U.K.’s Nigel Farage demands a seat at Brexit talks

Credit: mining.com

Very unlikely to be offered one, but with a big win in the European elections the Brexit Party leader has a point – and probably a pint too. One report says he will be ‘the head of the largest single party in the chamber with 29 seats’, although some results are not in yet. How much longer can Brexit dithering go on?

Nigel Farage demanded a seat at Brexit negotiations on Monday after his new party swept to victory in the United Kingdom’s European Parliament election, warning that he would turn British politics upside down if denied, reports CBC News.

Farage, a bombastic 55-year-old commodities broker-turned anti-establishment supremo, won by riding a wave of anger at the failure of Prime Minister Theresa May to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.

Why Phi? – Jupiter-Venus harmonics and the Fibonacci/Lucas series

Jupiter – the dominant planet in the solar system

The aim here is to show a Lucas number based pattern in five rows of synodic data, then add in a note on Mercury as well.

There’s also a strong Fibonacci number element to this, as shown below.

The results can be linked back to earlier posts on planetary harmonics involving the Lucas and Fibonacci series (use ‘search this site’ box on our home page).

Close Encounters with the Taurid Swarm

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Get ready: “In June 2019 the Earth will approach within [0.06 AU or 9 million km] of the center of the Taurid swarm, its closest post-perihelion encounter with Earth since 1975”. Is there a Tunguska link?

Spaceweather.com

May 24, 2019: In November 2032, Earth will pass through the Taurid Swarm, a cloud of debris from Comet 2P/Encke that makes brilliant fireballs when its gravelly particles occasionally hit Earth’s atmosphere. Previous encounters with the Swarm in 2005 and 2015 produced showers of bright meteors observed around the world; in 1975 the Swarm contacted the Moon, making Apollo seismic sensors ring with evidence of objects hitting the lunar surface. If forecasters are correct, we’re in for similar activity 13 years from now.

Some researchers are beginning to wonder if there might be more to the Taurid Swarm than the pebble-sized particles that make fireballs–something, say, that could level a forest. On June 30, 1908, a forest in Siberia did fall down when a 100-meter object fell out of the sky and exploded just above the Tunguska River. Back-tracking the trajectory of the impactor suggests it may have come from…

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Tesla’s bad news accelerates as Wall Street loses faith

Tesla model X [image credit: IB Times]

Can electric car companies ever be financially viable? The Tesla example isn’t looking too good since government subsidies were withdrawn, pushing up prices. This article asks if Tesla is running out of buyers for its vehicles.

Late last year, Tesla Inc. was fully charged and cruising down the highway on Autopilot, says Phys.org.

Shares were trading above $370 each, sales of the Model 3 small electric car were strong and the company had appointed a new board chair to rein in the antics of sometimes impulsive CEO Elon Musk.

But around the middle of December, investors started having doubts about the former Wall Street darling’s prospects for continued growth, and the stock started a gyrating fall that was among the worst in company history.

For the year, the share price is down around 40%, largely on concerns Tesla is running out of buyers for its vehicles, which range in price from a base $35,400 Model 3 to a larger Model X SUV that can run well over $130,000.

Met Police wants 1,130 climate protesters charged

Oxford Circus climate demo [image credit: London Evening Standard]

People shouldn’t be allowed to ignore the law in pursuit of their beliefs. Protest is permitted up to a point, but go too far and the police have to act to try and restore order.

The Met [Metropolitan Police] will push for the prosecution of more than 1,100 people arrested over last month’s Extinction Rebellion protests, a senior officer has said.

So far more than 70 activists have been charged in connection with the demonstrations that brought parts of central London to a standstill, reports BBC News.

Ten days of protests in April saw 1,130 people arrested for various offences.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the Met wanted to deter other groups employing similar tactics.

Labour pledges to make climate change ‘core part’ of school curriculum

UK schools would have to promote one political party’s policies. Whose climate ‘facts’ would they be relying on? ‘Tackling climate change’ may be a popular fantasy in schools but the reality is somewhat different, to say the least.

It has set out plans to ensure all young people are educated in schools about the social and environmental impacts of climate change, reports Energy Live News.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner has set out plans to ensure all young people are educated in schools about the social and environmental impacts of climate change if the party comes into power.

Permian Pipeline Protesters May Face Decade Behind Bars

Image credit: americaherald.com

Flimsy excuses about ‘saving the climate’ or similar by obstructing lawful work activities won’t pass muster in future, at least in Texas and several other US States. Jail time and financial penalties beckon. Over 40,000 miles of new pipelines are planned in the years ahead. In any case, while the demand for oil and gas is there the supply will go on, one way or another.

If you protest an oil or gas pipeline in Texas, you could face up to 10 years in prison, reports OilPrice.com.

The bill on the verge of becoming law in Texas would classify civil disobedience against the construction of a pipeline in Texas a third-degree felony, putting it on “the same level of felony as attempted murderers,” according to the Texas Observer, or equivalent to sentences handed down to “drive-by shooters who fail to hit their mark,” as Bloomberg put it.

The legislation would elevate pipelines as “critical infrastructure,” classifying them in the same category as power plants and water treatment facilities.

But it would also include projects under construction, going beyond current law, according to the Observer.

Floating island of 1,000 homes part of revived Swansea tidal project

Dead in the water: the original Swansea tidal lagoon plan [image credit: BBC]

At a mere(?) one billion pounds it would be 30% cheaper than the original proposal, or so the claim goes. The sales pitch mentions some of the usual suspects like sustainability and climate change. But somebody still has to pay for the expensive power it might generate.

The Dragon Energy Island project would generate a combination of marine, solar and hydrogen energy, says EnergyLiveNews.

A floating island of up to 1,000 homes and shops is part of a new proposal to revive the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project in Wales.

Called Dragon Energy Island , the project would consist of giant underwater turbines that would power thousands of homes across Swansea and beyond, a floating modular homes development, underwater data centre, a solar farm and the production of hydrogen.

UK Says 100% Renewables Won’t Work

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We already knew this, but UK public policy in energy matters tends to prefer ideology to reality.

PA Pundits - International

By David Wojick, Ph.D. ~

A lot of countries (as well as many U.S. states and utilities) are announcing so-called zero-carbon plans, typically with a target year around 2050. These are often reported as calling for 100% renewable energy, which is wrong.

There is a difference between zero-carbon and 100% renewables, but this is often hidden and unclear. In the new UK plan it is still hidden, but once found it is very clear. Renewables provide just 57% of the energy, which is a lot less than 100%. Perhaps most surprising is that nuclear might provide as much as 38% of the energy!

By way of introduction, the plan comes from the government’s own Committee on Climate Change (CCC), in a report titled “Net-Zero: The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming.” The CCC is the UK’s top climate action planning group.

The surprising numbers occur in…

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EU court rejects historic citizen’s climate case

Global warming – more tortoise than hare? [image credit: hevria.com]

So ‘historic’ that few have heard of it? ‘There are currently around 1,000 cases brought against governments across the world related to climate change and habitat loss’, reports Phys.org. Good news for lawyers.

The European Court of Justice threw out a landmark case brought by 10 families who sued the European Union over the threats climate change poses to their homes and livelihoods, lawyers said Wednesday.

Lawyers said the ECJ earlier this month dismissed the case on procedural grounds, arguing that individuals do not have the right to challenge the bloc’s environmental plans.

The ruling could have a major impact on future climate litigation, experts said.

Lawyers for the “People’s Climate Case” said they would appeal.

Denver weather: City sees biggest late May snow in 44 years

Credit: ezilon.com

Unusually cold local weather for this time of year, not conforming to supposed warming trends claimed to be due to too many SUVs, power stations etc. Records may fall.

As of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Denver had officially received 3.4 inches of snow, says CBS4 News.

That’s the most snow measured this late in the season since May 29, 1975 when 5.6 inches hit the city.

In addition to the snow, Denver tied the record low temperature for May 21 when the official thermometer for the city dropped to 31 degrees Tuesday morning. It was previously 31 degrees on this date in 2001 when 1 inch of snow fell.

In terms of high temperatures on Tuesday, they will struggle to reach into the lower 40s again making it the second day in a row with temperatures staying 30 to 35 degrees below normal for the third week in May.

The record “coldest maximum” for May 21 is 40 degrees set 128 years ago in 1891. It’s possible that record could also be challenged.

Full report here.

Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes

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Noctilucent clouds form when molecules from summertime water vapour stick to the microscopic debris of disintegrated meteoroids.

Spaceweather.com

May 21, 2019: Every summer since the late 1970s, radars probing Earth’s upper atmosphere have detected strong echoes from altitudes between 80 km and 90 km. The signals come from noctilucent clouds (NLCs).  NASA’s AIM spacecraft is still waiting to spot the first NLCS of the 2019 season, but the echoes have already begun. Rob Stammes of the Polarlightcenter in Lofoten, Norway, detected them on May 19th and 20th:

“I detected these VHF signals from Eastern Europe,” he explains. “They reflected from the mesosphere back down to my receiver in Norway. The wave patterns were recognizable and very strong.”

Researchers call them “Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes” or “PMSEs.” They occur over the Arctic during the months of May through August, and over the Antarctic during the months of November through February. These are the same months that NLCs appear.

The underlying physics of these echoes is still uncertain.

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Ending Obama’s EPA Climate Deception

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Calling the essential trace gas carbon dioxide a pollutant was always an absurdity.

PA Pundits - International

By Paul Driessen ~

In December 2009, the Obama Environmental Protection Agency issued its Endangerment Finding (EF) – decreeing that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other “greenhouse gases” (GHGs) endanger the health and welfare of Americans. In the process, EPA ignored the incredible economic, health and welfare benefits of fossil fuels – and the fact that (even at just 0.04% of the atmosphere) carbon dioxide is the miracle molecule that enables plants to grow and makes nearly all live on Earth possible.

EPA turned CO2 into a “dangerous pollutant” and ruled that fossil fuels must be eradicated. The agency subsequently used its EF to justify tens of billions of dollars in climate research, anti-fossil fuel regulations, and wind and solar subsidies; President Obama’s signing of the Paris climate treaty; and proposals to spend trillions of dollars a year on Green New Deal (GND) programs.

And yet, despite multiple demands that this…

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UK’s EV growth ‘is severely lagging behind the rest of Europe’

Nissan Leaf electric car on charge [image credit: drive.co.uk]

Oh dear. Bribes not big enough any more? No sign of mass market take-up anyway.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association says 2018 sales of EVs were more than twice as high in France and Germany than in the UK, says Energy Live News.

That’s the verdict from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), which has published a new report showing the UK sold a total of 15,510 fully electric cars last year, a rate of 13.8% growth on 2017.

However, it highlights that average growth across the continent between the two years was 48.2%, rising to 53.2% among just EU member states.

Growing Iceland, Greenland glaciers make scientists gasp

Seems like the ‘carbon dioxide control knob’ has gone wonky. Alarmists must wonder: how can that be?
H/T CFACT

It appears that Iceland won’t have to be renamed Tepidlandia anytime soon, says Larry Bell.

According to researchers at the University of Iceland, each of the country’s glaciers will expand this year for the first time in the past 25 years.

As reported in Electroverse, the Hofsjökull, Langjökull, Mýrdalsjökull, and Vatnajökull glaciers have expanded over the last twelve months, from autumn to autumn, “With Mýrdalsjökull showing a really significant addition of ice this year.”

These are the largest glaciers in Iceland: Hofsjökull is third largest after Vatnajökull and Langjökull, while Mýrdalsjökull is the country’s fourth largest ice cap.

Climate Hysteria Costs Labor Australian Elections

Wind farm in South Australia [image credit: reneweconomy.com.au]

One national newspaper headline: ‘Climate Hysteria Costs Labor Party ‘unlosable’ Elections’. Many voters seem to have found the notion of ‘fighting climate change’ either unconvincing or irrelevant. Alarmists are shocked and baffled.
H/T The GWPF

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has retained power in the Australian election while Labor’s election strategy to make climate alarmism the key issue has backfired, says The Australian.

Bill Shorten’s Labor Party will finish behind Scott Morrison’s Coalition and the Prime Minister still has a path to a majority government.

Energy-free superfast computing invented by scientists using light pulses

A computer-generated image of Apple’s first Irish data centre [credit: Apple]

Data centres consume a lot of electricity so this could be a big deal if scalable as claimed here.

Superfast data processing using light pulses instead of electricity has been created by scientists, reports Phys.org.

The invention uses magnets to record computer data which consume virtually zero energy, solving the dilemma of how to create faster data processing speeds without the accompanying high energy costs.

Today’s data centre servers consume between 2 to 5% of global electricity consumption, producing heat which in turn requires more power to cool the servers.

The problem is so acute that Microsoft has even submerged hundreds of its data centre services in the ocean in an effort to keep them cool and cut costs.

Guardian Hacks Told To Use Scary Language To Describe Climate Change

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As Guardian climate alarmaholics find less and less to shout about, they decide their best option is to shout louder anyway.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Willie Soon

https://twitter.com/LeoHickman/status/1129322707110236160

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Electric vehicles without power should not be towed to charge points

Towing is not suitable for EVs

All wheels should ideally be off the ground when moving EVs from point to point. But now a diesel rescue van can generate enough of a boost charge to enable stranded drivers to get to the nearest charge point in their own EV – in parts of the UK at least.

In readiness for the UK’s expected electric vehicle boom, the RAC has developed its EV Boost system – the first lightweight mobile EV-charger capable of giving stranded out-of-charge cars a power boost from one of its standard orange roadside rescue vans, says NextGreenCar.

The bespoke solution can be rolled-out to hundreds of patrol vehicles ensuring the RAC can match the scale of demand as electric vehicle ownership grows in the coming years.

Tropical Pacific is major player in global ocean heat transport

The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt – blue = deep cold and saltier water current, red = shallower and warmer current
[credit: NWS / NOAA]

Researchers put forward the idea that the role of the global ocean conveyor belt may be overrated in the grand scheme of ocean dynamics, and offer alternative ideas.

Far from the vast, fixed bodies of water oceanographers thought they were a century ago, oceans today are known to be interconnected, highly influential agents in Earth’s climate system, says Phys.org.

A major turning point in our understanding of ocean circulation came in the early 1980s, when research began to indicate that water flowed between remote regions, a concept later termed the “great ocean conveyor belt.”

The theory holds that warm, shallow water from the South Pacific flows to the Indian and Atlantic oceans, where, upon encountering frigid Arctic water, it cools and sinks to great depth.

This cold water then cycles back to the Pacific, where it reheats and rises to the surface, beginning the cycle again.