- At CDN we frequently criticize the lack of historical perspective of many climate alarmists, especially younger people in newsrooms who think “ever” means since 1979. Even so we were stunned to read that “World’s First Wind Powered Cargo Ship Sets Sail with Giant Metal Wings – Pyxis Ocean”. We will not ask if they had never heard of the Cutty Sark, (a cargo ship that for a decade held the speed record for bringing wool from Australia to Britain using “sails” before it was a whisky) or stately Spanish Galleons even if the latter are featured in a poem we once memorized at school with the actual title “Cargoes”. But we will ask: Had they never even read Treasure Island? Wind-powered ships? Shiver me timbers. And belay that panic.
- It’s not all climate grief and despair. There are also cheerful sorts who think leaving the city, going “off the grid” and living off the bounty of nature, is quite easy, and that all the powered machinery and abundant consumer goods that have so extended life expectancy are bagatelles or worse. Like that Colorado family who fled to a remote campsite without skills or preparation and um died. Or the guy who went to live with grizzlies to prove “predator” was a social construct or something and, well as in the old jingle, “Whssst chomp burp”.
- No, wait. All climate news remains bad. Hence the Weather Network thunders: “Severe storm risk in Central Canada means end in sight to extreme heat”. Aka “It will rain and cool off”. But where’s the fun in that version? (As with NBC’s “Fall on hold as temperatures soar across the U.S.” rather than “Yay, summer lasts into September”.)
- The BBC’s “Science Focus” chirps that humanity will probably die out within a century “thanks to overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change” and nature will suddenly flourish again. Still, it’s not all hugs and puppies. In fact dogs and cows will be in trouble. And worse, “Even if we all vanished tomorrow, the greenhouse gases we’ve pumped into the atmosphere will take tens of thousands of years to return to pre-industrial levels.” So much for that natural dynamic harmonious carbon cycle. Nature being pretty useless, evidently. Whereas the 1977 Voyager probes, provided they don’t hit a comet or something “will be the last remaining legacy of humankind, spiralling forever out into the inky blackness of the Universe.” In other news, youth are mysteriously depressed.
- From the “all climate all the time” file, apparently “Mandatory Composting Is Coming to New York City” that “requires residents to separate food scraps and yard waste from their trash.” How anyone will know what went into the trash bag instead is anyone’s guess, since nobody but a rat would really want the job of checking. But what struck us was that “Composting is crucial for fighting climate change, explained Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, a sponsor of the Zero Waste Act, a legislative package that passed this summer and includes the curbside bill. When food waste goes into landfills, it produces methane, ‘which is the worst of the greenhouse gang,’ she said.” Seriously? Nature will be incinerated by a hamburger in a Manhattan landfill? Man, that thing’s a fragile piece of junk, isn’t it?
- From the “headlines that say time to move on” file, NBC brings us both “Idalia brings fifth-highest tide ever recorded in Charleston” and “Hurricane Idalia could have caused even more damage to Florida.” And we could have won the lottery. Too bad we didn’t buy a ticket.
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13 Sep 2023 | News Roundup
and what do Canadians think is that thing on a dime?
Good luck with NYC residents separating their compostables(food waste) from regular garbage.But maybe they'll surprise us.And yard waste?How many New Yorkers have a patch of grass?And why would any rational human listen to BBC news?
“Idalia brings fifth-highest tide ever recorded in Charleston” Hmm? Given that sea levels have risen, allegedly, by several inches, or a few centimetres*, doesn't that make Charleston's fifth highest tide one huge non event? Also, doesn't that make any events pre-sea level rise, several inches more, well, all the more higher?
* (will someone tell spell check that a meter is a device for measuring something?)
I was making a meal tonight as our local public FM radio ran it's weekly Environment Show and they shared the mews that thanks to El Nino the east coast of Australia will experience a hotter and drier spring and summer and obligatory fires! (of course) Nothing about how El Nino and all the other cycles, oscillations etc. are, well, um, natural and go on with no absolutely no respect for man's efforts at controlling the weather by pumping the atmosphere full of life giving CO2.
And; "... the greenhouse gases we’ve pumped into the atmosphere will take tens of thousands of years to return to pre-industrial levels." Okay, that sounds a lot like we are pretty well on the short path to exactly what they have been predicting for decades anyway, so why aren't we being good little boy (or girl) scouts and PREPARING?!! No number of un-recyclable solar panels or fibreglass blades. lithium batteries will not make a jot of difference, so why not start making plans for a different future instead of trying to wreck all western economies?