To The Australian As a graduate of the University of Melbourne, I am outraged that Duncan Maskell, the present vice-chancellor, has wrongfully dishonoured the achievements of the university since its foundation ("Lessons of Garma shape the future", 14/8). His claim that the university's "history pales into insignificance compared with the thousands of years of history and culture" of Aboriginals, put forward without any substantiating evidence, is sentimental and populist rhetoric. The university has a distinguished history of achievement by its scholars since its foundation, including discoveries of worldwide importance. Moreover, its history extends back through the European university tradition to the learning centres of the ancient world, Egyptian, Greek and Roman. I doubt that the Stone Age hunter-and-gatherer culture of the Aboriginals achieved anything remotely comparable in its long occupation of this continent. Maskell shows no awareness of the powerful case that has been brought against Aboriginal constitutional recognition by a number of our leading intellectuals. Has he read Keith Windschuttle's books, for instance?
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic
Burning forests to generate electricity is probably the worst green energy stupidity. It destroys forests, creates its own pollutants, is less efficient than coal to harvest, handle and burn and has a low heat value. If all factors are counted, it will take decades of forest regrowth to match the CO2 emissions of burning high-energy coal. Most coal-fired power stations are built on a coal field with reserves to last the life of the power station. The coal is mined efficiently, the fuel is of known quality and sizing and efficient repetitive methods are used to extract and prepare the coal and convey it continuously into the power station. The most infamous wood-burning power station in the world is DRAX in Britain. It burns more wood than UK produces and more than any other station in the world. It gets huge subsidies for felling forests as far away as America, then chipping and drying the wood and transporting pellets across the Atlantic. Every step on the way causes large emissions of CO2, but these are conveniently ignored in the mindless war on coal.
To download this article with all images click: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/biofuels-baloney.pdf
When will the climate change madness end? Surely only with the complete shedding of Western techno-industrial civilisation. The case in point, banning the humble sausage, one of life’s remaining joys, to be cruelly snatched from us by … by … the climate change police!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/08/08/wurst-idea-ever-germany-to-tax-sausages-to-fight-climate-change/
“German legislators have proposed raising the sales tax on meat from seven percent to 19 percent to fight climate change and improve animal welfare. Research has shown that greenhouse gas emissions from livestock account for a higher percentage of total global emissions than the world’s 1.2 billion automobiles, a fact underscored by some German Greens who are pushing for higher meat taxes. A United Nations report from 2012 found that the earth’s cattle population generates more carbon dioxide than automobiles, planes, and all other forms of transport combined. Moreover, the cow pies they deposit and the wind they break produce a third of the world’s methane emissions, considered 20 times more detrimental to the environment. According to Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, slaughterhouses in Germany killed 29.4 million pigs, cows, sheep, goats and horses during the first six months of 2019. During this period, Germany produced 3.9 million tons of meat, led by pork, the primary ingredient in German sausages. “I favor abolishing the VAT reduction for meat and using it (the increased revenues) instead for more animal welfare,” said Greens agriculture spokesman, Friedrich Ostendorff. The idea of raising meat taxes would be to reduce livestock numbers — as well as their gaseous output — by discouraging people from eating meat.”
Correspondent Viv Forbes makes valuable contributions to On Target but some of his remarks in On Target Vol 55 No 32 deserve a comment.
Viv might have a miner’s approach to these matters, where any useful mineral should be dug up and used or exported to generate jobs or wealth etc. His claim that solid hydro-carbon resources cannot be used without disturbing other resources such as soils, vegetation and stored water is a valid one but he then complained about destructive laws that give priority to coal seam gas, water and arable land resources. Farmers could be relocated; forests can be replanted and top soils can be set aside, Viv said.
For lighter reading, a Florida dog owner pulled apart an alligator’s jaws to save his dog. The gator was a big one, 10-foot long. Their bite strength exceeds that of a bear. So, how was this done? Please explain, as the story does not. One would have thought that a news mag. would be interested in violations of the laws of physics!
https://www.breitbart.com/local/2019/08/06/florida-dog-owner-pulls-apart-alligators-jaws-save-pet/
Europeans are not concerned much abut climate change, whatever that means but mass immigration is an existential threat, well, maybe that is exaggerating, but, still a threat:
https://www.dw.com/en/migration-more-worrying-than-climate-change-for-europeans-survey/a-49904437
“While climate change is growing in the public consciousness, migration is still the major issue for more EU citizens, according to the results of the European Commission's biannual Eurobarometer public opinion survey. Migration remains the top concern across the European Union, according to an EU public opinion poll, although the importance of climate change is growing. Thirty-four percent of respondents in the new Eurobarometer survey view immigration as the most pressing problem, down six percentage points from last year. However, the issue topped the list of issues in 21 member states, with Malta, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and the Netherlands having the highest proportion of respondents ranking it most problematic. For the first time, climate change jumped to the second most important concern, with 22% of respondents mentioning it, according to the biannual poll conducted by the European Commission."
The Left have established the narrative that Whites are responsible for violence seen in non-Western countries because … well… racism …colonialism. Yes, but what about violence that occurred in non-white societies before contact with the demonic whites, assuming that the laws of causality and the arrow of time still hold in a politically correct universe.? There is a problem for their narrative:
https://www.livescience.com/66102-maya-civilization-was-ultraviolent-before-collapse.htmls
“A hieroglyphic inscription found in an ancient Maya city now reveals kingdoms making up this civilization waged extraordinarily destructive warfare much earlier than previously thought, a new study finds. These findings may shed light on what may or may not have brought about the end of the Maya empire, researchers said. The ancient Maya civilization encompassed an area twice the size of Germany, occupying what is now southern Mexico and northern Central America. At the height of the Maya empire, known as the Classic period, which stretched from about A.D. 250 to at least 900, perhaps as many as 25 million people lived in the region, potentially rivaling the population density of medieval Europe An escalation of violence may have also played a role in the Maya downfall. Previous research suggested that during the Classic period, warfare among the ancient Maya was mostly ritualized and limited in scope, with strict rules of engagement centered on procuring elite captives for tribute and ransom and minimal involvement of noncombatants.
Being Irish from my dear long departed mother’s side, the thought of the green and beautiful land of Ireland being worked over by the globalist death cult, is like a kick to the stomach. But, it is happening, and Ireland is set to “ban cars,” which is a bit different from the usual banning of guns, knives, rocks, sticks, free thought, and embrace the sheer magic of mass Third World immigration, as one headline has put it:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/06/20/ireland-ban-cars-climate-mass-migration/
“Drivers will be forced off the roads in Ireland and the population packed into “higher density” cities under a long-awaited climate plan which will ‘revolutionise’ people’s lifestyle and behaviours, according to local media. “Nudge” policies such as huge tax hikes, as well as bans and red tape outlined in the plan, will pave the way to a “vibrant” Ireland of zero carbon emissions by 2050 according to the government, which last year committed to boost the country’s 4.7 million-strong population by a further million with mass migration. In order to avert a “climate apocalypse”, the government plans to force people “out of private cars because they are the biggest offenders for emissions”, according to transport minister Shane Ross whose proposals — which include banning fossil fuel vehicles from towns and cities nationwide — are posed to cripple ordinary motorists, local media reports. Launching the plan in Dublin, leader Leo Varadkar outlined his vision for an Ireland of ‘higher density’ cities consisting of populations whose lifestyles and behaviours have been totally transformed by ‘carrot and stick’ policies outlined in the climate plan. “Our approach will be to nudge people and businesses to change behaviour and adapt new technologies through incentives, disincentives, regulations and information,” the globalist prime minister said. “We are going to change how electricity is produced and consumed, how our homes and workplaces are heated; the way we travel; the types of vehicles we purchase; and how food is produced.”
I have written so many articles attacking so many people I can’t remember if I once argued that animal rights activists will be defending the rights of mosquitos next. Well, guess what? My reduction ad absurdum has been rejected, by these wild and woolly folks, who now are granting rights to mosquitos:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mosquito-bite-kill-blood-france-animal-rights-eggs-a9036946.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1564767872
“People should not kill mosquitoes but allow them to take "blood donations", a French animal-rights activist has said. Aymeric Caron, a television presenter, said the insects sucked human blood to obtain protein for their eggs, which was “embarrassing for anti-specists who realise they are being attacked by a mother trying to nourish her future children”. Anti-specists are those who oppose discrimination against any species, usually animals. But British animal-protection workers said his comments were “a step too far” and were “an unhelpful distraction”. Mr Caron, who counts himself as an “anti-specist”, said animal lovers should allow the insects to bite, except in Africa, where they would risk catching malaria.”
The media have reported that physicists have engaged in a time travel experiment, using quantum mechanics, which is the next best thing to miracles and magic, and wow, it is science wrapped in complex mathematics so anything goes:
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-physicists-reverse-quantum.html
https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-24-quantum-computer-time-machine-russian-physicists.html
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.10057.pdf
The paper operates in the context of whether there are violations of the “arrow of time,” that we observe, for example, a burning cigarette turning to ash, but not the reverse. The ash does not spontaneously reconstruct back into the cigarette. There is an identification of the arrow of time with time travel; that if an experiment showed the analogue to the cigarette ash reconstructing itself, then time would be reversed. They then show that there is an exotic experiment in quantum mechanics, the theory of the actions of elementary matter, that allows this.
Technology has morphed into technocracy, within the framework of the globalist military-industrial corporate state, so that while a few crumbs of benefit goes to the deplorables, most of the effect of technology goes to further enslave us. How could it be otherwise when he who pays the piper, calls the tune?
https://www.technocracy.news/pentagon-lasers-that-beam-messages-into-your-head/
“Military scientists at the Pentagon are developing ‘talking’ lasers which can beam warnings straight into the enemy’s head from hundreds of miles away. Weapons researchers at the Department of Defense say the hi-tech weapon will be able to send brief messages – in the form of audible speech – across combat zones. The aircraft, ship and truck-mounted devices are being developed as part of a military initiative called the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. The scientists plan to use a phenomenon of physics called the Laser-Induced Plasma formation to make the laser a reality. First, they fire a powerful laser that creates a ball of plasma. Then, a second laser works to oscillate the plasma creating sound waves. These intense laser bursts can then perfectly mimic human language, chief scientist Dave Law told the Military Times. He added that the technology could be ready for battle in just five years. A video shared to publicise the Pentagon project shows the weapon saying ‘Stop or we’ll be forced to fire upon you.’ Scientists say these laser-grams will soon be able to beam hundreds of miles away. The news will send shudders through the conspiracy theorist community who have long claimed the US government uses radio waves as part of a though-control programme. The Pentagon has revealed it is ploughing tens of millions into developing state-of-the-art laser weapons – to ensure it doesn’t lag behind Russia and China.
Foolish politicians driven by extreme green ideology are wasting Australia’s resources. Australia’s nuclear resources are largely wasted. We have abundant geological potential for uranium and other nuclear fuels, we know how to explore and extract them, but with bans and restrictions that change every election, and approval processes that take either some years or forever, only three mines are operating. And Australia is the only G20 country to ban clean silent low-emission nuclear power. Australia’s waste and sterilisation of coal and oil shale resources is also an international disgrace. Solid hydro-carbon resources are very concentrated stores of value, but cannot be used without temporarily disturbing other resources such as soils, vegetation and stored water. Freehold land rights throughout the British Commonwealth once included mineral rights, and there was no conflict between landowners and miners. But avaricious governments stole those rights, and the royalties that once went to free-holders now go to governments. This separation of surface rights from underground rights is the source of continual conflict. Greens then harnessed landowner resentment into anti-mining crusades.
Expanding national parks and heritage areas has been a powerful green tool to prevent exploration and sterilise coal and oil shale resources. As have the destructive laws that give priority to coal seam gas, water or arable land resources. Farms can be generously compensated to relocate, forests can be replanted, top soils can be set aside or re-created and water and gas can be extracted prior to mining. But solid mineral and energy resources can only be mined or sterilised. All past civilisations have recognised this resource imperative. Australia’s oil and gas resources are largely untested. There was great excitement and headline news in the past when oil/gas was discovered in places like Moonie, Barrow Island, Bass Straight and the Timor Sea. Alas, those exciting days are gone and oil exploration is being slowly killed by green bans, enquiries and the application of death-by-delay to every stage of the process. Fracking has opened up huge shale-oil and gas resources in USA. We can be sure that China, Russia, India and Brazil will soon follow. But of course it is banned in Australia.
A great article by Brett Stevens who calls the Left out on climate change, which is being used as their latest political weapon for global communism. He invites the Left to follow through the so-called “logic” of their position:
http://www.amerika.org/politics/how-to-fix-climate-change/
“Now the Left comes to us, worried facial expressions wide, asking what should be done about “climate change.” We can tell them the same thing that conservatives have for decades: All of our problems are caused by relying on quantity over quality. This reflects an inner mental disorder to humanity. Our suggestion is first to make our society sane again, which requires undoing a great deal of Leftist programs. For example, we should dismantle the consumerist system by ending our entitlements programs; we should slash government and regulations; we should empower private suits on behalf of the government; most of all, we should become self-sufficient, which ends a ton of pollution. We are not the ones advocating for people to fly around the globe, import products from far away in cargo ships which are massive polluters, or to have unlimited immigration. We wanted to save you from all of this. We would have busted unions, so that offshoring/outsourcing did not happen. We would have avoided globalism. We wanted to avoid the UN. We opposed welfare programs. Had you listened, the world population would have remained lower and we would not be having this discussion.
We have been covering the dangers of AI, something the good men who do nothing have, naturally enough, been doing nothing about. But, this is a hard one to act on because technology is harder to oppose than finance, covering us like the atmosphere. But, it can be deadly:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/07/26/robert-epstein-power-of-ai-is-too-dangerous-to-be-controlled-by-china-or-google/
“The power of AI” is “too dangerous” to be held by “any one entity, any one government, any one company,” declared Dr. Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, during a Thursday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak. Mansour noted the unavoidable integration of programmers’ and developers’ biases into their algorithms, highlighting a Monday-published Financial Times column addressing the phenomenon of values embedded within programming code: Computer algorithms encoded with human values will increasingly determine the jobs we land, the romantic matches we make, the bank loans we receive and the people we kill, intentionally with military drones or accidentally with self-driving cars. How we embed those human values into code will be one of the most important forces shaping our century. Yet no one has agreed what those values should be. Still more unnerving is that this debate now risks becoming entangled in geo-technological rivalry between the US and China. The fusion of political biases and financial interests with Internet search algorithms — and with AI — via technology companies and governments is a far-reaching matter, explained Epstein. Centralization of power related to internet search — and more broadly, the dissemination of information — is dangerous, cautioned Epstein.”
Yes, along with Antifa, the Left has generated its usual band of violent protestors:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/animal-rights-activists-australia-domestic-terrorists-new-south-wales-a9015346.html?utm_source=reddit.com
“Animal rights activists who invade farms to stage protests will be hit with huge new fines in measures announced by Australia’s south-eastern state government after they were branded “domestic terrorists” by the region’s deputy leader. The New South Wales (NSW) government has introduced on-the-spot trespassing charges of $1,000 (£565) for each “vigilante” caught illegally entering private farmland. The new rules, which come into force on 1 August, could also see individuals charged up to $220,000 (£124,000) and corporations up to $440,000 (£248,000) for any major violations of the Biosecurity Act. “Vigilantes who are entering our farmers’ property illegally are nothing short of domestic terrorists, NSW deputy premier John Barilaro, in remarks widely reported by Australian media. “Our farmers have had a gutful. They don’t deserve, nor have time, to be dealing with illegal trespass and vile harassment from a bunch of virtue-signalling thugs.”
It may be possible for a perpetual committee of green bureaucrats to electrify Australia with a vast but flimsy spider-web of power lines connecting consumers to wind turbines, solar panels, lithium batteries and pumped-hydro batteries. In this wonder-world, electric scooters and mini-cars will be mandated and demand rationing will be imposed. But this costly, ramshackle UN dream-come-true will never be competitive with nearby industries in China, India and Japan using a powerful backbone of reliable low-cost nuclear, coal, gas and diesel power, decorated with bits of green tinsel to placate the energy commissars of the UN. These Asian tigers will get their coal from Mongolia, Indonesia and South Africa, their oil and gas from the Middle East and their uranium from Asia, Canada and Africa.
We received this via the magic of email, but there was no source reference. however, the material is terrific and should be read and thought about. “First coal fired power stations do NOT send 60 to 70% of the energy up the chimney. The boilers of modern power station are 96% efficient and the exhaust heat is captured by the economisers and reheaters that heat the air and water before entering the boilers. The very slight amount exiting the stack is moist as in condensation and CO2. There is virtually no fly ash because this is removed by the precipitators or bagging plant that are 99.98% efficient. The 4% lost is heat through boiler wall convection. Coal-fired Power Stations are highly efficient with very little heat loss and can generate a massive amount of energy for our needs. They can generate power at efficiency of less than 10,000 b.t.u. per kilowatt and cost-wise that is very low. The percentage cost of mining and freight is very low. The total cost of fuel is 8% of total generation cost and does NOT constitute a major production cost. As for being laughed out of the country, China is building multitudes of coal-fired power stations because they are the most efficient for bulk power generation.
We have, like, the USA , coal-fired power stations because we HAVE the raw materials and are VERY fortunate to have them. Believe me no one is laughing at Australia – exactly the reverse, they are very envious of our raw materials and independence. The major percentage of power in Europe and U.K. is nuclear because they don't have the coal supply for the future. Yes it would be very nice to have clean, quiet, cheap energy in bulk supply. Everyone agrees that it would be ideal. You don't have to be a genius to work that out. But there is only one problem---It doesn't exist. Yes - there are wind and solar generators being built all over the world but they only add a small amount to the overall power demand. The maximum size wind generator is 3 Megawatts, which can rarely be attained on a continuous basis because it requires substantial forces of wind. And for the same reason only generate when there is sufficient wind to drive them. This of course depends where they are located but usually they only run for 45% -65% of the time, mostly well below maximum capacity. They cannot be relied on for a 'base load ‘because they are too variable. And they certainly could not be used for load control.
I have founded a moment of crazies who are hoping that God delivers an Old Testament-style punishment to humanity by throwing rocks (actually hailstones: Joshua 10:11), just like in the good old days. Some of these rocks are getting mighty close, and it is only a matter of time. I suggest repenting now to avoids the rush later:
https://www.livescience.com/66043-giant-asteroid-flyby-surprises-astronomers.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190727-ls
“A large asteroid just whizzed past our planet — and astronomers weren't expecting it. Ranging in size from 187 to 427 feet (57 to 130 meters) wide, the space rock named 2019 OK snuck up on us Thursday morning (July 25). It swung as close as 45,000 miles (73,000 kilometers) from Earth, what one astronomer told The Washington Post was "uncomfortably close.". If the asteroid had actually collided with Earth, the crash would have caused devastating damage, Michael Brown, an associate professor in astronomy at Monash University in Australia, wrote in The Conversation. Astronomers in Brazil and the United States separately discovered 2019 OK a couple of days ago, but it's surprise visit was only announced a couple of hours before it passed by. "The lack of warning shows how quickly potentially dangerous asteroids can sneak up on us," Brown wrote. And though this asteroid "is not a threat to Earth right now," other such near-Earth asteroids can be. For example, back in 2013, a meteor snuck up on us and exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk; that blast was stronger than a nuclear explosion, and the resulting shock wave shattered glass down below and injured more than 1,000 people. The Chelyabinsk meteor was much smaller than 2019 OK, spanning about 66 feet (20 meters) across. Both the Chelyabinsk meteor and 2019 OK snuck past astronomers' devices and paid surprise visits.
Kiss your tasty steak goodbye, because it simply consumes too many resources, and to keep the Third World population numbers exploding, food will need to be distributed according to the Marxist principle of equality.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/17/health/beef-environment-resources-report/index.html
“Americans will need to cut their average consumption of beef by about 40% and Europeans by 22%, for the world to continue to feed the 10 billion people expected to live on this planet in 2050, according to a new report. That means each person could have about a burger and a half each week. This calculation comes from the World Resources Institute, a global research nonprofit that supports better use of natural resources to sustain a growing population. Its research looks at agriculture, the climate crisis, poverty and gender, among other topics. Its final "Creating a Sustainable Food Future" report released Wednesday takes a closer look at the gaps in food production and global demand and makes several concrete recommendations on how to prevent a catastrophe. Eating less beef is one such suggestion in the 568-page report. About 9.8 billion people will live on the planet by 2050, that's up from 7 billion people in 2010. Demand for food is projected to outpace population growth, increasing by more than 50% as people's incomes in the developing world are expected to increase, according to the report. The demand for meat and dairy is expected to rise even faster, by nearly 70%. The global demand for ruminant meat, meaning beef, sheep and goat, is expected to be even higher, at 88%. But to keep up with food demands overall, the report predicts farmers are going to have to produce 56% more crop calories than in 2010 -- and that means that land nearly twice the size of India will be needed. Closing these gaps is "harder than often recognized," according to the report. The authors suggest there are several ways to keep people from starving and to keep the climate crisis at bay, but the most impactful way to do this may be to cut the consumption of ruminant meat.”
Civilisations collapse when the elites become self-destructive in their greed and evil. This is a theme common to much of the reporting at this blog. Is it true? A scholarly book explores the same theme: Anne Glyn-Jones, Holding Up a Mirror: How Civilizations Decline, (Imprint Academic, Thorverton, 1996). There is also a very good video about this which can serve as Collapseology 101, an introduction to this topic by Paul Joseph Watson, who argues that almost every factor that led to the collapse of past civilisations, can be found in the West, and there are more as well, generating a situation of over-determination:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELoFwPwIQm0
First, on the Glyn-Jones book, there are informative remarks given in an interview, saving us time in reading the book:
