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Shuets Udono
By Jo Nova
Remember how we predicted insurance costs would rise when people realized that almost brand spanking new EV’s were being written off for scratches, because no one could test their battery and be sure it would not ignite? And then there was the news that after an accident, electric cars need to social distance, taking up as much as 50 times as much parking space, in case they blow other cars up? Well, insurance companies have realized this too. One underwriter has paused offering EV’s insurance entirely, while other companies are ramping up the rates by 60 – 900%. What a shock:
‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs
Zoe Wood, The Guardian
In the Facebook group, members share stories of horror renewal quotes, with increases ranging from 60% (up to £1,100) to a staggering 940% (a jump from £447 to £4,661, according to a screengrab shared by one driver).
“I spent weeks on every comparison site as well as trying individual insurers and specialist brokers, but either they wouldn’t cover the car or the quotes were £5,000 or […]
By Jo Nova
Only two weeks ago a team of archeologists discovered an arrow made from a shell had survived 3,300 years in the ice in Norway. As the glaciers melt, the team has found some 4,000 items of clothes and hunting gear. Things that must have been precious to someone at the time — like hand-made leather bridles and Viking age knives — peeling away layers of history.
The director of the archeology team, Lars Holger Pilø, is very excited about finding a treasure trove of Early Bronze Age relics (as you would be). But he laments the cause — “the reason they are melting out is sad,” — he exclaims. The ice melt will lead to drastic changes in Norway’s landscape, he says, without seeming to notice he’s talking about warming the world back to what it was. Oh, the horror of a warmer climate that humans thrived in for thousands of years.
Today, some youngsters glue themselves to a road at the thought of another half a degree temperature rise, but imagine having to kill dinner with a shell strapped to a stick?
A 3,300 year old arrow made out of freshwater pearl mussel. | […]
By Jo Nova
For some reason wind and solar power will not be powering a new EV battery factory in Kansas. Instead the sudden extra demand for electricity will be met by keeping an old coal-fired plant running.
Environmentalists are not happy. Wait ’til they realize no one even knows if EV’s will reduce carbon dioxide at all.
EV Battery Factory Will Require So Much Energy It Needs A Coal Plant To Power It
Kevon Killough, Cowboy State Daily
A $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory in De Soto, Kansas, will help satisfy the Biden administration’s efforts to get everyone into an EV. It also will help extend the life of a coal-fired power plant.
The Kansas City Star reports that the factory will require between 200 and 250 megawatts of electricity to operate. That’s roughly the amount of power needed for a small city.
Naturally, to make something utterly pointless takes a lot of taxpayer money and Panasonic will receive $6.8 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, which will, quite possibly, increase emissions and create inflation too.
As Mark Mills said it takes 250 tons of material to make […]
Image by Ritu Rawat
By Jo Nova
It’s just another wake up call in the Green fairy fantasy land
It’s a nice idea to think we can store electricity in liquid fuels and effectively run our planes on wind or solar power, but the numbers are not your friend. The chief of Europe’s second largest airline presumably thought it was time to remind our planetary saviors that aviation really needs Avgas. There is no realistic option to decarbonize flights.
German airline Lufthansa says it would consume half of Germany’s electricity if it were to switch to green fuels
By Prarthana Prakash, Fortune
…while Lufthansa has tried to do its bit to adopt sustainable practices, the company’s chief says that switching the airline to green fuels like e-kerosene could come at a big price—half of Germany’s electricity supply.
“We would need around half of Germany’s electricity to create enough of the fuels,” Lufthansa’s Carsten Spohr said at an aviation conference Monday, Bloomberg reported. He added that while green fuels made using renewable energy sources would help Lufthansa decarbonize its fuel consumption, the […]
Turtle Castle image by SAIF 4
By Jo Nova Rishi Sunak’s delay in the NetZero Quest was the crack in the Uniparty Wall
Thanks to NetZeroWatch
It threatens to ignite a climate election. It matters, because now, suddenly, one party can point out the absurdities and the costs. They can be an Opposition, and mock the sacred cows. That doesn’t mean Sunak will do that, but the fork in the road has opened, the world is watching — and his party is suddenly up four points.
The Green funds cartel is “in shock” sayth Bloomberg, at the Sunak shift — so it must be pretty serious. Green investors are using the words “dismay” and “bewilderment”, which they almost never use. Green investment relies almost entirely on crowd psychology and government subsidies, so normally bad news is padded and fluffed so it doesn’t look so bad. We wouldn’t want to lose momentum would we? Boy are they losing momentum.
Meanwhile Sweden has not only cut climate money a bit, it’s unshackled some taxes off fossil fuels as well, leaving the centre left apoplectic and threatening to move motions of […]
By Jo Nova
Unguarded Big-Money works like acid against democracy
Just like everywhere in the West, the money Australian’s earn may be quietly used against them to push policies they don’t want. The Australian Retirement Trust (ART) and HESTA are using their voting rights on corporate boards to push for climate action and gender diversity. They aren’t polling their members to find out if this is what they want. They are just following The BlackRock and GFANZ banker cartel modus operandi. It is coercion, done with the illusion of “good intentions”, but in reality, aggressively self-serving behaviour. The management of HESTA and ART couldn’t care less what the owners of the money want.
ART is a $260 billion fund (Australia’s second largest) with 2.2 million members. HESTA is a $76 billion fund with nearly 1 million members who are mostly working in health and community service. Just as with the US Funds, there surely is a question of fiduciary duty. Are these funds maximizing the return for investors or are they using their money to achieve political ends that result in lower income for retirees? Environmental investors lost 22% last year when energy investors made 54%.
So for directors […]
Climate Justice looks a bit like a criminal phishing campaign.
By Jo Nova
Malware to save the planet eh?
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) is asking supporters to send deceptive links out to friends and family that look like a cookie recipe but embed software cookies instead on the victim’s computer. The digital cookie then pushes green climate videos into their feeds, (as if the ABC news wasn’t loaded enough).
Look out for any links to oneminutecookie.com.
The AYCC gets about $3m in donations, and even visits schools, teaching children how to cheat and lie to save the planet, or something like that. What are good family relationships built on after all, if not deception? What is science if it is not propaganda?
These are all good questions to raise with the children in your life and the schools in your area. Don’t wait for an email to arrive, thank the AYCC for providing the opportunity to start the conversation now.
If the believers are so caring, ethical and moral why are they teaching children it’s OK to deceive family members? Is this the kind of “fair and just” world we want to live in?
Call up […]
By Jo Nova
The UN is morphing into the New World Eco-Cathedral and the first commandment is “Give Us Your Money”
Antonio Guterres opened the Working Group Chapter on Fire and Brimstone and dug deep:
[AP News] “Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday, opening a special climate ambition summit with yet another plea for action. “ Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods. Sweltering temperatures spawning disease. And thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage.”
In a reversion to the medieval era of microbiology, apparently heat itself spawns disease from the ether. We know heat is the devil itself, the source of all evil, as the IPCC has not found one single good thing that might happen with more hotness.
No one is even pretending this is science anymore, are they?
Once equilibrium climate sensitivity is at the Gates of Hell level, where can it go next? Magma level? And is that better or worse?
The developed world was put in the naughty corner, and not allowed to speak, so they didn’t turn up, or perhaps it was the other way around.
[…]
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
By Jo Nova
Was this the “Peak NetZero” moment for the British Isles?
Perhaps the threat of jailing people for owning the wrong fridge was a step too far?
On Monday the UK government was insisting the ban on petrol cars by 2030 would still go ahead. Today, in a rush, it’s been delayed 5 years, along with slowing down the forced push to get rid of gas boilers. About a fifth of all householders apparently won’t ever have to buy a wildly expensive heat pump they could not afford. (Shame the other four fifths will). People won’t be getting seven different recycling bins, taxes on meat, flying and new rules on car sharing, at least not yet. Here’s hoping they’ll get delayed forever.
Naturally the PM is insisting this is “not a short term decision aimed at winning the next election” — because in a democracy, that would be a terrible thing, right. Imagine trying to appeal to voters. The Sin of it!
Labor immediately promised to undo this travesty of allowing the public to choose whatever kind of car they want for another five years. Which is good news. If Rishi Sunak […]
By Jo Nova
It’s like the bushfires and baking heat are already here (in your mind, if not in reality)
It’s as if we’re preparing for Pearl Harbour or something — and if you are not scared, you should be, and even if this summer isn’t that unprecedented, you will feel like it is, and if the hellfire doesn’t eventuate, there’ll be no headlines saying “Oops. We panicked for nothing!”
After 150 years of Pacific Oscillation, the Pacific has oscillated again. An El Nino has been declared, and like the last 27 El Ninos since Federation, it will probably be warmer and drier “than average” in Australia. But the Merchants of Panic are already calling it a summer of severe wildfires and droughts. There’s no flames yet, but Reuters is wheeling out the photos of burnt out wrecks. SBS found experts to badger us into making a “heat wave plan” — like seriously, as if Australians need three months to remember what summer is. No really — The Executive Director of Sweltering Cities (whatever that is), says you should buy up those extra ice cube trays now and learn the signs of heat exhaustion. Prepare your home — like […]
By Jo Nova
News is just a non-stop Psy-Op now
Sydney is getting five warm days in a row and the Sydney Morning Horror is warning that it could be deadly. Even newspapers in Belgium think their readers need to know there’s a warm spring in Australia — 10 – 15 degrees above average. It’s not even a record. Not even “the hottest in history” — just by golly, a bit warmer than a similar September heatwave, you know, nine years ago.
It was 35.6 degrees in September 2000 — so after 23 years of global warming, it’s not even hotter.
Sydney is due to hit 30 degrees on Sunday and Monday, but will reach new highs of 32 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The city hasn’t experienced consecutive days of 30-degree-plus weather in September since 2014. This week will be 10 degrees hotter than Sydney’s August average.
Driving a car could be deadly today too, but we don’t put it in a headline. The psychological effect is to generate fear of warm weather.
What is exciting is that Sydney didn’t even reach 32C last summer, at all, so after one of the least warm not-hottest 12 months on […]
By Jo Nova
Apple aims at customers with too much money and a desperate need to feel smug
You too can save the world, by spending two-grand on the latest tech-wear — not because it’s lighter, better, faster, bigger, or more useful, but because you want to look like you care about stopping bad weather and bush fires. Signal your virtue to the world! Wear your smug-watch and smile. It’s carbon neutral, and you are the leading carbon-show-off in the class. (Pretend you care about the kids mining cobalt in the Congo, or the Uighur camps in Xinjiang. Oh nevermind.)
There is a spiritual void out there in 2023 and Apple wants to fill it. But this religion is a world of shallow consumerism and point-scoring, pretending it is deeply philosophical and generous. Apple are this close to turning their brand into a teachy-preachy pagan apostle of Gaia.
And did Mother Nature say she controls the weather? Oops. What are all the windfarms for?
Mother Nature is a bossy black woman, wouldn’t you know, and the word for the advert is “cringeworthy“.
This adverts sums up everything about the motivations of the average climate acolyte. Like a Gucci handbag, […]
By Jo Nova
For most of our lives, scientists have been among the most trusted community leaders. But not any more.
For nearly fifty years, more than four out of ten Americans said they had a “great deal of confidence” in the people running our institutions of science. This was the strongest possible answer people could give. But all that has changed in the last few years with public opinion on science now splitting along political lines. Faith in the institutions of science has collapsed among conservative voters.
The goodwill, the trust and esteem built by things like The Manhattan Project and the Moonshot carried on for decades, but when Covid arrived, and science was the number one public topic of debate, many scientists sat silent on the sidelines. The lab leak theory came and went and then turned out to have been true all along. When ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine could have saved lives, scientists said nothing. When vaccines were sold as “safe and effective”, researchers who knew there were risks, sat on their hands. When borders could have been shut to stop bioweapons, Trump was left on his own. When universities failed the nation, scientists mostly sided with the […]
….https://phys.org/news/2023-09-planetary-boundaries-exceeded.html
By Jo Nova
Earth’s Blood Pressure is too high now
Modern Science looks more like a Medieval Guild every day
Back in May humans did the first ever study quantifying Earth System Boundaries, which was incredible luck. After two hundred thousand years of homo sapiens stretching the bounds of the planet, we barely discovered “Earth System Boundaries” in time to find out we hit the limit 12 weeks later. What are the odds?
It’s almost as if a whole twig of science was invented in order to write scary press releases? It’s another unauditable, unaccountable collective of Experts who can never be wrong, only “useful” to the bureaucratic machine. They call themselves scientists but their predictions will never be tested, only marked against the Department wish-list.
We can all appreciate the talismanic symbolism (and marketing value) below, where segments of the sacred arcs are tainted blood red, as Earth progressively descends into the anthropogenic abyss year upon year.
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-planetary-boundaries-exceeded.html
Red Agate pendants cut-to-match will no doubt be ready for Christmas.
Meanwhile the same climate models that can’t predict any of the last two thousand years, or next months floods, droughts and rains — can somehow […]
By Jo Nova
William Happer
I was lucky enough to spend some time with the wonderful Professor William Happer the last few days thanks to the IPA. The man is a living legend of science having worked on the StarWars program in the Cold War and with the White House in the 1990s and in the Trump era. His talk had something for everyone, speaking about the need for bravery in dangerous times, and the psychology of crowds and yet with enough detail on emission spectrum calculations to appeal to the true science nerds as well. His work on adaptive optics with lasers in the atmosphere was considered so important to national security it was classified as a military secret. Despite that he was one of the first casualties of the political war on science – losing his position as Director of Energy Research in the US Dept of Energy in 1993 for speaking his mind on ozone.
Happer conveys an enthusiasm for physics, astronomy, the Earth that is infectious.
Book Now — and don’t forget the IPA offers a program for 15-25 year olds called Generation Liberty — with membership for just $10 a year and free […]
By Jo Nova
Nothing at all about the modern era stands out as unusual
Thanks to David Whitehouse at NetZeroWatch who has found a remarkable paper: Pyrenean caves reveal a warmer past
The new study on stalagmites in caves of the Pyrenees shows that modern climate change is nothing compared to normal fluctuations in the last 2,500 years, when it was at times much hotter, colder, and more volatile. Rapid shifts between temperatures were common.
The researchers looked at 8 stalagmites in 4 caves and local lake levels, but they also compared their results with other European temperature proxies and reconstructions and the pattern is consistent across the region. The Roman Warm Period was much hotter than today, and for hundreds of years as well, even though coal plants were rare. Apparently, there was a reason Romans were dressed in togas.
The Dark Ages were very cold, especially around 520 – 550AD — which may be related to what the researchers call a “cataclysmic” volcanic eruption that took place in Iceland in 536AD. It was followed by two other massive volcanic eruptions in 540 and 547AD. This effect is apparently visible in European tree rings which showed “an unprecedented, long-lasting […]
By Jo Nova
Vivek Ramaswamy has a plan. It’s quite something to listen to. He has an extraordinary combination of skills.
This is a man who is only 38, and has studied molecular biology*, made millions in biotech, understands Big Pharma, but he’s also done a law degree at Yale. He is that rarest of combinations — the CEO who understand biology and science, and the lawyer who reads the constitution, and the investor who has played and won on Wall Street. He is all of these things.
I’ve never heard a Presidential candidate speak like this — with an eight year plan grounded in the legal foundations of the nation. He knows employment laws make individuals unsackable, but whole departments can be razed. Nothing can stop the President from dismantling the FBI if he wants to. Ramaswamy is already assembling a team, picking the players. He can list what he will get done by 2033 when he leaves office and his youngest starts high school.
Last week I played a small extract of this interview with Shawn Ryan — where Ramaswamy described how the FDA is captured by Big Pharmaceutical firms. ( “Big Pharma is the worlds biggest lobbying […]
By Jo Nova
It’s not now and has never been, about your health
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London is forcing workers to shell out thousands of pounds to buy new cars or fill his tax coffers with the £12.50 daily fee for driving slightly older models. Some will have to give up their cars altogether — and for many it means a profound change of lifestyle. Yet what’s it all for?
The Mayor’s own team shows it will achieve almost nothing, yet he’s doing it anyway. It’s not now, and has never been about “the science”. The results of research are entirely optional apparently:
SADIQ Khan’s hated ULEZ expansion will add just 13 minutes to the average life expectancy, it emerged today.
Noa Hoffman, The Sun
Research by the Mayor’s own team in collaboration with Transport for London has found the scheme’s impact will be “minor” and “negligible”.
It’s predicted to only cause a 1.3% reduction in the average Londoner’s exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
And it would add just 13 minutes to the life expectancy of a Londoner in 2023, according to the Channel Four News Fact Check service.
By Jo Nova
43% fewer cyclones is a good thing, right?
Using the same ClimateChangeTM reasoning the UN Secretary General uses, it’s clear fossil fuel use dramatically reduces the number of dangerous cyclones in the Northern Indian Ocean. A new study revealed an astonishing 43% decline in the number of equatorial cyclones in recent decades (1981–2010) compared to earlier (1951–1980) when fossil fuel use was vastly reduced. The researchers also point out that this is especially interesting because “the Indian Ocean basin has warmed consistently and more than any other ocean basin.” Could it be that warmer oceans are not necessarily terrible?
The study looked at the Low-Latitude Cyclones (LLC) that originate near the equator in the North Western Indian ocean. These LLC’s are smaller but intensify more rapidly than other cyclones, giving people less time to prepare. In 2017 LLC Ockhi caught forecasters off guard, travelled 2,000 kilometers and caused the deaths of 884 people in Sri Lanka and India.
This is obviously a benefit for the billion poor people who live around the Bay of Bengal. The researchers however, for some reason do not call for an increase in fossil fuel emissions. Instead they looked for and found […]
Image by Tracy Lundgren from Pixabay
By Jo Nova
The UK government is absolutely not asking you to ration electricity, to give up control of your own appliances, to pay more for less, and go to jail if you get it wrong.
This just looks a lot like that:
Turn on your heat pump when wind is blowing, Government pleads
Nick Gutteridge, The Telegraph
Ministers are pressing ahead with new legislation that could see families made to adopt “smart” appliances to ease pressure on the grid. Tory MPs are opposing the proposals, contained in the contentious Energy Bill which will come back before the Commons on Tuesday.
Are they your appliances or the state’s? If you don’t control the power switch you know the answer.
When they call something “smart” we know it’s stupid — and the mind-boggling complexity of central agencies switching on and off ovens and heaters across the country to “fit” with the weather is a dystopia we don’t need to have. Do you need 90 minutes to roast a chook, or 120? It depends on the wind strength in Scotland. If the kids can’t get to bed early, or […]
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