Friday
Feb052016
by 
Josh
Josh A cartoon week - Josh 361
Feb 5, 2016 Josh It's been a fun week.
First, there was a survey of 17 countries showing the British rank 15th in their concern over climate change. H/t GWPF
;)
Then we had George Monbiot wrongly citing the IMF on an equally wrong definition of subsidies.
;)
Finally, we had the post Paris realisation that since climate science is settled we don't need any more climate scientists. Australia has jumped first with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to axe 300 of to 350 jobs.
;)
Reader Comments (54)
Josh you are a star!
A star that shines bright in the midst of a load of unnecessary darkness.
Absolutely brilliant!
I enjoyed them all, but "post Paris prognosis" is my favourite.
I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again: Josh, you are so good you should be in the MSM.
'Jet setting lifestyle to support'. Ha ha. Beautiful.
Tremendous stuff - funny and generous and sharp as ever!
Excellent. LOL !
I once got a (permanent) job installing a new computerised costing system. After it was over, no one had very much to do. It was embarrassingly silly situation.
What's in the bowl, a Nobel Prize medal?
Nigel S:
Looks like a couple of tree-rings to me! One more than he needed for his models.All are terrific. A target rich environment.
Josh
You must surely know that you can make more money supporting mainstream beliefs, sticking with what you believe is right will no doubt double all the praise you rightly have earned.
Good luck and may all your children be dubious about Climate change ^.^
UNsettled science. UNreliable power. UNjustified outcomes.
UNemployment beckons.
Question for Phil Clark and Dork of Cork
If Fossil Fuels are so subsidised why is Obama proposing putting ten dollars a barrel Carbon Tax on Oil to subsidise Renewables.
Surely the reverse should be true.
snip O/T
Josh is clearly a genius.
However we must also thank "Climate Science" for "the gift that just keeps giving".
Great work Josh.
1. Weird climax for all involved.
2. Monbiot is untouchable.
3. Proper documentation of the alleged jet setting lifestyle is still missing. Ask Stoat, for example, regarding the need for evidence.
@Alia
"3. Proper documentation of the alleged jet setting lifestyle is still missing"
How do you think they get to all those climate conferences? It isn't by camel. If you want evidence just ask Naomi Klein, Mike Mann, or Al Gore for their last year's travel itineraries. I guarantee you they will be more expansive than mine or yours.
Aila – “Ask Stoat, for example, regarding the need for evidence.“ I just love your sense of irony, this is the man who changed the entries in Wikipedia to match his agenda!
Monbiot is amazing in that he can be so pompous and so ignorant. The bleating about what constitutes a subsidy is typical of a lefty, all hung up on definitions of words and having totally lost track of all relevance.'
Well George, if you want to define a subsidy as including tax breaks then what you have is an arbitrary non-conserved quantity that can be plucked out of the air at will and is meaningless.
Let me demonstrate. If you earn $10 and I tax you $4 you end up with $6.
Now I say that I will tax you $9 but give you a rebate of $5 then you still end up with $6 but also you are now in receipt of a 'subsidy' of $5. And I will say that you only paid tax of $4!! Imagine how the rabble will go after you now.
In reality, unless you net off all the flows and deal only with conserved quantities there is no point introducing the term to any debate. But I would not expect anyone lacking a background in quantitative science or common sense to know that. Carry on George.
Aila:
Now you're 'caste'-ing aspersions. But I suppose he is a fully signed up sh*t-shoveler. (which, for the benefit of Aila's education, is what 'untouchables' have to do for a living).The 6 P's (Climate Scientivist Version ... in hindsight)
Proper Preparation Prevents Post Paris Prognosis
Excuse me Bish but why did you snip Dork of Cork
First rule of Climate Skeptism is everyone's right to Democratic free speech even if you don't agree with what they,re saying something the Alarmist would happily take pride in denying to us .
So Dork why is Obama putting ten dollars Carbon Tax on a barrel of crude if you reckon Obama subsidised it already ?
Other than liberating Kuwait and invading Iraq how exactly is fossil fuel subsidised
Andrew Montford is an accountant ask him.
So Dorks according to you windmills will do away with wars in the Middle East and being stuck in a queue in the local Tesco's Express Petrol Station.
PS Dork Tesco's don't do Nectar Points.
Jamspid;
Bish snipped the Dork because
1. He knew you were lurking ready to start a flame war
2. He had heard it all before
3. He didn't like Dork's grammar
4. He didn't like Dork's grandma
5. He was in a hurry to get away for the weekend and didn't want to wade through the whole thing.
6. The invisible 2 metre white rabbit which is his assistant doesn't like the Dork.
Choose any excuse you like, or make up your own. I must say I like reading the Dork and trying to work out what he is trying to say. I usually fail.
Michael Mann clutching his hockey stick....
Love it...
I still wonder why in the last few years human beings have suddenly started to worry about the weather being different from year to year. It was never anything people were concerned about in all human history before two or three decades ago. It is of course purely weather they are fretting about. Climate change is something that takes centuries to become noticeable in general. But I suppose no one ever told them that.
Graham 3
So if someone had stood up in the. 1950s and said prescribing Thermidamyde* to pregnant Women is dangerous or Jimmy Savile is a dangerous pedophile or there is a group of Asian Taxi drivers in Rotherham deliberately grooming underage white girls, or British made Arms are being used by Saudi Arabia to target Civilians in Yeman or Asbestos is hazardous in construction materials or it's the Sun that is actually the centre of the Solar System not the Earth and the Earth is round is not flat or that the MMR vaccine causes Austism or that CO2 is a harmless naturally occurring trace gas that doesn't affect the temperature of Earth
What if they had all been snipped
And my next question for Dork if someone had said Catholic Preists and Nuns in Ireland were systematically abusing Children in their care would Dork have called them deniers and wanted them banned from the BBC.
[*Thalidomide] TM
I have two children.
The boy is a left wing student, he is out of work, so I do not charge him rent. I feel for him.he is my son, after all.. At the end of each week, he can't afford to go out with his mates, so I bung him £30 spendies
The daughter is a hard worker, she has two jobs and does not have time to even think about politics. She pays me a third of the rent, £100 per week, and she takes care of herself, financially.
Recently, my daughter passed her driving test and she is now on the threshold of becoming totally independent, so I reduced her rent to £60, so she might save up and get herself a car.
My son (phil) has raised an objection. He want to know why I am subsidising him less than I am subsidising my daughter.
He gets a £30 a week subsidy but the daughter gets £40 per week.
[snip] he just doesn't get it
Jamspid:
There are somewhere more than 30 types of asbestos, and at least one was known to be dangerous in the 1920's, hence the UK legislation which was ignored and not enforced by the bureaucracy. Since then 2 others have been listed as dangerous and hysteria abounds. Monbiot regularly abuses Booker for saying that white asbestos when enclosed in cement is harmless, exposing his, Monbiot's, stupidity. It is the free fibres breathed into the lungs that are dangerous.
MMR causes autism? I suggest you do some research as that is the result of some shonky work that eventually got the doctor deregistered. Again the scare was allowed to blossom because of the failure of the authorities to take action. In any case the individual vaccines are available and not a problem.
As for the position of the sun and the shape of the Earth, these facts have been generally accepted for hundreds of years although lately, what with the level of science teaching, it may be disputed. We must hope that the real properties of CO2 become generally recognised as soon as possible.
As for Jimmy Saville, the BBC said he was harmless for years, almost as long as they've spent telling everybody that CO2 is dangerous. I do wonder about their judgement.
Personally, I am equally comortable with 'tax break' or 'subsidy', but what people seem to be missing is that the fossil fuel industry does not own the oil, coal and gas they extract, we do. If the North Sea Oil industry (say) were state-owned as it is in many countries, all the revenues would accrue to the state, in fact some special taxes (PRT and SC) are levied to reflect the beneficial ownership, so its arguable that any profit made by the industry is a subsidy in the form of revenue foregone.
The effect of measures introduced in the 2015 Budget was described by HMRC as
This package of measures will increase the post-tax profits for affected companies, making investment into oil and gas projects in the UK and UKCS more attractive and supporting jobs and supply chain opportunities
Not a subsidy? And the IEA, in a factsheet based on its World Energy Outlook 2015 says this
Fossil-fuel subsidies were around $490 billion in 2014, but would have been $610 billion without reforms that have been enacted since 2009. Recent changes prove that fossil-fuel subsidy reform is possible: low oil prices give net importers the room to reform, and reinforce the need for exporters to do so.
Some might find the International Energy Agency more authoritative than a cartoonist. I could not possibly comment.
Phil Clarke - "I could not possibly comment." Unfortunately you do ................ continue to comment and disregard the obvious.
There is intrinsic value in all fossil fuels because of their energy density and this allows governments to harvest tax revenues, the companies that invest in bringing them to the market place are able to earn profit and society to benefits from the cost effective energy that is provided. Renewables are forms of low density energy that require subsidies to even exist and destroy value - society suffers dreadfully. For what?
Monbiot regularly abuses Booker for saying that white asbestos when enclosed in cement is harmless, exposing his, Monbiot's, stupidity. It is the free fibres breathed into the lungs that are dangerous.
Booker is actually censured for claims such as 'white asbestos is chemically identical to talc' and downplaying the risk of exposure. His views were described by the Director of the HSE as 'misinformed and do little to increase public understanding of a very important occupational health issue'. Booker gets his 'science' on this one from John Bridle, a man with a fictional CV, convicted by Trading Standards of claiming false qualifications.
There's even a blog detailing Bookers Blunders.
Robert
Fossil fuels are massively polluting, but do not pick up the costs of that pollution.
You should also check out the Merit Order Effect, which means having renewable in the mix brings down the overall cost of generation, this has been investigated in the literature, e.g. In Ireland
We find that the value of wind to the market dispatch has resulted in savings of €141 million to the market dispatch
. We find that the total costs to the market would have been in the region of 12% higher over the course of the year had no wind output been available. These savings are significantly greater than the subsidy received for wind-generated electricity over this time period, and as a result it can be seen that the positive externalities derived from wind generated electricity outweigh the cost of the subsidy.
https://www.academia.edu/2450789/The_Merit_Order_Effect_of_Wind_Generation_on_the_Irish_Electricity_Market
Oh, and HMRC earmarked £20 million of direct funding for exploration in last year's budget.
EO
Your daughter does not do any cleaning or washing up after herself so you have to employ a housekeeper at £50 a week, towards which she pays nowt.
Get it?
Free speech Graham blah blah.Dr David Wakefield or Religous Hate Preachers even if you don't agree with it still got to have it so it can be callenged
Talking of which Phill Clarks (Back door Socalist) private pension fund is proberly tied up the profits from Oil Exploration .
His State Pension is definitely tied up with taxation from Oil Exploration
Dale Vince Hippy Beardy Crusty Windmill New Age Man his Ex Wife got half his public subsidy millions in the devorce settlement
Wonder if his business accounts were ever made public in Court or still available.
Jammy
I am not a socialist, I manage my own pension fund which has about 5% of its money in BP.
HTH
@Phil Clarke: "I am not a socialist, I manage my own pension fund which has about 5% of its money in BP."
Ok, so now we know about your politics, your pension fund; and previously, where you holiday, your career, your qualifications, your denial of any direct links to the green blob - in fact just about everything about you apart from the price of your house, the car you drive and your other half's vital statistics. I for one could not give a shit, please go away and give your ego a rest.
To label future IEA scenarios as "facts" is surely no more than par for the course in the climate business. Scenarios are of course meant to be credible, yet stylised pictures that offer the opportunity to businesses and governments to consider ways in which policies and investment plans might have to adapt to meet a changed business/international environment. This work by the IEA is the inverse of that: it assumes the policies and investments and simply paints a picture accordingly.
i.e. it's nonsense on stilts.
Great response, Phil Clarke! EternalOptimist should hire his son as the housekeeper. Problem solved!
You are a genius, sir.
Repeating proven false claims about oil subsidies does not make the person repeating the untruths look brighter or increase their credibility.
Viewed fro Australia, you Brits have long been world leaders in the Art of the Written Word, and close to tops with picture art. Definitely tops with video humour (nothing passes Fawlty Towers).
........................
Having humoured you, might I please ask a question unrelated?
In April 1995 we drove East then NE from the magnificent Gardens of Bodnant in Wales, over the border on, I am fairly sure the A55, turned north about Chester and on to the Lakes District. (One Sunday in West Australia I took some friends for a drive from Perth to Payne's Find to look at wildflowers, a round trip of over 800 km. We have Country differences about distance and my navigation parameters are perturbed in GB.) Somewhere between Bodnant and Chester, on our left, we saw a quick view of a med-large castle that looked as if it was built with pale grey stone, like a light coloured granite or pale schist. We did not turn back for a better look as we had too far to go.
I have never been able to identify that Castle. Can anyone help me?
Salopian, most of that stuff was disclosed by others, not I.
@Phil Clarke: if the North Sea oil and gas industry were state-owned, it would run at a colossal loss, and there wouldn't be any nett tax income for the state to grab. We know this, we used to have big state-owned industries, that's what always happens.
Andrew,
Yes, because Saudi Arabia is bankrupt. I see it now.
Geoff Sherrington, There are too many castles in wales for that description to be enough. On it's own I can't help.
However, adding in the fact that you haven't been able to identify it... I may have a suggestion.
Perhaps it wasn't a caste at all?
It may have been the Church and Well House at Holywell?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholmondeley_Castle ?
Pronounced 'Chumlee'
Geoff: If you travelled the A55 from Bodant to Chester you would have passed the glistening white Cathedral of St Asaph on your left. It's very striking and may, at a glimpse be thought of as a 'castle'.
Hope you enjoyed the Lakes!
Phil Clarke said: "Yes, because Saudi Arabia is bankrupt. I see it now."
You obviously have no concept of risk.
The only thing worse than left-wing dogma is right-wing dogma such as this crap:
"if the North Sea oil and gas industry were state-owned, it would run at a colossal loss"
75% of the oil & gas industry is state-owned. The most direct comparison to the UK would be Statoil who now supply the majority of our gas now that our supply is in decline.
A big reason why many reasonably folk don't listen to skeptics of manmade warming is because of the hijacking of the issue by tax-fearing right-wingers spouting total BS about so-called free-market economics that have demonstrably failed. It poisons the well of justified scepticism.