After beginning the week with the Major, Tuesday is always something of a let down, but perhaps bulk can make up for lack of quality, and luckily there was something that triggered the reptiles.
Admittedly they're easily triggered, but adverse talk of poor, innocent, sweet, pure, long suffering dinkum Oz coal always sends them into a frenzy ...
The reptiles purport to see a need for cool heads, so what better way to begin than to call in an indignant Barners and an outraged Canavan caravan, because what's needed is a united howl of pain ...
Yes, yes, all that, but the pond wonders if it misled by talking of a Barners uniting with the Canavan caravan, when Barners took sole credit at the top of the page.
No, not really, there it was in the splash, with """ used, because who could find a snap to unite this unhappy pair?
The pond isn't certain that the question of authorship has been resolved - it's like some of Shakespeare's murkier plays - but still there's only a gobbet to go ...
Indeed, indeed, fuck climate science. If the Chinese can fuck climate science and Hong Kong and sundry minority groups, what a splendid example to follow ... and look, there's the Canavan caravan magically restored to authorship, and what a relief that we can completely ignore climate science ...
Strangely, the lizard Oz editorialist kept on being naive and felt so outraged it joined in, being a cool head and all, and so we had another bout of refusing to focus on the real issues ...
Yes, there it is in the final par, the lizard Oz editorialist, acting in the usual way, as a Little Sir Echo, delivering the goods for Barners and the Canavan caravan ... thank the long absent lord, they know how to stand up for mining while ignoring dangerous radicalised lefties of the NFF kind ...
Being a climate science day, naturally the reptiles also wheeled out Dame Groan, famous for her climate science credentials, impeccable field research and many published (and peer reviewed) findings ...
Indeed, indeed. Speaking of epidemiology, another famous Dame Groan skill set, it's interesting to see what happened when countries failed to take appropriate precautions, or failed to benefit from being an island. When the pond last checked, the United States was 463k plus and well on its way to 500k, while the UK had managed to reach 112k, plus ...
But of course if you do something because the doomsayers warn there might be doom ahead, you can mock them for false prophecies, and never mind the hapless lemmings that fell over the cliff elsewhere, thanks in part to mass delusions encouraged by the likes of Fox News ... and Dame Groan.
Much the same might be said of the precautionary principle when it comes to climate science, but Dame Groan has been a denialist for such a long time ... though strangely, she never admits to outright denial, she's just content to ignore the science and mock those who accept it ...
Of course, being a denialist, it turns out that the insurance companies are just involved in a scam, though the pond isn't quite sure how the scam also operates for banks and businesses ... and even, lord help the pond, the NFF...
Damned bunch of pinko pervert leftists, issuing outrageous press releases last year here ... what would they know, compared to Barners and the Canavan caravan, with their deep love of coal and big mining?
A global leader in low emissions agriculture?
To what avail? Back to Dame Groan for a final denialist gobbet ...
Indeed, indeed, "not trained in science." Of course such rapscallions are easy to detect by the Dame's impeccable scientific mind.
Please nota bene Dame Groan's astonishing training in science, with particular attention to her exceptional work in climate science, which naturally she boasts of in her CV ...
Scour her wiki here for impressive links to her many scientific publications ... (we keed, we keed, but at least it's short).
Mind you, there has never been a better time for unelected, superannuated News Corp activist denialists to do their thing, even as net zero hovers in the air ...
And so to a bonus, because what a relief it is to see the return of the long-lost bromancer, and what a fine fury he's in ...
Um, once Nixon was pardoned, there was no point to carry on carrying on? And silly lad, impeachment isn't just about removing an unfit president from office. But why let a cool head get in the way of bromancer hysteria.
You see, deep down the bromancer has always been a Trumpist, though he does his best to disguise it with a bit of both siderism, the sort of thin veneer you put over chipboard to give it respectability.
If the pond was being honest, the real reason it welcomes the return of the bromancer is that for a while now the pond had been thinking it might never again have a chance to run a few American cartoons celebrating American loonacy ... and yet, thanks to the bromancer, here we are ...
By golly, it's been entertaining ... and the pond must endure another bout of bromancer indignation before returning to the game ...
Brown? Oh well, the pond understands that brown is made up by combining red and greene in monitors, so the pond gets the bromancer's both sides point ...
And now back to the main game, which remarkably even includes a Ramirez ...
Talking about "a technology-led unofficial net-zero emissions target" as the Editorialist was, and deeply concerned about rural emissions of methane, as Barnaby-Canavan were, then how about this:
ReplyDelete"Neat Burger is flavour-filled fun. Serving a limited plant-based menu of all the right things, we will have a positive impact on both your stomach and the environment.
Neat Burger works in association with Beyond Meat and The Eden Projects. For every product sold, a tree is planted - so your positive impact is doubled with every purchase!"
https://neat-burger.com/
Yep, that's technology ! From London, BOC, but I'm sure a Brexited Britain will be only too happy to export it.
Don't tell Barnaby that there are companies in the US making ice cream -"children's ice cream, Mandrake" - in factories, using milk the same as cow's milk, made in stainless steel vats, no cows involved. No methane either.
ReplyDeleteSee: emissions killing technology is arising all over the world ! Won't Angus Black Beefy be so very pleased. Especially when AI technology replaces him.
DeleteAI? Like a lie-bot?
DeleteWould it be easy to program a machine to selectively ignore the rules of maths, to confuse apples and oranges, to select only the data points that support whatever lie you are peddling at the moment? You might get a HAL 9000 moment.
One of the things about coming here to mock the reptiles is that you get to know where they will generally go in any particular issue. Despite their conceit that they are trusted opinion leaders they tend to move in small, predictable circles recycling the same misinformation again and again.
They are even too lazy, or stupid, to invent their own lies. The difference now seems to be that they come right out and admit they are referencing Watts Up With That or Bjorn Lomborg.
Seems like they are in the endgame for many of these issues.
You know that various folks - including Apple and Musk - are trying to make an AI to provide 'self-driving' cars ? Well I reckon providing an AI reptile or Black Angus would be heaps simpler.
DeleteMind, they aren't exactly within cooee of a self-driving car, so maybe an Angus isn't quite as simple as it looks.
Here we go again. From the Editorialist: "the Gillard Government's carbon tax". It doesn't matter a whit, a jot or a tittle that one of their very own, viz Peta Credlin, has publically admitted that the Gillard "tax" was just an Abbott-Credlin lie, does it; we're going to get this ongoing dishonesty forever, aren't we.
ReplyDeleteAnd then: "the same destabilising forces that have toppled other leaders on the issue including Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd". Funny, I thought several of them - Abbott and Rudd in particular - were "destabilised" because they actually didn't do anything about climate change, not because they did.
But soon enough we come upon the Groany: "The desal plant [in Victoria] has been turned on from time to time for political purposes, but that's about it." Well, old habits die hard, so here goes:
"In March, Water Minister Lisa Neville ordered another 125 gigalitres (GL) for 2020-21. The water order commenced on July 1, with desalinated water continuing to contribute to our water storages.
The water order is the same as the 2019-20 order.
This decision was underpinned by careful consideration of the following factors:
current water storage conditions
projected water demands
possible future climate conditions
the balance between managing security of supply and minimising customer impacts.
Without this order, our water storages would be around 11% lower."
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-data-and-education/water-facts-and-history/why-melbournes-water-tastes-great/water-0
Yep, purely for political purposes. If you want to know more about the Groany's total decoupling from any connection with reality:
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-data-and-education/water-storage-levels/desalination-data
(Sorry, DP).
Oh hooray, the Brozen Bromancer is back and just as wobble-brained as ever. Firstly he can't seem to grasp that if the 2nd impeachment succeeded, it would - unlike the alternatives of a Senate censure or even a criminal conviction - have rendered Trump unable to ever again stand for public office. And it's that the Repugs want to prevent: Trump unable to stand for office and thus locked for the rest of his lifetime into a childish revenge fit that would work against the GOP for decades.
But Hey, what's this: "Marjorie Taylor Green ... was given an ovation by the Republican congressional caucus.
So Cheney and Sasse are unacceptable, Brown gets a round of applause."
Umm, has the Bro gone colour blind or just sense deprived over the hollys. (Sorry, DP, you are just too forgiving.)
It always struck me as particularly stupid that the opinion writers and, presumably, their readers ever entertained the idea that our trading partners would accept a tilted playing field where we could avoid the cost of abatement but they would not.
ReplyDeletehttps://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/02/08/carbon-border-tax-eu/
Even if they are not serious it's a lovely excuse for a bit of protectionism.
I guess it plays into the idea of exceptionalism, that we are smarter than foreigners because - - - -?
But, but, Australia never "dropped its carbon tax in 2014 following the election of the Abbott government" because it wasn't a tax. Though there are those, not necessarily only reptiles, that claim it was and that therefore Peta Credlin is lying when she says it wasn't.
DeleteSee here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-18/julia-gillard-carbon-price-tax/4961132?nw=0
PS ... because we're Anglo: originators of the only two great 'industrial revolutions' in human history: one in Britain, one later in the USA.
DeleteAll good then, I guess we will be saved by another technological 'moon shot', not of the renewable energy type I hasten to add.
DeleteI was thinking mainly of the UK type approach. I think Marina Hyde pointed out that the people who couldn't organise Brexit were the one proposing they would out-manage and out-innovate the EU countries.
In Oz we have the people who ran down our manufacturing, research and just about every other aspect of a first world economy doubling down on houses and holes to save us.
Just as an aside, I was taken by Dame Groan's 'Dutch Model' for dealing with sea level rise. Run this in manual mode and have a play with sea levels to see how long it takes to get into strife in your favorite seaside locale. Could be a very big program even at modest level rises.
https://coastalrisk.com.au/viewer
Most of the NSW coast is little better than reclaimed swamp. Places like inner Newcastle and Myall Lakes don't look good (bear in mind storm surge etc).
Nah, no probs, Bef; we'll just build a bloody great seawall all around Australia just like the Dutch did around the Netherlands. Though I think they're beginning to have to start raising it higher, so we should go for a very high wall right from the start.
DeletePardon my interrupting whatever the subject de jour, but Neil McMahon has just tweeted a couple of sentences that will bring much joy to the readership here I am sure.
ReplyDeleteTake it away Neil:
"Miranda remains one of the most absurd figures in Australian media, her bigotry and lies aided by the deft writing touch of a rubbish truck driver emptying your bins at 6am. She has ever been thus." https://twitter.com/NeilMcMahon/status/1358988379690442753
She's just an attention-seeking narcissist, and the pond is vastly relieved she headed overseas, and the pond could pay no attention. Remember this attempt to épater le bourgeoisie back in February 2017?
DeleteControversial News Corp columnist Miranda Devine has declared smoking “not that bad” because its deadly effects free up the health care system.
Devine, who is known for her conservative and often abrasive views on social and political issues, shocked TODAY host Karl Stefanovic after suggesting it was a “good thing” if smokers died early because it would unburden encumbered health care services.
“Well cigarettes aren’t that bad really when you think about it,” Devine said.
“It might shorten a couple of years off the end of your life, but that’s a good thing. That actually saves money in the long run for the health system.”
Stefanovic was gobsmacked and insisted outraged viewers direct all complaints to Devine’s email address, encouraging to columnist to reveal it to Nine’s audience. Devine smiled and refused.
Usually the pond is on the side of whores and sluts, but not when someone is so obviously a media slut ...
Having been a smoker for 58 of my 77 1/2 years, DP, I could almost agree with The Devine. After all, to smoke or not to smoke is a free personal choice, isn't it ? So when I took it up at age 12 just because all the men - including, BOC, my father - and most of my school mates all smoked, that was just an exercise of free democratic choice wasn't it.
DeleteSo the only thing I can disagree with is that the Devine has absolutely no idea what load the long, slow death of smokers imposes on society and its health and hospital system, and employment sick leave payments and health insurance premium costs etc etc.
In short, as usual, Miranda lives in some other universe apparently at right angles to this one.
A slight on rubbish truck drivers, me thinks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right on JC.
DeleteI did read the Dame Groan’s words of this day several times, looking for some hint of - yea, perhaps even a guide to - that ‘rational decision-making’.
ReplyDeleteThat is, after all, one of the functions claimed by economists.
I could not work out where she was going with her reference to ‘epidemiological predictions’, and I doubt that she had any sense of direction with them, either. Epidemiology essentially is about gathering what you know of the life cycle of an infective agent, its effects on its hosts (because it must have hosts) and iterate the range of those factors through a remarkably simple equation on the laptop device of your choice. But, as we have seen, it seems that skill is beyond those who proffer ‘opinions’ in return for Rupert’s regular transfers of funds to their BSB/Ac #. What was that about lazy journalism?
Then the other snippets. Failure to release water from Wivenhoe Dam earlier in the year? Is that supposed to be a demonstration of - market failure? Nope - there is no market involved - just basic engineering practice.
The Netherlands? Is the Dame going for the big engineering solution for the entire land of Girtby? She seems taken with the idea of ‘engineering solutions’ in this case, but deftly avoids indicating where such ‘solutions’ might be applied. The history of whitefella settlement tells us that most whitefellas are now gathered at the lowest points of the land around Girtby - usually at the mouths of rivers, which, funnily enough, tend to correlate with low-lying land.
While she is there, she might draw the attention of Barners and the Canavanman to how those cunning Netherlanders are trucking food to so much of the rest of Europe, by applying some of that ‘technology’ of which ScoMo speaks. They probably do a good line in chicken coops for the handy home assembler.
But her outstanding snippet is the ‘’the most efficient and environmentally sensitive means of dealing with rubbish is to use well-managed landfills’.
That’s right folks - oh, OK - there are a few teensy weensy details - like finding convenient large holes near our cities, and persuading the bits that freedom-loving citizens strew from their cars, and picnic sites, to make their way to those landfills - although, really, we would be better served if we welcomed seeing trash across the landscape as evidence of vibrant markets in action. Much like the DWAGS on ‘Catallaxy’ claim to welcome the commercials on their television programs.
Persuading aerial rubbish - smoke and fumes and smelter emissions - to similarly make their way to the great landfill is a bit more tricky - but just have faith in technology. There was something on TV a while back about new kinds of power stations, with coal - can’t recall which channel, but - it all seemed to be in hand.
Liquids and slurries from intensive animal culture? - again, it will, somehow, find its way to the great landfills - and without cost to the poor struggling primary producer.
Where were we - oh, yep - ‘rational decision-making’.
VC - I had not picked-up on your reference to Miranda and rubbish when I prepared this. Her kind of rubbish is just plain intractable, but thank you for the reference.
Don't forget this well-managed waste stream
Deletehttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-10/coal-ash-has-become-one-of-australias-biggest-waste-problems/10886866
Didn't a McDonalds exec have to fall on his sword after making a similar statement about the plastic packaging they used at the time?
Dame Groan scorns the “recycling religion’’. First time I’ve heard of this one, but I have heard of “climate change religion”. By using religion in a disparaging sense she probably doesn’t mean that all religions are nonsense, but that anything other than Xtianity is nonsense.
DeleteIt would be news to the workers at my local tip that they are practicing religion, or that separating out bottles, plastic, oil etc. isn’t a good idea, because some stuff you can re-use and other stuff degrades and ends up in the river. What’s that about lithium car batteries? They cost about $600-$1900. How many have ever been taken to the tip? Lead-acid is OK?
What the oceans really need is more plastic. There's plenty of room, so the more plastic the better. It's only rational, not some woolly religion. Remember The Graduate and think plastics ...
DeleteAnd after fixing up the coal ash, Bef, then they can fix the mercury pollution:
Deletehttps://theconversation.com/australias-gold-industry-stamped-out-mercury-pollution-now-its-coals-turn-151202
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-01/coal-fired-power-emissions-mercury/10958128
Bag it all up in reusable plastic bags and put it into landfill, I say.
Thank you Befuddled - so well managed, one wonders why the Dame did not cite it!
ReplyDeleteFrom the comments to Dame Groan in The Australian: If there has been more than a few millimetres of sea level rise over the past 150 years, what research has been undertaken to investigate the effect of undersea volcanic activity, not to mention the huge tonnages of shipping launched and the increase in tonnages of marine life (whales, sharks) and other natural phenomena?
ReplyDeleteVery little research, if any.
Don't worry about the sea life, NH, the Chinese have promised to produce empty seas by 2060, and they've got the very big fishing fleets to do it with.
DeleteNH - that brought me perilously close to spilling some of the morning coffee on the keyboard; but thank you for, um 'sharing'. So obvious, really - bloody whales!
ReplyDelete