The energy revolution is coming and it could change our world forever. "

Jan 14, 2020 at 6:29 PM Mark Hodgson

The revolution will involve those with oil and the means of taking war to those without oil. A sort of Mad Max post apocalyptic war scenario, without having to have an apocalyptic war first. Just Climate Scientists

"Jess Phillips calls for citizens’ assembly to tackle climate crisis
Labour leadership contender says public should be more involved to build consensus"
Jan 14, 2020 at 6:45 PM Mark Hodgson

If the citizen assemby for climate change gets the 'wrong' answer, do we think that Labour would respect the result?

Jan 14, 2020 at 7:16 PM TinyCO2

What about having a public debate, with evidence submitted by experts available for public scrutiny? This has never been tried anywhere in the world.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-countries-scrap-for-just-transition-cash/
"The scramble is on to get extra EU money for going green.
Jan 14, 2020 at 6:45 PM Mark Hodgson

The destruction of the EU will be due to Climate Science.
Macron won with 2/3 of the vote united against Le Pen. The French now seem united against Macron.

I can't see the French and Germans paying for the rest of the EU.

I notice that most replacements for traditional foods are disguised by other things - sauces, pastry, etc. They often represent the poorest version - eg texture free mince. They can't reproduce a steak or a drumstick or a roast. Bread substitutes are unlikely to look, feel and taste like cristy fresh bread. I love Elm Lea in coffee (made from butter milk) but it's not cream. I'm all for new foods, judged on their own merits but telling us that x is going to replace y is wishful thinking.

"Apocalypse Cow, Channel 4, review – George Monbiot presents a radical vision for the future of food"

https://geographical.co.uk/reviews/films/item/3572-apocalypse-cow-channel-4-review-george-monbiot-presents-a-radical-vision-for-the-future-of-food

"...Taking a rare flight (he claims not to use air travel for ecological reasons unless strictly, unavoidably necessary), Monbiot visited a lab in Helsinki in which a company called Solar Foods grows a flour-like substance from water, air and bacteria alone. The process requires electricity, but with the growth of renewables this too could be sustainable, so the argument goes..."

So this was strictly, unavoidably, necessary, was it? Hypocrite!

The trust in democracy was broken by a Parliament that refused to respect massive citizen assembly we called an EU Referendum. Not a small select assembly but every single one of us. We instructed you and you ignored the result because it wasn't the answer you wanted Jess. We then had two more citizen assemblies where you promised to respect the first one. Finally we have a party which is doing as it was told. A party which was put in power by the very people you need to win back to have a chance at the next election.

If the citizen assemby for climate change gets the 'wrong' answer, do we think that Labour would respect the result?

"Jess Phillips calls for citizens’ assembly to tackle climate crisis
Labour leadership contender says public should be more involved to build consensus"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/14/jess-phillips-calls-for-citizens-assembly-to-tackle-climate-crisis

"Labour leadership contender Jess Phillips has called for a citizens’ assembly on how Britain should tackle climate change, as part of what she called a six-point plan to restore trust in democracy.

...In an article in the Guardian, Phillips, whose campaign slogan is “speak truth, win power”, said the public should be more directly involved in determining what policies Britain should adopt to tackle the climate crisis.

“On climate breakdown, we need a plan that involves the public much more. Citizens’ assemblies are increasingly used around the world to build consensus. In Ireland, they helped pave the way for the historic changes on abortion, while in Poland they improved government response to major flooding. It’s time we used them here,” she said...."

Can a candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party, someone who presumably wishes to be Prime Minister, seriously be unaware of this nonsense?

"Parliament sends 30,000 invitations for citizens’ assembly on climate change"

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-energy-industrial-strategy/news-parliament-2017/citizens-assembly-climate-change-19-20/

"James Murdoch criticises father's news outlets for climate crisis denial
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Fox cited for ‘frustrating’ coverage of Australian bushfires"

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/14/james-murdoch-criticises-fathers-news-outlets-for-climate-crisis-denial

"Driving into a city should become as antisocial as smoking"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/14/driving-city-clean-air-zones-birmingham

"EU countries scrap for cash from new green scheme
A fight is brewing over plans to help the EU become climate-neutral by 2050."

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-countries-scrap-for-just-transition-cash/

"The scramble is on to get extra EU money for going green.

The European Commission hopes that larding €100 billion into a so-called Just Transition Mechanism will build support for its goal to get the bloc to agree to decarbonize by 2050. The mechanism is part of a bigger effort, the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan, to mobilize €1 trillion over the next decade.

But Tuesday’s planned announcement on the workings of the mechanism has already set off a fight among member countries for a slice of the pie. That poses a problem for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Access to grants under the new seven-year initiative will be “based on the scale of the decarbonisation challenge of the highest carbon-intensive regions,” according to a draft of the Commission’s plan obtained by POLITICO, and primarily allocated to heavily industrialized regions as well as those involved in coal, peat and shale oil production, with the level of economic development also taken into account.

The Commission wants EU countries to provide €7.5 billion of fresh money for the bloc's upcoming budget to finance the Just Transition Fund. But to receive any of the cash, countries would be required to match each euro with between €1.50 and €3 from their cohesion funding allocations, as well as providing money from their national budgets — something that doesn't sit well with some Central European countries.

“It is not acceptable that in the European Union’s next budget we take money away from cohesion funds and transfer it to climate protection goals,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said last week.

Hungary and other Central European countries — all large recipients of EU cohesion funds — want to ensure that the mechanism is filled with new money and doesn't simply reshuffle existing funding.

...The call for fresh funds isn't seen with much enthusiasm by net-payer countries, which generally support spending more of the EU budget on combating climate change but aren't keen on paying a bigger bill to the bloc's coffers, while poorer countries want generous aid.

...But others, including from rich countries, also want a slice of the pie.

The EU is in the midst of a difficult negotiation on its 2021-2027 spending plan, with countries like Germany and the Netherlands pushing for a smaller post-Brexit budget. Some EU officials believe that those countries would only agree to finance the new Just Transition Fund if the EU budget’s big net payers could also show their domestic voters they would benefit from the new program.

Peter Liese, the German MEP who is environmental coordinator for the European People's Party, said on Monday that German coal regions could count on direct support from the new fund, as well as indirect financial support from the European Investment Bank...."

The EU - run by Germans for Germans.

"Luton Borough Council declares 'climate emergency'"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-51106816

"A town has declared a climate emergency and activated a plan to become carbon neutral by 2040.

Luton Borough Council hopes to cut carbon emissions from homes and cars as well as London Luton Airport.

Labour councillor Tom Shaw, portfolio holder for the environment, said the council could charge cars for driving into the town centre.

Mr Shaw said the council had been "working alongside" Extinction Rebellion in compiling the plan.

"The airport has been told that by 2040 they've got to be carbon neutral and we expect them to come up with their own plan," he said."

"Extinction Rebellion hold blockade at Baillie Gifford investment firm"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-51106996

"Dozens of Extinction Rebellion protesters are blockading an Edinburgh-based finance company which invests in fossil fuels.

They claim Baillie Gifford increased the Scottish Parliament's pension investment in oil firm Shell despite MSPs backing action on climate change.

Campaigners blocked entrances at the Greenside Row office.

A spokesman for Baillie Gifford said the investor took climate change seriously."

I take "dozens" (which isn't, after all, a lot to start with) with a pinch of salt. I can't see more than 10 in the pictures.

"Why is so much of the US under water?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48589651

Refreshingly, there is some balance, for a change (though the story is, perhaps inevitably, tagged under "climate change":

"It's "unusual" for the Great Plains and Midwest, he notes, to see this number of repeated strong storms and severe weather in one spring.

Part of that could be because of El Niño - a natural weather event that brings unusually warm sea-surface temperatures to the Pacific.

"El Niño conditions tend to enhance precipitation and severe weather over the areas that are flooding," Prof Munoz explains.

"Manmade climate change intensifies these natural variations, causing more rain to fall in what would already have been a wet year."

...The Mississippi River system contains an elaborate network of dams, levees and spillways, run by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Prof Munoz says.

"These management efforts have straightened, steepened, and narrowed the river, and our research has shown that these changes cause floodwaters to flow higher and faster."

Such structures are undoubtedly needed from an economic standpoint, but Prof Munoz says the problem lies in the fact that these systems were designed for a mid-20th Century climate.

...Mr Hurst says some farmers believe climate change has caused the severe weather this year, while others blame improper management of river operations.

"It doesn't matter whether our problem is caused by poor management or climate change, we need to figure out how to do better," he tells me...."

Funny they didn't mention 1927, though....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

"Episode 1"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment

"In the plains of Andalusia, just outside Seville, a giant tower stands bathed in a supernatural glow. This futuristic spectacle is a solar power station generating enough electricity to power a town - by day, and extraordinarily by night. It is just one part of a technological movement with revolutionary political consequences.

For more than a century, the world has revolved around fossil fuels. Wars have been fought over them. The nations that had oil and gas had power. They controlled the price, they controlled the supply and could tell their customers what to do.

The BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent, James Landale, now explores what will happen as countries around the world develop enough renewable energy to end their dependence on hydrocarbons and assesses the geopolitical consequences of this energy revolution.

How long will the transition take? Will the powerful oil and gas producers in the Middle East reform in time or will their economies implode, leaving failed states, regional conflict and a population exodus? How will Russia respond if Europe no longer needs so much of its gas? And which countries will be the new energy superpowers? Who will control resources like lithium and cobalt that will be needed for new high tech batteries?

Above all, who will call the shots in this new renewable world order?

The energy revolution is coming and it could change our world forever. "