On the one hand, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says we can only rely on financial modelling for 6 – 12 months, yet on the other, when it relates to climate change and his precious ETS, Kevin Rudd is happy to rely on such modelling for nearly 50 years. As Andrew Bolt comments:

No wonder smarter economists are alarmed:

THE global financial crisis showed how foolish the Rudd Government would be to base its climate change response on economic forecasts for the coming century, academic and Reserve Bank board director Warwick McKibbin said yesterday….

While partly involved in the modelling, Professor McKibbin said he was not responsible for the scenarios and believed it was “stretching the imagination” to believe you could forecast 100 years in advance and use that process to determine targets….

Professor McKibbin said the Kyoto experience showed how even most environmentally-friendly countries, such as New Zealand and Canada, could commit to rigid, long-term targets only to find themselves disadvantaged when their economies or external conditions changed. He declared there would never be a uniform global carbon scheme and urged the Rudd Government to take the time necessary to develop a workable national scheme.

Read it here.

Denial Alert: Obama is demonstrating himself to be as clueless on climate as we would expect, using the “D” word in a video message to a climate change conference.

“And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.

“Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious.”

And Tom Nelson has picked up some outright lies from the Obaminator in the same address:

“The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.”

Obama has clearly swallowed whole the alarmism and bad science of Gore and the IPCC. Fortunately, however, there is no guarantee that Congress will pass any legislation on the subject.

Climate change is a paper tiger, and a gift for guys like Obama: it allows them to appear decisive and firm by talking tough and “doing something” about an issue that isn’t really an issue at all, and diverts attention from the far more real and difficult problems they face, which they don’t have the first idea how to deal with.

Read it here.

This, according to some SMH journo, is news, apparently. Every week the Moonbat Herald wheels in some D-list celeb to prattle on about how “green” they are. Today, it’s Merrick Watts, host of a breakfast show on Nova FM. He admits to having been trained (along with is conjoined twin, Tim “Rosso” Ross, who laughably has an abbreviated name longer than his actual name…) by the Gore-meister himself as part of his despicable Climate Project. Merrick oddly appears to be proud of this fact.

Q You are renowned for being a clown. Is there anything you don’t find funny when it comes to the state of the planet?

A Yes. Inaction. Particularly by people who should know better: politicians and the heads of big businesses. Also, there are still people who attempt to argue climate change hasn’t begun.

Er, we don’t argue the climate doesn’t change, because it does, and has done for millions of years without any help from us, but we do argue very strongly about the cause. He admits to driving a V8 car, but then ties himself in knots trying to explain it away:

I am aware that my car is a V8 but it doesn’t do as many kilometres as the average vehicle and runs on the cleanest fuel available, so is well below the national carbon output average. The next car I purchase will be more efficient. I am interested in seeing developments using hydrogen.

I believe you, mate, thousands wouldn’t.

Read it here (if you can bear it)

Stating the Obvious Alert: That’s the conclusion of Access Economics, who have said that the cost of taking fast action to “tackle climate change” would be up to 45% higher than taking a slower, more considered approach. This is in stark contrast to the modelling carried out by our own Treasury, which gave Krudd & Co the figures they all wanted to hear and said that it would make virtually no difference. No surprise there, given the Treasury has lost all credibility.

All this of course assumes:

• that reducing emissions in Australia will actually make any difference to atmospheric CO2 levels which, unless the rest of the world (including China, India, the US and the EU) participates as well, it emphatically won’t; and
• that reducing atmospheric CO2 levels will actually have any effect on climate, which is still far from certain despite what Archbishop Gore and the High Church of the IPCC say.

Read it here.

The ABC is on fire today, with two diametrically opposed stories appearing within the space of a few minutes. I wonder if these ABC journos ever actually speak to each other?

Story One:

Canberra scientists say they have proven that the world’s climate is changing faster than ever before.

And Story Two:

Climate change may not be as severe as predicted, suggests an international study that shows current modeling of carbon dioxide emissions from soils are overestimated by as much as 20%.

But hang on, the science is settled, right? The debate’s over, isn’t it?

Read them here, and here.

Some words might help…

Read it here (although they’ll correct it soon no doubt…!)

Despite all the hysteria, an anecdotal report of sea temperatures at Balmoral Beach, Sydney, shows no sign of an increase, says the Sydney Morning Herald:

COME in, swimmer, the water’s wonderful. So says Stephen Wilson, and he should know.

Every day, just after dawn, he wades into the sea off Balmoral beach, takes its temperature and records it in a square of sand, at the foot of the fifth column of the esplanade wall to the left of the Raglan Street steps.

Yesterday’s temperature: 21.2 degrees. “Just right for the early morning regulars,” says Mr Wilson. “They prefer it between, say, 18 and 21. Anything lower is a bit coolish; anything above, the water feels sort of soupy.”
…
A typical summer high would be 24 degrees. The Balmoral figures do not support global warming theories. “In the last few years, the figures seem to be generally lower,” says Mr Wilson.

Ah yes, but James Hansen hasn’t had a chance to massage the figures yet…

Read it here.

The dream of a global agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 is disappearing faster than a cloud of CO2 in a (global-warming-induced) hurricane. China and India unlikely to play ball, the EU is in disarray about its emissions policies, and now Russia is displaying encouraging scepticism of the whole AGW alarmist agenda by putting emissions reductions on the back burner.

“The Russians are now showing a dangerous indifference to the whole issue of climate change because they have this perception they might actually benefit from climate change,” says former British government adviser on environment policy Nick Mabey, who heads E3G, a London-based environmental lobby group and think tank.
…
“Unfortunately, it is a common view within the Russian Government that the whole issue of climate change is important but not urgent,” says Alexey Kokorin, the Moscow-based climate change analyst for international conservation group WWF.

“Instead of seeing threats and dangers, the most important government people here think an open Arctic Ocean will actually be a good thing.“

The Australian then adds its own bit of scaremongering for good measure:

The North Pole may soon be covered in blue waves in summer for the first time in human history. The entire Arctic Ocean has not been free of ice in summer for more than a million years, but analysts believe this could happen again sometime between 2013 and 2040.

Actually, it is likely that the North Pole was ice-free six or seven thousand years ago, without any help from evil capitalist emissions, and sea ice is recovering 30% faster than this time last year. But, as usual, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

Read it here.

From The Age today:

Headline: Maldives sends mayday signal as seas rise

Climate change will affect the Maldives more than most places. Sea levels in the area have risen by about 20 centimetres in the past century and the UN estimates they will rise 58 centimetres more by 2100.

From The Australian on Wednesday 12 November 2008:

Our research data does not lend support to any such flooding scenario [for the Maldives], however. On the contrary, we find no signs of any ongoing sea-level rise. Our results comes from visits to numerous islands … and includes coring, levelling, sampling and carbon dating.

Present sea level was reached about 4500BC. In the past 4000 years, sea level oscillated around the present. In the past decade, there are no signs of any rise in sea level. Hence, we are able to free the islands from the condemnation to become flooded in the 21st century.

Which do you believe?

The greenie hoards were out in force in Sydney today, with fifteen thousand gathering in Martin Place to protest against global warming. Fifteen thousand sounds quite a lot, but if this really is the most urgent crisis in the history of mankind, out of a city with a population of over 4 million it is an abysmal turnout (less than half of one percent). As usual, The Age delights in the mother-earthiness of the whole event:

Despite grey skies, a colourful crowd showed up in Martin Place Saturday to support the Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s fourth Walk Against Warming march.

Some were dressed as polar bears. Others wore windmills on their backs. Others carried placards of penguins with messages that read: “Don’t build your home on my home”, and “Some like it hot, penguins not“.

Oops! Somebody forgot to tell them that global warming stopped in 2001… oh well, with a bit of luck they will all have copped a good soaking from a passing shower …

Read it here.