Photo EBU

The peculiar, but by now a sort of fancy kitsch, the Eurovisioncontest, is on again. This time in Baku, the not so democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. (Use the link to check out some of the songs. Montenegro has some, well interesting, lyrics.)

This has raised some concern over the possible PR, the, no doubt nasty regime, might get. As the same discussion is going on concerning soccer, let me say that I’m generally reluctant to boycotts, and specifically those carried out by government. Boycotting private companies, as was the case with the hysteria over French wines and nukes some years ago, is both stupid and insulting. And even not boycotting governmental monopolies might be a good idea. If I got clearance, naturally out of the question, to operate freely as a journalist in North Chorea, it would be more than stupid to refuse to use whatever electricity, phone services or lodging there is, on the ground that it’s run by a communist regime. Hey, everything is. If it’s running at all, that is.

Sometimes, you tend to think twice though. Not about if boycotts are effective, but if they might be justified. To clear way for the Eurovision, the government quite frankly confiscated peoples’ houses, to clear the way for the stage. In this case, with a short notice, the owners were compensated with 50 percent of the “market value“. How you calculate such in expropriation I’ve never understood. The same goes for the worst environmental crimes, regardless of energy source, committed not by energy companies on a free market, but by energy companies working in collusion with the government.

The damage is done. Sadly enough. So not going would probably just make things worse. Try to spread some fresh ideas while there instead! On the other hand, at least one of the finalists had some difficulties in grasping the possible dilemma. Because Baku is in the Caribbeans, is it not?

The party season has started. In about a month, Rio will be crowded by politicians and hooligans for the mega environmental gathering, but allready next week, good old Hotel Maritim in Bonn will fill up with the usual bunch for yet another climate conference.

Nothing wrong with Bonn, or Maritim for that matter, but don’t people get bored? From the UNFCCC invitation:

“The 36th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), the fifteenth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action…”.

That’s just for starters, but it seems like the same show again. 36th session! And over the past decade, when these meeting have intentsified, there has been no significant global warming, and certainly not any man made climate change. Should be pointed out, to avoid misunderstandings, that we have indeed seen tradegies that could fit into the environment chategory, Tsunamis, earthquaqes, starvation and war, but none of these are adressed neither under the roof of Maritim. Or by the usual Tibetan vegans traditionally entertaining visitors outside.

And you easily start getting the feeling that even the organizers are feeling that this is just business as usual. After all, some years have passed since the global hysteria in Copenhagen, a bunch of climate gates for example (though the first erupted right before the meeting), and things that people in general really do care about. Some wars, economic crisis in Europe, a couple of elections, to mention a few.

But Bonn is nice, and though even the lunch burger at Maritim is rather tasty, I would rather recommend some really nice restaurants to enjoy after a stroll along the Rhine.

It’s here again, the Super Moon, or more correctly the same old moon, but a bit closer to Earth than usual. Got a glimpse yesterday, and admit it’s impressive when the skies are clear enough.

As with all weather phenomena, it’s easy to find speculations. This year, however, I’ve only found articles in which the authors find it necessary to point out that earth quakes are not caused by the moon (or by the otherwise most powerful force around; the Sun, or – for that matter – by CO2). No references to Global Warming. That’s comforting.

It’s otherwise rather natural that in earlier times, superstition has been high.  And sure, if you really browse the net, you can still find it. But this folklore, the risk to be moonstruck, werewolves etc, were – as in the case of a lot of religious myths and traditions – often built on observations and practical considerations. As for some religious rules, such as the ban on pork and certain see food, you only need to look at geography and living conditions to grasp the rationality. As for the sacredness of family values, that too seems rather rational in most societies.

And as for the moon, it is indeed a powerful force. Just look at the tide, for example in the Channel. And with that force, it’s not hard to understand that some people, most notably those prone to migraine, can be very sensitive to a full moon. And dogs do wail towards it. Possibly some humans too, but we are not werewolves.

Constructive Environmentalism CFACT Style

Many years ago, when I was working for an environmental information department at a large company, I was intrigued to discover that a colleague, putting together a data base with information sources, had created a sub category called “Anti Environmental Groups”. At a closer look, this turned out to be a listing of think tanks with a scientific, free market oriented approach to environmental issues (no doubt CFACT would have been on the list, had she found us). She claimed she couldn’t come up with any alternative name. Should be added that she was a very skilled and reasonable working mate, but apparently tricked by the mainstream propaganda in those days. As the main listing included both WWF and Greenpeace, a better division could have been between reasonable, militant and violent groups. No such luck.

The history and rhetorics of the radical green movement is not a sunny one, sometimes just ridiculous, on occasion rather sound. More often downright scary.

Peter C. Glovergoes through some of the often forgotten rethoric on the barricade, in a splendid article in The Commentator.

You should read thew article in full, but let me pick a few central passages and quotations:

Journalist Alex Lockwood (in the leftwing UK Guardian) proposes “the internet should be nationalised as a public utility in order to contain the superfluous claims of warming skeptics”. Fred Pearce (again in the UK Guardian) demands we “silence the doubters”. At the 2007 Live Earth concert, Robert F. Kennedy Jnr called for skeptics to be “treated as traitors” following this up with the demand that all coal execs “should be in jail for all eternity”.

(—)

Alarmist high priest James Hansen has called for skeptics to be put on trial for “high crimes against humanity”.  Hansen has also endorsed a book by Keith Farnish that advocates sabotage and environmental terrorism by blowing up dams and demolishing cities to return us to an agrarian age.

(—)

Kari Norgaard is professor of climate change at the University of Oregon. At a recent London conference she called

for skeptics to be viewed as “racists” and climate scepticism as a “sickness” needing to be “treated.

If I may pitch in, couldn’t we agree that environment is about what’s around us. Our living conditions. These, in my humble opinion, not only include, but are based on things like private property and common decency.

Only weeks after the peculiar, entirely symbolical and possibly dangerous Earth Hour gimmick, it’s now the 42′nd Earth Day. Hard to be against the Earth, but I’ve never understood the tendency to use these events to suggest an ongoing conflict between the earth and humanity.  

CFACT International President David Rothbard comments:

“Celebrate them all, we should. But as faithful followers of CFACT know, today’s environmentalism (at least the kind that gets all the attention) isn’t so much about reveling in the beauty of nature and its amazements as it is in using this lofty matter to hammer away at human productivity, prosperity, and plenty. Saddest and ironic of all, of course, is that people prospering is the very thing that helps us steward the environment the best.”

 You might add that without humans, there wouldn’t be an Earth Day, or that without human action, in the form of development and exploitation, there would be no humans. Ecological nostalgia is sometimes tempting to some, but I believe we all realize that if time travel was possible, none of us would survive even minutes in a prehistoric era.

 So, let’s take the opportunity to celebrate the innovations that increasingly is making it possible to lead a life even in areas still ridden by hardship. Not of prehistoric proportions, but at least with meagre possibilities to adjust housing and clothing to the weather, choose what we eat, or even have access to fresh drinking water.

Today’s sunny news is that Brittish scientists now have shown that hidden groundwater resources wating to be exploited in Africa, may amount to a hundred times the more shallow wells being used today.

  ”We estimate total groundwater storage in Africa to be 0.66 million km³ (0.36–1.75 million km³). Not all of this groundwater storage is available for abstraction, but the estimated volume is more than 100 times estimates of annual renewable freshwater resources on Africa. Groundwater resources are unevenly distributed: the largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan. Nevertheless, for many African countries appropriately sited and constructed boreholes can support handpump abstraction (yields of 0.1–0.3 l s⁻¹), and contain sufficient storage to sustain abstraction through inter-annual variations in recharge.” (Environmental Research Letters)

Getting access to this life saving resource will require skill and technology. Luckily, both have been let to flourish in parts of the world, less hurt by dictatorships, wars, socialism and misguided green activism and legislation.

However, due to the very unexpected and sad demise of the head of the film crew, the editing and publication of the conference’s video footage became more difficult than it used to be. But finally, the EIKE team managed to edit and upload almost all the presentations (quite a few are in English).  So, if you couldn’t attend IKEK4, and you want to see what was going on, please visit the EIKE youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/EikeKlimaEnergie/videos

Might appreciate some real support - not corruption and stupidity

The heroic boy scouts collected money, went to a village in deepest Africa and helped develop a well. A few month later, excessive use had dried it up and the final result was an extension of the desert.

Examples of unintended consequences (and sometimes plain stupidity) in development aid are numerous, some probably myths by now. Distributing loads of pork to Muslim countries. Rushing factory building until the installation collapse on top of people. The literature is also quite extensive. A useful introduction, or summary may be this.

Important to remember is that humanitarian catastrophes are seldom, if ever, caused by real villains in these cases, hence the words unintended and aid. Wars, planned famine and genocides are indeed orchestrated by evil, but they are never intended by the do-gooders.

The problems occur both with voluntary help and government programs, though the latter, for natural reason, tend to be more dangerous. As a matter of fact, lot’s of people working with government aid are smart, caring people, but often trapped in the system. One such hazard is the idea, launched some decades ago, and implemented in some countries, to legislate allocation of a minimum level of GDP to the foreign aid budget. Both the government, and the associated authorities are then forced to spend the annual funds.

Some countries try to make the best of the situation, for example by allocating funds to emergency help rather than budget support. Pouring money into a corrupt countries state budget most often leads to, in the less evil scenario, the money going straight into a Swiss bank account, or, which is worse, into buying weaponry used against neighbours or the country’s own population. On the other hand, budget support can also be the only way to boost investments in infrastructure. An alternative to building governmental roads and airports is of course to let private companies both develop, build and own. Such investments tend, if they are even allowed, however to be quite risky for the entrepreneur, facing the constant threat of both war and plain nationalization. The only simple solution, if not sufficient, seems to be to, to the extent possible, minimize governmental aid and let the not so small private, international networks do the job.

CFACT did have some other activities in Copenhagen as well

At the COP 15 in Copenhagen, remember, when the whole world was in hysteria over global warming and the last chance to halt it, one of the things that came out of the – otherwise generally considered catastrophic – meeting, was a pledge by developed countries to help third world countries, that somehow would be hurt the worst by weather changes. And not aloud to burn fossil fuels to develop, you might add. The discussion then moved to a hassle over if this, quite substantial sum, could be included in the budgets for foreign aid, or if it should be earmarked on top of these.

I spent most of the time in on of the cafeterias in the middle f it all. A great place both to write, go through collected material and listen in on the neighbours. Working was out of the question when a quite substantial African delegation nicked most of our chairs (luckily not the one I was sitting in) and started a loud meeting. It was in French, but I can tell you that it was not about global warming, or about the environment at all. It was about how to get as much money as possible from the naive tax payers up North.

Few things make me as happy as innovative solutions to environmental, and thus human, problems. The most recent innovation that caught my eye was the prototype for Ezystove, an an ultra simple stove, now being tried in Namibia. Production will probably take place in Namibia and Kenya, and the idea is that it should be locally manufactured, that it could run on different fuels and that it should be possible to install it using only a screw driver.

Might sound like a simple thing, but it will provide inexpensive cooking facilities in areas where electricity is scarce, if existent, and cut the need for fuel, compared to an open fire, by approximately 40 percent.

Another company developed low cost. as simple as possible, equipment for radio therapy in battling cancer in poor areas with a scarce supply of electricity. Naturally, the machines are not top notch, but they can provide care and improved quality of life, where this was not possible before.

A friend of mine found out how to not only recycle, but recycle PET bottles in a profitable way.

These examples are not that similar, but they share two things in common: They are beneficial to the environment, at least if you count human living conditions into that. And they were not developed by the delegates at the endless UNFCCC conferences.

Dr Cool on A Roll

Astoundingly enough, the Earth Hour, closing down all lights for one hour, yesterday, had immediate effect. The very next morning, spring temperatures were gone and replaced by a healthy return of winter.

Says Dr April Cool from the University of Zaventem, Belgium, occasional advisor to both CFACT Europe, various international bodies and the Balkan Kingdom of Borduria:

 This was really a great success. If we keep this going, and ven extend it, we might experience a new Ice Age in our life time. The latter might be shortened, but as an experiment, it’s magnificent.

- I’m now planning to petition both the UN and the EU to take further action. All electricity companies should be ordered to close down every weekend, for one hour, except on cristmas eve. Once a week, all vehicles should stop for one hour, during rush hour, to maximise the effect. Possibly airplanes too. We have to calculate a few casualties, but it’s in the interest of the rest of humanity. Cattle should be banned. In the interest of minimizing CO2, government should supply breath, and thus snoring, controlling equipment.

- So called Realists have tried to point out that no significant warming has taken place the last decade, but my tan -and now the snow flakes on my collar - tell a different story. The new era started when the lights went out. Please visit me in my fur shop, and I’ll tell you more about it.

A bit confused. As every year. Rather used to working and traveling across time zones, but the daylight saving time switch somehow doesn’t really get along with my head. At least no heart attack, though they are reported to be more frequent in connection to the switch. And all the farmers, and their cattle, sigh once again.

Sincerely hope too, that niehter I, nor anyone else, will be injured during the upcoming, annual Earth Day, but that might be too much to hope for. The stupidity is on again. I write about it every year, apparently to no avail, as it’s still on.

No one, at least no one serious about it, even among the enthusiasts claim that cutting all lights for one hour, would do anything to save energy, or the climate. At best it could disrupt the electricity flow and cause more severe power failures. If that is the goal.

It’s symbolic, it’s claimed. I certainly agree. If anything, it serves as a reminder of how important electricity and energy is. Not just to the hospitals, that hopefully wont participate this year either, or the traffic lights, also, hopefully not out, but for most of our daily lives. Returning to candles, or to the era before the tamed fire, is not really a desirable option.

We’ll see how many accidents there will be this year. Luckily the counter movement Life Hour, (available on Facebook), seems to be gaining some momentum. Lighten up!