This Is A Do Or Die Decade For Climate Crisis (scam) Or Something

If only you would purchase an electric vehicle so you can go get a nice plant based burger, we could solve this

This is the do-or-die decade for climate change, world scientists warn

climate cowTime’s up, according to the world’s scientists who have just issued their starkest warning yet with the release of a climate science report for the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report released Monday is the first instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be finished in 2022. This installment, from Working Group 1, tackles the physical science basis of climate change. The report describes how little time is left to hit the brakes on warming and put the world on track to keep from breaching the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial temperature that scientists calculate can still keep the climate relatively safe. At a minimum, it is essential that we slow warming fast enough to keep the 1.5-degree target within sight, even with limited overshoot.

Tipping points are notoriously hard to quantify, and hence frequently excluded from climate models. But the probability — the fat-tail risk — is increasing every day that we’ll pass critical tipping points in a matter of years to decades.

Tipping points are hard to quantify, but, they are easy to prognosticate

In this do-or-die moment, the biggest immediate opportunity is to cut methane emissions, which also happens to be the fastest and probably cheapest way to slow warming. The landmark Global Methane Assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme and Climate and Clean Air Coalition calculates that reducing methane emissions by 45 percent by 2030 will avoid almost 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming globally and 0.5 degrees of warming in the vulnerable Arctic by the 2040s — while simultaneously preventing 255,000 premature human deaths every year, along with 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labour from extreme heat, and 26 million tonnes of crop losses globally.

They finally got around to methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Shorter atmospheric span than CO2, but, up to 25 times more of a greenhouse gas, but, it is not known for a doubling effect. Of course, two of the biggest creators are agriculture and landfills. Cities, states, and nations have worked hard to deal landfills, as well they should. I’ve noted methane as a driver of warming for a long time now, which is one reason I’ve always stated that Mankind does bear some responsibility for warming. Same with agriculture. What will Warmists do, kill all the meat animals? The Cult of Climastrology has mostly stayed away from it because people will laugh about cow farts.

This is the decade of action to bend not just the emissions curve, but more crucially the warming curve. Heat is the enemy we need to beat. World leaders are increasingly recognizing that this decade must achieve both immediate and drastic cuts to methane and other super climate pollutants, along with accelerated efforts to transition to clean energy and decarbonize our economies no later than 2050.

This happens every year, being told that we have 10 years to Save The Planet from a tiny increase in global temperatures. It’s inevitable to get these doomy proclamations. I’m just wondering, if we only have 10 years left, why do so few Warmists practice what they preach?

Read: This Is A Do Or Die Decade For Climate Crisis (scam) Or Something »

Joe Hiden Admin Won’t Guarantee Safety Of Americans In Afghanistan

I’ve been around for 54 years, and I can’t remember seeing anything like this, where the President and his people, including the U.S. military, won’t guarantee they’ll protect U.S. citizens abroad

Every single Democrat media outlet would be leading with a furious editorial demanding that Trump resign, and, if not, that Congress impeach him. That it is unconscionable that the U.S. government will not provide protection and an exit from Afghanistan. Of course, had it been Trump in charge, this disaster would not be happening. Even if it was, he’d be threatening the Taliban to not touch a hair on the head of any American and sending in fighting units to help every American

No official US evacuation plan for Americans outside Kabul, report says

Where's Joe BidenThe U.S. has no plans to evacuate Americans in Afghanistan who are located outside Kabul, according to a report Tuesday.

Officials from various departments — including State and Defense — informed Senate staffers at a Tuesday morning briefing that they do not know of a way to get those Americans through Taliban checkpoints located outside Kabul, the location of the main airport, The Washington Post reported, citing two Senate aides.

The precise number of Americans outside Kabul was not immediately clear but up to 15,000 may still be in Afghanistan, the Post reported. The Taliban has been on the offensive across the country for weeks. At a news briefing later Tuesday, Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters that the Taliban expressed a willingness to provide “safe passage of civilians to the airport,” the report said.

The U.S. was going to hold the Taliban to that promise, he added.

Right, right, we can totally trust the Taliban. Sullivan tried to backtrack later in the day, certainly after they realized how bad that looked that the Biden admin was essentially abandoning American citizens. Too late. Because they aren’t even guaranteeing the safety of Americans in Kabul

The State Department on Tuesday told American citizens and others looking to get out of Afghanistan that they should “shelter in place” until they are given further instruction by the U.S. Embassy amid a fragile security situation in the Afghan capital.

Other than a Blame everyone else speech from Joe, he’s pretty much MIA. His schedule no longer has him heading to Delaware today, but, nothing about Afghanistan. He’s supposed to deliver remarks about COVID vaccination at 430. Who thinks he’ll take questions? Doubtful, unless the media complies and submits to sticking to COVID. Then he tapes with George Stephanopoulos. Will George interrogate Joe about Afghanistan? Will he ask about protecting Americans in the disaster that is Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal plan?

Oh, and you wanted the unhinged Barking Moonbat opinion, right? Let’s check out Amanda Marcotte at Salon

Biden asks Americans to act like grown-ups — but Republicans are too addicted to being brats

The most striking thing about President Joe Biden’s Tuesday speech about the sudden fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban was the underlying message to his Republican critics and their handmaidens in the Beltway press corp: Jesus Christ, start acting your age already.

If you want to discuss “handmaidens”, let’s note how quickly women in Afghanistan, including U.S. reporters, had to don burkas and hijabs to avoid being beaten. And how many are being taken by the Taliban as brides.

“I want to remind everyone how we got here, and what America’s interests are in Afghanistan,” Biden said before he went on to level with viewers about how he “came to understand firsthand what was and was not possible in Afghanistan.”

“Staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States” is no longer acceptable, Biden made clear.

It was sober-minded, realistic and frank. It’s time now for the so-called adults to put away their G.I. Joes. Action movies are fun, but this is real life, and in real life, there are some problems that can’t be fixed by rallying around the flag and punching the bad guys. It is time, in other words, to grow up.

Right, right, grow up. It’s childish to think that the U.S. should keep it’s word and protect Americans in Afghanistan, along with all the Afghans who assisted the U.S. and all the women who will pretty much lose everything. We could solve this by punching the bad guys.

Joe’s managed to ruin things domestically, now things internationally. What’s next, piss off the space aliens?

Read: Joe Hiden Admin Won’t Guarantee Safety Of Americans In Afghanistan »

Warmist Asks What You Are Willing To Sacrifice To Stop Climate Doom

Excitable Matthew Yglesias does recognize an interesting dichotomy in Warmist beliefs

What Are You Willing to Sacrifice to Stop Climate Change?

Ours is a populist age, dominated not only by the anti-elitist posturing of Donald Trump and the Republican Party but also by a resurgent left that views “billionaire” as a dirty word. Many of our most profound problems, however, originate not in the pathologies of a narrow ruling class but among the broad mass of humanity.

A powerful reminder came in the form of last week’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The study contains the now-customary warnings of grievous future harms from climate change, plus a new section detailing the stark reality that it is now too late to avert significant warming.

For decades, pointy-headed elites have called on the nations of the world to address the problem of greenhouse gas emissions by putting a meaningful price on carbon. For the most part, it hasn’t happened — not because of the perfidy of the fossil-fuel industry, but because the idea of a carbon tax is toxically unpopular.

Yes, some polls show public support for a carbon tax. But in the real world, carbon taxation lost badly in two separate ballot initiatives in Washington State in 2016 and 2018. If a carbon tax can’t win in a state President Joe Biden carried by almost 20 points last year, and which has no local fossil-fuel industry, where can it win? And as this study of the Washington experience shows, it was only over the course of the actual campaign that public support for carbon taxation collapsed.

Oops? Remember, Jay Inslee was the governor of Washington, who’s primary focus was on ‘climate change’. That’s what he ran on. Yet, Doing Something about climate doom in practice failed. Much like his presidential aspirations when he ran as the Climate Guy. Doing Something is popular right up till people are asked to pay for it themselves.

This, in turn, is why climate activists have basically moved on from pricing. Instead they have put their faith in the kind of subsidy efforts that exist in small ways in the bipartisan infrastructure bill the Senate approved last week and in the larger, more partisan budget proposal Congress will debate this month and next.

That’s sound politics. But public hostility to carbon pricing is a reminder that there will be sharp limits to any kind of real climate action. Concern about climate change, while real and widespread, is also alarmingly shallow. Voters want action on climate, but not action of the sort that would cause anything they buy to become more expensive. Thus the progressive dream of mandating 100% carbon-free electricity in a reconciliation package is inevitably going to run into some of the same problems as a carbon tax.

When people start realizing how expensive all the climate garbage in the “infrastructure” bill and the Dems $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill are they’ll say “hold your horses electric vehicles there, Sparky.” When they realize how expensive EVs are, and how limiting they are, and how much less you get for the money, they’ll be utterly disinterested.

All of this leads to a difficult truth: The problem here lies not with the politicians, or even with the billionaires or oil companies. It lies with voters themselves, who recognize that climate change is a real problem but are not necessarily willing to sacrifice much of anything to tackle it.

They aren’t. Remember this from 2019?

(The Hill) Another emerging theme from the survey is that people do not want to spend their own money to combat climate change. Thirty-seven percent do not want to pay any additional taxes, and only 14 percent are willing to pay even $1 more a month. (poll here)

With the Washington Post’s new paywall rules, I can’t see this one from around the same time, but, it showed that most didn’t want to pay $10 more a month, if memory serves. Warmists find Doing Something popular in theory, not practice, not when it will cost them money and negatively affect their own lives.

Read: Warmist Asks What You Are Willing To Sacrifice To Stop Climate Doom »

If All You See…

…is awful atmospheric carbon pollution taking away blue skies, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is No Tricks Zone, with a post on the UN’s climate numbers being contradicted by the UN’s climate numbers.

Read: If All You See… »

Scottish Government Looks To Make COVID Emergency Powers Permanent

See, this totally has everything to do with science, right? Right?

From the link (photo via ZendoDeb)

The Scottish Government wants its emergency coronavirus powers to become permanent – including the ability to order schools to close, impose lockdowns and operate virtual courts.

Ministers are considering changing the law to permanently allow them to release prisoners early or permit a wider range of healthcare professionals to give vaccinations.

They are seeking the public’s views on removing the planned expiry date for many of the temporary measures, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney arguing that some of the changes have had a “demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland”.

The majority of the government’s current powers introduced during the pandemic are due to elapse in March 2022 although they can be extended by six months with Holyrood’s backing.

But the consultation published by the government wants to make many permanently available, claiming it would ensure “ministers can respond effectively and rapidly to any future threats to public health in Scotland”.

What will the Scottish people say? If they disagree and are against this plan, will the government go ahead with giving themselves authoritarian powers permanently?

In addition to being able to impose future lockdowns and restrict gatherings, ministers would also be able to order school closures “during the remainder of the pandemic” or for any future outbreak of an infectious disease, so long as they believe it is “necessary and proportionate”, and the chief medical officer has been consulted.

And how soon till those orders are extended for other things? What if they declare ‘climate change’ a medical emergency, for instance, and apply these rules? If you think that’s just crazy talk, you haven’t been paying attention.

Meanwhile, in one of the nations lauded as the best in COVID response

One Virus Case Puts New Zealand Into Nationwide Lockdown

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the nation into a three-day lockdown after the discovery of the first community case of Covid-19 since February.

The snap lockdown will begin at midnight tonight as authorities rush to identify the source of a single infection in largest city Auckland, Ardern said at a news conference Tuesday in Wellington. While genome sequencing has yet to be completed, the case is assumed to be the highly infectious delta variant, she said.

Totally about the science, right?

Read: Scottish Government Looks To Make COVID Emergency Powers Permanent »

Climate Cult Wants Other People To Cool Their Consumerism

These are letters to the UK Guardian, and we see climate cultists pushing for government to restrict consumerism. Because you don’t see them voluntarily giving up their own

Cooling consumerism could save the climate

In Adam Tooze’s article (By pushing for more oil production, the US is killing its climate pledges, 13 August), he surmised that economic activity and fossil fuel consumption are hardwired together. It may be more that economic activity and energy consumption are hardwired together – and thus the need to move to renewables or low-carbon energy sources. That must be part of the strategy, along with as yet unavailable technical solutions such as carbon capture.

However, we seem to tiptoe around the consumption part of any strategy. Lower consumption results in lower carbon emissions. The government has managed to exert strong influence over personal actions during the Covid pandemic using a myriad of three-word slogans. We need a similar push linked to consumption and climate change.

Not all of the loss of consumerism was caused by government restricting activities since COVID began, but, a good chunk of it is, including restriction to mine for the precious metals that are used in electronics. Warmists have a choice in restricting their own, but, they won’t. They’ll keep buying until Government says “no.” They’re very much climahypocrites and want government Authoritarianism.

Larry Elliott writes that China is responsible for 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with Britain, France and Italy each accounting for about 1% (Fairness will be key to successfully tackling the climate crisis, Journal, 12 August). A quick consideration of consumables in my home reveals the astounding number branded “Made in China”, from toothbrush and toothpaste via my morning radio to the fridge from which I take my breakfast yoghurt. This suggests to me a rather different allocation of responsibility; it is time to engage in the urgent political review of just how we in the west must change our addiction to cheap mass consumption and take action to assist China and India in reducing emissions.

And how do you assist them? Long ago when I started my first post-college job my boss said, in regards to offering ideas and plans, “if you’re complaining and not offering solutions you’re whining.” That’s what Warmists do: whine.

Larry Elliott correctly identifies the need for a different sort of political economy based around redistribution. He is also right that voters may be reluctant to accept personal restrictions if they are perceived to be unfair, and politicians wary of proposing them if they think they will be unpopular. Yet Labour have spent the last decade worrying about saying anything that might be unpopular and this has simply bred distrust in them (compared with the Tories, whom the electorate can be sure will lie to them).

Now is the time for politicians to be straight with the public, to act from moral conviction and empathy, not expediency, and to persuade us that we will all gain more than we will lose by flying less, eating less meat and requiring those who have more than they need to relinquish the surplus to those who have least.

By persuade, this letter means “force.” You don’t hear many Warmists say they’ve voluntarily done much of anything in their own lives. Kinda hard to redistribute what is not being produced in a Modern Socialist economy.

Read: Climate Cult Wants Other People To Cool Their Consumerism »

Afghanistan Fallout: China Tells Taiwan There’s A Lesson In The Fiasco

Well, it didn’t take long for Joe Hiden’s Afghanistan disaster to bear rotten fruit

Chinese State Media Says Afghanistan a Lesson for Taiwan on How U.S. Abandons Allies

Biden Brain SlugThe Global Times, a tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, warned Taiwan on Monday it could face the same fate as Afghanistan if it continued relying on the United States as an ally.

The paper’s editorial began by describing how the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan caused the Taliban’s forces to quickly seize control in what it deemed “a heavy blow to the credibility and reliability of the U.S.”

The Times then cited what it called similar situations, such as the fall of Saigon during the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 when the U.S. evacuated its citizens from the city. The tabloid also wrote of how the U.S. “abandoned their allies, the Kurds,” when it withdrew troops from northern Syria in 2019.

Taiwan is similar to Afghanistan in that it has sought support from the U.S., the Global Times claimed, adding “Taiwan is the region that relies on the protection of the U.S. the most in Asia, and the island’s Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] authorities have made Taiwan go further and further down this abnormal path.”

The situation in Afghanistan spiraled quickly out of control “after the country was abandoned by the U.S.” The paper asked, “Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?”

Well, that’s not threatening at all. Especially days after Biden abandoned Afghanistan in the manner he did. And, yes, this is all on Biden, despite trying to blame everyone, including Trump, but himself. He can say this was “Trump’s plan”, but, first, Biden is president. If the plan was a bad one, why follow it? If it was a good one, he botched it. If it’s 4th and 5, down 6, 10 seconds left in the Super Bowl and the plan is to run the ball out to the corner and the o-line goes to pass-block at the snap and the receivers go into crossing routes, well, the execution of the plan failed. There is no second. He’s the president. He ran for the office. He had the ultimate responsibility for the plan.

The article concluded by giving some advice to Taiwan’s leaders: “They need to change their course of bonding themselves to the anti-Chinese mainland chariot of the U.S.”

China doesn’t make threats lightly. And it is a threat. Much stronger than usual.

China holds assault drills near Taiwan after ‘provocations’

China carried out assault drills near Taiwan on Tuesday, with warships and fighter jets exercising off the southwest and southeast of the island in what the country’s armed forces said was a response to “external interference” and “provocations”.

Taiwan, which Beijing claims as Chinese territory, has complained of repeated People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills in its vicinity in the past two years or so, part of a pressure campaign to force the island to accept China’s sovereignty.

A senior official familiar with Taiwan’s security planning told Reuters that China’s air force had carried out a “capturing air supremacy” drill, using their advanced J-16 fighters.

Rather interesting timing, eh? Sure, China has been doing this stuff for a while, this takes it up a notch as a threat to abandon their sovereignty and become part of China. We see how well that’s working in Hong Kong.

Biden gave the green light for this operation, and you can bet other U.S. allies are looking at the way he abandoned Afghanistan with concern. And you can bet Iran and Russia are looking on with glee, along with Islamist terrorist groups.

Read: Afghanistan Fallout: China Tells Taiwan There’s A Lesson In The Fiasco »

China Cranks Up World Killing Carbon Pollution Or Something

Hey, remember how so many have lauded China for saying they would Do Something about ‘climate change’? Heck, some even thought the U.S. should emulate China’s authoritarian system to make stuff happen here. High flying climate envoy John Kerry has, admittedly, taken a few shots at China, but, he also won’t let their human rights problems get in the way. But, world leaders and Warmist groups have been on China’s side, thrilled that they say they are doing something. How’s that working?

China cranks up carbon-intensive projects as climate crisis grows, research shows

China announced scores of new carbon-intensive coal and steel projects in the first half of 2021, research showed on Friday just days after a key U.N. report urged immediate global action to curb use of fossil fuels and prevent runaway climate change.

The push comes as climate experts exhort governments around the world to take drastic action amid increasingly widespread extreme weather events, like deadly wildfires, drought and even central China’s highest rainfall in 1,000 years – events that experts say are directly linked to human impact on the environment via carbon emissions.

“The rest of the world is getting the message that it’s time to move away from coal, but coal interests in China are dragging their feet, and the central government is not reining them in,” said Christine Shearer, coal programme director at Global Energy Monitor (GEM), the U.S. think-tank that jointly authored the report on China’s first-half carbon projects with the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

During the first half, China, the world’s biggest coal consumer and source of climate-warming greenhouse gases, announced plans to build 18 new coal-fired blast furnaces, more than in the whole of last year, according to the CREA-GEM research. Another 43 coal-fired power plant units were also proposed, the research showed.

I’m guessing China is like most Warmists: a lot of noise about Doing Something in theory, but, in practice, nah, we’re good. Does anyone think China cares what the world thinks, when so much of the world’s debt is held by China and they provide so many products?

China has promised to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2060, but faces growing calls to set more ambitious targets and act faster.

Read: China Cranks Up World Killing Carbon Pollution Or Something »

If All You See…

…is an elevated bridge needed for when the seas rise hundreds of feet, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Cold Fury, with a post on silly, deluded people wanting freedom.

Read: If All You See… »

Who’s Up For More COVID Variants?

Of course they’re always Much Worse than the current variants

The next dangerous COVID-19 variant might just be around the corner

The next coronavirus variant might be just around the corner, especially if the American population doesn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19, a former Trump administration official said.

Adm. Brett Giroir, the former coronavirus testing czar under former President Donald Trump, told CNN this week that variants are lingering out there.

“The next variant is just around the corner, if we do not all get vaccinated,” he said.

“I just beg the American people to understand that to defeat this virus, we have to get everybody’s level of immunity up, and that’s just the way it is,” he said.

But, um

Multiple experts told Newsweek that the delta variant is only the beginning when it comes to coronavirus variants spreading rapidly in an unvaccinated population. The health experts said there will likely be a more transmissible variant out there soon, and it’s possible a “doomsday” variant could come next, as I explained for the Deseret News.

It’s always worse

Two coronavirus variants have made headlines in recent days because they evade the COVID-19 vaccines.

  • The lambda variant, for example, can spread fast and potentially evade vaccines, according to a new study, which not been peer-reviewed,
  • The epsilon variant — also said to be highly transmissible — has some mutations that “give this coronavirus variant of concern a means to totally evade specific monoclonal antibodies used in clinics and reduces the effectiveness of antibodies from the plasma of vaccinated people,” according to the University of Washington study, which was published in the latest edition of Science.

So, getting the vaccine would be virtually useless? This should really make people ask some very tough questions regarding China, since normal viruses do not change this much this fast. Lab grown ones can.

Siding with Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Supreme Court temporarily halts mask orders in Dallas and Bexar counties

The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday temporarily blocked mask mandates in Dallas and Bexar counties, marking a pivotal moment in the showdown between state and local government as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge in Texas.

The ruling comes after several school districts and a handful of counties across the state defied Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that restricted local entities from instituting mask mandates. On Friday, the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio upheld a lower court ruling that permitted Bexar County to require mask-wearing in public schools. Shortly after, the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas upheld a more far-reaching order from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins that required masks in public schools, universities and businesses.

In a petition for a writ of mandamus to the Texas Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said the Texas Disaster Act of 1975 gives the governor power to act as the “‘commander in chief’ of the state’s response to a disaster. Attorneys representing cities and counties that have sued Abbott over his executive order have argued that his orders should not supersede local orders.

The Constitution of Texas gives the State the power over municipalities. What if the local orders said people do not have to wear seat belts? Or pay taxes? If people want to wear masks, let them. The order doesn’t stop them from wearing them, for all the good (barely any) that they will do.

The Biden Admin Isn’t Here For Florida’s Mask Mandate Ban Nonsense

As if there wasn’t enough anxiety surrounding the beginning of the school year, families in Florida have to add heightened risk of COVID infection to their list. On July 30, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order blocking mask mandates in the state’s schools. Executive Order 21-175, or what DeSantis calls “Ensuring Parents’ Freedom to Choose — Masks in Schools,” bans schools from issuing masking mandates. Schools could still suggest wearing the masks, but ultimately, the order leaves the choice in the hands of parents.

His order blatantly defies CDC guidelines, claiming that “despite recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ‘guidance,’ forcing students to wear masks lacks a well-grounded scientific justification; indeed, a Brown University study analyzed COVID-19 data for schools in Florida and found no correlation with mask mandates.” Florida currently leads the nation with the most children hospitalized for COVID.

Yes, because the CDC has been so correct, right? Regardless, there’s nothing in the article about Biden, but, again, if people want to wear masks they can. As for Joe Hiden, well, he’s not around for much. Also, he has no Constitutional authority to do a damned thing about blocking mask mandates in a state.

Read: Who’s Up For More COVID Variants? »

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