Say, How Do We Get Buy-In For Net Zero Or Something

By William Teach August 2, 2021 – 3:00 pm

By “buy-in”, the article means “how does government force this on citizens?”

How do we get public buy-in for net zero?

There are warning signs in relation to popular consent for the ‘net zero’ project. And we don’t need particularly long memories to recall the risks of there being two parallel national conversations about an important issue based on very different views. As with Brexit, certain politicians stand ready to exploit opposition to climate change just at the time when we start to get to the pointy end of reducing emissions, when the less visible actions have largely been carried out, and people will start to have to make more far reaching changes to their daily lives.

Carbon pricing is a potential flash point. We have many different carbon pricing instruments already in the UK – the Emissions Trading Scheme, Road Fuel Duty, the Climate Change Levy to name just some, but they are either very well established, or largely invisible to consumers. On the one hand environmentalists would argue that they are neither high enough, comprehensive enough, or straightforward enough. On the other, suggestions of applying carbon pricing to domestic gas or to meat produce outrage.

In this context I suggest 3 steps to help build consent for the harder next steps which are to come.

  1. Use carbon pricing where it ‘works’ (to reduce emissions) rather than where it just ‘hurts’.
  2. Target a carbon dividend where it is deserved and where you get ‘bang for your buck’ in terms of a reaction. This means focusing it on the young who are those who will lose out most from climate change.
  3. Give everyone an immediate financial stake in the net zero project – a small income from the state calculated as a share of that part of the economy which is long term sustainable and which will build in a measurable way as the transformation, of which they are part, takes place.

This is more realistic (and ultimately better) than more ambitious, but politically and economically unfeasible schemes such as a high pan-economy carbon tax or a universal basic income.

So, basically slap citizens with a government driven carbon pricing scheme, then give them so cash as a bribe to ignore how much their cost of living has gone up. How does any of this create public buy-in? Or, by public, does Kevin Langford mean “government buy-in?” Because, he really doesn’t truly explain how any of this gets buy-in from citizens, including those young folks who will be hit with carbon dividends. If people really cared about this in practice, rather than theory, they’d be doing it on their own.

We are looking to build an economy and a society which is sustainable.  We want everyone to buy into that. An oft reported comment in the Brexit context – that’s your GDP, not ours – illustrates how many people don’t really buy in; for many it’s not ‘our’ GDP – and its not ‘our’ net zero either. How do we tackle this?  Let’s agree a measure of our economic progress towards a green economy – call it sustainable GDP. And then distribute – from tax revenues – a small share to every working age adult in the country.  This makes progress apparent now – in a way which avoiding a catastrophe at some point in the future isn’t.

What’s this “we”? Why don’t these people go off and do it in little communities, show us how it works? Live the carbon neutral net zero life. Leave the rest of us out of their cult.

Read: Say, How Do We Get Buy-In For Net Zero Or Something »

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 2, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil fossil fueled vehicle turning the world to desert, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Greatness, with a post digging into the 2,700 porkfest infrastructure bill.

Read: If All You See… »

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Bummer: US Women’s Soccer Protest Team Loses

By William Teach August 2, 2021 – 10:30 am

I really don’t feel bad having rooted against Megan Rapinoe and the rest of her America hating comrades: they don’t like the U.S., so, they don’t deserve support

USWNT’s dreams of Olympic gold dashed in listless 1-0 semifinal loss to Canada

The U.S. women’s national team crashed out of its chase for Olympic gold with a dud of a 1-0 loss to Canada here on Monday, a fitting end to a pursuit in which the most dominant soccer team in the world never hit top gear.

Officially, the Americans will play for bronze on Friday because of a 75th-minute penalty, conceded by Tierna Davidson for a foul on Deanne Rose, awarded after a video review. Canada’s Jessie Fleming converted it. Backup U.S. goalkeeper Adrianna Franch just barely couldn’t save it.

But really, the Americans fell short of the final because they were poor, throughout the Games and here on a sleepy, sticky-hot evening at the Ibaraki Kashima Stadium. They had no rhythm. No composure. No verve.

Instead, there were errant passes. Sloppy touches. Fatigue. Frustration. And a first loss to Canada since 2001.

“Sucks,” Megan Rapinoe said, in response to a question about what was going through her head at final whistle. “Really sh—y.”

Yeah, well, maybe they should have spent more time practicing and getting their heads right rather than worrying about what kinds of things they were going to do show their hatred of the U.S.

Also

Totally looks like a woman, right?

Read: Bummer: US Women’s Soccer Protest Team Loses »

Posted in Sports, Unhinged Tools | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

Infrastructure Bill Includes State Mandated Carbon Reduction Programs

By William Teach August 2, 2021 – 7:05 am

The s0-called infrastructure bill was leaked, and it’s a whopping 2,700 pages.

Sources familiar with the drafting of the text of this bill told Breitbart News it was being written in secret for months outside the normal legislative process, which is supposed to happen in relevant committees of jurisdiction. These sources made the unauthorized leak of the draft text to Breitbart News out of concern that the murky and secretive process behind this bill may have led to widespread corruption throughout its nearly three thousand pages.

The bill itself was finally released at 945pm last night. And includes tons of shady stuff. And stuff that isn’t really infrastructure. And tons of left wing crazy. And

‘Infrastructure’ Bill Caters to ‘Climate Change’ with State-Mandated Carbon Reduction Programs

Obscured in more than 2,700 pages of the U.S. Senate’s so-called bipartisan “infrastructure” bill is a plan for state-mandated carbon reduction programs.

The text, which Breitbart News exclusively obtained from U.S. Senate sources not authorized to leak it, details how the federal government would mandate states to craft “Green New Deal”-style programs in partnership with local metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to fight “climate change.”

“A state, in consultation with any metropolitan planning organization designated within the state, shall develop a carbon reduction strategy,” according to the text, which is also in the officially released version of the bill. [Emphasis added]

The federal government oversees metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), which are designated by agreement between the governor and local governments and represent localities in all urbanized areas (UZAs) with populations over 50,000, as determined by the U.S. Census, according to the Federal Transit Administration. There are at least 420 MPOs in the United States, the National Association of Regional Councils estimated.

No later than two years after the bill’s enactment, states would have to present their carbon reduction programs for approval to the secretary of transportation. The proposed strategies must meet several requirements to be considered “green” enough.

A clear violation of the 10th Amendment. Another massive federal government over-reach, as they like to do, forcing state and local governments to be responsive to the feds, undercutting their Constitutional authority and sovereignty.

Requirements include but are not limited to:

  • Reducing traffic congestion by disincentivizing single-occupant vehicle trips and facilitating “the use of alternatives” like public transportation, shared or pooled vehicle trips, “pedestrian facilities,” and “bicycle facilities” within the state.
  • Facilitating the use of vehicles or modes of travel that result in “lower transportation emissions per person-mile traveled as compared to existing vehicles.”
  • Incentivizing the construction of vehicles that emit less carbon.

Every Republican senator needs to vote against this crap bill, and try and turn Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema against it. It will generate massive and immediate lawsuits if passed, for the climate portion and many others. And you can bet that Republican run states will ignore this 100%.

Read: Infrastructure Bill Includes State Mandated Carbon Reduction Programs »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming, Government | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

CDC, Fauci Push Masking While New Revelations Come About Mask Waste

By William Teach August 2, 2021 – 6:53 am

Remember, get the vaccine to get your life back. And now they want to take it back, because once government gets some power they realize they love it and do not want to give it up

CDC: It’s not safe for vaccinated people to drop their masks indoors in most NC counties, including Wake

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s safe for vaccinated people to drop their masks in only eight counties across North Carolina. All other 92 counties have “high” or “substantial” transmission of the virus, and the CDC says that residents of those areas need to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Over the weekend, the state added seven more counties to the list — areas with high or substantial transmission of COVID-19. New data reported on Saturday shows that even though Wake County has more than 66% of residents fully vaccinated, there’s still “high” transmission of the virus.

Piss off. But, use stronger terms than that.

Fauci ‘respectfully disagrees’ that masks are a ‘choice’: ‘Infection is impacting everyone’

White House Chief Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has rejected the idea that face masks are a “personal choice” in the face of the increasingly severe delta variant of the coronavirus.

While the number of those cases driven by the more transmissible delta variant is not clear, the CDC advised in early July that the variant was likely the dominant strain in the U.S. The CDC once again advised masks whenever individuals are inside shared spaces, but many people have resisted the call to wear masks, saying they have a right to choose whether to wear one.

“I respectfully disagree with them,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There are things that are individual responsibilities that one has, and there are things that have to do with you individually which also impact others, and the spread of infection that we’re seeing now … is impacting everyone in the country.”

“Although you want to respect a person’s individual right, when you’re dealing with a public health situation, and we are in fact in a very serious public health challenge here … a person’s individual decision to not wear a mask not only impacts them … but you very well may infect another person who may be vulnerable,” he added.

Piss off. Mind your business, we’ll mind ours. We’ll decide what risks we want to take. You’ve been caught plenty of times without a mask. One you know doesn’t work. And crappy store bought cloth masks are going to stop this? They really didn’t do much of anything at all when they were mandated. Why did numbers explode despite mask mandates?

So, he himself said they don’t work. Will Los Federales pay to buy us all N95’s for use every day? Because they need to be replaced at least every day. And still aren’t all that much better than other masks. And, since so many people are pigs

1.6 Billion Disposable Masks Entered Our Oceans in 2020

…

Given an annual production figure of 52 billion disposable masks and a loss rate of 3% (the percentage of masks that escape water management systems), the team concluded that nearly 1.6 billion face masks wound up in our oceans in 2020. This amounts to approximately 5,500 tons of plastic pollution.

These masks are commonly made of polypropylene, which easily breaks up into microplastics. While the effects of microplastics on human health are not yet determined, these fragments are incredibly common in our water supply—for example, 94% of U.S. tap water is deemed to be contaminated.

In fairness, this is a statistical study, however, it sounds about right, considering all the masks one sees on the ground. And those masks like the blue ones, which this is about, can last 450 years. What kinds of restrictions and regulations will they then pass to deal with the problem they created?

Read: CDC, Fauci Push Masking While New Revelations Come About Mask Waste »

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Your Fault: Oldest Tree In Eastern US Could Be In Danger From ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach August 1, 2021 – 6:30 pm

If only your ancestors had forgone the Industrial Revolution and chosen to live like it was 799

The oldest tree in eastern US survived millennia – but rising seas could kill it

A wizened eastern bald cypress dwells in an expanse of North Carolina’s wetlands.

It lives among a cluster of eastern bald cypress trees in the state’s Black River, some with origins dating back a millennium. But this singular tree has witnessed more than its comrades; a 2019 study found it’s been alive since at least 605BCE. It’s the oldest-known living tree in eastern North America and the fifth-oldest living non-clonal tree species in the world.

If these ancient trees could talk, they might wail a warning – a message about the coalescing threats to their continued survival. What we can learn from a 2,624-year-old bald cypress may help piece together how humanity can best mitigate and adapt to the unprecedented impacts of the climate crisis.

“They have personality,” said Julie Moore, a retired botanist and former coordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife service. “I’ve mapped wetlands for years, so every big swamp in the United States in the south, I’ve seen. But when I see these trees, I know they’re different.”

A personality!

A little over six feet of elevation stands between the oldest-known cypress and the Atlantic Ocean. While sea level rise is increasing by two inches a decade now, it’s accelerating at a rapid pace. Sea levels are “all but certain” to rise by at least 20ft over the next 100 to 200 years. In a worst-case scenario, the world’s oldest bald cypress may already be underwater by 2080.

First, the location is about 35 miles northwest of Wilmington, NC, and the Atlantic ocean. One of the closest towns is Kelly, NC, with an elevation of 23 feet above sea level (it’s pretty darned flat down in SE NC). So, even if we got 20 feet, still not going to be enough. Second, the tide gauge in Wilmington shows “relative sea level trend is 2.56 millimeters/year with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.35 mm/yr based on monthly mean sea level data from 1935 to 2020 which is equivalent to a change of 0.84 feet in 100 years.” That’s getting nowhere close to 20 feet.

But, hey, a cult always has to be Doomy. Gotta keep the scares going and the funding flowing.

Read: Your Fault: Oldest Tree In Eastern US Could Be In Danger From ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 1, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible carbon pollution infused beer, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is IOTW Report, with a post on defund advocate AOC spending thousands on private security.

It’s photos left in the folder week.

Read: If All You See… »

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach August 1, 2021 – 9:12 am

Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once and Future Nation of America. The sun is shining, the mockingbirds have decided they really like my neighbors trees (damn, they are loud), and the fish tank is still doing well after having some serious problems. This pinup is supposedly by dhani putri, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. The Gateway Pundit notes Australia using their military to enforce COVID lockdowns
  2. The Last Refuge covers conservatives mad at Gov Kristi Noem about vaccine mandates
  3. The Last Tradition wonders why Simone Biles is even still at the Olympics
  4. The Lid highlights Cuban refugees turned away from the U.S.
  5. The Other McCain explains the failure in the US justice system as those released are re-arrested
  6. The People’s Cube notes the Lego 1/6 plot thickening
  7. The Right Scoop discusses Panic Theater
  8. Weasel Zippers features Sarah Palin teasing a Senate run in 2022. Good grief
  9. Powerline covers the beheading of a woman in Minnesota
  10. Pacific Pundit notes Jerry Nadler ignoring Pelosi’s mask mandate
  11. Moonbattery has the Australian view of Biden’s mental decline
  12. Jihad Watch notes al-Qaeda calling for truck attacks on America
  13. Dissecting Leftism offers some current COVID reality numbers
  14. Chicks On the Right notes what Pelosi said a year ago on vaccine mandates
  15. And last, but not least, Bunkerville covers the illegal alien invasion

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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Bacon Could Become Scarce In California As Pig Rule Takes Effect

By William Teach August 1, 2021 – 8:16 am

Hey, the majority of Californians can’t complain. They voted for this. They’ve voted Democrats in control of the legislature since 1970. The  Assembly is 60D-19R, Senate is 30D-9R. That’s a supermajority. Republicans have controlled the assembly for about one year. Even if it’s squishy Dems supposedly voting in squishy Dems, the squishies vote with the hardcore leftists. And you get

Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect

Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic.

That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California.

“Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns,” said Kim, who for 15 years has run SAMS American Eatery on the city’s busy Market Street. “It could be devastating for us.”

At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market.

That vote was 62.66% in favor, 37.34 against. Rather close to the numbers that vote in the presidential elections, always for the Democrat.

With little time left to build new facilities, inseminate sows and process the offspring by January, it’s hard to see how the pork industry can adequately supply California, which consumes roughly 15% of all pork produced in the country.

The National Pork Producers Council has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for federal aid to help pay for retrofitting hog facilities around the nation to fill the gap. Hog farmers said they haven’t complied because of the cost and because California hasn’t yet issued formal regulations on how the new standards will be administered and enforced.

Barry Goodwin, an economist at North Carolina State University, estimated the extra costs at 15% more per animal for a farm with 1,000 breeding pigs.

Strangely, one lawsuit was dismissed, which had used the Interstate Commerce Act, because all pork products come in to California from other states, not California. The California law would require producers in states not named California to comply with California law. One of the provisions states “Prohibits certain commercial sales of specified meat and egg products derived from animals confined in noncomplying manner.” Another would apply up to $1,000 fines. Yet another provides for inspections by California inspectors. Will California send them to North Carolina, Iowa, and Minnesota, the top three producers of pigs? Would the states and companies allow that?

If half the pork supply was suddenly lost in California, bacon prices would jump 60%, meaning a $6 package would rise to about $9.60, according to a study by the Hatamiya Group, a consulting firm hired by opponents of the state proposition.

But, it won’t jump by 60%, it would go to zero in most cases, as producers would simply avoid selling pork products in California. No bacon, sausage, barbecue, pork dumplings, or anything else that would be affected. That’s simply the easiest thing to do, is it not? Some products will be sold, and the prices will certainly jump way more than 60%. Is that realistic? Because that’s what the law says. Even if they want to sell it, the law says they can’t.

The California rules also create a challenge for slaughterhouses, which now may send different cuts of a single hog to locations around the nation and to other countries. Processors will need to design new systems to track California-compliant hogs and separate those premium cuts from standard pork that can serve the rest of the country.

At least initially, analysts predict that even as California pork prices soar, customers elsewhere in the country will see little difference. Eventually, California’s new rules could become a national standard because processors can’t afford to ignore the market in such a large state.

Can’t they ignore it? The law says they must if the producers can’t comply. Do they want to do things that increase the prices all across the country and even world? Or sell what they can at a massively increased price in California and the same elsewhere? Let California suffer, and see if the citizens reverse their course.

Read: Bacon Could Become Scarce In California As Pig Rule Takes Effect »

Posted in Democrats, Food and Drink, Liberal World | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

That Whole ‘Climate Change’ Is Messing With The Winter Jet Stream? Never Mind

By William Teach July 31, 2021 – 3:00 pm

No worries, the Cult of Climastrology will come up with some other Reason

Arctic climate change may not be making winter jet stream weird after all

An influential, highly publicized theory — that a warming Arctic is causing more intense winter outbreaks of cold and snow in midlatitudes — is hitting resistance from an ongoing sequence of studies, including the most comprehensive polar modeling to date.

In science, this is called a hypothesis, because it was never proven, nor put through the rigors of the Scientific Model

The idea, first put forth in a 2012 paper by Jennifer Francis, now at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and Stephen Vavrus, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is that two well-established trends — Arctic amplification (intensified global warming at higher latitudes) and depleted sea ice — can force the polar jet stream to dip farther south, thus causing more intense bouts of winter weather than might have otherwise occurred.

Over the past decade, this hypothesis sparked widespread public interest and scientific debate, as various high-profile cold waves and snow onslaughts hit North America and Eurasia, including a deadly, prolonged cold wave in Texas last February.

The idea was to blame cold, snow, and ice on Other People driving fossil fueled vehicles and refusing to give up their money, choice, and freedom to government

But the cooling has been far from ubiquitous and the Arctic-midlatitude link has been difficult to detect in simulations by global computer models. Instead, the models point more strongly toward the gradual, longer-term trend of milder midlatitude winters that one would expect in a human-warmed climate. (A separate line of research is addressing extremes during the summer, such as the unprecedented heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest in June; see below.)

And those models, when you read through the soft-peddling

In this study and others, Screen and Blackport suggest that the connection between Arctic sea ice loss and extreme midlatitude events is real, but not necessarily causal. Instead, they argue, a third factor — most likely large-scale changes in atmospheric circulation that may not be permanent — is probably driving both the sea ice loss and the extreme winter events.

It either does or doesn’t. “Suggest” means they have no clue, so, until they can scientifically prove it, it doesn’t. And that still would prove anthropogenic causation

At the same time, Francis maintains that global models can’t fully replicate the Arctic-midlatitude connection simply by adding or removing sea ice, especially if the results lump together conditions across a whole winter or the entire midlatitudes.

So, their models stink even worse that we thought.

The appeal of a counterintuitive idea

The appeal is blaming cold and snow and ice on citizens to gain control over them. And the Warmists never think this will negatively affect themselves.

Read: That Whole ‘Climate Change’ Is Messing With The Winter Jet Stream? Never Mind »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 16 Comments | Trackback URL
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