Midweek Unthreaded

10 out of 10 based on 14 ratings

134 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

  • #
    ColA

    Oh I can’t resist, first on, hmmmm my thought for the day

    “Gas, Grass, Cash or As@, Nobody Rides for Free”

    51

  • #
    Robber

    It’s raining in at least some parts of western Victoria!

    70

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘The rain will come in the nick of time for some farmers but it’s also expected to be short-lived.

      “The current seasonal outlook basically indicates that May will generally be drier than average,” she said.

      ‘The outlook to July currently suggests no strong indications either way for conditions to be drier or wetter than usual in eastern and southern Australia.’

      Weatherzone

      ——

      I disagree with their forecast, moderately good seasonal rains should return to southern Australia because the high pressure belt has become slack.

      81

      • #
        robert rosicka

        Just starting to spit here in north east Victoriastan, and it looks like we may get some good rain over the next three days .
        We have about 4 days worth of water left in the tank so anything we get will be much appreciated and while it’s been a dry year we haven’t had to buy a load of water this summer .

        60

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        EG I agree !
        Their prediction is in line with Al Gorbal’s Warmist ideology.
        Which has a political agenda.

        Here is SA, the soil is warm
        And now it is moist
        The Break has arrived
        For farmers, it’s
        gangbuster time
        Sowing crops.

        71

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          Yes it’s rained
          I can now stop
          Watering my gardens
          Roughly 18 mm since
          Tuesday night
          A good drop
          Almost all gentle
          No heavy
          Thundering
          Falls
          Why even the lawn
          Is growing
          After no water
          Since December.

          00

      • #
        Gee aye

        good news

        91

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        13 mm overnight at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills. Looking for more from those grey clouds.

        70

      • #
        Annie

        I hope you are right EG. We certainly need a good lot of rain here in North Central Vic and so far have had just 0.8mm in dribs and drabs this last few hours. Here’s hoping!

        40

      • #
        glen Michel

        Agree el Gordo.What is nice to see(for a change) is some cloud over the continent.Also it looks as though the AO is in position.More repeat events and more moisture right through the atmosphere and I’ll knock the top off that chateauLatour Grand cru !

        40

    • #
      PeterW

      Southern NSW, here. Greenish, but desperately short. Still feeding stock heavily.

      Forecast 90% chance, 45-90mm over the next two days.
      Not getting the gumboots out yet…. I don’t care how good it looks on the radar.

      40

  • #
    David Wojick

    Here from presidential candidate Beto’s just announced Climate Plan is what we might call the basic double fallacy of the new alarmism:
    “To have any chance at limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C and preventing the worst effects of climate change, the latest science demands net-zero emissions by 2050.”

    First, the IPCC merely said that there would be fewer damages at 1.5 degrees of warming than at 2 degrees. This of course follows from their position that any warming causes damages. (This was part of an internal struggle over the Paris target — 1.5 or 2 degrees.)

    Nowhere does the IPCC suggest that 1.5 degrees is some sort of threshold beyond which we get “the worst effects of climate change.” The idea is nuts, oh wait!

    Second, the IPCC is not “the latest science.” In fact the IPCC assessments are not science at all, just biased arguments using citations.

    The correst point the IPCC was making is that holding the hot climate models to 1.5 degrees of warming is extremely difficult, one degree having already occurred (they say). AOC and Beto have nonsensically take that as some sort of goal. They are right in one respect, that it would take something like a WWII mobilization, which cost about 50% of national GDP. Not going to happen, so we hope they keep pushing it. Rationing anyone?

    One the other hand, nutty stuff like this may be the ticket to Trump’s re-election.

    90

    • #
      Hanrahan

      “To have any chance at limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C and preventing the worst effects of climate change, the latest science demands net-zero emissions by 2050.”

      Twenty years too late. According to the eminent climate scientist AOC we’ll all be dead in 12 years.

      81

      • #
        David Wojick

        Yes, the Sunrise cult, that AOC fronts for, has denounced Beto’s plan as far too little, far too late:
        https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/29/beto-climate-change-activists/.

        Their cry is Now Or Never. But I expect they will still be making it 12 years from now, pending funding.

        100

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          The thing that surprises me, with the scientists not the activists, is their ignorance of factors other than the expected level of CO2. And they cannot even show that the supposed level was ever dangerous in the past.

          60

        • #
          glen Michel

          They are trying very hard but what can be achieved except putting us infidels in chains( or beheaded inshallah) Much fear and loathing from the malthusian/bolshie ringleaders but will it arrive at their desired endpoint?

          20

      • #

        Hanrahan sez:
        “According to the eminent climate scientist AOC we’ll all be dead in 12 years.”

        Ha ha ha you’re wrong Hanrahan !

        We’ll all be dead in 11 years.

        AOC added up the numbers wrong.

        Read with a “climate plan” from a Dumbocrat ?

        Why does that NOT sound like a good idea ?

        The entire goal of the coming climate change catastrophe science fraud, that started in 1975 with Roger Revelle, is for the sheeple of America to accept a “climate plan” … which is really a plan to destroy the US economy, and replace what’s left of capitalism, with socialism

        We don’t need no stinkin’ plan.

        Just say “NO”.

        20

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      That so called , FAKE, temp rise of 1.5C, is pure fantasy that comes out of the IPCC fake climate prediction code.
      1. No difference to any CO2 levels will occur by 2050.
      2. It makes absolutely no difference what the levels are by 2050, to the weather.
      3. Tell the IPCC to shove their lies where the sun dont shine!

      51

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        I can think of a master propagndist from the 1930s europe, who would be very proud….

        20

    • #
      Philo

      I think to do anything about climate we are going to have to do the hardest job of all:
      We need to spend something 2 trillion USD each in the Americas, Europe and Africs, and Asia. We must start spending it in 2001 and continue up to today as fast as possible to have any hope of changing the outcomes. It will b hard but we can do it.
      I and my colleagues are working on a precise economic plan to ascertain the people, companies, and government programs who used the earth as a sink for pollution and heat. The bad actors, or their progeny, can be identified for the costs incurred during the past 17 years and the transactions and nivestments will be posthumously reversed and reinvested properly.

      20

  • #
    Hanrahan

    This can’t be right can it?

    According to Breitbart a poll of “likely voters” want:

    53.15 percent of respondents say the Democrat candidate should support the Green New Deal.
    75.76 percent of respondents say the Democrat candidate should support Medicare for All.
    81.59 percent of respondents say the Democrat candidate should support higher taxes on the wealthy.
    60.37 percent of respondents say the Democrat candidate should support free higher education
    42.19 percent of respondents say the Democrat candidate should support breaking up big tech companies.

    If that was a poll of dems I would believe it but if an honest poll of all voters then the US is on the path to a failed socialist state.

    70

    • #
      David Wojick

      A lot of republicans want the dem candidates to support this stuff so Trump will win. The question was not if the respondent supported it.

      120

    • #
      yarpos

      Cant see the last point re the break up of big tech as a problem , but am surprised that 40% of voters would think that. The country that was so previously so strong on anti trust now seems to sit comfortably with the likes of Amazon and Google.

      20

  • #
    • #
      Bill in Oz

      An interesting scientific story EG.

      But ” The seismological data retrieved from the IOGL experiment will be under a moratorium for 3 years.”

      We will remain in ignorance until then.

      A pity.

      40

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      E.G.

      Missing mass? Don’t tell the greenies as they will blame ClimateChange©.

      50

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    A Mythbusters blast from the past.

    Social distortion at its best.

    http://joannenova.com.au/2018/11/climate-models-are-a-joke/#comment-2069793

    51

    • #
      Peter C

      Good analysis KK,

      I will add one minor comment;

      The only experiment I have ever seen or heard of that closely resembles the CO2 heating meme was done by the TV Programme, The Myth Busters.

      In fact The Myth busters were late to the party. They were preceded by Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Climate 101.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v-w8Cyfoq8
      and Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock (Rocket Scientist) with GreenHouse in a Bottle,
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge0jhYDcazY

      The previous demonstrations were even worse that the Myth Busters effort.

      50

  • #
    Peter C

    I have been out and about during the last two weeks, trying to turn back the tide against the Greens and renewable energy policies.

    That means letter boxing, door knocking, and putting up posters for the Australian Conservatives.

    Now the party is asking for a presence at the pre polling booths.

    Voting Started on Monday and people are turning up at my local booth in numbers! If that is reflected elsewhere, and I think it is, a lot of people will have voted before election day.

    I only spent an hour on the booth. No one showed any interest in the Australian Conservatives, but most either took voting tickets from all the parties or none of them. My impression is that people have made up their minds about their voting intention before they go to vote. Therefore if we want people to change their minds about their vote, we have to achieve it before they go to vote.

    130

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Yes.

      When I go to vote I always take the Laba and Greens how to vote info.

      Then later I throw it in the bin unread.

      71

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Seen the ad for the party last night , Cory was impressive and the ad was well thought out .

      41

    • #
      Gee aye

      I voted… out of the country. A good time to be away.

      32

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      PC all you can do is try your best, good luck.

      60

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Peter C:

      Agreed. But everyone voting early will have made up their mind. Same with those who go early on polling day. And those who stride into the booth without stopping to take a pamphlet from the eager party supporters.

      40

    • #
      yarpos

      I voted yesterday while visiting my daughter in Wangaratta. I commented to the ballot box supervisor that it was busy, he said it was only average and that it seems to ramping up as early voting becomes a thing.

      They chose to put the polling station in the main street so people couldnt even walk by without getting haranged by how to vote card pushers. I got asked if I was voting and just said yes thanks and kept walking in the door. They seemed puzzled that you could possibly vote without their assistance.

      50

    • #
      MudCrab

      I have boothed before many times (aka – standing in the sun all day smiling at people who don’t want to be there and don’t want to talk to you).

      My view has been for years that your role at a booth is to prove to the incoming voter that your ‘brand’ is strong enough to have supporters physically at the booth. It is show.

      How to vote cards are normally plastered all over the inside of the booths anyway. It shouldn’t be that hard. If you are a major party then in real terms your preferences do not matter. 2PP voting remember, your preferences only count if you are planning on coming 3rd or worse in the first round of counting.

      Frankly I always saw my role as booth captain was to smile politely at everyone who came in, make sure the other mobs didn’t pull down your signs and only offer people a card if they responded positively to your first ‘g’day’.

      ‘Slogan of the Day’? Ensuring EVERYONE got given a card? Bollocks to that. You are there to show the party colours and be polite and friendly.

      And not get sunburnt.

      50

    • #
      Annie

      I’ve just been looking at the list of Senate candidates. 82…good grief! Some homework coming up; there are parties I’ve never heard of but they sound ominous. It looks like I’ll need to be in the polling booth a long time…had some weird looks the last time from people around…most took little time there. 🙁

      40

      • #
        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        Hi Annie,
        Just vote for 12. Saves a lot of work.
        Cheers
        Dave B

        30

      • #
        Chad

        Its more tricky than most think.
        There are not that many characters i would want influencing my life, so once you have prioritised the ones you support, you then need to know how to distribute your remaining vots such that they have minimal effect and minimise the possibility of undesireable candidates picking up your vote as a preference.

        30

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    An excerpt from one of Jo’s earlier threads: it my attempt to state that a model proposing atmospheric CO2 as a driver of temperature is ridiculous, which it is.

    No such model can be formulated.
    _____________

    A lot of brilliant comments initiated by Jo’s Brilliant post.

    A post that tackles a potentially complex topic with qualities of:

    Relevance
    Brevity
    Scientific Pertinence
    Mild Sarcasm.

    Simple factorial analysis shows that the CO2 item is a non-starter in that it is quantitatively irrelevant in the system under examination.

    You cannot make a model when the one and only pivotal factor is irrelevant.

    As Stephen ably states, if you are going to assess the atmospheric temperature in terms of atmospheric makeup then the one only credible factor, assuming constant Solar input, is:

    The Water Cycle.

    In a couple of thousand years we will most likely be well into the next Glaciation with everyone heading for the Equator.

    Perspective is crucial in real science.

    KK

    82

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Exactly KK.
      “In a couple of thousand years we will most likely be well into the next Glaciation with everyone heading for the Equator.” I qualify slightly, probably sooner than that.

      60

  • #
    el gordo

    The plateau in temperature for the past couple of decades can be easily explained by ENSO behaviour.

    https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/enso/mei/img/meiv2.timeseries.png

    30

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Australia recently experienced what the Climate Council called its ‘Angriest Summer’ in history.

    Government accused of hiding full extent of [global warming]

    “The Climate Council’s Climate Cuts, Cover-Ups and Censorship report found the government had slashed climate science funding, rejected advice from climate bodies, and weakened the nation’s climate science capability by cutting jobs at the CSIRO.”

    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/government-accused-of-hiding-full-extent-of-climate-change?cid=news:socialshare:twitter

    >> The Angry Summer of 2013, where climate became weather in Oz:

    “A few years ago, talking about weather and climate change in the same breath was a cardinal sin for scientists.

    Now it has become impossible to have a conversation about the weather without discussing wider climate trends, according to researchers who prepared the Australian Climate Commission’s latest report.

    The report, The Angry Summer, says behind the litany of broken heat and rainfall records this year, a clear pattern has now emerged.

    Previously, ”weather is not climate” was the mantra, but now the additional boost from greenhouse gases was influencing every event.

    It might even be the case that the mantra chanted after every catastrophic weather event – that it can’t be said to be caused by climate change, but it shows what climate change will do – has become a thing of the past.”

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/climate-change-a-key-factor-in-extreme-weather-experts-say-20130303-2fefv.html

    50

    • #
      el gordo

      ”Statistically, there is a one in 500 chance that we are talking about natural variation causing all these new records,” said Will Steffen, the report’s lead author and director of the Australian National University’s Climate Change Institute. ”Not too many people would want to put their life savings on a 500-1 horse.”

      I’ll take that bet.

      100

      • #
        RicDre

        “Statistically, there is a one in 500 chance that we are talking about natural variation causing all these new records”

        Hmm, I wonder out of which dark orifice he pulled that statistic.

        110

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        That (fake) 1:500 will be based on his ‘model’ which is of course ‘the correct model’ and any data that says otherwise is just bad data.

        30

    • #
      David Wojick

      Yes this is the new pseudoscience called “attribution” which claims to calculate the percentage of human cause for extreme events. There is a group at Oxford that does it in just a day or two. Basically they compare climate model runs with and without CO2 for that type of event and generate a probability difference, which applies to every such event.

      Very clever as science scams go (hence Oxford). I call it the attribution game. Of course the press loves this stuff. I expect the liability lawyers will come to love it as well.

      130

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Do they apply any probability to the climate models being totally wrong?

        I point out that when the Medieval Warm period came to an end with the start of the Little Ice Age, there were lots of weather disasters recorded in Europe and China.

        90

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        An Alice in Wonderland game David !

        ‘Off with their heads’ !

        Thus saith the Red Queen !

        40

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        An Alice in Wonderland game David !

        ‘Off with their heads’ !

        Thus saith the Red Queen !

        30

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Look this is utter dopiness.

      If Global Warming & CO2

      Is responsible for every weather event

      It is responsible for the good weather events

      As well as the bad

      Last night it rained.

      After 4 months with no rain

      That is a huge blessing

      Glory hallelujah !

      (Sarc off )

      40

  • #
  • #
    Robber

    AEMO’s pricing mechanisms should be changed. Wholesale monthly average prices for Vic Jan-Apr 2019 in $/MWhr:
    $250; $111; $131; $98.
    Yearly averages 2015/16 $46; 2016/17 $67; 2017/18 $92; 2018/19 $112.
    Why should every generator get paid whatever the last (highest) incremental bidder accepted gets paid?
    On average in Vic, brown coal supplies 3.5 GW (range 3-4); gas 0.4 GW (range 0-1.5 GW); hydro 0.2 GW (range 0-1.2); wind 0.4 GW (range 0-1.2); solar 0.2 GW (range 0-1).
    Vic demand typically varies from 3.4-5.5 GW each 24 hours. Supply is regularly supplemented with hydro from Tas, and SA when the wind blows. Surpluses are regularly sent to NSW and Tas, and SA when the wind isn’t blowing.
    Typically the highest incremental bidders will be hydro and gas, but every generator enjoys the spoils.
    In contrast, all generators in NSW/Qld get paid an average of $80/MWhr, up from $50-60 in 2015/16.

    An alternative pricing mechanism would see all generators required to tender for guaranteed baseload dispatchable supply each month, and then offer a separate price for incremental dispatchable supply to meet peak demands (similar to FCAS – frequency control ancillary service).

    But of course that would reduce profits for the big generators.
    Yallourn (1.4 GW) is owned by Hong Kong-based CLP and operates under the EnergyAustralia brand.
    Loy Yang A (2.2 GW) is owned by AGL.
    Loy Yang B (1.0 GW) is owned by Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, local subsidiary is Alinta Energy.

    50

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      We’ze being robbed
      Robber !

      40

    • #

      Robber mentions this:

      Why should every generator get paid whatever the last (highest) incremental bidder accepted gets paid?

      I’ve mentioned a couple of times the pricing structure for the sale of power as it is generated, and again, here’s an image at this link of what the pricing structure looks like.

      The generated power is worked out on a five minute basis, and at the end of each half hour, the cost is calculated for all the ‘extra’ power which is needed, and ALL generators on line get the ….. AVERAGE cost of that half hour.

      Okay then, think about that for a minute.

      Coal fired power is always the lowest cost so it is at the bottom colour of that image, because it supplies on average 70 to 74% of all power, all day, all year.

      However, those renewables are also in that bottom colour as well, because it is mandated that they ALWAYS get preference for their generated power, and it is all used as first choice, no matter whether there is a lot of it, or little of it.

      So then, they can bid at say, the lowest cost they can think of, theoretically just make up a number. (and the cynic in me thinks to himself, make it a nice low number so renewable power ‘looks’ like it is cheaper than coal)

      However, and now back to that price structure image, they make that bid full in the knowledge that because extra power will always be needed, then more expensive power is required to be added, and the cost goes up, and gets averaged across the half hour, so those renewables KNOW that no matter what fabricated low cost that they bid, they’ll always get paid the higher amount of the half hour average. Plus, on top of that, they get the added extra of the subsidy for their RET’s et al.

      Can you see now how renewables can make that claim that they generate cheap power, and that looks to me as if they are gaming the system.

      Oh, and before some of you think that coal fired power do the same, be fully aware that we have many decades of actual written history and records showing that coal fired power actually has delivered the cheapest power you can buy.

      Tony.

      220

    • #
      Dennis

      The Coalition has announced a price cap on energy bills, to protect families and small businesses from being exploited.

      The default power price will come into effect from July and apply to NSW, southeast Queensland and South Australia.

      Energy Minister Angus Taylor tells Chris Smith it could mean savings of up to $663 a year for consumers.

      “All retailers must be at or below that price cap and it’s significantly lower than the prices that have been charged to customers, by default, in the past.

      “They have hit loyal customers, in particular, hard over recent years and we’ve said enough of this.”

      2GB

      60

      • #
        Annie

        And those of us in Victoria will continue to be fleeced?

        50

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Yes. Victoria are the crash test dummy designate for the un-glorious Communist power taleover….

          I recall reading once ( I forget who it was ) but the general gist was keep communists away from the power system – if they gain control, they can rule without opposition.

          Exhibit A – Victoriastan

          60

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    When can we expect some appropriate rebuttal to the policy triumph that is Labor declaring that their climate action cannot be costed?

    40

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Try:

      Labor’s climate policy can’t be costed
      because
      Labor can’t add up

      Cheers
      Dave B

      60

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Is labor snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

      It seems Bill thinks it’s all over, that he cannot lose and has become contemptuous of questions and the electorate.

      70

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      When can we expect some appropriate rebuttal to the policy triumph that is Labor declaring that their climate action cannot be costed?

      Judith Sloan nailed Labor’s untruthfulness in today’s “The Australian”. 1 May 2019. Page 4. “You can count how much, and it’s terrifying”

      Essentially she says:

      Labor’s carbon abatement budget is 1.3 billion tonnes by 2030.

      The Coalition’s abatement budget is is just over 300 million tonnes.

      She then refers to the Brian Fisher analysis and concludes that:

      “the Coalition’s policies do impose some economic costs but they are manageable.”

      “When it comes to Labor’s proposal, the costs blow out. Real wages fall by 8.5 per cent over the period, and there are 340,000 fewer jobs and the cumulative loss of GDP is close to $1.2 trillion.”

      Sloan then makes the killer point:

      “Labor might want to dispute Fisher’s figures but to do so credibly it has to offer alternative estimates and not prattle on about the use of international carbon credits. Voters deserve to know what they’re in for.”

      Hope that helps.

      20

    • #
      GD

      When can we expect some appropriate rebuttal to the policy triumph that is Labor declaring that their climate action cannot be costed?

      At the minute, on Credlin on Sky, Peta Credlin is discussing this with three economists, Terry McCrann, Andrew Stone and Judith Sloan.

      10

  • #
  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Billigan’s Isle

    Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
    A tale of a fateful flip,
    That started from an election result
    Australia was the ship.

    The polly was a mighty taxing man
    An enviro- hypocrite for sure
    Un-costed polices everywhere,
    and a 3 year tenure, a 3 year tenure.

    The economy started getting rough, Bill was at a loss
    if not for Australia’s cheap coal electricity
    The economy would be lost, the economy would be lost.

    The economy was sacrificed, the climate still it changed,
    Thanks, Billigan,
    Scomo too,
    Clive the clown and his bile,
    The independents,
    Greens and what ever,
    Here on Billigan’s Isle.

    end theme:

    So this is the tale of deplorables
    They’re here for a long long time
    They’ll have to make the best of things
    its an uphill climb
    The elite Bill and his climateers
    Will do their very best
    To make your life uncomfortable
    Whilst they just feather their nest
    No cows, no lights, no motor cars
    not a single luxury
    Just like Venezuela
    It’s as primitive as can be.

    So join us here each week my friends
    Your sure to get to get a smile
    from all of us deplorables
    Here on Billigan’s Isle.

    140

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    THIS ELECTION WILL NOT BE OVER
    TILL THE FAT BLOKE SINGS !

    WHere in the Adelaide Hills of SA we now know who the candidates in the election for the seat of Mayo are.
    And there is a surprise.

    One of the candidates, Michael Cane, has been endorsed by the United Australia Party. I have not a clue who Michael Cane is.

    The important thing is that he has ben endorsed by the United Australia Party. ( UAP ) which used to be known as the Palmer United Party. Yes, that’s right, the party founded by Aussie self made billionaire Clive Palmer in 2013.

    I guess we’ve all seen the adverts on TV or heard them on radio or seen the big bill boards on main roads. And you probably responded as I did : seeing it as an annoying joke. Certainly after all the antics that Clive Palmer and his other MP’s, got up to from 2013-2016, we were probably all pleased they were knocked back by the electorate in 2016. Some sanity restored, sort of !

    Soooooooo “CLIVE IS BACK ! ”

    And spending huge amounts of money on persuading voters to vote for his rebranded United Australia Party. So far roughly $34 million & still rising.

    That spend has had an impact. A sample election Newspoll late last week put the AUP vote 8% in some key marginal electorates. Some of that vote has happened because of a movement of One Nation voters to UAP after the bizarre ON & NRA guns story a few weeks ago.

    But some of that support has come because of it’s policy to increase aged pensions by $150.00 a week. i know a number of people living on the aged pension. The aged pension inAustralia for a single person is $455.00 a week. And I know number of them are doing it hard financially -especially if they don’t already own their own home and are renting or still trying to pay off a mortgage. So a promise to increase the Aged pension by $150.00 a week is a hugely attractive one.

    Especially given that none of the other parties have taken up this issue at all. NOT the Greens; NOT the Labor party; NOT the Liberal party. NOT even Centre – Greenie- Alliance. The UAP is the one exception.

    And I don’t understand the logic of these parties ignoring this issue. Retired folks now are of the Baby “Boomer” generation. They nearly all completed secondary education and large number also completed tertiary education. The ‘baby boomer’ generation shaped modern Australia. And we are not used to being ignored.

    Now, couple those facts with the other fact that some electorates have a high proportion of older voters and retired persons & we have a very potent mix of facts.

    Except that many aged pensioners don’t know yet !

    Most of the big media are NOT reporting the UAP’s policy of increasing aged pensions by $150.00 a week. The Age ( or SMH ) has not mentioned it. The ABC has never mentioned it. The Guardian has never mentioned it. The InDaily in SA has not mentioned it. Even the Australian has not reported it.

    The only media outlet to report it is the ‘Addled-Vertiser’ last Friday. It was also very careful to state how totally ‘unaffordable’ & ‘irresponsible’ such an increase in pensions would be. Well good luck persuading pensioners in poverty of that dopey thinking !!

    But how curious ! Perhaps the rest of the media are scared of what might happen if old aged pensioners found out that one political party was promising to increase pensions by $150.00 ! And also allowing them to join the UAP for free. No annual membership fee. Wow !

    The final interesting fact is the deal just concluded between the UAP & the Liberal Party on preferences. UAP how to vote cards will recommend that their supporters give their second preference to the Liberal party.

    This election will be very interesting.

    It will not be over till the big fat bloke sings !

    70

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      I am sure many pensioners will be swayed by this promise, whether they believe it or not. A great way of expressing their dislike of both major parties treating them as not important and, if they’ve got any outside income, as a milking cow.

      I’ve never heard of Michael Cane either, but he makes a change from the wall to wall women standing – at least 4 of the 6 standing. What was that about women not getting a fair go in pre-selections? That will be construed as sexist by the usual sisters of perpetual outrage, but I am sick of them plastering the telegraph and power polls with a superfluence of posters.

      P.S. Bill, this may make the election for Mayo into a one and a half horse race, if I can call the Shark a horse.

      40

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Yes Graeme, Agree on all points.
        But I think that Georgina Downer make cause an upset.
        She has run a strong local campaign here in Mayo.
        And the PollBludger blog shows a 14% decrease
        In Centre Alliance support among SA voters.
        Since 2016..
        Unfortunately no figures on Mayo provided.
        But I suspect that a high proportion of that 14%
        Are disillusioned Nick Xenophon supporters

        10

        • #
          MudCrab

          Are disillusioned Nick Xenophon supporters

          Problem with being a Nick Xenophon supporter is A, you are backing a man who is all talk and no action (cough “No Pokies Party” cough) and B, you are a Nick Xenophon supporter and there is only ONE Nick Xenophon.

          Nick was cult of personality to the power of X, but once you had elected Nick, then what did you do?

          This is the flaw with many small cult like parties. Once you get past the leader, what do they really stand for?

          I mean with Labor you can say “Oh, they are for supporting their union mates” and know what you are getting. With the Greens you can at “Oh, they are Marxists” and you know what you are getting and with the Liberals you can say “Turnbull was a back stabbing smug Leftist, so I am going full DelCon in protest”, and you know what they used to be.

          However when you see someone from one of the small cult parties you never really know what they stand for, and when you put it to the test you normally end up discovering that the individual members actually stand for themselves.

          Xenophon was a blow hard who made a political career over finding public interest issues, blaming the major parties for not doing something and then dropping the topic like it was hot the moment the news crews turned their cameras off.

          20

          • #
            Bill in Oz

            Nick did one thing very very well

            He was entertaining

            That’s so bloody rare in politics

            It’s worth voting for !

            01

    • #
      Chad

      Only a minority party like UAP can dare to make such a promise to pensioners. They know there is Zero chance they will ever have to explain why they cannot do it,as they will never form a Government.
      But, as you point out , it is a very effective vote grabber which could likely win the UAP a seat or two and certainly pull votes from the other parties. Palmers spoiler” strategy is that of a “spoiler” to disrupt the polls and position himself as a political/public figure.

      40

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Chad, there is the desire to put steel capped electoral boots
        Squarely up some political bums.
        The UAP policy on pensions
        Allows this to be dome
        Very Effectively
        ON is in chaos
        And the ACP is too
        Timid on matters financial.
        Palmer may be a game disrupter
        But frankly that is what many folks want.
        Tough titties for the big parties
        With other vested interests to satisfy !

        30

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Of course this prediction depends onClive Palmer & the AUP
      Getting their act together
      And having representatives
      Handing out “How To Vote’ cards
      At polling booths.

      None there today at the Mt Barker Pre Poll.

      10

    • #
      MudCrab

      Clive wants SOOOOOOO hard to be named Donald.

      Personally I find him varying from bemusing to deluded and likes to talk the scare.

      The advert that I find most deluded is the one where he talks about an airstrip in WA that the Chinese could fly fighters onto via a convenient aircraft carrier and, according to Clive, there is nothing Australia could do to stop it.

      Yes… an aircraft carrier… (China has one operation aircraft carrier) which will just casually sail down from China, past all those other nations who currently actively distrust China from a military/political stand point, enter the Indian Ocean and then fly off it’s aircraft onto this airstrip in WA.

      Then what? The 24 pilots run around in shifts guarding the fence line in between refuelling and rearming there own aircraft with fuel and weapons they were carrying in their lunch boxes? While at the same time the aircraft carrier, now completely sans aircraft, casually sneaks off hoping nothing embarrassing like a AP3C turns up at half walking speed and pokes a Harpoon missile up their bosun’s pipe.

      Yes, TECHNICALLY you could land aircraft from an aircraft carrier onto this airstrip, but technically you could drive a tank up the ramps on Parliament House Canberra, crash through the glass ceiling below the big flag pole and prevent SHY from making her way to the canteen. Technically yes. In practice you don’t have a tank, people would take immediate notice if you did and, once you have crashed down through the ceiling, what you going to do afterwards?

      Palmer talks big, occasional talks on topics that gel, but is still ultimately a buffoon.

      The fact that he is, apparently, polling up around the same numbers as the Greens says more about how tragic the Greens really are than how much support he really has.

      41

      • #
        Chad

        Actually, there is a Ex military Mk 5 Centurion tank for sale on Gumtree if you do get the urge to live out your fantasies !!

        20

  • #
    Chad

    I’ve never heard of Michael Cane either,

    To quote a famous actor….

    ..”My name is Michael Caine,….Not a lot of people know that !“….

    40

  • #
    pat

    hoping someone will excerpt some of this:

    behind paywall:

    You can count the cost and it is terrifying by Judith Sloan
    The Australian-9 hours ago
    Labor’s climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, is just wrong when he says it’s impossible to cost Labor’s climate change policies…

    70

    • #
      Robber

      From that article in The Australian:
      Former executive director of the Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics Brian Fisher has undertaken a comprehensive modelling exercise on the costs to the Australian economy of different emission reduction targets.

      What his work shows is the ­Coalition’s policies do impose some economic costs but they are manageable. This is hardly surprising given the relatively modest target as well as the use of the Kyoto carry-over. When it comes to Labor’s proposal, the costs blow out. Real wages fall by 8.5 per cent over the period, there are 340,000 fewer jobs and the cumulative loss of GDP is close to $1.2 trillion.

      The key is what is called the marginal abatement cost curve, which plots costs associated with emissions reduction targets. Initially there are some low-hanging fruit and the costs are not too high but there comes a point when costs start to escalate. The point of inflexion is around the 30 per cent emissions cut mark.

      30

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    If only they had a carbon (sic) tax …

    Scientists in Chile have found a 15,000-year-old footprint, the earliest sign of humans’ presence in the Americas

    “The find rewrites the human migratory map.

    Last year, scientists found a footprint trail in British Columbia dating to 13,000 years ago.
    But those footprints were much younger and much closer to the Bering Strait than this new announcement in Patagonia.

    “If we have the evidence of humans before then, we have have to figure out how they got there,” Moreno said.
    But much of that evidence, if it exists, is now probably at the bottom of the sea.

    Sea levels were lower 15,000 years ago.
    “Most of the evidence is underwater or has been eroded by glaciers,” Moreno said.”

    https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/chile-15000-year-old-footprint-trnd/index.html

    40

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      They had no tax to stop the sea level rising then. Poor anthropithins..:)

      Actually it was interesting, I always thought the people went to the Americas from Asia about 35000 years ago. All walking across the Berring straight as it wasnt there then, due to a big freeze..

      30

  • #
    pat

    30 Apr: Scientific American: Could Air-Conditioning Fix Climate Change?
    Researchers propose a carbon-neutral “synthetic oil well” on every rooftop
    By Richard Conniff
    A paper published (LINK) Tuesday in the Nature Communications proposes a partial remedy: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (or HVAC) systems move a lot of air. They can replace the entire air volume in an office building five or 10 times an hour. Machines that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—a developing fix for climate change—also depend on moving large volumes of air. So why not save energy by tacking the carbon capture machine onto the air conditioner?

    This futuristic proposal, from a team led by chemical engineer Roland Dittmeyer at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, goes even further. The researchers imagine a system of modular components, powered by renewable energy, that would not just extract carbon dioxide and water from the air. It would also convert them into hydrogen, and then use a multistep chemical process to transform that hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The result: “Personalized, localized and distributed, synthetic oil wells” in buildings or neighborhoods, the authors write. “The envisioned model of ‘crowd oil’ from solar refineries, akin to ‘crowd electricity’ from solar panels,” would enable people “to take control and collectively manage global warming and climate change, rather than depending on the fossil power industrial behemoths.”…READ ON
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-air-conditioning-fix-climate-change/

    20

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      pat:

      OMG! Is Germany training ignorant chemical engineers or is this bloke money hungry? Probably the latter as he believes that renewable energy is an explanation. It cannot supply enough to maintain Germany but the “surplus” will also charge electric cars and supply these improbable electricity gobbling CO2 eliminators.

      20

  • #
    pat

    headline on ABC “Just In”:

    Traditional owners vow to take their fight over Adani to The Hague (photos)
    Exclusive by Josh Robertson

    1 May: ABC: Adani coal mine poses ‘alarming’ risk to sacred wetlands, traditional owners say
    Exclusive by Josh Robertson
    (Josh Robertson is a journalist in the ABC’s Brisbane newsroom. He was previously Queensland correspondent for Guardian Australia; As a senior crime reporter and investigative journalist for the Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail, he extensively covered organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs)
    Traditional owners who are fighting the Adani mine in central Queensland say they welcome scientists’ concerns about impacts on the Doongmabulla Springs but do not trust any government to ensure the miner protects their sacred wetlands.
    The ABC this week became the first media organisation to visit the remote springs complex — one of the world’s last unspoiled desert oases — which are at the centre of a controversial Morrison Government decision that thrust Adani forward as a federal election issue…

    The trip to the nationally important wetlands was at the invitation of a determined group of mine opponents within the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) people, who have vowed to take their fight all the way to The Hague…
    Mine’s risk to springs ‘alarming’…ETC
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-01/adani-coal-mine-poses-alarming-risk-to-sacred-wetlands/11058854

    00

    • #
      yarpos

      After all the years this has been going on , the scared wetlands are just being noticed now?

      30

    • #
      glen Michel

      I take it that Burragubba is one of the few opponents within the traditional owners. Most countrymen appear to welcome the opportunity the mine will present. Bob Brown thinks otherwise. Another ABC lay on.

      40

    • #
      toorightmate

      Adani had land rights issues stitched up and agreed with the recognised previous owners of the land ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO.
      This latest circus is a legal add on, paid for by the likes of Soros and the Clinton foundation via a few tortuous back alleys.
      Similarly, all environmental issues were stitched up 10 years ago and approved by the relevant state AND federal authorities.
      The ongoing obstruction is from a very focused fanatical left wing mob about which the pi55 weak state and federal governments do nothing.

      30

  • #
  • #
    pat

    30 Apr: Guardian: The media is failing on climate change – here’s how they can do better ahead of 2020
    We spoke to climate change experts for advice on how news outlets can cover the environment in ways that make voters listen
    by Emily Holden
    The Guardian is joining forces with Columbia Journalism Review and the Nation to launch Covering Climate Change: A New Playbook for a 1.5-Degree World, a project aimed at dramatically improving US media coverage of the climate crisis. The project kicks off today with an event at Columbia Journalism School featuring CJR’s editor-in-chief, Kyle Pope, the Nation’s environment correspondent, Mark Hertsgaard, and the Guardian climate columnist Bill McKibben…

    The major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX – spent just 142 minutes on climate change last year, according to one calculation from the progressive group Media Matters…
    Meanwhile, five major national US newspapers – the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times – have, in aggregate, roughly tripled their coverage of climate change since four years ago, according to the Media and Climate Change Observatory at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
    The New York Times now has a desk of about a dozen covering climate. Climate editor Hannah Fairfield said the team is collaborating with the politics desk to report on the 2020 candidates’ climate positions…ETC
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/30/what-will-it-take-for-the-media-to-focus-on-climate-change-in-the-2020-elections

    ???

    30 Apr: NYT: From Apples to Popcorn, Climate Change Is Altering the Foods America Grows
    In every region, farmers and scientists are trying to adapt an array of crops to warmer temperatures, invasive pests, erratic weather and earlier growing seasons.
    By Kim Severson
    The impact may not yet be obvious in grocery stores and greenmarkets, but behind the organic apples and bags of rice and cans of cherry pie filling are hundreds of thousands of farmers, plant breeders and others in agriculture who are scrambling to keep up with climate change.

    Drop a pin anywhere on a map of the United States and you’ll find disruption in the fields. Warmer temperatures are extending growing seasons in some areas and sending a host of new pests into others. Some fields are parched with drought, others so flooded that they swallow tractors.

    Decades-long patterns of frost, heat and rain — never entirely predictable but once reliable enough — have broken down. In regions where the term climate change still meets with skepticism, some simply call the weather extreme or erratic. But most agree that something unusual is happening…
    Here are 11 everyday foods, from all over the country, that are facing big changes…ETC
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/dining/farming-climate-change.html

    01

    • #
      yarpos

      “The media is failing on climate change – here’s how they can do better ahead of 2020”

      do better?? like some scientists , journalists seem to think they are really activists. Oh well I guess at least the arent even pretending to be balanced unbiased reporters.

      40

    • #
      RicDre

      “The media is failing on climate change…”

      All they really needed to say is “The media is failing”, the rest of the sentence is redundant.

      70

    • #
      RicDre

      “The major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX – spent just 142 minutes on climate change last year”

      They probably spent 0 minutes on Climate Change and actually spent 142 minutes on CAGW but they are not honest enough to describe the hypothesis accurately.

      40

  • #
    pat

    30 Apr: Newsweek: Climate Change Denier Tells Fox & Friends Carbon Dioxide ‘Not A Pollution’
    By Benjamin Fearnow
    Speaking Tuesday morning with Fox & Friends, the longtime Fox News climate change denier Marc Morano joined host Jedediah Bila in ridiculing the former Texas congressman’s $5 trillion climate change proposal, which seeks to provide a less ambitious alternative to the Democrats’ Green New Deal. Morano, who has previously agreed that CO2 is nothing more than “plant food,” immediately unearthed the longtime carbon claim among conservatives and labeled O’Rourke’s climate plan a “boondoggle.”…
    https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-climate-change-beto-orourke-carbon-dioxide-pollution-plan-marc-1409661

    30 Apr: ClimateDepot: Newsweek slams ‘smiley Morano’ on Fox & Friends for accurately declaring CO2 is NOT ‘pollution’ – Morano responds
    https://www.climatedepot.com/2019/04/30/newsweek-denounces-smiley-morano-on-fox-friends-for-accurately-declaring-co2-is-not-pollution-morano-responds/

    30

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    A pinch and a punch and a Happy May 1st official end of the 2018-19 South Pacific cyclone season. It was all about monster Category 6 cyclones and non-stop catastrophe across the once-peaceful ocean, right? “In a turn of events that’s mystified even the experts [doesn’t take much these days] it’s been calmer than usual across the board”. Admittedly this is from March – can’t find anything more recent – yet not a lot changed after this:

    https://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/glacial-pace-southern-hemisphere-cyclone-season

    The ACE graph for the South Pacific (up to 30 April, the calendar end/finish of cyclone season) shows cyclonic energy well below average with only 7 named storms and not a Category 6 amongst them! Trevor, the last one, had a go at reaching ‘major’ status but peaked within 24 hours (less than a day) so nah, he don’t count in my book:

    http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?loc=southpacific

    Australia had a very quiet season as well (apart from the big calm wet which is now draining south towards Lake Eyre) while the western Indian Ocean finally had a flurry at the end of its season bringing rain to southern Africa, joy! And it snowed & froze up on their highlands too: miracles galore! And all thanks to ™carbon™ apparently.

    31

  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    30 Apr: UK Times: Business chiefs urge Europe to slash emissions by 2050
    by Emily Gosden
    PIC: Chimney/”smoke”
    More than 50 leading business figures have urged European countries to commit to slashing their carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050.
    The chief executives of Unilever, the consumer goods group, Burberry, the fashion brand, and Ikea, the home furnishings group, are among the signatories to the letter to The Times, written ahead of the Future of Europe summit of EU leaders in Romania next week.

    “Collectively, we have an urgent task: to decarbonise the global economy in little more than a generation,” they write. “Putting climate change at the top of Europe’s agenda will provide us, as business leaders, with the clarity and confidence to further invest in the net zero emissions industries of the future, driving innovation and protecting European competitiveness on a global scale…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6afce50-6abe-11e9-95be-9353feb218cd

    more like CAGW activists than “business leaders”:

    30 Apr: AEGON: Aegon backs call for EU-wide ‘aim for zero’ decarbonisation strategy
    (continuing letter from Times)
    Collectively, we have an urgent task: to decarbonise the global economy in little more than a generation.
    “Every year more of us are setting science-based targets for our companies’ emissions, we are purchasing clean energy and signing up to renewable energy commitments, using low emission and electric vehicles, converting land to carbon sinks and improving energy efficiency throughout our operations.
    “We are doing this because we see the threat that climate change poses to our businesses. The impacts of climate change are already affecting our bottom lines: degrading worker health and productivity, disrupting our operations and supply chains, and damaging assets … A clear, coherent vision from European governments and institutions for climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest will give businesses like ours the long-term guidance we need to invest.”…

    The signatories include members of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group (CLG), We Mean Business network, The Haga Initiative, the Climate Leadership Coalition, the The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)…
    https://www.aegon.com/newsroom/news/net-zero-by-2050/

    01

  • #
    pat

    others may be able to read the following; I’ve used my free quota:

    30 Apr: HeraldScotland: Theresa May urged to put fight against climate change on ‘war footing’ by cross-party politicians
    By Michael Settle
    They have called for a “revolution in political leadership” to coincide with the launch today by the IPPR think-tank of a new Environmental Justice Commission to set out a plan to deliver a rapid transition to a green economy.
    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17606121.theresa-may-urged-to-put-fight-against-climate-change-on-war-footing-by-cross-party-politicians/

    when the CAGW mob couldn’t organise massive grassroots protests, Guardian/BBC etc manufactured XR & Thunberg to represent us all!!!

    29 Apr: BBC: ‘Climate emergency’ declared by Welsh Government
    A “climate emergency” has been declared in Wales following protests demanding politicians take action on climate change.
    The Welsh Government’s Lesley Griffiths said she hoped the declaration would trigger “a wave of action”.
    Climate change threatens Wales’ health, economy, infrastructure and natural environment, she said.
    Plaid Cymru welcomed the move but said it should mean the proposed upgrade to the M4 should be scrapped.

    The SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon made a similar declaration at her party’s conference on Sunday.
    Labour is expected to press the UK government to declare a national climate emergency on Wednesday…
    It comes after protests by Extinction Rebellion protestors, who want politicians to declare a climate emergency…
    The Welsh Government is committed to achieving a “carbon neutral public sector by 2030”, she said, and to coordinating action to help other parts of the economy move away from fossil fuels…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-48093720

    28 Apr: BBC: Nicola Sturgeon declares ‘climate emergency’ at SNP conference
    The SNP leader told delegates in Edinburgh she was inspired after meeting young climate campaigners who had gone on strike from school.
    Ms Sturgeon said “they are right”, and pledged to “live up to our responsibility” to halt climate change…
    It comes after weeks of strikes by school pupils and protests by Extinction Rebellion protestors, which have targeted both the UK and Scottish parliaments…

    Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said in that debate that climate change was an “urgent” matter, but that the government a duty to respond “responsibly” and “keep Scotland’s lights on”…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48077802

    00

    • #
      pat

      an ex-conservative makes it cross-party?

      29 Apr: UK Independent: UK must fight climate change on ‘war footing’ like defeat of Nazis, Theresa May told
      Cross-party group of politicians demands end to ‘appeasement’ – ahead of new warnings from experts that greenhouse gas emissions must be cut further and faster
      by Rob Merrick, Deputy Political Editor
      VIDEO: Scottish Independence: Nicola Sturgeon: Brexit is an unforgiveable act of Tory sabotage on our country
      The prime minister is told to put the country “on a war footing” and end “climate appeasement” to avert disaster, by a new cross-party group of politicians including Labour’s Ed Miliband and the Greens’ Caroline Lucas…

      The battle against climate change is increasingly being likened to the situation facing governments in the 1930s, when all other considerations were sidelined by the need to fight Nazi Germany.
      That comparison is brought to life in the launch of a new environmental justice commission by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank, which also includes Laura Sandys, a former Conservative MP…

      The IPPR commission includes leading figures from business, trade unions, civil society and academia, as well as climate activists including a member of Extinction Rebellion.

      Its protests have electrified the debate by demanding action by 2025 to limit climate catastrophe, which is even earlier than the 2030 date set by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last autumn…READ ON
      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-climate-change-theresa-may-environment-protest-lucas-ed-miliband-second-world-war-nazis-a8891801.html

      00

    • #
      RicDre

      “They have called for a ‘revolution in political leadership’ … to set out a plan to deliver a rapid transition to a green economy.”

      Too bad they didn’t have a ‘revolution in political leadership’ to deliver a rapid transition out of the EU.

      30

  • #
    pat

    29 Apr: UK Telegraph: Gazprom profits double on record gas exports
    By Jillian Ambrose
    Russia’s state-backed gas giant shipped record volumes of gas to Europe and Turkey last year despite EU efforts to reduce their reliance on Russian gas, helping to double its annual profits.

    Gazprom’s gas sales to Europe and Turkey, its most lucrative market, rose 3pc above the 2017 record to almost 202 billion cubic metres of gas last year.
    The company told investors on Monday that it expected to export more than 200 billion cubic metres of gas again in 2019…
    Overall, its gas sales for last year – including those within Russia and the former Soviet nations – climbed to 521 billion cubic metres from 507 bcm the year before.
    The record gas volumes paid off in far larger revenues due to the rising price of gas across European markets, and the depreciation of the rouble…
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/04/29/gazprom-profits-double-record-gas-exports/

    00

  • #
    pat

    29 Apr: Utility Week: Energy efficiency upgrades could require £65bn investment
    by David Blackman
    To improve the UK’s housing stock to energy performance certificate (EPC) band C level will require up to £65 billion worth of investment, Claire Perry has revealed…
    The government has committed to bring as many homes as feasible up to EPC band C by 2030…
    The government has committed to bring as many homes as feasible up to EPC band C by 2030…

    The review, which was published at the end of 2016, included a recommendation that installers accessing energy company obligation (Eco) funding should have to meet a new quality mark.
    Perry said the government intends to legislate to implement the scheme “this year”…READ ALL
    https://utilityweek.co.uk/energy-efficiency-upgrades-require-65bn-investment/

    00

  • #
    pat

    29 Apr: BBC: Climate change: Electric car target ‘needs to be sooner’
    By Roger Harrabin
    The UK government’s plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is too tame, advisers will say.
    Drivers will benefit if electric cars come to dominate the new car market a full decade earlier, they will claim.
    The Committee on Climate Change believes the cost of electric cars will be similar to that of petrol or diesel vehicles by 2024-5.
    But the speed of installing charging points will have to radically improve to cope with the coming demand…

    The UK government’s current policy is to insist that by 2040, all new cars and vans sold in the UK should be zero emissions – that means electric or hydrogen.
    But critics have pointed out that would mean some older petrol and diesel vehicles will still be on the roads after 2050.
    That’s the expected date by which the government should have reduced carbon emissions from all sources to zero…

    The committee believes drivers can cash in by switching to zero-emissions vehicles when the price comes down.
    It anticipates big savings in fuel and also in the costs of running and servicing an electric vehicle.
    The committee will say 2030 would be a feasible date for the government to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

    ***But members have to be sure their recommendations are achievable and they’re not certain there will be enough cobalt in the world by then to build the batteries needed…

    Mary Creagh, chair of the environment audit committee, told me: “Ministers are useless.
    “They seem to think the market will miraculous provide charging point and the government has no job to regulate charging points.”
    From my own personal experience of borrowing an electric car for a long weekend, charging at motorway services was fine – but in deepest Dorset I tried two charge points provided by smaller firms, but both had software problems which made it impossible for me to get any power…READ ON
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48097150

    30 Apr: UK Sun: VANARCHY IN THE UK: One in ten UK workers are ‘White Van Men’, the ‘backbone’ of the British economy
    Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders chief Mike Hawes hailed them as ‘workhorses’
    By Tracey Boles
    Nearly 3.5million — one in ten of UK workers — use a van for their job.
    They are also responsible for 11 per cent of Britain’s economic output. White van drivers and staff at firms that depend on them also have a combined wage bill of at least £56billion.

    According to research by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, there are 4.6million light commercial vehicles on the road.
    The society’s chief Mike Hawes hailed them as “workhorses” and “the backbone of British society”…
    The van market is worth around £10billion a year…
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8966923/white-van-men-responsible-britains-economy/

    00

  • #
    pat

    h/t a friend. unbelievable:

    Trevor Chappell, ABC Overnights, talks to Nell Greco, former producer of ABC’s Overnights, in the UK re XR, see link at bottom of this comment.

    (excerpts, rough paraphrase)
    CHAPPELL: What is XR?

    GRECO: …they are trying to prevent this fast trajectory we are on towards mass extinction (giggle giggle)…
    mentions an 83-year-old XR-er, a grandfather. it seems to be a spectrum of ages. media doesn’t see it as a broad spectrum of social demographic, wealth circles (giggle), so they keep saying it’s white, upper middle class people.

    CHAPPELL: really?

    GRECO: they seem to be a bit cynical about it. by chance, i was speaking to some long-time Greenpeace supporters last week, & they were saying there were gin and tonic cans everywhere there (giggle)

    CHAPPELL INTERRUPTS: fair enough, but let me say though, if there is going to be any change, it’s going to be the white upper middle class who will do it, I hate to say.

    GRECO: I would hope so too.

    CHAPPELL: that’s who makes the decisions, for better or worse. they are the people who make the decisions in Britain, Australia, US, Canada, places like that. Germany for all I know, France. they are the ones who make the decisions so, if you get them onside, you are going to be a little bit further along down the track. the interesting thing about this also, from what I can gather, is firstly there were demonstrations in Australia that passed me by, but also they are targeting government and all that, but they are kind of also targeting other groups like Greenpeace that they kind of think you haven’t got anything done. a bit unfair. we’re certainly a lot further along the path than when Greenpeace began in 60s and 70s. XR consider the time is now – in fact it’s beyond now – to get something done, so you guys (Greenpeace) have to do something.

    GRECO: Greenpeace is a huge machine now. it’s a corporate machine, isn’t it? they (XR) seem to have another 30,000 volunteers sign up. raised money from small donations. almost ***300 million pounds in donations.

    CHAPPELL: Wow.

    GRECO: maybe they need to become a more organised corporation. they’ve wrapped up their camp sites, but they say they are going to continue trying to disrupt things…***ONLY FOR EVERYONE’S GOOD, REALLY.

    CHAPPELL: is that right?

    GRECO: ***in the interests of everybody else. (1:24:50)

    the XR SEGMENT BEGINS 1:18:22 –

    AUDIO: 3:24:28: 28 Apr: ABC Overnights with Trevor Chappell
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/overnights/overnights/11034770

    10

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Hi Pat, that was actually Rod Quinn talking he was on that night, I find Chappell to be worse with mouthing off hard left dogma but Quinn can let fly when needed.

      20

      • #
        pat

        Yonniestone –

        thanks for that info. the audio had a pic of Chappell and my friend didn’t say who presented the program that night, so I wrongly presumed Chappell.

        I don’t listen to either.

        00

  • #
    pat

    Same bird but different approach to mine approval
    Courier Mail-4 hours ago
    A MAJOR new coalmine was waved through environmental approvals by the Queensland Government despite the presence of the same bird…

    1 May: AFR: Labor two-faced on coal: CFMEU
    by Mark Ludlow and Luke Housego
    The CFMEU has accused the Palaszczuk government of double standards by approving an expansion of a thermal coal mine in Queensland, but still blocking Adani’s own $2 billion Carmichael thermal coal project, in the Galilee Basin.
    As Bill Shorten and Labor push to win a swag of marginal seats in Central and North Queensland, the Palaszczuk government has also taken out full-page advertisements in regional newspapers in Mackay, Rockhampton and Townsville to spruik its approval of $20 billion in resource projects across the state over the past four years.
    It shows Labor’s lukewarm position on Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine is starting to bite in regional Queensland – which supports the jobs the Indian company’s project will create – ahead of next month’s federal election…

    ***The Labor government also paved the way for two new metallurgical mines in the Bowen Basin, Whitehaven’s $1 billion Winchester South coal mine near Moranbah and Pembroke Resource’s Olive Downs mine, to boost its credentials in creating regional jobs.

    ‘The industry is booming here’
    The CFMEU Mining and Energy Division Queensland president Steve Smyth, who has asked political candidates to sign a pledge to back coal projects such as Adani’s mine, says there is a double standard from the Palaszczuk government.
    “What have the others done to get approval that Adani hasn’t? We see heaps of mines being approved all the time but not Adani,” Mr Smyth told The Australian Financial Review…

    Local MPs and mining services firms in Mackay welcomed the news of the mine approval and fast-tracking of other projects, but questioned the mixed messages on the future of the coal industry…

    But Adani Mining chief executive Lucas Dow has accused the Palaszczuk government of hypocrisy over its ads boasting about their support for new resource projects…
    “Our Carmichael project is shovel-ready and has finance but it is notably absent from the list,” he said.
    “It is time the Palaszczuk government started listening to the communities it is supposed to represent and treat Adani like any other mining company in Queensland.”…

    Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said Adani was being treated differently.
    “If the Palaszczuk government can approve the Cameby thermal coal mine expansion, why can’t it approve Adani’s Carmichael mine?” he said…READ ON
    https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/labor-two-faced-on-coal-cfmeu-20190430-p51ijl

    10

  • #
    pat

    a single ABC RN program today – Fran’s Breakfast:

    1 May: ABC Breakfast: Greens seek Labor deal on climate
    Leader Richard Di Natale will use a speech to the National Press Club today to offer to work in partnership with a Labor Government on a comprehensive climate change policy, which for the Greens includes the re-introduction of a carbon tax.
    It comes as an alliance of key independent MPs and candidates agree to work together in the next parliament to block the Adani coal mine and force deeper cuts to greenhouse emissions.
    Guest: Richard Di Natale, Greens Leader

    1 May: ABC Breakfast: Independents sign deal to hold government to account on climate change
    Australia’s peak environment body, the Australian Conservation Foundation, has brokered what it’s calling a landmark deal to end the “climate wars”.
    Seven high profile independent MPs and candidates have signed the agreement, which sets out a number of demands in return for their support in the next Parliament.
    They include blocking the Adani coal mine and deeper carbon emission cuts.
    Barrister and former Olympian Zali Steggall has also signed on — she’s the independent candidate for Tony Abbott’s blue ribbon Liberal seat of Warringah on Sydney’s North Shore.
    Guest: Zali Steggall, the independent candidate for the seat of Warringah

    1 May: ABC Breakfast: McCormack’s ‘just add water’ plan won’t fix water management in Australia, expert says
    Water management is always a hot issue in regional Australia but even more so in the middle of a drought — and the current Federal election campaign…
    The plan is light on detail but promises a re-elected Coalition Government would build new dams in the bush as well as establish a new statutory authority, the National Water Grid, to manage water policy and water infrastructure across Australia.
    Guest: Dr. James Horne, principal of James Horne and Associates; former chair, Murray Darling Basin Officials Committee; Architects, 2007 Federal Water Act

    1 May: ABC Breakfast: Climate change causes extinction crisis in Australia’s wet tropics
    This year’s record hot summer has triggered a potential extinction crisis in Australia’s world heritage listed Wet Tropics area between Townsville and the Daintree region, north of Cairns.
    Researchers now fear a range of high profile species, such as the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum, could disappear from the world’s oldest rainforest within three years.
    The new research has prompted the Wet Tropics Management Authority to issue a 10-point action plan to prevent the possible extinctions, which may happen sooner than previously expected due to climate change.
    Guest: Leslie Shirreffs, Chair, Wet Tropics Management Authority

    10

  • #
    pat

    total propaganda:

    ***experts believe? RE advisor, Ray Wills, says it’s not necessary to come up with a figure because the real question is what it will be saving the economy because energy generated from “renewables” is cheaper. mining majors will increase commitment to sustainable outcomes, because of cheaper energy through “renewables”.
    ABC says Tony Wood says it’s good strategy by Labor. Wood: not giving a figure is sensible. the real world is moving on.

    AUDIO: 3min07sec: 1 May: ABC AM: Silence noted from corporate Australia on Shorten’s climate admission
    By Eliza Borrello on AM
    A strange thing happened during Monday night’s election debate in Perth, the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten declared it impossible to put a dollar figure on a key plank of his climate change policy.
    The Government leapt on the admission.

    But corporate Australia has been virtually silent and ***experts believe it shows just how much the business community wants action on climate change…
    Featured:
    Bill Shorten, Opposition Leader
    Ray Wills, Managing Director, Future Smart Strategies
    Tony Wood, Energy Program Director, The Grattan Institute
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/silence-from-corporate-australia-after-alp-climate-admission/11060372

    00

  • #
    DonS

    Hi Jo

    It was a pleasant surprise to see you pop up on the Bolt Report on Monday night. I must say that your casual, down to earth presentation style really contrasts with the sour-faced, finger-wagging dooms day cultists that the media love to shove in our faces. Well done.

    Anyway, I see that the NSW government have given approval for an LNG terminal to be built near Sydney. Why is this news you may ask? Well just to underline how totally insane this country has now become the terminal will be for the IMPORT of LNG. That’s right folks, one of the largest exporters of LNG in the world is now going to import LNG from a company based in Japan, a country with zero LNG resource, because they can do it cheaper than the local gas producers.

    In any other country in the middle of an election this would be a scandal with people demanding to know what is going on but not here. Here our media are enthralled with dirty old men visiting strip clubs in the US or some indiscreet email comments a candidate made years ago. I swear if this country didn’t fall arse backwards into a mining boom about every 20 years I don’t know what would become of us.

    By the way Lithium and rare earth metals look to be our next big payday in a few years, Yeah!

    50

  • #
    David Wojick

    Well done, Caleb!

    https://news.yahoo.com/how-to-hijack-a-climate-change-hearing-134320533.html

    CO2 is good for you. Pass it on.

    10

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Thanks David,
      He certainly did well. And he upset AOC which is good news.
      Cheers
      Dave B

      00