Midweek Unthreaded

PS: I’ve just got news that the brilliant ROM is facing significant health challenges right now which is why he is sadly missing from comments. He and his family would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

I will pass on any messages sent to me or left in comments…    We miss you ROM!

9.2 out of 10 based on 31 ratings

117 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
    Annie

    I’d been missing your comments ROM. Best wishes and prayers from my husband and me. Annie.

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      robert rosicka

      Yes ROM hope you get better I miss your posts .

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      • #
        sophocles

        Darn.

        I saw he wasn’t commenting recently and hoped it was only temporary. Now we find out he’s got a bit of a fight on his hands.

        ROM: I haven’t always agreed with what you’ve said, but you’ve always succeeded in stimulating thought. It’s a rare individual who can do that often and a lot so that makes you a rare one. Rare ones are precious.

        Come back to us as soon as you can.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      Hang in there ROM, we all miss your insightful contributions.

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    • #
      PeterS

      Sorry to hear ROM is unwell. Wishing for a good recovery.

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      • #
        Winston

        Jo,

        I have not commented for some time on your site, but I would like to pass on my best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery to ROM at what must be a very difficult time for him and his family.

        I had always enjoyed his various commentaries, which generally reflected a very thoughtful approach to his ideas and an expansive and generous mind. Kindest regards.

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    • #
      joseph

      Wish you well Rom. Hope to see you posting here again soon.

      20

  • #

    All the best from the Mainland of NZ, ROM. Have always enjoyed your comments, full of pithy and germane common sense.

    Kind regards

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  • #
    el gordo

    Big rain event in Oz, not in BoMs seasonal forecast methinks.

    This is all happening under the influence of El Nino, its not in the script so the klimatariat must be in a flutter.

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    • #
      Another Ian

      el gordo

      Other things in a flutter. WXMaps lately has been showing huge swings in what and where over perhaps 12 hours. Not as bad as it was a few years ago but – – .

      I’m damned if I can think of any likely weather variable being input that would swing things like that.

      It is almost like altering your sights on a bad shot in long range target shooting – known as “error chasing”

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      ElNino has got nothing to do with it El Gordo..
      It’s the Indian Ocean Dipole. The IOD has swung back to Negative in the waters off the coast of North Western Australia.. That means warmer surface waters = far more evaporation= far more water vapor, which is being brought South Eastwards across the continent on the jet stream..

      And here in the SE of Australia An upper atmospheric has been forming above SA, Vic. & NSW because of all the extra moisture being brought down by the jet stream…And that is meeting & combining with is meeting a Low with colder lower pressure air which has been moving East over the Southern Ocean.

      Lots of moisture + cooler air = lots of rain.

      We are going to have areal rain event and given that there’s been a drought in SE Australia for quite a while, that is just bloody wonderful..

      Of course there are idiots who will complain of the soil loss on their farms because they grazed it completely bare.

      There will be idiots who drive into flooded creeks & rivers or on flooded roads just to get to the other side.

      There will be thunderstorms and people outside sheltering under trees who will get fried.

      There will be people who have not cleaned out their gutters and will have rain water in the roofs.

      There will be folks who complain about their washing not getting dry..

      But frankly, this is the weather. Get used to it. In fact why not prepare for it ?

      The weather ain’t gunner go away.

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      • #
        philthegeek

        There will be idiots who drive into flooded creeks & rivers or on flooded roads just to get to the other side.

        Oh, lay off Baryard Joist. He only destroyed one Govt Landcruiser doing that after all. 🙂

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      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Here is what the BOM is predicting the next 4 days. Rain in large parts of Qld as well..
        Right here in SA it feels tropical; high humidity with showers. But the ral rain event has not yet kicked in.

        10

      • #
        el gordo

        A negative IOD has nothing to do with this low pressure in south east Australia.

        http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/iod/

        00

      • #
        el gordo

        Low Pressure Rules

        “What is really interesting is how the two systems are linked by the upper trough,” the BOM’s extreme weather desk manager James Taylor said.

        “It will be the upper trough that develops the low over south-eastern Victoria that drags Tropical Cyclone Owen more towards the east and probably south-eastwards over the weekend.

        “That creates a potential threat for large parts of the eastern Queensland coast, particularly from flash flooding.”

        ABC

        10

      • #

        I saw the Victorian floods on our TV here in NZ, and commented to my wife that they should have scrolling across the screen the advice given to the Australian public by Tim Flannery, the Chief Commissioner of the Climate Commission at the time, whose job it was to advise the public on Climate Change ™, “The dams will never be full again.”; and it should be repeated every time such woefully wrong “advice” given by such over-paid drongoes people are shown up for what they are.

        Flannery is not on his own – there are many more.

        20

    • #
      John of Cloverdale, Western Australia

      BoM give a lower than usual chance for median rainfall in Queensland this December and the rest of summer. I wonder if anyone collects these outlooks and compares them later?
      Climate Outlooks

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      • #
        Bill In Oz

        THe BOM should of course as a matter of maintaining it’s own integrity.But if they do it’s secret so we cannot ask why they got things wrong.

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    Always read your insightful and long posts ROM, I’m sure this is just a dry spell for an old cocky.

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  • #
    Hanrahan

    My son said he read that Cardinal Pell has been convicted. Tried to link it and got a 404 error. Must be embargoed.

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  • #

    ROM, you get well ASAP and looking forward to yr next insightful comment.

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  • #
    Peter C

    Best wishes ROM,

    Make a rapid recovery. I miss your lengthy posts on all manner of interesting topics.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    ROM

    I hope you fire the winch up and soar out of it

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  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Thinking of you ROM.

    All the best.

    Keith.

    100

  • #
    Kevin Lohse

    Hang in there ROM. You haven’t finished your earthly tasks quite yet. Best wishes for a recovery. K

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  • #
    LittleOil

    Sir David Attenborough states that his opinion on climate change was influenced by a lecture given by the late Professor Ralph Cicerone.

    The main points of this lecture are explained in a Word file which covers a presentation to the US Senate in July, 2005. Details may be found at-
    https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-2004-lecture-that-finally-convinced-david-attenborough-about-global-warmingwarming

    This presentation includes a graph showing a world temperature increase of about 0.7 degrees C from 1880.
    The vertical scale exaggerates the temperature increase, particularly when you consider many places have daily variations of 8 degrees or more.

    Professor Cicerone comments on the warming from the 1900’s to the 1940’s and the 1970’s to 2005 with a stable period in between but does not note that this does not match the steady increase of CO2 since 1880.

    Would it be possible for someone to prepare a graph showing temperature rise and CO2 levels from 1880 showing that the increase in temperature does not follow the same even rise as CO2? Also graphs showing the effect of different vertical scales?

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    • #

      There was possibly a welcome uptick in temps around 1910. However we’re not allowed to let our eyes stray to the left of any historical temp graphs, or we might start blaming the Marconigram or the Hobble Skirt. Never trust an Edwardian, right?

      Get well, ROM. We need the comments.

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    • #
      Peter C

      Link did not work for me LittleOil.

      I found this a few years ago.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ob9WdbXx0

      Sir David correctly defines the key question: “How can we distinguish between climate change caused by natural causes and those variation in the climate that are induced by human activity”.

      He goes on to say that the KEY thing that convinced him was a graph of global temperatures prepared by climate scientist, Professor Peter Cox. Cox presents a global temperature graph ( with no attribution) then explains that his climate model (which included only the variability of the sun and volcanoes) matched the temperature graph quite well until 1970 but then his model predicted cooling! The only way, that he could match the supposed actual warming, was to include warming by CO2. Then it all worked out.

      Attenborough is completely out of his depth but laps it all up and becomes an apostle for the global warming catastrophe. That was 2006. I don’t think he has actually looked at the more recent evidence since then.

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    • #
      Chad

      Bill in Oz posted this link earlier this week.
      Prof Salbys lecture exposing several of the AGW theorys
      (Skip the first 9 mins or so..
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtIgMftbUuw

      00

  • #
    el gordo

    Can the Whyalla consortium get 400 megawatts from renewables?

    Mr Gupta ‘has embarked on a feasibility study with China Metallurgical Group Corporation for a potential new generation steelworks that would have annual capacity of 10 million tonnes and be built adjacent to the existing steelworks.

    ‘If it proves to be economical and proceeds to construction, it would be triple the size of the Port Kembla steelworks owned by BlueScope, which has an annual capacity of 3.2 million tonnes. Larger steelworks have a scale advantage with costs per unit lower in higher-volume facilities.

    ‘The 10 million tonnes a year new plant would be powered by a 400 megawatt co-generation power plant. The feasibility study is expected to take up to 12 months to complete.’

    Fin Review

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    • #

      Co-generation means coal with all kinds of accounting kitchen sinks and green boondoggles hanging off it to get approvals and subsidies. The trick is to get the approvals and subsidies to more than pay for the kitchen sinks and boondoggles. Sanjeev Gupta knows a bit about that. If there’s a loser, it won’t be Sanjeev.

      Funny how what’s totally nasty and uneconomic for some becomes nice and economic for others. Of course, discretion is required. Sanjeev’s wiki page doesn’t even mention the words Glencore and Tahmoor. It’s like they’re in Fantasyland, the Happiest Kingdom of Them All. Sanjeev only does “greensteel”, but Tahmoor’s coal was sure a lucky pick-up. In fact, Sanjeev does a lot of lucky pick-ups.

      Not every coal baron and steel maker can tell the Guardian: “It’s still everybody’s perception that it is cheaper to make power from coal than it is from renewables, and it is no longer the case. It was the case not long ago, but it’s no longer the case, and we will prove it.”

      And the Guardian keeps a dead-straight face. And Sanjeev of the disarming grin manages to keep a dead-straight face, just.

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      • #
        el gordo

        Yep, the man is a visionary.

        As the Italian company revamps the old mill with new technology, renewables should suffice with gas backup, but the next step will require coal fired power stations.

        Gumpta has already factored in that the federal government is going on an infrastructure binge, a continental bullet train network and satellite cities, using good Australian steel.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    Another “Seemed a good idea at the time”


    Now Is The Time At SDA When We e-Juxtapose!
    December 12, 2018 KateMoonbats Roadkill 4 Comments

    March, 2018: This $118 Million Electric Scooter Company Created a Phenomenon in Los Angeles and Now Wants to Take Over the World

    December, 2018: In places like Oakland, Los Angeles, and Portland, people have become so fed up with the plastic scooters–distributed liberally on sidewalks by companies like Bird and Lime–that they’ve taken to throwing them into lakes and rivers, and in the case of Los Angeles, the ocean.”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/12/12/now-is-the-time-at-sda-when-we-juxtapose-4/#comments

    Check the comments too

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  • #
    Another Ian

    This sounds like a few people we have to suffer

    Dennis Miller shared this joke on his podcast today:

    “Tis’ the season once again. Macy’s has hired Bernie Sanders to play Santa Claus. All the kids will line up, jump on him and then he’ll tell them what HE wants!” ”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/12/12/december-12-2018-reader-tips/#comment-1166609

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
    December 11, 2018 KateMedia 28 Comments

    Fake News is Time’s Person of the Year: https://t.co/DMVow8tNtS

    — Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) December 11, 2018

    Related: Khashoggi represented everything that is repressive and repugnant about journalism in the Arab world. Why is he so honored?”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/12/11/your-moral-and-intellectual-superiors-62/#comments

    Again check the comments

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  • #
    pat

    ROM – so sad to hear you are not feeling the best. hope you have a full recovery and we see you back here soon.

    meanwhile, hope you are at least able to visit jo’s site for a laugh or two:

    11 Dec: Fox News: NY Times’ Paul Krugman says US part of ‘new axis of evil’ with Russia, Saudi Arabia
    By Samuel Chamberlain; The Associated Press contributed to this report.
    Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times opinion contributor Paul Krugman tweeted Monday that the United States had joined Russia and Saudi Arabia in a “new axis of evil,” after those three countries and Kuwait objected to the United Nations’ endorsement of a landmark study on global warming…
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-times-paul-krugman-says-us-part-of-new-axis-of-evil-with-russia-saudi-arabia

    Newsweek includes everything, including Mueller/Russia garbage in their piece:

    10 Dec: Newsweek: U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia Are the ‘New Axis of Evil,’ New York Times Columnist Slams Refusal to Accept Climate Science
    By Jason Lemon
    New York Times columnist Paul Krugman slammed Washington’s decision to ally itself with Russia and Saudi Arabia in refusing to welcome the findings of a major international report that warned of the life-threatening impact of climate change.

    On Monday, the Nobel Prize–winning economist posted a tweet to strongly criticize the move by the administration of President Donald Trump, which came despite a recent federal government report emphasizing the risk of climate change to the U.S. economy.
    “There’s a new axis of evil: Russia, Saudi Arabia—and the United States,” Krugman wrote, retweeting a post that included a link to a Washington Post on the Trump administration’s decision…
    https://www.newsweek.com/us-saudi-arabia-russia-new-axis-evil-paul-krugman-climate-change-1252445

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  • #
    pat

    a perfect storm is brewing at theirABC:

    12 Dec: ABC: Extreme weather on the way as tropical cyclone, southern low pressure system develop in the east
    ABC Weather By Kate Doyle
    Two weather systems are coming together to create a deluge that is set to pummel much of the eastern seaboard in the coming days, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing severe weather warnings in several states. A low-pressure system expected to form in northern Victoria or southern New South Wales tomorrow could bring a month’s worth of rain in a day in the south east tomorrow.

    Meanwhile Tropical Cyclone Owen is intensifying in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is expected to strengthen to hit Queensland on Friday. It is currently a category two storm but could be a category three when it makes landfall. “What is really interesting is how the two systems are linked by the upper trough,” the BOM’s extreme weather desk manager James Taylor said.

    “It will be the upper trough that develops the low over south-eastern Victoria that drags Tropical Cyclone Owen more towards the east and probably south-eastwards over the weekend. “That creates a potential threat for large parts of the eastern Queensland coast, particularly from flash flooding,” Mr Taylor said…

    Mr Taylor said the heavy rainfall risk would be for large parts of Victoria and northern and eastern Tasmania. There is also a chance of extreme conditions in South Australia’s south-east as well as eastern New South Wales, and up along the coast of Queensland. “We’ve got a real risk with heavy rainfall, but there’s also damaging to destructive winds associated with [tropical cyclone] Owen that we need to worry about,” he said…

    Some of the models suggest that Cyclone Owen could track south through Queensland. Which will put a shiver through the spine of those who remember Cyclone Debbie which moved down the Queensland coast in 2017 as an ex tropical cyclone, bringing widespread flooding all the way down across the New South Wales border.
    Debbie caused schools across South East Queensland to close and has been linked to multiple deaths…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-12/bom-issues-severe-weather-warning-as-major-storms-forecast/10610060

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I suggest they dredge out the weather reports from the 1950’s and 60′ when the climate was cooling.

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  • #
    Mark M

    IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY: AUSTRALIA’S ENERGY CRISIS, AMERICA’S ENERGY SURPLUS

    Why is US energy so inexpensive?

    Why is its electricity more reliable and pricing more transparent than Australia’s?

    Why are its carbon emissions declining faster relative to Australia?

    In this report we answer those questions, clarifying what’s at stake if Australian policymakers do not change course.

    And why? In a word: energy. The cost of electricity and gas for large, industrial consumers of energy is simply making Australia uncompetitive.

    https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/australias-energy-crisis-americas-energy-surplus

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Why is its electricity more reliable and pricing more transparent than Australia’s?

      Because they prosecuted Enron, we allow AGL free rein.

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    • #
      Robber

      Great find. From the Exec Summary:
      Australia faces an energy crisis, stressing households and businesses, but threatening the very existence of some of Australia’s
      large industrial users of energy. The United States is reaping the benefits of energy boom, delivering inexpensive gas and electricity, driving a renaissance in American manufacturing and economic growth. Specifically:
      – Australian households and businesses pay dramatically more for their energy than their American counterparts — two to three times as much in many cases.
      – American households and businesses are supplied energy with greater reliability and tariff transparency than in Australia.
      – Over the past decade, US carbon emissions from electricity generation have declined by more than twice the rate of Australia’s emissions decline.

      10

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Published This Month In The Journal Of The Blindingly Obvious”

    “Vegetarians are miserable scolds.”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/12/11/published-this-month-in-the-journal-of-the-blindingly-obvious/

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  • #
    Jonesy

    I am disappointed in Bolt tonight. Shorten puts a proposition…are renewables getting cheaper…and Bolt waffles by saying yes. He should have rejoindered with the equal proposition that renewables no longer need subsidies to compete…and…the should be made to compete on level ground. Dispatchability and reliability of supply.

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  • #
    Jonesy

    Shorten is using Rudds play book. He is trying hard not to scare the horses. It will be 2007 all over again. Do not trust the man!

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  • #
    pat

    12 Dec: UK Express: ‘Brexit has DEVOURED Thatcher, Major, Cameron…NOW MAY!’ Watson reacts to crunch May vote
    LABOUR deputy leader Tom Watson branded Brexit as a “revolution that devours its children” as Theresa May is facing a vote of no-confidence after 48 Tory MPs handed in their letters to the powerful 1922 Committee.
    By Alice Scarsi
    “In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 on Wednesday 12th December in committee room 14 of the House of Commons.
    “The votes will be counted immediately afterwards and an announcement will be made a soon as possible in the evening.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1057718/Brexit-news-theresa-may-no-confidence-labour-party-tom-watson

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      If Farrage or Johnson challenge May , she will be toast but if neither challenge I’m tipping she will stay leader .

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      • #
        Graeme#4

        Didn’t think Farage was a Tory?

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      • #
        philthegeek

        Lol! Its an interesting situation. Brexitiers want May gone, but none of them seem to want the job as PM and the responsibility of trying to actually get a Brexit deal done. Boris and the others seem to want to be PM AFTER Brexit so they can be the hero’s who ride in and fix the kaos and mess. remember, Boris ran away from the job after the referendum. 🙂 So, at the moment we have a challenge, but no challenger.

        Be interesting if there is no challenger, May flips the bird and walks anyway, and then….it may be a general election in the offing. Tory kaos, Labor win, Brexit abandoned, and the UK starts to get back to a bit of rational Govt.

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Rational Govertment with Labour and Jeremy Corbyn????????

          You are the delusional one.

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          • #
            philthegeek

            Its all relative though isn’t it?

            Although with Brexit its a bit like the banjo playing relatives from deep Taswegia, the ones with the scars to one side of the neck…………. arriving unexpectedly for Xmas. Surreal 🙂

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        • #
          Greebo

          You were seeming so measured, and then you spoilt it in 19 words. Only a complete muppet, or Joseph Stalin, could see a Corbyn Govt. as rational.

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          Hanrahan

          Brexitiers want May gone, but none of them seem to want the job as PM

          It’s not so much who would take over as why anyone would. It is one minute to midnight re brexit and it seems a new leader doesn’t take immediate power. Here the caucus goes into a room and closes the door. Eventually some one will exit smiling and the blood should remain unseen when the door closes.

          I LIKE the idea that we can change leaders easily. I just wish we had members who would exercise that right in a more timely manner.

          The Brits best option with the EU playing hardball is to simply wait. The EU is in serious trouble so they should do backdoor deals with France, Greece and Italy so they can walk free after TSHTF.

          20

        • #
          Annie

          Boris was undermined by Michael Gove.

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    • #

      It’s worth considering the possibility that Brexit is a comedy of sorts, one where the people wanting it least want it most, but only half-way.

      What do I mean? There’s talk about letting sophisticated, cosmopolitan London remain while all the deplorables out in the boonies get to keep their fisheries and so on. But everyone knows London can’t just remain. So could that be a diversion?

      The City of London is the world’s biggest financial centre, bigger than Wall Street. It is also the most secretive, guarded and tentacular. You see its front and top; you don’t get to see it’s back and bottom. As for following all the tentacles…good luck. The sun still never sets on them.

      Formally, the queen doesn’t enter the City without receiving the sword of state from the Lord Mayor, either at the boundary or St Paul’s. The separation of the City from Westminster, the representation in parliament, the special police…it all may have its origins with William I. However, there is a very modern and compelling reason to separate the City from any country, even its own. Even from London!

      As for letting a bunch of garlicky Euro-socialists who have resented the poms for centuries get closer to the City and its books, that would not be cricket. They try it out with the Swiss, after all, and not without success.

      Not saying I’m sure, but it needs to be considered. As we know from recent Australian and NSW experiences, bankster-inserted political leaders are not the brightest of the bankster breed, but they know their most important function. Cameron and May might not be the blunderers they appear to be. If Britain ends up remaining, it may be under conditions which safeguard the City from the garlic breathers who, suitably chastened, will be relieved that they can keep their globalist/lobbyist agenda rolling. If Britain exits, the City is secure anyway.

      Worth a thought?

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    pat

    11 Dec: Australian: Sea rise scenarios barely possible, says climate scientist Judith Curry
    Exclusive By Graham Lloyd
    A catastrophic rise in sea levels is unlikely this century, with ­recent experience falling within the range of natural variability over the past several thousand years, according to a report on peer-­reviewed studies by US climate scientist Judith Curry.

    Writing in The Australian today, Dr Curry says predictions of a 21st-century sea level rise of more than 60cm are increasingly difficult to justify, even if the predicted amount of global warming is correct.
    “Predictions of higher than 1.6m require a cascade of ­extremely unlikely to impossible events using overly simplistic models of poorly understood processes,” Dr Curry says.
    The review coincides with ­debate about whether some warnings about climate change relied too heavily on worst-case scenarios.

    Dr Curry, a professor emeritus form Georgia Institute of Technology, said extreme, barely possible values of sea level rise were driving policies and local ­adaptation plans. She said an ­additional sea level rise of 60cm or less over a century could be a relatively minor problem if it was managed appropriately.
    She said there was not yet any convincing evidence of a human fingerprint on global sea level rise because of the large changes driven by natural variability. “An increase in the rate of global sea level rise since 1995 is being caused by ice loss from Greenland,” she said. “Greenland ice loss was larger during the 1930s, which was also associated with the warm phase of the Atlantic Ocean circulation pattern.”
    Dr Curry said predictions of sea level rise depended on climate models to predict the correct amount of warming.

    Based on current greenhouse gas emissions, temperature rises to 2100 have been predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports to be 3C.
    However, there were reasons to think the climate models were predicting too much warming. She said observed warming for the past two decades was smaller than the average warming predicted by climate models.
    When compared with observations over the past 150 years, climate models produced too much warming in response to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, she said…
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/sea-rise-scenarios-barely-possible-says-climate-scientist-judith-curry/news-story/eaf4595206cf83471da843133855687e

    Peter Credlin said Graham Lloyd (at COP24) will be her guest tomorrow night.

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    theRealUniverse

    All the best ROM hope get well soon.

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    Greg in NZ

    All the best, ROM and family.

    NOAA’s 2018 Arctic Report Card, a “peer-reviewed report” (ha!) was based on data from “the historical record, which goes back to 1900.” Is that it? Thomas Mote, a research scientist at the University of Georgia who authored part of the report, noted: “Changes in sea ice influence ocean currents and the jet stream in ways that can affect weather…” I’m no professor of climastrology but isn’t that all back-to-front and upside-down? Oh, it’s CNN –

    https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/11/world/climate-change-arctic-report-card-2018-wxc/index.html

    So I downloaded NOAA’s 114-page pdf from the gov and filed it away for a rainy day in my climate comedy folder titled ‘Aha!’ – I kinda know what it’s gonna say anyway: it’s all our fault, we’ve sinned (dirty sins) against creation, and we need to pay the scribes and Pharisees so they can lead us back into recycled paradise lite, free of carbon at last! Enter at your own risk…

    https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/report-card

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    • #
      Greg in NZ

      P.S. Those men in grey suits – climate sharks – circling the pool of money at Katowice, Poland may want to go spend some of their COP24 funny money on a few more layers of clothing: it’s dropping to -2˚C overnight with snow, then warming up to -1˚C Thursday, plunging to -10˚C Sunday with yet more snow. Thankfully there’s a few coal power plants in the neighbourhood so the hotels and conference centre should be just fine and dandy at about 25˚C inside… it’s tough slaving the planet.

      https://www.worldweatheronline.com/katowice-weather/pl.aspx

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      • #
        sophocles

        Now be reasonable, Greg in NZ; that’s what you get with `global warming’ and `klimate change’ and will continue to get … along with `rising sea levels’ and `ocean acidification’ until you’ve `saved the planet.’ They’ll just have to hope the ocean doesn’t get to Katowice until they’ve flown home.

        Heh, now there’s a possibility, they could become `snowed in.’

        20

      • #
        MudCrab

        Are Climate Sharks left or right handed?

        20

  • #
    Greebo

    Haven’t really had the time to know you, ROM, but I always have found you posts enlightening, and educational to a poor city born Arts dunce. Return and tach me some more.

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  • #
    philthegeek

    a poor city born Arts dunce

    and here i thought you were just a really ugly cat?? 🙂

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    • #
      Greebo

      That’s OK. I’ve always found you to be a bit of a bull… You know, ring through your nose nose, easily led, and leaving evidence of your presence wherever you go.

      Other than that, friends?

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      • #
        Greebo

        No? I’m sad.

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      • #
        philthegeek

        Other than that, friends?

        No prob. 🙂 Life is too short for genuine enemies. 🙂

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        • #
          Greebo

          Life is also too short for fools, so I guess I’ll see you in another life. You can choose which one of us is the fool . Maybe.

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          • #
            philthegeek

            Ahh…so you are a pompous twit then.. Much amused surprisiment to find such here. 🙂

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              sophocles

              Philthegeek: contemptible troll …

              If these comments are an example, and having been uttered so publicly, they are, of your humanity, your good will and charity, then we stand in awe; awe that someone can be so open minded, generously spirited, and empathetic. You are an exceptional individual, one who makes friends and influences people with ease.

              </sarc>

              Do you have to work hard to be such a nasty cretinous coprocephalic, or does it just come naturally?

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              • #
                philthegeek

                So soph…..

                You have obviosly taken offence at the above sequence of posts.

                Can you be more specific in terms of what i have posted that has offended you?

                I’m curious as to what in my recent interaction with Greebo has triggered you???

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            • #
              Greebo

              Sadly, there is no “reply” button on your last post, so I’ll post here: I’m mot sure what that great philosopher objected to, but “pompous twit” might give you a hint. I am now another who will ignore you. Enjoy,

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                philthegeek

                Ok, soph needs a pompous twit to speak for it then. Fair nuff. You find all kinds of ammusing types in the back blocks of the intertubes like here. 🙂

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  • #
    pat

    ***blame Brexit!

    Energy industry is “in crisis” after EIGHTH supplier goes bust in a year
    Hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly shifted somewhere new as a result of their supplier going under this year – with more firms set to fail in the months ahead.
    UK Mirror – 10 Dec 2018
    Energyhelpline’s Arrington added that ***”looming Brexit” could be added to the list of woes “taking their toll on energy suppliers big and small”…

    11 Dec: ThisIsMoneyUK: Yet another small energy firm goes bust: One Select ceases trading leaving 36,000 households in limbo
    By Camilla Canocchi
    In November, both Extra Energy and Spark Energy ceased trading, following on from Future Energy, National Gas and Power, Iresa Energy, Gen4U and Usio Energy – all of which have collapsed in 2018…
    The regulator said: ‘Ofgem will choose a new supplier to take on One Select’s customers as quickly as possible…

    One Select, which has headquarters in Farnborough, was set up less than two years ago.
    It was crowned the worst energy supplier for customer service in a recent survey of 34 firms by Citizens Advice.
    Customers reported problems when contacting One Select by phone and only around two thirds of their customers received a bill based on a meter reading over the past year, according to the survey.

    The energy market has been hit by stinging regulation, including a price cap on standard variable tariffs amid anger over rising bills..
    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-6479255/Small-energy-firm-One-Select-goes-bust-affecting-36k-households.html

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      pat

      read somewhere One Select didn’t go under because it hadn’t paid it’s Renewable Energy Obligations, but just a reminder to prove once again “renewables” aren’t cheap:

      23 Nov: PV Mag: UK regulator reveals power companies owe almost £63m to renewable energy obligation pots
      Four electricity suppliers have been named by Ofgem for missing payment deadlines for penalties prompted by their failure to meet renewable energy buying obligations. A separate fund for small-scale generators, paid for by energy suppliers, also has a financial shortfall
      by Max Hall
      The regulator is investigating power supply companies Economy Energy and Spark Energy, with the latter having gone out of business yesterday, putting as many as 400 jobs at risk in Selkirk, Scotland.
      The two companies, together with URE Energy and Eversmart, account for a £58.6 million shortfall in the Renewable Obligation buy-out fund administered by Ofgem, with Scottish business news website Insider reporting yesterday that Spark Energy had gone into administration after missing a £14.4 million “renewable energy payment”.

      Energy companies which fail to hit targets to source a mandated percentage of their electricity from renewable generation must pay into the RO buy-out fund in proportion to any shortfall in their clean energy output…
      In a press statement on Wednesday about the buy-out fund shortfall, Ofgem also revealed £4.2 million is missing from the periodic levelisation fund it administers, into which suppliers pay into a central pot that then provides payments for small-scale renewable energy generators…

      British bill payers are unlikely to shed any tears upon learning that, if Ofgem fails to collect the money owed to the two funds, “mutualisation” kicks in. In other words, all the other power companies – including the ‘Big Six’ whose monopoly position in the U.K. so angers voters – who met their obligations, will have to make up the difference…
      https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/11/23/uk-regulator-reveals-power-companies-owe-almost-63m-to-renewable-energy-obligation-pots/

      Ofgem increases admin charges for Renewables Obligation
      Utility Week – 28 Aug 2018

      Co-located storage can bid into Capacity Market, Ofgem confirms
      The Energyst – 10 Dec 2018
      Ofgem has published new guidance for companies that want to add storage to renewable energy installations supported under the Renewables Obligation (RO) and feed-in tariff (FIT) schemes. They can bid into the Capacity Market too – if and when it is reinstated.
      Adding storage to such RO/FiT sites was not foreseen when the subsidy schemes were set up, so it is not mentioned in legislation, leaving a potential grey area…
      That should extend to mobile storage, the regulator said…

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    pat

    12 Dec: ClimateChangeNews: Katowice brief: Poland takes control
    “I’ve had four hours sleep in the last 72 hours,” said one negotiator as he walked into the UN climate plenary in Katowice, Poland on Tuesday evening.
    After two extra days of negotiations, which saw some groups debating through the night, “a lot remains unresolved”, one of the co-chairs of the UN talks Jo Tyndall said.
    The Polish president of the summit Michał Kurtyka said there had been “insufficient progress”

    “The current approach to negotiations is exhausted. Many texts are stuck. From now on we will move under the authority of the Polish presidency,” he said.
    That means on Wednesday morning the Poles will produce their own outline for the rulebook of the Paris Agreement and intense diplomacy, led by pairs of ministers, will begin.
    Is this normal?

    All Cop presidencies take on their own shape. In theory, it’s the job of the UN secretariat to draft negotiating text, with some guidance from the presidency. But if the UN is left to its own devices it will tend to find its way to a middle ground that fails to recognise the political realities of the process…

    In Paris, the French took control, providing their own language. But they were backed by the full weight of their government and diplomatic corps.
    This presidency is, by many accounts, undergunned, understaffed and undermined by some other parts of the Polish government. But Kurtyka has some powerful backers working behind the scenes – including the French president of the 2015 Paris conference Laurent Fabius…

    Talanoa begins
    Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama, who kicked off the Talanoa Dialogue as president of last year’s summit, urged them to heed the warnings contained in October’s blockbuster climate science report.
    “If you think you’re safe in your environment, if you’re not vulnerable, you will be vulnerable if we do not follow what the scientists told us,” Bainimarama said.

    He’s back
    UN chief Antonio Guterres is expected back at Cop24 on Wednesday to knock some heads together.
    “He is coming back because he understands how important this is; he wants to do everything he can to make it absolutely clear what leadership looks like and what the expectation is,” said Rachel Kyte, UN special envoy for sustainable energy.

    No credit for Kiwis
    New Zealand will scrap its left over carbon credits from the Kyoto Protocol. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the accounting trick will make it easier for the country to meet its Paris Agreement targets. Climate minister James Shaw said no nation should resort to using surplus credits. But Pacific neighbour Australia has repeatedly insisted the credits are a legitimate way to meet its Paris target

    China stands firm on differentiation
    China is already working to reduce its emissions and fund climate projects in poorer countries. But it remains up to the developed world to carry the weight, under the contentious principle known as common but differentiated responsibilities, or CBDR, Xie Zhenhua, the country’s special representative on climate affairs, told the Talanoa Dialogue.
    “We expect Cop24 to complete the negotiations on the implementation of the Paris Agreement in order to concretise the CBDR rules in order to ensure mitigation, adaptation, science, technologies and capacities,” he said.

    The US and EU oppose firm differentiation rules, arguing they should be more flexible to reflect the differences between the poorest and emerging economies…
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/12/12/katowice-brief-poland-takes-control/

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    • #
      pat

      ClimateChangeNews: China is already working to reduce its emissions and fund climate projects in poorer countries.

      10 Dec: Financial Times: China must calibrate overseas lending towards Paris climate goals
      by Kevin P Gallagher
      (Kevin P Gallagher is professor and director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston’s University’s Pardee School for Global Studies)
      China now produces 60 per cent of the world’s solar panels. EY recently put China’s PV industry and offshore wind industries at the top of their rankings, with offshore wind at number two.
      Shenzhen-based CATL is the biggest producer of electric vehicle power packs in the world, raising more than $800m from its IPO in June of this year…

      While China has already financed or invested approximately $240bn in these countries since the BRI conception, we find that the vast majority of those is in fossil fuels — 91 per cent of all syndicated loans, 61 per cent of policy bank loans by the China Development Bank and Export Import Bank of China, 93 per cent of the Silk Road Fund’s equity investments and 95 per cent of state-owned enterprise investment.
      According to the report, the one bright spot was in private overseas investment, where cleaner energy is 64 per cent of overseas investment though 64 per cent of just $19bn of the total…

      Of course, Chinese finance brings energy and electricity access to people in need but at high cost given how cheap and available the alternatives are…
      https://www.ft.com/content/520ef0b0-fc94-11e8-ac00-57a2a826423e

      12 Dec: Carbon Pulse: New Zealand announces major changes to emissions trading scheme
      New Zealand on Wednesday announced a series of reforms to its emissions trading scheme that will limit permit supply, though the changes are expected to have only a modest near-term market impact.

      12 Dec: Carbon Pulse: COP24: California, Quebec continuing ETS linkage discussions with New Zealand
      California and Quebec are continuing talks with New Zealand about potential linkage opportunities after spending more than a year discussing each other’s carbon schemes, according to an ARB official and documents.

      LOL:

      12 Dec: Carbon Pulse: COP24: Australia faces heat if it deploys AAU plan to plug Paris emission gap
      Australia is likely to face widespread international disapproval if it goes ahead with a plan identified by observers that involves using more than 300 million surplus units from the Kyoto Protocol era to help meet a massive shortfall in its Paris Agreement target.

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    • #
      yarpos

      ““I’ve had four hours sleep in the last 72 hours,”

      They need to learn to delegate , after all most countries are sending 10s to 100s of attendees. Maybe they are talking about the social whirl?

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  • #
    pat

    lol.

    12 Dec: Reuters: Ministers – but few leaders – arrive for crucial part of climate talks
    by Nina Chestney, Agnieszka Barteczko; Additional reporting by Bate Felix
    Brexit turmoil and French riots have kept many government chiefs away from the final and crucial week of U.N. climate talks, with only four national leaders present on Tuesday…
    Out of around 134 national representatives delivering speeches over the next two days, only four are heads of government: the president of Kiribati and the prime ministers of Samoa, the Cook Islands and Tuvalu – nations among the most vulnerable to climate change…

    Expectations for the talks are low: political unity built in Paris has been shattered by populist governments that have placed national agendas before collective action…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord/ministers-but-few-leaders-arrive-for-crucial-part-of-climate-talks-idUSKBN1OA1ZV

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    pat

    hard to believe the Beeb’s Harrabin wrote this piece – it’s more like the kind of juvenile work produced by theirABC:

    11 Dec: BBC: Climate change: Protecting the poor from green taxes
    By Roger Harrabin
    As President Macron caved into the yellow vest fuel tax protests, President Trump was triumphant.
    The French humiliation showed people rejected the sort of carbon taxes supported by the UN’s climate deal, he tweeted.
    Of course it’s more complicated than that, because it depends on what sort of carbon taxes and how they are imposed.
    Green economists say carbon taxes are a good idea – but they insist that governments must protect the poor from the side-effects.

    Why are the poor vulnerable to green taxes?
    It’s a question of disposable income. If a government imposes a flat tax on motor fuel as Mr Macron did, that hits the poor hardest because it eats their disposable income.
    The fuel rises were doubly galling for the yellow vests in their suburban and rural homes because they can’t rely on good public transport ***like rich city slickers do…

    So how can the poor be protected?
    Academics have figured out over the years how to protect the poor from green taxes, but Mr Macron appears to have missed their research, or ignored it.
    His fuel tax took from people struggling with living costs, and diverted the proceeds to wind farms instead.

    ???A very different Robin Hood policy in Australia deliberately re-directed carbon taxes to help the worse-off.
    It took the $5bn Australian dollars ($3.6bn; £2.9bn) of annual profits from a carbon tax on industry and diverted it to the poor by introducing lower income taxes and higher welfare payments.
    Most households – and just about all poor households – were better off as a result, whereas richer households bore most of the costs, according to Prof Frank Jotzo from the Australian National University in Canberra…

    So are green economists cursing Mr Macron?
    Environmental economists will be appalled that the Macron policies have made carbon taxes more politically toxic just as governments need good solutions to climate change.
    World-leading research into the social impacts of green taxes has been done at University College London by Prof Paul Ekins.
    He says governments must think hard about protecting the poor before they introduce taxes.
    Even then, he says, ministers may have to devise special measures to support small groups of households faced with higher bills because – say – they have a sick family member ***who needs to be kept very warm…

    Do people support green taxes?
    There’s one final problem… green taxes are complicated and can be hard to communicate.
    In Australia, for instance, the coal industry has a very loud voice in public debate. And it supported the claim of the right-wing politician Tony Abbott that the carbon tax was: “A big fat tax on everything”…

    The tax was scrapped, even though Prof Jotzo says the poor were actually better off since it was imposed.
    People believed the rhetoric rather than the evidence of their bank accounts, he says.
    “The Australian experience shows that governments need to design environmental policies to leave lower income people better off, and then also to explain this to the voters,” Prof Jotzo says.
    “Just doing the right thing is not enough, you need to also cut through the noise and misinformation… Mr Macron’s team clearly did not study the lessons from the Antipodes.”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46522126

    Pilita loves it!

    TWEET: Pilita Clark, Financial Times
    “Environmental economists will be appalled that the Macron policies have made carbon taxes more politically toxic just as governments need good solutions to climate change.” Excellent analysis from @rharrabin
    12 Dec 2018

    reply:
    Bloke: Fact. Climate change actions hammer the poorest hardest. Given that Climate Change is a great crusade of the Left, what does that say about the Left (and fellow evangelists, the BBC) that they advocate this? GRAPH

    davey 123: Sneaking costs on the your electricity bill doesn’t help ordinary people one bit. Harrabin example flawed since Australia has the highest electricity bills in the world.
    https://twitter.com/pilitaclark/status/1072788690563489792

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Jo is on Outsiders again tonight

    10

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    pat

    12 Dec: HellenicShippingNews: IANS: India, China’s coal consumption rise, global emissions may hit record high
    Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will rise in 2018 with a new record from fossil fuels and industry for the second consecutive year, a leading scientific study released in this Polish city on Wednesday said, naming India and China among the top 10 emitters for the rise in coal consumption.
    The emissions are projected to increase by more than two per cent to a new record, mainly due to sustained growth in oil and gas use, the study said.
    The projection by the Global Carbon Project estimates that CO2 emissions will rise a projected 2.7 per cent, with an uncertainty range between 1.8 per cent and 3.7 per cent.
    Carbon emissions grew by 1.6 per cent in 2017 after a three year break.
    The findings come from the 2018 Global Carbon Budget published by the Global Carbon Project in the journals Nature, Environmental Research Letters and Earth System Science Data…

    The 10 biggest emitters were China, the US, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Canada, with the EU28 as a whole ranking third.

    Indian emissions, accounting for seven per cent of global emissions, look set to continue their strong growth with about 6.3 per cent (4.3 per cent to 8.3 per cent) in 2018, with growth across all fuels (coal plus 7.1 per cent, oil plus 2.9 per cent and gas plus 6.0 per cent).
    Chinese emissions, accounting for 27 per cent of global emissions, look set to grow about 4.7 per cent this year, reaching a new all-time high. Renewed emissions growth in China seemed closely linked to construction activity and economic stimulus…

    “The 2018 rise in fossil CO2 emissions place us on a trajectory for warming that is currently well beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said lead researcher Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.
    “It is not enough to support renewables. Fossil energy needs to be phased out and efforts to decarbonise need to be expanded throughout economies.”…

    But global energy growth, especially in oil, gas and coal, is effectively outpacing decarbonisation efforts, fuelled by rising coal use and increasing demand for personal transport, freight, aviation and shipping…
    Although global coal use is still three per cent lower than its historical high in 2013, it is expected to grow in 2018, driven by growth in energy consumption in China and India.
    Oil and gas use have grown almost unabated in the last decade.

    Reacting to the Global Carbon Project estimates, published Christian Aid’s International Climate Lead Mohamed Adow told IANS: “All the warm words spoken at the UN climate summit in Poland won’t help prevent climate change.
    “The climate does not respond to lofty rhetoric, it responds to carbon dioxide emission reductions.”
    He said with droughts, heatwaves, floods and storms causing mayhem across the world in 2018 the fact “emissions are actually increasing this year shows the greater urgency that governments need to show”.
    https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/india-chinas-coal-consumption-rise-global-emissions-may-hit-record-high/

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  • #

    ROM,

    be alert now good friend.

    It may only be a Blanik, but look at the wings lifting slightly.

    This could be the big thermal. Look left and then right, and note that slight wingtip flutter. Feel the sudden punch under your bottom as the lift starts to kick in.

    Check the O2.

    This could be a 24000 footer, and perhaps another Diamond Badge.

    God speed, friend.

    Tony.

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  • #
    RicDre

    F H Buckley at the New York Post has an interesting take on “virtue signalling”; he thinks a more accurate term would be “vice signaling” because these people are absolutely convinced of their own virtue and are trying to tell other people how bad they are.

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/why-no-hate-here-signs-are-actually-pretty-hateful

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Almost as much rain as the big wet of 2017 ! , if it rains in summer is it because of CAGW ?

    01

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    In The Australian today (on line version, nohing in the print version that I can see)

    Story that can’t be told here
    11:00PM DECEMBER 12, 2018
    International websites and newspapers have published an important story relevant to all Austral­ians which cannot be ­reported here.
    Some online sites also published details, but were subject to what is known as geo-blocking so that readers in Australia are unabl­e to view the reports. The ­details have been widely circulated on social media, as users in Australia and around the world find and post that news online.

    Not using social media I have no idea what it is about, but am fairly sure it isn’t “Ex-PM loses trousers in motel”.

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    liberator

    Hey ROM, it was always great to read your posts on the old Weatherzone climate change discussion forum until they closed it down. Your showing some of the warmists including CeeBee a thing or two was always enlightening.

    Its great to find you here sharing your knowledge again. Pity CeeBee didn’t appear to follow – it would have made for a very interesting forum. (Maybe they did – just under another name.) Get fit and fired up for some more thought provoking posts

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    Bobl

    Hi ROM very sad to hear you aren’t well, here’s to a speedy recovery, can’t wait to see you back.

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    Fox from Melbourne

    ROM wish your health returns to normal for Christmas and that you have a happy and healthy new year.

    00

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    wert

    My best wishes to ROM, hope you’ll get better soon.

    00