Daily Review 03/12/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, December 3rd, 2018 - 71 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

71 comments on “Daily Review 03/12/2018 ”

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  1. Kat 1
    3 December 2018 at 5:42 pm

    Ha ha …less shit! same goes for bogus polls. On a positive note the PM has pushed the investigate button on the fuel cartel and hopefully after that the grocery cartel. Maybe Santa is coming after all, Wayne.

  2. Ed 2
    3 December 2018 at 5:50 pm

    ‘We are last generation that can stop climate change’ – UN summit

    “We are clearly the last generation that can change the course of climate change, but we are also the first generation with its consequences,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the CEO of the World Bank. The bank announced on Monday that its record $100bn (£78bn) of climate funding from 2021-2025 would for the first time be split equally between projects to cut emissions and those protecting people from the floods, storms and droughts that global warming is making worse.

    In recent years, just 5% of global funding has gone on protection, but 2018 has seen climate impacts hit hard, with heatwaves and wildfires in Europe and California and huge floods in India, Japan and east Africa. “We are already seeing the devastating impact of climate change,” Georgieva told the Guardian. “We strongly believe that action ought to go both on mitigation and on adaptation.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/we-are-last-generation-that-can-stop-climate-change-un-summit

    Act now.
    Like these heroes from Australia.

    • Ed 2.1
      3 December 2018 at 6:10 pm

      It’s so simple. Livestock for meat and dairy products worldwide is responsible for almost 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest source of emissions after the fossil fuels industry.

      There are straightforward actions you can do, starting today.
      Drop meat and dairy.

      Don’t believe me?
      Then listen to George Monbiot.

      He explains how the fate of the planet depends on the way we choose to eat.

      • Bill 2.1.1
        3 December 2018 at 7:13 pm

        Well Ed, I listened and didn’t hear a damned thing to back the claim that meat and dairy is responsible for ~ 15% of emissions.

        How is the figure arrived at? Is it ~15% with all of the fossil inputs to agriculture added up and subtracted from the dairy/meat total? Because that’s the only way anyone can claim that meat/dairy is second to fossil in terms of emissions.

        And my opinion of Monbiot as a wanker was just reinforced – the guy says he’s “almost vegan”…. it’s just venison he eats!

        Anyway, look. Eat less meat or no meat. It’s not a bad thing to do. But don’t fucking kid yourself that being vegan will make a serious impact on AGW. It won’t.

        Dropping fossil would curtail modern agricultural practices (no fossil inputs) that would in turn mean less “factory meat” getting produced/consumed.

        But simply eating vegan does 5/8ths of fuck all in terms of fossil use, meaning 5/8ths of fuck all in terms of AGW.

        • BM 2.1.1.1
          3 December 2018 at 7:21 pm

          Have you seen this Bill, what do you reckon?

          • Ed 2.1.1.1.1
            3 December 2018 at 7:34 pm

            It was posted by Robin Grieve, ACT Candidate for Whangarei.
            He is the Chairman Pastural Farming Climate Research Inc.
            He is a right wing politician, not a scientist.
            It’s denialist nonsense.

          • Bill 2.1.1.1.2
            3 December 2018 at 8:12 pm

            What do I reckon?

            I reckon that physics doesn’t give a flying monkey’s fuck for where any CO2 comes from (eg – methane breakdown, bio-fuels, or fossil fuels).

            If we want to arrest climate change, and maybe even see slight drops in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 occur, then we need to stop burning fossil. (ie, re- introducing to the earth’s systems CO2 that was removed from the earth’s systems hundreds of millions of years ago)

            Agriculture can’t do what it currently does without fossil, so methane emissions would inevitably drop in concert with reductions in fossil use.

            And like I say, if we want there to be any prospect that concentrations of CO2 will begin to come down, then we can’t swap out fossil fuel for bio fuel.

          • Andre 2.1.1.1.3
            3 December 2018 at 8:20 pm

            Sigh. OK, I’ll take the considerable time to respond to the denialist nonsense you’ve just sprayed around with just a half-dozen or so key presses that took just a few seconds.

            Let’s follow some of the possible paths of that carbon atom from the air, absorbed into a plant.

            It may stay as plant matter until it rots and is returned to the atmosphere as CO2, In which case, the only effect on global warming is a teeny-tiny reduction in atmospheric CO2 and consequent reduced warming for the brief time that carbon atom is part of a solid piece of plant, rather than floating in the atmosphere.

            While it is plant matter, it may get eaten by a non-methanogenic animal, then emitted again as CO2. Again, negligible effect.

            It may get eaten by a ruminant, and emitted as methane (as a substantial portion of the carbon atoms eaten by ruminants end up). In which case, that methane molecule adds to the current concentration of methane in the atmosphere. Yes, that methane molecule will eventually be broken back down to CO2 (on average around 10ish years), but while it is still methane it is massively more warming than CO2*. That extra heat the methane has trapped while it is still methane stays with us for a very long time. A while ago I ran the numbers, and an average cow in a paddock for a year emits so much methane it causes about the same warming as an average car driving around for a year (12000 km or so)

            Methane concentrations have increased from around 775 parts per billion in pre-industrial times to around 1800 now, due entirely to human activities (not all of it is agricultural, industry and domestic use shares some of the blame). Because methane has a short lifetime, this increased methane concentration (and consequent warming) is entirely due to increased ongoing emissions, of which agriculture is a large part. So yes, even though the carbon atom in a molecule of methane belched by a cow originally came from atmospheric CO2, it still causes much more warming because it has been turned into methane by agricultural activity than if it had stayed as CO2. So it’s entirely proper to hold that agricultural activity accountable for the increased warming it causes.

            *If you calculate how much warming you get over 20 years from a tonne of methane, it’s around 85 times more than a tonne of CO2. Over 100 years, it’s around the 25 figure used in the vid.

        • Ed 2.1.1.2
          3 December 2018 at 7:43 pm

          If you don’t trust Monbiot or me, then what about this study.

          “Huge reductions in meat-eating are essential to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of the food system’s impact on the environment. In western countries, beef consumption needs to fall by 90% and be replaced by five times more beans and pulses.
          The research also finds that enormous changes to farming are needed to avoid destroying the planet’s ability to feed the 10 billion people expected to be on the planet in a few decades.
          Food production already causes great damage to the environment, via greenhouse gases from livestock, deforestation and water shortages from farming, and vast ocean dead zones from agricultural pollution. But without action, its impact will get far worse as the world population rises by 2.3 billion people by 2050 and global income triples, enabling more people to eat meat-rich western diets.
          The new research, published in the journal Nature, is the most thorough to date and combined data from every country to assess the impact of food production on the global environment. It then looked at what could be done to stop the looming food crisis.“

          Whole article here.

          https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/10/huge-reduction-in-meat-eating-essential-to-avoid-climate-breakdown

          • Bill 2.1.1.2.1
            3 December 2018 at 7:58 pm

            Yeah Ed, you’re missing the point.

            No-one can say meat and dairy is second to fossil in terms of emissions if the fossil inputs that are necessary for meat and dairy are left sitting in the meat/dairy total.

            And if we all go vegan, we’re all going to suffer from malnutrition because of the effect that raised CO2 levels have on plant nutrition. (That article joe90 linked at 2.1.2 is well worth the read, and it’s worth noting that not one mention is made on the known effect that elevated CO2 levels have on plants and/or the obvious knock-on effect in relation to insect and bird and lizard numbers…)

      • joe90 2.1.2
        3 December 2018 at 7:17 pm

        You reckon a plant based diet is going to save us?

        Looking at what insecticides, especially organophosphates, are doing, it’s gonna be goodbye food.

        When asked to imagine what would happen if insects were to disappear completely, scientists find words like chaos, collapse, Armageddon. Wagner, the University of Connecticut entomologist, describes a flowerless world with silent forests, a world of dung and old leaves and rotting carcasses accumulating in cities and roadsides, a world of “collapse or decay and erosion and loss that would spread through ecosystems” — spiraling from predators to plants. E.O. Wilson has written of an insect-free world, a place where most plants and land animals become extinct; where fungi explodes, for a while, thriving on death and rot; and where “the human species survives, able to fall back on wind-pollinated grains and marine fishing” despite mass starvation and resource wars. “Clinging to survival in a devastated world, and trapped in an ecological dark age,” he adds, “the survivors would offer prayers for the return of weeds and bugs.”

        https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html

        if you want to hold onto your free views

        http://archive.li/e3bx6

        • Bill 2.1.2.1
          3 December 2018 at 7:25 pm

          heh – E.O Wilson apparently overlooked the fact that a plant based diet is increasingly a sugar based diet because of the effects of CO2 on growth…meaning those wind pollinated grains won’t have much sustenance, and that marine life will have cacked it along with terrestrial life because the phyto-plankton at the base of the marine food system also become junk under conditions of accelerated growth.

    • One Two 2.2
      3 December 2018 at 7:42 pm

      Ed does the world bank ‘funding’ come with interest repayments?

      Are the WB seeking profits ?

  3. Ankerrawshark 3
    3 December 2018 at 6:26 pm

    Thanks Ed. Husband a big meat eater and so me by default. Agreed today to cut it back to one red meat meal a week. Guess it’s a start. We walk and use public transport a lot too

  4. Janice 4
    3 December 2018 at 7:35 pm

    Anyone seen any monarch butterflies lately? I have 2 large swan plants but not a sign of any eggs. I usually bring any eggs inside as soon as I see a butterfly around the plants, as the wasps will take the caterpillars almost as soon as they hatch. My daughter has got a small accidental swan plant forest but also no go for eggs, caterpillars or butterflies. Are they now extinct in Waiuku?

    • A 4.1
      3 December 2018 at 8:03 pm

      Oh no! That’s awful.

      We had them here in Wgtn a couple of months ago. Haven’t seen any lately.

    • JanM 4.2
      3 December 2018 at 8:10 pm

      There are lots of them here up in Whangarei

      • In Vino 4.2.1
        3 December 2018 at 8:56 pm

        Where you have Asian Paper Wasps, you will have no Monarch caterpillars. Because they eat Milkweed (Swan Plant) monarchs used to be poisonous to our old predators. 2 new predators don’t give a toss about Milkweed poison, and gobble up everything in sight. At this time of the year it is the Paper Wasp. Later, as they grow bigger, the South African Praying Mantids will join in, and continue after the Paper Wasps stop collecting protein in late summer.
        Sorry, but lean times for Monarch butterflies and many other insects here in NZ since these two monstrously mean and greedy predators became established.

    • James Thrace 4.3
      3 December 2018 at 9:54 pm

      Seen a couple of Monarchs but not many. We have swarm of them come through about January, so on that basis, would expect January 2019 to be when they start laying eggs.

      Then the fun begins of squashing eggs to maintain a good caterpillar/plant ratio. Too many and it’s murder. Too few and not enough survive.

  5. joe90 5
    3 December 2018 at 7:43 pm

    Dude’s had his fifteen, and he’s done.

    Lmao a ton of Milo Yiannopoulos docs dropped as part of his Australian lawsuit and honey, this grift is on its last legs pic.twitter.com/lBjYzNGCnE— K. Thor Jensen (@kthorjensen) December 2, 2018

    https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/12/newly-released-documents-show-milo-yiannopoulos-serious-financial-debts/

    • Chris T 5.1
      3 December 2018 at 8:15 pm

      Milo was always a loud mouth slogan.

      It was inevitable really

      • joe90 5.1.1
        3 December 2018 at 8:23 pm

        They’re all loud mouthed nobodies sloganeering on the wingnut welfare circuit.

        The limitless ocean of cash that flows through Wingnut Welfare’s rivers and tributaries is how the Right keeps their whole Pretty Hate Machine — publishing houses, magazines, websites, radio empires, teevee networks, op-ed forelock tuggers, think tanks, and a thousand free roaming pundits — propped up and purring in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are nothing but a mob lying, racist grifters and madmen.

        And once you get your Wingnut Welfare card punch, baby, the world is your oyster!

        http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2017/05/wingnut-welfare-its-simple-little-system.html

  6. joe90 6
    3 December 2018 at 8:14 pm

    Jack with the KSA setting their production limits.

    Qatar announces it was withdrawing from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries “OPEC” effective 1 January 2019.— Qatar Petroleum (@qatarpetroleum) December 3, 2018

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar-withdraw-opec-january-2019-181203061900372.html

    • alwyn 8.1
      3 December 2018 at 8:39 pm

      Who on earth is Jesse Mulligan?

      • BM 8.1.2
        3 December 2018 at 9:09 pm

        He’s a Left-wing wanker.

        • joe90 8.1.2.1
          3 December 2018 at 9:14 pm

          …with multiple platforms. But hey, you’ve got Leighton and the Hoskey….

          • BM 8.1.2.1.1
            3 December 2018 at 9:18 pm

            No one but the converted takes any notice of the guy.
            He’s a cock smoker of the highest order.

            • Andre 8.1.2.1.1.1
              3 December 2018 at 9:20 pm

              Who? Leighton or the Hosk?

            • Gabby 8.1.2.1.1.2
              3 December 2018 at 9:36 pm

              Coq Seemore BMmer?

            • Cinny 8.1.2.1.1.3
              3 December 2018 at 10:48 pm

              That was awesome, good on Jesse for responding.

              The Project have done a number of stories on conservation, climate change, plastic in the oceans etc etc. Awesome that they are helping to increase awareness and help drive much needed change.

              If BM’s spinning out calling him names, cause that’s all BM can manage in defence of poison ivy and her lack of conservation, then he’s sure struck a nerve.

              Good job Jesse, thanks for caring about the planet among other things.

              • Muttonbird …
                3 December 2018 at 11:05 pm

                That from BM is some of the worst forumming I’ve ever seen.

                • Cinny …
                  3 December 2018 at 11:09 pm

                  Ikr, he’s super meow’s over it.

                  Is maggie wanting to be leader?
                  Is this putting a bit of a spanner in the works?

                  The plot thickens…..

                  Time for me to hit the hay, nitey nite MB 🙂

            • Red Blooded One 8.1.2.1.1.4
              4 December 2018 at 8:12 am

              Ah to smoke a nice cock, particularly with a fine cognac on the side. Happy Days BuMmer.

        • Pete 8.1.2.2
          3 December 2018 at 9:21 pm

          Do his perspectives on the environment make him a ‘Left-wing wanker’ or does being a ‘Left-wing wanker’ mean he has the views he does about the environment?

          And if he is a ‘Left-wing wanker’ does that make his views any less or more worthy than, say, yours?

          Or are you pissed off that someone is prepared to address some bullshit? I’ve seen some saying that the people who worked in Barry’s office should have shut up and tolerated what they saw as bullying. The ruling classes don’t seem to like it when the empire strikes back.

            • McFlock 8.1.2.2.1.1
              3 December 2018 at 9:44 pm

              I would have thought that left wing MSM folk would have had a sort of curiosity value, like any other rare species.

            • Muttonbird 8.1.2.2.1.2
              3 December 2018 at 11:24 pm

              That reads to me like a criticism of himself. If only he were that self aware. Du Fresne openly seeks to change things, and no topic does he cover even-handedly.

              In the last sentence he betrays the most ultra conceit of ultra right wing thought:

              The proper purpose of journalism (is) to give ordinary people the means to make their own decisions about what’s in their best interests.

              • RedLogix …
                3 December 2018 at 11:38 pm

                I’m puzzled … should people make decisions that are not in their best interests, or have other people do it for them?

                Or maybe you missed this:

                One of the best definitions of journalism that I’ve read comes from The Elements of Journalism, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It defines the purpose of journalism as “to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies and their governments”.

                Maybe that definition of ‘best interests’ works better for you?

                • Muttonbird …
                  3 December 2018 at 11:53 pm

                  That’s a better definition but not the one Du Fresne rests upon, nor one he himself subscribes to because right wing thought bases itself above all else upon personal responsibility and the rights of the individual over strength of community and the good of society.

                  I think if you leave people to it unfortunately they will make decisions in their own best interests rather than a common good. Hands off government the type which Du Fresne promotes (even though he as a journalist should not be promoting it) contributes to this.

                  • RedLogix …
                    3 December 2018 at 11:57 pm

                    Fair enough, left wingers tend to put the interests of the collective ahead of individuals. At the extremes the history of both viewpoints is terrible.

                    My take is that both viewpoints co-exist in a mutual balance; both speak to vital human realities that work best when they listen to each other.

      • ScottGN 8.1.3
        3 December 2018 at 9:16 pm

        Whoever he is he gave a rather good précis of Maggie Barry’s useless tenure as Minister of Conservation.

      • Gabby 8.1.4
        3 December 2018 at 9:34 pm

        He’s on the wireless wally.

    • Anne 8.2
      3 December 2018 at 9:38 pm

      Heard an amusing story about sweet Maggie today:

      Some years back a new cafe opened in Belmont on the Shore called ‘Little and Friday’. It became the place to go if you wanted to be seen by the right (pronounced raite) people at least for a while. Sure enough Maggie turned up one day only to find the cafe was full and there were no tables left. She had a hissy fit because no-one saw fit to get up and offer her their table so she flounced out to the tune… oh, they’re all left wing haters anyway.

  9. OnceWasTim 9
    3 December 2018 at 9:25 pm

    Which addiction did you switch from @ Ed?
    It’s obviously something less destructive than the last one and I ‘spose a couple of days ban given by the Voice of Reason is really going to teach ya a lesson, so na-na nana-na, and so there!.
    There are learnings to be had going forward

  10. joe90 10
    3 December 2018 at 9:37 pm

    Yup, Mongolian rock is a thing.

  11. Ad 11
    3 December 2018 at 9:45 pm

    Can anyone please tell me why Qatar just pulled out of OPEC?

    • te reo putake 11.1
      3 December 2018 at 9:48 pm

      Pissed off at being bullied by other oil producing states? The Saudi’s have been on their case for ages, so I guess there’s a bit of payback. They can set their own price and undercut the others if they are out of OPEC.

  12. OnceWasTim 12
    3 December 2018 at 9:49 pm

    Have to say, our risk managed sussoighty is now becoming ridiculous.
    4am on a trip from Tearenga ta Orcas: many notifications of a slip in the Karangahake Gorge and a suggestion to take an alternative root …. oops route. A couple of substantial boulders blocking a lane as I passed.
    12 hours later and a cast of tens of hiviz specimens later on the return journey, the very same boulders were sat where they fell causing some more major traffic problems.
    Heavy earthmoving equipment on standby, though seemingly incapable of just shuvelling the shit away into a fast moving river, much as Mother Nature had/ and had done over decades.
    I almost tried to leap for some anti-bacterial sanitising cream to wash off a bit of dust as we waited for the Green Go sign.
    Christ! and people used to slag off Ministry of Works and Dev employees during the journey towards the neoliberal alternative over leaning on a shovel.

    Please don’t fart people. There’s the potential for toxic and flammable gases that could cause serious injury to bits of the body we shouldn’t speak of

    • Molly 12.1
      4 December 2018 at 10:07 am

      I would think that they would have to ensure the original site of those boulders was stable before shoving them into the river. The use of heavy machinery and the subsequent movement of boulders hitting the riverbed might result in further uncontrolled slips.

      This is not really a good example of H&S rules applied unthinkingly, it is an example of what H&S rules are intended to achieve – a minimisation of harm.

  13. Pat 13
    3 December 2018 at 10:02 pm

    “Poland generates 80% of its electricity from coal and the UN summit will take place in a coal mining town, Katowice. The Polish government has also allowed two coal companies to sponsor the summit.”

    WTF?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/we-are-last-generation-that-can-stop-climate-change-un-summit