Remember the prepsoterous Stern Report claiming warming is costing the planet dearly, and so we should avoid it?
Well, we know climate is always changing, which means only one of two things can happen – either it gets warmer, or it gets colder. We’ve been told time and again that we simply can’t tolerate any more dangerous warming. So what’s left? Cooling.
Many of us are getting a taste of it now. How do you like it?
The high costs of cooling
Airports are closed down, flights cancelled, thousands of travellers are stranded, motorways are jammed to a standstill, supply routes are blocked, railways are paralyzed, car accidents and injuries have skyrocketed, the economy has ground to a halt. Folks, this is going to cost a bundle. How much?
Dr. Karsten Brandt has roughly calculated the cost here at donnerwetter.de in his piece today titled:
Never has a winter been so expensive – 600 euros more costs per household
On average households can expect to incur €600 in extra costs compared to the average over the years. The biggest part of that will be heating and electricity costs of 300-400 euros. In addition there are other winter costs such as salt, winter damage to autos and other losses. The costs for households will reach €30 billion nationwide.
And if you include the waiting times resulting from the massive traffic jams on the motorways, that figure jumps to 80 to 100 billion euros.
This does not include the agricultural losses that are sure to be added. The construction industry is now completely idled as well. And it’s going to get worse.
The economic damage from the winter weather can only be roughly estimated. If the cold winter continues as forecast, we calculate an economic damage of about €100 billion from production shutdowns, losses with the supply chains, price increases in energy etc.
Send the bill to the Munich Re. A hundred billion euros means 2000 euros for each household in Germany. The figures are similar in Great Britain.
Government incompetence and willful neglect
Governments were woefully unprepared for this cooling, all because of close-mindedness and dogmatism.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and most politicians have been an abject failure over the last years. They stupidly based all their preparedness and winter planning for the future on the crystal balls and sorcerers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the the now disgraced Met Office in England. Policy based on fantasy. That’s gross negligence.
Also read how the biased Met Office mislead the public: gwpf.org.
Climategate did nothing to sway them to think that things might be a little amiss at theie climate research centres. Instead, they stuck their heads in the sand when the scandal was uncovered. Indeed they even whitewashed away all the gross deficienies that had been exposed, and continued thinking it’s going to get warmer. They are completely blinded by radical dogmatism, relying on incompetent scientists and tarot cards. This is horrible judgement and willful neglect on the part of Europe’s leaders.
These leaders need to make a U-Turn or resign. Leaders who cannot get past their dogmatism become menaces to the societies they’ve been entrusted to serve. They are costing us money – and lives.
Indeed!! Well said PG. (a bit of a hero yourself!)
The EU, only has one decent brain (amongst all of Europe’s governments) a man prepared to speak his mind and a man of truth and integrity, they (EU) vilified him, I think he is a hero:
“Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it’s a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It’s neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment.
http://newsbusters.org/node/10773#ixzz18fMBzsUB
And here:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/02/vclav-klaus-about-ipcc-panel.html
He is so right, Vaclav Klaus, a giant amongst pygmies.
He is indeed,
And let’s not forget this enfant terrible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYj5baVfB0Y
Good stuff PG, although……….. Al Gore’s hokey stick? (think he meant – Mickey Mann’s hokey stick).
But general thrust was good, he is right too, (about) the the fact that: they are still teaching this non science (AGW BS) in English schools!
Now then that, for me, that is shameful and just plain wrong; ethically and morally and educationally – because it is teaching nebulous concepts as received factual wisdom, which plainly it is not. Teach children, mathematics and pure science first, then let them form their own opinions as adults, teaching children propaganda, well it once again puts AGITPROP back in mind.
So like the ‘eastern bloc’.
Al Gore made the hockey stick popular with his forklift stunt in AIT.
True.
Quite a lot of accidents involving 40 ton trucks ATM; lots of Autobahn blockages. My boss didn’t arrive at work; standing 5 hours in such a blockage – i narrowly (and with my supreme navigation instinct) escaped two such blockages. And drove through a winter wonderland on iced-over roads, avoiding highways.
I pity the truck drivers, they have it hard.
Good that you made it through. Here there hasn’t been any school sínce last Wednesday. All the teachers and bus drivers are staying home. The streets are a mess – nobody is taking care of them. We need to bring in the Swiss or the Austrians to show how to manage a snowfall.
I told you the winter will be very expensive. In Poland there is no money for snow removal. I’m afraid that could happen in Germany either.
Wow I’m sorry but this is a fairly unreasonable position. Countries need to be prepared for weather situations, but there are some situations that are just worse than expected or a worse winter. Trying to make statements about climate change because of one bad winter in one bad area seems a little narrow of a sample field; don’t you think?
I’m not making any judgments about whether or not global warming and / or cooling exist, just saying that an extreme winter in Deutschland isn’t indicative of anything beyond a combination of factors resulting in Viel Schnee 😉
In other words; if you don’t like political leaders for their decisions, calling for a resignation is totally cool w/ me; but the post title makes it sound like you are calling for their resignation BECAUSE of the bad winter. Huh?
Tschuss alle und Schone Weinachten zu euch!
The entire EU leadership consists of Eco-nuts and ardent AGW believers, and the German governments were always the driving force behind it. As it stands, we don’t have the choice of electing a sceptical party as there is none in Germany. So, yes, ever-colder winters are a good reason to call for a change. Problem is, the alternative are the three socialist parties and that would be even worse.
We’re caught between a rock and a hard place here, politically.
This is about the third winter now that has been harsh. Not a trend, but events that models said wouldn’t happen. Read the link the gwpf link provided.
When governments insist on hearing only one view and ignore other scientifically based views, then they have to be held accountable. Unless Merkel decides to include other views that advise making preparations for cooler climates, she and Röttgen need to step down, Anything else is putting people’s lives at risk.
The scientific evidence is there.
Enjoy the white Christmas.
BTW – your website looks very interesting! I wasn’t aware of it.
The ftd points out that it was the drive towards higher efficiency that is the cause for the travel and transport disruptions.
http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/:schneefolgen-spardiktat-verursacht-winterchaos/50207730.html
My opinion: When you optimize a system for a certain set of constraints (warmer world with milder winters) you necessarily lose robustness and flexibility to cope with a different set of constraints (solar minimum, a coming LIA). This will have economic implications for many businesses.
More like the drive to disable people and preventing them from reacting to such events. If one takes energy away from people, they are simply going to have a harder time surviving, let alone prospering. The FTD is willfully blind on this topic. The more they force us to adapt to warm, the tougher it is going to be to cope with the cold.
Over 90% of all rules, laws and regulations currently come from the idiocracy called the European Union.
The current clan of executive politicians who are responsible for the loss of freedoms and who’s ony function for now is to keep up the charade fooling the people into the idea they are still living in a free and autonomous democracy have no say at all in terms of policies and decission making processes.
To restore common sense “we the people” have to occupy our own country and throw out all the layers of “Verwaltung” and kick out the EU and the UN and all their treaties.
The act is nothing more but cleaning up a street from criminals and drug dealers. Our thieving political elite and their “mates” at least deserve a similar treatment. They have earned it.
But if the German people prefer to suck the tits of Mother State, keep silent and stupid, this State and this People have earned each other and I really hope they will be very happy for the near future.