In reply to Mike Jowsey.
“it could have been presented in a much less violent way.” It is a cartoon. It appears you to have missed the message.
Have you heard about the so called “green” jobs. The “green” scams are where billions of dollars of subsidies – deficit government spending – are used to produce power at three to four times the cost of conventional power. If the carbon inputs to the construct the “green” scams are included and the wasted energy required to turn power plants on and off, when the wind does and does not blow and the sun does and does not shine are included the “green” scams do not even reduce total CO2 emissions.
That is madness, insanity. The EU is facing economic collapse if they do not stop the ‘green” madness. There are a group in the US who leading us off the same cliff that the Europeans appear about to fall off of.
It is time to wake up. The crisis is not AGW, it is a complete lack of economic competitiveness in part due to the “green” scams and the EPA efforts to increase the cost of all energy in the US. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/q-cells-bankruptcy-heralds-end-of-german-solar-cell-industry-a-825490.html
“Twilight of an Industry Bankruptcies Have German Solar on the Ropes
By Stefan Schultz
German solar panel manufacturer Q-Cells filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday.
It wasn’t so long ago that people viewed Q-Cells as an energy company of the future. At one point, it was the world’s largest manufacturer of solar cells and quarter after quarter, it topped analysts’ expectations. The company proved to be a money-making machine even during the financial crisis, with some believing it might one day grow to become part of Germany’s DAX index of benchmark companies on the stock exchange.
But Q-Cells’ insolvency also comes as a great shock to the Germany’s solar industry. It is already the fourth major bankruptcy in a sector in crisis, and it underscores the degree to which German solar firms are being outpaced by competition from Asia — despite billions in German government subsidies granted each year to the industry. And despite solar energy gradually becoming more competitive, the setbacks are rapidly mounting.
In March 2012, Freiburg-based Scheuten Solar, the firm that presented what was the world’s largest solar module at the time eight years ago, declared bankruptcy. The same month, power plant producer Solarhybrid and the Frankfurt an der Oder-based Odersun, which had been prestige projects supported by political leaders in the eastern state of Brandenburg, also filed for insolvency proceedings. Other bankruptcies are likely to follow. http://www.germanenergyblog.de/?p=4055
With feed-in tariffs for solar energy of on average EUR 0.31/ kWh, well above the spot market price for electricity of roughly 5 ct/kWh, solar installations have boomed in Germany. Some experts are expecting between 6 and 8 GW of new PV capacity in Germany this year. In July, the Federal Network Agency expected German additional installed photovoltaic capacity to exceed 3 GW. The additional capacity for the remainder of 2010 is particularly difficult to predict due to the recent July and the upcoming October reduction in solar feed-in tariffs.
Under the EEG, grid operators can pass on the feed-in costs to consumers. In view the current solar expansion rate, experts fear that reallocation fee will rise from currently 2.05 to 4 ct/kWh. 50% of these extra costs would be due to solar power, even though solar contributes only 3.5% to the electricity generation. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-05/02/c_131564607.htm
OPENHAGEN, May 2 (Xinhua) — Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas posted a net loss of 162 million euros (212.8 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter this year, it was reported on Wednesday.
Losses before interest and taxes rose to 245 million euros in the first quarter, up from losses of 69 million euros in the same period last year, the company said in a press statement.
First quarter revenue was 1.1 billion euros, up from 1.06 billion euros year-on-year, it added.
According to Danish financial newspaper Boersen, analysts expected the company to make a first-quarter 2012 loss of around 52 million euros. Vestas said revenues were hit by fewer deliveries, high turbine production costs and restructuring costs.
“There’s no question Q1 was disappointing in terms of revenues and earnings,” Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/us-solar-firm-solyndra-_n_949929.html
(Reuters) – Solyndra LLC, a solar panel maker which had earlier received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early on Tuesday, making it the third U.S. solar firm to succumb to pressure from lower-cost Chinese rivals.
Dr. Lurtz
June 8, 2012 9:51 am
This is perfect!! Note that the turbine is not moving. Only the world’s governments can create enough wind to get that baby to spin.
D. J. Hawkins
June 8, 2012 9:59 am
Jim says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
Anthony, all of your hard work and NCDC proved climate change yesterday. “Each of the 12 months from June 2011 through May 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly are 1 in 531,441.” Since the probability of this occurring is so low, we can essentially eliminate the possibility of chance (i.e. nature) and presume that it was caused by climate change.
Jim, in the year and a half or so that I’ve been looking at this site, I can recall only one or two posters who have claimed that there is no recent temperature trend over the last 200 years or so. The vast majority of us understand that climate changes; it gets colder and warmer. Since we’re still coming out of the Little Ice Age, no one should be astonished that recent temperatures as a whole are warmer today than they were a hundred years ago. It’s your lot that seem to think that the temperature should never change. Like climate Panglossians, you believe that “today’s climate is the best of all possible climates” (apologies to Voltaire). The crux is not that the climate is changing, but why. Since we know that temperatures have gone up and down in the past without the assisstance of human action, it is not unreasonable to expect they will continue to do so. Your burden is to prove that now is different from then. So far, no dice. Models where you choose, not measure, the CO2 forcing and then assign, not measure, all the feedbacks to get back to the CO2 forcing you started with are most unimpressive.
lordsunhawk
June 8, 2012 10:01 am
The ‘violence’ at the end is a clear Men In Black homage, didn’t you notice that the bureaucrat ‘exploded’ into a tentacle alien right out of the Men in Black movies, and the MiB ‘flashing’ us all with the twisty bulb? LOL
DR_UK
June 8, 2012 11:27 am
“Jim says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
Anthony, all of your hard work and NCDC proved climate change yesterday. “Each of the 12 months from June 2011 through May 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly are 1 in 531,441.” Since the probability of this occurring is so low, we can essentially eliminate the possibility of chance (i.e. nature) and presume that it was caused by climate change”
And in the last 12 months my child is taller than he has been in any month in the previous 10 years. The odds of this occuring randomly are… NCDC need to explain the autocorrelated nature of their data and how this affects the odds. As D J Hawkins says, this just shows that there’s been a warming trend – it is not the probability of that trend being man-made.
Crispin in Waterloo
June 8, 2012 11:37 am
“…making sure a hedge is not too high and inspecting a property to ensure ‘illegal or unregulated hypnotism’ is not taking place.”
There are more registered witches in the UK than clerics, I hear. Surely they should be looking as well into their pots for a remnant eye of bat or tail of lizard? They are all endangered, you know. Surely since the legalisation of key-hole peeping to see if people were in church or not, there has never been as intrusive a bunch as the post-modern Brits. Soon there will be obligatory checking of one’s thoughts against the aacceptable list provided by the Ministry of Truth. You just can’t make this stuff up (can you?)
Mike Jowsey
June 8, 2012 12:09 pm
@William Howard Astley says:
June 8, 2012 at 9:11 am
Your verbose and off-topic post does not state what message you contend that I missed. As I said, the dialogue of the cartoon was good, in other words I thought the message was good. What do you think I missed about the message? What I did not like was that it was difficult and boring to watch and it had a theme of violence towards Mister EPA.
Robertvdl
June 8, 2012 12:16 pm
You can still make that 9 11 call. It is just maybe not too late.
Jim says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
Anthony, all of your hard work and NCDC proved climate change yesterday. “Each of the 12 months from June 2011 through May 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly are 1 in 531,441.” Since the probability of this occurring is so low, we can essentially eliminate the possibility of chance (i.e. nature) and presume that it was caused by climate change.
=================================================
Would that be pre or post history revision?
Ian Hoder
June 8, 2012 12:56 pm
Not very funny, just someone’s long rambling political rant against the US government. I’d rather keep the climate debate on science and evidence.
Gary Hladik
June 8, 2012 1:35 pm
orkneygal says (June 8, 2012 at 5:11 am): ‘For me, “here” is Aotearoa, Anthea,’
Hey, I remember Kid Orkney. Fought out of New Zealand, right?
Thanks for the great comments, all. Yes, the title logo and the conclusion are homages to MIB — even the blue “blood,” featured in the movies, which I used to make it a little less morbid.
Now, if you want to see some really crazy, messed up stuff, you can search for some of Joe Cartoon’s videos, like his “frog in a blender” genre — the inspiration for this piece. But I couldn’t shine Joe’s hip waders in regard to cartooning and talent in…what he does.
I was intentionally going for an edgy lampoon, though, and alluded to real-world incidents of abuse of power, which I believe largely underlies the snowballing “alien” threats of alarmism, intrusive government, and knee-jerk over-regulation. Admittedly, I didn’t focus specifically on climate and narrowly-related issues, but I hope I got the idea across in a way that is relevant to this forum. I can’t compete with the brains and savvy found here in WUWT territory. I contend that there are “some folks you just can’t reach” with even the clearest presentation of logic, science and evidence. Sometimes it takes those like cartoonist Josh to drive the point home.
One interesting thing I learned from a commenter elsewhere — apparently in some areas they do check light bulbs for efficiency as part of final building inspections.
Thanks to Gail Combs for the annotations. I hadn’t thought of how many, especially outside of the U.S., haven’t been exposed to some of the issues referenced. I follow a lot of news — and, of course, learn something new every day from WUWT.
Janice
June 8, 2012 2:50 pm
Precious bodily fluids? Out of one of my favorite movies. This was a funny short. Thanks.
Gail Combs
June 8, 2012 2:50 pm
Les Clay (@LesClay) says:
June 8, 2012 at 2:12 pm
….Thanks to Gail Combs for the annotations….
________________________________
Feel free to steal any or all of what I did and post beneath the cartoon if you want to .
It’s OK, Les, I’ve been called worse . . .
I’m going to have to watch your movie several times. I’m sure I’ve missed a few more zingers.
Chico Sajovic
June 8, 2012 7:29 pm
While I may agree with large parts of the message in the video, it remains political hackery and it politicizes this website by association.
J.Hansford
June 8, 2012 10:10 pm
I watched it to the end… So that is a statement to its effectiveness…..Sometimes political satire is not really meant to be funny.
orkneygal
June 9, 2012 1:05 am
red jeff says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:07 am
To Anthea and Orkneygal, it’s already happening in the UK
—————————————————————-
Yes, the UK is well known for it’s unfunny “comedy” and incomprehensible satire.
My apologies if the expression of my views has possibly diminished the integrity and credibility of this website in the eyes of at least one reader. I trust that my unusual form of commentary is not entirely incongruous with the stated description of the site, “News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology…”
As I’ve suggested, I don’t pretend to be qualified to engage in scientific arguments. However, I still assert that many of the underlying issues in the debate concerning such things as climate change are not exclusively in the realm of math, physics and biology. If they were, then the topics would seldom be brought up by politicians — or an unpaid hack like me, whom the proprietor of this site has so graciously indulged.
For instance, I don’t consider myself a hypocrite if I use CFLs or conserve energy for pragmatic reasons, but the trouble begins when government forces such changes upon me, and essentially charges me for that enforcement in the name of “saving the planet.”
Theoretically, from a scientific, statistical perspective, one could argue that many lives and injuries would be saved if the use of helmets while using stepladders were mandated for every citizen. But is the exposure of the inanity of the idea and its intrusiveness a purely political, subjective argument that should be off limits in a predominantly scientific forum?
If one seeks ostensibly apolitical humorless indignation, intractable certitude and “settled science,” then I understand there exist other venues for that.
Janice
June 9, 2012 7:18 am
Les, both my husband and I laughed ourselves silly watching your video. We found it pertinent to current events, and filled with many subtle references to old movies (all of which were themselves pertinent to various current events at the time they were made). However, I must add the caveat that both my husband and I have a very odd sense of humor (geek humor), and have one of the most complete libraries of old science fiction/fantasy movies that I know of. So, did you say the magical phrase just right, or leave out a few syllables? I think you definitely came close enough, though the dead are rising against you. I’ll check the Necronomicon and get back with you.
Pamela Gray
June 9, 2012 9:31 am
Ray Bradbury would have been proud of you. And may he rest in peace.
In reply to Mike Jowsey.
“it could have been presented in a much less violent way.” It is a cartoon. It appears you to have missed the message.
Have you heard about the so called “green” jobs. The “green” scams are where billions of dollars of subsidies – deficit government spending – are used to produce power at three to four times the cost of conventional power. If the carbon inputs to the construct the “green” scams are included and the wasted energy required to turn power plants on and off, when the wind does and does not blow and the sun does and does not shine are included the “green” scams do not even reduce total CO2 emissions.
That is madness, insanity. The EU is facing economic collapse if they do not stop the ‘green” madness. There are a group in the US who leading us off the same cliff that the Europeans appear about to fall off of.
It is time to wake up. The crisis is not AGW, it is a complete lack of economic competitiveness in part due to the “green” scams and the EPA efforts to increase the cost of all energy in the US.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/q-cells-bankruptcy-heralds-end-of-german-solar-cell-industry-a-825490.html
“Twilight of an Industry Bankruptcies Have German Solar on the Ropes
By Stefan Schultz
German solar panel manufacturer Q-Cells filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday.
It wasn’t so long ago that people viewed Q-Cells as an energy company of the future. At one point, it was the world’s largest manufacturer of solar cells and quarter after quarter, it topped analysts’ expectations. The company proved to be a money-making machine even during the financial crisis, with some believing it might one day grow to become part of Germany’s DAX index of benchmark companies on the stock exchange.
But Q-Cells’ insolvency also comes as a great shock to the Germany’s solar industry. It is already the fourth major bankruptcy in a sector in crisis, and it underscores the degree to which German solar firms are being outpaced by competition from Asia — despite billions in German government subsidies granted each year to the industry. And despite solar energy gradually becoming more competitive, the setbacks are rapidly mounting.
In March 2012, Freiburg-based Scheuten Solar, the firm that presented what was the world’s largest solar module at the time eight years ago, declared bankruptcy. The same month, power plant producer Solarhybrid and the Frankfurt an der Oder-based Odersun, which had been prestige projects supported by political leaders in the eastern state of Brandenburg, also filed for insolvency proceedings. Other bankruptcies are likely to follow.
http://www.germanenergyblog.de/?p=4055
With feed-in tariffs for solar energy of on average EUR 0.31/ kWh, well above the spot market price for electricity of roughly 5 ct/kWh, solar installations have boomed in Germany. Some experts are expecting between 6 and 8 GW of new PV capacity in Germany this year. In July, the Federal Network Agency expected German additional installed photovoltaic capacity to exceed 3 GW. The additional capacity for the remainder of 2010 is particularly difficult to predict due to the recent July and the upcoming October reduction in solar feed-in tariffs.
Under the EEG, grid operators can pass on the feed-in costs to consumers. In view the current solar expansion rate, experts fear that reallocation fee will rise from currently 2.05 to 4 ct/kWh. 50% of these extra costs would be due to solar power, even though solar contributes only 3.5% to the electricity generation.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-05/02/c_131564607.htm
OPENHAGEN, May 2 (Xinhua) — Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas posted a net loss of 162 million euros (212.8 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter this year, it was reported on Wednesday.
Losses before interest and taxes rose to 245 million euros in the first quarter, up from losses of 69 million euros in the same period last year, the company said in a press statement.
First quarter revenue was 1.1 billion euros, up from 1.06 billion euros year-on-year, it added.
According to Danish financial newspaper Boersen, analysts expected the company to make a first-quarter 2012 loss of around 52 million euros. Vestas said revenues were hit by fewer deliveries, high turbine production costs and restructuring costs.
“There’s no question Q1 was disappointing in terms of revenues and earnings,” Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/us-solar-firm-solyndra-_n_949929.html
(Reuters) – Solyndra LLC, a solar panel maker which had earlier received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early on Tuesday, making it the third U.S. solar firm to succumb to pressure from lower-cost Chinese rivals.
This is perfect!! Note that the turbine is not moving. Only the world’s governments can create enough wind to get that baby to spin.
Jim, in the year and a half or so that I’ve been looking at this site, I can recall only one or two posters who have claimed that there is no recent temperature trend over the last 200 years or so. The vast majority of us understand that climate changes; it gets colder and warmer. Since we’re still coming out of the Little Ice Age, no one should be astonished that recent temperatures as a whole are warmer today than they were a hundred years ago. It’s your lot that seem to think that the temperature should never change. Like climate Panglossians, you believe that “today’s climate is the best of all possible climates” (apologies to Voltaire). The crux is not that the climate is changing, but why. Since we know that temperatures have gone up and down in the past without the assisstance of human action, it is not unreasonable to expect they will continue to do so. Your burden is to prove that now is different from then. So far, no dice. Models where you choose, not measure, the CO2 forcing and then assign, not measure, all the feedbacks to get back to the CO2 forcing you started with are most unimpressive.
The ‘violence’ at the end is a clear Men In Black homage, didn’t you notice that the bureaucrat ‘exploded’ into a tentacle alien right out of the Men in Black movies, and the MiB ‘flashing’ us all with the twisty bulb? LOL
“Jim says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
Anthony, all of your hard work and NCDC proved climate change yesterday. “Each of the 12 months from June 2011 through May 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly are 1 in 531,441.” Since the probability of this occurring is so low, we can essentially eliminate the possibility of chance (i.e. nature) and presume that it was caused by climate change”
And in the last 12 months my child is taller than he has been in any month in the previous 10 years. The odds of this occuring randomly are… NCDC need to explain the autocorrelated nature of their data and how this affects the odds. As D J Hawkins says, this just shows that there’s been a warming trend – it is not the probability of that trend being man-made.
“…making sure a hedge is not too high and inspecting a property to ensure ‘illegal or unregulated hypnotism’ is not taking place.”
There are more registered witches in the UK than clerics, I hear. Surely they should be looking as well into their pots for a remnant eye of bat or tail of lizard? They are all endangered, you know. Surely since the legalisation of key-hole peeping to see if people were in church or not, there has never been as intrusive a bunch as the post-modern Brits. Soon there will be obligatory checking of one’s thoughts against the aacceptable list provided by the Ministry of Truth. You just can’t make this stuff up (can you?)
@William Howard Astley says:
June 8, 2012 at 9:11 am
Your verbose and off-topic post does not state what message you contend that I missed. As I said, the dialogue of the cartoon was good, in other words I thought the message was good. What do you think I missed about the message? What I did not like was that it was difficult and boring to watch and it had a theme of violence towards Mister EPA.
You can still make that 9 11 call. It is just maybe not too late.
Jim says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
Anthony, all of your hard work and NCDC proved climate change yesterday. “Each of the 12 months from June 2011 through May 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895-present record. The odds of this occurring randomly are 1 in 531,441.” Since the probability of this occurring is so low, we can essentially eliminate the possibility of chance (i.e. nature) and presume that it was caused by climate change.
=================================================
Would that be pre or post history revision?
Not very funny, just someone’s long rambling political rant against the US government. I’d rather keep the climate debate on science and evidence.
orkneygal says (June 8, 2012 at 5:11 am): ‘For me, “here” is Aotearoa, Anthea,’
Hey, I remember Kid Orkney. Fought out of New Zealand, right?
Thanks for the great comments, all. Yes, the title logo and the conclusion are homages to MIB — even the blue “blood,” featured in the movies, which I used to make it a little less morbid.
Now, if you want to see some really crazy, messed up stuff, you can search for some of Joe Cartoon’s videos, like his “frog in a blender” genre — the inspiration for this piece. But I couldn’t shine Joe’s hip waders in regard to cartooning and talent in…what he does.
I was intentionally going for an edgy lampoon, though, and alluded to real-world incidents of abuse of power, which I believe largely underlies the snowballing “alien” threats of alarmism, intrusive government, and knee-jerk over-regulation. Admittedly, I didn’t focus specifically on climate and narrowly-related issues, but I hope I got the idea across in a way that is relevant to this forum. I can’t compete with the brains and savvy found here in WUWT territory. I contend that there are “some folks you just can’t reach” with even the clearest presentation of logic, science and evidence. Sometimes it takes those like cartoonist Josh to drive the point home.
One interesting thing I learned from a commenter elsewhere — apparently in some areas they do check light bulbs for efficiency as part of final building inspections.
Thanks to Gail Combs for the annotations. I hadn’t thought of how many, especially outside of the U.S., haven’t been exposed to some of the issues referenced. I follow a lot of news — and, of course, learn something new every day from WUWT.
Precious bodily fluids? Out of one of my favorite movies. This was a funny short. Thanks.
Les Clay (@LesClay) says:
June 8, 2012 at 2:12 pm
….Thanks to Gail Combs for the annotations….
________________________________
Feel free to steal any or all of what I did and post beneath the cartoon if you want to .
Hee — good catch, Janet.
“Janet”? Janice. I need some shuteye.
It’s OK, Les, I’ve been called worse . . .
I’m going to have to watch your movie several times. I’m sure I’ve missed a few more zingers.
While I may agree with large parts of the message in the video, it remains political hackery and it politicizes this website by association.
I watched it to the end… So that is a statement to its effectiveness…..Sometimes political satire is not really meant to be funny.
red jeff says:
June 8, 2012 at 6:07 am
To Anthea and Orkneygal, it’s already happening in the UK
—————————————————————-
Yes, the UK is well known for it’s unfunny “comedy” and incomprehensible satire.
Sorry, that was not funny and I got all the references and the intended point. I also could not stand the MIB movies.
My apologies if the expression of my views has possibly diminished the integrity and credibility of this website in the eyes of at least one reader. I trust that my unusual form of commentary is not entirely incongruous with the stated description of the site, “News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology…”
As I’ve suggested, I don’t pretend to be qualified to engage in scientific arguments. However, I still assert that many of the underlying issues in the debate concerning such things as climate change are not exclusively in the realm of math, physics and biology. If they were, then the topics would seldom be brought up by politicians — or an unpaid hack like me, whom the proprietor of this site has so graciously indulged.
For instance, I don’t consider myself a hypocrite if I use CFLs or conserve energy for pragmatic reasons, but the trouble begins when government forces such changes upon me, and essentially charges me for that enforcement in the name of “saving the planet.”
Theoretically, from a scientific, statistical perspective, one could argue that many lives and injuries would be saved if the use of helmets while using stepladders were mandated for every citizen. But is the exposure of the inanity of the idea and its intrusiveness a purely political, subjective argument that should be off limits in a predominantly scientific forum?
If one seeks ostensibly apolitical humorless indignation, intractable certitude and “settled science,” then I understand there exist other venues for that.
Les, both my husband and I laughed ourselves silly watching your video. We found it pertinent to current events, and filled with many subtle references to old movies (all of which were themselves pertinent to various current events at the time they were made). However, I must add the caveat that both my husband and I have a very odd sense of humor (geek humor), and have one of the most complete libraries of old science fiction/fantasy movies that I know of. So, did you say the magical phrase just right, or leave out a few syllables? I think you definitely came close enough, though the dead are rising against you. I’ll check the Necronomicon and get back with you.
Ray Bradbury would have been proud of you. And may he rest in peace.
very nice