Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has told German businessmen that they may have to rely on Russian firewood for heating if they do not want to construct new nuclear power plants or bring in Russian gas supplies. At a business conference organized in Berlin by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Putin recognised that “the German public does not like the nuclear power industry for some reason.” He continued: “But I cannot understand what fuel you will take for heating. You do not want gas, you do not develop the nuclear power industry, so you will heat with firewood?” Putin then noted, “You will have to go to Siberia to buy the firewood there,” as Europeans “do not even have firewood.”

World Nuclear News
1 Dec 2010

www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=28907

Last Friday, I attended a conference for a multinational bank in Oman.

It is an annual event to update the region’s clients about the bank’s latest views on local and global conditions and, of course, to tell us about its latest products.

For the first time, I heard about the Chicago Climate Exchange (http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/)

I had thought that “green derivatives” was just myth or bad idea, not something able to be sold. But I was shocked to learn that the volume of trades has reached to one trillion dollars!

It seems we are just creating another speculative industry, which will attract huge funds, the whole thing far removed from basic and essential social investments.

I am not against real green initiatives that reduce the pollution, make use of energy more efficient, offer cleaner/better water or improve the healthy environment that surrounds us. I am against the linkage between those useful things and “climate change”, which just seems to put restrictions and taxes on some industries just to fund something not real.

“Climate Change” is something universal. It will keep changing and is more powerful than any human actions. This is my own personal view.

The joke of the conference was this:

When one of the attendees asked the instructor: “What if the investment is lost, how I can justify that to my manager?”

The answer: “Tell him that your company was supporting the fight against global warming!”

I wonder if that answer would be enough to keep feed me in future, if I will lose my job, or will I blame the weather for my decision!

I wonder how the carbon taxes collected in past and future will be justified to the future generations, when they discover that they were used to fund unnecessary and non-productive expenditures like trading on the Chicago Climate Exchange?

R H, Our Middle East Correspondent

Cuddly carbon keeps koalas & all animals, including us, alive.

CO2 is essential for life. More CO2 will do much good and no harm. If it is allowed to increase at the current rate it will feed the world’s coming peak population with NO more land, seed, cultivation or water.

For a beautifully illustrated article on the many benefits of carbon dioxide for the all life see: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/carbon-dioxide-feeds-the-world.pdf  [PDF, 2.7 MB] [Now updated 2^nd edition.]

By John Robertson 2010
Mount Tamborine, Queensland, Australia

John Robertson was born in Scotland. He was an Open Scholar at Cambridge and has a Masters degree in Engineering. He has spent his life in farming, as a fighter pilot and is now an Australian citizen living at Mount Tamborine. He and his wife are active in many community volunteer organisations.

He says “The note on CO2 is an extension of volunteering and my response to the ridiculous attacks on carbon dioxide by those who should know better. Pollutant indeed!

“This is all my own work (except where otherwise acknowledged in the text) with my own funds. I have no connection whatsoever with fossil fuel or other outside interests.” JR

Further reading:

The Positive Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
http://www.masterresource.org/2013/10/co2-positive-social-cost/

By Ray Evans and Tom Quirk

The story of how a combination of green missionaries and vested interests have distorted and crippled the Australian electricity industry.

Evans and Quirk conclude:

“By 2020 annual electricity consumption in eastern Australia is estimated from NEMMCO data to be 347 Twh. If renewables are to provide 20 per cent, and no new hydro is to be permitted, electricity production from wind farms (or other renewable sources) must provide 53 TWh. Ignoring for the moment the insuperable problem of unpredictability, and assuming a Load Factor of 25 per cent, this will require a total of 27,000 MW of windmill capacity. Every bit of coastline, every mountain ridge, and much else that can be secured for windmills will have to be pressed into service to meet this target.

“The capital cost of wind power is considered to be $2000 per kW, and so an extra 26,000 MW will cost $52 billion. And back-up will be required. So in addition to new coal plant required to provide an additional 60 TWh, back-up generation of at least 23,400 MW will be required. All of this will have to be paid for by the electricity consumer. These numbers could not appear in any Commonwealth budget; no government could justify that sort of expenditure.

“On top of all this we have system stability problems created by widely dispersed power sources, spread over tens of thousands of square kilometres; whose output can vary dramatically as the wind gusts and dies down; that are connected to the main grid by long, weak transmission lines—a system operator’s nightmare. Such a transmission network, weak and unreliable as it will be, will cost at least $30 billion.”

For the full article see:

http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/3/the-high-price-of-PC-power

“The Sierra Club is bolstering its long-standing campaign to block the construction of power plants across the country, assembling a team of 100 full-time employees to focus on the issue in 45 states.”

“This is where the environmental movement will make the most progress in the next five years,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/20/AR2010122005874.html

By Marc Morano – Climate Depot (December 08, 2010)

Link to Complete 321-Page PDF Special Report

More than 1,000 dissenting scientists (updates previous 700 scientist report) from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 2010 321-page Climate Depot Special Report — updated from the 2007 groundbreaking U.S. Senate Report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 1,000 international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated 2010 report includes a dramatic increase of over 300 additional (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the last update in March 2009. This report’s release coincides with the 2010 UN global warming summit in being held in Cancun.

More: http://www.climatedepot.com/a/9035/SPECIAL-REPORT-More-Than-1000-International-Scientists-Dissent-Over-ManMade-Global-Warming-Claims–Challenge-UN-IPCC–Gore

The Independent, 20 March 2000:

Snow is starting to disappear from our lives. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

The Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2010:

Britain is shivering in record-breaking cold weather for November despite data from the Met Office that we could be in for an unusually dry and mild winter.

To reduce the number of dead ducks found in oils sands tailings ponds, I propose Syncrude construct an array of wind turbines around the margins of the tailings ponds.

Ducks would be humanely shredded by green-friendly blades and fall to the Earth where they would form neat piles that could be retrieved using carbon neutral electric vehicles. The carcasses would have less contamination and could be served in the Syncrude cafeteria in building 41-B, thus reusing the carbon that would have been released into the atmosphere had the ducks been left to decay in the wild. Electricity from the wind turbines could be used to cook the birds.

Boats for duck recovery would become unnecessary, the ducks would not be coated in oil and Greenpeace could feel happy that the collection vehicles are recharged by power supplied by the bird shredders.

For the entertainment of “greens” all over the world, web cameras could watch in awe as the ducks fly into the collection area. This would reduce the need for smug, self-satisfied hypocrites to burn oil sand-derived fuel up to Fort McMurray to protest for the benefit of jet-set fuel-wasters such as David Suzuki, Al Gore and James Cameron.

I am all for alternative energy, but to rely on the wind, for cities, is just plain stupid. Not a single fossil fuel plant has been made obsolete by the present subsidized wind power. As long as hospitals expect 24-hour power, we will need proper power plants.

Richard Haley
Edmonton
Canada

First Published:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/duck+death+proposal/3775063/story.html

Mark Lawson

The Federal Government may have dumped (technically deferred) one nutty green scheme (emissions trading) but an equally nutty scheme remains in place – requiring electricity distributors to buy green electricity.

This scheme is nutty because no one has shown that green electricity supplied to an operating power network actually reduces emissions. The government, various green lobby groups and the mass of voters have simply assumed that it does. There are doubts about efficiency losses due to the whole network having to be retailored to accommodate renewables. And more doubts over just how much additional backup generator capacity will be required for intermittent power sources. These doubts are either ignored or dismissed as “myths”.

…

The Australian government has dived head-first into renewables with both eyes shut, and with the general approval of the voters, who mostly have no idea of what they have approved or how much it will cost. The government should drop the whole renewable energy scheme as too complicated and expensive and unlikely to save much carbon.

The full article: blowing-away-money.pdf [PDF: KB]

Mark Lawson is a senior journalist with The Australian Financial Review. He has written: “A Guide to Climate Change Lunacy – bad forecasting, terrible solutions”.
Connor Court – $29.95. http://www.connorcourt.com/ or book stores.

The ABC 7.30 Report on 23.09.10 featured Tim Flannery, introduced by Kerry O’Brien as Scientist, Writer, Explorer.

It was a blatant example of the ABC’s push to establish a carbon tax. But Flannery himself revealed what it is all about – controlling human populations everywhere.

It is about “changing human nature”.

For instance Dim Tim assured the audience that free markets are the most dangerous spin off from Darwinism. He assured us that markets have to regulated. Free markets allowed some people to become very very rich, but this was at the expense of the rest of the population. He is not in favour of abolishing markets, but, he insists they must be intelligently regulated.

On the subject of climate change he assured the audience that “Yes, there will be a cost to suppressing Carbon, but it is absolutely necessary.”

One of Tim’s heroes is James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis. Lovelock told the Guardian earlier this year that “democracy must be put on hold” to combat global warming and that “a few people with authority” should be allowed to run the planet.

Tim’s manner very positively indicates to us that he will be one of the chosen few to organise and run society.

Ronald Kitching
Frenchville Rockhampton, QLD Australia.

Interested people can read the transcript and hear the disturbing and revealing interview at:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s3020434.htm