I don’t know if they teach this in Weather Forecasting 101, but they should. Before you give a weather report, look out the window. Where I live (central Argentina) the actual changes in weather are only relatable to the El Niño and La Niña cycles. Sure, weather isn’t climate, but weather over time is climate, and my 26 years experience observing here says: El Niño is a Good Boy. La Niña is a Bad Girl. The Good Boy is back, the Andes are holding more snowpack than last several decades, water for the Malbec grape harvest is plentiful, life is good. If there is any other Climate Change, other than recovery from the Little Ice Age, it is totally hidden in the El Niño/La Niña cycles. Forget about it and go about your life.
bnice2000, my brother who lives in Oregon doesn’t like the Good Boy, either. But ask yourself, what is more important, brushfires in Australia or a great Malbec wine harvest? I should be sorry……
I’ll never forget my first trip to the Consorzio Agricultura with my father-in-law. The wine was dispensed from a petrol pump and cost about 5p per litre.
Australia has produced Malbec wines for many years, mostly for blending, but with a diehard following for the varietal. I never liked them much, however; with all the brouhaha about Argentine Malbecs, I decided to try one of the cheaper Australian Malbecs – and not bad, not bad at all. Then I looked at the label (19 Crimes) and the wine had been imported from Argentina!
Any varietal Cabernet Franc in Argentina? That is another grape with the potential for more than just blending, but vanishingly rare here in Oz.
Malbec started as a blending wine, but the enologos here in Argentina bred it into a great stand-alone red wine. Only artists are allowed to drink white wine in Argentina.
Milei is a Libertarian, he is both smart and educated, and a successful businessman. He is the second favorite for me, after Bullrich. The problem with Milei is that he wants to minimize government to an extreme, and Argentina is just not ready for that.
Ben_Vorlich
October 14, 2023 2:36 am
I was discussing the heating of our home this coming winter, and in future with my wife. We decided that the 60 years progress had not really improved our lot in winter. As children we sat cold and miserable round an open fire with a couple of baked bean cans filled with ashes at the back to conserve coal. Now we have one room heated to the minimum level to prevent hypothermia to conserve gas. In the future we’ll have a heat pump running 24/7 or when there’s electricity to keep one room at a temperature that might not prevent hypothermia.
Progress is a wonderful thing
strativarius
October 14, 2023 2:52 am
News just in
Australians vote No in referendum that promised change for First Nations people but couldn’t deliver – CNN
A failed referendum is a good thing. They are all a failure of responsibility, democracy and common sense. Every referendum must, by its method, produce a result of average quality.
ACT not being a State is very important in this context. To pass a referendum here in Oz there needs to be 4 out of 6 States passing an overall ‘Yes’ and an overall majority.
The population of NT and ACT have their votes counted as part of the overall vote.
What the ACT and NT think has a single entity counts for little. If all States vote NO then the YES campaign has failed 0 to 6.
For those playing at home the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) is a small admin type area that only exists because Melbourne and Sydney hate each other and neither would submit to having the other become the Australian capital when the First Nation was formed in 1901.
The ACT is a strange place. It is filled with pubic servants and fly in fly out media who are utterly out of tough with the rest of the world.
Northern Territory is the part of Australia that South Australia willing dropped as soon as they could get away with it. It is ‘regional’. It is also filled with the sorts of Aboriginals who are utterly sick of people from the cities telling them what is good for them.
ACT was always going to vote YES.
NT was – once they realised they were being used as pawns, AGAIN – going to vote NO.
AND, since neither are States their opinion goes into the total pool of votes.
You got that right, first try. 1970. Visited a school mate there. It was about 3PM. Tracked him down at his office. He ran the tour boats on the lake. A quick sketch. “Go on out to the house, make yourselves at home. The key’s in the lock.”
Seems that the Federal Police had stamped out burglary.
Not one like the Brexit but possibly one similar to the 1979 Devolution Referendum in Scotland, although the bar set to 50% rather than 40% of the electorate rather than those voting. Even Brexit would have failed to clear that hurdle.
We are observing the early stages of worldwide resistance against the constraints of net zero policies
Investors are ditching renewable energy, and ESG, faster than any other investment funds on record.
Reuters reports , renewable energy funds suffered a net outflow of $1.4 billion in the July to September 2023 quarter.
LSEG Lipper data shows this to be the largest-ever quarterly outflow.
There was also a 23 percent decrease from the end of June of the total assets under management in the sector—now valued at $65.4 billion.
The S&P Global Clean Energy Index (.SPGTCLEN), is down 30 percent this year, with most of the decrease occurring since July. This Index comprises major solar and wind power companies and other renewables-related businesses.
Yet in contrast, the S&P 500 Energy Index (.SPNY), which is heavy in oil and gas, has increased slightly this year.
It is not just investors who are exiting net zero. Politicians are also raising concerns
Student protesters try to deplatform Alex Epstein—and fail
From Alex Epstein: Before my speech at Oklahoma State University earlier this week, dozens of protestors tried to discourage everyone from attending by handing out propaganda falsely portraying me as ignorant, a “climate change denier,” and a racist. I tried to engage the protesters directly, offering them the opportunity to share their concerns publicly before I spoke and promising to address those concerns. Unfortunately, they kept shouting at me anytime I tried to string two sentences together, and the vast majority refused to attend even under my generous terms. Happily, the protesters failed to deter other students from attending; the auditorium was packed with some 250 people. And even a few of the protesters came in and watched (mostly) politely. I began my presentation by totally discrediting the propaganda of the protesters, and then proceeded to walk them step by step through the methodology, facts, and logic that have led me to conclude that global human flourishing requires the freedom to use more fossil fuels and other truly cost-effective forms of energy. Thanks to Young America’s Foundation for helping put together the event, and thanks to all the active-minded OSU students who attended and listened despite others’ attempts to deplatform me.
Alex Epstein is a treasure for the climate emergency skeptics. I detest the climate idiots and with my bad temper I can’t engage with them without losing my cool. But Alex is a master at engaging with them. I love that he wears shirts saying “I love fossil fuels”. Too bad Alex can’t be cloned- we could use a few hundred just like him on the campus tour.
May Contain Traces of Seafood
October 14, 2023 4:06 am
NO.
What is going to be interesting is how the YES are going to react after, despite almost universal support of Big Media and Corporate Australia(tm), the voters told them a classic ‘Yeah, Nah’.
Will we get a mature and thoughtful discussion on what Australians really want for our country and culture?
Will the Elites start a bitter backlash campaign declaring that everyone who disagreed with them are Racist and Bigots and that democracy clearly needs to be suspended until people can be trusted to make the correct decisions?
Will the entire topic get dropped from media circulation quicker than the Nationwide support of Woman’s Soccer?
(Matildas? Who?)
Will Australia get our second female PM before the end of the month?
I’m trying to be optimistic and not to be mean to my Greenie friends who are having a meltdown. Apparently none of them actually read the proposed constitutional change – or if they did so, they never got past the good feeling that they would be ‘helping’ the poor aboriginals. Never occurred to any one of them that the proposed change would, as usual, not do a thing to address problems in Aboriginal communities, but just give politicians more power to exploit them.
Like saving the Environment by destroying forests to put up bat and birds killing wind-farms, they just can’t see beyond their delusions. Okay, I’m feeling depressed again – they are deluded and completely resistant to thinking.
Australian Referendum.
Result. Overwhelming No Vote everywhere except Canberra and interiors of our State capitals. (Voting is compulsory here for all folk old enough).
The subject matter was to alter our 1910 Federal Constitution to allow a vague body named “Voice” to advise Government on aboriginal affairs.
Australian Referenda are usually lost through voter apathy and ignorance.
This time, the dominant driver was ignorance. Aboriginals are about 4% of our population of 26 million. Few whiteys have ever mixed much with abs because they are such a minor group, however defined.
I had years of close contact with a number of seniors and and some of their families in the small portion seeking to live in the bush a bit traditionally. For 20 years I was with the Northern Territory Chamber of Mines, with monthly meetings where aboriginal affairs was often the big agenda item. For 6 years I was Pres or VP. Miners were troubled by the inevitable acts of resistance to granting of exploration and mining rights all over Australia. Privately, many traditional leaders liked the benefits of mining in their regions but in public they were forced to take the party line or face reduced government funding. My employer took Federal environment and/or aboriginal affairs ministers through the Courts, further high level experience from some that I managed.
Therefore, I came to have much more experience in the topic than the average bloke. With that experience, I say with confidence that this Referendum was a big power grab by the big men and women of the present aboriginal industry. It was promoted by our present leftist Federal government, for unstated reasons, but likely because most rich and powerful wanted YES because there was money to be made by those on the inside.
Geographically, strong YES regions correlate very closely with per capita income. And vice versa.
It was all a big con. Forget it and get on with matters in which you have experience and hopes. Geoff S
It was also a very good way for a very small minority to speak for the majority of the Aboriginal people without the majority getting a say. There has to be a better way to get the voices of all the disparate groups heard.
Upscale folks who buy EVs, usually have all the bells and whistles in their gasoline cars, so they also expect them in their EVs, which adds to costs, but that does not matter to them, because they are virtue signaling IN STYLE, NOT BEING DEPRIVED OF ANYTHING
Last night, I was at a party, explained to an environmental PhD about the CO2 of an EV vs an equivalent-size, efficient, gasoline vehicle on an A-to-Z , lifetime basis.
He had never heard of such an analysis.
I explained the lifetime CO2 was about the same for 7 to 8 years, if the EV and gasoline vehicle were driven the same miles.
Knowing The Guardian, it’s going to be some form of government-mandated reconciliation.
If you threaten people hard enough, sooner or later you’ll get them to say sorry.
Put another way, I think it was maybe a US politician who once said “If you lead people by the balls then their hearts and minds will follow,”
House Republicans want answers on agency spending on Biden’s federal climate corps
The lawmakers launched the probe in part to understand how the administration will recruit 20,000 individuals into government and other roles.
October 13, 2023 02:47 PM ET
House Republicans launched a probe on Friday into the Biden administration’s new plan to recruit 20,000 young Americans into federally facilitated climate roles, requesting details on how the program will receive funding and which entities are involved.
The American Climate Corps, which the White House rolled out last month, will develop a talent pipeline for jobs in the clean energy and conservation economy. Various federal agencies will help recruit and place applicants into various positions as part of the AmeriCorps program. Republican leaders on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee initiated their review of the program in part due to the Biden administration moving forward with the program despite no specific congressional authorization to do so.
“According to the announcement, as the nexus of the ACC for federal agencies, AmeriCorps seems poised to facilitate the flow of an unspecified sum of federal taxpayer dollars to unknown individuals and entities,” said Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, who chair the overall committee and its federal workforce panel, respectively, in a letter to AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith. “It is unclear where these funds are coming from and for what purposes they will be used.”
The departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture and Energy said in September they would sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and AmeriCorps to help create what White House officials called an “American Climate Corps hub” that will help coordinate federal recruitment. The Office of Personnel Management is planning to use a previously issued proposed rule to help speed pathways into federal service for individuals in ACC programs.”
Two bits of potentially good news from the electorates down here in Australasia.
The rump of the left looney Ardern government (after she ditched the sinking ship) in New Zealand has been thrown out and one can hope that some climate realism may be coming. I know that is doubtful unless the graft can be shifted from ‘renewables’ to something more energy productive like nuclear, but perhaps there is some shift in the wind, other than bat and bird killing turbines.
The extraordinarily vague constitutional ‘Referendum’ in Australia, that seemed to be based on a divide and conquer strategy that would have dramatically increased Parliament’s power under the guise of giving those who identify as Aboriginal Australians a ‘Voice’ was soundly defeated (~60% No). The only electorates voting majority Yes were Canberra, of course, and the inner city abodes of the wealthy elites of the other capitol cities where the climate hysterics hang out.
With the El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole seemingly set to dry and burn eastern Australia, I know it is silly to feel optimistic. Still, maybe these electoral results are signs of better things to come. If we could only get a responsible government here that put us on the path to inexpensive energy and adequate water supplies (e.g. desalination plants run by nuclear reactors – as opposed to deactivated billion dollar boondoggle plants), then it would be much easier to weather the cyclical droughts.
That is absolutely true for some – they feel very guilty about something vague, poor animals or the environment or a minority group they feel superior to, and need to show how much they really care. Emotion trumps common sense every time.
Then there are the mindless followers who just need the approval of their peer group – I think this is most of them and if their leaders get the memo that nuclear is the only way their electric cars will function, they will suddenly all be pronuclear.
Then there are the opportunists and the grifters – and we seem to keep electing them time after time.
It details archaeological and anthropological events during this period, before evidence of full agriculture. It reports on more than one period of climate warming when China went from being colder and dry, with less natural rice to eat, to “2 degrees warmer than today”.
It became wetter and the available natural rice grains expanded and moved further north.
And similarly good results are reported in the Middle East early in the next video:
“The Birth of Civilisation – Cult of the Skull (8800 BC to 6500 BC)”
Neo
October 14, 2023 4:42 pm
OTTAWA, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Canada’s Supreme Court dealt a blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government on Friday by ruling that a federal law assessing how major projects such as coal mines and oil sands plants impact the environment is largely unconstitutional.
The decision is a victory for Alberta, Canada’s main fossil fuel-producing province, which challenged the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), saying it gave Ottawa too much power to kill natural resource projects.
I also hear that Trudeau won last time when he was not doing very well in the polls.
Trudeau is a dictator dressed up in a nice suit. Canadians should vote him and his ilk out of ofice if they know what’s good for them.
Neo
October 14, 2023 6:52 pm
High-interest rates and inflation left the sector’s share prices plummeting more than 30% in the past three months.
Despite EU and US government vows to support the crucial green transition, offering billions in tax credits and subsidies, renewable energy has been losing investors’ confidence, particularly in the past three months.
A big indicator for this decline in trust is the performance of the S&P Global Clean Energy Index, comprised of 100 major solar, wind power, and other renewable-related companies.
It has lost more than 30% in 2023, with most of the decline taking place since July.
Yes, it looks like the problems with “renewable” generating facilites are starting to dawn on the investment class.
Not ready for Primetime.
Jim Masterson
October 14, 2023 9:32 pm
Greta Thunberg posted on her website that the world would end in 2023 (or maybe 2022). It’s claimed that she deleted that post, and the fact checkers say there never was a post. I wonder what we should believe? I believe the worst of climate activists–lying is their main course. There is no second course.
Just a random thought, probably too late on this open thread…
In the 1890s we had essentially open borders and NO welfare programs of any kind other than private charity, and no minimum wage. It’s how America got great. Millions came to build an honest dignified life working hard.
Does anybody think we’d have 10,000 “asylum seekers” a day if they weren’t being given food, clothing, housing, cell phones, and cash money?
I don’t know if they teach this in Weather Forecasting 101, but they should. Before you give a weather report, look out the window. Where I live (central Argentina) the actual changes in weather are only relatable to the El Niño and La Niña cycles. Sure, weather isn’t climate, but weather over time is climate, and my 26 years experience observing here says: El Niño is a Good Boy. La Niña is a Bad Girl. The Good Boy is back, the Andes are holding more snowpack than last several decades, water for the Malbec grape harvest is plentiful, life is good. If there is any other Climate Change, other than recovery from the Little Ice Age, it is totally hidden in the El Niño/La Niña cycles. Forget about it and go about your life.
El Nino down here in NSW, Australia, brings the DRY !
Been a rather quick change-over from wet to dry this year.
Dry means generally warmer.. and a much higher probability of bad bushfires.
I keep this page on single click for when I smell bushfire or grass smoke.
Fires Near Me (nsw.gov.au)
Looks fairly active already.!
bnice2000, my brother who lives in Oregon doesn’t like the Good Boy, either. But ask yourself, what is more important, brushfires in Australia or a great Malbec wine harvest? I should be sorry……
There is a fire near Pokolbin at the moment.
We all hope the grape vines escape damage.
Hunter region is home to nice solid robust Shiraz and Cabinet 🙂
Some vintages end up with a slightly “smoky” flavour 😉
Shirley that’s Cabernet?
Sorry, watching referendum results while typing ! 🙂
Shirley that’s Cabernet Sauvignon?
I only mention as I’ve got a couple of bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc from ‘South Eastern’ Australia sitting on my wine rack.
I’m a Primitivo man, myself.
I’ll never forget my first trip to the Consorzio Agricultura with my father-in-law. The wine was dispensed from a petrol pump and cost about 5p per litre.
Well done, Richard. You get this week’s Nick Stokes award
Hey, it’s allowable where a decent bottle is concerned! 😉
Ah yes, the Nick Stokes award, the much coveted accolade for nitpickery!
Is that the one having the inscription on the base, “No whine before its time”?
I told you that at wine-o-clock
or in Nick’s case… whine-o’clock.
I have a friend that makes a very good cabinet. !
Solid, robust. 🙂
How many bottles of Cabernet could you fit inside the cabinet?
I can fit about 5 dozen bottles in my cabinet.
But they won’t all be cabernet.
Australia has produced Malbec wines for many years, mostly for blending, but with a diehard following for the varietal. I never liked them much, however; with all the brouhaha about Argentine Malbecs, I decided to try one of the cheaper Australian Malbecs – and not bad, not bad at all. Then I looked at the label (19 Crimes) and the wine had been imported from Argentina!
Any varietal Cabernet Franc in Argentina? That is another grape with the potential for more than just blending, but vanishingly rare here in Oz.
Malbec started as a blending wine, but the enologos here in Argentina bred it into a great stand-alone red wine. Only artists are allowed to drink white wine in Argentina.
Ron I’ve been meaning to ask you about Javier Milei. What’s your take on him?
Milei is a Libertarian, he is both smart and educated, and a successful businessman. He is the second favorite for me, after Bullrich. The problem with Milei is that he wants to minimize government to an extreme, and Argentina is just not ready for that.
I was discussing the heating of our home this coming winter, and in future with my wife. We decided that the 60 years progress had not really improved our lot in winter. As children we sat cold and miserable round an open fire with a couple of baked bean cans filled with ashes at the back to conserve coal. Now we have one room heated to the minimum level to prevent hypothermia to conserve gas. In the future we’ll have a heat pump running 24/7 or when there’s electricity to keep one room at a temperature that might not prevent hypothermia.
Progress is a wonderful thing
News just in
Australians vote No in referendum that promised change for First Nations people but couldn’t deliver – CNN
No surprise. Most referendums fail in Australia.
A failed referendum is a good thing. They are all a failure of responsibility, democracy and common sense. Every referendum must, by its method, produce a result of average quality.
Numbers I am seeing is the NO vote wins in every state except the ACT 🙂
Couldn’t have hoped for a better result. 🙂
—–
Also.. Labour has been dumped in New Zealand election
National will probably form a coalition with Act and maybe NZ First, sidelining the Labour/Greens completely ! 🙂
note for any nit-pickers… ACT is not actually a state.
Even the Northern Territory looks like being a very resounding NO vote. !
Not actually a Nit Pick.
ACT not being a State is very important in this context. To pass a referendum here in Oz there needs to be 4 out of 6 States passing an overall ‘Yes’ and an overall majority.
The population of NT and ACT have their votes counted as part of the overall vote.
What the ACT and NT think has a single entity counts for little. If all States vote NO then the YES campaign has failed 0 to 6.
For those playing at home the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) is a small admin type area that only exists because Melbourne and Sydney hate each other and neither would submit to having the other become the Australian capital when the First Nation was formed in 1901.
The ACT is a strange place. It is filled with pubic servants and fly in fly out media who are utterly out of tough with the rest of the world.
Northern Territory is the part of Australia that South Australia willing dropped as soon as they could get away with it. It is ‘regional’. It is also filled with the sorts of Aboriginals who are utterly sick of people from the cities telling them what is good for them.
ACT was always going to vote YES.
NT was – once they realised they were being used as pawns, AGAIN – going to vote NO.
AND, since neither are States their opinion goes into the total pool of votes.
… at the moment..
note.. “NO” call is by ABC not final.
Don’t you have count suspension and 2am vote deliveries down under?
ACT came into being for pretty much the same reason that the District of Columbia came into being.
G’Day May Contain Traces of Seafood,
“The ACT is a strange place.”
You got that right, first try. 1970. Visited a school mate there. It was about 3PM. Tracked him down at his office. He ran the tour boats on the lake. A quick sketch. “Go on out to the house, make yourselves at home. The key’s in the lock.”
Seems that the Federal Police had stamped out burglary.
Ah thank goodness you recovered that fumble. I feared for you that Nick would pounce!
The Guardian has gone apoplectic
Great news 🙂
Oh goody. Worth it just for that.
Love this map showing which electorates voted No and which voted Yes..
Voice referendum live results: votes count and map by state in the Australian Indigenous voice to parliament 2023 poll | Indigenous voice to parliament | The Guardian
You will have to scroll in a long way to find the inner-city Yes seats. 😉
I have to admit.
I am enjoying this result ! 🙂
I enjoyed the Brexit vote. They’ll never ever give us another referendum.
Not one like the Brexit but possibly one similar to the 1979 Devolution Referendum in Scotland, although the bar set to 50% rather than 40% of the electorate rather than those voting. Even Brexit would have failed to clear that hurdle.
Didn’t the SNP put their finger on the scales by lowering the voting age to 16?
Yes.
And the people next door in NZ have just moved to the right. They are obviously
To continue—
fed up with the government taking all their Arderned money.
What is wrong with WordPress? It’s doing some strange things.
The Net Zero by 2050 Ship Starting to Sink
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-net-zero-by-2050-ship-starting-to-sink ;
Authored by Nicole James via The Epoch Times,
EXCERPT:
We are observing the early stages of worldwide resistance against the constraints of net zero policies
Investors are ditching renewable energy, and ESG, faster than any other investment funds on record.
Reuters reports , renewable energy funds suffered a net outflow of $1.4 billion in the July to September 2023 quarter.
LSEG Lipper data shows this to be the largest-ever quarterly outflow.
There was also a 23 percent decrease from the end of June of the total assets under management in the sector—now valued at $65.4 billion.
The S&P Global Clean Energy Index (.SPGTCLEN), is down 30 percent this year, with most of the decrease occurring since July. This Index comprises major solar and wind power companies and other renewables-related businesses.
Yet in contrast, the S&P 500 Energy Index (.SPNY), which is heavy in oil and gas, has increased slightly this year.
It is not just investors who are exiting net zero. Politicians are also raising concerns
Sorry, but the above link is corrupt
Here is the correct one
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-net-zero-by-2050-ship-starting-to-sink
Student protesters try to deplatform Alex Epstein—and fail
It has to be said: What a bunch of morons.
Well done, academia.
Alex Epstein is a treasure for the climate emergency skeptics. I detest the climate idiots and with my bad temper I can’t engage with them without losing my cool. But Alex is a master at engaging with them. I love that he wears shirts saying “I love fossil fuels”. Too bad Alex can’t be cloned- we could use a few hundred just like him on the campus tour.
NO.
What is going to be interesting is how the YES are going to react after, despite almost universal support of Big Media and Corporate Australia(tm), the voters told them a classic ‘Yeah, Nah’.
Will we get a mature and thoughtful discussion on what Australians really want for our country and culture?
Will the Elites start a bitter backlash campaign declaring that everyone who disagreed with them are Racist and Bigots and that democracy clearly needs to be suspended until people can be trusted to make the correct decisions?
Will the entire topic get dropped from media circulation quicker than the Nationwide support of Woman’s Soccer?
(Matildas? Who?)
Will Australia get our second female PM before the end of the month?
<i>Will Australia get our second female PM before the end of the month</i>
Will it be a real woman?
Isn’t that similar to ‘beatings will continue until morale improves’?
I’m trying to be optimistic and not to be mean to my Greenie friends who are having a meltdown. Apparently none of them actually read the proposed constitutional change – or if they did so, they never got past the good feeling that they would be ‘helping’ the poor aboriginals. Never occurred to any one of them that the proposed change would, as usual, not do a thing to address problems in Aboriginal communities, but just give politicians more power to exploit them.
Like saving the Environment by destroying forests to put up bat and birds killing wind-farms, they just can’t see beyond their delusions. Okay, I’m feeling depressed again – they are deluded and completely resistant to thinking.
I’m not in touch with the details.
What was the real substance of the proposals?
Australian Referendum.
Result. Overwhelming No Vote everywhere except Canberra and interiors of our State capitals. (Voting is compulsory here for all folk old enough).
The subject matter was to alter our 1910 Federal Constitution to allow a vague body named “Voice” to advise Government on aboriginal affairs.
Australian Referenda are usually lost through voter apathy and ignorance.
This time, the dominant driver was ignorance. Aboriginals are about 4% of our population of 26 million. Few whiteys have ever mixed much with abs because they are such a minor group, however defined.
I had years of close contact with a number of seniors and and some of their families in the small portion seeking to live in the bush a bit traditionally. For 20 years I was with the Northern Territory Chamber of Mines, with monthly meetings where aboriginal affairs was often the big agenda item. For 6 years I was Pres or VP. Miners were troubled by the inevitable acts of resistance to granting of exploration and mining rights all over Australia. Privately, many traditional leaders liked the benefits of mining in their regions but in public they were forced to take the party line or face reduced government funding. My employer took Federal environment and/or aboriginal affairs ministers through the Courts, further high level experience from some that I managed.
Therefore, I came to have much more experience in the topic than the average bloke. With that experience, I say with confidence that this Referendum was a big power grab by the big men and women of the present aboriginal industry. It was promoted by our present leftist Federal government, for unstated reasons, but likely because most rich and powerful wanted YES because there was money to be made by those on the inside.
Geographically, strong YES regions correlate very closely with per capita income. And vice versa.
It was all a big con. Forget it and get on with matters in which you have experience and hopes. Geoff S
Was this “advice” to be at all binding or likely to be acted on?
That minor detail was to be sorted out later. We were all supposed to sign a blank cheque.
It was also a very good way for a very small minority to speak for the majority of the Aboriginal people without the majority getting a say. There has to be a better way to get the voices of all the disparate groups heard.
The Southern Ocean is the pump that ventilates most of the world’s deep oceans. It nurtures unique wildlife and feeds fisheries and stores carbon and absorbs heat. Without its free services, the planet would be unliveable for us.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/12/without-the-southern-ocean-we-cannot-survive-on-earth-our-research-must-wait-no-longer
As demonstrated during the age of the fishes….
http://www.scotese.com/images/390.jpg
The Southern Ocean and its drivers isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I’m still amazed at what Shackleton got away with. They say he never lost a man.
The Green Machine
EVs are expensive to start with so carmakers lux them right out with all the tech bells and whistles to appeal to their target market you numpty-
Why electric vehicles get better tech than petrol peers (msn.com)
I think we knew this already…..
…….and Volkswagen freely admit.
“”Why electric cars are NOT green machines:
UK Daily Mail
When you have a product with very few selling points to begin with, you have to do something to dress it up….
Hmm. Lipstick on a pig springs to mind. A self-cooking pig at that!
You can’t polish a turd, but you can cover it in glitter.
Not so fast chum. https://www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/german-glitter-sales-soar-as-eu-ban-looms/
Upscale folks who buy EVs, usually have all the bells and whistles in their gasoline cars, so they also expect them in their EVs, which adds to costs, but that does not matter to them, because they are virtue signaling IN STYLE, NOT BEING DEPRIVED OF ANYTHING
Last night, I was at a party, explained to an environmental PhD about the CO2 of an EV vs an equivalent-size, efficient, gasoline vehicle on an A-to-Z , lifetime basis.
He had never heard of such an analysis.
I explained the lifetime CO2 was about the same for 7 to 8 years, if the EV and gasoline vehicle were driven the same miles.
“. . . explained to an environmental PhD about the CO2 . . . .”
I’m surprised he let you explain it to him.
“He had never heard of such an analysis.”
Maybe if he took his fingers out of his ears, he might learn something new.
Referendum Update:
Albanese says vote ‘not end of the road’
Fascinatingly the Guardian reader is informed….
““This is not the end of reconciliation”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/14/australian-voters-reject-proposal-for-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-at-historic-referendum
I wonder what they have in mind? What do they mean by this is not the end of reconciliation?
Knowing The Guardian, it’s going to be some form of government-mandated reconciliation.
If you threaten people hard enough, sooner or later you’ll get them to say sorry.
Put another way, I think it was maybe a US politician who once said “If you lead people by the balls then their hearts and minds will follow,”
Teddy Roosevelt, but it’s “If you’ve got them by…”
They’re serious about eating bugs.
Some people want a life of virtuous suffering just to feel less inadequate. Doesn’t mean I should be forced to join them.
[Charles] story tip Supreme Court of Canada rules against Trudeau’s climate impact act covering major projects in oil, pipelines, coal mines, etc.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-top-court-rules-environmental-impact-law-is-largely-unconstitutional-2023-10-13/
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/10/house-republicans-want-answers-agency-spending-bidens-federal-climate-corps/391200/
House Republicans want answers on agency spending on Biden’s federal climate corps
The lawmakers launched the probe in part to understand how the administration will recruit 20,000 individuals into government and other roles.
October 13, 2023 02:47 PM ET
House Republicans launched a probe on Friday into the Biden administration’s new plan to recruit 20,000 young Americans into federally facilitated climate roles, requesting details on how the program will receive funding and which entities are involved.
The American Climate Corps, which the White House rolled out last month, will develop a talent pipeline for jobs in the clean energy and conservation economy. Various federal agencies will help recruit and place applicants into various positions as part of the AmeriCorps program. Republican leaders on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee initiated their review of the program in part due to the Biden administration moving forward with the program despite no specific congressional authorization to do so.
“According to the announcement, as the nexus of the ACC for federal agencies, AmeriCorps seems poised to facilitate the flow of an unspecified sum of federal taxpayer dollars to unknown individuals and entities,” said Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, who chair the overall committee and its federal workforce panel, respectively, in a letter to AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith. “It is unclear where these funds are coming from and for what purposes they will be used.”
The departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture and Energy said in September they would sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and AmeriCorps to help create what White House officials called an “American Climate Corps hub” that will help coordinate federal recruitment. The Office of Personnel Management is planning to use a previously issued proposed rule to help speed pathways into federal service for individuals in ACC programs.”
end excerpt
Here come the Climate Change Brownshirts!
Just in time to campaign for Democrats next fall.
Oh, yeah.
Two bits of potentially good news from the electorates down here in Australasia.
The rump of the left looney Ardern government (after she ditched the sinking ship) in New Zealand has been thrown out and one can hope that some climate realism may be coming. I know that is doubtful unless the graft can be shifted from ‘renewables’ to something more energy productive like nuclear, but perhaps there is some shift in the wind, other than bat and bird killing turbines.
The extraordinarily vague constitutional ‘Referendum’ in Australia, that seemed to be based on a divide and conquer strategy that would have dramatically increased Parliament’s power under the guise of giving those who identify as Aboriginal Australians a ‘Voice’ was soundly defeated (~60% No). The only electorates voting majority Yes were Canberra, of course, and the inner city abodes of the wealthy elites of the other capitol cities where the climate hysterics hang out.
With the El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole seemingly set to dry and burn eastern Australia, I know it is silly to feel optimistic. Still, maybe these electoral results are signs of better things to come. If we could only get a responsible government here that put us on the path to inexpensive energy and adequate water supplies (e.g. desalination plants run by nuclear reactors – as opposed to deactivated billion dollar boondoggle plants), then it would be much easier to weather the cyclical droughts.
“and the inner city abodes of the wealthy elites of the other capitol cities where the climate hysterics hang out.”
The Yes voters are those who put “virtue-seeking” above common sense and morality.
That is absolutely true for some – they feel very guilty about something vague, poor animals or the environment or a minority group they feel superior to, and need to show how much they really care. Emotion trumps common sense every time.
Then there are the mindless followers who just need the approval of their peer group – I think this is most of them and if their leaders get the memo that nuclear is the only way their electric cars will function, they will suddenly all be pronuclear.
Then there are the opportunists and the grifters – and we seem to keep electing them time after time.
I just watched an interesting YouTube video “The Birth of China – Hunters on the Yellow River (20000 BCE to 7000 BCE)”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zRCvtvn5NA
It details archaeological and anthropological events during this period, before evidence of full agriculture. It reports on more than one period of climate warming when China went from being colder and dry, with less natural rice to eat, to “2 degrees warmer than today”.
It became wetter and the available natural rice grains expanded and moved further north.
Sounds like a win to me.
And similarly good results are reported in the Middle East early in the next video:
“The Birth of Civilisation – Cult of the Skull (8800 BC to 6500 BC)”
OTTAWA, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Canada’s Supreme Court dealt a blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government on Friday by ruling that a federal law assessing how major projects such as coal mines and oil sands plants impact the environment is largely unconstitutional.
The decision is a victory for Alberta, Canada’s main fossil fuel-producing province, which challenged the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), saying it gave Ottawa too much power to kill natural resource projects.
I hear Trudeau isn’t doing too well in the polls.
I also hear that Trudeau won last time when he was not doing very well in the polls.
Trudeau is a dictator dressed up in a nice suit. Canadians should vote him and his ilk out of ofice if they know what’s good for them.
High-interest rates and inflation left the sector’s share prices plummeting more than 30% in the past three months.
Despite EU and US government vows to support the crucial green transition, offering billions in tax credits and subsidies, renewable energy has been losing investors’ confidence, particularly in the past three months.
A big indicator for this decline in trust is the performance of the S&P Global Clean Energy Index, comprised of 100 major solar, wind power, and other renewable-related companies.
It has lost more than 30% in 2023, with most of the decline taking place since July.
Yes, it looks like the problems with “renewable” generating facilites are starting to dawn on the investment class.
Not ready for Primetime.
Greta Thunberg posted on her website that the world would end in 2023 (or maybe 2022). It’s claimed that she deleted that post, and the fact checkers say there never was a post. I wonder what we should believe? I believe the worst of climate activists–lying is their main course. There is no second course.
Wasn’t there a screenshot of the post up on WUWT in an article on just this subject? It’ll have been a few years ago now.
It was 7 months ago. I should have looked it up.
Should have Gone to School Greta – Deletes a Tweet Predicting Disaster by 2023 • Watts Up With That?
The new terminology is ‘doing a Luton’-
Luton Airport car park fire: What the media is not saying | Auto Expert John Cadogan – YouTube
Well that’s one way to get arpund the ad-blocker.
Just a random thought, probably too late on this open thread…
In the 1890s we had essentially open borders and NO welfare programs of any kind other than private charity, and no minimum wage. It’s how America got great. Millions came to build an honest dignified life working hard.
Does anybody think we’d have 10,000 “asylum seekers” a day if they weren’t being given food, clothing, housing, cell phones, and cash money?
Another twisted headline on why NY won’t pony up for increased wind farm costs:
New York Refuses To Give Big Oil More Money For Offshore Wind Projects
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/New-York-Refuses-To-Give-Big-Oil-More-Money-for-Offshore-Wind.amp.html
Because El Nino and other regular events have nothing to do with it and there was too much ice, it must be climate change. Sigh.
Boom-bust cycles in gray whales associated with dynamic and changing Arctic conditions | Science