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Friday
Jul212017

Climate Politics as Manichean Paranoia by Roger Pielke Jr

Last night Roger Peilke Jr gave a superb talk, hosted by The Global Warming Policy Foundation, on Climate change politics. It was timely, challenging and positive. I will post the video links when they are available but you can read a Twitter version of the talk here. My cartoon notes are below and click the image for a larger version.

The GWPF video of the talk

Posted by Josh

Cartoons by Josh

 

 

 

Friday
May262017

A very bad boy

It seems that Lord Stern is a very bad boy.

Very bad indeed.

Take a look at this.

Tuesday
May092017

Spirit of inquiry

I've been taking a look at the BEIS committee's report on the effects of Brexit on climate and energy policy, and in particular the section on investor confidence, which struck me as likely to be the most interesting. The section opens thus.

The decision to leave the EU should not distract from the Government’s policies to provide secure and affordable energy supply and to seek ambitious plans to decarbonise our energy system.203

The citation is to the submission from, erm, 38 Degrees. Which does rather make it look as if they are dictating the text. 

Reading on, I find that:

Click to read more ...

Monday
May082017

Slay The Dragon - Josh 390

Theresa May is fun to draw and it looks like she might have a bigger battle on her hands in the coming years if she wins the one on 8th June.

If you are reading Yanis Varoufakis terrifying new book "Adults In The Room" then you will understand why I have drawn the EU as a dragon. The book is reviewed by The Guardian here.

Cartoons by Josh

Wednesday
May032017

Chris Essex at GWPF - cartoon notes

Chris Essex was at GWPF last night to lecture on "The Great Climate Change Fervour". Josh sends his cartoon notes.


Wednesday
May032017

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has sent good wishes for my new role at GWPF, or passed them on in person at Chris Essex's lecture last night. 

Who knows, maybe I'll even write something from time to time...

Wednesday
Apr052017

TailGate - Josh 389

Sir David King admits they got it wrong in another example of how the green blob trashes the planet while pretending to save it.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Mar292017

Dr Mann in the dock - Josh 388

On this historic Brexit day the fun has not been confined to this continent. Over in the US they have had a 'hearing' on Climate Science with three of the world's most eminent climate scientists. Michael Mann was there too. 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Feb272017

Petition to the President

Guest Post by David Holland

Dick Lindzen has sent to President Trump a letter and petition signed by some 300 scientists and experts (H/T Anthony Watts). The petition is for the US to withdraw from the UNFCCC. I had some difficulty accessing it but eventually located a pdf of the letter and the petition itself here.

I'm sure Dick speaks for many BH readers as well some of our MPs. Even at the high water mark in 2008 only a little over half of British voters thought humans were responsible for most global warming and less than half thought it a pressing problem. Recent opinion polls now show that barely 10% of the public regard climate change as a serious concern.  Few can now dispute the global agricultural benefits of increased carbon dioxide concentration, but in the UK and elsewhere we are seeing the chronic health damage resulting from the dash to diesel subsidised by foolish governments.

Hopefully when Parliament debates the Grand Repeal Bill some of our smarter MPs will push to dump any directives requiring reductions in carbon dioxide emissions or support for the UNFCCC.  

 

 

 

Monday
Feb062017

ClimateGate 2.0?

Just about everywhere.

Story at Judy Curry's, Mail on Sunday, GWPF, WUWT,and Twitter of course.

Cartoons by Josh

Monday
Jan302017

Myron Ebell in transit - Cartoon notes by Josh

Myron Ebell, who led President Trump's transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, gave a fascinating talk at the House of Commons today on Trump's approach to environmental policy.

There are plenty of stories in the media (Guardian, Daily Mail and Independent, for example) from the press conference held earlier in the day and he covered similar ground in the HoC talk. Here are some cartoon notes - it was a lot of fun.

Click to enlarge

Cartoons by Josh

Wednesday
Jan252017

Breaking with Jim and Dan - Josh 387

"Alternative facts" are the new thing.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jan192017

A sin of omission

The BBC was worried about primates this morning. Apparently loss of forest habitat means that our hairy cousins are facing the threat of extinction. Professor Jo Setchell is quoted in the piece as the woman with the answer though:

"...don't buy tropical timber, don't eat palm oil"

But burning palm oil to create energy seems to be fine with the good professor (and presumably the BBC's journalist, Victoria Gill) because it doesn't even warrant a mention.

Greens trashing the environment. Again.

Wednesday
Jan182017

The Crisis of Germany's 'Energiewende' - Cartoon notes by Josh

Updated on Jan 25, 2017 by Registered CommenterJosh

 

Last night Professor Fritz Vahrenholt gave a hugely interesting talk on Germany's experiment with renewable energy. I will add a link to the talk when it is posted up by the GWPF, who sponsored the event. In the meantime here are some cartoon notes.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Jan092017

Peter Melchett's potty time

This is a guest post by Charlie Flindt.

I can’t see what all the fuss is about; I loved 2016. The Left spent much of the year deafening us with its whining, and flooding us with its bitter tears, the Brexit vote has done marvels for my farm's bank balance after a mediocre but easy harvest, and, best of all, the Soil Association has gone completely potty. 

We conventional farmers have always loved our organic brethren. We love anyone who deliberately grows less than they could be growing – it’s good for the wheat supply-and-demand, even if it is slightly morally questionable when much of the world is still hungry.  We marvel at their carefully cultivated image of ‘pesticide-free’, when the truth is not quite as clear-cut as that. So when the leading lights of the Soil Association start sounding a bit bonkers in front of the media – well, it’s time to get the popcorn and enjoy the show.

Back in May, yet another report came out stating that GM food was safe. After a brief chat with a world-weary-looking pro-GM scientist, the BBC interviewed Lord Peter Melchett, the Soil Association’s policy director, who, not surprisingly, took a different view on GM’s dangers. “Just because there’s no evidence,” he said solemnly, “doesn’t mean that nothing’s happening. Now, in the country where most GM food has been eaten, there is a huge developing diet-related health crisis – in North America. I’m not saying that’s because of GM food – but you can’t tell me it’s not.” 

This is remarkable and (I would suggest) somewhat contradictory logic from a man who read Law at Cambridge. I would refer M’Lud to some of the finest cover stories of the Sunday Sport in its 80s heyday: ‘B-52 Bomber Found on Moon!’ ‘Lord Lucan Seen on Shergar!’ ‘I was a nine-inch sex slave!’ ‘B-52 Bomber Now GONE From Moon!’ All must be true, according to the Soil Association’s finest legal mind, because of a lack of evidence that they’re not. I rest my case.

In July, the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) came under attack again, and this time it was the Soil Association’s Helen Browning’s turn to be given the kid-glove treatment by the BBC. Countryfile allowed her free rein to demand that this vital herbicide should be banned simply because there are suggestions that it might be carcinogenic, and that the public would be happy to pay more to compensate the farmer for drying costs if pre-harvest desiccation were banned. The hilarity (and hypocrisy) of this interview stemmed from the fact that much of it was carried out over the bonnet of an aged diesel-powered Land Rover Defender. When it comes to carcinogenic emissions, there’s only one way to beat a diesel-fuelled grain dryer: you drive one of Solihull’s finest.

And then, late in the year, we had SA's astonishing Tweet. ‘Millions of farm animals are abused in the pursuit of cheap food, but there is another way...’ said the Soil Association on its Twitter feed. The resulting (and perfectly justified) outrage from non-organic livestock boys and girls was enough to prompt a letter of apology. But even that seemed to stop being an apology halfway through, and drifted off into the realms of comedic praise for Greenpeace’s intimidation of companies by staking out their HQs dressed as gorillas.  Really, Ms Browning? I mean – really?

Yup, it has been a vintage year for entertainment, courtesy of the Soil Association. It’s the organic gift that goes on giving. Let’s hope they keep it up for 2017.