Sydney Flood Dec 2023. Author Eric Worrall. I bet a lot of drivers wished they had a 4WD that day.

James Hansen: 2023 Exposed Government Climate Action is Futile

Essay by Eric Worrall

Global Authoritarian Revolution? “… young people may realise that they must take charge of their future. The turbulent status of today’s politics may provide opportunity …”

World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say

Disastrous events included flash flooding in Africa and wildfires in Europe and North America

Jonathan Watts @jonathanwatts Sat 30 Dec 2023 01.26 AEDT

The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said.

“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,” he said. “Not only did governments fail to stem global warming, the rate of global warming actually accelerated.”

Now director of the climate programme at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York, Hansen said the best hope was for a generational shift of leadership. “The bright side of this clear dichotomy is that young people may realise that they must take charge of their future. The turbulent status of today’s politics may provide opportunity,” he said.

His comments are a reflection of the dismay among experts at the enormous gulf between scientific warnings and political action. It has taken almost 30 years for world leaders to acknowledge that fossil fuels are to blame for the climate crisis, yet this year’s United Nations Cop28 summit in Dubai ended with a limp and vague call for a “transition away” from them, even as evidence grows that the world is already heating to dangerous levels.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/29/world-will-look-back-at-2023-as-year-humanity-exposed-its-inability-to-tackle-climate-crisis

James Hansen has a track record when it comes to talking up authoritarianism – who can forget Hansen’s absurd praise of the Chinese system in 2015, for the alleged advantage of Chinese Communism over Western democracies and republics, when it comes to addressing climate challenges?

“I think we will get there because China is rational,” Hansen says. “Their leaders are mostly trained in engineering and such things, they don’t deny climate change and they have a huge incentive, which is air pollution. It’s so bad in their cities they need to move to clean energies. They realise it’s not a hoax. But they will need co-operation.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud

Not that I’m denying this has been an interesting weather year in Australia.

The Aussie MET predicted dry conditions because of El Nino, and there have been dry periods, but there have also been some exceptional rainfall events, lots of water falling in normally dry inland areas in June and December, and probably other events I’ve forgotten.

This is likely just random chance – Australia is famed for its extreme weather, and weather forecasting in Australia is just as big a joke as most other places.

But what if the unusual El Nino rainfall in Australia is because of global warming? What if the “new normal” is fewer prolonged droughts, more chaotic weather with shorter dry spells, and more rain, including in the parched interior of Australia?

In that case we would all be better off cancelling useless solar panels and wind turbines, and investing in flood and water management project, to mitigate the harm when a small ocean drops on our heads. And people could mitigate their own personal risks, by avoiding purchasing in dubious housing estates which look suspiciously like filled in river valleys, ditching the EVs and useless town automobiles, and instead buying long range diesel 4WD vehicles to better handle Australia’s increasingly neglected and flood prone roads, and increasingly unreliable, power cut prone fuel supplies.

Purchasing a 4WD diesel in Australia is becoming more a necessity than a choice, especially if you plan to do any rural driving. My recent Aussie driving holiday, I saw some truly appalling roads. A recent Grattan Institute Report found roads in Australia are full of potholes, in a poor state of repair. On my holiday there were lots of towns with no fuel, because of recent road or electricity disruptions.

Don’t get me wrong, most of the towns I saw were friendly, we have good memories of visiting the Australian outback. But there was an exception. At one particularly remote toilet stop in far Western NSW I saw someone repairing an EV charger, in a boarded up town with lots of drunk aboriginals. I’ve since learned the town features in reports about places with intractable drug and alcohol issues. They didn’t seem overtly hostile, but during the 5 minutes we stopped for a quick toilet break, two teenage boys did separate walk by reconnaissance of my 4WD. I can take a hint, they weren’t very subtle about what they were doing. But if an EV driver attempted my route, with all the big distances between outback towns, there aren’t a lot of other options for a recharge in places that remote.

The EV charger repair guy was happy. He was making a fortune being paid to repair that one EV charging station on a regular basis, he told me the kids kept vandalising it. He kept the back of his van locked while he was doing his repair. I did actually see one EV on my trip, heading in the opposite direction towards that town. Lets hope they got lucky.

Even in Sydney road quality seems to be deteriorating. I witnessed a respectable Darwin Award entry, council workers waste deep in rushing floodwaters in Sydney trying to clear the grating of a large blocked drain with a pry bar, during the middle of a deluge. The drains I saw exposed above the flood didn’t look well maintained, and more than one drain had blown out its grating and was gushing water, because the downstream pipe was blocked. I bet those workers I saw bashing the drain grating in the middle of a flood wished their council had spent more money on drain maintenance before it started raining, instead of squeezing the road maintenance budgets so they could blow taxpayer cash on climate posturing, or whatever other nonsense caught the attention of incompetent local politicians.

Sydney Flood Dec 2023 Gushing Water

I think James Hansen got one thing right, 2023 will be looked back on as a turning point, but it won’t be the year of children leading the global authoritarian climate revolution James Hansen seems to want. Instead, especially if we actually did breach 1.5C for much of this year. 2023 will be looked back on as the year the wild exaggerations of climate alarmists were exposed, the year people realised they should just go about their daily lives, do what is right for their families, buy a rugged automobile which can handle our poorly maintained roads, vote for politicians who get the basics right, like road maintenance, and ignore the perennially wrong climate prophets of doom.


If you think I’m exaggerating about the state of Australia’s roads, the following is a video I shot earlier this year on the Fraser Coast. Do any of these roads look EV ready?

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strativarius
December 30, 2023 6:23 am

In recorded history? And yet we are nowhere near having a scientifically fair record even in today’s world…

“Exeter Airport records highest Christmas Day temperature”
https://martini.midweekherald.co.uk/news/24013305.exeter-airport-records-highest-christmas-day-temperature/

If it isn’t an airport, it isn’t a record.

“the climate programme” – Teaching the gospels of the new climate religion.

“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change – the the indoctrination, use, and abuse of children should become quite obvious. To many, it already is blatantly obvious.

How to teach children about climate changeMake time for your learners to talk about climate change. Give them the opportunity to voice their concerns. Acknowledge their worries – they are real.

Known as eco-anxiety, many youngsters express deep worries about the health and wellbeing of their planet.

As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure it is woven into our curriculum, not as a one-off lesson on global warming, but as a core part of our curriculum.
Our learners need to understand what causes climate change, what the effects of climate change are and what it will take to tackle it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/teacher-support/how-to-teach-children-about-climate-change/zs3gbqt

This is how each cohort is fundamentally messed up. Some of them will become teachers and lecturers…. and then it’s on to the next generation…

George Daddis
Reply to  strativarius
December 30, 2023 7:04 am

These are the same people who tell us to listen to a 3 year old boy who “worries” that he is a girl. – Acknowledge their worries – they are real.”

strativarius
Reply to  George Daddis
December 30, 2023 7:08 am

They are…. I won’t say here, but I’m fairly sure what I’m thinking

Scissor
Reply to  George Daddis
December 30, 2023 7:10 am

To a reasonable person, gender affirming care would involve a chromosome test.

Bryan A
Reply to  Scissor
December 30, 2023 7:37 am

A boy may, through surgery, attain the outward appearance of a girl but he will actually become Gender Neutral as the process will neuter him rendering him infertile.
Same for a Girl, she may look more masculine but can never reproduce again.

Rich Davis
Reply to  Scissor
December 31, 2023 12:28 am

I’m guessing that a chromosome test would never give the ‘right’ answer, Scissor.

MrGrimNasty
Reply to  strativarius
December 30, 2023 7:29 am

You don’t need airports to show Christmas was exceptionally mild. December was running considerably colder than ‘normal’ to start with, it turned around and will probably end up 15-20th warmest in the entire mean CET series. And 2023 as a whole will be statistically tied with 2022 as the warmest year in the entire mean CET. That’s 365 years of reasonably scientifically rigorous records.
I’m a climate skeptic, but refusing to accept that the UK climate is the warmest it has been at least in recent modern history, is silly.

Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 30, 2023 9:07 am

Slight continuation of gradual 250 years of warming from the coldest period in human history.
I’m ok with that especially as all the increase to date has been beneficial.

Where the issue occurs is when the idiots claim “hottest year in 125k years” when it’s not even the hottest in 1000 years.

Bryan A
Reply to  Pat from Kerbob
December 30, 2023 11:20 am

To blame an invisible boogeyman is crazy but to commit economic suicide because of it while simultaneously allowing other countries a pass to create an even larger invisible boogeyman is completely insane.

taxed
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 30, 2023 9:45 am

Am not surprized that the UK seems to be warming in recent years.
Because if my experience over the last 2 days is anything to go by then modern digital weather stations are recording current temps that are higher from anywhere between ( 0.5C to 1.5C) when compared to my old school manual thermometer.

leefor
Reply to  taxed
December 30, 2023 9:15 pm

“My analysis of the three years of Brisbane Airport parallel data — only recently made available following years of wrangling over an FOI request with the Bureau — shows that 41% of the time the probe is recording hotter than the mercury, and 26% of the time cooler. The difference is statistically significant (paired t Test, n = 1094, p < 0.05).
The differences are not randomly distributed, and there is a distinct discontinuity after December 2019.”
https://ipa.org.au/research/climate-change-and-energy/mercury-thermometers-versus-probes-in-automatic-weather-stations

taxed
Reply to  leefor
December 31, 2023 5:39 am

l compared the temps earlier this morning with the digital weather stations.
While my thermometer was reading 7C the digital weather stations were between 7.2C to 8.2C. This is the closest the readings have been over the 3 days l have been watching.
lts certainly a area that l feel needs more research as it suggests that some of the recent warming maybe due to the changes in recording temps that have taken place over recent years.

Ed Zuiderwijk
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 30, 2023 12:59 pm

Let’s see what January brings.

Phil R
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 30, 2023 1:36 pm

So the only weather that’s important is the local weather where you are. That’s pretty localist and nativist of you, thinking that your little corner of the world is the only one that matters and that the weather everywhere else reflects your local weather. It may have been a warm Christmas where you are but temps in Siberia recently have regularly been in the -20’s amd -30’s, with dips into the -50’s and -60’s. But then again that’s in Russia so it doesn’t count. To the extent there is a global average temperature (HINT: There is not) the average includes a lot more than your anecdotal observations.

Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 30, 2023 6:06 pm

CET is affected by urban warming/population growth, as shown by comparison to Valentia

Nearly all the warming in CET is in winter.. oh.. such a pity !!

There has also been a significant increase in sunshine hours in the UK… oh… what a pity !!

Reply to  MrGrimNasty
December 31, 2023 1:59 am

I’m not denying that it has been mild recently, however, it’s not unusual for parts of England to be mild at Christmas. My recollections of my childhood, are frosts in October through to December, few if any white Christmases being wet and hence mild or frosty. Even the bad winter of 1962/63 the snow didn’t start until 26/12/62.
In the summers of the 1960’s and early 70’s the warmest place in the U.K. was invariably Heathrow.
Why is anyone surprised that Exeter airport showed the highest temperatures? Devon and Cornwall are affected by the Gulf Stream, the Scilly Isles produce daffodils several weeks earlier than the rest of the country.

The sun is very active, the camera on Mars photographed a cluster of large sunspots as shown in the attached image.

To me this suggests that the atmosphere is more chaotic, particularly the jet stream appears to have become more wavy.

IMG_3410
Drake
Reply to  JohnC
December 31, 2023 6:54 am

Today’s sunspot number is 48, very low for a solar maximum.

Bryan A
Reply to  strativarius
December 30, 2023 7:33 am

Recorded History…aka satellite era

Caleb Shaw
Reply to  strativarius
December 30, 2023 7:56 am

Funny how these false prophets wind up as “famous people” in some cozy university. It doesn’t seem to matter how wrong their forecasts are. Hansen and Michael Mann and Paul Ehrlich all think they’ve got it made, unaware they are basically in jail, for they are not free to speak anything but the politically correct narrative. They can never stray from the old and tired dogma which they, as useful idiots, have been bleating for decades now.

Communism is actually the antithesis of a revolution, because they are allergic to anything that differs from ideas formulated 175 years ago, in 1848. They call all that is fresh and new a “counterrevolution” and oppose it, often violently. They are opposed to progress, which makes it laughable that some call themselves “progressives”. They want to silence differing views with censorship and cancel culture, because differing from their dumb “plan” is “counterrevolutionary”. They are hopelessly stuck in their ways, so how can they be revolutionary?

The west has allowed Freedom of Speech, and amazing innovations have resulted. I think communists see such success as a threat, and much of the mindless “green” agenda is actually aimed at destroying the west.

Hansen is actually a sort of court jester, at any college. True scientists laugh when they see him. He ought be wearing one of those weird hats with little bells at the ends of multiple points. Instead he tries to dress in a slightly revolutionary manner, right down to the Che Guevara beret. What a joke!

Reply to  Caleb Shaw
December 30, 2023 1:49 pm

Really? I thought Hansen was trying for the ‘Indiana Jones’ look with the brimmed hat he wears. Could be worse though, he hasn’t adopted the Trotsky style cap that Corbyn wore.

climatereason
Editor
Reply to  strativarius
December 30, 2023 11:29 am

I live 20 miles from Exeter airport. The claim was that it was the highest minimum temperature not the warmest day temperature. I recorded 13.6C the previous day and 12.6 on Christmas day. Mild but not remarkable for the South West of England during a South westerly.

The warmest Christmas day was I believe in 1920 and also 1931..

Kpar
December 30, 2023 6:26 am

It looks like Dr. Hansen is calling for another “Children’s Crusade”.

Maybe folks should look to see how the first one turned out…

Scissor
Reply to  Kpar
December 30, 2023 7:10 am

Global warming has made him the baldest ever.

Reply to  Scissor
December 30, 2023 8:52 am

That’s why, like George Costanza, he always wears a hat

Tom Halla
December 30, 2023 6:49 am

This is the James Hansen of runaway feedback, and lower Manhattan being underwater due to sea level rise. Given his track record, he is one of those whose predictions happen in the opposite direction.

Scissor
Reply to  Tom Halla
December 30, 2023 7:12 am

It’s as if no street ever flooded before climate change. Of course before wide spread use of asphalt and concrete, Hansen would complain about getting stuck in the mud.

Bryan A
Reply to  Scissor
December 30, 2023 7:39 am

Appropriate for a Stick in the Mud

DD More
Reply to  Tom Halla
December 30, 2023 9:46 am

“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,” Hansen said.

Finally realizing his whole career is bunk.

Ed Zuiderwijk
Reply to  Tom Halla
December 30, 2023 1:09 pm

Lower Manhattan floods because it is not (anymore) administered by the Dutch. The standard height of levees in the Netherlands is at least 6m above sea level; the levees in Manhattan are about 4m. Hence the moment the Atlantic has a hiccup the place is under water. 😉

Luke B
Reply to  Tom Halla
December 30, 2023 6:41 pm

Did he ever give a scientific explanation of what ‘runaway feedback’ would mean? 😉

Drake
December 30, 2023 7:00 am

Yes, messing around storm drainage grates during a flood is dangerous.

Years ago, as an electrician, I was working at the Holliday Center Strip, now Harrah’s, just north of the Imperial Palace, now the Linq. Vegas sure loves its history! We had some pretty heavy rains and the Flamingo wash flowed, and still will flow, west to east through the garage of the IP/Linq above ground when the rains are heavy enough. As recently as 2017 people have been rescued from the garage area due to flooding.

Because of the rain, most of my coworkers and I arrived earlier than usual having left for work early expecting delays. One walked into the reporting area with a dazed look on his face, wet from head to toe and missing his glasses. He had parked on the south side of the wash and rolled up his pants and waded across the flood waters. Apparently he stepped into one of the manholes from which the cover had popped up and out. He said he was sucked down and if not for the buoyancy of his large lunch cooler, wound have been pulled into the underground storm drainage. The storm drain opened to daylight, at that time but not now, about a quarter mile farther east. His lunch pail saved his life.

Don’t mess with flood waters.

Drake
Reply to  Drake
December 30, 2023 7:14 am

A closer look at Google Earth shows that the underground drainage still daylights where it did 30+ years ago. The paved wash is south of the Sphere and one street west of the High Roller Ferris wheel. The IP/Linq garage is just NW of the High Roller.

Drake
Reply to  Drake
December 30, 2023 7:25 am

One street EAST, doh!

Scissor
Reply to  Drake
December 30, 2023 7:20 am

That’s a great story. I’m wondering if your coworker is also somewhat rotund.

For myself, I might have drowned because I probably would have grabbed my glasses and my soft sided lunch bag would probably have absorbed water in any case, providing no buoyancy whatsoever.

Drake
Reply to  Scissor
December 30, 2023 7:27 am

Actually he was of “average” build for the US, a little overweight but not big. He was just lucky as heck.

bobpjones
Reply to  Drake
December 30, 2023 11:15 am

Yes, there is the sad tale, of a young man getting his foot caught in a drain, during a flood in Sheffield (UK). Even with rescue services there, they were unable to free him, and he drowned as the waters rose.

December 30, 2023 7:06 am

So you had water jumping up out of the road
Ha!! That’s nothing

UK has water gushing (from a ‘burst pipe’) into the Eurotunnel Cross Channel train tunnel. The tunnel is impassable, Europe is cut off.

Picture from here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67846863

And it ain’t powered by diesel trains either..

btw. Never never ever underestimate water, especially moving water even with your precious 4×4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-67845166

Muppets.
I once nearly ‘lost’ a 6 tonne 120hp 4 wheel drive tractor (no trailer or implements attached) in just 18″ of moving water.
(The water works to remove the river-bed gravel out from under you and the heavier you are, the stronger the effect. Truly scary)

Eurotunnel-Gusher
Scissor
Reply to  Peta of Newark
December 30, 2023 7:27 am

That train is great, but the boarding process at St. Pancras is a rather chaotic mess. Good luck to those people now stranded.

Reply to  Peta of Newark
December 30, 2023 9:14 am

Flooding under the Thames not the channel but result the same

Ed Zuiderwijk
Reply to  Peta of Newark
December 30, 2023 1:13 pm

It’s the tunnel that takes the track under the Thames that’s flooded, not the Channel Tunnel.

Rich Davis
Reply to  Peta of Newark
December 31, 2023 12:45 am

Europe is cut off?

That’s somehow humorous to me.

If you cut the tip off your finger, I suppose it would be ‘the body is cut off’?

old cocky
Reply to  Rich Davis
December 31, 2023 1:36 am

Europe is cut off?

That’s somehow humorous to me.

“Fog in the Channel. Continent cut off” is quite a classic.

December 30, 2023 7:08 am

“His comments are a reflection of the dismay among experts at the enormous gulf between scientific warnings and political action.”

There are scientists- and they may have warnings- but there’s no such thing as a scientific warning.

Hivemind
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
December 30, 2023 4:22 pm

But these people are activists, not scientists.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  Hivemind
January 1, 2024 9:37 am

YES. THIS.

Hansen’s “trains of death” are more like “trains of life.” The man is an idiot, no matter how well “educated.”

December 30, 2023 7:15 am

“two teenage boys did separate walk by reconnaissance of my 4WD”

In Arizona, those boys might see the vehicle owner wearing a couple of pistols- like in cowboy movies. I saw that in AZ for the first time in ’76 and was a bit surprised coming from sissy Wokeachusetts. Can Australians openly wear pistols like that? Good way to discourage trouble makers. Especially of you look tough- not like a tourist.

Drake
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
December 30, 2023 7:29 am

Heck, with some gang bangers the exposed handguns would only be an additional enticement. More “free” stuff.

December 30, 2023 7:22 am

“I think we will get there because China is rational,” Hansen says. “Their leaders are mostly trained in engineering and such things, they don’t deny climate change and they have a huge incentive, which is air pollution. It’s so bad in their cities they need to move to clean energies. They realise it’s not a hoax. But they will need co-operation.”

You can drastically decrease air pollution without being a climate nut job and installing trillions of dollars of “green energy”. And of course they’re too smart to openly challenge climate change. No need to- just keep building coal power plants. The new ones are much cleaner.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
December 30, 2023 7:47 am

Ultra supercritical coal plants are replacing old coal plants in China, India, etc.
They are up to 47% efficient, up to 44% with the latest air pollution control systems, such as fabric filter.
They emit at least 50 times less particulate/kWh than the old plants, at much less cost than wind and solar, and they have much less Btu/kWh, and much less CO2/kWh

This has been known at least for 30 years, but is carefully suppressed by the self-serving, subsidy-chasing millionaire owners of wind/solar/battery systems, using the largely ignorant, lapdog Media to spread their mantra of lies and propaganda and misinformation, to keep stupid the U.S. population

Ed Zuiderwijk
Reply to  wilpost
December 30, 2023 1:22 pm

Vattenfall built a super clean coal-fired 1640MW power plant in Hamburg Moorburg, Germany. It came into operation in 2015. As clean as you can get, state of the art advanced technology. The green idiots closed it down in 2021, After 6 years of an original 40 years projected lifetime.

Reply to  Ed Zuiderwijk
December 30, 2023 1:59 pm

The green activists don’t want solutions they want to destroy things.

Luke B
Reply to  Richard Page
December 30, 2023 6:37 pm

Nuclear power being another blatant example of this. The bottlenecks created for it are then cited as further evidence of its impracticality.

Luke B
Reply to  Ed Zuiderwijk
December 30, 2023 6:35 pm

There goes a bunch of reliable power and there goes a bunch of capital spent on the investment, just possibly paid for by higher electricity costs.

Luke B
Reply to  wilpost
December 30, 2023 6:32 pm

A brother who used to work near one of these commented on the deterioration of air quality when the efficient coal plant was down and they had to turn on a bunch of diesel generators instead.

December 30, 2023 7:28 am

The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said.

Fortunately, there is no “climate crisis”, so not being able to deal with it is a non-issue.

Richard Greene
Reply to  Paul Hurley
December 30, 2023 8:50 am

There is a climate crisis

It’s called Nut Zero

Dingbat leftist politicians
wasting our money
redesigning electric grids
that were not broken
to make the grids less reliable.

Next thing they’ll invite everyone
in the world to move to the US and
everyone here must only drive electric cars
so we can increase electricity use
while reducing grid reliability.

That has to lead to a crisis
Unless you own a candle store.

Reply to  Richard Greene
December 30, 2023 9:19 pm

The politicians go where the votes and campaign contributions are.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas, according to a survey conducted in June 2023.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  scvblwxq
January 1, 2024 10:55 am

That just proves the power of naked propaganda on those who lack the curiosity to verify the basis of the supposed “need” for worse-than-useless so-called (but not really) “renewable” energy sources.

If the question was posed honestly, i.e.

“Should the US prioritize development of wind and solar energy over coal, oil and gas development, even though you still won’t be able to shut down the coal, oil and gas electric generation since wind and solar are not provided on demand 24/7, and even though all of the energy inputs into making wind mills and solar panels come from coal, oil and gas?”

I bet the answer would be very, very different.

Reply to  AGW is Not Science
January 1, 2024 10:32 pm

That’s what our representative should be thinking.

December 30, 2023 8:24 am

Once the “climate crisis” has been addressed, as is presently the case, earthlings will no longer have to worry about torrential rains, 40 foot waves smashing the California coast, giant sheets of ice drifting north from Antarctica, tornados twisting through Oklahoma and blizzards dumping mountains of snow on Upper Michigan. All will be, meteorlogically speaking, just fine all the time.

Richard Greene
December 30, 2023 8:32 am

Hitler had Jews as his boogeymen

Leftists have CO2 and the climate deniers
as their boogeymen

For both, the goals the same:

Power and control

Hitler killed the Jews

Here the leftists can only
ridicule and censor
the so-called climate deniers

They must be jealous of Hitler
who was so much more “efficient”
against his boogeymen and women

5.5 million German military deaths and perhaps
7.5 million German civilian deaths.
In those days no one got upset about civilian deaths
Or climate change.

December 30, 2023 8:49 am

“The bright side of this clear dichotomy is that young people may realise that they must take charge of their future. The turbulent status of today’s politics may provide opportunity,” Hansen said.
So he’s endorsing Vivek? 🤣

December 30, 2023 9:14 am

“I think we will get there because China is rational,” Hansen says. “Their leaders are mostly trained in engineering and such things, they don’t deny climate change and they have a huge incentive, which is air pollution. It’s so bad in their cities they need to move to clean energies. They realise it’s not a hoax. But they will need co-operation.”

There are some snippets for truth from the above quote but a lot of misdirection and nonsense as well. Yes the Chinese have lots of engineers in high places and have applied a fairly scientific approach to building their energy infrastructure which is why the vast majority of it is fossil fuels based (mainly coal), nuclear and hydro. Yes they don’t deny climate change. nobody sane does as it is evident to all that the climate is always changing. But the Chinese also don’t pretend they or any other nation is in control of climate change. 

They don’t state that CAGW (human caused catastrophic climate change) is a myth or hoax, only because they also think politically and will always pretend to be doing things that match Western values so as to continue their stranglehold on the global manufacturing markets. They don’t have democratic voting or leaders brave enough to state the obvious, i.e. it is a hoax.

Yes Chinese leaders see pollution in cities as a major concern to address, real pollution as in particulates, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, low level ozone etc. CO2 is not a pollutant and the Chinese government knows that. As one of their other main concerns is growing enough food to feed a very large population they are likely rubbing their hands with glee when they watch crop yields rise steadily due in large part to the rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere. 

They are also well aware that wealthy western nations have largely dealt with the problem of urban air pollution quite successfully and it wasn’t through “decarbonizing” their energy systems but rather through engineering solutions that reduce the amount of pollution emitted from industrial and transportation activities using fossil fuels. It all happened before the electrification craze that now dominates Western policy discussions, and which is clearly not feasible either economically or scientifically.

The Chinese are not going to move to “clean energies” except in the realm of nuclear generation for electricity and, where possible, increasing hydroelectricity as they did with Three Gorges. “Clean energies” is another mythical term for wind and solar which are anything but clean or good for the environment whether because of massive open pit mining in nations with few environmental controls, massive and very polluting processing industries for rare earth metals as in central China, massive consumption of land and sea natural areas for wind and solar parks, and many other impacts on natural spaces and resources for unreliable, intermittent and economically devastating electricity sources that have no justification.

It is not unkind to state categorically that Hansen is “full of it” and Jonathan Watts is his ardent disciple.

Reply to  Andy Pattullo
December 30, 2023 9:22 pm

With “climate” defined to be only 30 years now it’s just medium-term weather, which is always changing.

taxed
December 30, 2023 9:20 am

There is a good recorded history of local weather conditions if you know the right places to look.
One of these places to look is the weather reports in the local daily newspapers from down the years.
These reports will have real data about the weather conditions that was recorded at the time and so will be a accurate record of past conditions.

John Hultquist
December 30, 2023 9:32 am

Regarding 4WD (All Wheel Drive — AWD):
Driving through water requires a high ground clearance. A standard Subaru Crosstrek has 8.7 inches. Many off-road types with adjustable air suspension can lift the body to 10″, and a few will go to 13″.
Seeing cars floating reminds me of the joke: “The water isn’t very deep, it only comes up to the ducks chests.”

John Hultquist
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 30, 2023 7:07 pm

An “O’schist” moment. 🙂

Mr.
December 30, 2023 9:55 am

Eric, I read that many 4WDs like the Toyota Landcruiser 300 Series will not meet the new Australian vehicles emissions standards from next year.

So look after your fourby, it will be worth more than you paid for it.

Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 30, 2023 12:18 pm

Yep, once the teal/leftie mum’s brigade find they can’t get a decent SUV.. all bets are off !

Ed Zuiderwijk
December 30, 2023 12:56 pm

That ‘inability’ is good, because there is no climate crisis.

December 30, 2023 1:19 pm

“Disastrous events included flash flooding in Africa and wildfires in Europe and North America”

… that never happened when CO² was at 300ppm of course.

December 30, 2023 1:38 pm

But what if the unusual El Nino rainfall in Australia is because of global warming? What if the “new normal” is fewer prolonged droughts, more chaotic weather with shorter dry spells, and more rain, including in the parched interior of Australia. ____________________________________________________________

What if there isn’t a climate crisis like we’ve been told for over 40 years?

Reply to  Steve Case
December 30, 2023 2:05 pm

It’s been an education crisis for 40+ years leading to a modern comprehension crisis of the mediocre climate enthusiasts, resulting in a political crisis of the equally inept politicians. But no climate crisis.

December 30, 2023 1:45 pm

Elizabeth Nickson has something to say about all this.

December 30, 2023 2:01 pm

Australia is famed for its extreme weather, and weather forecasting in Australia is just as big a joke as most other places.

The BoM in Australia is a disgrace to science. Farmers have lost fortunes based on taking heed of BoM forecasts. There is going to be an inquiry into their forecasting in 2024 but it appears to be focused on getting emergency information out rather than addressing their fraudulent claims about their ability to predict the future climate. Australia is on track to waste upward of a trillion dollars chasing the NutZero fantasy.

The BoM ACCESS climate model has Australia steadily warming by 1.5C from 1980 to 2030. Reality is that the temperature is essentially unchanged over the period according to GHCN per attached anomaly.

If CO2 is the temperature control knob – How can Australia be experiencing a rapid period of cooling so far this decade while China is pumping out ever increasing amounts of CO2. And why has China just recorded its coldest ever temperature when it is the source of most of the anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere.

Temp_GHCN_Aus
Luke B
Reply to  RickWill
December 30, 2023 6:48 pm

I got the impression looking at the areas predicted to be wetter (and drier) compared to the actual outcome, that the forecast had about a 50% chance of getting the direction right for the farming season.

Rick C
December 30, 2023 2:53 pm

“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made and natural climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with attempting to control the climate change was finally exposed,”

Fixed it for you. We have no more ability to control the climate than our ability to control the motion of the stars and planets. Humans are, however, quite good at hubris.

Bob
December 30, 2023 5:05 pm

Let’s be clear, climate changes all the time it is neither unexpected nor unusual, that is what climate does. Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is a made up fiction. CAGW fear mongers need to stop lying and scaring the crap out of people.

Gary Pearse
December 30, 2023 5:43 pm

Hansen’s 1988 failed (20yr) projection of sealevel rise, which had the Westside Hwy flooded, is one of the worst of the flurry of Climateer failed forecasts (the Dark Side has yet to get one anyway near right). When Hansen made his prediction in 1988, the water was about 10 ft below the highway. By 2008 it was, … well still about 10 ft below the highway. He said that he meant 40years. Today, at 35 years, it’s still about 10 ft above the water!

Edward Katz
December 30, 2023 5:53 pm

Young people are among the least likely to make big lifestyle changes to combat climate change. They may mouth a few slogans when they’re still in their teens and early 20s, but after they start working, try to make a living ,marry and raise a family, their main concern will be to build a comfortable and stable lifestyle. This would entail embracing all the conveniences that have been made possible by the harnessing of electricity and the widespread use of fossil fuels. Only a tiny minority of them and the overall population will demand a return to semi-primitive conditions espoused by the climate alarmists.

Reply to  Edward Katz
December 30, 2023 9:31 pm

 Two-thirds of U.S. adults say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over expanding the production of oil, coal, and natural gas, according to a survey conducted in June 2023.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/

Edward Katz
Reply to  scvblwxq
December 31, 2023 2:10 pm

This is nice to hear, but if energy costs rise while reliability falls, I’d like to see how enthusiastic these adults would be about wind and solar.

ferdberple
December 31, 2023 10:54 am

Temperatures ate not increasing. What is increasing is the length of time we have been observing them.

Have all 8 billion people on earth walk by single file. Evert now and then you will see a person pass by that is taller than all the rest. Does this mean people are getting taller.