Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. I deal with evidence and not with frightening computer models because the seeker after truth does not put his faith in any consensus. The road to the truth is long and hard, but this is the road we must follow. People who describe the unprecedented comfort and ease of modern life as a climate disaster, in my opinion have no idea what a real problem is.
To demand men give them money?
In other words, this group of progressive climate activists are demanding nations they say are controlled by men give them money.
Why thousands of feminist leaders will soon arrive in Melbourne
When over 6,500 feminist leaders, activists, and changemakers gather in Naarm (Melbourne) from April 27-30 for the Women Deliver 2026 Conference, they will be confronting an uncomfortable truth:
climate change is not just an environmental crisis;
it’s also a gendered catastrophe unfolding in slow motion.
The gendered dimensions of climate crisis reveal themselves in stark ways. …
Yet despite bearing the heaviest impacts, women remain largely excluded from climate decision-making. Globally, women hold only around one quarter of parliamentary seats.
While women’s participation in national delegations to UN climate conferences rose slightly to 35 per cent between 2012 and 2022, the proportion of delegations headed by women actually declined. Women occupy just 15 per cent of positions in climate-related ministries, 18 per cent in forestry, and 11 per cent in water and irrigation ministries.
The path forward requires what UN Women calls “feminist climate justice”, an approach that recognises women’s rights, labor, and knowledge, ensures just transitions that don’t deepen inequality and repairs historical injustices.
This means wealthy nations must meet their climate finance commitments and ensure funds reach grassroots women’s organisations. It means polluting corporations must be taxed and regulated. It means women must have equal power in climate policy- making.
The claim is women remain excluded from decision making.
They demand wealthy nations must meet their climate finance commitments.
In other words, this group of progressive climate activists are demanding nations they say are controlled by men give them money.
Have these people got no self- respect?
I’m not anti-women, I work with strong, capable career women every day, who wouldn’t dream of setting out a begging bowl and demanding men fill it with cash.
My wife is an active part of our business.
Australia has strong, inspirational female leaders who didn’t get there by begging men for help.
Consider Pauline Hanson, whose climate skeptic One Nation party is riding high in the polls, endured years of abuse from male politicians, but is on the brink of prevailing anyway, through guts and determination, and commitment to a message Australia is ready to hear.
How about Aussie Trump supporter and mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, who has been rated the richest person in Australia for the last six years. Gina didn’t get there by begging for a handout, she inherited a near bankrupt company and through her own guts, determination and brains built it into a titan of the Aussie business world.
Or take plastic surgeon and burns specialist Fiona Wood, born in Britain but lives in Australia, who revolutionised treatment of severe burns with her 1993 invention of spray on skin. Maybe not quite a household name as Gina or Pauline, but her work has touched thousands of lives, saved lots of people from misery, disfigurement and death. Anyone who has studied medicine or plastic surgery in Australia would have heard her name.
If the Woman Deliver Conference 2026 want money for climate projects, they shouldn’t run begging to men for a handout, by demanding countries which they claim are mostly run by men provide climate finance. They should go out and make their own money like Gina Rinehart, or win the nation’s support like Pauline Hanson, or become a scientific leader like Fiona. They should become the inspiration for women which they claim to be.
A new study used satellite data to look at ten cities around the world to see which parts of cities are the warmest, and how that has changed in the last twenty years as they grew.
Who knew, we can solve global warming by moving suburbs, planting trees, limiting immigration?
A new study used satellite data to look at ten cities around the world to see which parts of cities are the warmest, and how that has changed in the last twenty years as they grew.
It looks like man-made global warming mainly applies to airports and industrial areas. We put most of our thermometers at airports which awkwardly turn out to be 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than surrounding areas, and presumably warmer than they were 120 years ago when there wasn’t 3 square kilometers of concrete runway there sitting in the sun. Industrial zones were even worse, being 2.8°C hotter. Conversely leafy green areas with a lot of vegetation were nearly 4 degrees cooler than the average. So airports are at least 6 degrees warmer than forests. Places near bodies of water were, not surprisingly, even more than 4 degrees cooler. It’s part of why people pay $5 million for a beachside mansion isn’t it?
The worst climate change in Melbourne is on Boundary Road
One of the ten cities they studied was Melbourne and there is a special mention for Boundary Road in Laverton North where daytime temperatures rose from 22.49 °C in 2001 to 30.82 ° in 2021. So that’s 8 degrees of warming in 20 years, surely the fastest rate of warming in a million years. Bring out your dead?
This 8 degree local warming trend compares to a general city-wide background warming effect over the twenty years of about 0.5°C.
Contrast that apocalypse with the western Quandong region, which is primarily agricultural. There man-made climate change caused a cooling trend of −0.12 °C/year during the day.
Melbourne, Australia: The top graphs are the day time land surface temperatures in 2001 compared to 2021. The bottom two graphs are the night time temperatures. Figure 12. LST means Land Surface Temperature.
Does anyone really care about the workers in the urban deserts?
The next time a smug Blob Academic panics about how 1.5 degrees of global warming will imperil pregnant women, babies, and cats and dogs, let’s ask them if they know of the deadly microclimate threat. If a small rise in temperature is that serious, all the mascots, I mean victims, face a far bigger threat from high density development and unrestrained urban population growth than from coal and gas power plants a hundred miles away. When the experts tell us climate change causes school students marks to fall, or ruins the sleep of senior citizens, we can ask them why they think windmills and solar will cool folks better (or cheaper) than tree canopies? I mean, do they care or don’t they?
And instead of installing 4 million solar panels on rooftops in the hope of shifting ocean currents to cool the suburbs, we could have planted trees instead. And given that we chop down trees that shade the panels, the big question is whether the local heating effect of solar panels can ever be compensated for by altering Antarctic jet streams via carbon reduction. These people are witchdoctors.
The next time the electricity grid managers plot and scheme to switch off our air conditioners at peak times, we can ask them whether tree planting has a better cost-benefit ratio than demand management. Is it cheaper to grow trees or to turn off smelters and factories at 6pm?
I’m sure there’s room for a thousand PhD theses comparing microclimate management as a way to solve “climate change” and I’m also sure most of them will never be done.
If anyone really believes an extra degree is dangerous, the fastest, cheapest fix is air-conditioning with cheap electricity. But in the long run, the lifestyle answer is trees, parks, and ponds. Not “green steel,” not jet-stream manipulation, not billion-dollar grid schemes. Just shade, water, and leaves — the original solar harvesting technology.
The ten cities they compared were spread across the world: Cairo (Africa), Chongqing (Asia), Delhi (Asia), Istanbul (Europe/Asia), Melbourne (Oceania), Mexico City (North America), Moscow (Europe), Nuuk (North America), São Paulo (South America), and Tokyo (Asia).
Details from the paper below:
Airports exhibited a mean daytime land surface temperature (LST) that was 2.5 °C higher than surrounding areas, while industrial zones demonstrated an even greater temperature disparity, with an average increase of 2.81 °C. In contrast, cold spots characterized by dense vegetation showed a notable cooling effect, with LST differences reaching −3.7 °C. Similarly, proximity to water bodies contributed to temperature mitigation, as areas near significant water sources recorded lower daytime LST differences, averaging −4.09 °C.
3.2.5. Melbourne
In Melbourne, land surface temperatures (LSTs) around the city center have shown moderate increases over the past two decades. In 2001, the average daytime LST was 23.74 °C, and nighttime LST was 8.17 °C (Figure 12). By 2021, these values had risen to 24.13 °C during the day and 8.73 °C at night, reflecting a slight warming trend associated with urbanization and infrastructure development.
Hotspot regions primarily include industrial and commercial areas such as Laverton North, Melbourne Airport, Somerton, Campbellfield, Essendon, and Dandenong South. Among these, industrial facilities (recycling, logistics, and warehouses) on Boundary Road in Laverton North recorded the most dramatic rise, with daytime LST increasing from 22.49 °C in 2001 to 30.82 °C in 2021 and nighttime LST rising from 7.29 °C to 8.79 °C. This sharp increase underscores the thermal impact of industrial activities and impervious surface expansion. In contrast, forested northern regions showed minimal temperature changes, maintaining their cooling effect. In 2001, daytime and nighttime LSTs in these areas were 13.13 °C and 7.49 °C, respectively, compared to 13.17 °C and 7.87 °C in 2021.
The analysis of temperature trends in Melbourne indicates gradual warming in the city center, with a daytime LST trend of +0.030 °C/year and a nighttime trend of +0.033 °C/year. The most significant increases were observed in hotspot areas such as Dandenong South, where daytime LST rose by +0.17 °C/year and nighttime LST by +0.067 °C/year, reflecting intense industrial activities and urban development. An intriguing contrast emerges in the western Quandong region, which is primarily composed of agricultural lands. Here, a cooling trend of −0.12 °C/year during the day is observed, alongside a minimal nighttime increase of +0.007 °C/year. This suggests that the retention of vegetation and agricultural practices may be mitigating daytime heat, though slight thermal retention is evident during the night.
From 2001 to 2021, in Melbourne, urban areas showed surface temperature increases of 0.02 °C/year during the day and 0.03 °C/year at night, reflecting urban warming trends (Figure 13). Vegetation experienced a slight cooling of −0.02 °C/year during the day and a warming of 0.02 °C/year at night, while bareland cooled during the day by −0.03 °C/year and warmed at night by 0.03 °C/year. Water body surface temperatures showed no daytime trend but increased significantly at night by 0.05 °C/year, indicating nighttime oceanic warming near urban areas.
h/t Esra Taf
REFERENCE
Yiğitalp Kara 1,2,* and Veli Yavuz 1 (2025) Urban Microclimates in a Warming World: Land Surface Temperature (LST) Trends Across Ten Major Cities on Seven Continents, Urban Sci.2025, 9(4), 115;
The clock counts down to 2030, when apparently, we are all doomed.
Residents divided as Aussie council erects $18,000 clock in countdown to ‘doomsday’ deadline
It counts down the days, hours and minutes until a pivotal moment in our fight against climate change. But not all are enjoying the message.
Joe Attanasio Senior Reporter Fri 21 February 2025 at 8:06 am AEST
A thought-provoking art installation in a major inner-city public garden has continued to spark mixed reactions with locals seemingly divided by the controversial work.
The $18,000 piece features a countdown clock tracking the days, hours, and minutes until 2030 — a pivotal year for climate action in Australia, marked by key national and international targets.
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Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a City spokesman said the price is “a small part of a modest budget” that goes towards “supporting emerging local artists”. In comparison, the Ouroboros work in Canberra — based on the ancient story of a snake eating its own tail— cost a reported $14 million.
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n Fitzroy, a young woman walking through the park on Thursday appeared to enjoy the clock. “It’s kind of cool … it makes you think,” she told 7News. “The people in this area probably already know what’s going on,” her companion said. “Maybe it could have been put somewhere else, like Brighton.”
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On the other end of the scale, one local man hit out at what he described as “bulls**t in my face”.
“Truthfully, it’s just crap,” he said. “I’d like to just keep living peacefully and happily and enjoy this park.”
Does this art installation motivate you to reduce your personal CO2 emissions?
I’ve got to say the council didn’t receive a lot for the money they paid to the artist.
The plinth was already present – it apparently used to belong to a statue of Queen Victoria which disappeared under mysterious circumstances 120 years ago. The University of Melbourne is nearby, which raises obvious suspicions – I doubt the students of 120 years ago were much different to the students of today.
The doomsday clock appears to be a few pieces of welded steel sheet and cheap square section, an electronic display which looks like it was salvaged from a road work sign, and a $200 solar panel. Other components could include a low cost microcontroller, a display controller and a backup battery inside to keep the numbers ticking.
I’ve made devices with similar components as part of my professional work. The materials required to make something like this can be sourced for a lot less than $18000.
But I guess the issue of receiving value for money is for local government voters to decide.
I’m curious whether the clock thing will run out of electricity in winter, at 37.8º South, Melbourne winters tend to be overcast and dreary. The sun drops low in the sky, and the length of day drops to a minimum of around nine hours.
Those big bright LED signs consume a fair bit of electricity, possibly too much for the attached solar panel, if that is what it is. The “clock” also appears to be overshadowed by trees, though some of the trees in Fitzroy Gardens are deciduous which might help a bit.
If anyone happens to notice the clock running out of juice or sees someone sneaking in with a battery pack to give it a boost, please send us a photo for our entertainment – though it is possible there is a fossil fuel sourced grid backup power supply built into the plinth, just in case the solar panel doesn’t cover the climate doomsday clock’s energy needs.
Should we shut down Western industrial civilisation to bring back the frost?
‘Global weirding’: How our ‘normal’ is becoming more extreme
Fires in winter and devastating floods — the weather is getting “weirder” and more extreme.
David Karoly remembers regularly seeing frost when he was a young boy on his way to school in Melbourne — now it’s become an unusual sight for the city.
The decline in frosty days is one of many weather-related changes that people around the world are noticing and describing as “weird”.
Climate change has already driven global temperatures up by an average of 1.55C compared to pre-industrial levels, and 2024 was the hottest year on record.
Individual “global weirding” events may or may not be linked to climate change but Karoly, who is an internationally recognised expert on climate change, says they are happening more often.
Karoly goes on to describe some big storms and other events, but I’m pretty sure severe storm events also happened before the industrial age. As the article said, events “may or may not be linked to climate change”.
I think we should look for a little more confirmation before spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a problem which “may or may not” exist.
As for frost in Melbourne, I lived in Melbourne for a while as a kid. I remember frost in Melbourne – living in a cheap uninsulated wooden house, you felt the frost before you saw it. Frost may be fun if you are watching from a warm room with a roaring fire, but experiencing frost in a cheap 1950s house with a small fireplace and an asbestos sheet outdoor toilet somewhat diminishes the magic.
We were not especially poor – lots of people lived in low quality houses.
Unfortunately lots of people in Melbourne and elsewhere in Australia still live in low quality houses. With Aussie energy bills skyrocketing thanks to Australia’s green energy zealotry, one in four Aussies struggle to pay home heating bills.
Even those lucky enough to still have a fireplace which works, providing fuel for that fireplace is more challenging than when I was a kid. You potentially face severe penalties in today’s Australia for collecting firewood from wilderness areas. And while using a wood fire for home heating is not illegal in Melbourne, clean air laws are much stricter than when I was young. If you burn anything other than expensive kiln dried wood or smokeless fuel, you could face legal repercussions.
Frosty mornings in Melbourne are certainly not something I would fight to preserve.
An extinction Rebellion road block on a major Melbourne access road forced commuters to wait in a queue, or use roads with lots of start / stop traffic lights.
An extinction Rebellion road block on a major Melbourne access road forced commuters to wait in a queue, or use roads with lots of start / stop traffic lights.
Extinction Rebellion protesters cause traffic chaos as they block Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge at peak-hour
Climate change activists have deployed a large truck to block three lanes of the West Gate Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday morning.
Amy Roulston Digital Reporter March 5, 2024 – 8:30AM
Climate activists have sparked traffic chaos in Melbourne on Tuesday morning by positioning a large truck on West Gate Bridge during peak-hour.
Three protesters from Extinction Rebellion Victoria stood on top of the truck that was parked perpendicular across three West Gate Bridge lanes, with a large banner draped over the side reading “declare a climate emergency”.
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Three of the five lanes on the bridge were initially closed, before another was forced to shut an hour later, forcing angry commuters to merge into one remaining lane.
Three lanes are closed citybound on the West Gate Bridge, due to protest activity. Two lanes remain open. Delays are back to Hoppers Crossing on the Princes Freeway, and the Deer Park Bypass on the M80 Ring Road. Consider using Geelong Road or Ballarat Road instead. #victrafficpic.twitter.com/xZSgMStwQR
This time Deanna received a much lighter sentence than the 15 months she successfully appealed in New South Wales, the Victorian magistrate only sentenced her to 21 days for disrupting traffic. Deanna thinks she’s a climate suffragette, she has said so on several occasions. I’m sure the Melbourne magistrate followed the letter of the law, but I suspect Deanna staged the protest in Victoria, because weak anti-road disruption laws in Victoria mean Victoria is a soft target compared to New South Wales, which hardened its road disruption laws in 2022. I suspect Deanna and her friends will be back, targeting Melbourne commuters again, or commuters in another soft target state, either later this year or next year.
It is difficult to estimate how much additional CO2 this protest released, a lot of people probably gave up on the traffic and worked from home that day. But when you take into account all those internal combustion engines idling, 20 miles of start stop traffic either on the alternative routes or squeezing through the bottleneck on the main access road which the XR protest created, I wouldn’t be surprised if the XR protest increased Melbourne commuter CO2 emissions several times over normal levels. Of course, climate protestors triggering the release of lots of additional CO2 is nothing new.
The Melbourne meteor, if it was a meteor, wasn’t as big as the Chelyabinsk blast of 2013, but it was powerful enough to make people wonder what just happened, over a large area.
What can I say? It’s only a matter of time until one of these space objects seriously damages a city or worse.
And of course, we have the Tunguska blast of 1908 itself, estimated yield of 12 megatons, as proof dangerous space objects are still out there.
There are other mysterious devastations through history, some of which might have been meteoric. Some researchers claim the Manuika crater in New Zealand is evidence of a 15th century comet strike and regional mega-tsunami, though this claim is controversial.
There is a risk an unexpected meteor might be mistaken for a nuclear attack. The East Mediterranean Event of 2002 could have started a nuclear war, had it exploded further East over India or Pakistan. 2002 was a time of heightened tension in the region.
Space defence is an issue we could actually try to address. A better space watch would reduce the risk of unpleasant surprises. Even a little more warning could save lives, and there are technologies we could explore, such as Project Orion (if detected late), or NASA’s hypervelocity interceptor (if detected early), which might allow us to prevent substantial collisions with Earth.
But our politicians are too busy frittering uncounted trillions of dollars on climate unicorn projects to bother with real problems.
Meteors are a classic low probability high impact event. the odds of serious damage on any given year might be very low, but if we don’t do something to address the threat, it is inevitable that sooner or later something really bad will happen.
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