While Australia is increasing expenditure of consumer and taxpayer money to the renewables industry, governments around the world have decided that “enough is enough”.

Other countries are realising that renewable energy is a massive waste of tax payer funds and has zero or negligible effect on CO2 emissions. They are thus cutting or eliminating subsidies to the grossly inefficient green power generators.

Here are some recently reported examples:

Spain cuts subsidies to wind and solar:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6611YR20100702

Italy cuts subsidies to wind and solar:
http://www.windfair.net/press/7606.html

Germany cuts subsidies to solar:
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2265976/germany-poised-phase-solar

Denmark to cut subsidies to wind:
http://www.ref.org.uk/PressDetails/163

France to slash solar subsidies:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/182530-european-solar-subsidy-slashing-bad-news-for-investors

Ontario cuts incentives for solar:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/07/07/ottawa-solar-rate-drop.html

Wind power does not reduce CO2 emissions:
http://www.masterresource.org/2010/06/subsidizing-co2-emissions/

Here are a few examples of the ways in which Australian state and federal Governments subsidise or give unfair advantage to renewables:

• Bans on nuclear power
• Renewable Energy Targets
• Renewable Energy Certificates
• Feed in Tariffs
• Direct government subsidies for renewable energy
• Tax and other incentives
• Cost of the electricity grid enhancements that are needed to accommodate the disruptive, erratic renewable energy generators is shared by everyone instead of being attributed to the renewable energy generators.
• Super Profits Tax on coal mining.
• Threats to shut down or in other ways disadvantage coal fired power plants without fair compensation for the investors.

PDF version: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sunset-for-subsidies.pdf [PDF, 15KB]

The first climate scare was man-made “global warming”.

But the warming refused to appear as fast as the models predicted, so it became “climate change”.

But people were not stupid and soon were saying “but climate always changes”.

So now the climate scare industry is focussing on “extreme weather events”, and naturally they still claim these are caused by man-made carbon dioxide.

Timed beautifully for the meeting of the climatists in Durban, the UN IPCC has outdone themselves in forecasting extreme weather events – “weather on steroids”. Determined to scare up a consensus in Durban, this weather scare is sprinkled with warnings of “diluvian rains”, and droughts, cyclones, heat-waves of such magnitude or frequency that “settlement in some areas could be wiped out” and “some areas will become increasingly marginal as places to live” and “it is possible that many residents will have to relocate.”

Source (With thanks to CCNet):
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/un-scientists-forecast-more-severe-droughts-cyclones-and-floods-
20111113-1ndu0.html

Maybe they should be reminded that extreme weather events have been occurring as far back as earth history has been recorded. Here is a listing of “extreme events” over 1900 years, prepared by James Marusek:

Check them out here: http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Weather.pdf

Here is another list of droughts, fires, floods and disappearing or growing ice. It starts with a record of sea floods that drowned 100,000 people in Holland in 1481.

See: http://www.c3headlines.com/bad-stuff-happens.html

Maybe “extreme weather events” are “normal” here on earth and man has very little to do with most of them. Someone needs to tell the pampered pontificators of the IPCC: “Bad Stuff Happens – get used to it, make appropriate preparations – you are not going to stop it.”

More:

• A comment on extreme weather from the Soviet era
• Back to the Dark Ages
• The March of the Triffids
• Exposing the Global Warming Lies
• Wind Energy Ghosts
• The Scientific Scandal of our Generation
• How to Get Expelled from School
• The Turd in the Swimming Pool
• Feedback from a Supporter
• The Road Ahead

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bad-stuff-happens.pdf [PDF, 76 KB]

US Government has declared war on efficient energy. Just like an enemy in wartime the US capacity to produce cheap reliable energy is being destroyed while the nation is cluttered with expensive energy failures like wind and solar.

Mike Fox summarises the gathering disaster of wind energy. “Windmills are too intermittent, too undependable, too unreliable and far too costly. “ And most turbines probably “can never generate enough energy during its lifetime to manufacture the windmill”.

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fox-economic-suicide-for-the-us-july-2010.pdf [PDF, 47 KB]

See also:

http://carbon-sense.com/2011/10/21/wind-power-fails-britain/

http://carbon-sense.com/2011/02/08/why-wind-wont-work/

http://carbon-sense.com/2011/12/01/miller-to-salmond-letter/

By Brendan Godwin

The inclusion of unreliable energy sources such as wind and solar (“The Unreliables”) in our supply grids is causing massive fluctuations in electricity dispatch costs from $50-$100/MWh to $14,000/MWh and up to $60,000/MWh in South Australia in the Jan 2019 heat wave (Judith Sloan The Australian Jan 29, 2019) and see the graph below. This ultimately falls on consumer bills. Additionally, the locations for all of these unreliable generation sites are far from current transmission networks and new transmission lines have to be built and footprint cost and capacity factors have to be taken into account. People pushing for “The Unreliables” don’t factor these costs into their costings and neither do government pricing models. Nor do they include all of the subsidies paid to “The Unreliables” plus the state royalties on coal that forced Hazelwood’s closure.

(more…)

By Viv Forbes

Solar energy is very dilute, so solar collectors usually cover huge areas of flat arable land, stealing farmland, starving wild herbs and grasses of sunlight and creating “Solar Deserts”.

A Solar Desert expanding at Gannawarra in Victoria, Australia. Picture Credit ARENA

Wind turbines steal energy from winds which often bring moisture from the ocean. These walls of turbines then create rain shadows, producing more rain near the turbines and more droughts down-wind. Turbines work best along ridge lines where eagles also seek thermals, so birds and bats get chopped up by these whirling scythes. They also annoy neighbours with noise and increase bushfire risk. (more…)

It’s the electoral season for green-money showers in Australia – the Coral Community got one billion dollars of green bribes from PM Morrison (this after $141M from ex-PM Turnbull just over 3 years ago). Koalas got $50M from Morrison whilst the Queensland Government bought a huge grazing property for yet another national park. And of course the Green Broadcasting Commission got an extra $3.3Billion over 3 years to promote their green agenda.

This flood of green graft aims to bribe green voters by molly-coddling trees and corals, both of which are among Australia’s long-term survivors. However, today’s greatest environmental destruction is being inflicted on Australia’s once-magnificent grasslands by those same urban greens. (more…)

By Viv Forbes

For 26 long years the UN and their tame media have promoted their expensive annual climate carnivals. This month they will flock to Glasgow for COP 26 but they will not arrive on Shetland ponies, penny farthings or sailing boats – hydro-carbon energy will get most of them there and keep them warm and well fed.

These jamborees are designed to spread climate lies and green energy propaganda. (more…)

By Alvin Wong and Wyss Yim. Volcanoes Study Group, Hong Kong.

Summary

During late 2021, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano erupted creating a new island which erupted sub-aerially on 15^th January, 2022 sending a plume 58 km above sea level penetrating the mesosphere. The study of observation records including satellite data has revealed warming of the ocean-surface layer followed by atmospheric cooling caused by the release of geothermal heat and volcanic materials entering the atmosphere respectively. Environmental factors influencing weather include the development of a relatively ‘short’ life-span South Pacific Blob; the transfer of large quantities of water vapour from the ocean into the atmosphere; the low-pressure condition on the ocean surface; the formation of clouds; the reduction of solar radiation caused by volcanic materials in the atmosphere; the strengthening of trade winds; the meandering of jet streams; the development of atmospheric rivers, the additional cooling effect of torrential rainfall, and, the switch to La Niña conditions. The record rainfall in eastern Australia and New Zealand and Tropical Cyclone Dovi occurring in February 2022 were both outcomes of atmospheric cooling following the sub-aerial eruption. (more…)

There is a persistent green myth that coal-fired power generation causes city smogs. It does not.

City air pollution is nothing new. King Edward I complained about London pollution in 1306, as did Queen Elizabeth I in 1578, long before the first steam engine operated.

Let’s look at the causes of some famous smogs – London/Pittsburgh, Los Angeles/Santiago, the Dust Bowls and the Asian Smogs.

The London smogs were caused by open-air combustion of newspapers, wood and cheap high-sulphur unwashed coal in domestic fires, stoves and boilers; by coal-burning blacksmiths, brewers and ironworkers in smoky forges, furnaces and coke plants; and by many smoky steam locomotives; all with inefficient combustion and no pollution controls. The smog was slowly eliminated by clean air regulations and by changing to “clean coal by pipe” (town gas) and “clean coal by wire” (electricity).

The Los Angeles smogs were caused mainly by backyard incinerators, vehicle exhausts and natural air inversions. They were reduced by using cleaner fuels, better engines and compulsory pollution-control equipment. Santiago has undergone a similar clean-up.

The Dust Bowl conditions of the Great Plains in USA were caused by drought and wind erosion of newly cultivated soils. Gobi Desert storms produced the Yellow River and the Yellow Sea and contribute to the Asian Brown Cloud today.

Today’s Asian smogs have many sources – forest fires in Indonesia; open air cremations in India; dust from volcanic eruptions and desert storms; soot, ash and other pollutants from millions of domestic rubbish fires, mosquito fires, cooking fires and heaters using anything combustible – cow dung, wood, paper, cardboard, plastic or cheap unwashed coal; and soot and unburnt hydro-carbons from millions of vehicles, many with engines needing maintenance and no pollution controls. Beijing today combines the 1950’s problems of both London and Los Angeles.

The Asian smog is NOT caused by producing electricity in modern power stations with closed boilers, pollution controls and using high-quality washed coal such as exported by Australia to Asia. The “power station pollution” pictured so eagerly in ABC and Green propaganda is actually steam from the cooling towers.

The main products released by modern coal-fired power stations are water vapour and carbon dioxide – both are essential life supporters. Neither one is dangerous. Both make our climate more liveable, but the contribution of carbon dioxide to climate is tiny. And the carbon dioxide produced by burning coal has done more to encourage the growth of plants and the greening of planet Earth than Greenpeace will ever do.

“Clean coal by wire” into every home is the one thing that could solve much of the Asian air pollution.

Disclosure: Viv Forbes has a science degree and long experience in Australia’s primary industries. He is self-employed, owns a farm and holds shares in a small Australian coal explorer which will benefit when Asia decides to solve their energy and pollution problems using “clean coal by wire”.

Further reading:

Gobi Desert Dust Storms: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-track-asian-du

Desert Dust, Dust Storms and Climate: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/miller_01/

Is Coal Dirty? http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/is-coal-dirty.pdf

Coal combustion products: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/coal-combustion.pdf

Carbon & Carbon dioxide – Clearing up the Confusion: http://carbon-sense.com/2011/05/02/carbon-dioxide-confusion/

The Geological Society of London helped to drive UK climate policy. However many members of the GSL have questioned their position papers, and a group of disgruntled geo’s resigned after the position papers were published.

There is now a movement to have the GSL position papers amended, and comments and submissions are invited. Read all about it below:

Here is the questionable policy statement:

http://euanmearns.com/the-geological-society-of-londons-statement-on-climate-change/

And here are some comments to date:

http://euanmearns.com/the-geological-society-of-londons-statement-on-climate-change/#comment-36505
http://euanmearns.com/the-geological-society-of-londons-statement-on-climate-change/#comment-36507
http://euanmearns.com/the-geological-society-of-londons-statement-on-climate-change/#comment-36511

Please join this important debate.