Oil Prices Collapse As US Shale Booms

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
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via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

June 7, 2017 at 08:48PM

Euan Mearns’ Roundup Of Energy Manifestos

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By Paul Homewood

Euan Mearns  has written an analysis of the main UK parties’ energy manifestos, which obviously have relevance today:

In recent weeks I have been taking a look at the energy manifestos of the main parties engaged in the UK general election. In this post I summarise these positions under the headings of support or opposition to nuclear power, fracking, renewables targets, CO2 reduction targets, state ownership, price controls, UK climate change Act and the Paris Accord. There is an ocean of clear blue water between the policies of UKIP on the right and the Lib-Dems and Scottish Nationalists on the left. The Tories and Labour are stuck in the middle with not sufficient blue water between them for my liking. The Tories continue to engage with socialist energy policies.

Full post here.

What I found particularly interesting though is this chart (together with Euan’s comments), which shows how much money has so far been paid/pledged to the Green Climate Fund:

The second is a mechanism whereby the wealthy countries give money to the poor countries to help them achieve their goals which is an extension of the Green Climate fund agreed in Copenhagen in 2009. Carbon Brief reports:

When the fund is fully operational, world leaders have committed to contributing $100 billion a year. That should happen by 2020.

And:

Pledges from the conference fell just short of that goal, totalling $9.3 billion. Many of the pledges were made in countries’ national currencies, meaning the overall value alters depending on the exchange rate.

And where is the money supposed to come from?

We are told that so far the US has actually paid only $1bn, out of its pledged $3bn.

But look at the mugs in third place!

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June 7, 2017 at 08:00PM

Wind Power Outfit – NextEra Drives Off Bats Using Sonic Torture Devices

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A justifiably angry Esther Wrightman unloads on NextEra’s latest outrage in Ontario. Wind developers deploy ultrasonic units to ‘jam’ bat echolocation Ontario Wind Resistance Esther Wrightman 26 May 2017 NextEra is sticking Ultrasonic Units on their Jericho, Goshen and Bluewater wind turbines for the purpose of deterring bats from flying near them. Perhaps this wouldn’t … Continue reading Wind Power Outfit – NextEra Drives Off Bats Using Sonic Torture Devices

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June 7, 2017 at 07:32PM

The Conversation: Dictatorships Are Better Climate Custodians Than Democracies

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Firmin DeBrabander. Attribution License, Author TedXBaltimore 2013. Smog hangs over a construction site in Weifang city, Shandong province, Oct 16. 2015. Air quality went down in many parts of China since Oct 15 and most cities are shrounded by haze. [Photo/IC]

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Professor of Philosophy Firmin DeBrabander, Maryland Institute College of Art, has joined the growing list of greens who think “autocratic” governments like China are better climate custodians than Democracies.

Why is climate change such a hard sell in the US?

June 8, 2017 12.36pm AEST

President Donald Trump on June 1 took the dramatic step of removingthe U.S. from the Paris climate agreement – the product of many years of diligent and difficult negotiation among 175 nations around the world. Recent polls reveal that six in 10 Americans oppose Trump’s move. However, a significant portion of climate skeptics remain – especially among Trump’s base and the Republican politicians who cheered this move.

The unfortunate truth is that environmentalists and their allies have failed to ignite widespread passion around climate change. And now they are faced with an administration stridently opposed to environmental regulation, slashing the EPA’s budget drastically and reversing President Obama’s climate change initiatives.

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Learning from the past

I suspect that because of all these hurdles, climate change is not liable to be solved by democracies. Autocracies might do better – like China, for example. Given the severity of its current air pollution – a veritable “airpocalypse” – China’s government does not need to be prodded or persuaded to act; the necessity is obvious, and urgent. And China has the ability to take dramatic measures on climate change and act quickly – just what scientists are calling for – dragging the people with them. This is, after all, the nation that lifted half a billion people into the middle class in a single generation.

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China in particular has a long and shameful track record of pollution and disregard for the environment; cities choked with smoke, toxic waste dumped into the nearest convenient lake. Communist China has a long history of utter disregard for the needs of ordinary people.

DeBrabander’s claim that Dictatorships like China “might do better” at handling climate issues than countries whose governments are accountable to the people is absurd.

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June 7, 2017 at 07:22PM