This video will introduce you to Christian Concern which exists ‘to protect the freedom to live and speak for him, and to empower Christians to be compassionate and courageous ambassadors.’ Please make it a habit to visit their web site often and to remember them in prayer as they seek to serve the Lord.
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Could this occur in your country? Just take a moment and think about what many politicians and bureaucrats truly think about Christianity. Now, you just might begin to imagine how this could happen to you!
‘According to Statistics Norway, 54, 592 children received care measures from child welfare services in Norway in 2019 alone. That represents nearly 3% of the children in Norway. Nearly 20% of those involved Norwegian-born children to immigrant parents. These statistics represent real families and real-life trauma for everyone involved.
In the fall of 2015, the five children of Ruth and Marius Bodnariu became part of these statistics when they were separated from their parents, their friends and school, and from each other into 3 different households, hours apart from each other. In fact, in many ways, the Bodnarius have become the very symbol of Norway’s staggering child welfare statistics.
This week, five years on from the horrible events of 2015/2016, which included being separated from their children and being forced to leave family, careers, friends and their home, the European Court of Human Rights has dismissed their challenge after four years of international litigation on the basis that the family had not availed themselves of possible domestic remedies for damages after the family was reunited and fled to Romania.
The decision is a blow to the family, who argued before the European Court of Human Rights that any further remedies in Norway were illusory at best. They would not risk further punishment and separation of the family by going back into the system that had so ill-treated them, especially after all of the international media attention the case had garnered. Asking them to go back into the proverbial lion’s den would have been cruel, and something Ruth and Marius Bodnariu would never put their children through.
The Bodnariu family
On paper, Ruth and Marius Bodnariu did everything right, making the ordeal they suffered all the more shocking.
By all accounts, Ruth and Marius are impressive people. Marius, who is of Romanian heritage, has an Engineering Degree in Applied Informatics with a Master’s Degree in Computer Networks. Ruth is a Pediatric Nurse specialising in Psychology for children and youth. They are educated, loving and responsible parents who, in 2015, had two daughters and three sons, the youngest being just three months old and still breast feeding.
From early in their marriage, Marius and Ruth decided that their “ultimate career” was to be parents and raise a family; to have children and invest in them. In 2005, when Ruth was pregnant with their first child, the couple left Romania to start a new life on a farm in Redal, on the west coast of Norway. Redal and its surrounding villages together consist of 200 families, and collectively form a distinct cultural region of Norway.
Shortly after their first child was born in 2006, Marius began working in Forde’s City Hall. Within one year he was put in charge of the IT department in all ten of the village schools. Following expansion, he became responsible for the entire school district covering 10 communities and 50 schools. In 2007, Ruth commenced employment in the paediatric ward of Forde Central Hospital.
Marius and Ruth raised their children in a loving, active and engaging environment. They involved their children in a wide range of activities including fishing, taking care of animals, woodworking, drawing, painting, and music.
Character and fitness
The Bodnarius were an incredibly tight knit family. Ruth’s parents lived in a neighbouring house and were very much a part of the children’s lives. All of the people interviewed by child welfare officials and the police, including colleagues, neighbours and the extended family had nothing but praise for the family.
Of the 122 medical visits the children collectively underwent from their birth until their being taken into custody, not once was there ever an inference that the children were anything but deeply loved and cared for. Nor did tests following the children’s being taken into care provide any evidence of abuse.
Child welfare services intervene
On 30 September 2015, the headteacher at the school where several of the Bodnariu children attended sent a letter to the Department of Culture which contained the written notes of two conversations had by the school with Ruth and Marius’ daughters. The notes reflected that the girls mentioned receiving occasional spankings at home. This letter was forwarded by the Department of Culture to the Barnevernet (Child Welfare Services) on 8 October. After receiving the letter, the Barnevernet contacted the school headteacher to request a detailed report of the complaint. The headteacher highlighted the family’s strong Christian beliefs and suggested that this may retard the children’s development.
Nevertheless, the headteacher believed Ruth and Marius to be good and loving parents. So much so, that when Child Welfare Services attempted to take the Bodnarius’ two daughters from the school yard, she refused them entry onto the school property and would not identify who the children were.
Guilty until proven innocent
Nonetheless, the children were taken that day without prior notification of the family and questioned without any family member, legal representative or anyone they at least could trust being present on the parent’s behalf. The children, just wanting to go home, gave their interrogators the information they thought they wanted to hear. This pattern continued. During a police interrogation, one of the children even asked in her frustration what else did they want her to make up.
As a result of the interviews, the children, including their youngest who was still being breastfed, were taken from them. Norwegian officials continued to repeat the mantra that the children must be believed, even when much of what was said was contradictory or demonstrably false.
In the investigation notes obtained by the family at trial during discovery, the lead investigator even expresses her own doubts that the children are making up the allegations but then suggests that they must nonetheless be true because a Christian upbringing is inherently violent.
Religious illiteracy and cultural intolerance
The Bodnarius’ casefile is replete with evidence of animus and negative pre-conceptions towards the family. One social worker report goes so far as to describe how Mr Bodnariu was praying at a supervised meeting with his son, and made the exclamation: “After a while he (the father) puts himself on his knees and his body (upper part) over the sofa, he might pray!” The children were also never taken to church once while in foster care. They were forbidden from speaking Romanian with each other, and Marius was required to sign a protocol agreeing not to speak Romanian with the children as a condition of being able to have supervised visits with the family.
Reunification
After seven months of separation, the family was finally reunited following court cases in Norway. For their own safety, and fearing further action by Norwegian officials because of the family’s growing grassroots popularity in Norway and internationally, the family fled their home in Norway to relocate in Romania.
The family, working with international lawyer Paul Susman, who coordinated the legal efforts of the case from its beginnings, contacted the Christian Legal Centre for assistance with proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights. Together, over the course of the last four years, we took up their cause before the highest human rights court in Europe. So strong was the international support for the family that the governments of Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic all intervened in the case on the family’s behalf.
Always faithful
Throughout this entire ordeal the family has remained true to their faith and to each other. Theirs was a case worth fighting. The Bodnarius, in all of their humility, are clear that they took this case forward for the goal of helping other families in Norway going through the same thing.
For my part, I can only say what an honour it was to represent and to get to know this amazing family. My prayer is that this case and all the attention it has attracted, having happened on the grandest legal stage of them all, will finally motivate Norway to take the necessary measures to prevent similar nightmares happening to other families. The time for change is now.’https://christianconcern.com/news/a-familys-four-year-european-legal-challenge-ends/
Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
‘In the fourth century BC, the Greek philosopher Democritus proposed that matter was made of small particles. He assumed that, if you kept cutting material up, you would eventually get to a particle which was uncuttable – the smallest possible particle. The Greek for uncuttable is atomos – hence, the idea of atoms was born.
In the 19th Century, scientists began to suspect that atoms were made of smaller particles. In 1913, Niels Bohr proposed his atomic model of tiny electrons orbiting a nucleus comprised of larger particles called protons and neutrons – collectively known as hadrons.
In the 1960s, scientists began to suspect that hadrons were composed of smaller particles. These particles became known as quarks. Instead of positive and negative bipolar charges, quarks have three-way attractions, which are labeled as color charges of red, blue, and green, even though these colors are not real. Bombardment of hadrons by electrons has caused electrons to be deflected in a manner which suggests the existence of quarks.
All of this seemed to help us understand the nature of matter at the tiny quantum level. But now, some physicists are suggesting that the effect previously ascribed to quarks may just be the observed consequences of quantum weak interactions. In other words, quarks may not even exist.
Whatever resolution physicists find to these strange phenomena, it is certainly the case that these strange designs are consistent with the fact that God created every detail of this wonderful universe, from the smallest to the largest objects.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/quirks-and-quarks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quirks-and-quarks&mc_cid=50193ad5a3&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
One would have to be one of the dead Biden voters not to see that China played a part in the 2020 Presidential election.
‘US intelligence agencies reportedly possess intelligence that suggest China sought to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, pushing a narrative through state-controlled media organizations that tried to smear Donald Trump as a white supremacist.
The so-called intelligence community is notoriously loathe to provide evidence backing up assertions with great implications, but One America News Network reported Wednesday that career officials of federal intelligence agencies support Trump administration Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s suspicions of Chinese interference. Other federal employees are trying to sweep the intelligence suggesting Chinese interference under the rug.
Ratcliffe has informed liberal elements of the intelligence community that he won’t sign off on reports that ignore evidence of Chinese interference in the election.’https://dcswampwatch.org/intelligence-agencies-have-information-suggesting-china-interfered-in-2020-presidential-election-against-trump/
‘President-elect Joe Biden on a daily basis has been announcing high-level appointments to his administration that will take control of the federal executive branch on January 20th. None of the individuals come as a shock, but they are no less objectionable in terms of the radical policy shift they portend for America, particularly on climate policy and energy development.
Mr. Biden is expected to appoint Gina McCarthy to be “Domestic Climate Coordinator,” a new position to be housed in the White House Executive Office of the President. From this perch, she will ensure the multitude of federal agencies regulate and manage their responsibilities around reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr. Biden did announce this week cabinet appointments that will implement climate policy overseen by Ms. McCarthy. They include Jennifer Granholm for Secretary of Energy, who was Michigan Governor and champion of “renewable” solar and wind energy; and Michael Regan for the Environmental Protection Agency, an African American who is the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and espouses “environmental justice” for communities of color. The president-elect is expected to name Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico for Secretary of the Interior, who is opposed to decades long energy development on federal lands.
This appointment of Ms. McCarthy would follow Biden’s naming of former Secretary of State, John Kerry, as “Special Envoy” for climate change with a seat on the National Security Council. These new elevated positions, which overlay all domestic and foreign policy, clearly show the seriousness of the incoming Biden-Harris administration to shift climate and energy policies in a radical, domineering direction.
Ms. McCarthy is fanatical when it comes to climate change, that is, mankind’s tangential role in global warming. She previously served as an environmental regulator in Massachusetts and headed the Environmental Protection Agency in Barack Obama’s second term. She currently heads the Natural Resources Defense Council. One of the major black marks against her time as EPA chief was her mishandling of the catastrophic water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Yet, she will be more influential than ever in the Biden White House.
The enormous regulatory and financial power wielded by the federal government will be steered to all things climate change under Ms. McCarthy. Among the countless policy restrictions coming soon will affect oil and gas leasing on federal lands and offshore, emissions standards, and new mandates on the financial sector for more Green project investments.
Economic activity necessarily results in carbon emissions, including the products we produce and consume, the means by which we travel, and the heat and air conditioning in our homes and workplaces. Proposed Green New Deal policies to reduce carbon emissions necessarily will harm the economy; specifically many of the 300 million non-wealthy Americans whose jobs will be eliminated and the higher costs everyone will pay more for energy, goods and services across the board.
Ms. McCarthy’s obsession is for reducing carbon emissions, regardless of the resulting economic dislocation. Yet any “success” in doing so provides zero guarantees the Earth’s climate will change in a different direction from its present trajectory, which is unpredictable, especially 30 years hence.
As CFACT has frequently documented, actual science shows man-made carbon emissions are a tiny fraction of atmospheric gases, and a variety of other natural phenomena impact the planet’s climate. All of this is well beyond the reach of McCarthy, Kerry and the rest of the Biden-Harris team no matter how many trillions of tax dollars they spend on solar panels and retrofitting office buildings. Scientific climate realities also bereft in the pliant news media, which reports without scrutiny. National Public Radio, for example, when reporting on the McCarthy appointment, which dutifully propagated the falsehood that climate change has resulted in “record wildfires, hurricanes and flooding in recent years.”
During his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, Joe Biden was collegial and often considered moderate or mainstream in the Democratic Party, in contrast to more liberal senators. But the Party itself has shifted sharply to the political Left, especially on climate and energy policies, which are the priority of the Party’s mega-donors such as Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and George Soros. Mr. Biden has shifted accordingly, and these appointments are another example of that reality.
The immediate question becomes, what of the Republicans? Will they be a rubberstamp these Biden cabinet appointments, especially if they retain a majority in the U.S. Senate? That would be the easy route.
The climate and energy appointments by President-elect Biden demand a rigorous debate to check the radicalism that threatens the economy and standard of living of the U.S. With the pandemic expected recede in 2021 due to the vaccine, the climate agenda and energy restrictions that will be imposed by the fledging Biden-Harris team otherwise threaten a return to economic normalcy in America.’https://papundits.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/biden-harris-administration-taking-shape-beware/
‘TOYOTA CHIEF : ELECTRIC CARS OVER-HYPED, COULD COST HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS AND MAKE CARS UNAFFORDABLE FOR AVERAGE PEOPLE But that is what the ‘Great Reset’ is all about – a future where private cars are only for the elites. And since cars are the one greatest symbols of freedom, under the Great Reset, we can’t let average people have them. https://www.wsj.com/…/toyotas-chief-says-electric…TOKYO— Toyota Motor Corp.’s leader criticized what he described as excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion, he said. “When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” Mr. Toyoda said Thursday at a year-end news conference in his capacity as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. He said if Japan is too hasty in banning gasoline-powered cars, “the current business model of the car industry is going to collapse,” causing the loss of millions of jobs.’https://www.facebook.com/CraigKellyMP
Reading what men of other persuasions have to say is interesting. I recently came across a web site where Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) men write articles on just about anything and everything or so it seems.
One article that caught my attention had to do with the 2020 Presidential election. As I read the article I agreed and disagreed. However, before we get to the article allow me to put forth some Scripture which I believe have some bearing on the subject.
Matthew 14:1-4 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. 3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife. 4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. John Baptist was a fearless preacher and that landed him in jail and eventually losing his head, literally.
Acts 5:27-29 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. This was a religious council.
Romans 13:1-5 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
1Timothy 2:1-4 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Peter 2:13-17 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
God and His Word are never wrong. So, in consideration of Scripture what are we to do with a situation like the one the USA is in today? It is a fact and blatantly obvious that there was deceit, devilishness and dishonesty in many of the states during this election. It must also be considered that in the USA there continues to be the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Now, the choice between the two running for President is very clear at least should be for a Believer. One example is that Biden is pro-abortion and has many other leftist/Marxist agendas! President Trump isn’t perfect BUT his record shows he is for the unborn and has America’s good at heart!
I guess, when January 3rd comes if Biden is inaugurated as President then we will have to live with it but he became President by dishonesty and a true Believer MUST recognize that as a FACT! Here’s the article and let me know what you think.
‘Our venerable Electoral College votes today in their respective states. Diehards still see options, probably extending to Inauguration Day and beyond. Let them exercise their first amendment rights loudly but peacefully, but Joe Biden won. Donald Trump lost…and lost…and lost…and lost.‘ Trump only lost because of the cheating and dishonesty!
‘One need not agree with any of Biden’s positions, policies, appointments, or nominees but Christians do need to pray for political leaders – a clear biblical mandate, not an optional suggestion. The sooner prayers begin, the better.’ Yes, [pray for God to over-rule the plans of this man. There are too many things to point out here but do a little search and you will see how dishonest Biden has been in his political career.
‘And join me in continuing in prayer for President Trump for the next few weeks until January 20th when he leaves the White House and becomes an unelected private citizen like me.’ President Trump will always be my President knowing that he was CHEATED in the 2020 election.
‘Southern Baptists might not be in the inner circle of the new administration but we’ve got free access to God’s throne. Believers of all kinds in all places have had that and our troubled segment of Christendom could use a little leadership right about now.’https://sbcvoices.com/time-to-come-together-and-pray-for-president-elect-biden/
Praise God that He hears all men who are repentant and come to Him by faith!
2Chronicles 33:11-13 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, 13 And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
If Biden gets the WH and you condemn what the governor of NC did regarding sodomites, you just may get jail time!
‘The governor of North Carolina is facing criticism from Christian groups and praise from LGBT advocacy groups after signing a proclamation establishing “Gender Expansive Parents’ Day” as part of an effort to recognize LGBT parents.
Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C., who just won reelection to a second term last month, designated Dec. 6 as “Gender Expansive Parents’ Day.” “All parents, regardless of gestational relationship to a child, gender identity, or gender expression, deserve to be celebrated for the love and nurturing they give to their children,” Cooper declared.
After citing statistics showing that more than two million children have a parent that identifies as LGBT and that LGBT people are six times more likely to adopt children, Cooper maintained that “many of these LGBTQ parents also exist outside a traditional gender binary.” Additionally, he concluded that “recognition of the work and sacrifice of non-binary, agender, and other gender expansive parents, as well as that of other non-traditional primary caregivers, is key to our efforts to create a more inclusive State.”’https://www.christianpost.com/news/nc-gov-signs-proclamation-honoring-gender-expansive-parents.html?uid=d3769f0ce2
‘I grew up in Sri Lanka during a time of civil war. Anyone who criticised the Sinhalese-dominated government disappeared. And anyone who criticised the Tamil rebels was assassinated. So we all learned to keep our mouths shut.
In September 1991, I changed nationalities. I swore allegiance to Australia at a citizenship ceremony in Parramatta Park. During that ceremony, I delivered a speech where I committed myself, as one of those who come from “beyond the seas”, to “advance Australia fair”.
Migrants like me love Australia because “we are young and free”. And many of us come from countries which are not free – where deviating from the approved political opinion is punished, therefore there’s no free speech. Public speech, in countries like the Sri Lanka of my childhood, was costly. It could cost you your life.
And it’s precisely that love of freedom, and my desire to advance Australia fair, that makes me worried about the Victorian government’s Change or Suppression Bill 2020.
The bill aims “to ensure that all” LGBT+ people “are able to live authentically and with pride” and “to denounce and give statutory recognition to the serious harm caused” by practices which suggest that “a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity” is in any way “broken”.
Nobody who opposes this bill is seeking to harm people who identify as LGBT+. The problem with this bill is the its definitions and prohibitions are so broad, it potentially criminalises any suggestion that sexuality has an objective order and that discovering and conforming to that order could be healthy for individuals, families, and society as a whole.
Most of human civilisation has, throughout history, believed that human sexuality is not a matter of personal preference, but possesses an objective order. Not all cultures agree on what that healthy pattern is. And not everyone within that society lives according to that healthy pattern. But they agree that it exists. And that talking about it, trying to discover it, and helping each other live according to it, is good.
This bill denounces that kind of belief, and prohibits and suppresses talking about it. This bill is on the wrong side of history. It seeks to criminalise something that has historically made human civilisation civil and humane.
Therefore, this bill is not actually progressive. It takes us backwards, into a dark age where public speech is costly and deviating from the approved political opinion gets punished.
LGBT+ activists often speak about “authenticity” and “pride”, and often accuse people who hold conservative values – especially religious people, and within that, especially Christians – as “harming” them. They’re welcome to do that. That’s an application of free speech.
And under conditions of free speech, social conservatives, religious people – including Christians – can talk back. We’re allowed to defend ourselves against those accusations of harm. And explain why we think healthy sexuality is not a matter of personal preference but possesses an objective order. And invite all people – including LGBT+ people – to willingly join us in living that sexuality because they’ve been persuaded that it’s right and good.
But by being an instrument of law, this bill takes away the right to talk back. If this bill becomes law, any assertion that healthy sexuality is ordered, not a matter of personal preference, could cost money or land you in jail. This threat of formal, legal punishment would intimidate people to self-censor. And that amounts to a stifling, in practice, of free speech.
That’s why this bill is dangerous. Not just for Christians, religious people, or social conservatives. This bill wrecks the social environment which has underpinned what we take for granted as a free, open, tolerant society – the kind of Australia I migrated to, love, and vowed to advance.
Mainstream media tend to caricature those who oppose this bill – especially religious people – as using public freedoms, like freedoms of speech and assembly, to protect themselves in a selfish, self-interested way. Is the mainstream media broad-minded enough to consider that we oppose this bill out of love? Love of freedom and tolerance? And love of country? And even – shock, horror – love of LGBT+ people?
And is the Victorian government broad-minded enough to make Victoria a place where social conservatives and religious people feel safe and welcome? Or has Australia gone backwards to become precisely the kind of country I was trying to escape from – a place that is not young and free, but old, cynical, and enslaved?’ https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/12/daniel-andrews-gender-antics-are-a-threat-not-enhancement-to-the-fundamentals-of-our-free-open-tolerant-society/
Cheaper electricity would be a nice Christmas present but that’s probably not to be. You see, ‘Santa will be busy this year because 2020 marks the final year of the Kyoto climate change agreement signed way back in 1997. Santa has a long list of naughty countries, and only a few in the nice column.
There is good news for Australia. Santa has checked the list twice and confirmed that we should be getting more than a piece of coal this Christmas thanks to our Kyoto efforts.
The latest version of Australia’s emissions projections, released this month, shows that we have reduced our emissions by 403 million tonnes more than necessary to meet both our Kyoto and Paris targets.
Now some Christmas Grinches are suggesting that we should get no presents from Santa’s sack for these good deeds, not even a lump of coal. Indeed, some of the more zealous Scrooges think we should give up even more of the coal we have this Christmas despite our hitherto overachievement.
But that’s not what our non-Christian, secular, gender-neutral, modern Christmases are about! We all know that the modern interpretation of Christ’s message is that you only do a good deed to get something in return.
So what Christmas presents should we get for our 400-million-tonne carbon budget over the next 10 years – before our Paris targets come due in 2030? Here is my overflowing list for us all to choose from.
The closure of the Hazelwood power station – which once provided 25 per cent of Victoria’s electricity supply – doubled electricity prices. We now have the chance to correct this enormous mistake.
A modern, high-efficiency, low- emission (or HELE) coal-fired power station, of Hazelwood’s size, would generate around 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. That is about 35 per cent less than the old Hazelwood power station.
And, with 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to spend over the next ten years, we could build four HELE coal-fired power stations. These power stations would not just make for an inspiring one-off Christmas present, they would be able to power the factories that make children’s presents for decades to come. Perhaps even in the future, when the wrapping paper is ripped off, we could find a ‘Made in Australia’ stamp underneath to replace the ubiquitous ‘Made in China’.
Speaking of China, why do we send almost all of our world’s best iron ore and coking coal to a communist dictatorship to bolster its steel industry? We could instead use our carbon budget to build steel mills in Australia again. That would easily end the shame that we are the world’s largest iron ore and coking coal exporter but a net importer of steel.
It takes about 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to produce a million tonnes of steel. So accounting for our carbon budget to 2030 would allow us to produce an extra 22 million tonnes of steel a year – around seven new steel mills. To become self-sufficient in steel production again we would only need to build a couple more steel mills roughly equivalent in size to the two steel mills left in Australia at Whyalla and Port Kembla.
So far I have considered all Australians equal when allocating credit for carbon good deeds. However, there is one group of Australians that have in fact been responsible for the bulk – in fact all – of Australia’s carbon ‘achievement’.
At the Kyoto negotiations, our diplomats successfully argued for the inclusion of terms that became known as the ‘Australia clause’. That let us use a baseline year of 1990 for the amount of land clearing that would normally occur in any one year in Australia. In 1990, 688,000 hectares of land in Australia were cleared, which was a record. Since then state governments have stripped farmers of their rights to develop their own land.
If it had not of been for the theft of property rights from farmers, Australia’s carbon dioxide emissions would have increased over the past 15 years. The only reason we can say we have achieved our Kyoto targets is because we stopped developing land in the bush. City people have emitted more over the past 30 years but that seems to have just recommitted them to the task of shutting down industries perceived as evil to atone for their sinful conduct. Australia once rode on the sheep’s back, now we are riding to international climate change conferences on our own farmers’ backs.
So why not give our farmers a break this Christmas and give them some of their property rights back? With 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to spend, we could let farmers develop an extra 300,000 hectares a year for the next 10 years. That would take us back to the 1990 heyday levels of clearing when we used to build dams to grow food. We would all then benefit from better Christmas lunches with lots of Aussie produce.
Before we get too carried away though, we should remember that more beef roasts at Christmas means more belching and farting cattle, and that means, you guessed it, more carbon dioxide emissions.
So the mooing cattle you see on your Christmas travels are not as innocent as they look. Each of these bovine sinners emits around 70 kilograms of methane a year. Factoring in methane’s potency as a greenhouse gas, means that we could double our cattle herd and remain on Santa’s nice list in 2030. Given the government’s stated goal of doubling Australian agriculture, what are we waiting for?
Unfortunately other nation’s are not rushing to reward our good behaviour. They instead laud the empty promises made by countries like China, which despite increasing its carbon emissions fivefold in the past 40 years promises to go to ‘net zero’ by 2060.
This shows how we are playing the Climate Christmas game all wrong. St Nicholas knows when you have been bad or good but St. Al Gore only cares what you say you are going to do. We need a new approach then. By all means let’s go one further than other nations and commit to gross zero emissions by 2050, and then like all other countries, do absolutely nothing about it. Then we will at least get coal (fired power) for Christmas.’https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/12/christmas-notes-5/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OZWH%20%2020201219%20%20AL&utm_content=OZWH%20%2020201219%20%20AL+CID_0b510a6ee1dcac8731006dfaf495edd4&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Australia&utm_term=Christmas%20notes
