Category: Climate Change

Posted on by Tim Worstall

George Monbiot Says There’s No Point In Battling Climate Change

This is not, of course what George Monbiot actually comes out and says, that there’s no point in Battling Climate Change. But it is the implication of what he’s saying:

Some of the Earth’s largest land masses – Australia, Russia, the US, Brazil, China, India and Saudi Arabia – are governed by people who seem to care little for either humankind or the rest of the living world. To maintain their grip on power, which means appeasing key oligarchs and industries, they appear prepared to sacrifice anything – including, perhaps, the survival of humanity.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

People Will Whine About Shell’s Share Buybacks

A little prediction, people will whine about Shell buying back its own shares:

Shell has a plan to buy back an extraordinary $25 billion of its own shares to help maintain its stock market worth and to return capital to investors.

We know how the thing goes, companies are just enriching capitalists rather than reinvesting in their own businesses. Thereby advancing the economy, improving wages and so on.

Except, umm, aren’t we all supposed to want less being invested in fossil fuels?…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

The Swansea Tidal Power Project Is A Total And Complete Dog

Yes, yes, yes, we’re all supposed to be right on about renewables. Even, willing to fund them through the loss making development phase and get to scale. Not that that should be done by either taxpayers or consumers, that’s what capitalists are for. But even if we accept all those points about how luvverly it will be to have non-fossil fuel energy sources the Swansea tidal power project is still a complete and total dog.

Simply because there are other, cheaper, methods of gaining that same energy generation capacity.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Pneumonia Is A Disease Of Poverty, Is It – Our New Renewables Victims

An interesting statement made here:

Kevin Watkins, the Save the Children chief executive, said: “I would describe pneumonia as the ultimate disease of poverty, both in the UK and globally.”

OK, fair enough. I did think that it was largely a disease of old age but then what do I know?

So, we’ve a rise in this disease of poverty:

Emergency hospital admissions for children with pneumonia have risen by more than 50% in England over the past decade, figures suggest, with admission rates highest in more deprived areas.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Where Michael Mann Goes Wrong About Climate Change

Michael Mann hasn’t grasped the simplest and most basic point about climate change yet:

Mann told the Observer that although flat rejection of global warming was becoming increasingly hard to maintain in the face of mounting evidence, this did not mean climate change deniers were giving up the fight.

“First of all, there is an attempt being made by them to deflect attention away from finding policy solutions to global warming towards promoting individual behaviour changes that affect people’s diets, travel choices and other personal behaviour,” said Mann.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Why Marty Weitzman Was Wrong About Climate Change’s Fat Tail

This comes into that – all too large – class of things I’d not want to have to explain myself but am willing to accept is being properly explained by another.

You know, on the basis that I don’t understand the method by which the point is being made, only the conclusion.

But, Marty Weitzman told us that there’s a fat tail to the probability of calamitous climate change. The implication of this being that we should and must do much more than we were thinking we had to.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Today’s Climate Change Argle Bargle

Over in Bioscience we’ve the latest insistence that we’ve all got to return to our wattle and daub huts and live, happily ever after, as medieval peasants.

More than 11,000 scientists around the world have declared a climate emergency, warning of “untold suffering” without urgent action.

The declaration is based on analysis of more than 40 years of publicly available data covering a range of measures from energy use to deforestation and carbon emissions.

Scientists from the University of Sydney, Australia, Oregon State University and Tufts University in the US and the University of Cape Town in South Africa are joined in the warning by 11,000 signatories from 153 countries including the UK.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Today’s Climate Change Nonsense

We have subcontracted out this to Bjorn Lomborg:

Go read the whole thread. Or here.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Labour’s Insulate Every House Idea Won’t Work – Most Already Are

From our Swindon Correspondent:

Labour has drawn up plans for what it claims would be the biggest overhaul of housing since the second world war, with a plan to install loft insulation, double glazing and renewable technologies in almost all of the UK’s 27m homes.

The party says that the Warm Homes for All scheme will create 450,000 jobs over the next decade. Under the plans, low-income households would be able to apply for a grant, paying no upfront costs.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Extinction Rebellion Should Shut Up And Go Home.

It’s time someone explained to St Greta and Extinction Rebellion that they are simply wrong about the world we inhabit. No, this is not an attempt to deny climate change. Nor to say that the science underlying it is all wet. I have my doubts about a lot of it, can point to gross errors in what is being said and how that scientific work is being done. Hell, I was once challenged by Michael Mann to do better science than was contained in a Jim Hansen paper, which I did and Mann went very quiet*.…

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