Inside the Commission there is an “epic battle between those who want change and those who don’t,” said one EU official, who accused DG AGRI of using “destructive wave of actions to block change.”"
Feb 17, 2020 at 8:45 AM Mark Hodgson

This is sad, and proves that the Green Blob and EU have combined to ensure self destruction.

The original purpose of the Common Market and its post War predecessor was to ensure member states did not suffer food shortages leading to civil strife and ultimately war.

If well salaried EU officials think that the EU Electorates will be happy with food shortages and price inflation, they should be fed cattle cake for a year.

Mark I think you maybe correct that weather forecasting hour by hour for days ahead in regions of high relief may be extremely difficult and could be impossible on a "micro" scale even with future computer technology. I hate to tell you this,but in my flat part of the world we have it for most of the time. I can look at a detailed forecast for several days hence and be reasonably assured that if it's predicted to rain at a certain time, that has a reasonable chance of being accurate.
I am reminded of the accuracy of wristwatches. When I was young, watches I could afford were terrible timekeepers losing minutes every few hours. With the appearance of digital watches you knew the time accurately almost to the second and life changed.
I'm sorry the new super-duper computer is not for the likes of you, it's for us flat-earthers and for the climatically stressed.

"Shipping pollution regulations 'could harm food chain'
Use of ‘scrubbers’ to cut air pollution increases pollutants pumped into sea, UN report says"
Feb 17, 2020 at 8:45 AM Mark Hodgson

Another stupid alarmist scare story, commissioned to arrive at a conclusion, given publicity by The Guardian.

"Human compost funerals 'better for environment'"
Feb 17, 2020 at 8:45 AM Mark Hodgson

A fitting tribute to Rajendra Pachauri.

"1. It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since the Met Office received a £200M supercomputer, and we were then told exactly the same things by way of justification.
Feb 17, 2020 at 8:38 AM Mark Hodgson"

The Met Office got a new state of the art/science sooper dooper compooter during spring/summer 1987 in their Bracknell HQ, and promptly missed the Michael Fish Hurricane of 15/16th October 1987.

Michael Fish was the duty Met Office TV presenter that night, the duty forecaster was Ian McCaskill

Feb 17, 2020 at 8:04 AM AK
Thank you!
China remains very enthusiastic about extending and colonising its territorial waters across the South China Sea. They must be very confident about all the fresh air lying beneath it.

"Human compost funerals 'better for environment'"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51389084

"A US firm has given scientific details of its "human composting" process for environmentally friendly funerals.

A pilot study on deceased volunteers showed that soft tissue broke down safely and completely within 30 days.

The firm, Recompose, claims that its process saves more than a tonne of carbon, compared to cremation or traditional burial."

Looks like a free advert to me.

"Shipping pollution regulations 'could harm food chain'
Use of ‘scrubbers’ to cut air pollution increases pollutants pumped into sea, UN report says"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/17/shipping-pollution-regulations-could-harm-food-chain

"New shipping pollution regulations introduced earlier this year could harm humans by contaminating fish and crustaceans with toxins, according to an internal report compiled by the International Maritime Organization and obtained by the Guardian.

In the report the IMO, the United Nations agency responsible for regulating shipping, says that there is insufficient “toxicity data” to be able to assess the risk to humans caused by the increased use of exhaust gas cleaning systems, which are also known as “scrubbers”.

These devices reduce the amount of pollution emitted into the air by ships, but the cheapest and most popular models dramatically increase the amount of pollutants pumped directly into the sea.

Shipping companies have spent more than $12bn (£9.2bn) fitting thousands of scrubbers on vessels around the world in order to meet new air pollution standards that were introduced on 1 January 2020."

"‘Epic battle’ over green farming divides EU departments
DG ENV officials reckon DG AGRI is out to block real change."

https://www.politico.eu/article/epic-battle-over-green-organic-sustainable-farming-divides-eu-departments-green-deal/

"Two European Commission departments are at war over how much action is needed to make the EU's farming system more environmentally friendly.

Agriculture is one of the most fundamental components of the EU budget and receives about €59 billion of subsidies each year. Politically protected farmers, however, have long avoided tough, binding targets to go green, despite producing about 10 percent of Europe's emissions.

That rural exceptionalism is now at threat. EU civil servants are busily preparing strategy papers for the flagship European Green Deal which has promised "deeply transformative policies" on agriculture and food when it is presented in full in the spring.

But an internal document from the agriculture department, seen by POLITICO, strongly criticizes the environment department's proposals to slash the use of pesticides and fertilizers, boost organic farming and dedicate more space to nature on farms.

Inside the Commission there is an “epic battle between those who want change and those who don’t,” said one EU official, who accused DG AGRI of using “destructive wave of actions to block change.”"

"Trudeau scraps overseas trip after pipeline protesters BLOCK US-Canada bridge amid ongoing rail shutdowns "

https://www.rt.com/news/480985-canada-pipeline-protest-border/

"Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has cancelled his trip to Barbados after protests against a gas pipeline that crosses indigenous land escalated, leading to major rail disruptions and a brief stop of traffic at the US-Canada border.

The threat of transport paralyses, which has become increasingly real after protesters against British Columbia's Coastal GasLink pipeline briefly shut down a key border crossing between the US and Canada on Sunday afternoon, forced Trudeau to call off his visit to Barbados, where he was supposed to drum up support for Canada’s UNSC bid on Monday."

"Met Office forecasters set for 'billion pound' supercomputer"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51504002

"Ever wondered why your village was suddenly flooded by a thunderstorm the weather forecasters hadn't mentioned?

Or why they failed to warn you about the dense fog shrouding your home in the morning?

The fact is that predicting the "big picture" of future conditions has got a lot better - Storm Dennis was spotted six days before it arrived.

But getting local forecasts right - street by street and hour by hour - is still a massive challenge.

And that might now change as the Met Office secures the help of a supercomputer project costing £1.2bn."

Two observations:

1. It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since the Met Office received a £200M supercomputer, and we were then told exactly the same things by way of justification.

2. This seems like an implicit admission that their forecasting is still frequently inaccurate (which, in mountainous regions, it is, in my experience). If they can't get tomorrow's weather forecast right, why should I trust their climate prognostications a century hence?

GC. The source rocks within China's onshore sedimentary basins are almost entirely gas-prone being derived from land-plants. Only a small amount in the far south were oil-prone- derived from tropical plants that had waxy leaf coatings. Offshore basins held out a promise of containing marine oil-prone source rocks but at the time the North Sea was being explored and developed China lacked the technology (mainly American) to do the same. The major oil companies were eager (if not desperate) to obtain exploration and drilling rights but the Chinese insisted upon complete ownership of any oil found. At this time I was employed in the North American oil industry and learned about the negotiations second hand from colleagues.
Commonly, when test wells were drilled they also largely only found gas-prone source rocks and equally commonly the companies abandoned entire sedimentary basins on the basis of single exploratory wells. Offshore gas in China was then uneconomic. Interestingly, it took many years and I believe more than 50 exploration wells before a productive oil well was
discovered in the North Sea -but then the North Sea possessed a world-class oil source rock and regulatory regimes that encouraged exploration.

"Coking coal though ... the PRC are ruthless in aquiring supplies. I've seen this in action.

Feb 16, 2020 at 10:54 PM ianl"

Thank you! Of course, what they really want is land or ocean with lots of oil underneath.