Unthreaded
@Johanna some good stories on WUWT "Aussie PM Tony Abbott has infuriated greens in the last few days, by approving a gigantic new coal mine in the state of New South Wales."
@JR & @Dung "Cardinal George Pell gave the 2011 Annual GWPF Lecture"
His new words were first in the FT chat about Finance (freewall) thenSpectatorm Breibart
@Tomo RE - DGR ..Yes you'd think that Cheltenham would set up a website to lure in potential eco-Ts, so that they can keep an eye on them ......oh hang on.
stewgreen
Pell has long been sceptical of climate hysteria. He is an extraordinarily bright and capable guy, which is why he was brought in to clean out the Augean Stables that are the Vatican's finances.
His opponents keep trying to slur his name by linking him with child sexual abuse cases involving priests. In fact, I saw a comment on WUWT just today which said that he was not to be trusted because of this.
The fact is, he set up (years ago) the first process for formally recognising these events, including reaching out to victims and paying compensation. He has been accused of being complicit in events where he was not even in Australia at the time. There is a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse on at present. It covers all institutions, not just the Catholic ones, but the ABC and Fairfax press linger lovingly over those and mention Pell's name at every opportunity.
He has repeatedly said that he is happy to co-operate with the RC, including returning to Australia to testify. This leads to headlines from the usual suspects along the lines of "Pell implicated in RC Inquiry."
It's pure politics. With a Marxist Pope in charge, he has a hard row to hoe just now.
johanna
Recently made aware of some pretty full-on eco-warriors in the USA - DeepGreenResistance = DGR
Buried in the veritable blizzard of things to get agitated about is The Arctic Emergency ...
This crew look to be aiming to be a more edgy, zealous and "physical" competitor to Greenpiece and that means they're worth keeping an eye on. I fully expect the eco-nutters known to be lurking around Bristol will become the first English cadre of the resistance.....
tomo
David Malone, of the Green Party, raises many serious concerns about the TTIP agreement that is rumbling on between the EU and USA in this presentation, which lasts just over the hour:
"The Death of Democracy" a public talk on the TTIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDCbf4O-0s
He raises some very unlikely scenarios, for example, about fraccing, but do not be put off! It isn't about fraccing. It is about the TTIP. He is pointing out that within the TTIP agreement there is a mechanism for companies to bypass national courts and go to 'international' arbitration, which has been 'stretched' to such an extent that if a country decided that, say, pollutant concentrations need to be lowered, an affected company could sue the nation for loss of future earnings. And the arbitration isn't as 'fair and open' as one might hope. He also explains how, although there is no NHS privatisation mentioned in the agreement, it would make the current NHS set up unworkable. It would also be the same for the BBC, though it would be a high price to pay!
Others' views welcomed, especially if you know something about it. :)
There is also a delightful section, from 52 mins, where he talks about economic models and the weather! :)
Robert Christopher
Dung; is there a link for the Pell speech?
Joe Ronan
stewgreen, given that one of the main reasons that Tony Abbott won government was that voters hated the idea of a carbon [dioxide] tax, he must be delighted that some elements in the ALP are again pushing this failed policy.
It hasn't been formally adopted yet, and word is that wiser heads in the party are telling the leadership not to touch it with a barge pole. But, we know that the proponents of these policies are fanatics, so I look forward to a huge brawl before the matter is resolved. Heh, heh. :)
johanna
Some trivial arithmetic
DECC has "overspent" it's budget... to the tune so far - of £25 for every man, woman and child in the UK
Got to love the Guardian's spin.... if anybody in real life "overspent" like that - they'd be in deep, deep do-do.
Decarbonisation, Divestment , Leave it in the ground.... if only that could be arranged for GMG .
tomo
I have long suspected that the GCMs are twiddled every time to match Manabe and Wetherald's results. If so, this paper challenging those results is rather important: http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/collapse-of-agw-theory-of-ipcc-most.html
John Shade
Dung
I fear George is for the chop.
The only reason for being in post is his reputation for not suffering fools gladly and his abilities to sort out the sort of problem that has bedevilled the Vatican Bank (not so much the financial problems as the "administrative" ones).
He and Francis emphatically do not see eye to eye about the traditional Mass vs the post-Vatican 2 version nor about climate change (as has now been more than amply demonstrated).
Burke was sent to Siberia — well, Malta actually — for his traddie views and I'm very much afraid that Pell might find himself promoted to be the first Papal Nuncio to South Georgia — or Tristan da Cunha if Francis is feeling benevolent!
Mike Jackson
@RC TTIP "would make the current NHS (and BBC) set up unworkable."
- Breaks the 'too bizarre to be true, rule' ..an extraordinary claim needs extraordinary evidence otherwise it's just scaremongering.
..Sorry of course Greens never scaremonger !
- Mr Google says Nov 2014 “Public services are always exempted … The argument is abused in your country for political reasons”. House of Lords Answer
or here "there appears to have been quite a lot of disinformation and scaremongering going on about TTIP – especially as it relates to TTIP and the NHS. " from bottom of this page
- Yes corporate lawyers seek to use law in the same way that Human rights laws. e.g. We have freedom of speech to use red Malboro packaging in all countries so Uruguay insisting on plain packaging is a breach of that freedom.. but surely you expect corp lawyers to use any law they can ?