‘Dinosaurs’ rise from the ashes of green madness
The science journal Nature has reacted badly to the Argentine president-elect’s pledge to take a chainsaw to public spending.
Javier Milei, who describes global warming as “another socialist hoax”, assumes office on December 10 as the 2023 UN Climate Conference draws to a close in Dubai.
Milei’s 56 per cent to 44 per cent win over Peronist candidate Sergio Massa appears to have caught left-wing establishments on the hop. For the rest of us, it has reinforced the impression that COP 28 is being held in a bubble. In the real world, the political tide is moving forcefully in the opposite direction.
Milei intends to close the country’s leading science agency, the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, raising the prospect that the 12,000 bureaucrats and researchers it employs could join the 40 per cent of Argentinians below the poverty line.
Matilde Rusticucci, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Buenos Aires, told Nature Milei would give industry the green light to pollute rivers “as much as they want to” and claims members of his party, La Libertad Avanza, support privatising the high seas.
“Milei is denying the value of science, denying the value of the environment, denying climate change,” Rusticucci says. “His government will be a massive setback for the entire scientific community.”
In the minds of the global intelligentsia, Milei is Argentina’s Donald Trump, one of a growing number of dinosaurs from the imagined far right, roaming the Earth and winning free and fair elections seemingly at will. Their attempt to dignify their criticism of Milei as a threat to the planet cannot disguise a greater fear: the threat to their comfortable, state-funded jobs. The chronic collapse of the country’s economy is but a footnote in The Guardian’s coverage of the election.
Inflation has risen to 143 per cent under Massa’s watch as economics minister, cutting the value of wages by a third. Yet the sobering economic figures have neither weakened the Peronistas’ conviction that their big-government instincts are correct, nor dulled their belief in the rank stupidity of ordinary Argentinians.
How could these people not see their problems would be solved by more currency controls, welfare and generous funding for the arts? Do they not understand the full employment of sustainability consultants, mime artists and central bankers is good for everyone?
On the other side of the Atlantic, commentators have been tweeting like a tree full of galahs since Geert Wilder’s PPV won the popular vote in the recent Dutch election. Almost every woke trope has been used to condemn the revival of Wilder’s fortunes. In their world, it is the beginning of the end for racial harmony, democracy and the planet.
“This outcome will likely mean a rollback of climate measures, new fossil investments, exclusion of marginalised groups, and more,” Extinction Rebellion Netherlands told Euronews.
A Wilders government would herald “four years of climate change denial, exclusion and a breakdown of the rule of law”, predicted Friends of the Earth Netherlands. The comfortable progressive left has seldom appeared less comfortable in the face of rising contempt for its failing technocratic vision. Yet only one governing coalition in Western Europe, Giorgia Meloni’s Italian coalition, is drawn exclusively from parties on the right.
Anti-elitism has gone mainstream. Many European governments despised by the intelligentsia are coalitions led by parties of the left or centre right.
Like Slovakia’s new Prime Minister, Robert Foco, a former member of the Communist Party, they have registered the change in the wind and entered into alliances with nationalist parties.
Sweden’s Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party, is challenging the woke agenda purely out of pragmatism. He has engineered a historic shift towards nuclear power and toughened internal checks on migrants, much to the disgust of the elite.
The insurrections against the global intelligentsia are neither planned nor co-ordinated. There are common themes of nationalism, but no consistent ideology. The movements, on the whole, are not particularly well-organised or well-funded; their energy and direction come from the grassroots.
Hence, the growing feeling of impotence among the intelligentsia as they stand armed with soft mallets playing a game of political whack-a-mole, uncertain where the next cartoonish pest will pop up and unsure of their ability to squash it.
Worse news might lie ahead for the European elites. The dinosaurs could be on the verge of achieving an outright majority in the European parliament, once the bastion of supranational, technocratic politicians are relieved of the pressure of chasing the popular vote.
The European Climate Action Network has set out the political fault lines in Strasbourg and Brussels, based on the signature woke issue of the climate emergency. ECAN classifies the eight political groupings as defenders, delayers or dinosaurs. The defenders, from the progressive socialist and green alliances, hold 250 votes in the 750-seat current parliament.
The dinosaurs, primarily conservatives, hold 304. The delayers, predominantly social democrats, have the balance of power with 101 seats. Non-Inscrits, or independents, make up the rest.
A net dinosaur gain of 72 seats may be too much to hope for at next June’s election. Yet the appetite for radical climate action among the delayers is weakening as Europe’s energy crisis bites, and popular discontent against mandating electric vehicles, de-stocking farms, the loss of jobs in heavy manufacturing and processing, and rising electricity prices add momentum.
It seems doubtful that an Australian government, led by a self-styled progressive Prime Minister and a cabinet utterly convinced about matters it barely understands, will remain immune from this backlash. Indeed, the dinosaurs, in coalition with the dickheads, have handed the Prime Minister one defeat from which he has barely recovered.
The uprising is getting closer. New Zealand could be the next woke domino to fall, thanks to an unexpectedly united three-way coalition led by the National Party’s Christopher Luxon. Could the mild-mannered former business executive and conservative evangelical break out of his well-tailored suit to bare his scaly limbs and giant claws, ready to rip apart Jacinda Ardern’s limp legacy?
Welcome to Jurassic Park
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Global greenhouse gas emissions soar – with China, US and India most at fault
Electricity generation in China and India, and oil and gas production in the US, have produced the biggest increases in global greenhouse gas emissions since 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was signed, new data has shown.
Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, have also risen, despite more than 100 countries signing up to a pledge to reduce the gas, according to data published on Sunday by the Climate Trace project.
The data shows that countries and companies are failing to report their emissions accurately, despite obligations to do so under the Paris agreement. More than 190 countries have been meeting in Dubai since Thursday in an attempt to put the world on track to meet the Paris goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
At the core of the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai is a process known as the “global stocktake” – an assessment of progress towards meeting the emissions cuts needed to stay within the 1.5C limit. Many countries, however, have failed to make updates.
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COP28 host UAE to massively ramp up oil production, BBC learns
The country hosting COP28 climate talks aimed at cutting fossil fuel emissions is massively ramping up its own oil production, the BBC has learned.
The United Arab Emirates' state oil firm Adnoc may drill 42% more by 2030, according to analysts considered the international gold standard in oil market intelligence.
Between 2023 and 2050, only Saudi Arabia is expected to produce more.
Adnoc says projections show capacity to produce oil, not actual production.
It said it had already clearly stated plans to boost its production capacity by 7% over the next four years.
The firm said it was widely accepted that some oil and gas would be needed in decades ahead and that it was making its activities more climate-friendly, including by expanding into renewable energy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67513901?mc_cid=5f58d8297a&mc_eid=cc88839e92
*******************************************************Australian Wind turbines are killing rare Aussie wildlife - and wind farm operators are being trained to 'kill' koalas 'humanely'
It's the massacre of Australian wildlife no-one wants to talk about. But the reality is for every wind turbine that's built in Australia, there's a grim body count that follows.
It's almost a contradiction in terms; wind is at the centre of Australia's optimistic goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
But the unique wildlife Australians hope to protect by reducing emission and thereby slowing global warming, including wedge-tail eagles, falcons, magpies and other birds and animals, are falling victim to wind farms throughout the nation every day.
Meanwhile, other wind farms are being built in prime koala habitat, meaning some will starve and die.
The detail comes from the reports of billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's Squadron Energy, the biggest provider of renewables in Australia, in which wild farm operators must provide the 'carcass reports' of dead wildlife.
Squadron has a portfolio of 11 wind farms throughout Victoria and NSW, as well as the Clarke Creek site in Queensland, which is up to the second stage of development.
And while the company has repeatedly expressed a commitment to protecting wildlife, compulsory carcass reports posted by each wind farm during the early stages of development indicate that is not always possible.
A biodiversity management plan for Clarke Creek notes the project may result in the destruction of up to 1,513 hectares of koala habitat.
In addition to habitat loss, there have already been mass bird and bat casualties on these wind farms due to collisions with turbine blades and throughout vegetation clearing processes, and that number is only expected to rise further.
Bango Wind Farm in south-west NSW detailed a carcass count from September 2022 to August 2023, during which six wedge-tailed eagles, one peregrine falcon, six magpies and 10 dead bats were found.
And at Crudine Ridge Wind Farm, in northwest NSW, 19 dead bats were found, along with five wedge-tailed eagles, two falcons and five kestrels.
Clarke Creek also had a 'fauna euthanasia' clause, which vividly detailed how 'blunt force trauma' should be administered to injured koalas which could not be saved.
Squadron Energy said in a statement they have 'a zero-harm policy for native animals and holds itself to the highest environmental standards.
'No koala has been injured or killed during construction of the Clarke Creek Wind Farm and clearing for stage one is 60 per cent complete.
'We have experienced wildlife officers on site who conduct assessments 24 hours before work starts and monitor and supervise work as it occurs, to prevent injury to fauna. They are qualified to respond to fauna encounters and relocate animals if required.
'In the unlikely event of injury—any animals encountered must be assessed for injury to determine whether the animal requires further treatment and care by a vet or wildlife carer.'
The biodiversity management report details how 'euthanasia' should be carried out using 'blunt force trauma' when a dying animal can't be saved.
'This is a hard, sharp blow to the base of the back of the skull with a blunt metal or heavy wooden bar,' the report stated.
The report was written prior to March 2022, when Mr Forrest's Squadron Energy acquired the project, and was signed off by the then Coalition government, under Scott Morrison.
Michelle Landry, the Liberal Party MP for Central Queensland electorate Capricornia, said she was 'horrified' by the Clarke Creek Wind Farm proposal.
'203 animal species have been identified in the region where these wind farms are being constructed. It is prime habitat for Koalas, Greater Gliders and Squatter Pigeon.'
She described the fauna euthanasia clause as 'absolutely sickening'.
Ms Landry said local grazier Glen Kelly warned 'there is going to be dozens upon dozens of animals killed and maimed in this process'.
'There is areas in the region where there is cleared land. Why is this not used instead of knocking down the habitat of our native animals?,' he argued.
Squadron has committed to providing a third of the clean energy the Labor government needs to hit the targeted 82 per cent renewables on the grid by 2030.
Australia has committed to growing its renewable energy sector, with more than 300 wind farm projects currently operating, under construction or proposed throughout the nation, according to the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner.
Meanwhile the Coalition advocates an 'all of the above' approach which would combine the use of small doses of nuclear alongside renewable energy, to keep prices down.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is expected to take a nuclear energy policy to the next election.
Just last week, Energy Minister Chris Bowen slammed the nuclear proposal as 'a fantasy wrapped in a delusion, accompanied by a pipe dream'.
He said nuclear energy 'would not move the dial at all' on transitioning to renewables and described the support from the Coalition as 'an attempt at a distraction'.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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