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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Once again, liberals Canadians have been sold a bill of goods. The sheep eat it up.
Norway, the UK and Canada are not climate champions. They are climate hypocrites
(CNN)In Oslo, the street lamps are powered by renewables. To conserve energy, the smart lights dim when nobody is around. The Norwegian capital, like the rest of the country, is proud of its exceptional green credentials. Its public transportation system too is powered entirely by renewable energy. Two thirds of new cars sold in the city are electric. There's even a highway for bees.
There's just one problem. Much of the environmental innovation that Norway is so proud of is financed by its oil money. Because Norway, apart from being a forward-thinking climate champion, is also a major fossil fuels exporter. And it plans to keep it that way for a long time to come.
Norway isn't the only country preaching sustainability while simultaneously cashing in on the very thing that is causing climate change. The UK is hosting a major climate summit later this year. At the same time, it is contemplating opening a new coal mine. Canada, a self-proclaimed climate leader, is pouring tax dollars into a doomed oil pipeline project.
The math doesn't add up
Many countries produce fossil fuels despite committing to combat climate change. But Canada, Norway and the UK stand out because they are doing that while positioning themselves as climate champions.
"The UK is leading the world in the fight against climate change," a spokesperson from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, told CNN in an email. "We were the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions by 2050, and have cut emissions by 43% since 1990 -- the best in the G7."
Extinction Rebellion activists protest against Norway's climate policy, proclaiming: "There's an elephant in the room that we aren't talking about."
The UK government can make these claims, because under international agreements, each country is only responsible for greenhouse gas emissions produced within its territory. That means the UK, Canada, Norway and others don't need to worry about the emissions caused by the burning of their oil, gas and coal in other places around the world.
Burning fossil fuels emits CO2, which traps solar radiation in the atmosphere, just like glass traps heat in a greenhouse. This causes temperatures to rise, which in turn drives more extreme weather, ice melt and sea level rise.
It's a simple equation: The more fossil fuels we burn, the more CO2 is released into the atmosphere and the larger the greenhouse effect.
The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. To achieve that, the world needs to cut fossil fuel production by roughly 6% per year between 2020 and 2030. Yet current projections show an annual increase of 2%.
"We just can't afford to burn the majority of existing fossil fuel reserves in order to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius," said Ploy Achakulwisut, a scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Interactive: The pandemic gave the world an opportunity to fix the climate crisis
Climate scientists have estimated the amount of greenhouse gases we can still add to the atmosphere without breaching the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees. At the start of 2018, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated this so-called carbon budget to be around 420 gigatons (billion tons) of CO2 for a two-in-three chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
A more recent estimate published in the journal Nature earlier this year puts the figure at a range from 230 gigatons for a two-in-three chance of meeting the target to 670 gigatons for a two-in-three chance of missing it.
The world produced roughly 34 gigatons of CO2 last year, which means the remaining carbon budget could last for just over six years, unless emissions start declining fast.
Canada, the UK and Norway have all set ambitious targets. The UK and Canada pledged to reduce their territorial emissions to net zero by 2050. Norway wants to be carbon neutral by 2030. The "net" zero means that if they can't eliminate all emissions completely, they can make up for the difference by removing carbon from the atmosphere, for example by planting more trees.
It makes a huge difference. Norway's annual domestic emissions reached around 53 million tons in 2017, according to its statistical office. The emissions from the oil and gas Norway sold abroad reached roughly 470 million tons in 2017, according to the UN Emission Gap Report.
Norway's minister of climate and environment, Sveinung Rotevatn, told CNN in a statement that the country's commitments are based on territorial climate targets. "Emissions related to the consumption of exported oil and gas products in other countries are covered by the importers' emission accounts and targets," he said. Asked about the country's oil and gas export plans, he said "Norway strongly supports a transition from the use and production of fossil energy to renewable energy."
The carbon lock-in
Andrew Grant, the head of climate, energy and industry research at Carbon Tracker, a think tank, points out that that many producers rely economically on revenues from fossil fuels. They know the world will need to wean itself off them soon, but no one wants to be the first one to get out.
"Everyone has reasons why they think it should be them that continues producing and no one else," Grant told CNN. "In the Middle East, it's because it's very low cost, in Canada, they talk about their human rights record, in Norway, they talk about the low carbon intensity of their production, in the UK, it's because we've got mature fields of infrastructure ... in the USA, they were even saying they're gonna export their molecules of freedom."
Producing fossil fuels can be expensive and many governments argue that stopping now would be a waste of money, often public, already spent on existing projects and explorations.
Canada, Norway and the UK all plan to keep producing fossil fuels, investing in new projects and explorations.
According to Canada Energy Regulator, the country's crude oil production is expected to keep increasing until 2039. Canada's proven oil reserves stand at roughly 168 billion barrels, according to government data. If all of that is extracted and burned, it would add an estimated 72 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, based on a calculation using IPCC's figures for default carbon contents. That's almost a third of the world's remaining carbon budget. The Canadian government has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
If Norway also continues to drill as planned, the total emissions from its known oil and gas reserves will amount to roughly 15 gigatons of CO2, according to CICERO, a Norwegian climate research institute. That would eat up 6.5% of the remaining carbon budget for the whole world.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Scotland stage a blockade on the road outside the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Scotland stage a blockade on the road outside the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth.
Meanwhile, the UK Oil and Gas Authority estimates that as of the end of 2019, UK petroleum reserves stood at 5.2 billion barrels, enough to continue production for two more decades. If that happens, subsequent combustion of these extracted fuels would add a further 2.2 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The UK as a whole produced 454 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2019, the latest figures available. Its plan is to reduce this to 193 million million tons of CO2 annually by 2033.
The numbers are estimates but they illustrate a major problem: National plans to cut emissions don't add up to the global total needed.
Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Perseverance rover lands on Mars carrying the first helicopter drone to another planet !
Just minutes after landing on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover beamed back it's first image to Earth. It is the first of many the rover will send while it's on its mission on the planet.
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Ingenuity helicopter phones home from Mars
The Ingenuity helicopter, sidekick and traveling companion of NASA's Perseverance rover, has checked in with a good report and is "operating as expected," according to the agency.
If successful, Ingenuity will be the first helicopter to fly on another planet, leading to an "extraterrestrial Wright Brothers moment," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had amassed $4.7 million in her fundraising efforts to help Texans hard hit by last week's winter storm as of Sunday evening.
The New York Democrat launched her fundraiser Thursday after extreme cold weather, ice and snow caused the power grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to fail -- leading to rolling blackouts and a boil-water advisory for nearly half of Texas.
Ocasio-Cortez, alongside Garcia and Texas Rep. Al Green, said Saturday that she wanted to work to get assistance to Texans after volunteering at the Houston Food Bank and touring the home of a family who was affected by the winter storm.
President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Texas over the weekend, allowing Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more resources and assistance to the Lone Star State.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Capitol Riot A ‘Planned,’ ‘Coordinated’ Attack, Security Officials Say | The Daily Wire
New Capitol riot video shows extreme levels of coordination MSN
302 Moved - CNN
Well well well.......now ALL the police agencies in DC say the capitol riot was planned and coordinated by radical right wing extremists weeks, maybe months, before Jan. 6th.
CNN and others reported on this weeks ago, and screwed up the democrats’ narrative that President Trump incited the riot! Now that narrative has been COMPLETELY DEBUNKED by all the police and security forces!
I believe that would make the impeachment charge null and void! LOL!!
TRUMP: “Hey Nancy, it’s Owen.”
Pelosi: “Owen who?”
TRUMP: “O-n-Two!”
HAHAHA!!!
Failed again!
Maybe next time they should wait for the fuckin facts to come out before they make absolute fools of themselves. Fuckin Clowns!
TRUMP2024OmertÃComment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
The liberals on this site are full of shit. Pelosi and the rest of the Trump-deranged dems are full of shit. They don't care about facts. Hate has blinded them. They're all a bunch of fools.
Ex-Capitol Police, security officials testify at Senate hearing that riot was ‘coordinated attack’
Security officials testified Tuesday that they believe the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 was a "coordinated attack" as they were pressed by senators over the circumstances leading to the security failure.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger and former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, as well as Metropolitan Police Department acting chief Robert Contee, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, in the first Senate hearing to examine the "security failures" that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol last month.
Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., questioned the officials over whether they believed there was coordination with regard to the attack.
"These people came specifically with equipment. You’re bringing climbing gear to a demonstration, explosives, chemical spray – you’re coming prepared," Sund testified. "The fact that the group attacked our West Front 20 minutes before the event at the Ellipse ended – they were planning on our agency not being at full strength at that time."
Sund was pointing to former President Trump’s rally, which took place at the Ellipse near the White House just before the riots began.
Sund added that U.S. Capitol Police were "dealing with two pipe bombs, specifically set right off the edge of our perimeter to draw resources away."
"I think there was a significant coordination with this attack," Sund said.
Contee also said rioters used "hand signals and radio communication," as well as a "coordinated use" of chemicals.
"I certainly believe it was coordinated," Contee said, pointing to the "placement of pipe bombs in the area, all of those things, and plus, adding to what we know in hindsight, now, as a result of the ongoing investigation of the FBI."
"As they continue to scrub social media, we are learning more and more and more that this is clearly a coordinated effort," Contee said.
And Irving agreed.
"Based on the information provided by Contee and Sund, I would agree," Irving said. "The evidence would indicate a coordinated attack."
Peters said that extremist groups, like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, have been identified in intelligence reports, and that the committee plans to hold future hearings to discuss that intelligence.
The Capitol Riot followed Trump’s rally, in which he encouraged his supporters to protest Biden's Electoral College certification.
Rioters had been around the Capitol for most of the day on Jan. 6, but they finally breached the building as their numbers grew about an hour after Trump's speech concluded.
Trump was acquitted by the Senate earlier this month after a weeklong trial, following the House of Representatives on Jan. 13 voting to impeach him on one article – inciting insurrection – in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
Trump was the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice and the first president out of office to go through an impeachment proceeding.
Trump was acquitted, with 57 senators voting for his conviction – short of the required two-thirds majority – and 43 voting against.Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will support Merrick Garland’s nomination for attorney general, five years after blocking the judge's path to the Supreme Court virtually guaranteeing President Biden's nomination to lead the Dept of Justice.
When asked during his Senate confirmation hearings about his intentions to prosecute any and all Capitol Hill rioters, he replied that he intends to pursue them with all of the power that his position provides him.
He also endorsed President Biden's intentions not to defund the police.
Police brutality didn't just go away because white supremacists attacked Congress
Police brutality didn't just go away because white supremacists attacked CongressComment
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Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Senate confirms Tom Vilsack to serve again as agriculture secretary
The Senate confirmed Tom Vilsack as President Joe Biden's agriculture secretary, sending the former Iowa governor to the same Cabinet position he served for the entirety of the Obama administration.
The vote was 92-7.
Vilsack, 70, will now be tasked with helping farmers hard hit by former president Donald Trump's trade wars and the coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened thousands of workers at meatpacking plants and deepened the challenges of hunger and food insecurity.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
The USA is really going of the rails with Joe Biden.
Transitions for Kids.
Most alarmingly, Dr. Levine has advocated for sex changes for pre-pubertal
A professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, Levine has given lectures in various settings since at least 2012 on how to perform sex changes and gender conversion therapy on children.
According to Levine, children ought to be given the latitude to choose their own gender. Levine has advisedhttps://thenationalpulse.com/analysis/schweppe-bidens-hhs-pick-advocates-sex-changes-for-kids/Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
They want to do WHAT? Remember the tides will change!
House Democrats Push Cable Companies, Streaming Platforms to Drop Conservative Networks
lettervoter fraudhearingDonald Trump following the Capitol riots.
Three other Big Tech firms, Apple, Google and Amazon, all cut access after the riots to Parler, the social media platform popular with conservatives.
The companies alleged that conservatives had used Parler to spread election-related disinformation and to organize the assault on the Capitol, though Facebook was mentioned far more often in charging documents against rioters who have been arrested so far.
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