…is death from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Shot In The Dark, with a post on that logistical wiz, Brandon!
Read: If All You See… »
…is death from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Shot In The Dark, with a post on that logistical wiz, Brandon!
Read: If All You See… »
The original point of the new mask mandates in Wake County and Raleigh was to get infection rates below 5%. Wake County’s was supposed to end November 1st, unless they reauthorized it. Raleigh’s was completely open ended. And they want to keep their power trip going
Coronavirus infections are declining, but local officials say it’s too early to ditch masks
North Carolina reported 2,160 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, which is 17 percent lower than a week ago. But even though pandemic-related metrics continue trending downward in the state, local officials say they aren’t ready to lift rules requiring masks indoors in public places.
Wake County’s mask mandate expires Monday, but Matt Calabria, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, said Wednesday an order extending it will likely be issued by the end of the week.
The county is considered a “high transmission” area for the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Calabria said he doesn’t want to end the mandate before the county drops to a “moderate transmission” area.
The CDC bases those categories on the rate of new infections and the positive rate on virus tests over a seven-day period. Although Wake County’s 3.3 percent positive rate is in the “low transmission” range, the rate of 100 cases per 100,000 residents would need to be cut by more than half to get into the moderate range.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said she also has no plans to lift the city’s indoor mask mandate until the CDC says the region has only moderate levels of viral transmission.
The interesting thing is that other areas of NC without mask mandates are also seeing the same drop in infections. Franklin County and Randolph County, for instance. Florida, with mask mandates being blocked, now has the nation’s lowest Chinese coronavirus rate. Could this all be cyclical, with masking making almost no difference, especially since most masks block, at best, 10% of COVID? Perhaps we should be spending more time on social distancing, no touching, washing hands.
And Wake County and Raleigh have high vaccination rates (over 70%), yet, they want to continue the mask theater.
Meanwhile, The Lid points out
DeBlasio’s vaccine mandate is effective on Friday evening (10/29), only two days from now. As of Tuesday (10/26), twenty-seven percent of all cops have chosen not to get the poke.
The Fire Department is in even worse shape. “Andrew Ansbro, FDNY Firefighters Association president, told the â€Brian Kilmeade Show†that â€right now, 45% of New York firefighters are unvaccinated.†Ansbro thinks that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state workers will lead to â€30% to 40% of firehouses†being closed down.
DeBlasio announced the mandate would no longer have a testing option last week, nine days before the deadline. Anyone who does not get at least one poke before this coming Friday will be placed on leave without pay. That includes the police officers and firefighters he praised months ago for being on the front line in fighting COVID.
Good luck, Democratic Party run area of NYC!
Read: Surprise: Wake County, Raleigh To Keep Mask Mandates Much Longer »
What a fantastic deal, we have to Save The Planet!
New York state denies permits for two proposed natural gas-fired power plants
New York environmental regulators on Wednesday rejected permits to build two natural gas-fired power plants as the state focuses more on renewable projects and energy efficiency to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied air emissions permits for NRG Energy Inc’s proposed Astoria gas turbine project in the New York City borough of Queens, and Danskammer Energy LLC’s proposed Danskammer repowering project in Newburgh on the Hudson River.
In both cases, the DEC said: “Our review determined the proposed project does not demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
The 2019 act seeks to achieve 100% zero-emission electricity in the state by 2040.
This has made many Democrat Warmists happy
New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement applauding the DEC’s decisions to deny the permits.
“Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, and we owe it to future generations to meet our nation-leading climate and emissions reduction goals,” the Democratic governor said.
Kathy doesn’t have to worry about paying her electric bill, the taxpayer does. She won’t have to turn out any lights nor prioritize heating vs food. And AOC is thrilled
New Yorkers: Thanks AOC! https://t.co/bv2o67QgsW pic.twitter.com/Xk9cAd0HnC
— TheRightWingM ???????????????? ???????? (@TheRightWingM) October 27, 2021
Let’s look at one of those articles
Higher Home Heating Costs Could Burn a Hole in Your Wallet This Winter
Pandemic-battered families face skyrocketing heating costs this winter, with year-on-year prices set to rise by as much as 54% for some households, according to the annual winter fuel outlook released this week from the Energy Information Administration.
“We expect that households across the United States will spend more on energy this winter compared with the past several winters because of these higher energy prices and because we assume a slightly colder winter than last year in much of the United States,â€Â the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in the report.
Prices are forecast to rise by more than 40% for households who use heating oil, affecting the Northeast in particular; and will increase 30% for natural gas and 54% for propane. Those who heat with electricity could see 6% increases.
How much will this hurt New Yorkers?
In August 2021, residents in the New York City metropolitan area paid a total of 22.6 cents per kWh for electricity, 56.9 percent more than the national average of 14.4 cents per kWh.
In May 2021, electricity in New York is among the most expensive in the country, with consumers paying an average of 18.27 cents per kWh. For comparison, the national average is 11.53 cents per kWh.
They could have offset this by building more reliable, efficient, low cost natural gas plants, but, not, they want expensive, unreliable solar and wind. Good luck providing energy for NYC, AOC. And, yes, those natural gas plants would make zero difference for this year, but would be helpful going forward. But, hey, no complaints, New Yorkers, you voted for this.
Read: New York Denies Permits For Natural Gas Power Plants »
I’m sure we’ll all be able to see the details of the bill so that we can make an informed decisions on whether to support it or not, right?
Biden to announce new framework on spending deal
President Biden on Thursday will meet with House Democrats to outline the specifics of his economic agenda and push for its passage along with a bipartisan infrastructure deal after months of negotiations.
Biden plans to announce a new framework that is expected to win approval from all Democrats on the Hill, according to a White House source, though it remains to be seen if progressives will get on board with a pared-down version of the proposal.
The president will return to the White House after the meeting at the Capitol and deliver remarks on his agenda and its path forward, a separate White House official said. Biden will leave for a multi-day trip to Europe later Thursday.
Specifics of Biden’s agenda were not immediately clear, making it difficult to know what will make it into his final proposal for an ambitious spending package that would cover funding for climate programs, education, family and child care and more. (snip)
Senators have said a deal is close, but issues including expanding Medicare benefits, empowering the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices, a plan to tax billionaires and the details of a plan to tax methane emissions were holding up an agreement.
What’s in it? Who know?
(Fox Business) The bill is expected to cost between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion, though there is no Congressional Budget Office score or legislative text. It’s also not clear how the bill will be paid for.
Are there details in the 100% partisan bill, or, literally, a framework? They don’t care, because the elected elites will simply pass what they want and you peons can suck it up. And they’ll probably exempt themselves from any tax increases, especially if they manage to get their idea to tax “unrealized tax gains” in there.
(NBC News) The president’s challenge before the House Democratic Caucus is to sell the measure to a group with ranging interests, including progressives who have watched their priorities be whittled away from the bill over months of negotiations to win the support of moderates.
Their priorities. Not the priorities of the American people, who are worried about the economy, rising prices, rising energy costs, lack of goods. Kitchen table stuff. Republicans in the Senate should simply walk away from the “infrastructure” bill, make Democrats do it on their own.
Read: Let’s Go Brandon To Announce Reconciliation Bill Framework Before Jetting Off To Scotland »
Yes, it is about that time of the year to get the “Fall foliage is dooooooomed!” stories
Fall foliage season is a calendar highlight in states from Maine south to Georgia and west to the Rocky Mountains. It’s especially important in the Northeast, where fall colors attract an estimated US$8 billion in tourism revenues to New England every year.
As a forestry scientist, I’m often asked how climate change is affecting fall foliage displays. What’s clearest so far is that color changes are occurring later in the season. And the persistence of very warm, wet weather in 2021 is reducing color displays in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. But climate change isn’t the only factor at work, and in some areas, human decisions about forest management are the biggest influences. (big snip)
For now, however, climate change has extended the growing season for trees in the Northeast by about 10-14 days. In my tree ring research, we routinely see trees putting on much more diameter growth now than in the past.
ZOMG! Say, what happened during the previous Holocene Warmi Periods? Also, consider how much the Little Ice Age shortened the growing season. How does that effect the time frame? Anyhow, it is actually an interesting and well thought out article, worth the read. It’s not all Warmist doom. It also fails to prove that mankind is mostly solely responsible for the warming. Not surprise.
Al Gore launches climate change asset manager
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and financier David Blood have set up a new asset manager to address global net-zero carbon emissions as countries come under increasing pressure to slow climate change and achieve carbon neutrality.
Just Climate, which will be launched on Wednesday, plans to invest in solutions that will help to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Just Climate has been founded to do the hard yards of addressing the most difficult to decarbonise segments of the global economy that investors have ignored until now, Blood said. (snip)
Just Climate will also seek to help institutional investors provide sufficient quantity of capital to close the climate finance gap, estimated by the United Nations to be $3 trillion per annum through 2050 to reach net-zero, the release said.
And surely Gore will make no money off this, right? Right? Not a scam, right?
Read: Hotcoldwetdry Today: Muted Fall Colors, Gore Creates New Asset Manager »
…is a bottle of wine, which will soon be decimated by climate change, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on the people of Virginia needing to brace themselves.
Read: If All You See… »
You know why Biden won (well, other than the cheating)? Because he wasn’t Trump. How many people were voting against Trump because of Mean Tweets, failing to differentiate between personality and policy? Just like in 2004: who was seriously excited about John Kerry? And now these idiots are learning that all politicians are pretty much skeezy people, but, some of them are better than others at this governance thing. Most politicians want to keep the problem going, saying “elect me and I’ll fix the problem.” Then, after not fixing the problem, they’ll say the same thing. Terri McAuliffe paid someone to do a very bad song about how Terry has plans to fix all these things. What did Terry do the previous 4 years?
Anyhow, Biden had no mandate to do all this crazy stuff. He thinks he does, or, at least his handlers think he does. But, this inflation and stuff (drove by gas station on way home, $3.25 in Raleigh. That’s up quite a bit since Trump was in office) is really getting in the way
Rising Prices, Once Seen as Temporary, Threaten Biden’s Agenda
Supply chain disruptions, a worker shortage and pain at the gasoline pump have made inflation an economic and political problem for the White House.
At least once a week, a team of President Biden’s top advisers meet on Zoom to address the nation’s supply chain crisis. They discuss ways to relieve backlogs at America’s ports, ramp up semiconductor production for struggling automakers and swell the ranks of truck drivers.
The conversations are aimed at one goal: taming accelerating price increases that are hurting the economic recovery, unsettling American consumers and denting Mr. Biden’s popularity.
Where’s Joe? Is he involved at all?
An inflation surge is presenting a fresh challenge for Mr. Biden, who for months insisted that rising prices were a temporary hangover from the pandemic recession and would quickly recede. Instead, the president and his aides are now bracing for high inflation to persist into next year, with Americans continuing to see faster — and sustained — increases in prices for food, gasoline and other consumer goods than at any point this century.
That reality has complicated Mr. Biden’s push for sweeping legislation to boost workers, expand access to education and fight poverty and climate change. And it is dragging on the president’s approval ratings, which could threaten Democrats’ already tenuous hold on Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.
See, the important thing for the NY Times is that this causes problems for Biden, not for you the citizens. If you are a Democratic Party voter, you should be getting the idea that they don’t give a flying turd about you and your plight, that you’re paying more for everything, that real wages are going down. They really don’t. Not in the least. You are a little worker bee who needs to just suck it up so that Democrats can enact their agenda. They only care what the elites think.
The ruling class also wants the worker bees to get used to this economic pain, because it will be the norm if they enact their agenda
Administration officials have responded by framing Mr. Biden’s push for what would be his signature spending bill as an effort to reduce costs that American families face, citing provisions to cap child care costs and expand subsidies for higher education, among other plans. And they have mobilized staff to scour options for unclogging supply chains, bringing more people back into the work force, and reducing food and gasoline costs by promoting more competition in the economy via executive actions.
This agenda does zero to solve any issues, and will make things worse. Say what you want about Trump, he tried to solve problems, not perpetuate them, not put bandaids on them. Joe is lost and a disaster, just like we told you he would be.
Inflation and shortages are the downside of that equation. Car prices are elevated as a result of strong demand and a lack of semiconductors. Gasoline has hit its highest cost per gallon in seven years. A shift in consumer preferences and a pandemic crimp in supply chains have delayed shipments of furniture, household appliances and other consumer goods. Millions of Americans, having saved up money from government support through the pandemic, are waiting to return to jobs, driving up labor costs for companies and food prices in many restaurants.
It’s not demand that is driving up car prices: it’s lack of inventory. Period. Full stop, as they like to say. Production is still way down, and most vehicles have deposits before they come off trucks. 75% will have a deposit before they get out of production. So, few dealers will offer a discount. Many will charge above MSRP. Guitars: lack of production, certain brands produced overseas stuck on ships, having to use different woods for domestic production. Customer told me Monday has a friend who’s been waiting since February for her furniture.
Much of that is beyond Mr. Biden’s control. Inflation has risen in wealthy nations across the globe, as the pandemic has hobbled the movement of goods and component parts between countries. Virus-wary consumers have shifted their spending toward goods rather than services, travel and tourism remain depressed, and energy prices have risen as demand for fuel and electricity has surged amid the resumption of business activity and some weather shocks linked to climate change.
You know the NY Times would Blame Trump if he was in office, right? And, in honesty, there is only so much Joe can do. But, he’s also making all the wrong moves, and giving no confidence. During the Chinese coronavirus pandemic last year Trump worked to alleviate what he could and give confidence. No one has confidence in Joe.
But, this is all very inconvenient for Joe, you know?
Read: NY Times: Rising Prices Are Just So Inconvenient For Let’s Go Brandon’s Agenda »
BTW, this dude totally trolled everyone
https://twitter.com/mrj880/status/1453017745369534469
It’s so damned good, because this is the type of stuff that climate cultist scientists would prognosticate, that everyone got caught up in it. Heck, even Snopes did a fact check on it.
Meanwhile
There’s Still Time to Fix Climate—About 11 Years
On October 31 world leaders will descend on Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, in a last-ditch effort to defuse the climate emergency by limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Reaching that level would still bring violent storms, deep flooding, gripping droughts and problematic sea-level rise, but it would avert even more severe consequences. Global temperature has risen by nearly 1.1 degrees C since the industrial revolution.
Halloween seems a perfect time, eh?
The first step is to get rid of an old idea that doomsayers still embrace, and that the public and media are not clear on—the notion that even if humans stopped emitting carbon dioxide overnight, inertia in the climate system would continue to raise temperature for many years. Because CO2 can persist in the atmosphere for a century or more, the argument goes, even if the concentration stopped rising, temperature would keep going up because the heat-trapping mechanism is already in place. In other words, some level of future warming is “baked into†the system, so it’s too late to avoid the 1.5-degree threshold.
But scientists discounted that idea at least a decade ago. Climate models consistently show that “committed†(baked-in) warming does not happen. As soon as CO2 emissions stop rising, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 levels off and starts to slowly fall because the oceans, soils and vegetation keep absorbing CO2, as they always do. Temperature doesn’t rise further. It also doesn’t drop, because atmospheric and ocean interactions adjust and balance out. The net effect is that “temperature does not go up or down,†says Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute—Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College London. The good news is that if nations can cut emissions substantially and quickly, warming can be held to less than 1.5 degrees.
How convenient. If we implement tons of taxes, restrictions, and massive government control over citizens and private entities, things will simply stay the same. I think we’ve seen this happen without all that multiple times, in the form of Pauses. Heck, you had dipping during the 50’s through 70’s.
To avoid that threshold, the world can emit only a set amount of CO2 from now into the future. This quantity is known as the carbon budget. In 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic depressed the global economy, the world discharged about 42 gigatons of CO2—similar to the 2018 level and to what is happening in 2021. According to the midrange scenario in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s comprehensive report released in August, “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis,†another 500 gigatons of CO2 emissions will raise global temperature by 1.5 degrees. Nations have about 11 more years at current emissions rates—2032—before exhausting the budget.
Interesting how that timeline always seems to move forward, eh? And the ones giving the other timelines are never held to account, since there is always some sort of Excuse that is supposedly Science, despite them telling us their Science meant doom.
That threshold moves further into the future, however, if countries significantly reduce their output very soon. Aggressive policies, now, can create more time and more hope for preventing catastrophe. In a 2018 report, the IPCC stated that the world had to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 to keep warming to 1.5 degrees. To get on that track, the September U.N. report says, nations have to cut emissions in half by 2030. Every year of delay brings the world much closer to the edge of the precipice. “We are not trying to hit the temperature targets,†says Rogelj, who is also a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and a key author of the 2021 IPCC report. “We are trying to stay as far away from the edge as possible.â€
See, we can move the doom threshhold even further out. Just give your money, freedom, and life choices up to government! As told by Elites who are taking lots of private fossil fueled flights to Scotland.
It is also important to understand, Rogelj says, that each added 10th of a degree of warming beyond 1.5 degrees brings greater risk of damaging weather, sea-level rise and other ills to more ecosystems and more people, especially the most vulnerable. He likens the increasing risk to jumping from a platform that today may be a meter high: healthy adults might hit the ground without injury, but small children and the elderly will get hurt. Each additional 10th of a degree raises the platform. “At two meters,†Rogelj says, “many more people are likely to get injured. And at a certain height, everyone will be severely harmed.â€
We can stop Bad Weather, you know. I should have added that eye roll back to the emoticons app.
To get there, nations have to jump—now. Some scientists are starting to use the old climate change language to highlight what has to be done. The warming factor that is baked in “is human infrastructure,†Solomon says. If countries let the current stocks of coal plants, natural gas facilities, transportation systems, industrial complexes and buildings live out their natural lifetimes, they commit to a certain amount of additional warming. There is also a lag time in stopping temperature rise, she notes, “a lag in human action—the slow response of people to the problem.†The practical question, says Raymond Pierrehumbert, head of the Planetary Climate Dynamics Group at the University of Oxford, is: How quickly can the world scrub greenhouse gases out of the global economy?
Tell you what: let’s see all the climate cultists make their own lives and businesses Net Zero on their own. See how they do. See if that makes a difference.
Read: Good News: There’s Still 11 Years Left To Save The World From Hotcoldwetdry »
It rather says something about how much people hate mandates and other COVID measures that a deep Blue state has to be kept in the dark
New Jersey Republicans outraged over video alleging Murphy will mandate vaccines if reelected
New Jersey Republicans are demanding that Gov. Phil Murphy speak out about his stance on COVID-19 vaccine mandates following the release of footage from inside the Democrat’s campaign that alleges “he will” require residents in the state to be vaccinated should he be elected to a second term.
“This extremely disturbing video appears to confirm what the Murphy campaign has been hinting at — and the NJGOP has been warning about — throughout the summer: that a second Murphy term will bring about the same type of vaccine passports seen in Bill de Blasio’s New York, burdening already suffering businesses and discriminating against minority communities in which immunization rates are lower,” said NJGOP executive director Tom Szymanski.
The video, released Monday by Project Veritas, shows Wendy Martinez, an apparent senior adviser to Murphy, telling an undercover journalist that Murphy will indeed put into effect vaccine mandates should he receive another term. She was also filmed saying this policy was kept secret over fears that Murphy could lose independent and undecided voters “because they’re into all that s—, ‘my rights, my s—.’”
“He will, but right now it is about him winning,” Martinez said in the clip.
Remember how Let’s Go Brandon stated again and again that there would be no vaccine mandates if he won? He won NJ 57.3% to 41.4%. All it takes is people flipping their votes or simply sitting the election out for Murphy’s opponent, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, to squeak out a win
Szymanski accused Murphy of “following political science, as opposed to actual science,” saying Murphy’s withholding of “life-changing information” from voters until after the election is as “deceitful as it gets.”
“Phil Murphy must immediately state his intentions on this matter before voting ends next week and disclose whether or not data of thousands of New Jerseyans already entered into the Docket App has been harvested for the purpose of implementing a vaccine passport,” Szymanski said.
Why have an app ready if you’re not going to use it, to force NJ citizens to use it? Again, in theory, I was in favor of a passport app, when it was early in the vaccination era, since that would make people and businesses feel better (and having just a few that could be used anywhere for everything. If you want to go to those areas that require, you might need several different ones). Almost a year after people started getting vaccinated? That looks more like implementing controls for people to live their lives
In a press release issued Tuesday by email, Murphy’s campaign dismissed the footage, accusing Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe of “blatant harassment and physical intimidation” when he confronted Martinez about the footage. The campaign did not say whether he would mandate vaccines if he received another term but claimed Ciattarelli is “once again embracing disinformation.”
Murphy doesn’t deny the video, of course. Meanwhile
NYC police union sues city over vaccine mandate
New York City’s largest police union filed a lawsuit against the city Monday in an effort to overturn a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its members.
The Police Benevolent Association filed the suit in Staten Island Supreme Court and plans to file a request for a temporary injunction preventing the city from imposing the mandate while the lawsuit is pending.
The move came after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that all city workers would be required to get vaccinated or be placed on unpaid leave or terminated after the Oct. 29 deadline. There is no option to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
The PBA said the mandate violates its members’ right to make their own medical decisions.
You can bet that most cops are pro-vaccine, but are anti-mandate, ie, forced medical decisions by Government, especially since de Blasio did away with the notion of testing for those who did not want the jab. Don’t forget, the teacher’s union, certainly a far left one, sued de Blasio.
Read: COVID Theater Today: NJ’s Murphy Said To Be Waiting For Re-election To Impose Mandates »
I know you’re just dying to know what eco friendly sex is, right?
Eco-friendly sex: What is it and how does it impact on climate change?
When we think about the different ways we can reduce our carbon footprints, our sex lives are not usually at the top of the list.
Yet web searches for sustainable products such as vegan condoms and waste-free contraception have been steadily on the rise in recent years.
What is eco-friendly sex?
“For some, being eco-friendly sexually means selecting lubes, toys, bed sheets and condoms that have less impact on the planet,” explains Dr Adenike Akinsemolu, an environmental sustainability scientist from Nigeria.
“For others, it entails reducing the damage in the creation of porn to workers and the environment. Both examples are valid and of importance.” (snip)
Many lubes are also petroleum-based, and therefore contain fossil fuels. This has led to a rise in water-based or organic products. And homemade options are becoming more popular. (snip)
Sex toys are another area where the use of plastic is widespread. Steel or glass alternatives are available, while the option of buying rechargeable toys also helps reduce waste. There are even solar powered sex toys on the market.
On to whales
Endangered whale population sinks close to 20-year low
A type of whale that is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world lost nearly 10% of its population last year, a group of scientists and ocean life advocates said on Monday.
The North Atlantic right whale numbered only 366 in 2019, and its population fell to 336 in 2020, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said. The estimate is the lowest number in nearly two decades.
Right whales were once abundant in the waters off New England, but were decimated during the commercial whaling era due to their high concentrations of oil. They have been listed as endangered by the U.S. government for more than half a century.
The whales have suffered high mortality and poor reproduction in some recent years. There were more than 480 of the animals as recently as 2011. They’re vulnerable to fatal entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships, and even when they survive, they often emerge less fit and less able to feed and mate, said Scott Kraus, chair of the consortium.
Perhaps we could spend more time on actual conservation and environmentalism rather than the fake, ginned up, anti-science, political issue of anthropogenic climate change, eh? Rather than pissing away time and money, along with putting real world environmental issues under the banner of ‘climate change’, meaning the issues never get solved.