Tuesday Open Thread

….

9.1 out of 10 based on 12 ratings

172 comments to Tuesday Open Thread

  • #
    Ross

    I see some of the local nz media have picked up on the imminent closure of the yallourn coal plant because “renewables have made power so cheap that coal is no longer cost effective”. I think the original article was from the Sydney media last week. There must be more to this story ?.

    210

    • #
      Analitik

      The actual story is “renewables distortion of the power market, CO2 emissions charges and coal extraction royalties have made costs for Yallourn so high that coal there is no longer cost effective”

      240

      • #
        Matthew

        Add to that the ongoing cost to coal generation of balancing the grid that the unreliables have upset.

        170

        • #
          Chad

          No it is not about royalties, taxes or coal costs,…but it. Is market driven..
          It is because Wind and Solar have PRIORITY of supply into the market.
          So with increasing RE capacity coming on stream, supported by subsidies also)… the Coal plants get less and less access to the Market and their Utilisation and Efficiency drops to the point of being uneconomic to operate

          400

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            It’s a corrupt market. Full of government generated distortions.

            Australians, all, will pay bigtime.

            310

          • #
            David Maddison

            It’s good news, really. There is too much tinkering around to keep the grid operating which has become fundamentally defective because of unreliables.

            People need to stop trying to “balance the grid” and just let it collapse as will soon happen.

            Two things might then happen.

            1) Either the Sheeple wake up and demand reliable coal, gas nuclear or hydro electricity.

            2) The Sheeple will remain stupid and demand even more unreliables guaranteeing irreversible grid and economic collapse.

            250

            • #
              Peter C

              Thanks David,

              I fear that option 2 is more likely. There is a lot of pressure to keep them stupid. My personal interactions suggest that most people are ignorant (sadly).

              However it is our job to wake them up. Jo’s blog is a force for good in that direction.

              210

    • #
      GlenM

      Which also means interconnectors with Qld and NSW will support them with coal generators when the turbines fluff. Market distortion one may be tempted to call it.

      40

    • #
      Ted O’Brien.

      We badly need a sound set of accounts. Many of the people publishing these claims do not have any knowledge of what they are talking about.

      e.g. So far as I know, coal fired power has to pay some kind of tax. That tax increases the price of coal fired power.

      That money goes in subsidies to “renewables”. This lowers the price of “renewable” power.

      I would confidently expect to find that the claims that renewables are cheaper are counting that cross subsidisation twice in favour of renewables, ignoring that this is a political impost.

      Then, as TonyfromOz reminded us this week, there is the matter of coping with the intermittncy of renewables, which forces coal fired power to cope with a 5,000 MW daily fluctuation to fill in for the guarantees given by governments to purchase intermittent power as a priority..

      In comparing costs, coal should be priced at the marginal cost before political interference, because that is the product that has been foregone to make way for renewables.

      Renewables also should be priced at cost before political interference.

      180

    • #
      Hanrahan

      I live a long way from Vic but didn’t Dan the Man double the royalties on coal, forcing the early closure of Yallourn?

      In Qld coal royalties keep the state afloat. Wouldn’t it be nice if neither coal nor wind were taxed or subsidised?

      30

    • #
      Robber

      The facts on a distorted electricity market.
      Rooftop solar owners get a 50% subsidy to install the panels, and then get paid a feedin tariff of $100/MWhr (by other consumers) when the spot price at midday is about $10/MWhr.
      Windmill owners get paid (by consumers) $40/Mwhr over and above the average ex generator price that is currently averaging about $40/MWhr. There is no requirement to invest in reliable backup so that power can be delivered 24×7. In addition they are not required to pay for the additional network costs to deliver variable power (0-60% of nameplate capacity) from distributed locations.
      Witness SA now wanting a long power cord to NSW to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow.
      Example, 7pm March 12, in SA wind delivered 63 MW, battery 43 MW, solar 8 MW to meet a demand of 1,800 MW. Fortunately they had gas, diesel and Victoria to keep the lights on.

      40

      • #
        Robber

        The Victorian government has provided unspecified financial backing to ensure Yallourn stays in the system, a first step in effectively putting coal plants on a path toward receiving capacity payments that keeps baseload power in the grid amid heightened competition from renewables. The Australian understands the government has provided financial backing to ensure Yallourn stays in the system with EnergyAustralia’s parent CLP noting mechanisms were in place “to facilitate Yallourn to operate economically through to 30 June 2028 and to operate at certain required operational and performance” levels.

        10

    • #
      Graham Richards

      It is obviously true because there has not been a single comment to the contrary from the Morrison “Government” which is leading the whole country down the garden path with this lunacy.
      So building batteries is good but building generators to charge the batteries is bad.

      And they wonder why their clown , chosen to lead the way in WA has disappeared down the toiler.
      Nobody in government has the intelligence, never courage to even comment!

      20

  • #
    RicDre

    New Guinea Covid Surge Alarms Aussie Health Authorities

    Guest essay by Eric Worrall

    New Guinea, a large island nation which is separated from Australia by a narrow sea channel, is experiencing a surge in severe Covid cases, prompting alarm from Australian health authorities.

    Papua New Guinea is experiencing a worrying rise in COVID-19 cases and there are concerns it will get worse after mass gatherings were held to farewell the country’s first prime minister.

    PNG has now recorded 2,000 cases.

    Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said given her state’s close proximity to PNG, “it is something we need to be very serious about”.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/15/new-guinea-covid-surge-alarms-aussie-health-authorities/

    10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Although as weve seen, politicians are very good at locking down whole states for a bug thats not much worse than a bad flu.

      The main reason for the covid panic is that its the mechanism to create panic, and then use said panic to herd the sheeple up the race into the arms of people with vaccine syringes. Nothing more, nothing less.

      There is no other way people would accept an experimental ( and as appears to be demonstarted currently, a dangerous “vaccine” ) without manufactured panic.

      Covid is appears to be nothing more than a globalist blunt instrument to bash the whole planet with, to create a global police state.

      The recent “misadventure” of El Prez in Victoriastan seems to indicate either an Intel-style house cleaning attempt, or a clear message to “toe the line” ….. or next time its a different outcome.

      If its the latter, then whats coming soon is going to be truly nasty, if a willing servant is still seen as needing “motivation” to deliver the next phase of the program.

      233

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        That’s a Big statement there Steve.
        🙂

        50

        • #

          “a bug thats not much worse than a bad flu.”
          Can you cite a source for this claim? Or is it an original Steve?
          The virus has been wide spread in the U.S. for under one year. Flu deaths per year 12,000 to 61,000.
          https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html#:~:text=While%20the%20impact%20of%20flu,61%2C000%20deaths%20annually%20since%202010.
          Covid deaths 548,013. That makes it from 9 to 45 times worse already on death toll there.
          European countries are holding back vaccination deliveries to Australia and quiet correctly pointing out that we don’t need them.

          310

          • #
            Kevin kilty

            There are four common misconceptions people in the U.S. have about themselves. Two of those are 1) we are young and fit, and 2) we are healthy and eat well. Neither is correct. We have spent three decades building up a very large cohort of older people by spending lots of money on healthcare. ThE over 85 set grew at more than twice the rate of any other age group, and there are now 6.6 million over 85 many with just exactly the wrong comorbidities for Covid in long term care, rest homes, retirement communities. It was perfect storm of sorts for this.

            90

            • #

              what happened to 3 and 4?

              73

            • #

              You can blame overweight and unhealthy for US COVID deaths, but maybe not old.

              Japan has an older population than the US, and they did well avoiding COVID deaths.

              Concerning COVID deaths:
              Thy appear to be grossly over counted in the US.

              Total US deaths in 2020 were only about 25,000 to 50,000 more than expected, when estimated in late 2019 before COVID was known.

              If there were really 400,000 U.S. COVID deaths in 2020, then other deaths must have been 350,000 to 375,000 LOWER than expected.

              That would be hard to explain, as suicides and homicides were up.

              I suspect the method of counting COVID deaths when Trump was president were overstating deaths

              … just as the the method of counting COVID vaccine adverse side effects, including deaths, when Biden is president, are understating those side effects.

              I have a summary of an article explaining this on my Politics blog, that I believe would interest many readers here, titled:

              “Die two months after testing positive for SARS-Cov-2, and you’re a “Covid death” — Die two minutes after getting the SARS-Cov2 vaccine, and you’re a coincidence”:

              https://electioncircus.blogspot.com/2021/03/die-two-months-after-testing-positive.html

              20

              • #
                Kevin kilty

                Yes, Japan has many elderly, but they are very unlike elderly in the U.S. Regarding deaths, a local doctor indicated a couple of weeks ago that the Covid ward at local hospital is basically empty but the flu ward is packed. Yet, we hear very little about flu. I have a graphic showing Covid, flu and influenza like illness (ILI) on one graph. Of course Covid dominates, but all three signals are coherent, they go up and down together.

                20

              • #
                Graham Richards

                Sounds very similar to the election of President Joe Fraud!

                30

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            I suspect if you dig a bit you will find the deaths from covud are actually quite small. Many deaths apparently are mislabelled to artifically inflate the numbers to make it look worse than it truly is.

            You cant have a “pandemic” without scary looking numbers….

            253

            • #
              Chad

              OriginalSteve
              March 16, 2021 at 1:04 pm · Reply
              I suspect if you dig a bit you will find the deaths from covud are actually quite small. Many deaths apparently are mislabelled to artifically inflate the numbers to make it look worse than it truly is.

              Not just to make it look worse…
              In the USA , the land where money is all, and no one has enough of it …. hospitals are paid for treatment of patients who die “WITH A + COVID TEST” .
              So there is a significant incentive to Hospitals to record as many deaths as possible as being COVID related..
              Real exaamples of Heart failure, road accident fatalities, gun shot death, etc have been recorded a Covid related if they test +ve. !

              131

              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                So there is a significant incentive to Hospitals to record as many deaths as possible as being COVID related..
                Real exaamples of Heart failure, road accident fatalities, gun shot death, etc have been recorded a Covid related if they test +ve. !

                Yes. I keep reading that on some USA sites.

                However, for the life of me, I can never find the government issued directive that makes it so.

                Have you seen it?

                30

              • #
                Chad

                S Sam…
                From Factcheck,org

                The initial comment was made by Minnesota State Sen. Scott Jensen, a family physician, who spoke with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on April 8 about the idea that the number of COVID-19 deaths may be inflated. Jensen was responding to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who — while answering a reporter’s question about that theory — said “you will always have conspiracy theories when you have very challenging public health crises. They are nothing but distractions.”

                Jensen, April 8: I would remind him that anytime health care intersects with dollars it gets awkward. Right now Medicare has determined that if you have a COVID-19 admission to the hospital, you’ll get paid $13,000. If that COVID-19 patient goes on a ventilator, you get $39,000, three times as much. Nobody can tell me after 35 years in the world of medicine that sometimes those kinds of things impact on what we do.

                140

              • #
                Chad

                Additional from the same source..

                I…..the government will pay more to hospitals for COVID-19 cases in two senses: By paying an additional 20% on top of traditional Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients during the public health emergency, and by reimbursing hospitals for treating the uninsured patients with the disease (at that enhanced Medicare rate).

                Both of those provisions stem from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.

                60

              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Thanks Chad.

                That’s what I’ve been looking for.

                Now, let me see. The CARES Act started its life as a Bill (H.R. 748 – Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal – Act of 2019) that was introduced into the House of Reps on 24 January 2019, where the Democrats had the majority.

                Now all we need is for one of the many lefty university researchers to disaggregate the death stats so that we can see the extent of the Covid mortality over-count.

                Money is no longer a scarce national resource in the USA, it would seem.

                31

              • #
                robert rosicka

                So if I owned a hospital what would I want a motor accident victim declared as cause of death ?

                20

              • #
                joseph

                Here’s a link that gives an insight into how the figures have been skewed to result in humungous COVID numbers . . . . and it’s so easy!

                Dhttps://jdfor2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/adf864_165a103206974fdbb14ada6bf8af1541.pdf

                10

            • #

              “You cant have a “pandemic” without scary looking numbers”
              Elimination removes the scary numbers thus the vaccine companies love the comments from those who see to thwart elimination.

              31

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                No they dont. It always has appeared to be to be the aim to create much freak-out-age amongst the sheeple.

                Without a boogey man lurking in every corner and a dastardly virus up every nostril waiting to pounce, the experimental and likely rather dangerous vaccine ( with blood clots et al ) would have been an impossible sell.

                Now not only will the vaccine manufacturers have yet another govt guaranted market, but the sheep are clanouring for a figuratively-speaking “stun bolt” to the noggins.

                A more stupid behaviour I have never seen before…….

                Reminds me of the “cooee” recruitment drives in Australua for WWI pre-conscription ….little did the poor souls who sugned up innocently realize what horrific blood bath awaited them….

                Nuff said.

                70

              • #

                The aim was always to use useful idiots to encourage the spread. That is the gullible are used to oppose elimination. If most countries had done what Australia, N.Z and more did then there would be no market for the vaccine. People needed to be hoodwinked into believing the virus was difficult to stop so the weak and fragile virus could be allowed to grow into a difficult problem. Our only difficulty is returning travelers from places that were sucked in to letting the business model grow uninhibited.

                33

              • #
                yarpos

                Hence the gradual shift from ICU beds and ventilators, to deaths, to cases, to vaccinations and if they arent scary enough drone on about other countries. But never ever provide any context or a comparison base.

                10

            • #

              Deaths from COVID are not small, but they have to be overstated.
              Flu deaths have ALWAYS been accompanied by other medical conditions. That is especially true of people in nursing homes … that accounted for close to 40% of US COVID deaths.

              The second problem is our CDC has always estimated flu deaths using a computer model –and few doctors agree with their numbers — most think they grossly overestimate flu deaths.
              So this problem of assigning a number to flu deaths is not new.

              If the CDC only counted people who were perfectly healthy, got infected with COVID, and then died, the total COVID deaths would probably be extremely low. But that would not be accurate either.

              40

            • #
              Graham Richards

              Medical facilities & practisers get paid much higher fees for Covid-19 cases.

              Which is OK of course as it serves to keep the fear factor on the boil as well.

              00

        • #
          GlenM

          So very on the money too.

          40

          • #
            GlenM

            Take your SOMA citizen will be next.

            41

            • #
              el gordo

              For those who have never heard of Huxley.

              ‘Soma is a drug that is handed out for free to all the citizens of the World State. In small doses, soma makes people feel good. In large doses, it creates pleasant hallucinations and a sense of timelessness.’

              40

        • #
          Tilba Tilba

          Total tinfoil nutter, if you ask me.

          13

      • #
        Peter C

        PNG Prime Minister James Marape holds his Nerve;

        It will not be a “total lockdown” though, he said, but rather entail restrictions to prevent people moving around “without stopping business or government”.

        Compare with the Queensland Government response.

        “It’s broken loose … we need to contain it.”

        Health authorities in Queensland, who have been assisting PNG with testing support, recorded 250 positive coronavirus results out of 500 tests done for the Pacific nation.

        Apparently the recent outbreak is being linked to public mourning events for the recently deceased former Prime Minister; Michael Somare (my mother might have taught him some maths in secondary school). Whatever, the outbreak is unlikely to spread beyond the capital, Port Moresby. The rest of the country is fairly remote.

        20

      • #
        UK-Weather Lass

        Here in the UK the mass vaccination programme is now down to the fifty year olds with a good take up in the older age groups. All vaccines are a risk for some people just as all coronaviruses are a risk for some, even colds that turn very nasty. We all learn to cope with risk from early childhood but not anymore it would seem, and now that lockdowns can be enforced so easily it seems our politicians are obsessed with their new powers. It is easy for them to lock us down but not so easy for them to let us out again.

        Only those who have been clinically diagnosed with Covid-19 can be said to have had the disease and yet testing suggests a very large percentage of the population have had it or have now been vaccinated and so why the wait to restore normality? Our ‘experts’ have frequently demonstrated that whilst they can do rapid lockdowns ‘tomorrow, OK?’, they cannot arrange to police demonstrations properly (and now the same with ‘vigils’) or vague breaches of the lockdown law with anything like the same panache. In fact our experts and politicians seem impervious to risk taking at all unless it is them doing themselves risky favours.

        The lockdown here since last January has been nothing like the first one. Road traffic is heavier and almost normal and I have not once experienced that surreal moment I referred to on here last year. It is just that there is nothing to do once you get outside other than to exercise or shop and after a while that gets plain boring …

        On the conspiracy front I am beginning to suspect the West has got so weak in the head we have no leaders anymore but a whole host of followers of belief in the Wind and Solar Gods, masks, chanting In unison ‘We Are Woke’, and other similar playground practices. Sundays in church by comparison were so much more fun. I know who I’d like to cancel …

        50

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          🙂 🙂 🙂

          00

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Two weeks ago I walked the length of the main street of NovoCastria, Hunter street, and back with friends.
          That’s a mile out and a mile back.

          It seemed that every second shop or office was empty with mail piled up at the entrance and signs saying Closed.

          The human destruction associated with the lockdown strategy is there staring us in the face and the less visible damage to our society is hidden behind the front doors of suburban homes.

          Social interaction has been stopped.

          The damage to horrific.

          And then we read about covid being rampant in some foreign country and so we must cringe at home or avoid breathing if we go outside.

          There’s something evil in the air and it ain’t CV19.

          Our politicians are the problem, is there a suitable vaccine or perhaps an injection that can remove the problem for us.

          Looking at Europe and the US from outside it’s probably time to acknowledge that Democracy has collapsed.

          How do we FIX this ugly mess.

          KK

          20

    • #
      Hanrahan

      This is BS. It is 600 km from the tip of the Cape to Cooktown.

      Keep control of the airlines, they are the only REAL connection to PNG.

      31

  • #
    RicDre

    Clouds From Both Sides Now

    Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

    Clouds are said to be the largest uncertainty in climate models, and I can believe that. Their representation in the models is highly parameterized, each model uses different parameters as well as different values for the same parameters, and so of course, different models give very different results. Or to quote from the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:

    In many climate models, details in the representation of clouds can substantially affect the model estimates of cloud feedback and climate sensitivity. Moreover, the spread of climate sensitivity estimates among current models arises primarily from inter-model differences in cloud feedbacks. Therefore, cloud feedbacks remain the largest source of uncertainty in climate sensitivity estimates.

    The question of importance is this—if the earth heats up, will clouds exacerbate the warming or will they act to reduce the warming?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/15/clouds-from-both-sides-now/

    100

    • #
      TdeF

      The fundamental human fallacy in studying the sky is to think because all weather is from the sky, that the sky is the source of the weather. The druids of Climate Change worship the sky. James Hansen studied the upper atmosphere so he is convinced his area of expertise is the critical one. Of course.

      The heat powerhouse is the ocean, 1400x as much heat as the atmosphere above and most sun falls on water, not land. All weather is water. Is there any weather which is not dominated by water? So they study the clouds, the stuff which comes from the oceans based on ocean temperatures. Studying the effects, not the causes. They may as well be casting runes.

      Until we have models of the ocean and heat in the ocean, we cannot predict a thing long term. Take away the Caribbean, the Gulf Stream, the Humboldt current and the rest and of course La Nina and El Nino and the PDO and you understand nothing. Europe would be frozen. Then add in the giant iceblock which is Antarctica, solid ice 3.4 km high and twice the size of Australia. Of course their models are useless except for the short term.

      Predicting long term weather from the air is whistling into the wind. Solar intensity and ocean movements and ocean surface temperature are everything. Plus the ocean is also 3.4km deep on average, so it is a slow moving 3D problem.
      If the Gulf stream shifted, Europe would freeze back to the iceblock it was only 11,000 years ago.

      252

    • #
      GlenM

      When you point out a picture of Earth to Students/People and you direct them to indicate the one thing that stands out beyond the seas and the land is those condensed bits of water vapour. very pretty and very important. What they contribute on feedback balance may be hard to quantify.

      31

    • #
      Peter C

      Thanks Rick,

      I read the article. Willis is on pretty firm ground here. I may disagree with some small points but he has got this the right way around.

      Clouds Cool The Earth!

      40

      • #
        David Wojick

        However the in latest round of IPCC modeling (CMIP6) half the 100 or so models got hotter than before because they INCREASED their POSITIVE cloud feedback. Many now have an ECS over 5 degrees! Truly nuts.

        41

        • #

          When you play computer games, your computer will predict whatever you program it to predict.

          Scary predictions of the future climate get attention (and government funding).

          Boring measurements of the present climate, and reconstructions of past climates, get yawns.

          Common sense would say the next 45 years of global warming will probably be like the past 45 years of global warming since the mid-1970s — pleasant and harmless.

          But that’s boring.

          No one would listen to that prediction.

          So why not predict a coming climate crisis — a completely different kind of global warming in the next 45 years, than in the past 45 years?

          That’s exciting.

          Which is followed by “do everything we say without question and you will save the planet”

          This sounds devious, but it is working for the climate alarmists!

          10

  • #
    RicDre

    German Energy Expert Agrees: “Fission/Fusion Plus Hydrocarbs Only Realistic Energy Transition Next 50 Years”

    Reposted from The NoTricksZone

    By P Gosselin on 14. March 2021

    Today, German energy expert Dr. Lars Schernikau comments on hydrogen, and what’s really the best energy carrier for the next 50 years.

    First, recall that hydrogen is NOT a source of energy such as uranium, coal, gas, oil, wind, solar, etc., but rather it is an energy carrier that needs to be produced by applying energy.

    So what is the world’s best energy CARRIER

    When asking Capt. Todd (Ike) Kiefer USN (ret.), Director of government relations and economic development for East Mississippi Electric Power Association and president of North Lauderdale Water Association, about what would be the best energy carrier if we had completely free and unlimited electricity available from wind, solar or fusion/fission he answered:

    If we had unlimited electricity from nuclear (fission/fusion), our best option for transportation fuel would be to synthesize hydrocarbons from seawater and air.”

    Considering the 100-year investment civilization has already made in liquid hydrocarbon infrastructure,
    ‘fission/fusion plus hydrocarbons’ is the only realistic energy transition over the next 50 years.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/14/german-energy-expert-agrees-fission-fusion-plus-hydrocarbs-only-realistic-energy-transition-next-50-years/

    90

  • #
    Graeme#4

    Andrew “Twiggy” Forest plans to replace a billion litres of diesel with hydrogen
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/fortescue-forrests-new-green-energy-use-export-goals/news-story/4e4e55aca13738ddfdca607378b6ed41
    Article in todays The Australian. By end June, Fortescue will trial “green” hydrogen, ammonia and battery technology to replace the diesel used in their mining operations.
    A number of commenters have pointed out how much energy would be required to generate the amount of hydrogen required, plus the risks of producing ammonia. One referenced a Queensland study that noted it would require 208 GWh of electricity to produce 3,500 tonnes of “green” hydrogen annually. If Fortescue’s annual energy requirements are 20,000 tonnes, this would require 26,000 GWh of electricity every year, or around 3 GW of renewables power 24/7. Another issue is the low energy density of Hydrogen, requiring heavy trucks and trains to possibly sacrifice their load-carrying capacities by one third. There are also issues with anhydrous ammonia, which requires special pressure tanks and can be lethal if poorly handled.
    Also interesting to note that Twiggy has been quietly looking into producing “green” steel using hydrogen instead of coal.

    100

    • #

      And the icing on the cake? Malcolm Turnbull has been appointed Chair of Fortescue Future Industries.
      Wondering where the bang will occur …

      140

    • #
      RicDre

      Graeme#4, your link is pay-walled but here is a non-pay-walled link to a similar article:

      HYPE OR HOLY GRAIL: WHAT’S DRIVING THE HYDROGEN RUSH?

      https://acapmag.com.au/2021/02/hype-or-holy-grail-whats-driving-the-hydrogen-rush/

      I especially like the comment at the end of the article:

      And, although hugely promising, whether hydrogen will live up to the government’s hopes is not the sure thing some hydrogen evangelists are proclaiming it to be.

      “Rose-coloured glasses are a really nice thing to have,” says Wood. “But sometimes I would replace them with clear glass instead.”

      130

      • #
        Graeme#4

        It’s interesting to note that Twiggy doesn’t plan to do this using his own money. He wants Fortescue to contribute 10% of its future profits to his spin-off Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), which will develop this project. FFI plans to build 235 GW of installed energy capacity in Australia and overseas.

        80

      • #
        Matthew

        Just more snake oil is all.

        70

    • #
      BriantheEngineer

      Why not just use an electric arc furnace?

      50

      • #
        Matthew

        Where does the carbon needed for steel production come from.

        71

        • #
          TdeF

          Australian Metallurgical coal. But electric arc furnaces do not make steel, they melt it. Steel recycling in the US has reached 71%. NUCOR is now the US biggest steel maker and they do not make steel, they recycle scrap.

          40

          • #
            TdeF

            So the point is that 71% of US steel is recycled. It is perhaps the most efficiently recycled commodity in existence.

            Coal in the form of pure carbon or coke is used to reduce iron oxide to iron in blast furnaces. But when you factor in how much is recycled, it is far more effective than most smelting. All smelting of metals requires the removal of oxygen, iron, aluminum, lead etc.

            It was the discovery of coke from coal which saved the forest of Europe. Prior to that forests were devastated to produce wood based carbon called charcoal. But is was never as pure or burnt as hot as coke.

            With all the massive benefits of coal to the world, it is amazing that coal is now the villain. It was the single greatest development which created the industrial revolution and allowed us to get rid of those ridiculous windmills which only worked when they pleased and cost a fortune and never had much power anyway.

            90

        • #
          Graeme#4

          Apparently you can make steel using hydrogen instead of coke, hence the tag “green steel”. I’ve heard that’s what Twiggy has been quietly looking into.

          00

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Yeah,

        this is 2021,

        just do away with stage 1 in the Blast Furnace and go straight to modern Electric Steel Making.

        40

      • #
        williamx

        Brian the engineer.

        You ask..

        “Why not just use an electric arc furnace?”

        My reply…

        https://www.steelsupplylp.com/blog/electric-arc-furnace-vs.-blast-furnace

        my comment…

        Good luck turning iron ore into steel by using an electric arc furnace.

        An EAF is only effective in recycling scrap which is already steel.

        70

        • #
          Hanrahan

          An EAF is only effective in recycling scrap which is already steel.

          That’s what Hanrahan Not A Ginger Beer always thought.

          Can windmills run EAFs? I would assume that if power fails and the pot solidifies you are in deep do do.

          40

          • #
            Hanrahan

            Even Hanrahan Not A Welder knows you can’t generate heat when you’ve stuck your rod. I see similarities.

            20

          • #
            Chad

            Hanrahan
            March 16, 2021 at 7:48 pm ·
            An EAF is only effective in recycling scrap which is already steel.

            Can windmills run EAFs? I would assume that if power fails and the pot solidifies you are in deep do do

            In Twiggy’s case its academic, since his project is in Tassie..The.land known as “The battery of Australia” !…AKA…the “Home of Hydro”
            But to your point generally, anyone planning a “Fully Green” steel making plant, would better have a back up generation plan .!

            20

            • #
              Hanrahan

              So Tas has the choice to be the battery for the North Island or the battery for Twiggy’s EAF. You can only spend an electron once.

              30

            • #
              yarpos

              Funny how when Basslink is down its Tassie that suffers, not the nation.

              00

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Iron is produced in a blast furnace from iron ore.

          The molten iron can then be reduced further to steel in BOS or electric arc furnaces.

          40

          • #
            Chad

            Yes Keith, correct.
            The “Green Dream” is to replace the Blast furnace with a process to reduce the Iron ore without using Coking coal…IE, what is known a “Direct Reduction”.
            But that is not as simple , or cheap, as many would like it to be

            10

    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      Hydrogen is not viable as energy storage for transportation – too leak-prone and too explosive. Might work in the very controlled environment of Twiggy’s trucks.

      10

      • #
        Chad

        Hence the proposal to waste even more energy to convert the Hydrogen to Ammonia for storage and transportation… making it more expensive.
        …and then you need a process to extract the energy back from the Ammonia ..
        Yet further energy loss and higher cost !
        A cunning plan ?

        10

    • #
      Chad

      Graeme#4
      March 16, 2021 at 9:24 am · ….
      A number of commenters have pointed out how much energy would be required to generate the amount of hydrogen required, plus the risks of producing ammonia. One referenced a Queensland study that noted it would require 208 GWh of electricity to produce 3,500 tonnes of “green” hydrogen annually. If Fortescue’s annual energy requirements are 20,000 tonnes, this would require 26,000 GWh of electricity every year, or around 3 GW of renewables power 24/7. …../blockquote>
      Well, “ anumber of commentaters” , should seriously check their maths..
      If it takes 208GWh to produce 3500tonnes/yr
      To produce 20,000 tonnes, It would need 1760 GWh …not 26,000GWh ..! …..(minor errorX15 !!)
      Which is approx just 1 GW (name plate) solar PV output for a year. ( ?? Where did their 3GW 24/7 come from ?? )
      Just orrecting errors .

      00

  • #
    Dave

    I think it’s time for the rest of the world to start charging China especially for their CO2 emissions!

    The EU want to put a Carbon Tax on Australian exports!

    But they do nothing about the nearly 90% of New CO2 Output Came From China And India

    And here is Australia at a 26% renewable target?
    The political parties in Australia are mad?

    200

    • #
      TdeF

      As we are almost alone in the Southern 1/3 of the planet with 2% of the world’s population below the Tropic of Capricorn, 98% of all CO2 comes from overseas. So we should carbon tax everyone else and use the money to build windmills and make them buy our windmills made with our own steel. Hold on, that’s the CCP plan.

      50

  • #
    Furiously curious

    Speaking of China — this is a light hearted way to look at the issue?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DH4v6FnbvM

    30

    • #
      Hanrahan

      So Bill Maher can do a monologue without mentioning Trump.

      Trump was right, the haters are gonna miss him. All cable news ratings are down, including Fox after the hatchet job they did on Nov 6 but they are down 20%. Even Tucker has slipped.

      20

      • #
        Hanrahan

        That didn’t transcribe correctly. Try:

        All cable news ratings are down, including Fox after the hatchet job they did on Nov 6 but they are down less than 10%, the others more than 20%. Even Tucker has slipped.

        I think I see the problem nothing between the “less than” symbol and the “greater than” symbol was printed. Odd, I’m sure I’ve used them before

        10

        • #

          Hanrahan, the less than and greater than symbols are read by the software as if you are putting some html code in the middle.

          Or maybe you are two steps ahead of me and were using the code < > ?

          00

  • #
    Chris

    Dr Ryan a pathologist, gives an interesting talk on Vitamin D and Ivermectin. His most telling point is the fact that under US law if there is a cure for an illness than a vaccine will NOT be registered.

    https://principia-scientific.com/clarity-covid-the-mistakes-the-misinformation/

    91

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Dr Ryan: “There Is No Such Thing As Flu Season, Only Low Vitamin D Season!”

      This has been known for decades. Why is is only now it is being whispered behind hands?

      40

      • #
        Hanrahan

        Good God! I’m still watching but Ryan says 70% of us are allergic to antifreeze. They put antifreeze into the vax to stop it freezing. Which is the one that must be kept on dry ice?

        10

  • #
    el gordo

    Mr Fitzroy, NASA should stick to space travel, their bias is blatant.

    ‘An argument from authority, also called an appeal to authority, or argumentum ad verecundiam, is a form of argument in which the opinion of an authority on a topic is used as evidence to support an argument.’ (wiki)

    62

    • #

      Is Mr Fitzroy speaking to you inside your head?

      35

      • #
        el gordo

        No, he was arguing on the other thread about the veracity of NASA, so I suggested we meet here. While you’re there Leaf, what is wrong with this?

        https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/

        51

        • #

          Nothing. The link works fine.

          hahahaha

          33

          • #

            Seriously though… what do you think is wrong with it? It is a brief, detail free summary so it is sure to be wrong in some sense.

            34

            • #
              OriginalSteve

              That covers all the options…risk free.

              Well done, leaf.

              71

            • #
              el gordo

              Something must happen to the CO2 trapped in ice, the signal remains but is diminished over time. Possibly a chemical reaction under pressure.

              12

            • #
              Peter C

              Seriously though… what do you think is wrong with it? It is a brief, detail free summary so it is sure to be wrong in some sense.

              Seriously Professor. What is wrong with it? Well you partially answer your own question; It must be wrong in some sense. But in what sense?

              I think you should take the lead here, but if you need me to explain then I might do so.

              20

        • #
          Ted O’Brien.

          Bring back the dinosaurs!

          20

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          So NASA is question? Bit of a stretch isn’t it?

          Anyway I was discussing this
          However, this is what I am referring too

          “Technically, a “consensus” is a general agreement of opinion, but the scientific method steers us away from this to an objective framework. In science, facts or observations are explained by a hypothesis (a statement of a possible explanation for some natural phenomenon), which can then be tested and retested until it is refuted (or disproved).”

          for those who do not have the skills here is the link
          https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/#:~:text=Among%20papers%20expressing%20a%20position,the%20scientific%20consensus%20on%20AGW.%E2%80%9D

          but El gordo it is the same process for both groups of stats originally quoted. If one (climate) is wrong, then the other must also be wrong as well

          Do you understand?

          22

        • #
          William Astley

          The Antarctic ice core data is not an accurate proxy of past atmospheric CO2 levels or past planetary temperature. You are arguing a point (show the same graph to get a reaction) and arguing as if the picture of the graph is a fact. It is one proxy and it does not agree with other proxies) as opposed to trying to solve a scientific problem.

          This graph shows the cyclic warming and cooling in during the interglacial period.

          Greenland ice temperature, last 11,000 years determined from ice core analysis, from Richard Alley’s paper.

          William: As this graph indicates the Greenland Ice data shows that have been 9 warming and cooling periods in the last 11,000 years. The Greenland ice sheet data, shown in the this graph starts with the end of the YD abrupt cooling period.

          http://www.climate4you.com/images/GISP2%20TemperatureSince10700%20BP%20with%20CO2%20from%20EPICA%20DomeC.gif

          There are fast (50 year) rises in CO2 and past fast rises in temperature, in the paleo record (Greenland ice sheet data).

          The past fast rises in temperature (Dansgaard-Oeschger warming) are cyclic and correlate with solar changes, are captured in the Greenland ice sheet data.

          The higher annual snowfall on the Greenland ice sheet enables the Greenland ice cores to capture the fast rises and falls in temperature that the Antarctic ice core misses because the Antarctic snowfall is low because of the extreme cold.

          What caused all of the past cyclic warming?

          Logically something caused the cyclic warming in the past, like the mediavel warm period as well as the abrupt cooling periods like the Younger Dryas (12,900 years ago) and the 8,200 year cooling event which both followed D-O warming periods and are likely Heinrich events.

          The Y-D cooling event the Northern hemisphere went from interglacial warm to glacial cold with 70% of the cooling occuring in less than a decade and the abrupt cooling occuring when insolation at 65N, in the summer was maximum.

          Something also caused the Y-D abrupt cooling event. Currently there is no scientific explanation for what caused the Younger Dryas abrupt cooling period (1200 years) or the 8,200 year oooling event (100 years), and all of the warming periods,…

          In fact, there is no explanation for the glacial interglacial cycle, in CO2 climate science or in ocean current change climate science. The climate sciences do not know or care that the geomagnetic field has been found to abruptly change and correlate to past climate changes. like the Younger Dryas. In fact it has been found that the past Heinrich events and interglacial terminations correlate (happen at the same time) as geomagnetic excursions.

          Ocean current changes did not cause the Younger Dryas abrupt cooling period.
          The temperature record shows there is an immense missing forcing function that can abruptly change the climate to make a Younger Dryas abrupt cooling event for 1200 years. CO2 changes did not cause the Younger Dryas (Younger Dryas is a tundra flower that suddenly appears in the North hemisphere geological record…. So the climate team decided they would name this cyclic abrupt event after a flower).

          https://www.nature.com/articles/35047044

          Evidence for decoupling of atmospheric CO2 and global climate during the Phanerozoic eon

          CO2 follows temperature and atmospheric CO2 has increased to around 410 ppm in the past, just like it is doing now, when there are Dansgaard-Oeschger warming periods.

          The D-O warming periods. D-O named after the Zombie climate scientists who discovered the cyclic warming, which it is a fact, for some unexplained reason every 6000 to 8000 years followed by a Heinrich event.

          10

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      El gordo
      The first ‘A’ in NASA stands for Aeronautics – surely the atmosphere is an important part of that?
      The ability to remotely measure planets would require some testing of the equipment on our atmosphere, or not?

      So I reject your assertion that NASA should be excluded

      25

      • #
        el gordo

        Alright leave NASA in the loop, but their claim that CO2 hasn’t been this high in a million years is a bit far fetched.

        42

    • #
      R.B.

      Today, we stand on the threshold of a new geologic era, which some term the “Anthropocene”, one where the climate is very different to the one our ancestors knew.

      This has nothing to do with aeronautics or space travel. Our ancestors 300 years ago new that the climate 300 years was different enough to have had the north of France switched from producing wine to cider and perry. Those in the South probably didn’t even notice this. The extremes of the seasons (Just the weather swings in any month) would have easily muffled a degree rise in the average.

      I mean, how could they even tell when global warming caused the late frosts or summer drenching that killed their crops, as well as heat and droughts?

      NASA, becausecofca small group within it, has backed a contentious naming of an epoch that hasn’t been accepted by geologists. They’re clearly a group of activists using the good name of a scientific institution to push a political position.

      51

  • #
    another ian

    “Gator
    March 15, 2021 7:14 am

    With my deepest apologies to Joni Mitchell…

    Both Sides Now

    Woes and blows to warmist scares
    Excise schemes now in cross hairs
    And weather claxons now despair
    I’ve looked at clouds that way

    We all know that they block the sun
    And rain and snow on everyone
    So many things frauds would have done
    But clouds got in their way

    We’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
    From cool and warm, and still somehow
    Warmist delusions I recall
    They really don’t know clouds at all

    Loons and goons with feckless deals
    Are busy advancing their ideal
    And so their fairytale reveal
    We’ve heard them yack away

    But now it’s not supposed to snow
    So we’re laughing as they eat crow
    And polar bears, their numbers grow
    Hint: check the Hudson bay

    We’ve looked for signs of high tides now
    From near and far, no rise somehow
    Warmist delusions we recall
    They really don’t know squat at all

    Tears and fears and feeling proud
    To say “It’s bullshit!” right out loud
    Dreams and schemes of circus clowns
    The crooks’ in disarray

    This now transends just acting strange
    We shake our heads, they’re so deranged
    They’re data’s lost, still unexplained
    United Nations way

    We’ve heard their crap, their sacred cow
    From kin and news and still somehow
    It’s Mann’s delusions I recall
    He really don’t crap at all

    I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
    From cool and warm, and still somehow
    Those warmists really are dirt balls
    They really don’t know clouds at all”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/15/clouds-from-both-sides-now/

    120

  • #
    R.B.

    A little off topic but I did a Google search for “Christian Porter accusations”. As soon as I typed his name, options popped up including “Christian Porter … Mum, Dad, Daughter, family”

    WTF? Why would anyone be searching for that?

    30

    • #
      Ted O’Brien.

      Most people have probably forgotten it, but at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 Christian Porter’s father Charles kept the high jump competition going long into the night, eventually winning the silver medal for a jump of nearly seven feet.

      60

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Christian is for the high jump then?

      Too bad the Rule of Law is again being degraded in Australia by the the Labor Party (and their green comrades) along with the politicised legal system.

      71

    • #
      robert rosicka

      RB it’s obvious , they smell blood.

      20

  • #
    • #
      robert rosicka

      Also fades the curtains and adds to globull warming .

      21

    • #
      Graeme#4

      Has anybody noticed that most Asian countries don’t have daylight saving? Smart people…

      40

      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        I dislike Daylight Saving – especially in Australia, where a lot of the population live in very hot places (not so much Hobart, and Sydney overall isn’t too bad). Hot countries that are relatively close to the Equator just don’t need it. Having lived in the NT, Qld, and WA – I welcomed its absence in all three places.

        But mostly I like those cool blue hours in the morning, and I don’t like one of them being stolen from me – to stick at the end of the day (when it’s hot and often horrible) for the benefit of the small majority who go to the beach or whatever.

        10

      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        I have a mate who lives in Japan, where they do not observe Daylight Saving. But he believes to country is in the wrong time zone … it gets light far too early in the morning (in his view), and there are no long lingering evenings when he would like to hike or bike.

        00

  • #
    Dave

    “The Coming Collapse of China.”

    1. China, to solve its food problem, will continue to buy farmland in Africa, Canada and around the world.
    2. Up to 80 percent of China’s water is polluted.
    3. U.S. farmers happy, they are exporting record volumes of products to China.
    4. Chinese people to eat less, as a warning of food shortages to come.
    etc
    etc

    Watch Out: China Cannot Feed Itself

    40

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      I’m sceptical of that article. It’s agenda driven to my reading.

      By the end of this decade China’s population is set to move into a gradual decline. The article makes no mention of that. Fewer and older people means less food consumption.

      https://www.populationpyramid.net/china/2050/

      In addition, year on year variation in agricultural production is not a very good indicator of the longer term. New production techniques aided by the increasing level of CO2 will add to the level of production.

      New technology is also just around the corner. Electro agriculture, for example, is very promising and is driving a increase in growing area per annum for some forms of agriculture:

      ….encouraging results are leading to an increase in the use of electro culture throughout China, with an extra 1,000 to 1,300 hectares of growing space being added each year. At current rates of growth, that represents a 40% increase year-on-year.

      https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/10/china-has-made-a-shocking-food-production-discovery-electro-culture/

      50

      • #
        Dave

        Agree Sam, it’s only an opinion piece on China!

        I think the short term dangers of China food shortages will be determined by Emperor XI!

        50

  • #
    Rowjay

    Question for Peter Fitzroy if he is about – he seems to have some inside knowledge on the commercial workings of the NEM. Or any other of the fine contributors for that matter.
    :
    Do VRE generators still get renewable energy certificates for curtailed power, or can they only claim these if their power is supplied to the grid?

    60

    • #
      robert rosicka

      I can’t wait for the answer to this , that is of course if the answer is available on Google!

      50

  • #
    another ian

    “California Releases Report Charting Path to 100 Percent Clean Electricity”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/15/california-releases-report-charting-path-to-100-percent-clean-electricity/

    20

    • #
      robert rosicka

      I’ve just registered a patent for 100% fat free lard it comes from the other side of the animal!

      60

      • #
        another ian

        If it had been “fat free tallow” you’d have had a chance to crack the Islamic market too.

        50

    • #
      another ian

      In comments there

      “Rod Evans
      March 16, 2021 12:58 am
      If California ceased to exist and produced no contribution to global atmospheric gas the concentration of CO2 would continue to rise in line with the change in global temperatures and fall in line with those changes when they decline.
      California is suffering from a delusion of grandeur. How does a state of the Union whose prime reputation across the world, is the fabrication of make believe films ever consider itself important enough to dictate energy policy to others?
      It will make interesting viewing over the coming years as the journey along the yellow brick roads leads them to a man hidden behind a curtain. I suspect the wizard will then reveal himself, sporting a full beard and waving a hockey stick.
      Maybe even develop a little tune appropriate to the endeavour.

      “Were off to see the buzzard
      The wonderful buzzard that was
      We hear he was a wiz of a wiz
      Before the wiz of the whirling wind that was
      Now we can’t see the buzzard that was
      Because, because, because… he was”. “

      40

      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        California is suffering from a delusion of grandeur. How does a state of the Union whose prime reputation across the world, is the fabrication of make believe films ever consider itself important enough to dictate energy policy to others?

        California is no doubt suffering from many things, but I’m not sure delusions of grandeur is one of them; if CA were a stand-alone country it would be world’s fifth biggest economy.

        Hollywood is a major industry, but so are industrial-scale agriculture, aerospace and weapons, oil, education, tourism, defence, and of course big tech in Silicon Valley.

        I’m not expressing a view on whether CA should have zero-emission targets or not – just disputing the notion that it’s one piddling little state of the union.

        We have driven past a couple of solar farms in California – they are very impressive.

        00

        • #
          yarpos

          mmmmm Ivanpah and Crescent Dunes over the border in Nevada are (or were) very impressive , but in the end useless.

          20

  • #
    R.B.

    The Conversation

    Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland’s ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change… Using lab techniques unimaginable in the 1960s when the core was drilled, we and an international team of fellow scientists were able to show that Greenland’s massive ice sheet had melted to the ground there within the past million years. Radiocarbon dating shows that it would have happened more than 50,000 years ago. It most likely happened during times when the climate was warm and sea level was high, possibly 400,000 years ago.

    And there was more. As we explored the soil under a microscope, we were stunned to discover the remnants of a tundra ecosystem – twigs, leaves and moss. We were looking at northern Greenland as it existed the last time the region was ice-free…All of this happened before humans began warming the Earth’s climate

    As the NASA link above points out, global CO2 was below 300 ppm for 800 000 years. Despite “The oceans around the globe would have been more than 10 feet higher, and maybe even 20 feet. The land on which Boston, London and Shanghai sit today would have been under the ocean waves.” when CO2 was well below the magical 350 ppm, all these climate scientists don’t see a problem with claiming the world is warming due to human emissions now.

    61

    • #
      el gordo

      They are in denial about how the system works.

      Looking at the NASA link, do you think it might be flawed? Its just that under pressure CO2 seems to lose something, I’m thinking dispersion.

      02

      • #
        R.B.

        I’m thinking adsorption. I haven’t read the paywalled papers but there are some out there on adsorption of CO2 to ice. There is a quasi liquid state on high temperature ice that allows greater adsorption of CO2. It’s this that will be trapped as gasses in pockets get expelled.

        It can explain the lag as it takes a while for the snow to compress and lock in a proxy for temperature rather than global CO2.

        10

  • #

    This presentation by Dr Ryan Cole the CEO and Medical Director of Cole Diagnostics contains some trenchant opinions.

    20

  • #
    Jojodogfacedboy

    In Ontario Canada, the Housing Market has hit the Wall of can’t cash out your house for a cheaper one as none are left.
    https://www.howestreet.com/2021/03/no-market-for-sober-thinkers/
    https://www.howestreet.com/2021/03/patience-5/

    I would bet that all the House Builders are booked solid as well…

    20

  • #
    RicDre

    The Water Planet Earth And Its Climate

    Guest post by Boris Winterhalter

    A seminar talk I gave on August 15th 2020 in Helsinki organized by Ilmastofoorumi, a registered Society with the mission to disseminate correct climate knowledge as compared to the erroneous dogma provided by the IPCC.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/16/the-water-planet-earth-and-its-climate/

    The article contains an interesting quote from AR5 I had not heard before:

    “Water vapour has the largest greenhouse effect in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, other greenhouse gases, primarily CO2, are necessary to sustain the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere. Indeed, if these other gases were removed from the atmosphere, its temperature would drop sufficiently to induce a decrease of water vapour, leading to a runaway drop of the greenhouse effect that would plunge the Earth into a frozen state.

    I wonder on what basis they make this statement.

    20

    • #
      Kevin kilty

      Without doing too much additional reading of papers, I would suppose their thinking is that removing all CO2 would lower surface temperature so far that one eventually reaches solid H2O on the surface…isn’t that what it sounds like from reading this?

      There is a radiation transfer code publically available at the U of Chicago that goes by the name MODTRAN and it can supply a bit of insight. Set the edit boxes to a tropical atmosphere, 400ppm of CO2, looking upward from about a km, and the total of longwave radiation traveling downward is about 316 Wm-2. Now remove all CO2. The downward welling radiation is now about 300. The difference of 16 Wm-2, is roughly equal to a difference of emitted power in a 3K temperature change. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but there is the knockon effect that this will change the humidity of the atmosphere a bit, and so one has to go round this cycle many times to arrive at a final answer.

      The temperature change is also about 3K if you assume a midlatitude atmosphere model. This just doesn’t sound like such a big effect that removal of all CO2 can cause all H2O to vanish. The crux of the issue is what is the H2O feedback, and undoubtedly they will use the standard relative humidity remains constant argument. Clausius-Clapeyron notwithstanding, I find that argument unpersuasive.

      10

      • #
        RicDre

        Kevin kilty: Good points.

        Interestingly, the information I quoted above comes from FAQ 8.1 on page 666 (really!) and is simply stated as a fact with no qualifications and no references.

        30

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Reads like pure trash.

      10

  • #
    RicDre

    Increasing Hurricane Frequency Due To Better Observation, Not Climate Change–BBC

    Reposted from NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

    MARCH 16, 2021

    By Paul Homewood

    Wow!! A BBC man actually tells the truth about hurricanes!


    The number of named storms has increased over the decades, but there is no real evidence this is the result of a warming world.

    Dr McNoldy notes “the big shift in counts is simply that there were several inactive seasons from 1981-1990 and several active seasons from 2011-2020”.

    “Once that inactive period drops out of the average, and is replaced by the active, it will increase the numbers”

    The overall increase from 1961 is also likely to be due to better technology, along with observations over the Atlantic Ocean.

    Since satellites came along in the 1980s, we can spot and monitor the development of tropical cyclones and name them when they meet the threshold.

    We are simply able to record more.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/16/increasing-hurricane-frequency-due-to-better-observation-not-climate-change-bbc/

    40

    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      Isn’t the issue the intensity of storms that make landfall, rather than just the number of named storms? And intensity is strongly related to warmer SSTs in both ocean waters and coastal seas.

      04

      • #
        RicDre

        “Isn’t the issue the intensity of storms that make landfall, rather than just the number of named storms?”

        Both claims have been made but neither one stands up to scrutiny as there has been no real trend in either the number of storms the or Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of those storms.

        50

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Jo this may be worth digging into

    Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche.

    https://gumshoenews.com/2021/03/14/dire-warning-from-vaccine-developer-geert-vanden-bossche-phd-dvm/

    “We have discussed Vaccine-induced enhancement but Dr Vanden Bossche presents a new problem. It seems these vaccines are driving immune escape resulting in driving resistance to the vaccines.

    “”Even though the first dose may protect you from developing symptoms, the virus may still be able to replicate and transmit. Exerting high immune pressure without preventing viral replication and transmission is a recipe for selective viral immune escape. However, what we are now more and more observing is even more worrisome: even those who got fully vaccinated before exposure to Covid-19 are no longer controlling virus replication and transmission. This is because they’re now increasingly infected by more infectious variants, the spike protein of which is different from the one comprised in the vaccine. Hence, the virus increasingly evades the vaccinal antibody response

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/14/astra-zeneca-covid-vaccine-suspended-over-blood-clot-brain-haemorrhage-concerns/

    20

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      I wish I could understand that statement.

      10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      And it gets worse…..

      https://www.theepochtimes.com/italy-launches-criminal-manslaughter-investigation-after-teacher-dies-hours-after-getting-astrazeneca-vaccine_3735806.html

      “Italy Opens Manslaughter Probe as Teacher Dies Hours After Getting AstraZeneca Vaccine

      “Italian officials have begun a manslaughter investigation following the death of a 57-year-old music teacher hours after receiving AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to local media reports.

      “Nearly 400,000 AstraZeneca Vaccine Doses Seized in Italy After Teacher’s Death

      “Officials have so far said there is no evidence of a direct link between the man’s death and his shot.

      “Prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont announced they opened a manslaughter probe into the death of Sandro Tognatti, who received the vaccine in his hometown of Biella on March 13. His wife told news outlets that he went to bed that night with a high fever. The next day, she said, an ambulance was called for him, and he later died.

      “The local prosecutor in Biella, where Tognatti lived, announced the opening of a criminal case for manslaughter after his death, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported.

      “Teresa Angela Camelio, the prosecutor, announced that the move “follow[s] the decision of the Piedmont Region to suspend ‘momentarily’ the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine included in batch ABV5811, pending the decisions of the judicial authority and the drug supervisory commission.”

      “Camelio said that an autopsy regarding Tognatti’s cause and manner of death has been scheduled for this week.

      20

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        While he may only be one in a million, I remain very wary of these hastily constructed “non vaccines”.

        More analysis needed.

        10

      • #
        yarpos

        wont export them, wont use them, what are they for again?

        I wonder how many people died in accidents getting to vax centres?

        10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      https://dryburgh.com/geert-vanden-bossche-open-letter-to-who-halt-all-covid-19-mass-vaccination/

      This guy is pro-vaccine, and appears to have worked for the Gates foundation and vaccine companies.

      Everyone please read this.

      Exerpt below.

      “Open Letter to the WHO: Immediately Halt All Covid-19 Mass Vaccinations

      Geert Vanden Bossche, DMV, PhD, independent virologist and vaccine expert, formerly employed at GAVI and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

      “To all authorities, scientists and experts around the world, to whom this concerns: the entre world population.

      “I am all but an antivaxxer. As a scientist I do not usually appeal to any platform of this kind to make a stand on vaccine-related topics. As a dedicated virologist and vaccine expert I only make an exception when health authorities allow vaccines to be administered in ways that threaten public health, most certainly when scientific evidence is being ignored.

      ……………..

      “The more variants become infectious (i.e., as a result of blocking access of the virus to the vaccinated segment of the population), the less vaccinal Abs will protect. Already now, lack of protection is leading to viral shedding and transmission in vaccine recipients who are exposed to these more infectious strains (which, by the way, increasingly dominate the field).

      “This is how we are currently turning vaccines into asymptomatic carriers shedding infectious variants.

      “At some point, in a likely very near future, it’s going to become more profitable (in term of ‘return on selection investment’) for the virus to just add another few mutations (maybe just one or two) to the S protein of viral variants (already endowed with multiple mutations enhancing infectiousness) in an attempt to further strengthen its binding to the receptor (ACE-2) expressed on the surface of permissive epithelial cells.

      “This will now allow the new variant to outcompete vaccinal Abs for binding to the ACE receptor. This is to say that at this stage, it would only take very few additional targeted mutations within the viral receptor-binding domain to fully resist S-specific ant-Covid-19 Abs, regardless whether the later are elicited by the vaccine or by natural infection.

      “At that stage, the virus will, indeed, have managed to gain access to a huge reservoir of subjects who have now become highly susceptible to disease as their S-specific Abs have now become useless in terms of protection but still manage to provide for long-lived suppression of their innate immunity (i.e., natural infection, and especially vaccination, elicit relatively long-lived specific Ab titers). The susceptible reservoir comprises both, vaccinated people and those who’re left with sufficient S-specific Abs due to previous Covid-19 disease).So, MISSION

      “ACCOMPLISHED for Covid-19 but a DISASTROUS SITUATION for all vaccinated subjects and Covid-19 seropositive people as they’ve now lost both, their acquired and innate immune defense against Covid-19 (while highly infectious strains are circulating!).

      “That’s ‘one small step for the virus, one giant catastrophe for mankind’, which is to say that we’ll have whipped up the virus in the younger population up to a level that it now takes little effort for Covid-19 to transform into a highly infectious virus that completely ignores both the innate arm of our immune system as well as the adaptive/acquired one (regardless of whether the acquired Abs resulted from vaccination or natural infection).

      “The effort for the virus is now becoming even more negligible given that many vaccine recipients are now exposed to highly infectious viral variants while having received only a single shot of the vaccine.

      “Hence, they are endowed with Abs that have not yet acquired optimal functionality. There is no need to explain that this is just going to further enhance immune escape. Basically, we’ll very soon be confronted with a super-infectious virus that completely resists our most precious defense mechanism: The human immune system.

      “From all of the above, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how the consequences of the extensive and erroneous human intervention in this pandemic are not going to wipe out large parts of our human population.

      “One could only think of very few other strategies to achieve the same level of efficiency in turning a relatively harmless virus into a bioweapon of mass destruction.

      20

  • #
  • #
    another ian

    Chiefio on daylight saving time

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2021/03/07/w-o-o-d-7-mar-2021/#comment-140967

    And how to get rid of it

    “Hmmm…. EU, UK, Canada, USA….

    I’ve got it! We need to start calling Daylight Savings Time “White Man’s Time”!!

    See, it’s “racist” and exists so that The Man can work you harder and jerk you around. So just keep “correcting” folks who say DST to “white man’s time” and it will be killed off in no time…

    (I’d like to put a /sarc; tag on that, I really would, but I’m pretty sure it would work…)”

    40

  • #
    Eddie

    Does the demand for Lew paper know no bounds?

    Stefan knows how to cash in on a crisis. Here he applied his methods to vaccine persuasion, with a vaccines handbook.

    https://twitter.com/STWorg/status/1371726692444688386?s=20

    20

  • #
    • #
      Kevin kilty

      I am 69 and got my Moderna shot. It was nothing at all. However, my two children are under twelve and there is no reason at all to have them vaccinated as they have almost zero risk from the disease. They have come home multiple times this year with sniffles, sore throat and I figure they are too sick to have covid. They are in such a low risk category that the vaccine might increase risk for them.

      Now if other people wish to volunteer their children so we can learn about efficacy and safety, well they can certainly do so. Yet, even if it all turns out fine, then it is still a stupid thing to do, pointless and maybe unethical as well.

      40

  • #
    el gordo

    A warming Antarctica would increase precipitation, more snow and ice, and sea level should fall.

    https://notrickszone.com/2021/03/15/false-alarm-ipcc-models-say-a-warming-antarctica-reduces-sea-levels-0-8-of-a-meter-by-3000/

    10

  • #
  • #
    Dennis

    Same old sales pitch …. getting cheaper, price coming down.

    Ignore facts in the real world and support wealth creation by crony capitalist globalists …

    “Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman says to reach net zero emissions in the transport sector it will be very important to support electric vehicles. The North Sydney MP has called for more ambitious policies to bring down emissions to net zero by 2050. “If we are to get to net zero, we have to really spur the industry today,” Mr Zimmerman told Sky News. “We need to look at subsidies to provide that gap until the market brings the price down, as it will. “The cost of electric vehicles is coming down.”

    Turnbull Party LINO

    40

    • #
      Hanrahan

      A network of charging stations will develop between Syd, Can, Mlb and the snow fields. It will be a long hard road for EVs to penetrate the market elsewhere.

      Non Australians may find it hard to imagine just how sparsely the rest of the continent is populated. There is a red-eye flight from Perth to Cairns catering mainly for FIFO miners. It is over 2,100 miles, not much less than LA to NY. It probably uses Alice Springs as a way point and that would be the only lights seen while at cruising altitude.

      It is one thing to plan a trip to see the rellies and be able to reach the destination on a charge but it would then take a couple of days parked in the rellies’ garage charging up for the return. Little will change in country Qld for the next 20 years. Plug in hybrids will gain market share but they will not use charging stations much so won’t incentivise free market charge points.

      20

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Well it’s over: The Kiwis have retained the Americas Cup. No doubt they had the fastest boat and sailed it well.

    50

  • #
  • #
  • #
    Hanrahan

    Sabine, a German race driver famous for wringing the neck of a Transit Van around Nurburgring on Top Gear has just died of cancer. Barely fifty, how sad.

    RIP.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/14365477/jeremy-clarkson-paddy-mcguinness-lead-tributes-sabine-schmitz/

    00

  • #
    el gordo

    My goodness, government intervention to save the old world order.

    ‘The crisis of the century’: Europe threatens to seize AstraZeneca factories.

    ‘European Commission President warns “all options are on the table” as the continent scrambles to find enough doses to vaccinate its 450 million citizens.’
    (SMH)

    00

  • #