Say, Could A Runaway Greenhouse Effect Turn Earth Into Venus?

By William Teach March 21, 2020 – 10:30 am

Doomsday cultists gotta doomsday cultist. It’s all about attempting to scare people into giving up their money and freedom to Government

A runaway greenhouse effect turned Venus into ‘hell.’ Could the same thing happen here?

Is there a temperature rise number that will result in a runaway greenhouse effect sending the Earth towards the fate of Venus?

— Richard, New Boston NH

Once upon a time, around small yellow sun, there existed a world with a rocky surface and a molten core. It harbored water and may even have been hospitable to life.

Then the planet got hot — really hot. Its atmosphere filled with heat-trapping gases. Water evaporated into its atmosphere and then was lost to space. Whatever mechanisms the planet may have had for balancing its climate were broken. Nothing, not even a robot, could survive there.

That would be Venus, which is much closer to the Sun, rather than being in the “Goldilocks zone“.

Human-driven climate change will never get quite as bad as that, said Giada Arney, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. But the story of Venus’s transformation from potentially Earth-like planet to the “closest thing to hell in our solar system,” she said, holds important lessons for people navigating a warming world.

Climate change is a much more immediate concern. Much the way a warming sun broke Venus’s temperature control system, humans have disrupted Earth’s natural cycle by burning fossil fuels, scientists agree. The buried carbon of ancient organisms that would otherwise have stayed locked up beneath Earth’s surface is now being released release at least 60 times as fast as it would under as natural processes. The planet is heating up at a rate of about 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade –faster than any known change over the past 4.6 billion years.

Good grief. They have no direct observations of this assertion.

We’re unlikely to see our planet become Venus anytime soon, Byrne said, even if we burned every gallon of oil and ounce of coal currently in the ground. Earth’s average temperature would have to rise by dozens of degrees Fahrenheit to trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, and the worst climate change scenarios don’t project warming greater than 8.1 degrees by the end of the century.

“But I think it’s certainly worth us being humble,” Byrne said. “Planetary systems are kept in a very fine balance … and it’s important for humans to realize it doesn’t take very much to tip the balance and really fundamentally change things.”

Hogwash. Utter unhinged hysterics. Anyhow, the answer to the headline question is “no”. But, you should still give up your money and freedom to be “humble”.

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Wuhan Virus Gives Us A Dose Of Reality About ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach March 21, 2020 – 10:30 am

Green Biz’s Joel Makower attempts to make a point about this, but, unintentionally makes a different point

COVID-19 and climate change: A healthy dose of reality

It’s too early to tell whether COVID-19 is linked in any way to the climate crisis. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t; we’ll likely never know for certain. Still, consider the global health crisis currently upon us as a warm-up act for a climate-changing world.

In the immortal words of the ‘70s rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

For nearly two decades, health officials around the world have warned about the rise of infectious disease from a warming climate. The Pentagon, for example, started raising concern back in 2003 in an independent study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense. It warned that “As famine, disease and weather-related disasters strike due to the abrupt climate change, many countries’ needs will exceed their carrying capacity.”

See, we don’t know if Wuhan has any link at all to ‘climate change’, and most likely has none, because it seemed to have everything to do with there always having been viruses and people in filthy open air markets cooking bat or pangolin (or, yes, possibly it getting out from a biological center right down the street from the market)

Clearly, this is not a “someday” situation. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization since 2017, “As man-made climate change has taken hold over the last four decades, dozens of new infectious diseases have emerged or begun to threaten new regions, including Zika and Ebola.” Moreover, he writes, “Bubonic plague, spread by rats and fleas, is predicted to increase with warmer springs and wetter summers. Anthrax, whose spores are released by thawing permafrost, could spread farther as a result of stronger winds.”

Bubonic plague. Anthrax. Suddenly, coronavirus feels rather tame.

Ebola, like other Hemorrhagic diseases, predates the current warm period, as does Anthrax and the Bubonic plague. In fact, the massive bubonic plague that killed anywhere from 75 million to 200 million occurred during a Holocene cool period back in the 1300’s. (see the big graphic below the fold)

He is correct, though, that this is a warm-up act for a Hotcoldwetdry government policy world, where people are not working, where travel is restricted, people are stuck at home, where food and goods are in short supply, where jobs are not available, and government is telling you what to do, where you can and can’t go, and how to live your life.

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Extinction Rebellion Says There’s No “Going Back To Business As Usual” Or Something

By William Teach March 21, 2020 – 7:08 am

Even if you believe that the slightly elevated climate is mostly/solely caused by the actions of humanity, you should sit back and think on what the hardcore disciples of the Cult of Climastrology actually want and whether you want to be a part of this, much like many Muslims sit back and say they want nothing to do with the beliefs and goals of the radical Islamists

‘No going back’ after coronavirus say Extinction Rebellion Furness climate change activists

THERE should be no going back to “business as usual” when the coronavirus outbreak dies down, say environmental campaigners.

An XR Furness spokesman said the reduction in flights and driving as people work from home has led to a huge improvement in air quality, much less CO2 being released into the atmosphere and a new feeling of community.

“In China, deaths from coronavirus stood at 3,208 yesterday,” he said.

“But the improved air quality there as a result of the outbreak could have prevented between 50,000 and 75,000 deaths from air pollution. Here we’re enjoying seeing – although at a safe distance – our friends and families more in the open air and being part of a community, helping each other in a way that feels right. We’ve got to learn from this that there are better ways to live.

Go that? It was worth 3,200 people dying. Is this a really great message to put out? That we should kill off and/or let die thousands to mitigate a slight 1.5F increase in global temperatures, an average Holocene warm period?

But the fear was, said the spokesman, that instead of building on the improvement in the quality of people’s lives, the old system would be rebooted as the outbreak slows.

“That happened after the 2018 financial crash. Emissions of CO2, which had been down, shot up again.

“We can’t go back to the rat race that was driving us to extinction.

“We’ve got to learn from this that there are better ways to live.

“Some people may think this is pie in the sky. But to think we can go on as we were, despite clear warning from scientists, is completely unrealistic.”

This would be the old system that provided food, clothing, housing, and so forth, versus the one XR wants, which looks like empty shelves, which, when finally replaced, you’re restricted. Many stores are restricting the amount people can buy. Guy I work with has a large family, and could only buy one pack of chicken breasts. Not enough. XR would prefer things look like Venezuela.

As NotFarWrong writes in the story comments “Unfortunately people can’t live on fresh air. They have to work. Work brings prosperity and prosperity brings better environmental controls. China had been working its way towards that end but the actions of its communist government have put a very large stumbling block in the way of that.”

And that fresh air has nothing to do with “carbon pollution”, but, real environmental pollutants.

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Whining Whiners Who Whine: Washington Post Wonders Where Trump’s Wartime Response Is

By William Teach March 21, 2020 – 6:51 am

I don’t know about you, but, I’m sick and tired of the uber-partisan Credentialed Media with their never helpful, over the top, doomsaying, negative let’s bash Trump coverage, which is rarely ever helpful, and continues to drive people into fear, when we should be pushing optimism to get over this. Real people’s lives are affected, and the media do not really seem to care, just their hardcore politics. Was the media this negative during WWII? Here’s the Washington Post editorial board, which ends up contradicting their entire piece, but, do people make it that far into the piece?

We face a wartime supply shortage. Where is Trump’s wartime response?

A TROUBLESOME bottleneck threatens to undermine all the hard work of health-care workers and others to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Reports from across the country reveal dire shortages of personal protective equipment, including masks, chemical reagents needed for testing and other supplies essential to coping with an expected onslaught of illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been reduced to suggesting scarves and bandannas where masks are unavailable.

(multiple paragraphs about shortages)

President Trump suggested in a news conference this week that the shortages are a problem for the governors to deal with. “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” he said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.” Then on Friday he said the government had ordered the production of millions of masks and that these would be delivered directly to states. He offered contradictory statements about the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law allowing the government to address supply shortages by giving directives to industry to ramp up production, first asserting he had invoked its authority and then saying he had not used it because companies had responded voluntarily.

It is better that the states deal with as much as they can, as they are closer to the shipping points, distribution centers, and manufacturers. And, just like Trump said, since they left it out of the piece, the federal government will help where they can, hence, the order for production. And then you have that Defense Production Act, the kind of thing that they will excoriate him as being an authoritarian if he starts to use it.

And, prediction: if he uses it, the media will excoriate Trump by saying he’s 1. telling companies to produce the wrong things and 2. telling people to work when they should be isolating themselves.

We are told that factories making masks are already running at full tilt; it may take time and investment to create new assembly lines to manufacture needed supplies. Instead of passing the buck to governors, Mr. Trump ought to deploy every tool at his disposal to address the shortages now.

If this is a wartime scale of a problem, where is the wartime response?

So, wait, factories are already running full tilt? What more can they produce? And, yes, it will take time to create new assembly. Who does this? It doesn’t happen overnight. You know what would great to convert? Newspapers. They have plenty of room, and you quickly know where the offices are. Trump should use his power to convert them. The rooms which produce dead tree papers would be perfect, right?

This is all just continued whining rather than attempting to come together. But, we’ve seen this same theater not long after 9/11, where the leftist media and Democrats started going after Bush 43 a few weeks after, because hardcore politics is their life.

Oh, and if they really want a wartime response, Trump will tell the media how their news will be published, just like in WWII.

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Democrats Attempt To Push Their “For The People Act” To Reclaim Democracy

By William Teach March 20, 2020 – 3:25 pm

Yeah, yeah, getting beyond that we are not a pure democracy, but, hey, at least they didn’t mention Coronavirus. Just kind of implied it. Here’s Democrat Sensators Jeff Merkley and Tom Udall

What our democracy needs now: Legislation that returns power to the American people

What do prescription drug pricing, gun safety and the climate crisis have in common? Strong majorities of Americans want Congress to act on these issues, but special interests and political corruption keep Washington, D.C., gridlocked.

That wouldn’t return power to the people, it would give it to the Central Government

Many Americans have resigned themselves to the current reality of our politics. But our government doesn’t need to — and shouldn’t — operate this way. We can and must reclaim government of, by and for the people.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1, the For the People Act —sweeping anti-corruption legislation that would represent the biggest reform of money and ethics in government since Watergate.

We are leading the For the People Act in the Senate because this legislation is the road map we need to take our democratic republic out of the hands of the powerful and privileged, and give it back to “We the People.”

The For the People Act represents a powerful step to reclaim our government from  insidious forces that have maintained power for the privileged few and broken our politics.

You know who those insidious forces are? “Cynical politicians” at lower levesl who do things constituents want, like voter ID

The For the People Act does precisely that by combating these insidious laws and instituting automatic voter registration instead.

What if people do not want to be registered? And then

Perhaps worst of all, special interests and billionaires have exploited loopholes in federal campaign spending — like the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United ruling — to dump unprecedented sums of special interest money into American elections.

See, it’s those pesky private citizens and companies, which are often made up of little people (take a look at Opensecrets.org and see who gives money to the two senators), who dare attempt to sway elected lawmakers. How dare they think that elected lawmakers should be responsive to citizens, not the other way around. The even go on to write that “special interests” have too much power. Aren’t citizens and citizen groups supposed to have the power?

The entire bill is about giving massive amounts of power to the government and taking it from the private sector, including citizens. It is a horrible, horrible authoritarian bill, which is why the Democrats like it.

If they really want to return power to the people, then they should institute term limits and repeal the 17th Amendment. Put the power back where it belongs in our federalist system.

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If All You See…

By William Teach March 20, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is everything horrible for climate change … dogs, cars, roads, concrete, electricity, OMG, panic!!!!!…. you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Raised On Hoecakes, with a post on some Coronavirus good news.

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Corona Shutdowns Have Climate Benefits Or Something

By William Teach March 20, 2020 – 10:30 am

This is a cult in action: they link everything to their cult, and everything is about their cult

Coronavirus shutdowns have unintended climate benefits: cleaner air, clearer water

In Venice, the often murky canals recently began to get clearer, with fish visible in the water below. Italy’s efforts to limit the coronavirus meant an absence of boat traffic on the city’s famous waterways. And the changes happened quickly.

Countries that have been under stringent lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus have experienced an unintended benefit. The outbreak has, at least in part, contributed to a noticeable drop in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in some countries.

Although grim, it’s something scientists said could offer tough lessons for how to prepare — and ideally avoid — the most destructive impacts of climate change.

Looks great, eh? (more below the fold)

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This Is The “Yes We Can” Moment For ‘Climate Change’ Action Or Something

By William Teach March 20, 2020 – 7:14 am

It’s probably not a really good idea for the doomsday Cult of Climastrology to be pushing this right now

‘This is a yes-we-can moment’: What the coronavirus response means for climate action

Climate scientists believe the unprecedented measures in place to tackle the coronavirus pandemic give a glimpse of what could be possible when it comes to fighting the climate emergency.

The coronavirus outbreak and the climate crisis are two inherently different global risks, but both have a potentially devastating human cost. Despite this, only one has kickstarted widespread action across the globe in recent weeks.

With COVID-19 infections now confirmed in more than 150 countries, governments around the world have imposed war-like measures to contain its spread.

Some countries have been put into lockdown, with public gatherings canceled, schools closed, and citizens being advised to avoid discretionary travel and work from home over the coming months. Emergency funds have also been released for businesses struggling to stay afloat.

All of these measures have been implemented to help save lives.

It’s not a particularly good argument for implementing ‘climate change’ policy, is it? We know that the measures for Corona/Wuhan/Chinese virus are temporary (and perhaps over-blown). All the restrictions, loss of productivity, lost jobs, inability to travel, loss of personal and business revenue, stuck at home, slow Internet, not creating new movies and TV shows, no sports, and so forth, these are all temporary. With ‘climate change’ policy, this is permanent.

And will these same Warmists who screech about Trump being a dictator and authoritarian be cool with the government making do all these things?

Speaking to CNBC via telephone, Rockstrom emphasized that the degree of risk between the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis was “completely incompatible,” as the latter is much more serious.

“They are incomparable. The coronavirus is nothing compared to the climate crisis … The climate crisis is an existential crisis,” he said.

Oh, blow it out your ass. Let’s see Warmists live this life for a few years, see how they do.

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Netflix Reduces Streaming Speed In European Union Nations

By William Teach March 20, 2020 – 6:58 am

Has anyone noticed a reduction in Internet speed, especially during the day? Doing speed tests through Ookla, I’m seeing well below the 200mb I’m paying for. Not even getting to 100mbps. Multiple tests on my laptop are getting around 35mbps, phone is getting around 63mbps, and tablet around 45. Interestingly, the first two are on WiFi N, while the table gets WiFi C, which can do half the speed. Upload speeds are a good measure, around 11mbps on all, and usually go to around 15. And it’s just 6:35am. I did not really notice an issue Wednesday, when I was off, at least not while streaming a movie and some TV shows (the Expanse and The Americans). But, in the EU

Netflix to slow down streaming so the internet doesn’t break

In what could be a harbinger of things to come in the United States, Netflix is tapping the breaks on its download speeds in Europe in order to reduce network bandwidth now that millions of people have committed to staying home.

The move is in response to European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who spoke with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings the service reducing its streaming speeds. Breton is encouraging people and companies to switch back to standard definition, instead of high definition (let alone ultra-crisp 4K) in order to keep the bandwidth pipelines flowing to all who need online access during the crisis.

“Following the discussions between Commissioner Thierry Breton and Reed Hastings — and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus — Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” Netflix said in a statement obtained by EW. “We estimate that this will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25 percent while also ensuring a good quality service for our members.”

Previously, Netflix pointed out they use “adaptive streaming” which automatically adjusts picture quality based on a network’s capacity. The company has also distributed hubs of its content on servers worldwide so shows can be delivered locally and quickly rather than all steaming from one central source. In other words, Netflix has already taken steps to not be a bandwidth hog. But even with just those existing measures in place we could see streaming quality potentially reduced to standard definition (like 1990s-level picture quality) during the pandemic bandwidth crunch regardless of whether the U.S. likewise asks streamers such as Netflix to scale back.

A double-edged sword. People are stuck at home not working (not everyone is capable of telecommuting) and need entertainment and then have their streaming capability reduced to even standard definition (480i) from high def (720 and 1080). For most things, a slower Internet speed is not going to affect them. Writing posts, playing my escape games, cruising around, etc, doesn’t require much speed. Streaming movies and such? More required. I do have my Firestick cable connected to the router, rather than WiFi, so, runs smoother.

Here in the U.S., carriers have suspended data caps to help people communicate during the outbreak, but our broadband capability is going to be heavily taxed. According to The New York Times, “internet networks are set to be strained to the hilt” with “serious consequences, not just for the performance of our broadband networks but also for student access to education and the security of corporate data and networks.” The U.S. has a strong infrastructure to handle such pressure compared to many other countries, but rural areas, in particular, could experience performance issues.

Much will be dependent on how many are using Internet in your local area and who the carrier is.

I bet a lot of people are missing actual DVDs and Bluerays right now, eh? They don’t buffer. People are going to rediscover Red Box hard if this continues. Of course, when the EU speaks with Netflix, they have the power to force the slowdown. The US federal and state governments do not have that power.

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Comrades In People’s Republik Of California Keep Calling 911 To Report Other People’s Coughs

By William Teach March 19, 2020 – 4:47 pm

This is not the way to do this, folks

California residents keep calling 911 on coughing neighbors during coronavirus pandemic

California residents are calling the police on neighbors they hear coughing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Riverside County police officers have seen their 15th instance of people reporting coughing neighbors to authorities, according to the Desert Sun. The Coachella Valley, Cathedral City, and Palm Springs departments have all been receiving calls from residents concerned their neighbors have the coronavirus because they heard them sneeze or cough.

Authorities are treating each call seriously and often send paramedics to the area if treatment is needed.

California Peace Officers Association President Neil Gallucci, however, warned that sending paramedics to a possibly infected patient’s house after a call from concerned neighbors raises the chances of first responders contracting the virus and spreading it to each other.

I would think the first concern would be dispatching law enforcement officers to check on coughs rather than deal with crime. But, this is California, ya know. Hey, perhaps the governor could ask people to stop doing crime, kinda like the mayor of Baltimore asked the low lifes to stop shooting each other, because they’re taking hospital beds. Hasn’t worked so far in that Democratic Party run den of rats.

Oh, then there’s Excitable Liz

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