QUARANTINE TAKES GREAT LEAP FORWARD DOWN UNDER

NO WORRIES AS LONG AS IT SNEEZES IN ITS POUCH

HOT AIR RISE LINKED TO CO2-CRITICAL THEORY FORCING

   THE CANCEL CULTURE WARS HAVE HIT RABBET RUN,   WHERE SOME TAKE A DIM VIEW OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

I BEG TO DIFFER SLIGHTLY :

YOU COULD START HERE:

ELEPHANTS MAY DISREMEMBER THE UNFORGETTABLE

Omission of climate crisis at RNC risks losing voters, some conservatives warn

Republicans at the convention did not lay out a plan for climate change, nor even acknowledge it

Oliver Milman

Guardian Wed 26 Aug 2020 17.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 27 Aug 2020 18.11 EDT

The Republican national convention, dominated by veneration of Donald Trump and bleak warnings of the dangers of socialism, has completely ignored the climate crisis, an omission that has disturbed some conservatives who warn the party risks being left behind by voters.

Convention speeches have included Eric Trump praising the beauty of the Grand Canyon, a region his father’s administration has proposed opening to mining for uranium, while several speakers have attacked Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, as a threat to oil and gas worker jobs.

But Trump’s renomination event has not laid out any plan for the climate crisis, nor even any acknowledgment of it. “It is disappointing,” said Danielle Butcher, chief operating officer of the American Conservation Coalition, an organization of young conservatives. “To see no mention of climate change at the RNC, no update in the official platform? It feels unrepresentative of science [and] of the progress we have made as a party. " 

Butcher said the Republican party’s base has shifted to become more concerned by the climate crisis, with young conservatives placing particular importance upon the issue. ”

STRATOSPHERIC AEROSOL RESEARCH : A BANG-UP START

             THEY DIDN'T BOTHER TO ASK UNEP

ONLY THE DEMOCRATS COULD DO WORSE

CAN CARGO HINDENBURGS DELIVER CARBON-NEUTRAL HELI SKIING & 3 DAY OLD WHITE ASPARAGUS ?

How airships could provide the future of green transport

Torygraph hydrogen revolutionary AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD  writes:

Zeppelins and dirigible airships are with us again after eighty years out of favour – faster and hopefully much safer than in the inter-War era... 

It may not be long before we can start eating air-flown vegetables from Peru or blueberries from Kenya without feeling pangs of guilt. 

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY
 GO WRONG ?

FRESH FOOD MAY REACH US IN CARGO HINDENBURGS WITHOUT THE UNCONSCIONABLE CO2 FOOTPRINT OF JET FREIGHT

We can hope to lift off quietly from a field close to London in the early evening, retreat to a couchette after dinner and wake up in Barcelona, Rome or Val d’Isere.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN GEOENGINEERING GOVERNANCE, NOW WITH DRUID DRAGON HORNS

Who dare challenge the collective wisdom of the:

• White Rabbit Grove Reformed Druids of North America

Peace, Peace, Peace. Physical location confidential.

ArchDruid Helgaleena is a multifaceted healing presence who runs the Healing Line, a community outreach arm of my Druid Grove...You may follow my personal profile to sign petitions and become aware of earthly news that is relevant to me. 

• Abibiman Foundation, Ghana

• Base IS, Paraguay
• Corporate Europe Observatory, Europe
• ETC Group, International
• Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, International
• GRIP (Groupe de recherche et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité), Belgium
• Heinrich Boell Foundation, International
• Khpal Kore Organization(KKO), Pakistan
• Mom Loves Taiwan Association, Taiwan
• Observatorio Petrolero Sur, Argentina
• Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum, Pakistan
• Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad, Costa Rica
• TONATIERRA, USA
• What Next Forum, International

AND TWENTY FIVE OTHER QUANGOS MOST GOVERNMENTS HAVE MERCIFULLY NEVER HEARD OF 

WHITE HOUSE MESS PONDERS CANNIBAL PEDOPHILE BAN

THEY MAY LOVE THEIR COUNTRY AND REJECT THE DEMOCRAT VEGAN AGANDA, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN 
THEY'RE WELCOME AT MAR DEL LAGO.

MOVE OVER GAIA: NEW INTERSECTIONAL ECODIETY ROUTS RACIST & SEXIST LEGACY OF IMPERIALIST GEOENGINEERING PATRIARCHY

      Geoengineering & Its Gendered Effects: 

A Case For Feminist Scientific Leadership 

 By Tanishka Sachidanand...

Over the years, ecofeminists have raised concern over geoengineering’s hyper-masculinist approach towards addressing the climate crisis.

Geoengineering is wrong because it alienates indigenous knowledge on climate mitigation to establish the supremacy of western scientific thinking... feminism should take the lead on future-making discourse by embracing zoë – the idea wherein life is not human-centered but is geo-centered, to include all nonhuman lives. 

Zoë calls for a species egalitarianism to develop a future wherein human and nonhuman life are valued beyond their utilitarian worth... 

Geoengineering will carry forward the imperial legacy of racism, sexism and ecological destruction if left unchecked.

Therefore, it is important now more than ever for feminism to challenge the hegemony of western scientific thinking and take the lead on future-making for all humans and nonhumans.

Tanishka is a graduate from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies ... her   hobbies   include   playing  squash , re-watching episodes of  Planet Earth, and Anthropocene fiction/film/art 

WILL CHEMTRAIL OF DOOM MAKE SWISS CHEESE OF THE STRATOSPHERE?

Snowing cocoa? 

I warned you this could happen
Chocolate factory glitch dusts Swiss town

BERLIN (AP) — Residents of a Swiss town got a bit of a shock when it started snowing particles of a fine cocoa powder after the ventilation system at a chocolate factory malfunctioned.

The Lindt & Spruengli company confirmed local reports Tuesday that there was a minor defect in the cooling ventilation for a line for roasted “cocoa nibs” in its factory in Olten, between Zurich and Basel.

The nibs, fragments of crushed cocoa beans, are the basis of chocolate. 

Combined with strong winds on Friday morning, the powder spread around the immediate vicinity of the factory, leaving a fine cocoa dusting. 

The company says one car was lightly coated, and that it has offered to pay for any cleaning needed — but hasn’t yet been taken up on the offer.

Factory production was able to continue as normal and the company says the particles were completely harmless to people or the environment. 

THINKING OUTSIDE THE SKINNER BOX

CONVENTION  SOLONS CALL ON BIDEN TO UNLEASH THE BEHAVIOR CHANGING HARPY OF DOOM

"It is a fact that we can change human behaviors without much change to our lifestyle and we can save the future generations of our country and this world."  THE HILL  19 MARCH 2020:

Sen. Kamala Harris campaigning in Myrtle Beach, SC.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1104767114605342722?s=20
Her speechwriters didn't have to look far for  that line :

Using  social and behavioural              science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

AUTHORS

• Jay Van Bavel
• Katherine Baicker
• Paulo Boggio
• Valerio Capraro
• Aleksandra Cichocka
• Molly Crockett
• Mina Cikara
• Alia Crum
• Karen Douglas
• James Druckman
• John Drury
• Oeindrila Dube
• Naomi Ellemers
• Eli J. Finkel
• James H. Fowler
• MIchele Gelfand
• Shihui Han
• S. Haslam
• Jolanda Jetten
• Shinobu Kitayama
• dean mobbs
• Lucy Napper
• Dominic Packer
• Gordon Pennycook
• Ellen Peters
• Richard Petty
• David Rand
• Stephen D. Reicher
• Simone Schnall
• Azim Shariff
• Sandra Smith
• Linda Skitka
• Cass Sunstein
• Nassim Tabri
• Joshua Tucker
• Sander van der Linden
• Paul van Lange
• Kim Weeden
• Michael Wohl
• jamil zaki
• Sean Zion
• Robb Willer

Researchers have been deeply involved in developing messages aimed at changing people’s behavior to curb the coronavirus pandemic, and studying which ones work.

NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES 

Crushing coronavirus means ‘breaking the habits of a lifetime.’ 

Behavior scientists have some tips

By Warren CornwallApr. 16, 2020 , 10:50 AM

Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

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With no vaccine or medication to cope with the novel coronavirus, people around the world have sought—or been ordered to seek—protection by changing the way they act in ways large and small, from their washing hands more frequently to avoiding almost all physical contact. Now, government and industry leaders are turning to behavioral scientists for advice on how to persuade their citizens and workers to abide by such dramatic changes.

To beat the pandemic, we need “a more rapid change of behavior than I can think of in recent human history,” says Robb Willer, a sociologist at Stanford University. He recently helped recruit more than 40 top behavioral scientists to summarize their field’s research on how to steer people into certain actions and how it might aid the response to the pandemic.

YOU CAN WEAR IT UPSIDE DOWN TO SIGNAL YOUR DISTRESS WITH VIRTUE SIGNALING

More wondrous even than magical thinking is the Adsense algorithm that's just given  AMERICAN THINKER  reading Covid contrarians the ideal mask for their job:

Masks  as  magical  thinking

By Jeffrey Ricker
The history of mankind is, for the most part, that of ignorant pagans dutifully agreeing with whatever a group of priests told them was true...

When plague strikes, the people were particularly attentive to their priests to hear how to please the gods and avoid death. The 21st century is not different. Today, however, they call their priests "scientists" and one of their gods "government." 

The priests/scientists have stated that we have been greedy and created too much carbon dioxide.  To save ourselves from the plague, the gods/government command that we wear a mask.

The common man claims to believe in science. In reality, he believes in scientists. There is a very big difference. If he believed in science, then he would critically weigh the theories and conclusions presented to him against a body of producible facts and repeatable experiments. The common man does not do this. He simply takes the words of the priest/scientists as truth, especially when the words are blessed by the gods/government.

NOTHING SIGNALS HERD IMMUNITY MORE VIRTUOUSLY

Science is not ignorant superstition, but the common man's belief in science is. Believe I am wrong? Ask someone to explain the scientific principle. The majority will not be able.

COVID HYPE 2.0 : NAE TRUER DEAD SCOTSMAN

A REALCLIMATE READER HAS EXPRESSED INDIGNATION AT A  RECENT OPINION POLL ON POPULAR PERCEPTIONS OF COVID CASE AND  DEATH NUMBERS   BECAUSE THEY  WERE REPORTED IN THE SPECTATOR, WHICH   HE DERIDES AS "STUPID"

I BEG TO REMIND HIM THAT HIS POLITICAL OPINION OF THAT JOURNAL, WHICH NUMBERS BORIS JOHNSON AMONG ITS RECENT EDITORS AND HAS PUBLISHED 10,012 ISSUES SINCE 1828, HAS NO BEARING ON THE STATISTICS IT REPORTS, OR CONCLUSIONS  DRAWN  FROM THEM, WITNESS THE  PRIMARY SOURCE NAMED IN MY LINK:

HERE ARE THOSE RESULTS ENLARGED FOR LEGIBILITY:

6

IT'S JUST LIKE EARTH, BUT WITH MORE TERRAFORMING

WIRED  WORRYWORT JERRINE TAN WRITES OF

The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

 Revisiting William Gibson’s 1993 essay on the city-state took me back to my home, where future is past.. Singapore was eager to host the 2018 Trump-Kim summit, which a local politician called an “incredible branding opportunity.” ...

At the brink of climate catastrophe, we must know that unchecked growth will doom us all to destitution. Going green has to be for real, and we cannot afford to hold onto the hollow dream of capital accumulation for its own sake.

THE POSTMODERN THEORY OF DETERRENCE: GEOENGINEERING IS AN INVITATION TO NUCLEAR WAR, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT ALAN ROBOCK TOLD BOB SOCOLOW

Fifty years after he wrote a letter to Krushchev demanding a unilateral nuclear attack on the United States, Fidel Castro invited perennial "Nuclear Winter" maven Alan Robock to Havana for an update. The late caudillo's departure has not deterred Alan from reframing geoengineering as an invitation to nuclear war on Australian Broadcasting Company radio:


'About ten years ago , there was a conference at the Asilomar conference center in Monterey, California , and a  professor from Princeton, Rob Socolow, went around asking:

"What's the worse thing that could happen if we did this?

The answer was global nuclear war, because if one country did something that they though would help them, and  it was harmful to another country, they might be quite upset...'

TRUMP PRESS OFFICE BRACES FOR HIROSHIMA PUSHBACK

At the White House yesterday, a reporter asked President Trump if he would have asked President Obama to resign if 160,000 people  had died in a viral pandemic?

The President replied:

" No, I wouldn’t have done that, it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to do. We’ve called it right, now we don’t have to close it, we understand the disease. 

Nobody understood it because nobody’s ever seen anything like this. The closest thing is in 1917, they say, right, the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. 

Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick. That was a terrible situation."

NAE TRUE DEAD SCOTSMAN

      THE  HARPER'S  REAPERS INDEX AUGUST  2020

PERCENTAGE OF THEIR COUNTRYMEN  PEOPLE ASSUME COVID HAS THUS FAR KILLED:   

UK :  ENGLAND   6.8 %  ( = 4.5 MILLION )

UK: SCOTLAND   10%    ( =   7 MILLION ) 

    AMERICA            9%    ( =   28 MILLION )
                            SOURCE:  KEKST CNC POLL  15 July


PERCENTAGE KILLED WORLDWIDE ACCORDING TO UN:                        
                       0.01%  ( = 0.78 MILLION )

PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN GLOBAL POPULATION SINCE START OF COVID PANDEMIC:

                       0.61%   ( = 47.5 MILLION ) 

PERCENTAGE BY WHICH POPULAR PERCEPTION OF COVID MORTALITY EXCEEDS REALITY IN THE UNITED STATES:

17,500  PER CENT. 

INSTANT FAMINE : JUST ADD FERTILIZER

BEIRUT'S APOCALYPTIC FERTILIZER EXPLOSION HAS SHATTERED  THE HUB OF  THE LEVANTINE GRAIN TRADE

This BBC clip is like watching a Tom Clancy  film in slow motion :

Play it backward from the  mushroom cloud, and behold :

• Shocked  cries of "Allahu Akbar!" as Beirut's waterfront dissapears inside a spherical condensation cloud

• In a literal flash, the deflagation wave accelerates into a shock front that detonates kilotons of fertilizer in miliseconds

• Succesive piles of ammonium nitrate decompose, releasing enough heat, to launch a a huge red cloud of nitrogen oxides.
  

• Explosions roll through rows of  hazardous material warehouses after an initial sky high blast.

THERE GOES THEIR DAILY BREAD

If there's an element of the sardonic in this precis, it's because I had to testify to Congress after the 1993 World Trade Center fertilizer bombing was mirrored in the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building attack. Here's the op-ed that precipitated my testimony: 

The New York Times May 16, 1995 Op-Ed

 Doom at 8 Cents A Pound

BYLINE:  By Russell Seitz

DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  

It takes a great deal of fertilizer to feed the world. Ammonium nitrate, made by the millions of tons out of air and water, and readily available in farm supply stores, is equally serviceable as an explosive and a plant food. Yet it was sold without question -- until the Federal building was bombed in Oklahoma City. Now the victims of that bombing have sued the manufacturer of the ammonium nitrate, asking why, since it can be rendered harmless, they were put at risk. 

Despite the carnage, this cornucopia of destructive potential flows on. Ten dollars buys all the ammonium nitrate you can carry. It can cost more to rent a truck than to build a bomb. Last year, more than four billion pounds was legally sold in the United States -- enough for literally a million explosions as powerful as the one that shattered the Federal building..

Global control of explosives made from just air, water and energy is a problem that security analysts are tempted to toss on the too-hard pile. But the domestic supply of ammonium nitrate could be defused by following Britain and Germany, where only blended fertilizers are sold; the producers put in inert potassium and phosphorus compounds to make the ammonium nitrate content unexplodable.

Europe learned the hard way. In 1921, a multimillion-pound detonation obliterated the Rhineland town of Oppau, killing 560. From Halifax, Nova Scotia (about 3,400 dead) to Texas City (about 1,200 dead), memories still linger of the shiploads that exploded, bringing a taste of Hiroshima to our shores.

But despite heroic efforts to halt proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the shipping of ammonium nitrate continues. It should worry regulators of nuclear materials and nerve gas that at 8 cents a pound an atom bomb's worth of explosive yield is appallingly cheap -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki for half the price of a small corporate jet! Explosive power enough to refight World War II is on the loose -- and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is powerless even to address it.

In the absence of constant vigilance, any terrorist organization with enough money could load an aging supertanker with a quarter-megaton of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. It is easy to dismiss such a virtual H-bomb as a novelistic device -- until one goes off in New York Harbor.

Cold war reflexes die hard.  A real danger resides in the thousands of barge and trainloads of ammonium nitrate that ply the nation's waterways  and rails unguarded every year. There is little to prevent them from being hijacked and to defend the cities they transit. .

Last year, enough detonating cord was stolen to set off thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil; at ground zero, all kilotons, nuclear and conventional, are created equal.

Farming methods change slowly, but other nitrogen fertilizers already compete with ammonium nitrate and could displace it entirely. The Department of Agriculture, which has agents at the county level, could assist by deploying taggants -- trace elements or layered particles that can be put in fertilizer and can be read like bar codes to connect terrorists to the source of the fertilizer. Although the fertilizer industry may object to the expense, few in Oklahoma City are likely to protest.

Though Hollywood's glut of erupting office buildings may trouble the nation's psyche even more than talk radio does, it remains hard to imagine anything transcending what we witnessed in Oklahoma City. Yet that act's very enormity testifies that we must exercise the imagination of disaster -- or endure unending surprise.

 Russell Seitz is an associate of Harvard University's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company

APOCALYPSE? I DON'T THINK SO

A BLURB TOO FAR

Michael Shellenberger's drift from the dork side to the dark side of Ecomodernism has culminated in a self-congratulatory review of his own book, Apocalypse Never. 

The puff piece in Forbes lasted only until a human editor read, and pulled it, as an egregious example of something Murdoch loathes: un-paid-for self advertisement.

Shellenberger's polemic advertorial took many readers of  his earlier works aback, including MIT's Kerry Emanuel, who contibuted a cover blurb for the book itself. Here's what he has to say in retrospect :

Apocalypse Maybe

by Kerry Emanuel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Every day, each of us deals with a variety of risks, from deciding whether and when to cross a busy highway to how much insurance to buy for a house or car. When analyzed, each of these decisions has three components: An assessment of the probability of something bad happening (e.g. being run down), the cost of that bad thing (being seriously injured or killed), and the cost of avoiding or reducing the risk (missing the bus by waiting until it is safe to cross the road). Attitudes toward risk range the gamut, from devil-may-care recklessness to extreme, obsessive caution, but most of us are rational about risk, most of the time.

We also have to confront risks as members of communities. Civic organizations, businesses, and political entities (towns, states, and nations) all have to deal with risk and in so doing handle the range of risk aversion among its members. A current example is our struggle to deal with COVID-19, weighing the risk of serious illness and death against the economic and social costs of reducing the risk. In our time, what might have been a rational discussion about how best to cope with the risk is drowned out by extremists, such as those who refuse to wear masks, whose voices are amplified by social media.

Lurking just off stage is climate change, the 6,000-pound gorilla of global risk. It is a monster of a risk problem because it is slow-moving, global, has large uncertainty, and would cost a great deal to avert. It is hardly surprising that it has engendered a vigorous debate, dominated, as many issues are, by noisy extremists. On the one hand we have apocalyptic statements to the effect that the world will end in 12 years if nothing is done, to the assertions by lackeys of the fossil fuel industry, for whom trillions of dollars are at stake, that there is nothing to worry about. The calm, reasoned voices of scientists are shunted aside in the raucous bid for Twitter acclaim, Facebook fame, and, of course, the almighty dollar.

The most recent entry into the fray is Michael Shellenberger, whose book “Apocalypse Never” is a take-down of the doomsday crowd, chiding both its pessimism and its embrace of unrealistic solutions. I wrote a blurb for the book’s dust jacket, criticizing environmentalists for their embrace of unworkable and environmentally deleterious solutions such as 100% renewable energy and their opposition to nuclear energy, which other nations have ramped up quickly and thereby greatly reduced carbon emissions.

Inevitably, Shellenberger’s critique of doomsday extremists has been appropriated by climate denier groups to bolster their contention that there is no serious risk, a contention that has no basis in fact. Sadly, this effort has been aided by promotional pieces penned by Shellenberger himself that have had the effect, intentionally or not, of greatly downplaying real climate risks. Shellenberger makes a number of statements whose effect is to lead the reader to believe there is no risk at all. For example, he claims that “climate change is not making natural disasters worse”. Indeed, the per capita death toll from natural disasters has been declining for 100 years, owing to large improvements in warning, evacuations, post-disaster medical care, and other advances. The most we can say about climate disasters is that they have not (yet) actually reversed this trend. Shellenberger’s nonsequitur is rather like saying that the Boeing 737 MAX did not make flying more dangerous, given the long-term decline in aviation deaths per passenger-mile. In point of fact, theory, models, and observations of weather events such as floods, heatwaves, and hurricanes leave little doubt that climate change is making extreme weather events more dangerous.

It is important for all of us to try to step out of the fray, however tempting and even addictive it may be to our tribal impulses, and take a cold, hard look at climate change risk. We climate scientists are doing our best, but there remains large uncertainty in estimates of climate change over this century. At the low end, we should be able to adapt to the change, for the most part. At the high end, we are taking risks that might prove existential to civilization. A rational society looks at the whole spectrum of risk and makes wise decisions that avert as much of the risk as possible without incurring unacceptable costs. As with the decision to cross a busy highway, we should be willing to spend a great deal to avert a fatal outcome, even if that has relatively low probability.

Fortunately, much of our climate risk may be averted by technical innovation. While 100% renewable energy is neither desirable nor financially viable at the moment, combining wind and solar power sources with more reliable energy sources, such as hydro power, nuclear, and gas with carbon sequestration makes a great deal of sense. And not just for averting climate risk but for reducing the staggering death toll from air pollution resulting from coal and oil combustion and for providing inexpensive, abundant energy for lifting many societies out of wrenching poverty.

But free markets are not driving this technical innovation fast enough to avert the worst climate risks. As we have done often and productively in the past, we need to accelerate innovation by funding research and development and by taxing the harmful side effects of the dominant industry (fossil fuels in this case). By this means, we can hope to catch up to Russia and China, who are competing with each other to capture the $7 trillion global energy market by producing and exporting renewable energy technology and nuclear power.

If we can only put aside our tribal squabbles, look at climate change rationally, and take advantage of new technologies for generating energy, we can avert much climate risk while at the same time making life better for ourselves and for the hundreds of millions of people who currently have no access to electricity. What are we waiting for?