Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The US ABC News thinks the impact of Coronavirus on industry and travel is providing an example of what the world should do to reduce carbon emissions.
How coronavirus impacts climate change with emissions reductions
Nitrogen dioxide emissions over China have plummeted since January.
By Julia Jacobo5 March 2020, 20:23
The emergence of the coronavirus as a world health epidemic and fears of it spreading have halted air and ground travel in some regions of the world and stalled it elsewhere, significantly reducing the amount of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere.
…
And China isn’t the only part of the world where emissions from travel have slowed down. Almost every U.S. air carrier has suspended international flights to affected areas and has issued traveled waives for passengers who have flights booked in the coming months. In addition, global air traffic decreased by 4.3% in February amid the COVID-19 outbreak, aircraft flight traffic website FlightRadar24 announced on Tuesday.
The question is: Is the reduction in emissions enough to mitigate climate change and the environmental dangers that come with it? According to experts, the answer is no.
…
Coronavirus outbreak may teach us to be more efficient with travel
The curbing of travel as a result of the coronavirus may offer a valuable lesson the world can use to continue to reduce carbon emissions in the future, Robin Bell, a research professor specializing in glaciology at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told ABC News.
Since the outbreak, health officials have been warning business leaders to make preparations for employees who may not be able to make it to the office.
In addition, multiple conferences in the U.S. have been canceled over COVID-19 fears, such as the annual Google I/O conference and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Las Vegas. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are not convening during their annual spring meetings in Washington, D.C., instead choosing to hold them using a “virtual format” via teleconference.
There could be a lesson in the upending of routine as it offers “a chance for us to learn what is it that we have to do to … reduce our carbon emissions,” Bell said.
…
“Is this a chance to experiment with all we do, like go to meetings and travel — how we can do all those things without such a carbon load on our planet?” Bell asked, adding that she has already had meetings with people from China who participated remotely. “Is this going to push us to reduce the carbon input of much of our day-to-day activities?“
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/severe-reduction-emissions-coronavirus-mitigate-climate-change-long/story?id=69334246
In my opinion describing a deadly virus causing misery and suffering to entire nations as a valuable climate lesson is a new low, even for the climate alarmist community.
If that is there rationale for climate change mitigation, by cancelling a lot of travel and meetings and gatherings, then it is just a damn shame that there wasn’t a climate change conference scheduled for next week that they would have had to cancel.
Maybe it will last until September when COP26 is due to take place in Glasgow.
In the meantime we can get an example of the damage done to economies by the shutdown of areas of the economy that rely on flying such as tourism which is taking a big hit at present.
It’s November and after visiting Glasgow in November they will be all in favour of climate change!
Australian Sen Malcolm Roberts Exposes The Climate Change Scam – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGaFrgaHPFg
Tony Heller and Tim Ball speak to the media – a worthwhile video.
thinking the same as I read it, at last they might just have to stay home and actually DO as they want others to do;-))) Glaswegians would probably be pleased.
though theres always someone wanting to make more money.
personally Ive disliked the whole tourism and travel setup so I am finding it amusing to hear all the footstamping about i want my OS holiday Now, moan whinge.
having worked in hostility for a while I saw it as an utter waste of resources and lives that could bebetter spent doing productive work, rather than cleaning rooms and yes sir no sirring, massive water useage and wastage of resources.
I just cant “get” the entire travel for hours or days see a few sights pay to stay in a place that may/may not be as good as your own home risk gut and other upsets(even before corona) and pay a motza for the “priveledge”
I do get funny looks when raffletickets have a fist prize of a holiday and I refuse to buy them;-)
last thing Id want to win
Know what? Any goddam fool with backyard chickens knows you don’t expose healthy stock to contagious ones. As in, “keep ’em separate?” 8th-grade education is quite sufficient for this. Years ago, quarantine (as in, NO MIXING!!) was the one effective tool we had to contain epidemic in man or beast.
Seems like the Powers that Be have been trying (TRYING!!) to spread this thing around the world as fast as possible. You’re in China and exposed? I’d say STAY THERE, but no, our “health” folks put ’em all on a cargo plane and fly ’em back HERE. Gee, what could go wrong? Contaminated cruise ship on the far side of the earth? Great, warp it further out into the harbor and QUARANTINE it old-school until the virus has run its course thereon and NO ONE on board is sick or contagious. They have it in Italy and Iran and South Korea? SUSPEND ALL TRAVEL to those regions immediately, no exceptions! (Skype and wire transfers are a thing, folks. No one really needs to travel to do basic business transactions anymore).
This is basic protocol every livestock farmer (y’know, those of us without “gray matter?”) finds self-evident. Right now, we’re about to get exactly what the WHO has asked for. Enjoy your foot-and-mouth.
This latest GlobalWarming emission from the ABC reinforces the observation that ‘you cannot underestimate the taste of the Warmistas’. Describing a deadly virus causing misery and suffering to the World as a ‘valuable climate lesson’ is more tasteless and crude than most normal minds could conceive.
I called it in 2012 – see my post below.
The global warming/climate change scam was never about the climate.
It was apparent years ago that the global warming alarmists were knowingly deceiving us – no rational person could be that stupid for that long – and they must have a covert agenda.
That covert agenda is now clear – it is totalitarian control of society and personal profit based on the climate scam.
The global warming alarmists’ once-covert agenda is now fully exposed and the evidence is everywhere – the USA Democrats are shouting it from the rooftops.
Anyone who still questions the warmists’ treasonous agenda now is corrupted, delusional or both.
Regards,Allan
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/24/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-53/#comment-855037
Instead of arguing about the science of global warming, we should just listen to what these enviro radicals are actually SAYING and DOING.
Maybe they know their global warming science is bogus, but it suits their purpose to use global warming hysteria as a smokescreen to mask their true intentions.
The radical warmists have done everything in their power to starve the world of fossil fuel energy that is required for continued global prosperity.
They have squandered a trillion dollars of scarce global resources on catastrophic humanmade global warming (CAGW) nonsense.
Investing these squandered resources in clean drinking water and sanitation alone would have saved the ~50 million kids who died from drinking contaminated water in the past 25+ years of CAGW hysteria.
Intelligent use of these scarce global resources could have easily saved as many people as were killed in the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.
50 million people died in Hitler’s WW2. Josef Stalin killed another 50 million of his own people in internal purges. Leftist hero Mao gets the prize, killing as many as 80 million Chinese during his Great Leap Backward.
The radical environmental movement has done equally well, rivaling Mao for fatalities caused by the banning of DDT and the misallocation of scarce global resources on the fraud of catastrophic humanmade global warming.
Since many of these enviro radicals are latter-day Malthusians, Club of Rome types, etc., it is reasonable to assume that THIS WAS THEIR INTENTION.
Is this too radical a proposal? Well, NO it is not: In addition to what the radical enviros DO, let’s EXAMINE what they SAY (h/t to Wayne):
http://green-agenda.com/
”My three goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with its full complement of species, returning throughout the world.”
David Foreman,
co-founder of Earth First!
”A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”
Ted Turner,
Founder of CNN and major UN donor
The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.”
Jeremy Rifkin,
Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
”Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.”
Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies,
Author: “Population Bomb”, “Ecoscience”
”The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil.”
Sir James Lovelock,
BBC Interview
”We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”
Stephen Schneider,
Stanford Professor of Climatology,
Lead author of many IPCC reports
”Unless we announce disasters no one will listen.”
Sir John Houghton,
First chairman of the IPCC
”It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
Paul Watson,
Co-founder of Greenpeace
”Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.”
David Brower,
First Executive Director of the Sierra Club
”We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.”
Timothy Wirth,
President of the UN Foundation
”No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
Christine Stewart,
former Canadian Minister of the Environment
”The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe.”
Emeritus Professor Daniel Botkin
”Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong,
Founder of the UN Environmental Program
”A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-Development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.”
Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies,
Author: “Population Bomb”, “Ecoscience”
”If I were reincarnated I would wish to return to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.”
Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh,
husband of Queen Elizabeth II,
Patron of the Patron of the World Wildlife Foundation
”The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization we have in the US. We have to stop these third World countries right where they are.”
Michael Oppenheimer
Environmental Defense Fund
”Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.”
Professor Maurice King
”Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air-conditioning, and suburban housing – are not sustainable.”
Maurice Strong,
Rio Earth Summit
”Complex technology of any sort is an assault on the human dignity. It would be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy, because of what we might do with it.”
Amory Lovins,
Rocky Mountain Institute
”I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. it played an important part in balancing ecosystems.”
John Davis,
Editor of Earth First! Journal
**********************************
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/10/benny-peiser-energy-revolts-the-crisis-of-europes-green-energy-agenda/#comment-2652044
“The Green movement is really a smokescreen for the old Marxists – and they are the great killers of our age.”
…
Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder and Past-President of Greenpeace, provided the answer decades ago. Moore observed that Eco-Extremism is the new “false-front” for economic Marxists, who were discredited after the fall of the Soviet Union circa 1990 and took over the Green movement to further their political objectives. This is described in Moore’s essay, “Hard Choices for the Environmental Movement” written in 1994 – note especially “The Rise of Eco-Extremism”, at
http://ecosense.me/2012/12/30/key-environmental-issues-4/
For radical greens, it was never about the environment – the environment was a smokescreen for their extreme-left totalitarian political objectives.
well in the way they mean it maybe
however as a taste of how they’d like the world to be it might be a wakeup call to others?;-)
all the lil climateclownkids who expect energy and global travel to be their right, not a priveledge
It’s the koolaid you know! there are two concoctions, normal koolaid and diet koolaid. Both guaranteed to make you a disciple in the church of later day climate change believers.
https://www.infowars.com/sunday-live-big-tech-helping-chicoms-suppress-origins-of-coronavirus-as-it-goes-global/
https://www.brighteon.com/105ddb05-07ab-4ef8-8e08-e029dbe5e75c
View the above video from ~28.00 to 29:00 – Dr James Lyons-Weiler states there is manmade vector technology in the genetic sequence called pShuttle-SN that proves this particular corona virus is man-made.
It’s been a centuries since I played at biology at McGill and I have no expertise in this field. So what gives?
The fact the Green elite see the misery and death of a pandemic as valuable should give the placid and facile majority a clue as to which destiny they are being herded towards.
If CO2 emissions have plummeted over China, it will be interesting to see if Mauna Loa readings will register that.
not much to see so far but I imagine there will be a lag time before any possible influence is seen in the middle of the pacific ocean
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/monthly.html
Chinese CO2 doesn’t register, it is not the right type. Ask Greta, she can see CO2 and knows which are the bad molecules. In fact, Chinese CO2 is ying/yang balanced, an important consideration when deciding which is to be banned.
However, the gist of this story is correct. Air travel is the bane of the enviros, well not their air travel, and look for some emergency processes in the next months that will make it very difficult for airlines to restart routes.
I don’t mean gov’t legislation, I mean airline bailout money with strings attached. Failing airlines will be so desperate to stay alive that they won’t care about the fine print. The fine print will be deadly though! Mark Carney and the central bankers have been working overtime to use the central banks and their influence to do that which they feel gov’t can’t or won’t. They are very clear that they will end run gov’t to achieve their goals.
Frenchie, you have now explained the chemistry clearly enough that I understand the current global warming debate.
CO2 emitted in the West is a deadly molecule that will cause a mass extinction event around the world.
CO2 from China is merely an abbreviation for “Chinese O2”. This Chinese oxygen is what keeps all animals (including humans) in balance with nature, and enables all of these creatures to survive in this cruel world.
Got it!!
thee best thing the corona virus can do is to get rid of the human race and thus save the planet from these beastly creatures and their industrial economy.
https://tambonthongchai.com/2010/05/16/171/
Prince Philip just might may be a little late to take credit for him being the reincarnation of a virus as he so wishes for.
Planned Populations (i.e. deception, self-inflicted, or choice) is the dogmatic foundation of every episode of “The Outer Limits” and predictions by diverse secular sects of an apocalyptic future.
See from 2.30 mins but worth watching all from start
Good to be able to have a laugh!!!
Death cult. Gretins.
Planned Population (PP) protocols, which reduce the anthropogenic carbon footprint, and carbon trading (“redistributive”) schemes, are forward-thinking.
A writer completely off her trolley. The corona virus ought to teach us something about how to deal with threats by pathogens. Not simething else.
No they aren’t. Who decides on the plans and protocols? Not somebody you like or would agree with.
Corona virus may indeed reduce public jet air travel to a low, but you can bet the elites (our supposed betters, just ask them) will be flying private jets to avoid the unwashed masses.
To All Liberals elites,
I want private jet justice!!! My justice demands that you (Liberal elites) provide me with a Learjet 51 to the Virgin Isles via St Thomas, A.S.A.P. You really don’t care about the environment if you don’t do this.
#meToo please. I mean, climate justice demands it !
#DoublePlusMeToo
Whilst no proponent of fossil fuels i am a fan of hard nosed reality as such fuels have raised us from short, unhealthy and impoverished lives pre industrial revolution, to the highest pinnacle of achievement in human history. When there is a practical alternative to fossil fuels then we need to embrace them, but like fusion, such solutions always seem a decade away.
To get rid of fossil fuels in the time scales activists demand, the likely sacrifices that will need to be taken by all in order to avoid the perceived ‘Climate Emergency’ might encompass the following lifestyle changes;
Assuming journeys are necessary in the first place, travel only by bus, cycling, walking or train. No parents taxi service. No flying except in an emergency. No spring water in plastic bottles, No imported food or food out of season when there is a local alternative. Little meat, dairy or fish, no hot daily showers, an embargo on throw away fashion clothes, no cotton.
Infrequent washing of clothes in tepid water and no artificial drying. Drastic reductions of energy guzzling internet and social media, with smart phones and computers rationed to one a household and kept for years, and used infrequently, and a considerable reduction in purchases of consumer goods, especially those that are non-essential.
Curtailment of new entertainment, such as films, documentaries and TV, where extensive travel was necessary in their making. Minimal home and work place heating. Expect regular power cuts. Curtail vegan foods which have achieved mythical status on their ability to save the planet. Many vegan ingredients come from all over the world, often by air and have huge carbon footprints.
Only weekly cups of habitat destroying coffee and foregoing endless home deliveries of everything from fast food to shoes. No attendance at festivals or sporting events, especially overseas, or those that need to use floodlights and aren’t near public transport.
These measures are ‘low hanging fruit’. Other changes in lifestyle will become apparent, but students (and adults) endorsing the ‘Climate Emergency’ will need to make considerable sacrifices and adopt more frugal lifestyles and not just during school years when passions and certainties burn brightest.
As can be seen, the list of modern comforts, currently taken for granted almost as a ‘human right,’ that might need to be scaled back or discarded entirely, are endless. Flying is just a small part of the whole.
“Net Zero Carbon” means living like your ancestors did, only worse – no cars, no planes, no meat, no heat. All this to comply with the greatest scientific fraud in history.
Qué Bueno? Who benefits? Emphatically not you!
THE LIBERALS’ COVERT GREEN PLAN FOR CANADA – POVERTY AND DICTATORSHIP
by Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., October 1, 2019
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/01/the-liberals-covert-green-plan-for-canada-poverty-and-dictatorship/
[excerpt]
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49499521
Zero-carbon means huge changes for society. Prof Sir Ian Boyd, the government’s chief environment scientist, said the public had little idea of the scale of the challenge from Britain’s “Net Zero CO2” emissions target. Roger Harrabin of the BBC wrote: “People must use less transport, eat less red meat and buy fewer clothes if the UK is to virtually halt greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the government’s chief environment scientist has warned. … We will all have to accept big lifestyle changes – travel less, eat less, consume less. But eventually some form of compulsion or rationing will be necessary, if climate targets are to be met. The Science and Technology Select Committee … officially announced “In the long-term, widespread personal vehicle ownership does not appear to be compatible with significant decarbonisation”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49425402
When they ultimately find themselves being told what they can and cannot consume, where they can travel and what foods they are allowed to eat, they will be furious about the way they have been misled.”
Just take away disposable diapers and listen to the screams of outrage.
Might I remind all that “they” can only inflict this stupidity on us with our compliance?
“Whilst no proponent of fossil fuels i am a fan of hard nosed reality as such fuels have raised us from short, unhealthy and impoverished lives pre industrial revolution, to the highest pinnacle of achievement in human history. ”
Yeah! We can watch big bu*ts right on our phones!
Reality from the inside. With the downfall of FyBe officially attributed to the virus but in fact a consequence of the highly criticized Air Passenger Duty, an UK government environmental tax, the country just lost 40% of it’s domestic flight capacity.
It was the huge backlog of unpaid Air Passenger Duty taxes combined to the passenger flow decline that triggered the negative treasury events that brought down FLyBe.
Despite the insane amount of mail directives, pep talks, paper masks, gloves, all size and shape of disinfection sprays & ointments, those who could afford to book their share of sunny days keep boarding to popular holiday destinations despite minor cabin nervous fits.
Domestic lines are another topic as the cultivated by media beliefs is that trains are safer.
Fact is that airliners have their cabin air recirculated thru HEPA filters every 2 -3 minutes and renewed every 6 to 10 minutes. Packs (air conditioning) are set to “LO” (low) only on less than half full cabins or ferry flights.
As in every public transport, upholstery, armrests, trays, are subject to the previous passengers hygiene and civic behavior.
No company could survive if crews called in sick after every flight.
From what we’re told, disinfectant wipes or solutions and masks and elementary hygiene rules like washing hands form a good deterrent.
Although a case could be made that Coronavirus requires massive government control over your life, it does not appear that climate change’s role as the vehicle of big government political activism is in danger of being replaced yet.
Dickens, a long time ago: “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and
decrease the surplus population.”
An intervention changed Scrooge for the better. I’m not sure the current doomsayers can be turned around like he was.
This is another case of Millennials thinking they are the first to encounter adversity or changes in the world. My work travel was severely curtailed after 9/11. We discovered that we could use video conferences and just plain conference calls to get most of the work done that we always thought required a presence on-site. Without all the time spent traveling, we were much more productive. I’m sure there were many times in history when people learned this lesson.
Yes. This virus is rapidly curtailing business travel, which will cripple many airlines that rely on the $10,000 business class tickets to pay for their flights. And much of that travel will never come back as companies find other alternatives which don’t require shipping people around.
As I’ve been saying for a long time, worrying about CO2 emissions is stupid when technology is about to slash them by eliminating the need to transport people and goods around the world. This virus is just speeding up the process by forcing companies to look at means of eliminating travel and shipping.
It’s easy to strip NOx out of flue gas.
Who knew that a tiny virus would separate the policy brain dead from the living.
I notice that she is completely ignoring all the economic harm these restrictions are causing.
The problem is we’re all just pesky human interlopers with Gaia’s great works and need to get our comeuppance now for not listening to the omniscient ones. They being exempted of course.
Surely the most important lesson from the corona virus is what a tipping point format graph looks like so everyone can see for themselves climate change bears no relation to it whatsoever and climate scientist are either inept or dishonest.
“In my opinion describing a deadly virus causing misery and suffering to entire nations as a valuable climate lesson is a new low, even for the climate alarmist community.”
Or it is one of the goals, as if during a world wide rehearsal.
Remember the Icelandic volcano in 2010 that caused a suspension of all airline traffic over European skies… except for NATO planes.
Superimpose a map of NATO US friends/enemies and the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 map and get thinking.
There are NO coincidences.
Europe’s biggest regional airline Flybe has just gone bust
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51748139
2000 jobs directly at risk, and an unknown number indirectly affected. Seems that the corona viras was the last straw. If thousands of media jobs were at risk in the creation of the new green utopia would AGW be a problem?
Shutting down all air travel for just one month would indeed be interesting experiment. Sure, it would not have any effect on Antarctic climate, where there was never any warming due to the absence of air travel anyhow. But in the northern hemisphere we should see a massive drop in temperatures, with the only cause of anthropogenic warming gone.
Trump is suppoedly looking into financially helping those industries most affected by COVID-19.
Today’s new jobs report said the US had created 273,000 new jobs last month, which was about 100,000 more than was anticipated from previous predictions.
These people are insane and that is nothing we already didn’t know. The biggest shock is that more of them aren’t openly blaming climate change for causing the virus.
Give it time. Somewhere already there’ll be some taxeaters eagerly beavering away at their computer model to show Covid19 is X% worse than it would have been without warmening and how much worse it’s going to be if we don’t switch to pushbikes now. (they get to ride in the pedal Tuk Tuks naturally)
Personally I think the best solution to the pandemic is for our fearless leaders to announce that forthwith no publicly paid official will remain airconditioned and those of us who work in the great outdoors and under the iron rooves of our factories and workshops will be right round to start opening up the windows in our schools and Sandstones to let the fresh air in while XR kids dig up the carparks and plant them out to Green them all.
This suggests a natural experiment:
if there is a (lagged) correlation between reduced petro use (air travel, industry, etc.) resulting from Wuhan mania, and a concomitant reduction of CO2 emissions, followed by a tempoary leveling off of global temps, that confirms the human-caused global warming hypothesis.
I don’t own a global satellite CO2-temp sensing system, but based on the comments on this blog, many of you do. so train your systems on this question for the next 2 years and let’s see what happens!
cheers,
I expect to see temps going down, calmer, better weather (in other words less climate change) and a higher happiness index generally.