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Germany Moving to Authoritarianism "Those Who Mock State, Must Have To Deal With Powerful State"

Germany Moving to Authoritarianism “Those Who Mock State, Must Have To Deal With Powerful State”

By on 16. February 2024

Germany’s online NIUS.de here reports on the totalitarianism spreading across Germany

This week, high ranking ministers of Germany’s socialist/green government, with its proposed “Democracy Security Act”,  announced plans to crack down on dissent and free speech in Germany.

Image: Phoenix, cropped here. 

“The German federal government is moving to ban what we want to say, the secret service wants to control what we think. They say it so openly so that we are afraid. What has happened this week is historic,” reports NIUS.de here.

Legal speech would be punishable

German Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) said that with the new “Democracy Security Act”, they would also pursue even online hate speech that falls “below the threshold of criminal liability”. That means that even if the “hate” speech does not meet the criminal standard, the German police forces could still come knocking on your door!

Mocking the state will be punishable

Meanwhile Germany’s Minister of the Internal Security, Nancy Faeser, Socialist party, said that citizens must no longer be allowed to even mock the government, once a cornerstone of democracy and free speech.

She told at a press conference: “Now we urgently need the Democracy Security Act, that’s what I’m calling for. We have to strengthen the civil institutions with their work against extremism. In my view, the German Parliament must pass this act. Those who mock the state must have to deal with a powerful state.”

Head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, added he would unleash the power of his office against statements that are not even punishable. “Yes, that’s right, it has no relevance under criminal law, but it is still a threat to the welfare of the state.” and words that could endanger the welfare of the state.

Government overreach

“It is not you who should still decide how you meant your own words, but the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It’s no longer about what we say, it’s suddenly about what Thomas Haldenwang wants to have heard, reports NIUS.de. “From now on, Thomas Haldenwang wants to decide which words are “endangering the welfare of the state.”

The “Democracy Security Act” aims to clamp down on – among other things – disinformation and hate speech in the Internet.

Critics say, however, say the act goes to far and would violate Germany’s Constitution, and so is in itself a threat to democracy. Others say the act is more about forbidding government opposition, dubbing it the Government Protection Act.




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New Study: Denmark Coast Has Been Expanding Seaward At A Rate Of +1.4 Meters Per Year Since 1900

By on 15. February 2024

Scientists have found evidence that the coastal land area grew (prograded) by 120 meters from 1900 to 1985 at a study site in central Denmark. 

Per a new study, relative sea levels (RSL) in central Denmark were “~4.5 m higher than present between c. 6.6 and 5.9 ka ago.” After this highstand, RSL declined towards the present.

The 20th century rates of coastal expansion and retreating seas were similar to the declining RSL and progradation rates reached in the Middle Holocene.

Image Source: Riis et al., 2024

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Raw Deal: Germany’s Minister Of Agriculture Proposes Tax On Meat

By on 13. February 2024

Under the bottom line, the green movement is all about taxing people and restricting their choices. The rich, of course, will go unaffected. 

According to online Bild here, Germany’s Federal Agriculture Minister, Cem Özdemir, (Green Party) has recently proposed a consumption tax on meat. He calls this tax “animal welfare cents”.

Özdemir sent a framework paper to the coalition government where he recommends a consumer tax on meat.

“The main aim is to generate tax revenue for agricultural and food policy projects. Özdemir sees this step as an opportunity to financially support important projects in the field of sustainable agriculture,” reports Blackout News here. “In particular, meat, meat products, edible offal and processed products containing a certain proportion of these products are to be taxed.”

Food inflation was at double digit rates over much of the past 2 years, and a meat tax will only further exacerbate the inflationary spiral. Germany’s policy on energy has made energy there among the most expensive in the world, and has led to a series of price increases through the entire supply chain.

“A few cents per kilo” 

The planned amount of the meat tax remains unknown, but the talk has been of a modest amount in the range of “a few cents per kilo.”

Özdemir “wants it to do long-term good for agriculture and the environment” and he “views the levy as an important investment in the future,” reports Blackout News.

Audi production moving to China, Mexico

On another note, Blackout News also reports on how German luxury carmaker Audi is now planning to move production out of Germany and over to China and Mexico.

“Audi is planning to reduce its production capacity in Europe. The German car manufacturer intends to produce the Q8 e-tron model in Mexico and China.”

“The decision will have a major impact on the plant in Brussels. The Group currently produces the Q8 e-tron exclusively there. According to information from company circles, the company is considering relocating production of this model from Belgium to Mexico and China.”




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New Study Finds Global Cities Have Warmed Due To Rising Solar Surface Forcing Since 1986

By on 12. February 2024

The globe’s cities are warming primarily due to declining albedo, not CO2 radiative forcing.

According to a comprehensive new study published in Remote Sensing of Environment, CO2 fertilization has led to an enhanced greening trend in 72.6% of cities across the world since 1985, accelerating to 89.2% since 2001.

Per the authors, this greening trend is the key factor lowering the albedo reflecting incoming solar radiation in urban areas, amounting to a +2.76 W/m² increase in solar radiation reaching the surface from 1986-2020.

In contrast, the clear-sky-only trend from CO2 surface forcing only amounts to 0.2 W/m² per decade (22 ppm), or 0.02 W/m² per year, in the 21st century. (This trend only represents the forcing from CO2 in an imaginary world where no clouds exist.)

Thus, the positive radiative imbalance from the declining trend in albedo explains urban warming far better than an enhanced greenhouse effect from a clear-sky-only CO2 radiative forcing.

Image Source: Wu et al., 2024

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Commentary: “The Tone Against Alleged ‘Climate Change Deniers’ Is Becoming Harsher”

By on 10. February 2024

Press release:
Denunciation of alleged “climate deniers” encourages disinterest in environmental protection

Advisory center: “Arrogant instruction and education destroys the motivation to participate!”
Hat-tip: Klimanachrichten

The tone against alleged “climate change deniers” is becoming harsher. Some television programs are now trying to change viewers’ mindsets by using language to educate them – and to convince all skeptics and doubters of the threat posed by the change in temperatures, now referred to as global warming.

This top-down, patronizing form of education does a disservice to the actual goal – namely to encourage a more conscious lifestyle and participation in community change. This view is shared by Dennis Riehle (Constance), head of the consultancy for sustainable development and change management, who explains: “I myself have always emphasized that I am very committed to environmental protection and sustainability. But not because of hysterical climate activism, whose supporters are primarily concerned with self-profiling – and who intend to impose their radical minority opinion on the majority of society in order to drive forward a change in the representative system towards oligarchic structures.

In a nutshell, you could say that the ‘Last Generation’ – spoiled by overprotection and prosperity – is trying to realize its prepubescent desire for attention through infantile and meaningless protests. But the community cannot take the blame for a laissez-faire upbringing.

Technology – not paternalism

There is no doubt that we have lived beyond our means in the industrial age and exploited nature. Putting this damage into perspective and getting used to new circumstances seems to me to be our main task, which we can accomplish with innovation and confidence in research and technology, but certainly not with paternalism and prohibitions. We should be concerned with acclimatization and convergence rather than fighting against a development whose multifactorial causes we still know all too little about.

Accordingly, investing vast sums in the desperate attempt to influence evolution seems rather absurd. Rather, prevention and adaptability are needed, because we as humans are by no means helpless. It is worth continuing with approaches such as water management and geoengineering,” explains the 38-year-old psychological consultant and coach from Lake Constance.

“Considerable deficits in objectivity”

“I cannot recognize a significant connection between the CO2 hypothesis and global warming – which I do not deny in principle, but which I place in a much larger temporal frame of reference than the now rather tendentious science. I see considerable deficits in objectivity, especially with regard to the inductive inference techniques used by the IPCC, among others, which on the one hand arrive at a trend statement from the stringing together of individual observations and computer modeling, the reliability of which must be questioned quite clearly in view of empirical reflection, but on the other hand also focus solely on the last 100 years and thus reduce the extent of the planet’s gigantic history to a snapshot. There is a lack of common sense and logic.

Ignored factors

And, of course, other factors have so far been completely ignored – from hydrogen and methane to solar activity and the interactions between natural anomalies. The exclusive focus on man-made carbon dioxide emissions was therefore not open-ended – which is why an essential principle of serious scientific work has already been violated here.

Ultimately, the current narratives are only suitable for manipulating civilization in order to get it to think and act in an ideologically desired way – and to bring a transformation to its knees that not only lacks pragmatic foresight and economic and social compatibility, but also puts populations worldwide in a destructive state of panic and uncertainty,” concludes the consultant for sustainable development and opportunity management.

Further information can be found at www.riehle-news.de and www.dennis-riehle.de.




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The Effect Of CO2 Increases On Ocean Temperatures Is Too Small To Measurably Detect

By on 8. February 2024

The shallowest sea surface temperature measurement limit is 10,000 times deeper than the extent of CO2’s radiative influence.

When sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are measured, the depth range of the measurement typically extends from 10 cm to 10 m, or 100 mm to 10,000 mm (Merchant et al., 2019).

Image Source: Merchant et al., 2019

This measurement limitation is an insurmountable problem for those who wish to link increases in SSTs to increases in anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

Why? Because CO2’s radiative influence can only extend to ocean depths of 0.01 mm, or 1/100ths of a millimeter (Wong and Minnett, 2018).

CO2’s total impact on ocean temperatures cannot therefore be detected, as the shallowest SST measurements are 100 mm – 10,000 times deeper than the range limit for CO2’s radiative impact.

Image Source: Wong and Minnett, 2018

The physical impossibility of obtaining a detectable (and thus measurable) CO2 signal is not the only problem in attributing SST warming to anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

At a single site, SSTs can vary by as much as ±1-3°C, depending on depth. The water temperature at 1,000 mm (1 meter) may be 2°C warmer than at 10,000 mm (10 meters), depending on factors such as the time of day the measurement was taken, or if it was a cloudy versus sunny day (Kennedy, 2014). Pulling a wooden bucket out of the water from a ship deck – which is how SSTs were routinely measured until the late 20th century – can yield multiple degrees differences if the water in the bucket was hauled onto the ship at 7 a.m. rather than 3 p.m.

Image Source: Kennedy, 2014

To accurately assess the SST for the locations where sailors pulled buckets out of the water, then, would require “regular measurements of near-surface waters at a range of depths” (Kennedy, 2014). These data are surely not available in the historical SST records.

Consequently, the “random and systematic error uncertainty” in every single buckets-derived SST measurement is about 1 to 1.5°C. With water covering 71% of the Earth’s surface, this error and uncertainty magnitude fully disqualifies any claim that instrumental data accurately reflect the global average surface temperature.

Image Source: Kennedy, 2014

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Green Energies Shattering German Economy…Industrial Production Falls 7th Consecutive Month

By on 7. February 2024

-1.6%!

That’s how much Germany’s industrial production fell in December, 2023. It’s the seventh-straight month of decline as the country’s energy woes mount.

One reason is reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports today :”Germany’s Industrial Production Falls For Seventh-Straight Month” in December 2023, far worse than expected.

To underscore the seriousness, 2023’s industrial production result is a whopping 10% below pre-pandemic levels.

One of the major drivers behind the demise is arguably the country’s disastrous energy policy, which has entailed shutting down cheap and steady conventional sources such as nuclear and natural gas and increasingly relying on unstable wind and solar energy. Energy prices have soared over the past years, thus driving inflation.

Things aren’t expected to improve much any time soon as the country is currently being plagued by strikes by train drivers, airport and airline personnel, who are fighting for higher wages that have been eroded away by high inflation. Energy supplies remain unstable and are expected to stay high.

Farmers are angry and have been demonstrating for weeks, often blocking transportation routes.

If there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, it’s a very faint one and the tunnel may be very long.

Currently many companies are announcing plans to move operations to business- friendlier locations.




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2023 Scientific Papers Cast Doubt On ‘Consensus’ In Climate Science

By on 5. February 2024

In 2023, hundreds of scientific papers were published that cast doubt on the position that anthropogenic CO2 emissions function as the climate’s fundamental control knob…or that otherwise serve to question the efficacy of climate models or the related “consensus” positions commonly endorsed by policymakers and mainstream media sources.

There are significant limitations and uncertainties inherent in our understanding of climate and climate changes.

For the last 9 years we have been compiling annual lists of scientific papers that support these four main skeptical positions — categorized here as N(1) – N(4) — which question the climate alarm popularized in today’s headlines.

N(1) Natural mechanisms play well more than a negligible role (as claimed by the IPCC) in the net changes in the climate system, which includes temperature variations, precipitation patterns, weather events, etc., and the influence of increased CO2 concentrations on climatic changes are less pronounced than currently imagined.

N(2) The warming/sea levels/glacier and sea ice retreat/precipitation extremes…experienced during the modern era are neither unprecedented or remarkable, nor do they fall outside the range of natural variability.

N(3) The computer climate models are neither reliable or consistently accurate, the uncertainty and error ranges are irreducible, and projections of future climate states (i.e., an intensification of the hydrological cycle) are not supported by observations and/or are little more than speculation.

N(4) Current emissions-mitigation policies, especially related to the advocacy for renewables, are often ineffective and even harmful to the environment, whereas elevated CO2 and a warmer climate provide unheralded benefits to the biosphere (i.e., a greener planet and enhanced crop yields, lower mortality with warming).

In sharp contrast to the above, the corresponding “consensus” positions that these papers do not support are:

A(1) Close to or over 100% (110%) of the warming since 1950 has been caused by increases in anthropogenic CO2 emissions, leaving natural attribution at something close to 0%.

RealClimate.org: “The best estimate of the warming due to anthropogenic forcings (ANT) is the orange bar (noting the 1𝛔 uncertainties). Reading off the graph, it is 0.7±0.2ºC (5-95%) with the observed warming 0.65±0.06 (5-95%). The attribution then follows as having a mean of ~110%, with a 5-95% range of 80–130%. This easily justifies the IPCC claims of having a mean near 100%, and a very low likelihood of the attribution being less than 50% (p < 0.0001!).”

A(2) Modern warming, glacier and sea ice recession, sea level rise, drought and hurricane intensities…are all occurring at unprecedentedly high and rapid rates, and the effects are globally synchronous (not just regional)…and thus dangerous consequences to the global biosphere and human civilizations loom in the near future as a consequence of anthropogenic influences.

A(3) The climate models are reliable and accurate, and the scientific understanding of the effects of both natural forcing factors (solar activity, clouds, water vapor, etc.) and CO2 concentration changes on climate is “settled enough”, which means that “the time for debate has ended”.

A(4) The proposed solutions to mitigate the dangerous consequences described in N(4) – namely, wind and solar expansion – are safe, effective, and environmentally-friendly.

To reiterate, these 2023 papers support the N(1)-N(4) positions, and they undermine or at least do not support the “consensus” A(1)-A(4) positions.  These papers do not do more than that.   In other words, it is too ambitious to claim these papers prove that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) positions are invalid, or that AGW claims have now been “debunked”.

Below is the link to the list of scientific papers published in 2023, as well as a few sample papers.

Skeptic Papers 2023

Matskovsky et al., 2023

Shaviv et al., 2023

The CR/climate relationship is the only one capable of explaining the magnitude of the observed solar-climate interactions. … The apparent effect that the CRs have on cloud cover automatically explains the size of all the observed solar-related climate variations. … The seven ice-age epochs…over the past billion years have taken place when the CR flux was higher, as the theory predicts. … Decreases in CO2 concentration and the increase in solar luminosity mostly cancel each other out.

Koutsoyiannis and Vournas, 2023

An enhancement of the greenhouse effect, due to increasing CO2 concentration, through the years would be seen as a gradual displacement of the points from left to right with the progression of time. However, the alignment of the points of the different data sets does not show a gradual displacement from left to right. This means that the effect of the direct CO2 emission at the surface is smaller than the side effects…causing the variability in Figure 2, and thus it is impossible to discern. … Quantification of the greenhouse effect is a routine procedure in the framework of hydrological calculations of evaporation. According to the standard practice, this is made considering the water vapour in the atmosphere, without any reference to the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), which, however, in the last century has escalated from 300 to about 420 ppm. As the formulae used for the greenhouse effect quantification were introduced 50-90 years ago, we examine whether these are still representative or not, based on eight sets of observations, distributed in time across a century. We conclude that the observed increase of the atmospheric CO2 concentration has not altered, in a discernible manner, the greenhouse effect, which remains dominated by the quantity of water vapour in the atmosphere, and that the original formulae used in hydrological practice remain valid. Hence, there is no need for adaptation due to increased CO2 concentration.

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Germany’s Energy Sources Are Running Out As Biden Stops LNG Projects

By on 4. February 2024

Germany’s energy crisis deepens further due to Biden’s halt of U.S. LNG projects. Germany is backed into a corner after over-reliance on green energy.

The site of Germany LNG terminal, Wilhelmshaven, photographed in 2012. Later expanded in 2022. Image: RaBoe. CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Germany has dug itself into an energy hole

Due to the environmental and climate hysteria over the past decades, Germany has steadily moved to shut down its vast  fleet of nuclear reactors, coal power plants, and even natural gas supplies (a major supply line from Russia got blown up).

Moreover, Germany is moving to ban fossil fuel heating systems for homes, and mandating electric cars by 2035.

Now in an energy crunch

Since the supply of natural gas from Russia got cut off, it became necessary to find an alternative source quickly – from USA in the form of imported LNG. The German government approved the construction an LNG terminal at the north German coast in record time. This would help secure Germany’s energy supply. Surely the USA could be viewed as a reliable partner.

That was the plan – until President Joe Biden unexpectedly put a stop to further LNG projects. Now, Germany suddenly risks finding itself in energy isolation. It’s panic time in Berlin.

“Devastating energy crisis”

“Germany is facing a devastating energy crisis that seriously threatens its security of supply,” reports Germany’s Blackout News. “Biden’s decision now has far-reaching consequences that could pose serious problems for German energy policy.”

Also see. berliner-zeitung: 26.01.24

The USA is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, but because of climate protection, Biden bowed to pressure from climate radicals and stopped plans to build new export terminals. This development has sent shockwaves through energy-starved Germany.

According to US government officials, four U.S. terminal projects are directly affected Biden’s decision.

Berlin has backed itself into a corner with its years of misguided green energy policy. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.




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Wood Pellets Aren’t CO2 Neutral, Emit More Than Coal… Double Of Natural Gas

By on 2. February 2024

Wood pellets are often viewed as an alternative, climate-friendly energy source, especially for heating. But an analysis shows this is not the case at all.

CO2 emitted [kg]. Data source: German Ministry of the Environment

Though it is claimed that the CO2 from burning biomass like trees remains in the natural carbon cycle, the  CO2-absorbing trees are often commercially chopped down, pelletized and burned, thus emitting years worth of CO2 sequestration in just a matter of hours. Live trees recapturing that same emitted CO2 and storing it in the form of biomass takes decades.

Wood emits the most

How much CO2 does the production of one megawatt-hour of energy emit by different fuels? This is answered at FB by the account Umwelt- und Klimathemen. They write:

Isn’t it almost the same whether I burn wood from a 150-year-old oak tree in pellet form in my heating system or whether I burn coal that has been in the ground for thousands of years? Both the wood and the coal release the carbon dioxide they once filtered out of the air when they burn.

According to the German Ministry of the Environment, burning wood produces even more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
– 202 kg of carbon dioxide for natural gas
– 340 kg carbon dioxide for hard coal
– 403 kg carbon dioxide wood

But for the climate, it doesn’t matter where the carbon dioxide comes from!
That’s why heating with wood is not climate neutral!
Even if we make pellets from our wood, it is still wood that enriches our atmosphere with carbon dioxide when it is burned.”

Wood emits double the CO2 that natural gas does. Never mind the particulates burning wood entails.

Also related, see: Planet of the Humans




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Germany’s “Spring In Winter” Lasted Weeks, Reached 15°C In January 1974!

By on 31. January 2024

Extended spring like weather also occurred in Europe 50 years ago

It’s been mild across Europe, bringing some relief from the hardships of winter. Yet, the media again is reporting the mild weather as if it’s something bad, which has never happened before. But of course, this is not true.

What follows is a newspaper clipping from January 14, 21974, published in ‘Die Welt‘:

Hat-tip: Michael Sehlert at Facebook

The Die Welt article reported 50 years ago (temps are in Celsius):

Spring in Winter – 15 degrees warm

The ‘spring in winter’, which has been ongoing for weeks, has reached a new high point on Sunday. The temperatures climbed in some Alps valleys and in the Bavarian lowland up to 15 degrees amid a strong foehn pattern. The thaw has reached to high elevations. Even on the Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, a sensational temperature of 0 degrees was reached in January. Up to 10 degrees was even measured at 2000 meters. The ski slopes at lower elevations were no longer usable.”

(But shhhhhhh….you’re not supposed to know this.)




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New Study: 2001-2020 ‘Global Greening Is An Indisputable Fact’ And It’s Driven By CO2 Fertilization

By on 29. January 2024

“Our results showed that the global greening was still present in 2001–2020, with 55.15% of areas greening at an accelerated rate…compared with 7.28% of browning.” – Chen et al., 2024

The CO2 fertilization effect has been dominant driver of the global-scale increase in “leaf area index” (LAI), or greening, since the 1980s. Scientists have estimated that CO2’s photosynthesis-enhancing capacity is 70% responsible for the greening trend (Zhu et al., 2016).

Using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data sources of questionable quality, some recent studies have suggested the greening trend has slowed or has even been reversed to browning since the 21st century began. As suggested, these data sources “should be used in caution” (Chen et al., 2024) as it is “well known that AVHRR-based NDVI and LAI have multiple sources of uncertainty,” such as “obvious artificial signals from the orbital drift.”

Using much more reliable MODIS data, scientists (Chen et al., 2024) can now say the LAI trend in the 21st century is robustly positive, and that 2001-2020 “global greening is an indisputable fact.”

The satellite data indicate 55.15% of global areas are greening “at an accelerated rate,” whereas just 7.28% have undergone a browning trend since 2001.

CO2 fertilization is still the dominant (75.63%) driver of Earth’s 21st century greening trend. Any drought trends in recent decades cannot overtake the positive CO2 fertilization effect, as all drought can do is slightly slow down the acceleration of the CO2-induced greening trend.

Image Source: Chen et al., 2024

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