As demand rises, activists demand an immediate end to oil production

Demand for energy on a global scale is set to increase substantially in the coming years, as this article points out. So-called activists need to activate their brains a bit more. Unless they hope to suppress demand permanently in some ultra-draconian manner, the current system has to continue unless or until something better takes its place, which won’t be any time soon as demand now exceeds 100 million barrels per day.
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Europe may be in the grips of an energy shortage and forced to reopen retired coal plants to cope but climate activists insist that it is time to part company with fossil fuels, the sooner, the better says OilPrice.com.

According to them, this is a simple solution to the world’s emission problems. “It is overflowing with too much carbon. The world can’t absorb any more,” said Tom Goldtooth, an activist and the executive director of the North American Indigenous Environmental Network on the sidelines of COP26, as quoted by CNBC. “The simple solution, that we are still demanding, is the world has to turn the valve off.”

Yet the solution of turning off the valve appears to not be as simple as it may sound. Goldtooth is neither the first nor the last activist to call for an immediate end to oil and gas production.

Solar influences show up in sea level rise, El Niño events and oceanic climatic cycles

This won’t exactly be music to the ears of the climate alarmist tendency, which prefers to claim that people somehow dictate the course of climate variations.
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The Sun’s energy affects our climate but its influence is often ignored as changes in its intensity are very small. Its effect might be subtle but over decadal periods it adds up to being significant as a series of recent papers show, says Net Zero Watch.

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, the National Taiwan Normal University, and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, find that the 11-year solar cycle has a significant correlation with sea surface temperature variations in the North-eastern Pacific.

They believe that the Sun’s influence is first seen and then amplified in the lower stratosphere, but it then alters the circulation in the troposphere which then affects the temperature of the ocean.

They note that the changes have a structure similar to that of the Pacific meridional mode – an interaction between trade winds and ocean evaporation which is an important trigger of the central Pacific (CP) type of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Twenty Six UN Climate Conferences – Theater Of The Absurd Part One

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The COP-ites continually ignore the fact that most so-called greenhouse gas is water vapour, instead attributing ludicrous climate powers to the trace gas carbon dioxide which is essential to plants, vegetation, trees etc.

PA Pundits International

By Dr. Jay Lehr and Robert Lyman~

Over the next three weeks we will convince you of the absurdity of the meetings to discuss destroying the world’s economy to address allegedly human-caused climate change fraud. To begin, it remains important for our readers to understand the reality behind the pronouncements from the media for the months before and after these pompous, self- important congregations of the deluded.

The 26^th Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26) concluded in Glasgow, Scotland on November 12 2021. The conclusion was accompanied by a virtual avalanche of announcements and claims by the United Nations, various other international organizations and environmentalist groups about how much “progress” had been made. It is important to have a more accurate assessment of exactly what was agreed by whom and what was merely part of an extremely elaborate political and…

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Declare an energy emergency or risk economic disaster, Boris Johnson warned – Net Zero Watch

Fracking: note the deep shaft

The chances of the UK government listening to anybody other than climate obsessives on energy matters are about zero. Most of the opposition parties are even more addicted to the notion of climate being determined by the level of trace gases in the atmosphere, with wildly unrealistic policies to match.
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London, 29 December – Net Zero Watch has called on Boris Johnson to declare an energy emergency and introduce radical policy reforms in order to prevent the energy cost crisis turning into an economic and social disaster.

The call comes as fears grow over a devastating energy cost and energy security crisis, with spiralling prices hitting households and businesses hard, and warnings that energy bills could double or even treble next year.

It is reported that Boris Johnson is considering to hand out £20 billion of taxpayers’ money to energy suppliers who are threatening to double or treble energy costs.

Reply to Eschenbach’s Meander Through Sun and Wind

Over at WUWT, Willis has been up to his usual trick of mangling data in a vain attempt to discredit scientists who find strong links between the Sun’s variation and Earth’s weather and climatic patterns. This time it’s Le Mouel et al who get the treatment in his ‘analysis’ of their 2010 paper “Solar forcing of the semi‐annual variation of length‐of‐day”

As usual, Willis gets things upside down and then sets up a straw-man argument. He asks: “So … is there a correlation between sunspots and zonal wind speeds?” The answer to which is no, and the paper’s authors never claimed there was. However, as Fig 1 of Le Mouel et al’s paper shows, there is a strong anti-correlation between solar variation and the semi-annual variation of Length of Day (LOD) which is itself well correlated with changes in zonal wind speeds. For obvious reasons, Willis doesn’t show his readers Fig 1, reproduced here for your academic study.

Figure 1. Long‐term variations in the amplitude a of the semiannual oscillation in lod (in blue). A 4‐yr centered sliding
window is used. (a) Comparison of the semiannual amplitude of lod with the sunspot number WN (red); WN is both
reversed in sign and offset by one year (see text). (b) Comparison of the detrended semiannual amplitude of lod (blue) with
the sunspot number WN (red); WN is reversed in sign and offset by one year. (c) Comparison of the semiannual amplitude
of lod (blue) with galactic cosmic ray flux GCR (red); GCR is neither reversed in sign nor offset (see text).

UK floats ‘climate compatibility’ test for new oil and gas drilling

Having put the climate millstone round its neck, the UK government tries to avoid totally sabotaging a productive industry, partly by pointing to its net importer status.
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The UK government says new oil and gas licensing can fit with its climate commitments. Campaigners, citing the International Energy Agency, disagree says Climate Home News.

The UK government has launched a consultation on “climate compatibility” tests for new rounds of North Sea oil and gas drilling licences, ignoring calls to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Nicola Sturgeon ‘better off moving out of government HQ’ than making it go green

Domestic gas central heating boiler

Another setback for climate obsessives – their pet heating methods for buildings can be too expensive and impractical even for governments. Going green – as they imagine – means going broke?
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Report reveals that her policy of replacing gas boilers at St Andrew’s House with eco-friendly ones would not provide value for money, says the Telegraph.

Nicola Sturgeon’s demand that Scotland’s homes and offices replace their gas heating systems by 2030 is so difficult to implement in her government’s headquarters that she has been advised to consider moving out and selling it.

The Telegraph has obtained an expert assessment, commissioned by the Scottish Government, of bringing St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh up to the carbon emissions standard required of all buildings by the end of the decade.

The assessment, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, warned ministers that ripping out their headquarters’ gas heating and replacing it with a low emissions system would cost nearly £5.8 million of taxpayers’ money.
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The boilers at St Andrew’s House were last replaced in 2013 and they are expected to last until 2033.

Full article here.

Multiple Extreme Cold Warnings Have Been Issued In Canada & You Could Actually Get Frostbite

Canadian rail route

A short break from media global warming propaganda maybe. Environment Canada says temps could drop to -55 C in some places, with an Arctic ridge of high pressure playing its part. 🥶❄️
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Welcome to winter, folks! – says Narcity.

It looks like the weather in Canada is about to get seriously brutal, as Environment Canada has issued multiple “extreme cold warnings” across parts of the country.

On Monday, December 27, the government agency updated its public weather alerts for all over Canada.

La Palma volcanic eruption officially ended on Christmas Day

After flaring for 85 days and 8 hours, La Palma’s longest eruption on record has finally ceased activity.
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Authorities on one of Spain’s Canary Islands declared a volcanic eruption that started in September officially finished Saturday following 10 days of no lava flows, seismic activity or significant sulfur dioxide emissions, reports Phys.org.

But the emergency in La Palma, the most northwest island in the Atlantic Ocean archipelago, is not over due to the widespread damage the eruption caused, the director of the Canaries’ volcanic emergency committee said in announcing the much-anticipated milestone.

The EU must give green light to nuclear and gas or face disaster – Net Zero Watch

Sawing off the branch of the tree you’re sitting on seems an unlikely sort of energy policy. However, it’s now the approach being pursued in much of Europe and elsewhere due to an obsession with the output of failing climate models.
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London, 22 December – Net Zero Watch has warned EU leaders to reject last ditch attempts by campaigners to prevent the EU’s planned green taxonomy for gas and nuclear energy or face a political and economic disaster.

Despite Europe facing its worst energy crisis since the Second World War, campaigners are trying to prevent the EU from easing and encouraging the investment in desperately needed new natural gas and nuclear power plants and infrastructure, says Net Zero Watch.

Both low-carbon energy sources are included in the EU Commission’s proposed “taxonomy for sustainable activities” which is reported to be tabled at the end of the year.

Cobalt’s human cost: Social consequences of green energy

Digging for cobalt [image credit: mining.com]

Poverty and grim working conditions — that EV drivers would never tolerate in their own workplaces — don’t sit well under the banner of ‘green’ technology. If it’s like this now, what about the supposedly glorious electric vehicle future if it means ever higher demand for cobalt?
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While driving an electric car has fewer environmental impacts than gasoline-powered cars, the production of the parts necessary for these green technologies can have dire effects on human well-being, says Phys.org.

After studying the impacts of mining cobalt—a common ingredient in lithium-ion batteries—on communities in Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Northwestern University is calling for more data into how emerging technologies affect human health and livelihoods.

Such data can inform policymakers, industry leaders and consumers to make more socially and ethically responsible decisions when developing, funding and using green technologies.

Watch: Tesla Owner Told Repairs Will Cost 20,000 Euros. He Chose Dynamite

Tesla plant [image credit: Steve Jurvetson @ Wikipedia]

Sometimes you’ve just had enough…
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Automobile giant Tesla leads the EV sector with innovations and new technology, says NDTV.

But that was not enough to stop a disgruntled customer from blowing up his Tesla car using 30 kg of dynamite.

Jaala, an idyllic and ice-covered village in south Finland’s Kymenlaakso region with just a few thousand people, witnessed a bizarre incident as the owner of a 2013 Tesla Model S set his car up for an explosion.

The crew of a YouTube channel – Pommijatkat – shot the entire episode that premiered on Sunday with the help of a few volunteers.

Full report here.

Calls for ‘reasoned debate’ over UK oil and gas future

North Sea oil platform [image credit: matchtech.com]

Getting a reasoned debate out of ‘net-zero’ obsessed political leaders is going to be a tall order, when their entire energy policy is based on extreme climate dogma and decrees of what they intend to do, having taken the ‘advice’ (orders?) of the Climate Change Committee. Asking for energy plans that make sense seems unlikely to strike a chord with those in power.
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Business leaders have written a joint open letter to party leaders calling for a “reasoned debate” over the future of oil and gas in the UK, reports BBC News.

The call comes after plans for the controversial Cambo Oil field off Shetland were put on hold.

The letter says any statements calling for an end to new exploration have shaken investor confidence, placing tens of thousands of jobs at risk.

It warns politicians against creating a “hostile investment environment”.

Decarbonization Cannot Manufacture The Products Demanded By Civilization

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Something to ponder as UK wind power splutters along at 6% of electricity generation today, due to the ‘wrong kind’ of weather.

PA Pundits International

By Ronald Stein ~

As late as the 1800’s, the world was “decarbonized” as there were no coal or natural gas power plants, and what the Beverly Hillbillies situation comedies of the 1960’s theme song called “oil that is, black gold, Texas tea”, had not been discovered as something that could be manufactured into usable products.

Before the 1900’s life was hard and dirty, and most people never traveled 100-200 miles from where they were born, and life expectancy was short. Today, crude oil is manufactured into all the products used in the medical industry, fertilizers, electronics and more than 6,000 other products that are the basis of lifestyles and economies.

Now, worldwide efforts are in place to have electricity generated by breezes and sunshine to decarbonize the electricity being generated by coal and natural gas. The “other” fossil fuel of crude oil is caught on the chopping block efforts to eliminate…

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IEA: Coal set for record highs in 2022 despite net-zero pledges

Credit: Coal India Limited

After COP26 – the real world. In much of the world ‘net zero’ and suchlike so-called climate targets are not a priority, as they strive to increase access to electricity – just like richer countries once did.
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The economic rebound from the pandemic is taking coal power generation to a new record high this year reports OilPrice.com, with global coal demand likely hitting another new high next year, undermining net-zero efforts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual Coal 2021 report released on Friday.

According to the agency, the 2020 collapse in coal demand turned out to be smaller than anticipated, as China’s recovery began sooner than expected and turned out to be stronger than initially forecast.

Based on current trends, global coal demand is set to rise to 8025 Mt in 2022, the highest level ever seen, and to remain there through 2024, the IEA estimates.

Burning wood for energy is a ‘scandal’ that will worsen global warming, MPs argue

Biomass on the move [image credit: Drax]

The whole ‘net zero’ thing is a scandal in many ways, but at least some MPs are noticing one of the issues, even if partly for the wrong reason. Burning trees isn’t a solution to anything apart from papering over a few of the cracks in electricity supply caused by intermittent renewables.
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Burning wood to create power is a ‘scandal’, 50 MPs warn the energy minister in a letter today.

The letter – which has cross-party support – marks a major shift in political opinion over the burning of biomass, which is currently classed by the Government as a green form of energy, says the Daily Mail.

The letter says the extra emissions produced by biomass ‘are the equivalent of three million Ford Fiestas on our roads’.

Organised by Peter Bottomley, Father of the House of Commons, the letter calls for a meeting with Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to discuss ending subsidies to the Drax power plant in Yorkshire.

Claim: Researchers uncover the surprising cause of the Little Ice Age

A portion of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation [image credit: R. Curry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution @ Wikipedia]

This article starts off confident that the researchers are right – ‘we now know’ etc. – but later retreats and says ‘the cooling appears to have’ etc. But as the Little Ice Age is an interesting topic it’s worth a look.
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New research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst provides a novel answer to one of the persistent questions in historical climatology, environmental history and the earth sciences: what caused the Little Ice Age?

The answer, we now know, is a paradox: warming, says Phys.org.

The Little Ice Age was one of the coldest periods of the past 10,000 years, a period of cooling that was particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region.

This cold spell, whose precise timeline scholars debate, but which seems to have set in around 600 years ago, was responsible for crop failures, famines and pandemics throughout Europe, resulting in misery and death for millions.

When The “Climate Catastrophe” Levee Breaks

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One or both of energy poverty and electricity supply problems will at some point catch up with those hooked on the renewables obsession.

PA Pundits International

By Duggan Flanakin ~

How long will it be before the World Economic Forum crowd realizes that Western elites no longer control the world’s future? How long before they lose their anti-growth influence that has brought energy production to a standstill (or worse) in the U.S, and across much of Europe?

The climate crowd (Al Gore, JFK Heinz, and the other green profiteers, buoyed by generations of the indoctrinated) has already lost the 50-year climate crusade to Xi Jinping, Nahrenda Modi, and the African Energy Chamber.

In a carefully worded statement issued just prior to the thankfully failed climate catastrophe party in Glasgow (where activists wine and finely dine unmasked on other people’s money), Premier Li Keqiang announced that China needs to prioritize its economic development. Translation: China will continue to use oil, coal, and natural gas to generate its mammoth energy needs.

At about the same time, R. P…

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Russia vetoes UN resolution highlighting climate change as security threat

A session of the UN General Assembly

A setback for climate obsessives in thrall to climate modellers. India also voted no, and China abstained.
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Russia on Monday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have classified climate change as a threat to international peace and security, reports Yahoo News.

The vote crushed a longtime effort to make global warming a more prominent issue within the U.N. body, according to The Associated Press.

Some 113 of the U.N.’s 193 member countries supported the resolution, including 12 of the 15 members of the council, the AP reported.

The resolution had said that climate issues could present “a key risk to global peace, security and stability.”

Why the southern US is prone to December tornadoes

La Niña, such as the one now occurring, is considered to be conducive to wind shear, a known factor in tornado conditions – as mentioned below.
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On the night of Dec. 10–11, 2021, an outbreak of powerful tornadoes tore through parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois, killing dozens of people and leaving wreckage over hundreds of miles, says The Conversation (via Phys.org).

Hazard climatologists Alisa Hass and Kelsey Ellis explain the conditions that generated this event—including what may be the first “quad-state tornado” in the U.S.—and why the Southeast is vulnerable to these disasters year-round, especially at night.

What factors came together to cause such a huge outbreak?

On Dec. 10, a powerful storm system approached the central U.S. from the west. While the system brought heavy snow and slick conditions to the colder West and northern Midwest, the South was enjoying near-record breaking warmth, courtesy of warm, moist air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm system ushered in cold, dense air to the region, which interacted with the warm air, creating unstable atmospheric conditions.