Tag: Argentina

Argentina President Milei’s UN takedown — Read the transcript

Argentine President Javier Milei delivers a forceful address at the 81st United Nations General Assembly, sharply criticizing the UN and arguing that the organization has moved away from its founding principles.

Milei focuses on three major areas: what he says the UN has failed to accomplish, what he believes the organization should not have undertaken, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the future.

A major part of the speech centers on the Malvinas/Falkland Islands dispute with the United Kingdom. Milei criticizes the UN’s handling of the issue, rejects unilateral resource exploitation in the disputed area and calls for negotiations with the UK. Reuters reported that tensions over oil exploration around the Falkland Islands were a major backdrop to his UN address.

A speaker presenting at the United Nations General Assembly, standing at a podium with the UN emblem in front, against a backdrop of green stone panels.

From CFACT

By CFACT Ed

Mr. President, Heads of State, representatives of the peoples of the world.
Today I address you for the third time as President of all Argentines.

When we took office of a country in ruins, on the brink of the worst crisis in its history, one thing was clear to us from the outset: we had to confront our problems with absolute honesty.
Lying to ourselves in order to feel better was going to get us nowhere.
It’s always preferable to tell an uncomfortable truth than a comforting lie.
So believe me when I say that I know what I’m talking about when, in a constructive spirit, I point to the problems facing this organization which purports to guide states and arbitrate between them.

In that regard, I want to talk about three issues today.
First, what this body should have done and failed to do.
Second, what it should not have done but did anyway.
And third, its position in the face of the advent of artificial intelligence.

Seventy-eight years ago, this House declared that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights— noble words whose spirit I fully share.
To that end, it undertook to uphold international law, defend the sovereignty of nations, and provide a forum in which conflicts could be resolved through cooperation rather than immediately through the force of arms.
That was the original purpose, the contract that we all signed.
But today, regrettably, it is time to acknowledge that, in practice, that sacred covenant has been broken.

That’s to say, it’s become a useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a cast of fatally arrogant parasites, masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats.
I would remind them of what Mises said: good people do not think about controlling the lives of their fellow human beings.
Those who were supposed to guarantee collective security and human rights failed in their task.
Instead, they allowed chaos, violence, and international terrorism to flourish.

The alleged defenders of human rights have sheltered bloodthirsty dictatorships and regimes that stone women in the streets.
They have systematically voted against Israel while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa.
And as if that were not enough, an organization established to defend the territorial sovereignty of its members decided to look the other way with regard to the situation of the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands, South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas.
For us, the Malvinas are a national cause.

I repeat: the Malvinas for us are a national cause.
They are also a test of the gulf that can exist between the words of international institutions and the reality upon which they purport to act.
Fifty years ago, this very Assembly adopted Resolution 3149, which calls on parties to refrain from introducing unilateral modifications while the dispute remains unresolved.
Fifty years on, the situation has not changed, yet unilateral modifications continue.

Today, the Sea Lion Project is moving toward oil extraction on the Argentine continental shelf in the North Malvinas Basin, under British licenses that Argentina rejects as illegal and illegitimate.
Any such activity not authorized by the Argentine Republic in this regard constitutes an unlawful act under both international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and Argentine domestic law.
That is why I wish to ask a question: what use is a resolution if, for decades, the other party can act in direct contravention of it, while that resolution remains intact in the archives but powerless in the face of reality?
There’s no shortage of words or resolutions.

What is lacking is consequences.
Because an institution that cannot ensure that its words carry weight in the real world loses the most important thing of all: its authority.
In these circumstances, those who follow the rules receive no reward for doing so, while those who break them suffer no repercussions whatsoever.
That’s why the Malvinas are not merely an issue between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

They also raise a question regarding the ability of this organization to enforce its own resolutions.
Argentina has taken note of that reality, and in the face of the unauthorized exploitation of our resources in the disputed area, we’ve acted.
We’ve submitted formal notes of protest.
We’ve availed ourselves of the legal remedies at our disposal.

We’ve imposed sanctions on the companies involved and their suppliers.
And we’ve submitted a national sovereignty defense bill to Congress.
For far too long, Argentine governments opted for a rhetorical defense.
We have chosen a peaceful, practical, and effective defense.

I repeat: we have chosen a peaceful, practical, and effective defense.
I also wish to reiterate our position regarding the population of the islands.
As this very Assembly has determined in numerous resolutions, the principle of self-determination does not apply in this case, since the population was implanted by the occupying power on a territory whose sovereignty is in dispute.
That principle exists to liberate colonized people, not to legitimize situations arising from colonization.

If the United Kingdom maintains a selective interpretation of the principle of self-determination with regard to the Malvinas Islands, it must also explain how it reconciles that position with the debates on self-determination taking place within its own territory.
Once again, we call on the United Kingdom to resume negotiations with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute, as required by international law.
We also reiterate our invitation to proceed without delay to an exchange of views with a view to resolving the issue concerning the aforementioned dispute over the exploitation of our natural resources.
And I want to say something more to the global energy sector.

Waka Mwertha represents a historic opportunity, with the potential to become one of the major players in the energy sector in the decades ahead.
Come, invest, develop it with us.
But there’s a limit to this invitation.
We will not remain indifferent to those who exploit resources under illegal foreign occupation.

Argentina’s position is clear.
Today I have come to tell you that Argentina is not going to sit around waiting for the UN and the international community to live up to their own mandate.
We’re going to take matters into our own hands.
For far too long, Argentina managed its own decline.

We managed poverty.
We managed isolation.
We managed irrelevance.
We grew accustomed to debating how to divide up what remained, rather than asking ourselves how we could grow again, how we could rebuild what we had lost.

That’s over.
We’ve already lost too much.
We do not want to lose it again.
That’s why we’ve embraced free enterprise capitalism.

We’re opening our economy up to trade and investment.
We’re advancing in the development of our strategic resources.
We’ve embraced the technological revolution, and we are rebuilding our military capabilities after decades of neglect.
We’ve also made a geopolitical choice.

We have unequivocally aligned ourselves with the West, with the United States, and with Israel, countries with which we share a deep affinity of values and strategic complementarity.
That is why we condemn the attacks by the Iranian regime against the State of Israel.
We have designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization and continue to seek justice for the two terrorist attacks perpetrated on Argentine soil in 1992 and 1994.
We have decided to cooperate with the world, but to do so standing tall, in the understanding that only a nation that is politically relevant, economically influential, and militarily respected can truly be a master of its own destiny.

Mr. President, just as I have shown you how the UN failed to do what it was supposed to do, now I want to tell you how it has excelled at what no one asked it to do, and what it should never have been doing.
Because alongside that failure, they have built a bureaucratic leviathan devoted to deciding how the peoples of the world and their citizens should live.
This amounts to a curious mixture of anarchy and tyranny, impotence in the face of those who break the most basic rules, such as bloodthirsty dictatorships and terrorist organizations, coupled with Orwellian control and impositions on liberal democracies that abide by the rules.
We saw this with the Millennium Agenda.

We saw it with the 2030 Agenda, with economic regulation, gender agendas, environmental extremism, and unchecked immigration.
And every time they failed, rather than reviewing the model or apologizing, they doubled down, as they are already doing with the 2045 Agenda, which, I say now, will fail.
But perhaps the most serious example, the one that forever should shame this organization, is quite another.
That is how they managed the pandemic.

During the pandemic, bodies under the auspices of this House put themselves before scientific evidence and the sovereignty of nations and promoted forced lockdown policies throughout the world that ruined jobs, that ruined the education of entire generations of children, and cost the lives of millions of people who died alone without basic medical care.
Where some allege a public health policy error, we see a global experiment in social control disguised as science.
And when a state wearing public health blinkers deprives its population of the right to work, to receive an education, and to bid farewell to their dead, this results in millions of unavoidable deaths, there is a word for it: genocide.
That happens in many countries, including Argentina, which boasted of being the World Health Organization’s star pupil.

And that is why we decided to leave the World Health Organization.
Added to that is something more subtle but equally damaging: the psychological terror instilled by the state.
For years, citizens around the world were told that they should be afraid.
Afraid of their neighbors, of the air they breathe, of leaving their homes.

That fear wasn’t a mere side effect.
It was the chosen instrument of their government.
The problem is that emergencies eventually pass.
Fear passes.

Generations move on.
But the institutions and powers created on the pretext of those alleged emergencies remain.
And if for a moment we allow ourselves to believe that the lesson had been learned after so many failures, the arrival of artificial intelligence demonstrates quite something else.
The printing press, the steam engine, electricity, the internet— every great technological revolution has been accompanied by fears about what it would destroy, particularly jobs.

There is no doubt that this is one of the most effective ways of instilling fear in human beings, given the role of work as a means of subsistence.
Take the Industrial Revolution as an example.
When it began, the world was home to some 800 million human beings.
If, in keeping with the Luddites and the perennial pessimists, employment had at best remained constant, then, given that the world’s population has since increased more than tenfold, the global employment rate today would be at 90%.

That is absurd, something that few of us few seem to have stopped to consider, perhaps except perhaps those of us with a passion for reading Borges, who love his approach for testing an idea by taking it to its logical extreme.
Ultimately, these technological advances have not only failed to produce any of the catastrophes, but in addition, all of these ended up bringing an end to what human beings were able to do.
Today, we have built machines that are able to carry out tasks that only a few months ago seemed out of our reach.
Where we many see a threat, we see a new frontier: artificial intelligence, or superintelligence, as Donald Trump said, can double our productivity in a way that we do not yet comprehend.

To invoke Adam Smith, artificial intelligence will be the pin factory of the 21st century, and much more besides.
It can transform our economies, our medicine, our education, even the way we govern.
That calls for prudence, yes.
But prudence doesn’t mean fear.

Moreover, under no circumstances should fear automatically translate into obedience.
Indeed, the dystopian scenarios commonly invoked to instill fear and justify state control make no sense from an economic standpoint.
The answer lies with Adam Smith.
Artificial intelligence, like the division of labor in the case of the pin factory, is an accelerator of productivity growth.

Smith noted, however, that the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market.
Growth will therefore be constrained by its counterpart in genuine demand, without fiscal deficits or spurious money creation.
But that’s not all.
Those projects must also be financed, and that should be done with the resources of human beings.

That is, their initial endowments and level of wealth, which correspond to the side of the market.
Moreover, the purpose of producing more is to achieve a higher level of consumption.
Yet the satisfaction generated by consumption increases at a decreasing rate, while the loss of satisfaction involved in surrendering leisure in order to produce more rises disproportionately.
Consequently, the point at which the gain from greater consumption is equal to the loss of leisure brings the system to an equilibrium, leaving no room for dystopian terror.

That is why, when we hear that the state should control artificial intelligence, we should remember something basic.
The state is not an abstract creature.
It is made up of people, officials, and bureaucrats.
Granting it control over innovation means granting some people, in the best and most naive of cases, the power to limit what everyone else can create.

History gives us reason to scrutinize such power carefully.
For centuries, fear over tomorrow has been used as an argument for restricting freedoms today, always with the same promise: give us a part of your freedom and we will protect you from this new threat.
We will apply a different principle.
In the face of uncertainty, we propose determination.

In the face of fear, courage.
In the face of decline, ambition.
And in the face of resignation, we propose optimism.
That is why I tell you that when it comes to artificial intelligence, Argentina will stand at the forefront of freedom.

We have the critical minerals, the energy, the talent, and the capacity to compete at every link in that value chain.
And we want to become the most competitive place in the world in which to develop it, with a cutting-edge legal framework, a commitment not to regulate preemptively, a commitment not to regulate preemptively, limited liability for companies operating with AI agents, and tax incentives.
Because artificial intelligence is not geopolitically neutral.
The West must lead the development of this technology to ensure that it is consistent with our fundamental libertarian values, namely respect for life, liberty, private property, and the notion of human dignity.

In that regard, we fully share President Trump’s vision.
Mr. President, we are living through one of those strange moments in history when one world begins to disappear before the next has finished being born.
These are dangerous times, but they are also extraordinary times.
Because during long periods of stability, nations manage the world they have inherited.

During periods of transformation, some have the opportunity to build the world that is to come.
Argentina wants to be one of them.
We will continue to participate in multilateral fora in good faith, because some problems mean that we need to work together.
But we mustn’t confuse cooperation with subordination.

We believe in alliances, and above all, in nations.
Argentina speaks from the experience of a country that knows its own mistakes.
We know the cost of isolation.
We know the cost of destroying a currency.

We know the cost of turning the state into a permanent obstacle to human initiative.
For a century, we tried almost every conceivable way of preventing our own greatness, and we survived.
Not unscathed, but we survived.
Perhaps that is why today we understand something that other nations may forget: decline is not destiny.

It is the result of repeated decisions.
And if a course can be chosen, it can also be changed.
And that is what Argentina is trying to do.
We have the energy that the world will need.

We have food.
We have critical minerals.
We have human talent.
We have the South Atlantic, and we are a natural gateway to Antarctica.

And we have something that for far too long we lacked: the will to transform our potential international power.
We want an Argentina that is prosperous, influential, and powerful.
Not to subjugate others, but to be free.
Not to conquer others, but so that our destiny may be decided by Argentines themselves.

That is why I say to the free men and women of the world, to scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators, to those who have dreamed of a land where they can make a new beginning: look south.
There you will find a vast land of fertile fields, oil, minerals, and human talent.
A land that has welcomed millions who crossed oceans in the hope that their children would live better lives than they had, and who built one of the most prosperous nations on Earth.
We have a responsibility to live up to that legacy.

We do not know exactly what the world now being born will look like, but we do know what kind of nation we want to be when it arrives: a free nation, a prosperous nation, a sovereign one, a nation capable of defending what is its own and open to the world.
A nation unafraid, once again, to utter a word that for far too long seemed forbidden: greatness.
No nation is guaranteed a place in history.
It is built generation after generation, through work, through freedom, and through the determination of a people who refuse to accept that their best days are behind them.

We believe that Argentina still has a great story ahead of it.
And we have decided to go out and claim it.
May God bless all peoples of the world.
May God bless the Argentine Republic.

May the forces of heaven be with us.
And long live freedom, damn it.
On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Argentine Republic.

Official UN auto-generated transcript.  May contain errors.

211 Tourists Rescued in Historic Andes Operation After Sudden Blizzard Buries Vehicles at Balcón del Pissis

Safety protocols for Balcón del Pissis (in Fiambalá, Catamarca, Argentina) are a mix of formal recommendations, weather-driven closures, and evolving local rules, but enforcement and infrastructure remain inconsistent.

Events like this are reminders that mountains demand respect.

The July 2026 rescue at Balcón del Pissis stands as one of the largest and most complex high-mountain operations in recent Argentine history.

It successfully evacuated all 211 trapped tourists without fatalities, though two people required hospitalization for moderate hypothermia.

Safety protocols for Balcón del Pissis (in Fiambalá, Catamarca, Argentina) are a mix of formal recommendations, weather-driven closures, and evolving local rules, but enforcement and infrastructure remain inconsistent.

The site sits at over 4,000 meters (~13,100+ feet) in a remote high-Andes environment prone to sudden storms, whiteouts, extreme cold, altitude sickness, and poor road conditions.

The event occurred amid a broader active winter storm cycle in the Andes in July 2026, driven by atmospheric rivers (long plumes of concentrated moisture from the Pacific). These systems delivered exceptional snowfall, especially on the Chilean side (e.g., Portillo and other resorts seeing multiple meters), with spillover effects into Argentina.

In Catamarca’s high Puna region (near Balcón del Pissis, ~4,000–4,600+ m elevation):

  • A sudden afternoon escalation brought heavy snow, viento blanco (whiteout winds reducing visibility to near zero), and rapid burial of roads/vehicles.
  • This is typical for the area: cold fronts, orographic lift against the Andes, and katabatic winds can cause conditions to deteriorate in minutes, even after a benign morning.

Similar events hit lithium mining areas in the province earlier in the cycle, with roads blocked and extreme lows (e.g., -27°C reported in spots).

Systemic Vulnerabilities Exposed

Tourism Growth vs. Preparedness:

Balcón del Pissis and the Ruta de los Seismiles have seen surging visitors due to promotion. The site features dramatic lagoons and volcanic views but is remote, with limited infrastructure. Excursions often rely on convoys of vans, which are vulnerable once snow accumulates.

Regulatory and Oversight Gaps:

  • Pre-incident warnings existed, yet groups proceeded.
  • Ongoing investigation into guides/operators for potentially disregarding alerts.
  • Historical issues include insufficient controls, unlicensed operators, vehicles unsuitable for conditions (not all 4×4), and pressure to run trips for economic reasons. Calls for better licensing, permanent monitoring, and guardaparques predate this.

Rescue Challenges:

The operation succeeded due to massive coordination (200+ personnel, heavy equipment, mining support) but took ~24+ hours, with people sheltering overnight in vehicles. This highlights how response times stretch in high, remote terrain. No fatalities are fortunate—hypothermia and altitude effects were real risks.

Broader Climate and Risk Picture

The Andes show declining overall snowpack trends over decades (linked to poleward shifts in westerlies and positive Southern Annular Mode), contributing to water stress. However, extreme events like atmospheric rivers can still produce intense, localized snow/rain—sometimes more volatile under climate influences.

This creates a “whiplash” effect: thinner baseline snow in many years, punctuated by heavy dumps that catch people off-guard. High-mountain tourism faces rising hazards globally (glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, unstable routes), and the Andes are no exception. Past incidents (e.g., elsewhere in Patagonia) underscore that weather can turn deadly quickly.

Economic/Regional Angle:

Tourism is a key driver in Fiambalá and Catamarca, alongside mining. Balancing promotion with safety is tricky—overly strict closures hurt livelihoods, while lax ones risk lives and rescue costs (borne by the state here).

Takeaways and Forward Look

Short-term:

Expect tighter scrutiny, possible temporary closures, and renewed pushes for mandatory guides, better equipment standards, satellite comms, and real-time weather integration for high-altitude trips.

Longer-term:

This underscores the need for resilient tourism models in extreme environments—improved forecasting, infrastructure (e.g., shelters, cleared routes), education, and possibly limits on group sizes during shoulder/winter seasons.

The rescue was a success story of coordination, but it was a close call. Rapid weather changes at altitude don’t forgive complacency, no matter how “routine” the route feels on a clear morning.

Events like this are reminders that mountains demand respect.

3.. 2.. 1.. Claim: Climate Change will Cause More Hantavirus

Andes virus (ANDV) is a hantavirus primarily found in South America (especially Argentina and Chile) that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), also known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS). It is notable as the only hantavirus with documented (though limited) person-to-person transmission.

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Just one problem – Ushuaia, the source of the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, has a comparable climate to Prince Rupert in British Columbia.

How climate change could help hantavirus find more hosts

Experts say extreme weather is boosting the odds that the pathogens carried by rodents will spill over into human populations.

The cruise ship departed Ushuaia, Argentina, in April with plans to ferry 147 passengers and crew members to some of the most remote places on earth, including Antarctica. But the ship, named the MV Hondius, had its voyage cut short by a rare virus that has killed three and infected several others. 

…

The emergency also points to another growing challenge for global public health: Climate change is altering the rainfall, vegetation, and habitat conditions that influence rodent populations — changes that experts say boost the odds that the pathogens these animals carry will spill over into human populations.

…

Prolonged drought sends rats and mice into populated areas in search of food, which can put people at higher risk of contracting the virus. Sudden rainfall following drought causes trees and shrubs to produce a windfall of nuts and seeds, which tend to benefit rodents and boost their numbers — all the while increasing the risk of transmission from animal to human.

…Read more: https://grist.org/health/how-climate-change-could-help-hantavirus-find-more-hosts/

My question – Australia has frequent weather extremes and rodent plagues. So why aren’t we overrun with Hantavirus? Hantavirus antibodies have been detected in Aussie rodents, but significant Hantavirus infection isn’t a thing in Australia.

From the Aussie CSIRO;

…

Do we have hantaviruses in Australia? 

Australia is unique in the global hantavirus picture. It is the only inhabited continent where no confirmed human cases of hantavirus infection have been recorded. 

However, antibodies to hantavirus have been detected in some Australian rodents, suggesting related viruses are likely present at low levels.  

Several explanations for why there hasn’t been any reported cases have been proposed. One possibility is the lack of diagnosis: perhaps Australian hantavirus only causes a mild, feverish illness with kidney involvement that could easily be attributed to other causes. 

However, anyone who is unwell with persistent or serious symptoms such as respiratory issues should consult their GP for advice. This is especially the case for travellers returning from parts of Europe, Asia or the Americas.  

…Read more: https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2026/May/Hantavirus-explainer

Maybe a few mild human cases slipped through the net, but my point is given the low prevalence of Hantavirus in Australian rodent populations, despite our extreme cycles of drought and flooding rain, and a much warmer climate than Ushuaia in Argentina, it seems reasonable to conclude a warmer climate and greater climate extremes do not cause more Hantavirus cases. It also seems likely something about our warm climate is killing the Hantavirus which is already present in Aussie rodent populations before it becomes a significant problem.

Maybe the virus just can’t stand warm conditions. A lot of viruses can’t.

Who knows, if we get a bit more global warming, maybe cold climate places like Ushuaia will also benefit from less Hantavirus, just like warm climate Australia.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Andes virus (ANDV) is a hantavirus primarily found in South America (especially Argentina and Chile) that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), also known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS). It is notable as the only hantavirus with documented (though limited) person-to-person transmission.

Transmission

Primary route: Inhalation of aerosolized virus from the urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents (e.g., the long-tailed pygmy rice rat). It can also occur via direct contact with rodents or contaminated surfaces, then touching the mouth, nose, or eyes.

Person-to-person: Possible but uncommon and requires prolonged close contact (e.g., household members, intimate partners, or shared enclosed spaces) and exposure to body fluids. This sets Andes virus apart from other hantaviruses, which do not spread between people. Transmission is most likely early in illness when the person is symptomatic. It is not airborne like COVID-19 or measles.

No evidence of spread via casual contact, food (except possibly contaminated), or vectors like insects.

Incubation period: Typically, 4–42 days (up to 6 weeks) after exposure.

The case fatality rate for Andes virus HPS is high, often estimated at ~35–50% (around 38% in some reports), though early supportive care in well-resourced settings can improve outcomes. Older adults and those with comorbidities face higher risk.

Argentina: New Climate Leader!

“The grand opportunity is not only to leave climate alarmism and forced energy transformation in the dust. It is also to elevate the private and public wealth of Argentina with expanded private property rights and free markets. Let’s go!”

From Master Resource

By Robert Bradley Jr.

“The grand opportunity is not only to leave climate alarmism and forced energy transformation in the dust. It is also to elevate the private and public wealth of Argentina with expanded private property rights and free markets. Let’s go!”

The rating of “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker makes Argentina an international climate leader in 2025. President Javier Milei is putting people and greenery ahead of the Climate Industrial Complex in his country, offering a sound example of economic and environmental policy for other countries in the region.

Here is the good news (described as bad) by Climate Action Tracker (CAT):

Under Argentina’s new government, progress in developing and implementing climate policies has taken a step backwards. Among the restructuring and budget cuts in the national public administration, Argentina’s former Ministry of Environment has been demoted to the sub-secretary level, and the continuity of its previous climate policies remains in doubt. Meanwhile, the government continues to invest heavily in fossil fuels, notably a USD 30 billion LNG terminal to export fossil gas out of Vaca Muerta. Overall, CAT rates Argentina’s climate targets and policies as “Critically insufficient”.

Details follow:

Under President Milei’s administration which assumed office in December 2023, Argentina’s national government has been substantially restructured, with a focus on reducing the size of the public administration and cutting expenditure. In this process, the former Ministry of Environment has been reduced to the sub-secretary level, under the Secretary of Sport, Tourism and Environment (EcoNews Global, 2023).

During his presidential campaign, President Milei had stated he does not believe in man-made climate change and that his government will not support climate policies, including threats to leave the Paris Agreement (Colombo, 2023). While his administration later stated that Argentina will not be leaving the Paris Agreement, during COP29, Argentina recalled its delegation only a few days into the negotiations. Overall the outlook is bleak on Argentine increasing climate ambition for the next four years (Larena, 2024; Spring, 2023).

Energy projects for the masses have the green light!

The new government plans to continue developing the Vaca Muerta fossil gas fields, as well as a fossil gas pipeline and the LNG terminal planned by the previous administration. To support these large investments, the government set out an incentive package called RIGI or Incentive Regime for Large Investments (KPMG, 2024).

CO2 emissions are on the go also, doing its part to green the Planet and trash Net Zero.

In 2022, emissions in Argentina rebounded above 2019 levels after a sharp drop in 2020 due to COVID-19. This puts Argentina’s 2030 emissions projections under current policies at approximately 15% above its already unambitious 2030 target. Based on a study by UNICEN exploring energy scenarios (Blanco & Keesler, 2022), if Argentina were to implement additional policies to scale-up low carbon energy sources and reduce energy demand, it could get close to its NDC target. However, to be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C, Argentina would need to develop more ambitious policies, especially to stop deforestation and reduce livestock-related emissions.

The past administration put Argentina on a continued-poverty course.

Argentina submitted an updated NDC in December 2021 that sets an unconditional target that is only a marginal improvement on the previous iteration. Argentina’s latest target only achieves a “Highly insufficient” rating when compared to required domestic efforts, and to Argentina’s fair share contribution to global climate change mitigation. With emissions (excl. LULUCF) projected to grow significantly after 2022, Argentina is set to miss its NDC target.

“In the last few months, climate policy has been significantly deprioritised in Argentina,” Climate Action Tracker continued. “However, there have been some positive developments:”

  • After denying climate change and claiming Argentina would exit the Paris Agreement, the Milei administration promised to keep all existing international climate commitments, including both the NDC and long-term strategy (LTS) targets.
  • Subsidies for power and fossil gas have continued to progressively decrease, including plans to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable groups of the population. However, it is unclear how successful those plans are in protecting these groups.
    New measures were introduced to reform the power market, in an effort to increase competition and private sector investment.
  • New measures were introduced to reform the power market, in an effort to increase competition and private sector investment.

Argentina can follow the U.S. lead and skip COP 30 and further demote the international effort to help defeat it. But Climate Action Tracker dreams otherwise:

There is much that Argentina could do to increase its climate ambition to CAT, including:

  • Re-committing to its existing domestic climate policies and make resources available for their implementation.
  • Phasing out support for upstream oil and fossil gas developments.
  • Setting out a transition plan for the energy sector and revive existing renewables policies such as the RenovAr auction scheme.
  • Setting out a low-carbon transition plan for the land sector, including agriculture, livestock and land use change.

Explicit subsidies for upstream oil and fossil gas development should be eliminated, but more than this, the opportunity for production incentives and wealth democratization should incite subsoil privatization, an idea born by another great Argentinian, Guillermo Yeatts ( (1937–2018). As I have written elsewhere:

The case of Guillermo Yeatts for subsoil privatization should eclipse ‘climate change’ as the number one policy initiative of the 21st century. This friend of private property, free markets, the rule of law, and civil society, a successful entrepreneur in his own right, a thinker and doer, has set up an excellent opportunity for a new political era in his beloved Argentina.

The grand opportunity is not only to leave climate alarmism and forced energy transformation in the dust. It is also to elevate the private and public wealth of Argentina with expanded private property rights and free markets. Let’s go!

Argentinian Reform: Subsoil Privatization (Javier Milei, meet Guillermo Yeatts)

From MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr.

“The case of Guillermo Yeatts for subsoil privatization should eclipse ‘climate change’ as the number one policy initiative of the 21st century. This friend of private property, free markets, the rule of law, and civil society, a successful entrepreneur in his own right, a thinker and doer, has set up an excellent opportunity for a new political era in his beloved Argentina.”

Give me liberty, not corruption and poverty! The recent election of Javier Milei of La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances) in Argentina was a resounding vote for freedom and prosperity. And don’t let the mainstream media marginalize him (“frequent conservative provocateur” … “far-right libertarian rants” ….). He has a grand opportunity to enact a national “social justice” that could be a model for many other nations in Latin and South America and in other regions of the world.

Background

Milton Friedman, while warning against “a tyranny of the status quo,” noted:

Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.

And Argentinian voters have responded with a libertarian of promise. As Wiki describes the country’s new leader:

… Milei gained notability as an economist, as the author of multiple books on economics and politics, and for his distinct political philosophy as a vocal proponent of the Austrian School. He critiqued the fiscal policies of various Argentine administrations and advocates reduced government spending.

As a university professor, he taught courses in macroeconomics, economic growth, microeconomics, and mathematics for economists.[1] Milei also authored numerous books and hosted radio programs…. As a national deputy, he … critiqu[ed] what he calls Argentina’s political elite and its propensity for high government spending. Milei has pledged not to raise taxes…. He defeated economy minister Sergio Massa … on a platform that held the ideological dominance of Peronism responsible for the ongoing Argentine economic crisis.

Javier Milei, Meet G. Yeatts

Javier Milei has an opportunity to channel a great, late Argentinian, Guillermo Yeatts (1937–2018), champion of privatizing the subsoil. I have written “Mineral Privatization for the Masses: Remembering Guillermo Yeatts (1937–2018) in regard to his primer, Subsurface Wealth: The Struggle for Privatization in Argentina (Foundation for Economic Education: 1997), a translation of El Robo del Subsuelo (Theft of the Subsoil).

Here are some quotations from Yeatts’ book (pp. 161, 167, 168, 171–2).

“The history of oil production in Argentina has been characterized by a continuing tug-of-war between the state as owner of the subsurface and private producers in the pursuit of profitable production of the resource. Private participation in the industry was limited to brief periods of time and restricted to specific phases of oil production.”

“The effectively monopolistic position of the federal oil corporation displaced the private sector to certain segments (such as refining) or to participation in peripheral activities …. In the strictly oil activities of exploration and production, YPF remained the sole and monopolistic player.”

“In Argentina, public ownership of the subsurface has been the foundation of a model of forced redistribution of rent in the oil industry. [Government] institutions are the royalties system, public oil production, and the establishment of reserves, quotas, regulations, registries, permits, etc. They have also caused stagnation in the industry and relegated the country’s oil resources to oblivion.”

“Privatization … is the institutional change required to reduce risk and allow internalization of externalities through private, voluntary, and mutually beneficial agreements. Privatization of the subsurface will complete the deregulation of the market, and, more importantly, encourage innovation among surface owners and oil prospectors.”

“The new oil market … only presents individuals with the incentives to embark on efforts to bring about growth and increased productivity. This change is about unobstructing minds and freeing them from restrictions. It appeals to the initiative of thousands of surface owners who will discover new business opportunities and new means to obtain profits.”

I summarized Yeatts’s major theme in my guest preface to this book (pp. xv–xvi):

[There is] a general economic maxim: public [government] resources are really private, owned and exploited by a political elite, while private resources are really public, owned and managed by a multitude. Government-owned resources do not ‘belong to all of the people’ and allow ‘self determination;’ they belong to none or a very few.”

Conclusion

The case of Guillermo Yeatts for subsoil privatization should eclipse “climate change” as the number one policy initiative of the 21st century. This friend of private property, free markets, the rule of law, and civil society, a successful entrepreneur in his own right, a thinker and doer, has set up an excellent opportunity for a new political era in his beloved Argentina.

——————

Guillermo M. Yeatts (1937–2018) died five years ago, just short of his 81st birthday.

Why Milei is Argentina’s Last, Best Hope

From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

Finally, an intelligent explanation of why Argentines chose Milei as their champion.  G. Patrick Lynch cuts through the smoke and mirrors in his Law and Liberty article Misunderstanding Milei.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.

It took almost 80 years. That’s how long Argentina’s economy and society have been in free fall. In some ways, it’s a testament to our greatest fears about democracy and self-government that no political leader had the political incentives and simple nerve to buck the status quo. Eighty years of relentless, grinding inflation and spiraling deficits, followed by defaults, currency devaluations, and restarts before November 19. But finally, the people of Argentina have rejected a failed status quo. Javier Milei publicly won a near landslide by Argentinian standards, and when one considers the probability of Peronist cheating at approximately 100%, the margin was likely much higher. Whether or not the alternative Argentinians have chosen will “fix the situation” is for now beside the point.

They have exercised the one option they have—rejecting the incumbents
for the promise of something different. That’s all that democracy promises.

Javier Milei, who today is being called “far right,” “radical,” and (by the very lazy) a “far-right libertarian,” is now the president-elect of one of the greatest failed states of our lifetimes. It’s hard to fully explain how badly governed Argentina has been by its long line of Peronist governments distinguished for their lavish spending, stunning corruption, autocratic tendencies, and economic nationalism. The economic statistics are mind-boggling. Defaults, regular annual inflation rates in excess of 100%, a resulting enormous welfare state, parasitic public sector unions, and largely complicit “centrist” politicians: all these are now the depressing landscape of the Argentine political economy.

Indeed, it was the world’s 10th-richest country when Perón took over. And Hong Kong was relatively poor. But look at what’s happened over time. Perón’s statist policies produced a steady decline while Hong Kong’s laissez-faire approach has now made it one of the richest jurisdictions on the planet.

However, if one did not live this reality but were to simply draw conclusions about the election and Milei from the international (particularly American) press, one might think Argentina had fallen into a state of collective delusion, choosing an insane, sideburn-covered Latin American version of Trump without any reason other than some vague references to inflation and debt payments. As the saying goes, the international press has buried the lede.

Milei is trying to address the disastrous situation in Argentina, but outlets such as Reuters described it as “shock therapy” in a not-so-subtle reference to Naomi Klein’s book Shock Doctrine. Klein argues that nature or war can create disasters and give opportunities for “capitalism,” (anthropomorphized through Milton Friedman) to engage in exploitation by establishing extremist policies like private property rights and markets. In this case, however, it’s the legacy of the exact policies that Klein and her ilk support that has created the unmitigated disaster.

Money printing, a bloated welfare state, an emphasis on economic “independence”
and other prominent leftwing economic prescriptions have made this disaster,
but the irony is lost on the folks at Reuters.

Milei’s main, nay fundamental, policy proposals are all in the context of this backdrop. His firm commitment to abolishing Argentine central banking and cutting social spending is straight out of Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman, and it is completely appropriate given the circumstances. The only way that an “anarcho-capitalist” could be elected was in a situation of failed governance and welfare statism so dire that he could crack the door open slightly and introduce ideas unknown by the mainstream intelligentsia, let alone the average Argentine on the street.

The language used by the international media, the gigantic “blob” of interests in the World Bank and international aid community, and the mainstream economists who oppose him is designed to delegitimize Milei. They don’t want another success story like Chile in the region. Two nations that adopt “neoliberal” policies that work mean their jobs and narratives are at risk. They are and should be terrified.

The problem is their terms are like insults thrown around in a schoolyard. They are neither coherent nor consistent. Consider the three most prominent politicians to be given the “far right” treatment by the mainstream press, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and now Milei. What do they have in common? Substantively the answer is very little. Bukele is engaged in a crackdown on gangs and crime that involves widespread violations of due process and civil rights, but has led to a plummeting of crime rates. Meloni is known as an anti-immigrant crusader, but she also supports the Ukraine war and like Bukele has sky-high approval ratings. Milei wants to abolish central banking, and while he’s pro-life, he’s also a bachelor who brags about his sex life and argues for open markets and trade with the United States of all places. Yet to a journalist in the legacy media, they are all part of what has become known as the “far right.” Not satisfied that describing politicians as “conservative” or “right” is enough to scare their readers, the network news, national newspapers, and news services have decided to add a qualifier to the term. 

The growth in the use of the term “far right” is yet another example
how intellectual honesty, philosophical consistency, and respect
for liberal discourse are completely absent from our public debates.

But when we see the media force these politicians into a two-dimensional straightjacket, it doesn’t just present a problem of categories. It’s also about the limits of elite background and education. As David Brooks’ recent New York Times column rightly noted, the national news media are very much alike in background and education. The educational institutions that produced these figures support consensus views and expert policy creation, which accord with their own preferences. Briefly, that means government solutions to government problems. Those solutions involve hiring policy people to “fix” things. But what about when the consensus is wrong? What if the theory doesn’t fit the reality? What happens when crime runs rampant in El Salvador despite the best intentions of Western policymakers? What happens when Argentina’s central bank drives inflation to unimaginable levels at immense social cost? Unconventional answers emerge and democracy gives it energy.

The press and policy elites cannot address who Milei is or what he’s proposing on the merits because it does not fit their world view. Hyperinflation is not caused by climate change, racism, or opposition to gender displacement. It is not a social construct or a random event, particularly when it happens continuously for almost 80 years and destroys a largely upper-middle-class society. It is the political and economic failure that results from political exploitation and central planning. The Argentine bureaucracy and the chattering classes have failed citizens for decades. We know the cause, and so does Milei. His opponents wanted to make things a little less bad, possibly for a few years until they once again made things much worse.

Peronism is the abusive relationship, the addiction, the concept
that no responsibility is necessary after years of irresponsibility.
Milei is the medicine, and he will not be an easy pill to swallow.

The possibility of Galt’s Gulch in Argentina is basically zero. He faces nearly intractable political challenges in achieving even a small percentage of his legislative agenda. And yet if he can achieve one goal he might allow Argentina to start down a different path. Dollarizing the economy might force the state into fiscal responsibility and end the monetary insanity that currently reigns. It will be painful, but perhaps not as painful as decades more of the numbing effect of more stimulus that ultimately debases the currency.

There are no easy solutions here, which is part of the reason the media
and its stale-minded intellectual influences have no solutions to offer.

They are left with nothing but vague language, scare tactics, and labeling. What took 80 years to destroy will take decades, perhaps centuries to recreate. Well before he won the first round of voting back in September, Milei was asked what his model for Argentina was. He replied, Ireland. Ireland of course famously cut taxes and regulation, freeing its economy and spurring rapid economic growth.

Argentina could do worse than Ireland, but anything
different than its current path will be an improvement.

The Green Energy Wall Gradually Coming Into Focus

From MANHATTAN CONTRARIAN

Francis Menton

It’s been obvious for many years that electricity generation from the intermittent wind and sun would never work to power a modern economy. But how would the infeasibility of the proposed energy transition finally manifest itself to put an end to the madness?

A couple of years ago I began writing about the the upcoming “Renewable Energy Wall,” for example in this piece from December 2021 titled “Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Renewable Energy Wall?” I called for readers to place their bets as to which among various jurisdictions would be the first to recognize that it could never achieve the net zero goal. But what would be the aspects of reality that would put an end to further renewable development? Would it be the soaring costs? Or perhaps the spreading blackouts? Or maybe the voters wising up? Or maybe other things that nobody had yet guessed?

Over the past few weeks and months, several parts of the coming Green Energy Wall have started to come into focus. The two factors that are emerging most significantly at this early stage are (1) voters starting to catch on, and (2) the inability of wind and solar developers to deliver projects at costs that are at all workable for consumers.

In the voter category, many places, particularly in Europe, have long had an all-party political consensus in favor of “climate action,” or some such nonsensical slogan, thus making it almost impossible for citizens to use their vote to push for any kind of sensible energy policies. But suddenly that is changing. First we had Argentina a week ago electing as President an avowed climate skeptic, Javier Milei. And then on Wednesday, the Netherlands followed suit, giving the biggest bloc of seats in its Parliament to the party of another avowed climate skeptic, Geert Wilders. Wilders’s Freedom Party delivered a drubbing to both the “center right” party of the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as to a Labor/Green coalition headed by Frans Timmermans, who is the European Commission’s Vice President and a face for the EU’s noxious climate agenda.

Euro News today has some quotes from the manifesto of the Freedom Party:

[T]he PVV manifesto . . . declares: “We have been made to fear climate change for decades… We must stop being afraid.” “The climate is always changing, for centuries,” the document goes on to say. “When conditions change we adapt. We do this through sensible water management, by raising dykes when necessary and by making room for the river. But we stop the hysterical reduction of CO2, with which, as a small country, we wrongly think we can “save” the climate.” The manifesto also calls for more oil and gas extraction from the North Sea and keeping coal and gas power stations open.

Further as to the Dutch election, here is a November 23 piece from Spiked by Fraser Myers, headlined “The Humiliation of the Dutch Establishment.” Myers makes the point that green hair-shirt energy policies have now finally made climate skepticism a winning electoral position in Europe. Excerpt:

The failure of Timmermans . . . shows that opposition to climate policy is now a significant driver of European populism. After all, as Commission vice-president, Timmermans was the face of Brussels’s stringent climate policies, including the so-called European Green Deal. The EU’s green austerity played a major role in stoking the farmers’ protests that have erupted in the Netherlands over the past few years. . . . And it’s not just agriculture that could be flattened by climate policy. As a Politicoprofile of Timmermans this week notes, the much-vaunted European Green Deal could be about to set off a wave of deindustrialisation – on a scale not seen for 50 years. Politicians who think they can get away with impoverishing their citizens, while hiding behind waffle about Net Zero, are in for a very rude awakening.

Neither Milei’s victory, nor Wilders’s, by itself means that anti-fossil fuel policies are going to disappear overnight in either country. Each of those men has far from a majority in the legislature, meaning that it will take the support of other parties to make great progress against the Green Blob. However, the process has begun.

And meanwhile the march to “green” energy, after years of uncontradicted hype, is now experiencing one reverse after another. It turns out that there are limits to how much governments can achieve by trying to hide the costs of wind and solar energy through various subsidies and tax credits. At some point, after pocketing all the subsidies and credits, the developers still must deliver power to the grid at an affordable cost; and if they can’t, they will go broke.

Just a couple of weeks ago I had a post titled “As The Transition To Green Energy Crumbles, Funding For The Climate Scare Soars.” That post had a round-up of data points in the ongoing failure of green energy to replace fossil fuels. The data points included: proposed massive off-shore wind farms off New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island suddenly canceled; stock prices of wind developers cratering as they can’t complete projects for agreed prices; major de-industrialization in Germany due to soaring energy prices. And the bad news for wind and solar energy, and for the “ESG” investing to fund it, only continues to get worse.

From the Wall Street Journal, November 19, “Wall Street’s ESG Craze Is Fading.” Excerpt:

Wall Street rushed to embrace sustainable investing just a few years ago. Now it is quietly closing funds or scrubbing their names after disappointing returns that have investors cashing out billions. . . . The third quarter was the first time more sustainable funds liquidated or removed ESG criteria from their investment practices than were added, according to Morningstar.

They provide this chart of the reversal of fortunes for these so-called “sustainable” funds:

Without private investors, the wind and solar future becomes 100% dependent on government handouts. At some point, those can’t continue either.

And from Canada’s Financial Post, November 17, by venture capital investor Henry Geraedts, “Net-zero policies colliding with economic reality.” Excerpt:

Renewables aren’t reliable and many companies are discovering they don’t pay for themselves even with unsustainably high subsidies. . . . The inconvenient truth is that the clean energy transition is not unfolding as foretold. Three decades and trillions of dollars in subsidies later, wind and solar still represent single-digit percentages of global energy demand, which continues to grow. . . . Our governments holding forth sanctimoniously about imagined climate-driven severe weather events while imposing large-scale use of wind and solar is insanity with serious consequences.

The best thing to end the wind/solar craziness will be to have one or two jurisdictions fail spectacularly as a lesson to everyone else. I wouldn’t have wanted my own New York to volunteer for that role, but that may be what’s happening.

While Media Obsess About Some Warmth, Globe Seeing Plenty Of Unusual Cold Events

From NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin on 15. November 2023

Surface temperatures measured where people live show there’s as much cold as there ‘s warmth, see temperature.global.com.

Christian Freuer’s Cold Report (EIKE)

and Electroverse.com

Snowpack extent in US reaches record levels!

America’s first Arctic air blast of the season broke hundreds of low temperature records and led to the largest snowpack extent there in early November in NOAA records.

A high snowpack blanketed the Rocky Mountains, northern Plains, Great Lakes and northern New England, resulting in 17.9% of the Lower 48 under a blanket of snow as the calendar turned to November – a new record in the books dating back to 2003.

Many places recorded their snowiest Halloweens ever.

At 22 inches, Muskegon, MI, not only recorded the snowiest Halloween ever, but also the snowiest October day and month. Glasgow, MT, recorded the snowiest start to the season with 36 inches.

The cold broke hundreds of low temperature records across the country, from Texas to Maine, dropping the average temperature in the Lower 48 to -0.5°C – more than 5 degrees Celsius below normal.

Historic November cold grips Argentina, Australia

A late cold spell has hit large parts of South America, especially Argentina. The country recorded the lowest November temperatures since records began.

A number of records for highs and lows have fallen. New lows include the 0.1°C at Córdoba Airport, which broke the record of 2°C set on November 4, 1992, the 1.6°C in Chamical, which broke the record of 4.5°C set on November 9, 2010, and the 2.8°C in Mendova, which beat the 3.2°C set in 1992.

New lows include Gualeguaychú’s 13.8°C, which broke the old record set in 1992, and Paraná’s 13.5°C, which beat the record set in 1936.

The cold was severe, up to 24 degrees Celsius below normal, and it was also widespread, affecting most of Argentina:

In Australia

While it was really hot in the west, the east was freezing. New November lows fell in New South Wales, including -2.5°C in Young and -0.1°C in Parkes.

Cold October in Uruguay

The South American frost at the beginning of November also hit Uruguay, continuing the anomalously cold October. October 2023 averaged between -0.5 °C and -1 °C below the multi-year norm.

Snowstorm claims the lives of shepherds in Mongolia

Last year, cold and snow disrupted the seasonal migrations of shepherds in northern China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Last November, herders in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang died in the lowest temperatures since the 1980s. Hundreds of cattle and sheep froze to death as snowstorms and temperatures as low as a record -48.6°C blew in from the north.

There is a terrifying Twitter video about this!

The winter capers in China and Mongolia (which appear again in a news item below) also found their way back into the alarmist blog wetteronline.de.

Record snowfall in China

Trains and buses were canceled and schools closed across northern China as the first major snowstorm of the season hit the country. According to the weather service, the cold front is expected to bring record-breaking snowfall.

Major highways in northeastern cities such as Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, are closed and flights have been canceled, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Lots of snow in Anchorage

Anchorage also saw its first major snowfall from Sunday to Monday, with more than 15 cm falling on November 5 alone.

According to the National Weather Service, this was the most fresh snow ever to fall in the city on November 5. The previous record of 10 cm from 1964 was thus clearly surpassed.

New study: Antarctica cools more than 1°C since 1999

Significant cooling in the 21st century in the Central Pacific, East Pacific and almost the entire Antarctic “implies considerable uncertainties in the future temperature projections of the CMIP6 models”. – Zhang et al, 2023

As reported by notrickszone.com, new research indicates that mean annual temperatures in West Antarctica fell by more than -1.8°C between 1999 and 2018. The cooling was most pronounced in spring, with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) cooling at a rate of 1.84°C per decade.

According to the results of Zhang et al., most of the Antarctic continent has cooled by more than 1°C in the last two decades. See, for example, the cooling trend of ~1 °C per decade for East Antarctica (2000 to 2018) shown here:

Link: https://electroverse.info/

One meter of early-season snow in the Alps

It has snowed heavily in the European Alps this week. “It’s looking good,” reports planetski.eu.
Snowfall amounts have exceeded one meter in some areas, with the zero degree line dropping to 1,500 meters.

High levels have been recorded in the northern French Alps, such as the ski resorts of Tgnes, Le Arcs, La Rosiere and Chamonix, while in the western Swiss Alps Glacier 3000 and Verbier, as well as Courmayeur and La Thuile in north-western Italy, have recorded incredible early winter levels.

Numerous European ski resorts have already opened their slopes: 2 in Finland, 1 in Norway, 7 in Austria, 3 in Italy and 3 in Switzerland. More ski resorts were due to open this weekend, including Verbier in Switzerland (on Fri, November 10).

Operators in France are also preparing for an early opening, as the number of requests has increased following the heavy snowfall.

90% of Russia covered by snow

According to the scientific director of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center Roman Vilfand, 90% of Russia is covered in snow.

All of Siberia and the south of the Urals are covered with snow, including Transbaikalia; in the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye there is an average of 20 cm of snow; on Sakhalin it is up to 8 cm.

Most of Karelia is covered in snow, as is the northern half of the Arkhangelsk region, including Arkhangelsk itself; snow has been accumulating in the Komi Republic for a long time, while in the north of the Perm Krai the snow cover persists.

On the European side, the border of the snow cover runs north of Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to a report by hmn.ru.

“Now we can say that 90% of the territory is covered in snow,” said Vilfand to illustrate the situation.

More record-breaking snow in China

A record-breaking early snowfall has hit northeast China this week, leading to flight cancellations, road closures, train cancellations and school closures.

According to a senior meteorologist at the National Meteorological Center, the first snowfall in northeast China usually occurs between late November and early December, so this week’s snowfall came exceptionally early.

Harbin issued a very rare “red” blizzard warning – the highest in China’s four-tier warning system.

Heavy snowfall hit a number of Chinese provinces, causing widespread disruption.

China’s National Meteorological Service has issued an orange blizzard warning for the provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia.

The lingering cold is the next problem and workers are now scrambling to restore power and clear snow-covered roads.

This is a ‘proper’ early winter Arctic storm – no wonder the western media won’t touch it.

–40°C in Russia

Following the news that 90% of Russia is covered in snow [see above], the low temperatures are also making an early and ubiquitous appearance.

“The Russian winter is taking its course”, reports gismeteo.ru.

The first -20 °C of the season were measured in Russia on October 11, and the first -30 °C were recorded on October 17.

And now the continental cold has reached a new peak: -40°C.

Last weekend in the Tuguro-Chumikansky district of the Khabarovsk Territory it was -40°C. This weather is considered “very cold” even in the depths of winter, let alone in early November, even by Russian standards.

The cold was not an isolated case either: on November 7, -40 °C was also measured in Tomponsky Ulus in Yakutia:

Source. Gismeteo

According to Gismeteo, this frost will not disappear. On the contrary, it will intensify in the coming days and spread to new areas.

Compiled by Christian Freuer for EIKE.
Also see Electroverse.