AT LAST A JUDGE WITH COMMON SENSE ACTS ON CLIMATE CASE

This piece explains how a judge in a case brought against oil companies who are accused of causing climate disasters by selling their product, has asked the oil companies to tell him about the benefits of oil to humanity. It might be a good question to ask the activists too. While he's about it he could ask them if they are still availing themselves of them. What a two faced bunch of hypocrites.

MORE GW PROPAGANDA DRESSED UP AS SCIENCE FROM THE BBC

This piece exposes what is going on.  What is happening is that the global warming hype is becoming accepted the more it is publicised in this way without challenge. The BBC know this and are complicit along with all arms of government, national and local. The relentless one-sided propaganda has made the very strong scientific arguments against much of what is broadcast become lost. It is the very opposite of the balanced broadcasting that the public deserve and expect for the licence fee.     

THE NOT-SO-GREEN LEGACY FROM SOLAR PANELS

Environmentalist Sounds Alarm On Coming Wave Of Toxic Solar Panel Waste
The Daily Caller, 24 May 2018

Jason Hopkins

A leading activist has raised concerns over the ecological impact of solar panels — a renewable energy technology widely considered to be harmless to the environment.

Michael Shellenberger — the president of Environmental Progress, a nonprofit organization working to promote clean energy — detailed the real life impacts of discarded solar installation. Solar technology typically contains cadmium, lead and other toxic chemicals that can’t be extracted without taking apart the whole panel, resulting in entire solar panels being considered hazardous, Shellenberger noted in a Wednesday Forbes article.

More specifically, these toxic chemicals become an environmental threat when solar panels reach their end-of-life stage and need to be disposed. Panels left in landfills may break apart and release toxic waste into the ground or even enter bodies of water. Solar panel disposal in “regular landfills [is] not recommended in case modules break and toxic materials leach into the soil,” Electric Power Research Institute determined in a 2016 study.

There is growing concern over the possibility of rainwater washing cadmium out of panels and into the environment. In Virginia, for example, a group of locals are pushing back against a proposal to construct a 6,350 acre solar farm in Spotsylvania County. (RELATED: Here’s How Renewable Energy Actually Hurts The Environment)

“We estimate there are 100,000 pounds of cadmium contained in the 1.8 million panels,” Sean Fogarty of Concerned Citizens of Fawn Lake stated to Shellenberger. “Leaching from broken panels damaged during natural events — hail storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. — and at decommissioning is a big concern.”

Instances can occur where severe weather — such as a tornado in California and a hurricane through Puerto Rico — decimate solar panel farms, potentially leaking chemicals into the ground.

Virtually no one in media cares to discuss the solar industry’s negative effects on the environment, Shellenger also noted. “With few environmental journalists willing to report on much of anything other than the good news about renewables, it’s been left to environmental scientists and solar industry leaders to raise the alarm.”

GREEN GROUPS CAUGHT OUT INVESTING IN FOSSIL FUELS

InsideSources, 22 May 2018

Divesting From Fossil Fuels Is Harder Than Green Groups, Liberal Cities Might Have Thought

Environmental groups, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the American Museum of Natural History, and several left-leaning funds have investments in private equity firms specializing in oil and gas even as their public messaging hyped concerns about the role of fossil fuel use in climate change.

Over the last several years, divestment has become a more and more common goal for environmental protesters, who have tried to get cities, universities, and other groups to stop investing in fossil fuel production. What is more surprising is that nonprofits who loudly support these causes also invest in conventional energy, even as they encourage others to divest.
 

According to leaked documents, environmental groups, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the American Museum of Natural History, and several left-leaning funds had investments in private equity firms specializing in oil and gas even as their public messaging hyped concerns about the role of fossil fuel use in climate change.

According to documents revealed in the Paradise Papers, a trove of 13 million documents detailing offshore investments, nonprofits including the American Museum of Natural History, the World Wildlife Fund, and the University of Washington invested in a fund known for its investments in oil, natural gas, and mining.

The papers show that the WWF invested $2 million with Denham Capital, an international private equity firm specializing in oil and gas investments. The WWF entered into an agreement with the firm in 2008 and which is not slated to expire until 2020. Getting out of the deal early would be difficult, say financial observers.

WWF was not the only environmental group to invest with Denham. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City committed $5 million to the fund even after putting on a series of exhibits highlighting the connection between fossil fuels and global warming.

The Museum has told reporters that it is working to both reduce its investments in fossil fuels and to consider opportunities for renewable energy investments. WWF says that it offset the proceeds of its fossil fuel investments through other financial instruments and that in the future, it will not invest in fossil fuels.

The University of Washington in Seattle also invested in the fund. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the William Penn Foundation, both groups which awarded grants to environmental projects, did not invest with Denham specifically, but still had fossil fuel investments.


Because the investments were through a private equity firm, their existence was hidden prior to the release of the Paradise Papers. Tax forms filed by nonprofits do not require a detailed list of these types of investments. Without the leak, most of the investments would likely not have been uncovered.

The papers are another example of the difficulty of severing all ties to fossil fuels when putting together an investment portfolio. Despite widespread pushes for divestment on the part of green groups, large institutions like cities and universities have found it next to impossible to cut all ties.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND VOTES FOR COMMON SENSE

This piece shows yet again that people are not persuaded that climate change poses any immediate threat. 

Andrew Montford: Did The Church Of Scotland Just Dodge A Climate Change Bullet?
Think Scotland, 24 May 2018

YESTERDAY, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland debated a motion on the subject of climate change and, more specifically, how quickly to divest themselves of investments in fossil fuels. In the event, wisdom prevailed, the motion falling with only 24 per cent support, but it may be that the Assembly just dodged a bullet.

The harms that the motion’s proposers were seeking to avert are hypothetical, and pencilled in for a timeslot that is far in the future – but lack of access to fossil fuels causes harms that are immediate, and very, very ugly.

Here at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, we have recently published a pair of briefing papers written by Dr Mikko Paunio, an eminent Finnish epidemiologist. Paunio’s powerfully worded case is that for millions of people around the world, getting their hands on fossil fuels is their only hope of escape from lives that are nasty, polluted, and short.

For instance, one of the biggest causes of premature death in the developing world is diarrhoea, and the best way to fix this is to improve domestic hygiene. For that, you need convenient and abundant water supplies, which in turn depend on the availability of a reliable electricity supply. For the time being, that almost certainly means fossil fuels.

In the same countries, untold millions of lives are also blighted by indoor air pollution, mostly caused by having to cook on open stoves fuelled by crude biofuels – wood or animal dung – or by coal. The resulting death toll runs into millions every year. A decision to divest would have hindered these poor people’s chance of following the well-trodden path to cleaner air: from biofuels, to coal, to kerosene, and ultimately to grid-based energy, either electricity or natural gas.

Of course, some will object to this analysis. The other day, the BBC’s Roger Harrabin wondered why people like me don’t support the expansion of solar power in Africa. However, once you have considered the cost and the lack of availability at night, the idea becomes a bit silly. And once you further consider the cost of adding battery storage, it borders on the ridiculous.

Similarly, the “what about modern cookstoves” objection that is often bandied about is given short shrift by Mikko Paunio. In the second of his papers, he notes that “No large-scale cookstove program to date has achieved reductions in [indoor air pollution] or provided any health benefits”.

There are no simple choices here, but only a trade-off, between, on the one hand, deaths that are happening here and now, can be quantified, and for which there is a well-understood path to prevention, and on the other, a vague idea of future trouble that emerges from a series of computer simulations of the climate of the distant future.

A decision to sacrifice all those millions who are suffering in the here and now, in order to avert some hypothetical harm a century hence would have been nothing short of inhuman.

Fortunately, sanity – or rather humanity – prevailed.

Andrew Montford is deputy director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation

Mikko Paunio’s briefing papers are entitled “Sacrificing the Poor” and “Kicking Away the Energy Ladder: How environmentalism destroys hope for the poor”

FOUR DECADES OF GLACIER STABILITY IN EAST ANTARCTICA

This article gives the details of this study. Clearly there is evidence that the climate is not showing any signs of warming in this area where the proponents of the global warming hypothesis said it would be most sensitive to it.

94% OF SHELL SHAREHOLDERS REJECT CO2 EMISSION TARGET PROPOSALS

This piece explains this unsurprising rejection of a proposal which would effectively curtail the company's profitability.  When will the green activists realise that when it really matters people vote for what they really believe is in their own interest.

USA MEETS CO2 REDUCTION TARGET DESPITE LACK OF REGULATION

This piece points out that the USA reduction are not due to wind or solar, but to a switch from coal to gas. This has come about as a result of the free market and the drop in price of gas due to fracking. If only UK and EU politicians would learn a lesson from this. 

USA ELECTRIC VEHICLE SALES STILL VERY LOW

This piece looks at electric vehicle sales in the USA and they are not good. Growth is slow and they are used less than conventional vehicles. Gasoline prices have remained relatively low in recent years, and the fuel economy of conventional vehicles has increased—factors that diminished the potential fuel savings of switching to electrified vehicles. Initial purchase prices for many electrified vehicles remain relatively high.

THE DRIVE TO CHANGE TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Below is an extract from a local authority planning document giving requirements for new dwellings.

"Within all dedicated off-street parking spaces that are within the curtilage of a dwelling the minimum requirement is the installation within the parking space of a dedicated fast charging unit. (With at least a 32 amp single phase power supply, or any subsequent higher minimum standard adopted nationally.)  In new developments where communal parking areas are provided, or where private parking is separate from the premises or dwelling, an electrical supply should be installed with sufficient power capacity to enable the convenient installation of fast charging points to all parking spaces in the future, without the need for significant re-wiring, structural or subsurface works. Some charging points should be provided unless it is demonstrably unfeasible to do so.
With continuing development in technology, new developments should install the latest method of charging that is accepted as an industry standard and cost effective for general use."

How much will this add to the cost of a new home and how much extra power will the grid need to supply if all these charging points were to be used together?

RATIONAL SCIENCE TELLS US THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT A CRISIS

That is my summary of this article which explores some of the hype whipped up by the media and certain politicians and activists. I guess the guy who wrote this article sums up my own view and expresses it well.

PROFESSOR SACKED FOR SPEAKING OUT ON CLIMATE SCIENCE

This article explains how Professor Peter Ridd has been dismissed from his post at James Cook University in Australia for having the temerity to speak out against those who are saying the Great Barrier Reef is being decimated by climate change. He speaks with great knowledge and integrity, but because the universities leadership don't want him to speak out and he refuses to retract or cease they have sacked him. 

AUSSIE ENERGY CHIEF IS A CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST

Here is the background to this headline.  It is absolutely clear that these people are not appointed by accident. It is a political decision and most leaders in the Western world are convinced that they must stick to the policy of reducing CO2 emissions, despite the great uncertainty that it is necessary, and despite the damage that it will do to their economies.

WE'VE JUST HAD 2 YEARS OF RECORD-BREAKING GLOBAL COOLING

This article puts forward the evidence to show that record cooling has happened. This is not something that we will see or hear in the media. Interesting though it is. 

UK SHALE BUREAUCRACY STIFLING OUR ABILTY TO ACCESS ESSENTIAL ENERGY

This piece explains what is going on, or rather what isn't happening but should be. "We are facing two to three years of planning applications to get a core well approved at the moment." says a representative from Ineos. How crazy is that? 

TOURISM, THE HIDDEN "ELEPHANT" OF HIGH CO2 EMISSIONS

Here is a delicious irony - the small island states that claim to be adversely affected by rising seas caused by CO2 emissions are the very same states that derive most of their incomes from the tourism which causes the CO2 emissions. So what are they campaigning for - a massive loss in income from reduced tourism, or what? This piece discusses this in more detail.

IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR WIND FARMS?

This article looks at research which suggests that we may be past "peak wind farm", unless even more subsidies are given out. To quote from the article " the decision facing owners of ageing wind farms is extremely difficult, except to decommission. Repowering* is by no means a simple matter:"
*Repowering means replacing existing turbines with new more powerful ones.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT LIKE "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" SAYS QC IN COURT CASE

Jim Ratcliffe, owner of Ineos, a leading Petro-chemical company (and also the UK's richest person, worth £21 billion according to Forbes Rich List) is taking the Scottish SNP lead government to court over its declared policy to ban fracking in Scotland. Here is a link to the details. Apparently Mr Ratcliffe has bought licences to carry out fracking - so at the very least he must be due a refund! You really could not make up the stupidity that goes on north of the border.

BOTH SIDES IN THE CLIMATE DEBATE IGNORE THE LATEST RESEARCH

So locked up in the traditional arguments of the past are the main protagonists that they are ignoring the new elephant that is now in the room according to  this article.  –strong evidence that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have no significant effect on global temperatures in the real world over recent decades. The studies involved conclude that the minor increases in global temperatures during this period can be entirely explained using natural factors.

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS TRY TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST OIL COMPANIES

This post discusses the question of whether oil companies "knew" that their product would cause dangerous climate change.  We now find that in fact it is natural factors which appear to dominate the weather.

CLIMATE TALKS REACH STALEMATE

This article gives the details.  Once again we learn that this is more about the money than the climate.  It takes an outsider like Donald Trump to see the truth, or at least to acknowledge it publicly. I really was an extraordinary achievement for him to win the Presidency. Will he be able to win over the people to see what we sceptics can see? 

CALIFORNIA TO MAKE SOLAR PANELS COMPULSORY

This article explains the situation in California where there is a vote on this controversial issue.

THE LEFT CAUGHT OUT BY THEIR LIES OVER OIL POLLUTION LAW SUIT

This piece reveals all the dirty tricks used by environmental activists to try and extract a huge sum of money from Chevron oil company. This story makes us all ask the question - who can you trust? 

SENIOR MET OFFICE MAN CAUGHT OUT LYING OVER FORECAST OF SEVERE COLD WEATHER IN UK

This report from Paul Homewood explains the situation in full. Clearly the Met Office man (Adam Scaife) wanted to sound efficient and accurate in forecasting a spell of severe weather well ahead. But thanks to Paul's dogged detective work he has been found out. 

IS CALIFORNIA ABOUT TO FACE A NEW ENERGY CRISIS?

This report is predicting it will. That is one thing that is certain to provoke a strong reaction from the public. Here in the UK we are often told we could face blackouts, but as yet they haven't arrived, unlike the unfortunate residents of South Australia. 

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN AFRICA ARE DYING DUE TO CLIMATE POLICIES

This paper looks at the way that the over-riding target of reducing CO2 emissions has led to real hardship for the poor in Africa. Indoor air pollution is the major killer there and the way to stop it is to give them cheap electricity through fossil fuels like coal or gas.

COULD THIS PAPER OVERTURN THE NEED FOR THE PARIS AGREEMENT?

This paper is potentially a game-changer in the climate debate as it is the first one which supports a likely temperature rise for a doubling of CO2 that is not alarming, which has been permitted to be published in a "prestigious" climate journal - thus implicitly giving it credence. The paper is by Nic Lewis and Judith Curry, two well respected independent climate scientists. 

DANES SHOW THAT ELECTRIC VEHICLES ONLY SELL WITH SUBSIDIES

After Tesla Debacle, Denmark Reconsiders Electric Car Subsidies For The Rich
Bloomberg, 29 April 2018

Denmark may be open to financial incentives to buy electric cars after seeing a dramatic drop in sales of non-polluting vehicles, according to Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.



“We have tax incentives for electric cars, and you could discuss if they should be bigger. I will not exclude that,” Rasmussen said in an interview in Copenhagen. Any new incentives would be announced along with a government plan to boost clean-energy consumption after the summer, he said.

Danish sales of electric vehicles have fallen dramatically — from nearly 5,000 in 2015 to around 700 in 2017 — since Rasmussen’s center-right government phased out subsidies such as those offered in Norway and Germany.

With diesel having fallen out of favor across Europe in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, Denmark is now debating which vehicle types to promote and which to discourage.

The government has come under fire for its indiscriminate cuts to registration taxes, which have eroded incentives to buy green vehicles rather than those powered by fossil-fuels. Denmark has no car industry of its own and has one of the highest import duties in the world.

Adding to pressure on the government, the opposition Social Democrats grabbed the limelight last week by announcing plans to ban the sale of diesel vehicles by 2030, if they win elections due to be held by June 2019.

LIGHTING DIRECTOR WARNS OF IMPENDING DISASTER FROM EU DRAFT REGULATION

Madness II: EU Rule Could Leave Theatres Dark
The Guardian, 29 April 2018

The president of the Association of Lighting Directors warns that a new directive could make all existing equipment obsolete

I am writing to you as the president of the Association of Lighting Designers, and as the Founder of Theatre Projects, an international theatre design company that for 60 years has been at the forefront of British theatre technology, responsible for the stage design of the National Theatre, and for over 1,500 theatre projects in 80 counties.

I have been a lighting designer for over 60 years. British theatre now faces an extraordinary crisis. On Saturday 7 May consultation on an amazing EU draft regulation – the Energy Directorate’s Eco-design Working Plan 2016-19 – will close. If confirmed, in 2020 virtually all stage lighting equipment used throughout the British Theatre and entertainment industry will be rendered obsolete and the lamps within that create the light be unobtainable.

British theatre and British lighting design leads the world. This month alone on Broadway, two productions, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, lit by Neil Austin, and Angels in America, lit by Paule Constable, have attracted universal critical acclaim.

This draft regulation not only bans incandescent lamps, but virtually all the discharge and LED light sources that have been developed in recent years to reduce the theatre’s carbon footprint. This is a very real crisis. No existing entertainment lighting equipment presently meets the new theoretical power requirement.

If, in 18 months, such equipment were to be invented – an aim apparently pushing beyond the boundaries of physics today – it would certainly cost as much as five to 10 times the equipment it replaces. This is, therefore, a potential financial disaster at best, and an artistic and practical catastrophe for every theatre in the land.

The eco-design plan must exempt entertainment lighting from this mistaken regulation. The alternative may be dark and bankrupt theatres everywhere. Never again will the glories of our stages be seen in a proper light.

Richard Pilbrow
President, Association of Lighting Designers

WILL GREEN EU MADNESS COST IRELAND £600 MILLION?

Europe’s Green Madness Goes OTT: Ireland Faces Annual EU Green Energy Fines Of €600 Million
The Irish Independent, 30 April 2018

Ireland faces fines of €600m a year from the EU for failing to meet renewable energy targets and cutting carbon emissions by 2020.

New, more ambitious targets for 2030 do not let Ireland off the hook for the 2020 measures, it has emerged.

A report for the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which calculated the potential fines within two years, said they will be a matter for the European Court of Justice to impose.

Irish EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said there was confusion in some quarters that the 2020 targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive would be merged into the more ambitious targets for 2030. This would give the Government some breathing space and lessen the risk of punitive fines.

“But that is not the case. The 2020 target must be adhered to,” Mr Hogan said.

The commissioner urged the Government to be more proactive in developing wind and wave energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels in line with EU agreed targets.

IF SOLAR AND WIND ARE SO CHEAP WHY ARE THEY MAKING ELECTRICITY SO EXPENSIVE?

This piece asks that very simple and pertinent question. How can any politician not reach the obvious conclusion?