely on renewable energy for our electricity supplies at a time of year when it’s cold, dark, and often windless if an anticyclone settles over the country?
LikeLike
More on this madness:
“Up to 3,000 ‘peak polluters’ given last chance to close by Dutch government
State attempts to push through plans to shut hundreds of farms to cut nitrogen oxide emissions”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/30/peak-polluters-last-chance-close-dutch-government
LikeLike
Jit: -46 as I peruse it now. Well done!
LikeLike
“New Cumbrian coalmine would prove UK hypocrisy, say experts around world
Activists and experts say green light for coal would show UK’s ‘posturing, double standards and broken promises’”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/06/new-cumbrian-coalmine-would-prove-uk-hypocrisy-say-experts-around-world
It must be great to pontificate from a well-paid and secure job, and in the process seek to deny 500 well-paid jobs (plus many more that would be supported indirectly) to an area of high unemployment and social deprivation during a cost-of-living crisis.
Are any of these people complaining about Chinese, Indian or Indonesian coal mines?
LikeLike
Mark – from your link.
I looked to see who the “Activists and experts” were.
from the Guardian post –
Yamide Dagnet, director for climate justice at the Open Society Foundations’
Paul Bledsoe, a former climate adviser in Bill Clinton’s White House, now an analyst in Washington DC.
One who was closely involved in Cop27 said: “We are past the point where we should be keeping coal open. We saw at Cop the erosion of the authority of the UK and EU and US because of ‘do as we say not do as we do’. This will only undermine attempts to speed the transition away from coal.”
Tasneem Essop, executive director of the Climate Action Network International, a leading NGO voice.
Lorraine Chiponda, of the Africa Climate Movement, said: “Investing in new coal projects is a mockery to African communities that have suffered at the frontlines of climate disasters in Africa.
Andrés Goméz, of the Censat Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia) activist group, said: “While countries in the global south like Colombia are making ambitious just-transition plans phasing out fossil fuels, the UK is letting everyone down by doing in the direction of more fossil fuels.”
Omar Elmawi, of the Kenyan organisation Muslims for Human Rights, said: “Granting a new coal mining permit is not just hypocritical but sends the wrong message to the entire world”
Steve Maël Dize, of the Care For Environment/CAN group in Cameroon
so just “Activists” unless I missed the “experts” among the above list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Quick question…..how do you find if there might be an old post on something? While I like the rather quixotic nature of some thread titles, their subject matter is not always obvious so scanning back may not find a thread – and takes time!
Is the search button the only option or am I missing something obvious?
LikeLike
Mike, I have found the search button to be quite effective. A tag or keyword cloud might be a useful addition to the sidebar, but that would probably require somebody (YT probably) to go back in time and retrospectively apply tags/keywords to about a thousand old posts.
I usually use the search button and then ctrl-f within the post itself to search for relevant text. Of course this is not infallible, and there are many ways some subjects might have been covered.
LikeLike
MikeHig, have you tried googling the site thusly :
site:cliscep.com trousers OR death OR etc
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hot off the press – a decision I wasn’t expecting:
“First UK coal mine in decades approved”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63892381
How long before someone goes to Court to try to overturn the decision?
Meanwhile, cue the usual suspects on BBC speed dial:
Also:
That would be the Liberal Democrats whose disastrous time in charge of energy policy during the coalition government with the Conservatives guaranteed that we are well off the pace in creating new – reliable – nuclear energy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Mark – this was what I thought of as the “National Suicide” test. If they said no to this, then there was absolutely no hope for the UK. As it is, the “no brainer” affirmative answer has resulted in howls of protest. Whether the howlers will make enough noise to cancel this project remains to be seen, but any fury they show now will reduce the enthusiasm for any further sensible infrastructure projects. [That aim may be among the whiners’ calculations.]
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jit,
Here’s the Guardian’s hilarious take on that story:
“UK’s first new coalmine for 30 years gets go-ahead in Cumbria
Michael Gove greenlights £165m project that will produce estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/07/uk-first-new-coalmine-for-30-years-gets-go-ahead-in-cumbria
How do you know that the vast majority will be exported if there’s no certainty about where exports will go?
LikeLike
If the coal is high in sulphur, then why do the wannabe miners want to mine it, and why do they think it will make good coke?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark – saw it on BBC news, for once they explained clearly it was for coking coal used in steel production.
ps – was going to bang on about Ed Davies, but found a few interesting quotes from Wiki on him –
“Davey focused on increasing competition in the energy market by removing barriers to entry for smaller companies, and streamlining the customer switching process.[7] He also approved the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.[8]”
“In April 2014, Davey called for the G7 to begin reduction of dependency on Russian energy following the Revolution of Dignity and commencement of the Russo-Ukrainian War.[80] Davey argued the benefits of investment in onshore wind energy from companies such as Siemens was a key part of the push to reduce dependence on Russian energy,[81] while “more diversified supplies of gas” including from the US and domestic shale gas would also help.[82] In May 2014 at a meeting in Rome, G7 energy ministers including Davey agreed formally to a process for reducing dependency on Russian energy; “Putin has crossed a line”, Davey declared.[83]”
hmm
LikeLiked by 1 person
People here are posting in various threads about the Cumbria mine.
I’ll post in open mic
Here’s the Facebook post of the local BBC
Comments are overwhelming supportive of the mine
LikeLike
from that Guardian link –
“Philip Dunne MP, the chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “Coal is the most polluting energy source, and is not consistent with the government’s net zero ambitions. It is not clear-cut to suggest that having a coalmine producing coking coal for steelmaking on our doorstep will reduce steelmakers’ demand for imported coal.
“On the contrary, when our committee heard from steelmakers earlier this year, they argued that they have survived long enough without UK domestic coking coal and that any purchase of coking coal from a potential site in Cumbria would be a commercial decision.”
so, are UK steelmakers saying, if we can get it & ship it cheaper from overseas that’s what they will do?
as usual no direct link to the quote.
ps – from the post – Nicholas Stern the acclaimed economist who has worked on the climate, development and public policy, said the mine would be damaging to the UK, and the world.
LikeLike
Well, that didn’t take long. I asked the question only yesterday evening:
“Could Cumbria coal mine be stopped despite government green light?
Mine could affect Britain’s climate commitments, which some believe could help get decision struck down”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/08/government-approves-cumbria-coalmine-legal-challenge
By the way, appalling anti-mine bias on evidence on Radio 4 10pm news yesterday evening. Local mayor, Mike Starkie, was being interviewed, and making a strong case in favour of the mine, and making the point about the local support for it. He was obviously off-message, and the interviewer harangued and interrupted him relentlessly. Interestingly, Starkie’s vote share increased at the last mayoral election.
LikeLike
JiT; Vinny B: thanks for the advice!
LikeLike
“Massive Reduction in Cyclonic Storm Energy Across Northern Hemisphere in 2022”
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/12/08/massive-reduction-in-cyclonic-storm-energy-across-northern-hemisphere-in-2022/
LikeLike
to answer my own question above – are UK steelmakers saying, if we can get it & ship it cheaper from overseas that’s what they will do?
I took to google (and ignored the Guardian hits)
1st – https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350696-what-will-be-the-climate-impact-of-a-new-coal-mine-in-the-uk/
snippet – “The UK produces around 7.4 million tonnes of steel every year using coking coal, mainly from two companies: British Steel and Tata. British Steel has said it will not use coal from the Cumbria project because its sulphur content will be too high, while Tata has said it may use some coal from the mine, but ultimately plans to shift to greener production methods over the next decade.
In fact, it is estimated that only between 10 and 20 per cent of the coal extracted from Woodhouse Colliery will be used for steelmaking in the UK.”
with a nice message below the article – “Sign up to our free Fix the Planet newsletter to get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox, every Thursday”
next – https://ieefa.org/resources/uks-new-mine-approval-comes-steelmakers-are-accelerating-shift-away-coking-coal
snippet – “The UK government’s decision to approve a new coking coal mine in Cumbria comes at the end of a year that has seen the European steel technology transition away from coal accelerate.”
not answered my question, but not knowing enough about steel production I detect BS.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said Ben Pile, once of this parish:
LikeLike
National Grid “live” from iamkate’s website (though I’m not sue how solar can be providing any electricity more than 2 hours after darkness fell across the land):
Price: £503.98 per Mwh.
Coal: 2.9%
Gas: 53.4%
Solar: 1.7%
Wind: 8.6%
Hydro: 1.2%
Nuclear: 12%
Biomass: 5.3%
Demand: 43.5 Gw. Generation: 37.9Gw.
Shortfall: 5.6 Gw, hence 9.5% is being supplied via the interconnectors and 3.3% from pumped storage.
LikeLike
A new book from Mike Hulme is scheduled for publication in May next year:
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=climate-change-isnt-everything–9781509556151
Will ATTP and his minders greet the book by writing Hulme off as a climate denier (again)? Of course they will. ATTP will do his usual ‘he is a denier but on the other hand I don’t mean to say that he is a denier, but he is a denier, although I don’t mean to say that, but he is’ shtick; Willard will say that Hulme is a denier then ban everyone else who tries to use that term.
LikeLike
Funny comment at WUWT:
LikeLike
BBCFour just repeated their trailer for their series for
: Big Oil vs The World
It was already broadcast 6 weeks ago
LikeLike
Something just came up to do with Truss’s PM “pension”
We have to deal with the REAL WORLD
Now does the libmob establishment deal with the REAL WORLD ?
.. No we know with green issues libmob are in STORYTELLING land
And with Liz Truss their STORY is that after 45 days as PM
she will walk away with an ongoing salary and pension
It’s just routine for Labour MPs and media to assert that
.. but I just had cause to check that
On Oct 21 FullFact ran a piece
There is no special pension for PMs now, they just get salary payments added to the pot like all other MPs
And what libmob call an extra £115K PM salary for life… isn’t
Rather £115K is the limit to expenses each year they can claim for expenses related to their former role
So Mrs May only claimed £58K last year
However both Tony Blair and John Major do appear to be gaming the system each year
i guess they are running ex PM projects each year and thus submitting receipts that say they have spent £115K
They are not getting £115K in their own salary , but some of it could going into their mates’ salaries
LikeLike
Stew – thanks for the PM “pension” FullFact tweet link.
one comment below the tweet says –
“birdman2 Replying to @FullFact
In 2020/21, which is the most recent year we have accounts for, Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron all claimed more than £110,000, while Theresa May claimed about £58,000.
3:10 pm · 21 Oct 2022”
so it’s not just Major & Blair taking advantage of a nice little earner it seems (from taxpayers money).
ps – if “birdman2” is correct
LikeLike
“Billionaire-Funded Green ‘Churnalism’”
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/12/11/billionaire-funded-green-churnalism/
LikeLike
Early evening update on the UK National Grid, electricity demand and supply and price:
Price currently £625 per Mwh.
Demand: 41.6 Gw, supply 34.5 Gw.
Supply comes from:
Coal: 3.1%
Gas: 57.5%
Solar: 0
Wind: 2.4%
Hydro: 0.9%
Nuclear: 13.8%
Biomass:
3.5%
Pumped storage: 1.7%
“Other”: 2%
Interconnectors: 15.2%
Doubling wind and solar capacity will help in this situation? Get real.
LikeLike
“British Museum hints at ‘complete reimagination’ and a net zero carbon future
Chair of the museum, George Osborne, says it no longer wants to be a ‘destination for climate protest’”
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/11/british-museum-hints-at-complete-reimagination-and-a-net-zero-carbon-future
LikeLike
“UK power prices hit record high amid cold snap and lack of wind power
Severely cold weather has come with low wind speeds, creating perfect storm to drive wholesale costs up”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/11/uk-power-prices-hit-record-high-amid-cold-snap-and-lack-of-wind-power
The weather has contributed to our problems, but I noticed the BBC weather people going out of their way to say that weather like this in December is not unusual. They are correct. And so the mess we find ourselves in was entirely predictable (and indeed was predicted by sceptics). To blame high wholesale costs on the weather strikes me as disingenuous. The people who are to blame are those in charge who sold us a lie, namely the claim that more and more renewable power will deliver us cheap, reliable and secure energy supplies. Patently it won’t, certainly not in winter when need is greatest.
LikeLike
Mark – from your “Billionaire-Funded Green ‘Churnalism’” link, I find this bit relevant to UK
“A recent article in the Washingtonian highlighted the work of Professor Ed Maibach in creating a propaganda strategy aimed at U.S. weathercasters. Over a decade, it is reported, he has produced a “weather underground” said to be “a coast-to-coast network of TV weathercasters who believe that educating their audiences about global warming is as crucial as telling them when to bring an umbrella”.
The magazine notes that local news consumers across the country don’t know that behind that telegenic meteorologist is a social scientist and a team of academic researchers, data crunchers and ex-weathercasters, i.e., the staff of Climate Matters. “To a lot of our viewers, it’s lost on them how much Climate [Matters] really is doing,” says Kaitlyn McGrath, a meteorologist at WUSA9. “But it is so far from lost on us.”
LikeLike
this is worth a read from above – https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/12/07/this-george-mason-professor-trains-weathercasters-to-be-climate-advocates/
LikeLike
dfhunter,
That wouldn’t surprise me. In the UK, I lost count this autumn how often the weather forecasters on BBC radio reminded us how hot it was this summer!
LikeLike
LikeLike
With demand nudging 46 GW and our own generation only providing 40 GW they are pulling 6 GW through the interconnectors. “Fragile” is the word that comes to mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
An activist argues that Gridwatch is wrong and undercounts wind
cos the https://dashboard.nationalgrideso.com/
National Grid ESO’s Carbon Intensity Dashboard always gives a higher tally for wind
He is warring with Latimer Alder
LA points out that that tally for wind is given to two decimal places of a MW
and that can’t be possible when you are aggregating data
So that is a maths error.
So which source is adding or emitting data ?
I dunno
Of course home solar and home wind is probably omitted cos how can the grid measure that ?
Wonder if ESO is including power delivered from a windfarms own battery bank
or miscounting leccy windfarms draw OUT of the grid to keep their blades running.
LikeLike
OK the activist points out that when you mouse over the Gridwatch coal meter it says
“Wind power contributes about another 30% from embedded wind power.. that shows only as a drop in demand”
– That means their tally for actual leccy USE is an underestimate too
LikeLike
The wholly political charity Plan B Earth announced today that its boss, Tim Crosland, has formally renounced his status as a barrister – but was Crosland ever a proper barrister? He has been describing himself as an ex-barrister for nearly two years and before that he was what’s called an unregistered barrister, someone who has some of the right qualifications but not the full monty.
What’s more, Crosland was found guilty of contempt of court in 2020 and is currently under investigation by the Bar Standards Board.
So should today’s Plan B Earth headline…
URL:planb.earth/barrister-renounces-status-over-courts-support-for-climate-genocide/
…have been not ‘Barrister renounces status over “court’s support for climate genocide”‘ but ‘Dodgy half-barrister jumps ship before being pushed the whole way’?
The jury’s still out. Too early to tell. (Unless you’re Crosland, natch.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Climate change theme for first minister’s Christmas card”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63943762
Or, as sceptics might say, brainwashing. It’s also a bit ironic to be talking about a climate crisis this Christmas, as Scotland (and the rest of the UK) freezes.
LikeLike
Not about climate per se but marking an interesting milestone and two strong opinions, the second from a paid-up sceptic aka lukewarmer.
LikeLike
Given the obsession with net zero, and the failure of net zero energy policies (as evidenced in spades this winter), many people (myself potentially included) might be keen on nuclear fusion coming to the rescue, even if it is probably decades away from achieving enough to do us a lot of good.
Today’s news (and hype) might seem like very good news if I didn’t have a nagging feeling that I’ve heard it all before.
The Guardian today:
“The carbon-free energy of the future: this fusion breakthrough changes everything”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/13/carbon-free-energy-fusion-reaction-scientists
The Guardian on 13th February 2014:
“Sustainable nuclear fusion breakthrough raises hopes for ultimate green energy
This article is more than 8 years old
Scientists have moved a step closer to achieving sustainable nuclear fusion and almost limitless clean energy”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/12/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-green-energy-source
LikeLike
Here’s something interesting. Mark Jacobson has issued a rebuttal of some expert testimony by Judith Curry.
Click to access 22-11-28-MZJ-Rebuttal-Montana.pdf
LikeLike
Mike – liked this bit from the rebuttal –
“Thus, Prof. Curry’s claim is not only wrong, but it is also not based on any type of scientific
analysis. The scientifically accepted way of carrying out an of whether analysis future grid can
stay stable at low cost upon a transition to renewable energy is through computer modeling (Breyer
et al., 2022). Prof. Curry does not perform any modeling nor does she report results from any
modeling analysis for Montana where 100% renewable energy in the future has been examined.”
so we have real data from now, but no worries, my super computer model analysis says future grid will be OK
will be interesting how Judith responds
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lots of downbeat articles in response to the publicity shot for nuclear fusion the other day:
“Nuclear fusion reactor ‘breakthrough’ is significant, but light-years away from being useful”
https://www.livescience.com/fusion-ignition-scientists-skeptical-explained
“There is no “breakthrough”: NIF fusion power still consumes 130 times more energy than it creates”
https://bigthink.com/the-future/fusion-power-nif-hype-lose-energy/
“Scientists have made a breakthrough in fusion — but don’t get carried away”
https://nypost.com/2022/12/13/scientists-have-made-a-breakthrough-in-fusion-but-dont-get-carried-away/
“David Whitehouse: Will nuclear fusion power save us?”
https://www.netzerowatch.com/will-nuclear-fusion-power-save-us/
“Hold the Nuclear Fusion Hype”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hold-the-nuclear-fusion-hype-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-energy-research-jennifer-granholm-11670961420
“World’s biggest nuclear fusion project faces delays as component cracks”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-25/world-s-best-shot-at-fusion-power-shows-cracks-in-silver-lining
LikeLike
Mark – saw the BBC news coverage on “Nuclear fusion reactor ‘breakthrough’” and thought the same as your comment quotes above.
I got the impression it was another “we don’t need fossil fuels” driven news item.
liked this partial quote from your NYPost link –
“finally, there’s the moonshot fallacy, a trope used for every aspirational goal. But the global energy challenge is not the same as putting a dozen humans on the moon, it’s the equivalent of putting all of humanity on the moon. In no small irony, humanity today still gets roughly 300% more energy from burning wood than from either solar and wind combined, or from nuclear fission. The world gets over 80% of its energy from burning hydrocarbons. Odds are that’s where we’ll see more useful revolutions in energy tech in the foreseeable future.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
just found this from 2019 – https://www.pbsamerica.co.uk/series/mutant-weather/#6433
“Mutant Weather –
ep1 – Mutant Inferno – A warmer planet is creating drier conditions and increasing lightening activity – this means more fuel and ignition – causing catastrophic wildfires and other anomalies like firenadoes. The trend is showing more megafires and a longer fire season, in some cases making wildfires a year-round concern. Large wildfires are also burning in unusual places such as the Arctic Circle. This episode follows recent megastorm events in California and Alberta, Canada. Part 1 of 10.”
ep2 – Mutant Megastorms
ep3 – Mutant something – the link is missing – i’ll guess rain.
ep4 – Mutant Melt
and so on – by now you get the drift
ep11 – mutant Cold – the warming planet is heating more rapidly in the north, heating up the mass of artis air called the polar vortex. a warmer polar vortex is in turn weakening the jet stream which normally serves to contain the jet stream. but now the wobbly jet stream is allowing frigid artic temperatures to travel south bringing with it things like epic blizzards, bomb cyclones and frost quakes”
can’t find a vid link, but not really needed from the above series title – “Mutant Weather”
LikeLike
“Nicola Sturgeon’s officials knew wind statistic was wrong a month prior to admission by ministers
Civil servants working for Nicola Sturgeon’s own policy unit on the Scottish Government’s independence prospectus knew a dodgy wind statistic was being used “without much evidence” more than a month before ministers admitted it was wrong.”
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeons-officials-knew-wind-statistic-was-wrong-a-month-prior-to-admission-by-ministers-3954346
Behind a paywall, unfortunately. However, visit the newspapers section of the BBC’s website (Scotland part) and the front page of the Scotsman is visible this morning.
LikeLike
Wayback’s earliest save of Insulate Britain’s front page is from 14th July 2021:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210714020514/https://www.insulatebritain.com/
It had the fake Einstein quote that is still on IB’s front page more than 17 months later.
Surely that deserves some sort of prize? Fake quotes are everywhere but this is a prominent activist group that has had obvious crap on its front page since before the group got active (first demo: Sep 2021).
Is there a Johann Hari/David Rose Award? If so, this must be a serious contender.
LikeLike
“‘Wind Challenger’: World’s first partially wind-powered bulk carrier ship
At No. 19 on IE’s 22 best innovations of 2022, we sail greener with the first coal carrier powered by hard sail wind power propulsion technology.”
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/22-best-innovations-2022-wind-challenger
The article is less than a week old – I checked to ensure it isn’t an April fool. I’m inclined to agree with the comments at Wind Energy’s Absurd (where I stumbled on this):
LikeLike
Sunday A Point Of View ..gaslighting us
by saying “Snow will only be seen on Christmas cards”
claiming snow used to come EVERY year
and now doesn’t
That’s false there always years where there was hardly ever any snow ..and then years when it was on the ground for a month
As meteorologists tell us that the chance of snow is decreasing year on year, Sara Wheeler reflects on a future where younger generations may never get to experience snow – and what that means for a season so ingrained in our lives and culture.
‘Winter is deeply embedded in the English language – the white stuff of metaphor’, she writes.
‘But if climate change blanches the seasons, one wonders what the as yet unborn writers will reach for when they try to put the unsayable into words.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g3b1
LikeLike
Following the recent discussion about fusion power, I’ve found this alternative that looks interesting and seems to be further along than other attempts.
>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bDXXWQxK38
LikeLike
It’s what the BBC omits from its report as much as what it chooses to dwell on, that tells us about its biased agenda:
“Student, 23, charged after eggs thrown at King Charles in York”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64032088
Nothing is reported regarding his background or motivation, even though both are well known:
“Why did climate activist Patrick Thelwell throw eggs at King Charles?”
https://groundreport.in/who-is-climate-activist-patrick-thelwell/
“Patrick Thelwell Gardening
Gardener and Green Party candidate in York”
https://patrickthelwell.co.uk/
LikeLike
Bill: the Helion tech for fusion looks very promising.
LikeLike
Is anyone surprised?
“Met Office forecasts 2023 will be hotter than 2022”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64032458
It’s front-page news on the BBC website, naturally, even though it’s only a forecast, and given how useless the Met Office is at forecasting these days, there has to be a good chance they’re wrong. Meanwhile:
“Brits face rolling power cuts and blackouts as officials blame ‘work-from-home’ Met Office for forecast failure”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/environment/brits-face-rolling-power-cuts-and-blackouts-as-officials-blame-workfromhome-met-office-for-forecast-failure/news-story/41d66f71aa4c14feb6508865b4eae48b
LikeLike
The science is never settled:
“Trees store ‘twice as much carbon’ as once thought”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64028694
It’s a real shame, then, that so many trees have been felled to make way for wind farms.
LikeLike
Mark, I just caught the tail end of this story on the radio. I would be very surprised if the finding that trees store twice as much carbon as previously thought turns out to be true. Foresters have been estimating the volume of standing trees for a long time. Cutting said trees down gives a very good estimate of dry mass and quantity of carbon. Are these new guys really saying “No, all these foresters around the world have no idea what they are doing, and get the number wrong by a factor of 2”?
In any case, there is no need to invoke carbon storage to promote woodland conservation. Biodiversity alone is plenty of reason for that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Deutsche Bank: “A Certain Degree of Eco-Dictatorship Will Be Necessary””
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/12/20/deutsche-bank-a-certain-degree-of-eco-dictatorship-will-be-necessary/
LikeLiked by 1 person
#ClimateEmergency is trending on Twitter today. A fair few alarmist tweets and this the pick of the bunch on the other side.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A very sad story, but “climate crisis”?!!! Really? The Nile has always flooded; it’s the Nile floods that enabled the Egyptian civilisation to flourish thousands of years ago. So we have a history of flooding going back thousands of years, and this year’s floods are “the worst flooding in more than 50 years” according to the BBC.
“South Sudan floods: Fleeing Nile waters to a minefield”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64032266
(The caption accompanying the headline on the Science & Environment section of the BBC website says “Photos of people displaced by war bearing the brunt of a climate crisis along South Sudan’s River Nile.”).
LikeLike
Another report based on modelling and projections, I assume (haven’t yet read it, I confess):
“Emperor penguin at risk of extinction, along with two-thirds of native Antarctic species, research shows
International study projects up to 80% of emperor penguin colonies will be ‘quasi-extinct’ by 2100”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/23/two-thirds-of-antarcticas-native-species-under-threat-of-extinction-from-global-heating-research-shows
A quick glance at the introduction suggests that as so often the perceived threat is to habitat at least as much as from temperature rise, and it does acknowledge that in the Antarctic warming is currently paused:
It can be found here, for those interested:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001921
LikeLike
The BBC says that the cold blast currently hitting the USA has been linked to “at least 12 deaths”.
Only 12? If this had been a heatwave they would have looked at excess all-cause morbidity and attributed every single one. I’ll guess that the actual number of deaths caused by the cold will never be calculated and never reported.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083129
LikeLiked by 2 people
The local council have a team dedicated to promoting local tourism business
but of course they have been captured by GreenPR
Here them promoting giving away taxpayers money to posh people tocharge their EVs
“The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) 📢
Is a voucher-based scheme that provides eligible applicants with support towards the upfront costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints.
Then they’re promoting their Green Tourism Toolkit
LikeLike
This might be a big story. Joe Rogan does an interview of someone exposing the cobalt mining industry:
LikeLiked by 1 person
An unlikely like from Andrew Revkin:
LikeLike
Funny image from Shellenberger substack:
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/climate-alarmism-behind-christmas?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=279400&post_id=92683148&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
LikeLike
Great I’m getting Drax adverts between tweets now
LikeLike
Merry Xmas to all
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Offshore wind farms’ energy output to increase”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceq2d9j0412o
Which reads to me like an admission that wind farms using lots of smaller turbines are environmentally damaging.
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark – thanks for that cheery link.
over the years they seem to only focus on “glass half empty” theme.
very unhealthy (could lead to Depression for them & readers, why I gave up reading it 10yrs ago).
I remember this from – George Monbiot January 16, 2009 (thought it was in the guardian, but can’t find it)
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2009/01/16/skating-on-thin-ice/
worth a reread IMHO, he ends with –
“The thought that I might never skate outdoors again feels like a bereavement. I pray for another cold snap, even though I know it will bring all the nincompoops in Britain out of their holes, yapping about a new ice age.”
sadly, some parents know how bereavement feels.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We know Greens hide from open debte
I’m checking blocklist stuff.
See how Brexit Blocklist endorses Greens
LikeLike
Greens hide : Tony Heller video
“New video : The War On Information
Climate alarmists are very upset about free speech on Twitter.
They don’t like their #ClimateScam being exposed.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s the tweet where Gret endorses direct action
to shut down the showing of film that trans activists don’t like
LikeLike
I’m shocked, I tell you – shocked:
“BP criticised over plan to spend billions more on fossil fuels than green energy
Company’s oil and gas investments for 2023 will be as much as double those on renewables”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/27/bp-plan-spend-billions-fossil-fuels-green-energy-oil-gas-renewables
It’s worth a read to understand the full extent of the derangement of the critics. Given the ongoing need for fossil fuels, as evidenced by recent events, and their ongoing profitability (despite the best efforts of many politicians and campaigners) for BP to behave other than they are doing would be highly irresponsible IMO.
LikeLike
“We are paying a heavy price for our elites’ green fantasies
Decades of failed energy policies came home to roost this year.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/12/26/we-are-paying-a-heavy-price-for-our-elites-green-fantasies/
LikeLike
Just been down Twitter rabbit hole
A character calling himself Jon Burke FRSA came up
strident dogmatic Green campaigner
Who is he ?
Turns out that he was a Hackney Labour councillor for years
He pushed through Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
There’s court judgment ssying it was illegal
So he got involved in confrontation with opposers of LTNs
Tweeted crazy stuff at them 30 Nov 2020
And was then moved on by Labour
LikeLike
Judith Curry interviewed by Robert Bryce:
LikeLike
“UK wildlife ‘devastated by litany of weather extremes’ in 2022
National Trust’s annual audit reveals a dire year for animals from toads and bats to birds and butterflies”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/28/uk-wildlife-devastated-by-litany-of-weather-extremes-in-2022
The Guardian links to the National Trust website, but not to the annual Christmas audit, which I can’t find. I did find the Annual Report & Accounts, which has a big section on climate change. It says its plans are based on working to a high emissions scenario (RCP8.5 or 4.3C of warming) so we know that they’re an alarmist organisation whose output should be treated as propaganda.
LikeLike
“Terrawatch: the rise and bigger rise of Mediterranean sea levels
Study shows sea level rise on Amalfi coast over last 20 years is twice that on Costa del Sol”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/28/terrawatch-the-rise-and-bigger-rise-of-mediterranean-sea-levels
For once this isn’t a particularly alarmist article, and indeed, it’s difficult to see anything to worry about, or anything pointing at accelerating sea level rise thanks to “climate change”. It’s actually pleasantly objective and interesting, for a change:
LikeLike
“No Rise in Temperature or Rainfall in Bangladesh for 100 Years, in Spite of Climate Alarmists Pointing to Bangladesh as Canary in the Coalmine”
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/12/28/no-rise-in-temperature-or-rainfall-in-bangladesh-for-100-years-in-spite-of-climate-alarmists-pointing-to-bangladesh-as-canary-in-the-coalmine/
LikeLike
I just thought of a great new meme/phrase:
Prosperity Shaming
LikeLiked by 2 people
A peek into the mind of an activist climate scientist.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/29/i-am-an-optimistic-person-the-scientist-who-studies-climate-catastrophes
Except she isn’t really a climate scientist as she has a PhD in The Philosophy of Science. Nevertheless she leads the “world’s only rapid reaction force of climate scientists. They target extreme weather across the world almost as it happens, reach out to local people on the ground, and carry out deep, rigorous statistical analysis”. Apparently “the world’s first climate attribution unit”.
She claims she is optimistic but her catastrophe bias shows despite her supposed deep and rigorous statistical analysis: “Friederike Otto paused to look at the monument to the city’s great fire more than 350 years earlier. “The heat was intense, the humidity was so low and there were these winds. You could almost feel if there was one spark now, London will burn again,” she said.”
Talking presumably about the Sahel: “The droughts in west Africa, for example, were not very extreme but the population is so dependent on regular rain, which only very rarely happens, that any change is catastrophic.” Any drought is certainly a catastrophe for subsistence farmers but now it appears every drought has been co-opted to support the climate catastrophe narrative. Even though regular rain “only very rarely happens.”
The closing statement is astonishing:
“My team could then focus on the really complex interplay between the social drivers of things like population vulnerability and the climate system, as well as working much more on finding out where we have levers to really bring change.”
So it’s not really about the science of climate attribution then. What has population vulnerability got to do with climate science unless it’s to magnify the “levers to really bring change”?
LikeLike
potentilla,
Have you read John’s article from July 2021?
https://cliscep.com/2021/07/18/friederike-otto-whats-your-game/
LikeLike
My comments from 30 mins ago has disappeared
I’ll repost, but apologies if it now comes twice
LikeLike
Tip : Every day next week 9am Radio4 Climate Activism series
Doesn’t look impartial at all
Monday R4 9am Rethink Climate
Episode 1 of 5 of Pledges and progress
Amol Rajan and guests examine the pledges that have been made on climate change and how far we have gone towards meeting them.
What has worked to reduce greenhouse gasses and what’s not working, including the role of COP.
Is the commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees the right one?
With
– Miss @GraihaghJackson “BBC Science and Climate Broadcaster,”‘The Climate Question’ podcast
– Professor Saleemul Huq “Climate revolutionary .. helped to force wealthy countries to pay for the losses and damages from climate change”
– Mikaela Loach “Pronouns she/they 🇯🇲 climate justice activist, medic .. free the Egyptian prisoner”
– Emeritus Professor Bill McGuire (Vulcanologist & Socialist)
– Sarah Bell of Google’s The 11th Hour Project
“program director for the Food & Agriculture program studied English* literature and French”
(*The charity’s website wrongly spells it with a small “e”)
Producers Nick Holland & Marianna Brain
Editor Lizzi Watson
Production Coordinators Siobhan Reed, Helena Warwick-Cross and Sophie Hill
(Very female team .. see how there is only one white man gets on air)
LikeLike
1 Pledges and progress
explores the tension between climate-change aspirations and achievements
2 Behaviour and communication
What lifestyle habits are we prepared to give up to stop climate change?
3 Green economy, money and prosperity
explores what moving to a green economy may mean for the way we live and work
4 Green technology and innovation
To what extent can technology mitigate the effects climate change?
5 Leadership
Are people with power doing enough to solve the climate crisis?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark: I didn’t know Friederike Otto had been previously featured on Cliscep. I should have expected it given her striped blazer, leggings and pink sparkly Converse trainers and, of course, being one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, 2021.
The post by John is very informative together with excellent comments. Thanks for the link.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The daily Radio4 climate sermon show doesn’t start until Monday
but 12pm now R4 have another 30 min Greenblob advert
about community heating schemes.
I do support genuinely having less waste
however such collective schemes often work out badly in practice
vs individuals taking responsibility.
eg all over the old Soviet block people have community heating schemes , but in practice you see them with their windows open in winter, cos that makes no difference to their heating bills
Money Box : Heating the homes of the future
How innovative projects are changing the way people heat their homes to bring bills down.
– Swaffham Prior village heat network.
– @energy_house2 Salford Uni project : 2 Barrett homes inside a lab to test climate stuff
– Gateshead council warm mine water scheme “for council buildings, local college, The Sage as well as hundreds of homes.
LikeLike
ITV local newsPR
“And in our look back of the year
a guy saying take Climate serriously “Areas that had floods and heatwaves in 2022 will have them again” this is the new normal
I looked him up “Keith Jones, the National Trust’s Climate Change advisor”
He was all over other media clips saying the same thing ..same headset, same webcam background.
WE had a winter of 53, we had a summer of 1976, they were not the new normal .. you dramaqueen.
LikeLike
stewgreen,
I seem to remember you introducing the brilliant term “drama green”.
LikeLike
Not sure if this link will work, but if it does, you can watch Keith Jones here:
https://www.climate-change.tv/11111
He seems to have attended COP 21.
LikeLike
@Pontentilla Jaime put a post about Otto https://climatecontrarian.wordpress.com/2022/12/31/extreme-weather-attribution-pseudoscience-_-meet-the-imperial-college-scientist-who-peers-into-the-dark-center-of-climate-disasters/
LikeLike
WordPress went off a bit for 12 hours over the New Year
Conversations mode and Notifications bar weren’t working
LikeLike
Back to that ex Hackney Councillor guy
It seems the pushback against their *imposition* of LTNs and “15 Minute cities” is big
There is a protest day on Jan 7th
seems Piers Corbyn’s team are some part
The Green thinking councillors seem to typically decide the LTN and 15 Min Cities are necessary are they push them through without any public vote and throw negative consultations away
tweets from another account https://www.twitter.com/No2totltns/status/1608082956777660419
They name top councillors Mike Hakata, Peray Ahmet as being the new Green Stasi
LikeLike
Given all the hype about recent Californian droughts being linked to climate change, this is interesting:
“Weather tracker: San Francisco has second rainiest day on record
Matt Hills (Metdesk)
Floods hit California as ‘atmospheric river’ conveyor belt of tropical air moves through – with another such event forecast for this week”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/02/weather-tracker-san-francisco-hit-by-second-rainiest-day-on-record
I also read that the Californian snowpack is at its deepest level for 10 years:
“California’s Statewide Snowpack Piles Up After December Storms
The latest statewide snowpack figures show a dramatic turnaround from this time last year.”
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/weather-news/california-snow-snowpack-storms-drought-rain/3054040/
I think it’s called weather.
LikeLike
BBC R4 will promote Amazon’s new ecodrama tonight
“Veteran director John Strickland talks about filming The Rig
, a new 6-part big budget Amazon Prime eco-thriller set on an oil rig cut off from all communication in the North Sea.
A ensemble cast of familiar faces from Line of Duty, Game of Thrones and Schitt’s Creek contend with a mysterious deep-sea entity.”
LikeLike
“Climate crisis prompts RHS to plan for sending rhododendrons north
Plants are thought more likely to thrive at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire than at their current home at Wisley in Surrey”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/climate-crisis-prompts-rhs-to-plan-for-sending-rhododendrons-north
Which is interesting, especially if one visits the rhododendron section of the RHS website:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/rhododendron/growing-guide
This is also of interest on a much larger scale:
“Concerning the Origin and Distribution of Rhododendrons”
https://www.rhododendron.org/v47n3p139.htm
LikeLike
“Wind generated a record amount of electricity in 2022”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64179918
Fair enough, but instead of a hype article, some reality might be in order. No mention of the 2021 wind drought and the inherent unreliability of wind. We aretold that:
But no mention is made that when it was cold and dark in early-mid December, wind was worse than useless, i.e. when we needed it most, it failed.
Conflating wind and nuclear, in a desperate attempt to make it look as though we don’t need fossil fuels, when the reality is that gas generated 11.7% more electricity in the UK than did wind. Ending with:
No mention of those countries (especially Germany) turning to coal.
LikeLike
“Plans for industrial batteries in Swardeston raise fire safety fears”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-64177386
LikeLike
WordPress conversations mode is still playing up.
Parliament is full of greens
It’s a greenhouse
it cultivates vegetables.
LikeLike
Here’s the latest post from a globetrotting gibberish merchant who claimed to have been an XR biggie for a while and [perhaps] once compared himself to The Unabomber [I can’t refind that claim, so please treat it as gibberish]:
https://ecorevoltblog.wordpress.com/2023/01/02/my-anti-genomics-guerrilla-ontology/
And here’s one from someone who starts by complaining about journalists using clichés about eco-activists then tries to overthrow those supposed clichés by supporting such clichés by going on and on about the wonderful virtues of eco-activists who play guitars while squatting in trees, etc:
https://undisciplinedenvironments.org/2022/12/20/against-the-misrepresentation-of-climate-activism-in-lutzerath-aka-the-zad-rhineland/
I thought the second one was a spoof at first, but it’s not.
===
Totally OT: My ancient Tesla – no relation – borehole pump is prolly effed. I’ve been without tapwater for nearly three weeks. Does anyone here have any expertise in replacing borehole pumps? Can you just pull one up and replace it with a similarly specced one-phase pump just by connecting it to the three wires that were connected to the old one?
LikeLike
Mark there is a rhododendron forest near here.
As in many UK places they are being removed
cos its an invasive species from the Himalyas.
We’ve not seen any snowdrops nor daffodils here yet
We are supposed to be in a winter heatwave but that only lasted for half a day ..that was Thursday until 11:30am ..then it went back to the cold winds
LikeLike
stewgreen, no sign of snowdrops here, nor of daffodils appearing above ground – both common sights by the end of the first week in January in many years in the past.
LikeLike
One astounding thing about the BBC Green bubbleworld is that their tweets usually get very little interaction replies and Likes
Even big greens don’t have a huge impact
compared to tweets from pop stars etc.
However I see this anti Greta thread got 122K Likes ..that’s a lot
.. a dew don’t understand that Sandford Police is a parody account
about the police force in the film HotFuzz
where the whole village of Sandford is involved in a crazy conspiracy of killing people
cos it’s for the “Greater Good” (thus the joke “Greta Good” )
LikeLike
Twitter pushes at me a tweet saying UN is funding Pakistan decarbonisation.
LikeLike
“Why don’t we ever hear the good news about climate?
Climate-related disasters are killing fewer people than ever.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/09/why-dont-we-ever-hear-the-good-news-about-climate/
LikeLike
Sri Lanka collapsed cos nutters pushed the country into organic farming and against fossil fuels
Last week BBC Woman’s Hour lauded the woman behind it, without mentioning the chaos she caused.
They promoted the item in about 6 tweets
LikeLike
Long thread from Climate PR people
about getting it even more embedded in journalism
.. https://twitter.com/wblau/status/1611713195407810562
LikeLike
There is a new BBC article about Community Repair Spaces
It’s absolutely loaded with the BBC’s own political agenda pushing .. cos that is what they like to do
It’s the normal BLACK, GREEN, FEMALE
Instead of being about a normal Men’s Shed ..they have found a place where they can use a black women photo for the link pictures
and the article is tagged “climate”
plus uses the phrase “Climate Crisis”
Title : Repairing broken gadgets for a greener future
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-63737951
LikeLike
That’s the BBC’s sole reference (in its summary of today’s newspapers) that I’ve been able to find to that story on its website. Several articles, however, in its Canada and USA section about the Golden Globes. Keep the peasants drugged with celebrity news, I suppose, rather than analyse anything that goes against the agenda.
LikeLike
It’s behind the Telegraph paywall, but is worth a read. It can be found here:
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/20230111/281487870450341
There’s quite a pile-in against central banks, including the Bank of England, getting involved in such issues (Lord Mervyn King wades in too, echoing Powell’s views).
LikeLike
BBC is a Green PR operation
I glance and I see things
Join Onto CEO & Co-founder Rob Jolly on @BBCRadio4
#GapFinders (12 Jan) at 12:00pm!
He’ll discuss finding a gap in the #EV sector for an all-inclusive subscription service,
what he did differently from other #start-ups & his motivations.
LikeLike
Ha R4 has another go at promoting the recent Amol show
“What personal lifestyle habits are we prepared to give up to stop global warming ?”
Only 1 reply
“its a scam you know and we know you know #globalwarming “
LikeLike
“UAE to launch Cop28 presidency with oil boss tipped for leading role
Sultan Al Jaber, chief of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, expected to be named president of global climate talks”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/11/uae-to-launch-cop28-presidency-with-oil-boss-tipped-for-leading-role
LikeLike
9pm BBC doc about fraudulent Pakistan Dubai firm led by Arif Naqvi
In his profile it says
“Naqvi is a founding commissioner of the Business &
*Sustainable Development* Commission (BSDC), alongside Paul Polman and Mo Ibrahim.
Fraud being a sustainable business ?
Gates Foundation put money into his main firm , but then whistleblower tipped them off
when they brought in accountants tge firm collapsed
LikeLike
They had a Clean Energy section
did it disappear or was it floated off as Themos ?
As of September 2017, the firm had invested over US$1 billion in energy, including a partnership with ENGIE to develop a wind power platform in India.
In January 2017, Abraaj acquired a majority stake in Jhimpir Power, to construct a 50 MW wind project in the Jhimpir wind corridor in Southeast Pakistan.
In 2015, the firm announced a partnership with Aditya Birla Group to build a 1GW scale solar energy platform in India
LikeLike
“UK coal-burning power plant to stay open two years longer than planned
Ratcliffe-on-Soar to be kept viable until late 2024 after ministers make request prompted by energy crisis”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/11/uk-coal-burning-power-plant-to-stay-open-two-years-longer-than-planned
LikeLike
“Fossil fuel producers must be forced to ‘take back’ carbon, say scientists
Group says forcing polluters to store carbon dioxide underground is needed to help world reach net zero”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/12/fossil-fuel-producers-must-be-forced-to-take-back-carbon-say-scientists
LikeLike
Follow the money……
“Last year HSBC said it would phase out funding coal. The bank has now loaned $340mn to an energy company which is bulldozing a German village to expand a massive coalmine.” (From the Spectator)
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Private jet emissions quadrupled during Davos 2022
Climate campaigners accuse leaders of hypocrisy as flights emit as much CO2 in a week as 350,000 cars”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/13/private-jet-emissions-quadrupled-davos-2022
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Environmentalism will be the ruin of Germany
The green elites are sabotaging Europe’s most powerful economy.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/13/environmentalism-will-be-the-ruin-of-germany/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Skidmore comes up with a shed more crap
@TiceRichard is discussing this on @TalkTV @Iromg show
And promises a lot more about crazy Skidmore on his Sunday show
Meanwhile Carbon Pants find the BBC have done their PR work for them
… https://twitter.com/CarbonBrief/status/1613842239402254336
LikeLike
The Tice video is up now
LikeLike
Commenter
Chris Skidmore like many/most MPs has never had a proper job.
School, uni, political gofer, MP.
Basically were being run by a bunch of ex students with no experience of real life still following their student ideas like zero carbon
LikeLike
News from another industry dominated by the Chinese:
https://gcaptain.com/chinese-clean-energy-giant-unveils-worlds-largest-wind-turbine/?subscriber=true&goal=0_f50174ef03-ec08dd1040-170410014&mc_cid=ec08dd1040&mc_eid=9275323244
LikeLike
Local Radio are quick to publicise GREEN PR
“after 11:30am we’ll talking to Tony from a Hull firm
that is asking children to design the style of their *New Electric delivery van*
There is a £1000 for the school and £100 for the child”
Basically BBC read the local paper
“Historic Hull firm FR Scott is going green and has added a brand-new electric van to its fleet.”
https://hullwhatson.com/historic-hull-firm-goes-green-and-supports-local-sport-children/
LikeLike
Popular Climate Etc. guest poster, Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler), is now on Twitter:
LikeLike
Stew – loved your “Carbon Pants” ref in 10:39 AM comment. made me chuckle 🙂
as usual I tried to “like” to no avail 😦
LikeLike
Friday 10am-1pm @TalkTV much of the show was anti-Net Zero
and it featured Andrew Monford
LikeLike
Local news covered laws banning disposable plastic cutlery at UK takeaways
by 8am they added a clip of a local Greenpeace person
The UK is the world’s second-biggest producer of plastic waste per person, behind only the US,
OK that comes from a Greenpeace report 2 years ago
They say “The vast majority of it is food and drink packaging”
#1 I don’t believe the statistic is report ..it is too lucky to be true so seems like a PR claim
#2 Plastic waste is not a problem as all can be safely converted into energy in high temperature incinerators
The problem is people throwing it all over the nature.
And that happens less in UK than many other countries.
LikeLike
“Sunak under fire over second jet flight for UK trip in a week
Prime minister flew to Scotland with RAF plane days after he flew by jet from London to Leeds”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/13/sunak-under-fire-over-second-jet-flight-for-uk-trip-in-a-week
I continue to support the criticism of Sunak for hypocrisy, for supporting net zero while ignoring any restrictions on his own behaviour. However, it’s interesting that not one bit of the criticism appears to extend to Sturgeon (she who flew rather pointlessly to COP27 in Egypt at the taxpayers’ expense). When I saw that she and Sunak were meeting in Inverness I did wonder why they didn’t meet in Edinburgh, given that Sturgeon is based there, and there’s a very good east coast rail line between Edinburgh and London. But this report gives the truth away – both Sunak and Sturgeon wanted to pose at the Cromarty Firth while they made their green port announcement. Politicians of all and any stripes will happily emit CO2 – or in this case unnecessarily meet at an inconvenient location – if there’s a photo op in it for them. There really should be stricter rules on what is government business and how it is carried out, and what constitutes political business paid for by the taxpayer.
LikeLike
10:05am Peter Cardwell show on TalkTV
Andrew Montford vs Chaitanya Kumar from the New Economics Foundation @chaitanyakumar
immediately followed by wacky government energy saving add
“just 30 seconds and you’ll be saving money”
No one on Twitter supported Kumar, 30+ were againnst him
LikeLike
Lets see how FooC is cherrypicking to spin our picture of the world
Alastair Leitheadin Portugal : writes about his experiences of trying to live an off-grid lifestyle
David Adams : Florida escaped much of the worst of the recent freeze in the US, he reflects on
could be a canary in the coal mine for *climate change*
(Yeh just like the coming snow on Wednesday is)
LikeLike
Here’s a recent hour-long interview with Dr Gail Bradbrook:
https://www.stitcher.com/show/accidental-gods/episode/being-the-change-journeys-in-service-to-life-with-gail-bradbrook-210682559
The interviewer introduced Bradbrook as ‘one of our world’s deepest thinkers’, then started the podcast with a brief, unexplained comment that was presumably about Bradbrook’s tax return (‘sounds like hell’), then this:
Bradbrook’s answer: psychedelic drugs. She went on and on about them. E.g.:
Good. You don’t necessarily recommend that.
And you didn’t use a broom handle.
There’s hope for you yet, Dr Gail.
LikeLike
“Gloucestershire fruit tree project aims to tackle climate change”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64282106
It’s great that they’re planting some fruit trees. But to “tackle climate change”? Get real.
LikeLike
“Concern over North Sea plan as Norwegian oil and gas imports top £40bn”
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23250492.concern-north-sea-plan-norwegian-oil-gas-imports-top-40bn/
LikeLike
I posted about Liam Dutton plugging his new Weird Weather book aimed at kids
the alarmist guy posted back
“GOTCHA ! you said the Channel4 weatherman said that extreme weather is only caused by Climate Change,
yet here’s him clear statement in the prog where he says we’ve always had weird weather has always happened it’s just that Climate Change is sometimes making it stronger”
Well I had been cycling when I heard the prog and stopped listening when he laid on the propaganda thick ..So I had to double check
Well the first half of the item was as I had said
The guy had 3 clear parts where he insinuated weird weather was due to Climate Change
And yes in the second part of the interview he did row back and do the caveat that the “gotcha” guy quoted back at me .
I wonder if that is a PR technique ?
They make strong overblown claims to brainwash the public
.. but then later on you make a row back statement to make it seem like they are reasonable people.
LikeLike
“Energy boss warns higher bills are here to stay”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64270157
It’s rather a meandering piece, but I thought this was significant:
LikeLike
They do things differently in the EU:
“Lützerath: German police oust climate activists after clashes near coal mine”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64285787
Similar behaviour in France towards gilets jaune. Compare and contrast the kid gloves treatment for JSO, XR et al in the UK.
LikeLike
Lützerath müdbath:
Gandalf (or was it Hallam?) toppled the cop a second time a minute or two later.
LikeLike
Maybe he’s a Hobbit?
Big feet = low ground pressure!
LikeLike
“Climate activists vow to take to streets to stop fossil fuel extraction
‘Cease and desist’ letter signed by over 650,000 people sent to oil and gas CEOs follows removal of Greta Thunberg from coal protest”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/16/climate-activists-vow-to-take-to-the-streets-to-stop-fossil-fuel-extraction
LikeLike
“John Kerry backs UAE appointment of oil chief to oversee UN climate talks
US climate envoy says pick is a ‘terrific choice’ but activists equate pick to asking ‘arms dealers to lead peace talks’”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/16/cop28-john-kerry-backs-uae-appointment-oil-chief
Different opinions are available:
“Let’s face reality. Fossil fuel interests have destroyed the Cops – we need something new
Bill McGuire
It beggars belief that the UN thought it a good idea to allow an authoritarian petro-state to host an already compromised Cop28”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/16/fossil-fuel-destroyed-cops-un-compromised-cop28
LikeLike
“The Gift of the Gabbard”
https://www.netzerowatch.com/the-gift-of-the-gabbard/
LikeLike
Stop press – it’s worse than we thought!
“Atmospheric dust may have hidden true extent of global heating
Material from dry landscapes has surged since the 1800s, possibly helping to cool the planet for decades”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/17/atmospheric-dust-cooling-climate-change
LikeLike
Thanks Mark. Excuse me if I don’t believe Mr. Kok. At all. Does the analysis take into account the stabilisation of arid areas caused by the CO2 fertilisation effect of drought-stressed plants?
Meanwhile, this from UnHerd TV is worth a watch. Thought provoking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Is this the end of Made in Europe?
From glass-makers to paper producers, European industries face a struggle to survive. What if they don’t make it?”
https://www.politico.eu/article/end-made-in-europe-manufacturing-industry-struggle/
LikeLike
Thanks again Mark. If only someone had foreseen that Net Zero policies would inevitably lead to the deindustrialisation of Europe!
LikeLike
“ooh don’t LIKE the tweets from Peter in Sweden he’s Fa, Fa Far Right !”
Yet when it comes to this tweet bashing Greta, 52,000 people Liked it
(He’s not Far Right that is a smear the lefties use)
LikeLike
He follows that up with a blogpost about how British Labour front group HnH created a faked screenshot of him apparently saying Nazi things
and then says people are taking that at face value and putting it in reports.
Some of the lines from his post https://petersweden.substack.com/p/debunking-the-lies-imanuelsen
A new hit piece against myself has just dropped from a very influential think tank funded by among others George Soros’ foundation. and Bill Gates’ foundation. It is called “Institute for Strategic Dialogue” (ISD for short).
This is a report that is made to try and bring about MORE censorship regarding so called “climate change disinformation”, pressuring Big Tech to implement even more censorship of people that have dissident views… Also on their list are well known people like John Stossel and Michael Shellenberger, listing us as “super spreaders”
.. They are acting like pure Communists attempting to shut down people that they dislike.
Funnily enough, in their report they claim that me comparing climate change fanaticism to Communism, is actually a “dog-whistle to antisemitic tropes
… I have NEVER denied the Holocaust and anyone claiming that I have, are nothing but LIARS.
I believe, and have always believed, that the Holocaust happened and was a horrible atrocity that must never be allowed to happen again.
The main source they use against me is the British far-left extremist group “Hope Not Hate”.
They wrote a hit piece against me many years ago containing nothing but lies and libel.
They even claimed I was “British” which is laughable
.. They published my address, a family dog was then poisoned
.
This new report contains a line
: “those opposed to climate action are increasingly in dialogue with extremist an conspiracist groups“
He says they are going to Big Tech saying ban people who fit this definition
LikeLike
This org @exponentialroad
Bio : “For innovators, transformers and disruptors taking action in line with 1.5°C, with the mission to halve emissions before 2030 through exponential climate action”
Is paying $$$$ to put this promoted tweet on my Twitter feed
LikeLike
LikeLike
Make of this what you will:
“Greta Thunberg: German police deny protest detainment was staged”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64321652
The BBC might well be correct to accept the explanation proffered by the interior ministry of the German state in question, but I think they are wrong to accept the explanation without question and to label the post claiming otherwise as “false”. The BBC has chosen to accept the word of one group of people, without themselves knowing the truth. I don’t know whether it was a staged publicity shot or not, but it looks from the video as though it might be. Who knows? Neither me, nor the BBC. I regard the BBC effort to be false fact-checking, and I don’t think it warranted being a story on the front page of its website.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jit (on 17th):
Matthew Crawford is well worth a listen, thanks. Here’s the blurb for a talk he gave in London for UnHerd last week:
Good cheer isn’t pointless, one might say.
LikeLike
Here’s an open letter* from Roger Hallam, who isn’t enjoying his current** stay in prison. He’s on remand in Wandsworth. I have edited the letter for brevity and clarity (most of the edits are honest, honest).
===
*Sources:
https://juststopoil.org/2023/01/12/english-gulag-a-delayed-christmas-message-from-roger-hallam/
**In a 2019 YouTube video…
…Hallam said that prison was ‘no big deal’ and ‘not anything to worry about’ and urged his young followers to get busy with illegal protests.
The wise one must be getting old.
LikeLike
ITV local newsPR
One item was PRasNews on steroids
It was a 3 minute advert, for an ITV prog tonight
“Your Car: Time To Switch”
which will be a 30 min advert for electric cars.
LikeLike
“Starmer: UK car industry ‘needs to be saved'”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64337107
Here’s an idea. Stop forcing car-makers to stop selling electric cars which most people don’t want, while preventing them from selling ICE vehicles which people do want. Earlier this week my wife and I started going round car salerooms with a view to buying another car, as our current diesel heads towards 100,000 miles. The salesmen all try to push EVs at you. They seem resigned to the push-back. When I pointed out that EVs don’t suit our lifestyle, they rapidly gave up on pushing them – it seems it’s a common response from customers. I also mentioned that we’re thinking about buying a new diesel shortly before the 2030 ban comes in to force. “Yes”, said the salesman I mentioned that to – “lots of people are telling me that.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
A world gone mad:
“The climate crisis threatens economic stability – why are central bankers divided?
Howard Davies
Jerome Powell and Mervyn King reject taking on climate policy, while Mark Carney and Christine Lagarde say action is vital”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/20/climate-economic-stability-central-bankers
LikeLike
Lincolnshire businessman says Smart Meter ripped him off by £8K worth of gas
That became £4000 cos of the government cap
Turned put the Smart Meter had an error so was billing him masses for gas at night. even though he used very little
Now they paid him back
The meter sent BG his day time use
but at night time instead of sending the night rate consumption it send zero
So their system then estimated night time consumption at a massive rate
giving him £8,000 per month bills
Crowther Upholstery of Nettleham, Lincolnshire
starts 1h38m40s https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dt9jdb
LikeLike
On Twitter search I spot 4 or 5 people saying
that even though off over night, their smart meter says theyve used £4 o £5 in gas
One guy says his mates meter just bills him £10/month no matter how much he uses.
LikeLike
Greta getting some tough questions while on a long walk in Davos:
LikeLiked by 1 person
An interesting thread:
LikeLike
“National Grid puts coal plants on standby to supply electricity”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64367504
Which is all rather odd, since the cold snap appears to be coming to an end, and wind speeds are finally picking up. As I write, wind is providing 13.3% of electricity to the National Grid. Mind you, that’s still less than the 15% we re currently importing.
LikeLike
“The National Grid is falling apart thanks to net zero
We’re left with demand management to keep the lights on – rewarding the rich at the expense of the poor, and all using taxpayer funds”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/23/national-grid-scheme-will-do-reward-heavy-energy-users/
Behind a paywall, unfortunately.
LikeLike
The article is on NALOPKT.
LikeLike
Media seem to do have been doing massive PR for Tuesday’s ELECTRICITY RATIONING teatime.
Radio Lincs this morning ‘isn’t it great I am an Octopus customer with a smart meter and I’ve signed up to the scheme
whereby if I reduce my teatime electricity consumption below my normal ..I get paid’
I switched over and simultaneously RadioHumberside were doing the same green biz PR but on stilts
” Here we are at the Hull University eco-project the GreenHouse
I’m with Mr X from Nigeria”
The BBC reporter then fed him leading questions so she could get him to big-up Climate Change
Presenter “so you would sign up to this scheme ?”
X “yes of course ..blah blah”
presenter ” Now here’s Miss Y from Pakistan.
Are you worried about the floods in Pakistan and Climate Change ?”
Pakistani “Yeh, Climate Change, I’m worried about the floods and we have load shedding and power cuts “
The BBC reporter failed to ask what is causing power cuts in Pakistan.
LikeLike
There’s much more on the story here
https://biasedbbc.tv/blog/2023/01/24/midweek-25-january-2023/#comment-1221369
including how the BBC changed it’s news story main image from merely white hands to later a full profile pic of a black guy
https://biasedbbc.tv/blog/2023/01/24/midweek-25-january-2023/#comment-1221369
LikeLike
“‘I saw people brainwashed by the Extinction Rebellion cult’: Former XR spokeswoman claims activists were told to ‘fill the jails’, cry on TV and martyr themselves with outrageous stunts while under ‘spell’ of ‘prophet’ leader Roger Hallam”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11666795/Former-XR-spokeswoman-claims-brainwashed-eco-activists-told-cry-TV.html
LikeLike
“Celebrities call on UK banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coalfields
Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance add their voices to Richard Curtis’s Make My Money Matter campaign”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/25/stephen-fry-emma-thompson-mark-rylance-uk-banks-to-stop-financing-new-oil-gas-and-coal-expansion
It must be nice to be comfortably well off and fawned over by the media, giving you the power to campaign against working class jobs during a cost-of-living “crisis”.
LikeLike
Mark, they are not just campaigning against jobs, but also in a very real sense against cheap food. Without oil, there is no cheap food for the plebs who worship these wealthy thesps.
There is no excuse for Fry, who as we know is a smart cookie. The other two I dunno.
LikeLike
I spot heatpump PR people on Twitter complaining about older BBC heatpump articles.
Yesterday the BBC did one like an advert, the PR folk are praising it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64261457
LikeLike
Humber region hydrogen & CCS consultations
Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut at preliminary planning enquiries cos developers use your points to defend themselves later at the proper planning consultation.
So instead you save your points for the proper consultation.
Local newspaper advertisement h2h Saltend final public consultation by equinor
” innovative new low carbon hydrogen facility”
from the 23rd of January to the 24th of February
OK 6 weeks ago I tried to attend the Centrica public consultation that was about the pipeline that will come from saltend through the villages and to the steelworks at Scunthorpe then Keadby power station then Drax power station.
however the PowerPoints screwed up and we couldn’t see it and I missed the repeat one
LikeLike
I search twitter on Humber hydrogen project and the Likes are absolutely minimal
this week and over the last year
typical tweets got 4 , or 7 likes
Yet when I look at the Scunthorpe regional weekly newspaper ..the 4 page business section is usually about 3.5 pages about such big green projects
So the Green PR effort is massive
LikeLike
“UK car production collapses to lowest for 66 years”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64399748
No doubt there is a modest amount of truth in the excuse-making. However, the article completely fails to recognise the elephant in the room – namely that a major problem for car manufacturers is that government policy is forcing them to stop making ICE cars that people want, and instead they have to make EVs that, by and large, people don’t want. Instead the article acts as a puff piece, claiming the answer is ore investment in EV and battery technology. Perhaps they should talk to new car salesmen, a very dispirited bunch. They might learn something.
LikeLike
“UK climate minister received donations from fuel and aviation companies
Exclusive: Graham Stuart received £12,000 towards campaign from fuel distributor and aviation consultant”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/26/uk-climate-minister-received-donations-fuel-aviation-companies
I firmly disapprove of all political donations to MPs, but I’m far from convinced this is a “gotcha” story justifying it’s front and centre billing. To start with, we are told this:
But then we also learn:
Funny the Guardian doesn’t mention that in its headline.
LikeLike
I wondered if I was mishearing when on the BBC 1o’clock News today an item about the conversion of a large part of the Brunt Ice Shelf into a floating mega-iceberg in Antarctica was followed by a blunt statement that this has nothing to do with global warming. What’s going on?
LikeLike
No Alan, you didn’t mis-hear. As I mentioned on Jit’s relevant post the article on the BBC website also makes the point that it’s nothing to do with global warming. In fact, it went further, and said that a giant calving such as the one that has just taken place was overdue.
Perhaps the BBC is finally learning that we sceptics are watching them and will challenge them if they post inaccurate rubbish? Or is a review by the Government due? Who knows.
LikeLike
What a surprise:
“Government green heating scheme off to slow start”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64414493
When will they realise? The public isn’t interested. The public knows that – by and large – ICE cars are better for them personally than EVs and they prefer their gas central heating to heat pumps. In both cases, even grants to soften the pain of a lot of expense don’t move the needle.
LikeLike
Well worth a read, IMO:
“Why Net Zero is nonsense: a briefing document for opponents”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-net-zero-is-nonsense-a-briefing-document-for-opponents/
LikeLike
“In stark contrast: the warming of Europe’s ski resorts – photo essay
Comparison of satellite images from start of 2023 and those from last winter shows unprecedented lack of snow”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/26/warming-europe-ski-resorts-photo-essay-satellite-images-winter-lack-of-snow
All perfectly valid – no complaints, except that it seems a little disingenuous not to mention that the news is now hopelessly date, loads of snow having fallen on the Alps since then:
“SUPERB CONDITIONS IN THE ALPS AS MORE SNOW FALLS
24TH JANUARY 2023”
https://planetski.eu/2023/01/24/great-conditions-as-more-snow-falls/
And today we also learn this:
“Alps Were Up to 7°C Warmer in the Recent Past, Dramatic New Evidence Shows”
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/01/26/alps-were-up-to-7c-warmer-in-the-recent-past-dramatic-new-evidence-shows/
I don’t suppose we’ll see that story at the Guardian any time soon…
LikeLiked by 1 person
nice post from NALOPNT –
“It offers support to journalists to ‘forge a path towards an all-newsroom approach to climate reporting’.”
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/01/26/meet-the-organisation-behind-the-medias-climate-hysteria/
Seems the post link is from July 2021.
After a quick read, you get how they have/are influencing every news/UN story on weather/climate.
the obvious stand out advise quote for me was – “It supercharges normal weather patterns, like steroids.”
wonder who may have used this type of language lately –
“Pakistan floods are ‘a monsoon on steroids’, warns UN chief Antonio Guterres Published 30 August 2022”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62722117
LikeLiked by 1 person
correction to the date above – seems to be 2022 at least.
wish I could cut & paste the “Examples in the news” bit – can’t stop laughing 🙂
LikeLike
ps – seems CCNow has been covered already – https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/05/22/following-the-money-covering-climate-now/
LikeLike
“Short-finned pilot whale first of kind in British waters”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64422703
No evidence, other than the presence of the whale, is offered to back up that statement.
LikeLike
Reading this report makes me think the UN Rapporteur in question has a large axe to grind, but it must leave the Guardian heavily conflicted!
“Reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism, says UN official
Rapporteur Tendayi Achiume says projects are at expense of marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/27/reliance-on-high-tech-solutions-to-climate-crisis-perpetuates-racism-says-un-official
LikeLike
“Italy signs $8B gas deal with Libya
European countries have sought to replace Russian gas with energy supplies from North Africa and other sources.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-signs-8b-gas-deal-with-libya/
Also:
LikeLike
“US lawmakers press to remove oil boss from leading COP28 climate talks
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber’s role as CEO of national oil company ‘risks jeopardizing climate progress from successive U.N. Climate Conferences,’ said the letter.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-lawmakers-press-to-remove-oil-boss-from-leading-cop28-climate-talks/
Ironically, perhaps:
LikeLike
one offs prove nothing
That’s not a trend
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peterson has another good podcast – https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/08/what-does-the-science-say-dr-richard-lindzen-jordan-peterson-podcast/
LikeLike
“Scientists Struggle to Understand Why Antarctica Hasn’t Warmed for Over 70 Years Despite Rise in CO2”
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/01/29/scientists-struggle-to-understand-why-antarctica-hasnt-warmed-for-over-70-years-despite-rise-in-co2/
LikeLike
“ULEZ expansion: Pressure mounts on London mayor to reconsider plans”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64373344
LikeLike
“Warning that increasingly large offshore wind turbines risk getting too big for their foundations”
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/warning-that-increasingly-large-offshore-wind-turbines-risk-getting-too-big-for-their-foundations-10-11-2021/
LikeLike
The 9:45am Radio4 : Advertise your Book For A Week Show
The blurb refuses to say it’s a vegan anti-meat book
Instead it gives blah blah blah including
“The Meat Paradox ..the escalation of the climate emergency – and by how we choose to respond ..”
LikeLike
Conversation mode wasn’t working
but logging out and logging in again fixed that.
LikeLike
Fake News awards
https://www.corbettreport.com/fakenews6/
The Climate section starts at 8m30s
The BBC was shortlisted for its Extreme Weather show, but lost cos it’s own complaints unit actually owned up to some of the errors in the show.
AP won for its story about how they take money from libmob to print Climate Alarmism
They spun it as a positive.
LikeLike
Ed Hoskins has a new article up at his website:
https://edmhdotme.wordpress.com/2022-weather-dependent-renewables-in-germany-uk-and-france/
Well worth a read IMO, with some very interesting graphics – sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
LikeLike
Oh well – that’s that, then:
“Earth is on track to exceed 1.5C warming in the next decade, study using AI finds”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/30/climate-crisis-global-heating-artificial-intelligence
Might as well stop the COPs, then – they just seem a bit pointless, really.
LikeLike
Before the UK’s Brexit referendum, when Cameron tried to achieve some minor renegotiations, he was met with a big fat no. EU principles were unchanging and unbending. They were its foundation, and couldn’t be messed with. Then we had covid, and free movement of people went rapidly by the board. Now we have Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (aka green protectionism) and guess what?
“EU plans to loosen state aid rules to boost renewables investment
Proposed use of tax credits follows pressure to respond to Biden’s $369bn green subsidy scheme in US”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/30/eu-plans-to-loosen-state-aid-rules-renewables-investment-tax-credits-biden-green-subsidy
LikeLike
GBnews have a debate about 20mph urban speed limits
video https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1620159640678932496
To add balance they’ve asked Just Stop Oil’s main spokesperson Alex De Koning
He just introduced himself as “I’m a climate scientist”
It actually doesn’t matter if a person has an academic record, it’s what evidence and logic they present that counts
but is he much of a scientist, he’s only 24 and was until recently always described as a student ?
Newcastle University events list says 23rd Feb
“Alex De Koning (doctoral student, Newcastle University) will speak on ’Green Hydrogen’.”
Has he published any papers ?
Nope he did reach the lowest level . At a conference where scientists presented big papers he was whats called a “poster presenter” (also green hydrogen)
That means that you don’t speak but rather your project is put on a wall in the form of a poster with 10 or 20 similar posters.
Of course the guy basically as hyperbolic “Oh we have a climate crisis, people don’t need cars”
LikeLike
Green PR boss the former Grimsby MP, Melanie Onn
says she is standing again
LikeLike
“Every household in England ‘to be within 15 minutes of green space or water’”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/31/every-household-in-england-to-be-within-15-minutes-of-green-space-or-water
Is 15 minutes (as in 15 minute cities) the new 97%?
LikeLike
BBC local news leads with a report from One Home
@OurOneHome is a one woman NGO (I suspect)
OMG the soft cliffs of the East Yorkshire coast are continuing to erode like they’ve done for thousands of years
That’s cos they are ancient seabed, left from when the ocean was higher.
It will eventually stop cos there’s a limit line when you get back to original hard rock,
and in some places that’s already happened.
The org hasn’t even tweeted its own report.
Someone calls her a grifter, a reply points out that once the BBC paid her to do a report.
BBC news has a very close relationship with Green PR.
.. https://www.twitter.com/gonzondeck/status/1593308984039063552
LikeLike
“Why the public has gone cold on heat pumps
The UK’s Net Zero boiler-replacement scheme has been a complete flop.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/31/why-the-public-has-gone-cold-on-heat-pumps/
LikeLike
Mark: that article misses a key point wrt France when it says;
“Supporters of heat pumps often point to France as an example to the UK. It sold 394,000 heat pumps in 2020, compared with just 37,000 sold in the UK. Yet France is hardly a Net Zero success story. With 31million households, France will take nearly 79 years to rid itself of gas boilers at its current rate of heat-pump installation. That would mean missing every single Net Zero target it has set itself.”
This quote from the further link explains:
“”In France,” he adds, “you had acceptance of electricity as an energy carrier for heating; for other countries, that was never the case.””
That implies that a good part of the market is replacing direct resistance heating rather than gas boilers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Does anyone know why the Twitter account* of Gianluca Grimalda** has been deleted? I think it was deleted last week.
Has he been sent back to Coventry*** by powers unknown or did he delete it himself?
If the latter, why?
===
*@GGrimalda
**Grimalda is the globetrottinng experimental economist who complained about the insincerity of the free pizzas supplied to him and others during a Scientist Rebellion protest in a Porsche showroom.
***In the Noughties, Grimalda chaired the Coventry branch of a govt-funded, anti-govt, anti-globalisation, anti-borders NGO called World Development Movement (currently known as Global Justice Now) and stood as a Green Party candidate in local elections there.
LikeLike
“Greenpeace protesters board Shell platform bound for Shetland”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/31/greenpeace-protesters-board-shell-platform-bound-for-shetland
…using diesel-fuelled boats to do so…
LikeLike
so they are not GREEN
and not PEACEful
(ambush naming = an org is named the opposite of what it truly is )
LikeLike
with a Twitter account you can quit your account
BUT there is a cooling off period .. so some people who are a bit under fire sometimes do that
only to resurrect their account a few days late.
LikeLike
BBCnews have now put up their on version ..#PRasNews
LikeLike
“15 minute” is that a new catchphrase thought up by the Nudge Unit ?
LikeLike
Stage #1 “Everyone will live 15 minutes from the countryside”
Stage #2 “Of course we are building on this countryside, if we build near the edge of thecity
that will mean those in the centre live more than 15 mins from the countryside”
LikeLike
No apparent irony intended by the Guardian:
“Rail route of the month: a steam-hauled climb through Germany’s Harz mountains”
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/feb/01/rail-route-of-the-month-germany-harz-mountains-brocken-steam-train
LikeLike
In this video from two years ago, at three minutes in, Catherine Wood, CEO Ark Invest, says that in 18 months EVs will cost less than comparable ICE cars.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Vinny:
The account has been deleted – either by him or by someone with his password, at least.
Compare the suspended account of an old sceptic friend, Shub.
As to why, you’d have to ask Grimalda.
LikeLike
Richard: ‘As to why, you’d have to ask Grimalda.’
That could be tricky. Grimalda has probably gone to Papua New Guinea again to
play more mind gamesconduct further experimental economics research with impoverished locals. This Nov 2022 podcast is so shouty that the auto-transcript doesn’t always work but at 6m15s he said something like ‘Next year I have to go to Papua New Guinea’. (Auto-transcript: ‘pope 9 in guinea’.)I think he said that he’d be getting there on trains and ferries but he said the same thing about his last visit even though he also took several long flights.
And ‘have to’? Can’t he find some impoverished playmates who live a bit closer than PNG?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“European turbine orders ‘down 47%’
Data from WindEurope blames inflation and national interventions in electricity markets in Europe”
https://renews.biz/83533/european-turbine-orders-down-47/
LikeLiked by 1 person
A tale of two Coffeys this morning. Not the drinkable kind; permanently-surprised Therese. First this from the front page of The Times:

Next, this from the front page of i:

LikeLike
I see the wood burner story is now the most read on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64261624
No mention there that some folk can’t afford to turn their gas central heating on, thanks to Ri$hi’s asinine Net Zero obsession.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Why have there been no named winter storms this year?”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64454569
The number of named storms annually have been declining since a peak of 2017-18, according to the table included within the article. But never fear. Climate change will bring extreme weather, even if just not right now…
LikeLike
From the gCaptain maritime website:
“ROME, Jan 31 (Reuters) – An Italian ice-breaker carrying scientists researching in the Antarctic has sailed further south than any ship has done before, the organizers of the voyage said on Tuesday, a further sign of how ice is retreating around the poles.
The Laura Bassi vessel reached a point with the coordinates of 78° 44.280 S in the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea, according to Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics.
The voyage was made possible by an unusual lack of ice in the area, it said. Satellite analysis last year showed that Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish.
“I am happy with setting a record, but at the same time I am sad to see that things are really changing here in Antarctica and in the world in general,” Franco Sedmak, the ship’s captain, told Italy’s ANSA news agency.
A previous voyage with a different vessel to the same area in 2017 came up against impenetrable ice, he said.
“I never thought that I would find such a melting of the ice after a few years to be able to go as far south as we managed this year, helped by pushing and being a bit daring.””
The report does not give any context. The 1901/4 Discovery expedition reached 78 degrees & 36 minutes south. By my reckoning the Italians beat that by all of 8 miles and they were “pushing and being a bit daring” in a modern ice-breaker. The Discovery was a tiny wooden sailing ship with supplementary steam engines that were pretty weak. The crew were completely on their own with no means of summoning help if they got stuck, as happened to the Endurance 10 years or so later.
Hard to reconcile that with “such a melting of the ice” today.
I haven’t researched this but my impression from reading about those early polar expeditions is that the ice extent was similar to the present. The Weddell Sea was named after a brave sealing captain who sailed well into the area in the 18th century: it has more often been frozen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
News from Global Warming smackhead-land
LikeLike
I don’t know if you can read too much into dreams
but I had this dream this morning
In the situation I was also apparently asleep but there were two Global Warming PR people at the other side of the room.. And since I appeared to be asleep one says to the other “OK we’d better not release this info to the public, it just muddies the message ee are trying to give”.
And I the dream character did actually hear them an sniggered back “yeh that’s just like you guys”
LikeLike
Irony is alive and well:
“World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targets”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/03/worlds-biggest-investment-fund-warns-directors-to-tackle-climate-crisis-or-face-sack
LikeLike
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/blackpool-hit-by-earthquake-as-residents-report-noise-like-train-caused-by-tremor/ar-AA176lbN
Residents described “a noise like a train coming near” and “cabinets shaking” during the quake, according to the BGS.”
“It comes less than a month after a magnitude 2.1 tremor was recorded in the Irish Sea, some 35km off the coast of Blackpool.”
which turns into –
“According to the BGS, the Blackpool area experienced some 135 tremors in 2019, when it was home to the UK’s only shale gas exploration site, Preston New Road.
The site, run by Cuadrilla, was shut down in August that year and a moratorium placed on fracking. This was briefly lifted last year by Liz Truss in a manifesto-breaking move – after the area was hit by a 2.9 magnitude quake.”
went looking for facts – http://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html
mash up from the link –
2023/01/20 02:02:23.9 53.872 -3.600 2 2.1 IRISH SEA 35KM WEST BLACKPOOL.
Close enough to Fracking site to make a connection I suppose (not).
ps – a lot of wind turbines in that area, wonder if installation & vibrations play a part?
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you fund BBC local radio like RadioHumberside
then you are fundinga constant stream of #GreenBlob PR stories
and Labour #PRasNews too
Our local station a few times per week has items that begin
“Labour MP Diana Johnson says … ”
Today’s greenPR item at 8am
They like to craft and hone such news items
so by the next hour it was this
LikeLike
“Clue to rising sea levels lies in DNA of 4m-year-old octopus, scientists say”
If true, this would be amazing science. I remain unconvinced, however. The explanation in the article falls short, IMO. However, I would be interested to learn what others think.
LikeLike
Vinny: In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s back:
LikeLike
Thanks, Richard. I hadn’t noticed that. No new tweets, so his temporary deletion remains a mystery.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mark,
There is other evidence for a sea level rise at the end of the last interglacial:
https://ptolemy2.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/rapid-warming-at-the-end-of-the-last-eemian-interglacial-caused-sea-level-to-rise-several-meters-just-before-ice-age-returned/
LikeLike
Bill, thanks for the link. I don’t doubt it, but octopus DNA?
LikeLike
Climate Wiseman has had to explain, yet again, why truth is not always truth:
A shorter interpretation is available here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64482961
Only a suspended sentence, alas.
Cos he’s a total spiv.
But…
At least he’s not his old self, which was a violent gangster called Man Man.
So in that sense there is there is hope for us all. Truth can progress into further truth. Even if it can never quite explain how a gangster became a pandemic-solving bishop who turned out to be a total fake, is there not, in a very real sense, a question that we should all sit here and ponder?
LikeLike
So we have a new department of Science, Innovation and Technology, broken out of the old BEIS.
It is headed by Michelle Donelan. According to Wiki, she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and politics and, before the election of 2015, her career outside politics was in marketing, including a time working on Marie Claire magazine and for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). She holds the distinction of being the shortest-serving minister of all time, resigning 36 hours after being appointed by BJ during the meltdown days. She is about to take maternity leave.
This is an area that Sunak has identified as crucial to our future, one of his main priorities…..
My mind is totally boggled.
LikeLiked by 1 person
2005. Here’s how Man Man the gangster became a (covid-curing) bishop:
https://wwrn.org/articles/16847
LikeLike
The snake oil London Africa pastor
for 6 years has refered to himself as the Climate pastor “Dr Climate Wiseman”
but I can’t seem what climate claims he made to his vulberable congragation
LikeLike
Stew, I spent ages googling Wiseman/Irungu/Mwangi a few years ago. ‘Climate’ seems to have been his baptismal first name. (Marriage registry.) I don’t think I found him mentioning climate change at all. IIRC, he was mostly interested in religion (or its trappings, anyway), self-promotion, scams, fast cars, German real estate and an app that supposedly helped you order everything from pizzas to private jets.
More googling…
Here’s a Wayback of his app’s page about private jets:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210725215729/https://taxidocity.com/fly
Very Davos.
And it sounds right up Prince Harry’s street. Perhaps he’ll use Taxidocity (wot?) the next time he has to fly to Sicily to take his shoes off and give a barefoot speech at a climate conference.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“HS2 Ltd miscalculating impact on nature – Wildlife Trusts”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64558664
Without looking at the report (and the BBC doesn’t provide a link) I can’t even begin to form a view on whether it’s correct, but my natural antipathy to HS2 (an expensive white elephant) means I wouldn’t be surprised to find there’s something in it. I now look forward to Wildlife Trusts’ report into the impact on habitats and wildlife of wind farms….I’m not holding my breath.
LikeLike
And they say sceptics are crazy for “denying” man-made climate change:
“A solution to the climate crisis: mining the moon, researchers say
Astrophysicists propose geoengineering solution to climate warming, although skeptics still urge ‘massive’ fossil fuel cutbacks”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/08/moon-dust-moonshot-geoengineering-climate-crisis
And it’s quite a few weeks yet to April 1st….
LikeLike
Ah, how “liberal”:
“UK urged to sack Tony Abbott as trade adviser for joining climate sceptic group
Critics say former Australian PM’s membership of Global Warming Policy Foundation thinktank could affect trade deals”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/08/calls-for-uk-to-sack-tony-abbott-trade-adviser-climate-sceptic-thinktank-global-warming-policy-foundation
LikeLiked by 1 person
Climate Cult infecting organizations
#1 Church had a large pile of glossy brochures
“Faith in a changing climate”
#2 Local church shop is infected with Climate Change posters and books
#3 Geology Society events
“March Geology of Yorkshire’s natural resources and their contribution to the *energy transition* ”
That is a full day conference with 11×20 min lectures
mostly geothermal, some heatpump stuff
“May webinar Marine litter are there solutions to this *global environmental challenge* ?”
That’s not geology
#3 Local Natural History Society
Talk : How Climate Change Affects your plants and your garden
LikeLike
How tolerant
lefty tolerance means : they tolerate everyone as long as they agree with everything the lefties say
LikeLike
Mark: Your link headline
“UK urged to sack Tony Abbott as trade adviser for joining climate sceptic group”
Interesting that the Guardian is using the term “sceptic ” rather than “denier”. Change in tone perhaps after all these years of misrepresentation?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“England’s tallest wind turbine prepares to rise against the odds
Renewable project on edge of Bristol has overcome planning hurdles and will empower local housing estate”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/09/england-tallest-wind-turbine-bristol
At least it’s a brown-field site, but I do wonder how pleased the residents will be after living with it for a while.
22m deep concrete and steel reinforced foundations. Green?
LikeLike
“NatWest to end new business loans for oil and gas extraction
Bank also plans to phase out similar lending for existing customers under its first climate transition plan”
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/feb/09/natwest-to-end-new-business-loans-for-oil-and-gas-extraction
Note well that last sentence. Given the size of the Government shareholding (on behalf of us, citizens and taxpayers) it’s difficult to imagine that this policy doesn’t have official government approval.
LikeLiked by 1 person
13:45pm BBC prog trying to explain energy prices
As with a lot of BBC “sciency” progs it’s been ladyfied
so even more arts student like
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hx88
LikeLike
stewgreen: ‘As with a lot of BBC “sciency” progs it’s been ladyfied’
I’m not sure that ‘ladyfied’ is the right word there. Bateman is a serial flasher. Public nudity isn’t very ladylike (or indeed gentlemanlike) and Bateman has been at it for more than a decade.
Here she is, for example, getting all nude in 2019 about Brexit, which she reckoned ‘leaves Britain naked’.
URL – https://player.vimeo.com/video/314265471
Standard BBC warning: the video reflects the language and attitudes of its time. Plus she’s starkers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe worth a read:
“Ursula von der Leyen’s climate vision is now an existential minefield
Every decision on the European Commision president’s upcoming green agenda risks alienating the very people she’d need to secure a second term.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/von-der-leyen-climate-vision-minefield-european-commission-epp/
LikeLike
Any comments Jit?
“Climate breakdown could cause British apples to die out, warn experts
Japan’s Fuji and New Zealand gala could replace pippin and russet as rising temperatures threaten homegrown species”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/11/climate-breakdown-british-apples-die-out
LikeLike
BBC local Radio news gave space to local council grant give away scheme cos it labelled it as green
“Digitalisation is critical – adapting to and harnessing new technologies enables businesses to grow and expand at pace.
“And, or course, we are all working towards a greener, cleaner future so we’ve created another cash pot that businesses can tap into to make the transition that little bit easier.
“Simple things for some small businesses can make a big difference, just replacing light bulbs with LEDs or buying the newest appliances can *slash energy bills* and reduce carbon emissions.”
slash and burning the forests to make stuff
Shop yourself green is a fallacy
LikeLike
Local news p permission decision for Hornsea 4 windfarm is delayed until July
on account of Orsted’s environmental assurances not being up to scratch
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Slough raises concerns over ULEZ extension plans”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64604507
Once again “green” initiatives impact on poor people more than the rich. The miracle is that this time somebody seems to have noticed.
LikeLike
Richard, Vinny,
That nonexistent Grimalda Twitter account is spelled different.
@ggrimalda vs @GGrimalda
I’d like to note that Willis Eschenbach, Steve Mosher and FWIW Willard still have their accounts suspended.
@WEschenbach
@stevenmosher
@nevaudit
LikeLike
Mike D, Twitter accounts aren’t case-sensitive.
Do you know why Steven Mosher got suspended?
LikeLike
Vinny,
Twitter handles are definitely case-sensitive. Email addresses are not, but I think they have to be typed in lower case.
I asked Mosher on Facebook why his Twitter account was suspended and this was his case-insensitive response:
“i offended bipoc”
Apparently, BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, People of Color.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mike D: ‘Twitter handles are definitely case-sensitive’
They’re not, @dombroskimike, they really aren’t.
Yours, @vInNybuRgoO
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Alarming levels of PFAS in Norwegian Arctic ice pose new risk to wildlife
Oxford University-led study detects 26 types of PFAS compounds in ice around Svalbard, threatening downstream ecosystems”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/11/pfas-norwegian-arctic-ice-wildlife-risk-stressor
It sounds worrying, and no doubt it is. But I wonder why the Guardian doesn’t mention the fact that PFAS plays a role in renewable energy?
E.g. here:
“PFAS: Critical to Renewable Energy”
https://www.americanchemistry.com/chemistry-in-america/chemistries/fluorotechnology-per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas/pfas-critical-to-renewable-energy
Or here:
“Details of proposed European PFAS ban released”
https://www.rivm.nl/en/news/details-of-proposed-european-pfas-ban-released
[My emphasis]
LikeLike
9pm Channel4 Guy Martin Asks how Are We Going to Keep The Lights on ?
TV land is controlled by our WokeSupremacist and GreenSupremacist masters so Green hysteria is what I expect
The show #GreatBritishPowerTrip opens with guy blowing up Eggborough coal power station
While the commentary goes on about the end of dirty coal
(that is narrative rather than true, cos coal could theoretically be clean and low CO2)
Then he talks about his home
Loaded with kit like a 20KVA generator , Air Source heat pump
Talk about £176/year to boil a kettle 10 times/day
Yeh we don’t boil it that many times probably 3
(And I think he means a full full kettle each time)
Then at Drax
They just used a speeded up clip of a coal power station
That makes the smoke look blacker
LikeLike
Guy “This just shows that we can’t rely on solar and wind”
He means the way you can turn Drax up when you want
but wind and solar are not only uncontrollable they drop off at random moments .
Now on to Drax Carbon Capture Storage scheme CCS
They haven’t mentioned that no one in the world has made this economic so far
Drax spends mega on PR
but this prog isn’t a full advert of them
LikeLike
Vinny,
You’re right!
I did a Google search for whether Twitter handles are case sensitive and found a tweet by an account @discord with 4.5M followers. It has examples that it says are usernames but are actually hashtags. That’s what I based my certainty on.😬 It was actually in a section talking about hashtags. The tweet was easier and faster to notice. I included it in a test tweet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Guy is now talking about powering his van HVO (H Veg Oil) instead of diesel
costs 40p per litre more, it creates “90% less CO2”,
… Em That’s not true.. it emits the same
.. but you discount 90% claiming the growth of veg oil on the farm sucks CO2 OUT of the air
Bit about repairing the grid cables
Part 4 actual part where he blows up Eggborough
Irony when Eggborough Power station was blown up on 1 August 2021
that set the scene for high UK gas prices
Crazy political stunts like UKgovt and Surgeon blowing up COAL power stations drive high gas prices
World gas sellers kept higher prices
cos they knew UK had less options
Previously gas sellers knew we’d use coal if they didn’t give a lower gas price.
Next episode about Solar/Wind is already up on website
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stew – will see if Guy (a down to earth guy usually) joins the dots for himself, or just reads the script he’s given. my hopes are low on the former.
LikeLike
I was pleasantly surprised by the Guy Martin programme. Early on he was emphatic that we need something to keep the lights on when wind and solar aren’t working. He was clearly sceptical about the wood-burning at Drax being “renewable” and about the practicality of scaling up their 1 ton/year CCS system to handle millions of tons. He also lambasted the mechanism whereby the price of gas sets the cost of power across the system (apart from CfDs, as we know).
So far – better than expected.
LikeLike
Gianluca Grimalda is indeed off to PNG again soon. A long thread about his planned trip:
URL – https://twitter.com/GGrimalda/status/1625068134288818181
Does GG deserve credit for going 2/3 of the way by rail, coach and ferry? I’m undecided…
No, I’m not. I don’t think it he should go at all. From what I’ve read of his research, it wouldn’t even be worth the per capita CO2 emitted when on a packed coach from Nempnett Thrubwell to Nether Stowey.
GG does seem to mean well and he says that he has doubts about whether what he’s doing is right, which earns brownie points, but then he chucks that all away by saying several times that he is a scientist, which he is not.
He’s an experimental economist whose research involves
mind gamessurveys that are seemingly designed to discredit capitalism. He could do that at home.LikeLike
A couple of reality check articles for the net zero enthusiasts out there:
“For you, milord, an idiot’s guide to Net Zero”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/for-you-milord-an-idiots-guide-to-net-zero/
and:
“Net Zero is a threat to energy security
The UK’s new energy ministry is grappling with two contradictory goals.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/13/net-zero-is-a-threat-to-energy-security/
LikeLike
Anyone noticed the East Palestine, Ohio disaster? Details are here
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ohios-apocalyptic-chemical-disaster-rages
and of course everywhere on twitter. Deliberate burn off of toxic chemicals in a train derailment is killing pets, fish & livestock for miles around. Nothing in MSM, nothing from US government, nothing from environmentalists and very little from Ohio authorities. Lots of panic about weather balloons though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, Geoff, I hadn’t seen anything about that at all. Whatever the reason, however, the sudden flurry of activity (and associated publicity) regarding strange objects in the skies above the USA has struck me as odd. They have probably been there for years. Why suddenly start shooting them down? And why not do it on the quiet, to avoid exacerbating still further the already fraught relations with China? Why the desire for massive publicity? I do try to avoid conspiracy theories, but I suspect the Biden administration is seeking to use the publicity to deflect from attention regarding something else (though what that something else might be, I don’t know).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Correlation is not causation and all that, but there is a massive irony, apparently not spotted by the BBC in the placing of two adjacent articles on the “science & environment” section of its website:
“Golden eagle found dead on south Scotland estate”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-64624395
Next to this:
“Scottish government approves forest wind farm”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c19zv0wlpemo
The golden eagle might not have been killed due to wind farms, but it is worth noting this:
https://www.buccleuch.com/about-us/queensberry-estate/
LikeLiked by 1 person
If only we had such common sense and respect for the quality of life of residents in this country:
“Poland’s wind sector runs into legal roadblock
Industry says Warsaw’s new legislation undermines goal to boost onshore wind.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-bill-wind-power-renewables-legal-roadblock-coal/
LikeLike
Mark, interesting post about apple varieties. It’s a bottomless pit, but worthy of more attention when I have a mo.
LikeLike
Geoff: Yup, I did notice – both about the derailment, leading to serious vinyl chloride pollution (and not just vinyl chloride), and about the US shooting down their own weather balloons (at least in one case, one gathers). But then I follow the best people on Twitter:
I’d already decided from listening to Colonel Douglas Macgregor a week ago that the original Chinese balloon panic was a nothingburger. I think Macgregor is on the mark on Ukraine as well but that’s one of the difficult subjects you convincingly suggest are proving too hard for today’s media. Epstein’s list being another really important one.
LikeLike
Tucker Carlson was scathing last night about the EPA’s lack of concern for real environmental harm in a Republican-voting area of the USA. And the same lack of care from other environmentalists, come to that. That follows on from his sobering The climate cult has grown stronger on Friday night. Two apparently opposite things that are true at the same time. Carlson clearly buys the similarity to false religion.
LikeLike
Still nothing from the environmental press about what may be the biggest environmental disaster in the US since 3 Mile Island. I did find this on the Guardian’s environment pages though:
A 16-year-old European hedgehog called Thorvald has been crowned the oldest in the world, smashing the previous record by seven years. Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, from the University of Oxford said she was overwhelmed when she discovered how old he was. “I cried tears of joy that I was holding an individual that lived for 16 years. All my colleagues were laughing at me because they thought I was being so emotional,” she said. Unfortunately Thorvald died at Animal Protection Denmark’s wildlife rehabilitation centre in Silkeborg in 2016 after being set on by a dog… infection had also caused his penis to become extremely swollen. “It was the largest hedgehog penis I’ve ever seen,” said Rasmussen, who said that otherwise the hedgehog was generally healthy… More than half were killed when crossing roads, with deaths peaking in July when males and females are walking long distances trying to find mates.
Dr Sophie is too polite today so, but she may have inadvertently discovered the secret of Thorvald’s longevity. At >5 times the average age of hedgehog retirement, he wasn’t that bothered about crossing roads to find a mate. Especially not with that whopper dragging on the tarmac.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Geoff, thanks for that “East Palestine, Ohio disaster” link.
as you, Mark & Richard note, the fact the MSM are fixated on “strange objects in the skies above the USA”, without this disaster getting any mention, is odd.
LikeLike
found this vid interesting – “Catastrophe and Cartography – Ice Age Floods Visualized” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCBEBIBsJzM
LikeLike
Here’s hoping:
“Is the eco-bubble about to burst?
Firms are starting to wake up to the lunacy of Net Zero.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/14/is-the-eco-bubble-about-to-burst/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Splash in today’s @TheSun
– Fury as energy firm Utility Warehouse sends 100 reps on a luxury jolly to the Maldives while Brits fret about cost putting the heating on.
https://thesun.co.uk/news/21376010/fury-energy-firm-flies-100-staff-maldives-heating/
They are self employed sales reps getting a bonus for good sales
but strange that energy corps are supposed to save CO2
but then throw a load awy
However don’t the accumulated holidays of normal people over 3 years amount to a similar amount ?
LikeLike
“David Malpass: World Bank leader who was called climate denier quits”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64657711
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am still catching up, so have added a series of comments about the Green Armbands at football matches
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/footballers-to-wear-green-armbands-to-save-the-planet/#comment-242049
LikeLike
Betts is getting ridiculed
LikeLike
Mark, thanks for both those last two: the optimistic view, with a number of positive data points, and the bad news on World Bank wokeness.
LikeLike
Stew – interesting link – “Betts is getting ridiculed” – with this partial quote from Betts –
“All major road-building projects in Wales are scrapped over environmental concerns
GOOD!
Can we do the same in England too?
We don’t need any more roads. All they do is attract even more cars, bringing even more pollution, noise, danger and ugliness”
thought we (UK) were trying to get more people to travel on public transport, including buses.
they still need a road network.
wonder where Betts lives?
LikeLike
BBC Radio 4 have made & are promoting a Greta page which is nothing to do with a radio prog
the BBC page is dated 03 February 2023
Now it just happened to be released in the same week Greta is promoting her new book ?
I maintain that the BBC has a close relationship with Green PR
I detected there was a problem cos the BBC page is dated 03 February 2023
And starts
“The unlikely voice of a generation, teen activist Greta Thunberg talks to Amol Rajan ”
There you go in black and white; the page talks about Greta as a teen activist, when in fact she is 20
So what’s going on ?
The audio page is not new material It’s BBC regurgitating old material as if it’s new
.. the audio actually comes from an Oct 18th TV programme
LikeLiked by 1 person
Betts is a Devon boy
Perhaps they shouldve never built a road out of Devon.
LikeLike
Tim Worstall. has a go at Net Zero
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/no-no-really-this-is-not-how-the-economy-works
LikeLiked by 2 people
Bill B, thanks for the link. I just took a link and recommend it to others, as it’s short and succinct, but makes a vitally important point (which I know Jit also makes from time to time, but it’s useful to keep reminding ourselves of it).
LikeLike
Bill & Mark – thanks for the link.
from that post he links to – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/15/big-companies-arent-fully-honest-astronomical-costs-net-zero/
not sure who Tim is slagging off from his post, but a fuller quote from above post should be –
“One of the central premises of net zero is that the resulting job destruction in old industries such as car-making, but also oil and gas exploration, construction and farming, will be more than offset by the job creation in green industries such as renewable energy – but if the remarks of Ford Germany’s boss Martin Sander are anything to go by, that looks doubtful at best.”
LikeLike
The climate crisis is here:
“Spring of beautiful blossom expected in UK amid perfect conditions
RHS gardeners say buds on trees suggest glorious spring blooms and season will potentially last longer”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/17/spring-beautiful-blossom-expected-uk-perfect-conditions
LikeLiked by 1 person
“They say buds suggest trees will be floriferous”
What a lovely word, never heard it before, will use it on the wife and expect a slap.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is the tide turning? This is from one of our local websites, written by someone (who writes as a cat, but leave that to one side) who believes in the climate crisis, yet can still manage to write this:
“Opinion: Is net zero just a load of hot air?”
https://cumbriacrack.com/2023/02/18/opinion-is-net-zero-just-a-load-of-hot-air/
Maybe worth a read. This is the conclusion:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent piece by Tim Worstall, thanks Bill.
LikeLike
“‘Greenwashing’ firms face steep new UK fines for misleading claims
Legislation could see companies fined millions of pounds for making unproven environmental assertions to sell their products”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/19/greenwashing-firms-face-steep-new-uk-fines-for-misleading-claims
I wonder if it will apply to energy retailers who tell us that all the electricity they sell is generated from renewables?
LikeLike
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23325700.great-dunham-254-acre-solar-farm-approved-despite-concerns/
“Great Dunham 254 acre solar farm approved despite concerns”
49.9 MW. It’s the magic number. Why? Answers on a postcard. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As ever no new laws are needed
existing ones could already do the job.
LikeLike
Ward got a full 30 mins again on The Richard Tice show
Link to start of item ..https://youtu.be/VJ9tNs6S7Xw?t=4199
Everyone on Twitter hated him ..cos he blustered, talks over people and deflects etc.
In the studio Tice said he agreed the Swansea barrage should be built
..nutty
I think Tice supports solar too
but he is not a GW alarmist
LikeLike
It will be behind a paywall, so I can’t (won’t) look further, but the front page of the Times today is referencing an article it has on page 16, with these words:
“Rationing for climate”
I assume it’s just we Brits who the British scientists want to be subject to rationing and to have our lifestyles made worse. Unless they suggest that the whole world undergoes such rationing, including especially those parts of the world where greenhouse gas emissions are going fastest, then they are simply wrong. Why the self-flagellation? What have we poor Brits done to deserve this? We’re even dropping rapidly down the list of all-time “carbon polluters” as the rest of the world (especially the developing world) goes full throttle on fossil fuels.
LikeLike
Mark, it’s also reported here: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/could-rationing-be-used-in-war-against-climate-change/ar-AA17GlEU
LikeLiked by 1 person
Monday morning, the BBC local radio station has put out to 2 promo tweets about the item it had on promoting Green innovation Festival from the Green PR dept of Hull University
“The Festival of Green innovation is March 1st @_aurainnovation”
The 10am presenter decides to open by excited talk of the Hull wind turbine factory advertising for 300 new workers
Siemens Gamesa is made up of the German corp buying the assets of the bankrupt Spanish wind industry maker.
More wind turbine jobs in Hull, means more wind turbines, which means more costs on the grid compared to gas, means more costly electricity.
Only the blades are made in Britain, the towers and everything else are imported.
LikeLike
Robin Guenier has another interesting article about the folly of net zero, at The Conservative Woman website:
“Where’s the manpower to drive Net Zero? Nowhere”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/wheres-the-manpower-to-drive-net-zero-nowhere/
As always, it’s well worth a read.
LikeLike
We mentioned Richard Betts being pleased about all new roads being stooped in Wales
Someone tweeted this letter about it being a ridiculous action by the Welsh National Party
LikeLike
The Guardian normally worries that Venice is flooding due to climate change This was a Guardian headline a little over 3 years ago (one of a great many along such lines):
“Two people die as Venice floods at highest level in 50 years
‘This is result of climate change,’ says Venice mayor, who declares state of emergency”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/13/waves-in-st-marks-square-as-venice-flooded-highest-tide-in-50-years
Yet this is today’s headline:
“Venice canals start to run dry as low tide and lack of rain hit
Gondolas unable to navigate some of its famous canals as Italy faces prospect of another drought”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/21/italy-faces-new-drought-alert-as-venice-canals-run-dry
Flooding or drying out, never mind, it’s always the fault of climate change:
LikeLike
check on http://www.archive.is
LikeLike
Monday night BBC local newsPR
“A look at the ‘revolutionary’ wind turbine that will light up Skegness Pier at night
Ravi Rayarel, Founding Director of DSR Group, said
Most local papers also do PRasNews for The Dalek shaped wind turbine
The BBC loves it and tweeted 3 times
We know such magic turbines designs are hype not truth
Twitter hasn’t hear of this guy nor his company
and Google barely
LikeLike
His previous company was liquidated July last year
Seems that avoided the compulsory wind up notices it had been getting.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07648929/filing-history
LikeLike
Stew, thanks for that. Jit has also provided an alternative link, and Paul Homewood has the story too.
LikeLike
Someone quotes what he said on TV
“What it does, it actually sucks the wind into the centre part of the turbine and pushes it up into the generator of the turbine itself. So the wind speed that goes in is a little lower than the wind speed that comes out of the top of it, so it actually accelerates the wind.”
LikeLike
https://news.sky.com/story/merseysides-mega-battery-is-switched-on-and-heres-how-it-will-save-billions-of-pounds-off-bills-and-huge-amounts-of-co2-12807985
bottom line after the PR – “But none of these storage technologies is yet sufficiently mature to fill long winter spells of windless cloudy weather. To keep the lights on, some baseload of nuclear and reserve of gas power is likely to be needed for a few decades yet.”
That link also links to – https://www.spreaker.com/show/climatecast
wonder who presents that – “Broadcaster and journalist Tom Heap investigates the biggest environmental stories and issues with guests and Sky News correspondents.”
thought I knew him from somewhere – “Thomas John Gillespie Heap[1] (born 3 January 1966)[inconsistent] is the Rural Affairs Correspondent of BBC News, and an English television and radio reporter and presenter best known for his contributions to the BBC One programme Countryfile, the same channel’s Panorama programme, and the BBC Radio 4 programme Costing the Earth.”
busy life on the farm it seems for Tom.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Heat pumps: Lords slam ‘failing’ green heating scheme”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64710225
Perhaps Baroness Parminster and her colleagues in the House of Lords might consider the possibility that the scheme is failing, that uptake is low, because people are happy with their gas boilers and don’t want to replace them with heat pumps? The idea that people don’t know about all this is risible – the BBC bombards us with heat pumps propaganda on an almost daily basis.
Disclosure – typo corrected.
LikeLike
Mark: “people are happy with their gas boilers and don’t want to replace them with gas boilers” suggests a typo?
LikeLike
Thanks Richard, I will correct it.
LikeLike
So it’s called “The Boiler Upgrade Scheme”, meaning they rip out your gas boiler & install a Heat Pump.
I would call that “Trash your existing working Boiler & replace it with this state of the art unproven Upgrade Scheme, £5000 carrot, what’s not to like”
the linked BBC article is a fun read – some snippets
“Heat pumps use electricity to run and are three times more efficient than a gas boiler, so as we switch to renewable electricity homes will be cheaper to heat and produce less emissions.”
“John Taylor, 71, another recipient of the BUS voucher, also said the government needed to make it clearer which installers to use: “I searched online and found cowboys out there. There is not a lot of guidance leading you to decent people – you are on your own.” – wonder how he knew they where cowboys?
“Even with the grant, Mr Taylor and Mr Hibbs spent £8,500 and £6,000 respectively on their heat pumps.”
“Countries like France and Germany have also pledged twice as much money to their low carbon heating schemes and offer larger grants for low-income households up to £9,700 to make heat pumps more affordable.” – with a pic of air con on houses in “France?”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Given that in the UK, with current and historic prices, electricity is and has long been more than 3 times as expensive as gas, it’s difficult to see how something claimed to be three times more efficient than a gas boiler will make homes cheaper to heat. They won’t, it’ll cost a lot of money (via the installation costs, even with taxpayer handouts), and your home won’t be as warm as it was when you had a gas boiler. Unlike UK politicians, the British public en masse aren’t stupid, and they know this. That is why take-up is low.
LikeLike
“Gas discovery worth £123m found in Surrey Hills”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-64718646
I am perplexed by the opposition to something that will offer a degree of energy security while having (I assume – the BBC certainly doesn’t discuss it) a marginal negative impact on the countryside, environment, wildlife, views and people’s lives compared to something like a wind farm, which does far less for energy security and causes harms regarding each of the issues I mention.
“Industrial” gas drilling? Yes, fair enough. But people opposing it while approving of wind farms rarely refer to them as being industrial (even the use of the word “farm” is no doubt deliberate, trying to create the sense that they are bucolic and at home in the countryside). More double standards vividly on display.
LikeLike
Behind a paywall, unfortunately, but yes, this is my view:
“Nobody is buying heat pumps because they’re an awful product
Is anyone surprised that the heat pump rollout is failing? They cost a ton and aren’t particularly efficient”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/22/heatpump-climate-change-net-zero/
LikeLike
Geoff Chambers drew attention to this a while ago – after all, somebody had to, since the MSM were ignoring it. Well, it’s taken Trump to go to East Palestine, Ohio there for the Guardian to wake up. Here are a couple of different takes on the issue:
“Fiddling while Ohio burns
The Democratic elites aren’t even pretending to care about the East Palestine disaster.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/22/fiddling-while-ohio-burns/
and
“Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train site
Former president criticizes Biden administration’s response to train derailment in East Palestine as he visits town”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/donald-trump-toxic-train-derailment-east-palestine-ohio
LikeLike
Exactly right Mark.
These tweets I’m afraid aren’t very complimentary to Biden’s transportation man:
That ClimateAudit fellow can be caustic some times.
LikeLike
Mark – thanks for the “Guardian staff and agencies” link (a group bringing the true story to joe public, with no bias I’m sure).
the usual twisting in knots to blame Trump somehow for this incident.
Partial quotes –
“Trump’s administration, which rolled back more than 100 environmental rules in total, watered down several regulations at the behest of the rail industry.
He withdrew an Obama-era plan to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, shelved a rule that demanded at least two crew members on freight trains and dropped a ban on transporting liquified natural gas by rail, despite fears this could cause explosions.”
then, further down –
“The head of the National Transportation Safety Board – the lead agency investigating the crash – has said that the improved braking system wouldn’t have applied to the train that veered off its tracks in East Palestine, but environmental groups are pushing for the Biden administration to reinstate the rule anyway.”
now “faster brakes” may work on a car/bus, but on a freight train of 150 cars in length!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Richard – thanks for the links.
has “That ClimateAudit fellow” given up posting on the web site?
LikeLike
ps – you prompted to me to have a look at Climate Audit “Recent Comments”
found this one interesting – https://redgreenandblue.org/2022/04/14/nexus-russian-disinformation-climate-change-disinfo-thanks-delingpole-mcintyre-gateway-pundit/
lead in comment from above – “Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, we’ve kept an eye out to see how climate disinformation channels have responded. By and large, it’s by blaming Biden”
old news & probably covered before.
LikeLike
pps – after digging deeper into – https://redgreenandblue.org/ – https://redgreenandblue.org/2023/02/23/learn-iras-homeowner-electrification-efficiency-incentives/
gives a nice house map on the discount you can get in New York City.
wonder who wrote the post – By Dana Nuccitelli Research Coordinator, Citizens Climate Lobby.
ends with this helpful comment –
“You may also be wondering, will heat pumps work in cold climates? Are electric cars and solar panels really so good for the environment and climate? Why do I keep hearing about electric stoves? And what if I electrify my home and then the power goes out?
For answers to these questions and more details about the home technologies incentivized by the IRA — heat pump space and water heaters, electric stoves, home weatherization, electric vehicles, rooftop solar panels and batteries, electrical panel and wiring upgrades — check out the new training page and join us for a live training webinar on this topic on March 2, 2023.
Dana Nuccitelli is an environmental scientist and climate journalist with a Master’s Degree in physics. He has written about climate change since 2010 for Skeptical Science, for The Guardian from 2013 to 2018, and since 2018 for Yale Climate Connections. In recognition of his climate journalism and education work, Dana won the prestigious SEAL Environmental Journalism Award in 2022 and National Center for Science Education Friend of the Planet Award in 2016.”
good old Dana
LikeLike
“has “That ClimateAudit fellow” given up posting on the web site?”
I actually don’t know. Steve’s definitely tweeting.
LikeLike
“The American Climate Migration has Already Begun”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/23/us-climate-crisis-housing-migration-natural-disasters
Except it must have already begun in the 1930s or hasn’t the author read Grapes of Wrath?
“The warming of the planet is only part of the reason for this displacement. It’s true that as the Gulf of Mexico warms up and heat dries out western ecosystems, ordinary disasters become more severe. But again, that’s only part of the story. The other reason for all this climate chaos is that the US has spent much of the past century building millions of homes in the most vulnerable places, pushing into fire-prone mountain ranges and right up to the banks of rivers that were destined to flood. The developers and local officials who were responsible for all this construction were sometimes ignorant of the dangers, but other times they steamrolled ahead even while knowing the potential for ruin.
All that construction has put millions of people in harm’s way, and the public and private entities who aid in disaster recovery can’t keep up. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) lacks the resources to help the communities hit by disasters achieve a long-term recovery, and the agency spends most of its money on building things back exactly the same as they once were, which locks in the potential for future disasters to ruin the same homes and displace the same people. ”
It is obvious that continuing to build in hazardous areas is a major issue in the United States regardless of speculated climate change. As always, global warming is out front and centre despite the acknowledgement of the elephants in the floodplain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“This ‘climate-friendly’ fuel comes with an astronomical cancer risk
Almost half of products cleared so far under a new US federal ‘biofuels’ program are not, in fact, biofuels”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/23/climate-friendly-us-program-plastics-fuel-cancer
LikeLike
“Joe Biden nominates former Mastercard boss Ajay Banga to lead World Bank
US president puts forward choice to oversee new focus on climate crisis after resignation of Trump appointee David Malpass”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/23/joe-biden-nominates-ajay-banga-world-bank-president
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Far right trying to infiltrate UK’s low-traffic protests, campaigners warn
Defenders of LTNs in Oxford report antisemitic and conspiracy-theory chanting at confrontations over traffic reduction measures”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/far-right-trying-to-infiltrate-low-traffic-protests-campaigners-warn
Sadly, it’s the by now standard fare from the Guardian. Brendan O’Neill is on their case at Spiked:
“It’s true – the climate fanatics are coming for your car
It’s not a conspiracy theory to believe the green elites don’t give a toss about working people.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/23/its-true-the-climate-fanatics-are-coming-for-your-car/
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Sceptics Gather in Orlando to Judge Whether Climate Policy is the True Crisis Rather Than Climate Change”
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/24/sceptics-gather-in-orlando-to-judge-whether-climate-policy-is-the-true-crisis-rather-than-climate-change/
LikeLike
Friday ITV local newsPR had a report about disposable vapes being a litter problem
That report was seemingly a syndicated item used to fill space, cos other areas did the item a week back.
Half of the report was one NGO claiming the lithium batteries are recyclable.
Em everything is recyclable if you chuck enough cash at it.
Recycling big car batteries isn’t worth it, cos it costs a fortune.
So I expect recycling tiny vape batteries is not economic either
LikeLike
‘Greenwashing’ power plant operator Drax sparks fury after its profits soar to £730 million, fuelled by hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11787033/Greenwashing-power-plant-operator-Drax-sparks-fury-profits-soar-730-million.html
Business as usual at Drax. I wonder how many other outlets have covered this story….?
LikeLiked by 2 people
And from the “you couldn’t make it up” department:
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner joins WEF’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders
https://www.drax.com/press_release/drax-group-ceo-will-gardiner-joins-wefs-alliance-of-ceo-climate-leaders/
LikeLiked by 2 people
BBC local news the other day 22nd Feb
The local BBC enviro reporter full of his buzzwards
“rapidly changing climate” “rising sea levels ” etc.
as he did a report”South Ferriby flood barrrier to be used for the first time”
“South Ferriby flood gates shut as storm warning issued – Grimsby Live”
The reporter never mentions that a few miles up the estuary a substantial new island Whitton Island has occurred due to land RISE in the estuary
LikeLike
Philip is the wind guy
What did you make of Labour’s Rachael Reeves on R4Today at 7:50am ?
She said : onshore wind is the *cheapest power* (lie)
& offshore wind planning permission taking 10 years
FFS the seas are full of turbines
The Labour MP was saying how they’d relax planning rules, so objections could be ignored.
That’s BS cos Sunak had already announced he intends to
She claimed there has been a 10 year moratorium on onhore wind farm construction
Rubbish, people don’t build them cos they want bigger subsidies to.
They do build offshore cos the subsidies are even bigger.
Any anyway many ONSHORE have opened since 2013
I went to the Wikipedia page .. someone has decided to not update it
It lists in 2017 Frodsham Cheshire, opened .. 19 turbines at 2.65MW =50.35 MW
also 2017 Goole Fields 2 East Riding of Yorkshire… 17 turbines at 2.05MW =34.85 MW
I found another page listing more
It lists Brechfa Forest West Wind Farm as opening 18/01/2018
20 new farms in 2017
That site doesn’t include Scottish farms
The Wiki page does list 6 scottish farms since 2016
just one in last 5 years Aikengall IIa East Lothian 81.7MW in 2021
It’s planning perm dates from Oct 2016
when Scots gov overruled the local council’s refusal of March 2015
BBC’s Kate Lamble tweeted in Sept
The government’s newly released growth plan appears to suggest they plan to relax planning rules for onshore wind farms which have been described as an effective moratorium on the technology.
No new substantive onshore wind farm has received planning consent since 2015
So she is wrong by a year in that special case
LikeLike
Roger Pielke Jr accuses Inflation Reduction Act booster Jesse Jenkins of conflict of interest in Twiitter thread:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Old news, but given how cold some USA states are now with little MSM coverage – The Guardian gets better/more desperate every day – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/21/us-winter-weather-storm-cold-snap
“Explainer – Historic heat to extreme chill: why is the US experiencing a cold snap?
Blistering cold events are becoming more stark and pose a threat not only to humans but to entire ecosystems”
partial quotes –
“The shock to the system so to speak – whether that’s human bodies or power grid – is going to be substantial because we haven’t seen this in a long time,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain, noting that, in general, numbing cold is becoming less common.”
“All this, while many areas impacted by the surge were in the midst of having record-hot Decembers. “It will be more of a drastic change from what humans and other living things have been experiencing recently,” Alex Lamers, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said, adding that it “is unusual to see this magnitude of a temperature fall in such a short period of time”
funny what “climate scientist Daniel Swain” notes is becoming less common –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56058372
LikeLike
Reality bites:
“Green flights not in easy reach, warn scientists”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64788106
Yes, the BBC used the American word “airplanes”. In UK English, it’s “aeroplane”. The BBC’s campaign to Americanise UK English continues unabated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Campaigners fear government will drop onshore windfarm promise in England
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall leads letter to secretaries of state voicing concerns government will renege on promises to lift ban”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/28/fears-grow-government-will-renege-on-lifting-onshore-windfarm-ban-in-england
“Fears”? Many of us would be delighted. But the bit that caught my eye is the ongoing claim that people are overwhelmingly in favour of onshore wind power. Maybe they are in Brighton and Bristol, where there’s little danger of seeing a turbine or understanding the harm they cause to the environment and ecology.
Really?
LikeLike
Mark, this is an issue from stem to stern as far as renewable generation is concerned. Even when organisations oppose solar or wind developments, they always preface their objection with “we are in favour of renewable energy.” The “but” is essentially NIMBY: we are in favour in general terms but don’t want it here.
This is a short-sighted approach to say the least. Because if I object to a development in my back yard, propagandists can point to the almost ubiquitous support for such developments, and in effect tell me to suck it up.
Anyone and any organisation who think they might oppose this sort of development at any stage should bear in mind that their support in general terms will have contributed to lost battles in other places.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mark, Jit,
And you might be surprised to see who is prepared to be a NIMBY:
“Greta Thunberg joins activists’ protest against a wind farm in Norway”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greta-thunberg-joins-activists-protest-against-a-wind-farm-in-norway/#:~:text=Copenhagen%2C%20Denmark%20%E2%80%94%20Dozens%20of%20activists,raise%20reindeer%20in%20Arctic%20Norway.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“Yes, the BBC used the American word “airplanes”. In UK English, it’s “aeroplane”. The BBC’s campaign to Americanise UK English continues unabated.”
I’m afraid it is the new normalcy, Mark:
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/germany-faces-1-trillion-challenge-to-plug-massive-power-gap/
read it and weep.
LikeLike
Dougie, and that’s from Mr. Bloomberg, who also propagandizes for renewables via BloombergNEF, who as we have seen in these pages, are an entirely trustworthy outfit who never put their preferred spin on things.
LikeLike
Major windfarm operator conducts study which finds that seabirds are at much lower risk of collision with turbine blades than previously thought, hopes this will ease the permitting process:
https://gcaptain.com/new-study-finds-seabirds-birds-avoid-offshore-wind-turbines/?subscriber=true&goal=0_f50174ef03-78c61f5ad7-170410014&mc_cid=78c61f5ad7&mc_eid=9275323244
Well, there’s a surprise!
LikeLike
News BBC style:
“Bristol Somali Youth Voice inspires climate chats through cycling”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-64789809
Sounds like someone new that this was a press release that ticked boxes so sent it to the BBC in the knowledge that it would be used.
LikeLike
This is worrying. CoOntroversial is – and should be – the word:
“Deflecting sun’s rays to cool overheating Earth needs study, scientists say
More than 60 US scientists, including James Hansen, renowned former Nasa climate researcher, sign open letter”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/01/sun-rays-cool-overheating-earth-james-hansen-scientists-letter
LikeLike
I don’t doubt that this is right. Will it dawn on climate alarmists that humankind is affecting the environment very directly in very many ways, and that much that is attributed to GHG-induced climate change might be either natural and/or the result of other human activities – everything from deforestation on a massive scale to the urban heat island effect?
“Scientists prove clear link between deforestation and local drop in rainfall
Study adds to fears Amazon is approaching tipping point after which it will not be able to generate its own rainfall”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/01/scientists-prove-clear-correlation-between-deforestation-and-rainfall-levels
LikeLike
Wasn’t climate change to supposed to bring dry summers and wet winters?
“Driest February in England since 1993 signals drought ahead, say experts
With little rain forecast for spring and reservoirs still not refilled, drought could be worse than last year”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/01/driest-february-england-signals-drought-ahead-experts
LikeLike
“The controversial concept of purposely deflecting the sun’s rays to cool down an overheating Earth should be further studied, according to a group of scientists headed by James Hansen, the renowned former Nasa climate researcher.”
we seem to have reached the Nutione era in Earths long history.
LikeLike
We might as well give up and stop wasting loads of money on things that damage the environment and which make our lives worse, then…:
“Green Party co-founder: the environmental battle is lost”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-64818316
LikeLike
“CO2 emissions may be starting to plateau, says global energy watchdog
IEA records rise of less than 1% from energy use in 2022, but 7% reduction needed every year this decade to meet emissions goal”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/02/co2-emissions-may-be-starting-to-plateau-global-energy-watchdog-iea
With all the coal-burning plans being put in place by China and other developing countries (as defined by the various UN climate agreements) I would be amazed if the claim that CO2 emissions may be starting to plateau turns out to be correct. But what do I know? I’ve just learned from the Guardian that the IEA “is the global gold standard for energy research”.
LikeLike
“Climate change: NI ‘needs radical action’ to meet net zero goal”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64816402
The population of Northern Ireland is less than 2 million. That represents less than 0.3% of the UK population. The UK is responsible for perhaps 1% of global CO2 emissions. So Northern Ireland (all things being equal) is responsible for less than 0.03% of global emissions. Nothing it does will make any measurable difference to global climate. But it will almost certainly make lives significantly worse for the population of Northern Ireland, and at great cost, so why are they doing this?
When I worked as an in-house lawyer in commerce & industry, the boards of companies I worked for used to expect a justification (normally based on return on capital) before committing to spending money on any project. Some time after the project was completed, they also required there to be a post-completion review, to see if the return on capital had been achieved and to learn lessons – if the project had gone well, they looked to find out why, with a view to replicating it in future; if it had failed, they looked to find out why with a view to avoiding similar mistakes in future. I firmly believe we need that sort of mind-set to analyse the whole net zero policy. If politicians were asked to justify it, based on the measurable difference it would make to the “climate crisis”, then they wouldn’t be able to do so. As a minimum, every time they throw money at some hare-brained net zero scheme, they should be forced to explain afterwards what difference the scheme has made, and whether it was justified in its own terms. Again, I suspect the answer most times would be overwhelmingly negative. No doubt that’s why they don’t do it.
LikeLike
“Half the World Faces Starvation Under Net Zero Policies, Say Two Top Climate Scientists”
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/03/03/half-the-world-faces-starvation-under-net-zero-policies-say-two-top-climate-scientists/
LikeLiked by 1 person
1pm local news planners have approved 42 miles of cables thru the East Yorks countryside from Bridlington to Drax
The cables are part of a scheme to feed GREEN ENERGY from Scotland into the National Grid
but the farmers union say the depth on 90cm is not enough
LikeLike
This page of Open Mic is now closed to further comments.
Please continue here.
LikeLike