Watts Up With That? has an article about a new Australian website, “Kids against Anthropogenic Global Warming“, started by a 14 year old who has clearly had enough of the indoctrination that is so common in schools today (thanks in part to the widespread showing, uncritically, of AIT). Well done for having the courage of your convictions!

Come on in, the water’s lovely…

A photo gallery to tug at the heart strings –

• polar bears – drowning due to climate change
• frogs – dying all over the world “due to climate change”
• ice shelves cracking – “due to the effects of global warming” [note change of terminology there…]
• flooding islands – rising sea levels “due to climate change”
• dried up lakes – soaring demand “and climate change”
• penguins in Brazil – due to “climate change”

And to finish off, a photo of a belching chimney with the caption:

Big part of the problem … smoke billows from the brown coal Hazelwood Power Station in Latrobe Valley, 150km east of Melbourne.

And not a single shred of evidence to show that any of these photos are linked directly or otherwise to “climate change”. But hey, who cares about the truth? Just as long as we can scare enough people into thinking that “climate change” is something we can control by tinkering with a harmless trace gas, then that’s OK. Alarmist journalism at its worst. Rant over.

See it here, if you can stand it.

The Federal Government must take immediate steps to salvage Australia’s economy, including dropping the 2010 starting date for the carbon emissions trading scheme, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says.

“We are proposing three actions the government can take immediately which will strengthen the Australian economy in the face of this economic crisis and add confidence to Australian householders and Australian business.”

One of those steps would be to announce a delay to the start of an emissions trading scheme in Australia.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised the scheme would be introduced by 2010, but Mr Turnbull is urging Mr Rudd to admit this was “nothing more than an election year flourish”.

“An emissions trading scheme in 2010 would mean the design of the scheme would have to be finalised before we know what the rest of the world is going to do at Copenhagen – which is the big climate change conference in December next year – and indeed before we know what the new US president will do,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Industry has come back to the PM and said 2010 is too soon, it’s too rushed. We have to be part of a global solution.”

I suppose we can’t hope for everything at once, and the Opposition still broadly agrees with the Government that man-made CO2 emissions are causing climate change and we need an ETS, but as a first step, a delay for further evaluation sounds eminently sensible to me. Read it here.

From the “Arse-over-apex logic” department, in particular, the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose chairman is a certain Mr A Gore [never heard of him – Ed], which suggests that focussing on climate change as soon as a new US president took office could help pull the world from the financial brink.

“My very strong belief is that we need to reorient our investments toward this transition to a clean energy economy, and it will be the engine of growth for getting us out of the doldrums that we’ve gotten in right now,” Cathy Zoi told the Reuters Global Environment Summit this week.

In other words, pour billions more dollars into Gore’s coffers. You’ve got to hand it to her – she said it with a straight face. And also at the Reuters Environment Summit (carbon footprint the size of Liechtenstein) was another renowned climate expert:

The anthropogenic roots of global warming are clear to Prince Albert of Monaco, who told the Reuters summit he didn’t “adhere” to Palin’s skeptical view.

“There are obviously cycles, but how can you not consider the graphs that have been shown to us?,” Prince Albert said. “Those who can’t see the correlation between man-made activities and greenhouse gas emissions, it’s going to be hard to convince them; but somehow we will have to do so.”

I think we all agree that there might be a just a teensy weensy correlation between man-made activities and greenhouse gas emissions (which is why we are all talking about cutting them, perhaps?), but it’s the link to climate we’re arguing about. 0/10 – must try harder.

Read it here.

From the “Feeble link to Climate Change” department.

Underwater cacophony caused by commercial and military ships has become so intense that it is killing whales, according to scientists at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Sounds ranging from the hum of yacht motors to sonar blasts strong enough to destroy a whale’s inner ear are wreaking havoc on the ability of these cetaceans to migrate, feed and breed, they said on Thursday as a historic case began to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But hang on, they haven’t played the climate change joker yet… no, sorry, here it is:

Research published in the United States last week shows that climate change is amplifying the problem.

The acidification of oceans caused by rising sea temperatures reduces sound absorption in the water by up to 40 per cent, meaning that noise travels much further. “Ambient noise levels in the ocean … are set to increase significantly,” the study, published in the Geophysical Research Letters, concluded.

Read it here.

I wonder how many millions of Australian dollars have been, or will be, flushed down the drain as a response to Ross Garnaut’s claims that we should abandon sheep and cattle and farm kangaroo instead, to reduce emissions. The farming industry has gone into overdrive to rebut those claims (see previous posts here and here) and is having to divert already scarce resources into completely unnecessary research in order to do so. And now the wool industry is getting in on the act as well, focussing on genetic modifications to reduce emissions.

Cooperative Research Centre professor James Rowe says one element is to look at the genetic variation of animals. He says this may help breeders select sheep that produce less gas.

“The genetic angle is brand new, nobody has successfully looked at the genetic variation,” he said.

Professor Rowe says researches will try and select sheep that produce less methane gas, while still producing quality wool.

Read it here.

… but then tears it up again. Origin Energy, one of Australia’s largest electricity and gas suppliers, has said that Prof Garnaut’s recommendations for cutting emissions don’t go far enough, suggesting a 10-20% cut by 2020.

A spokesman for the Climate Institute said yesterday that the call for harsher cuts was surprising and encouraging.

That was after he’s picked himself off the floor… But (there’s always a “but”), here comes the punchline:

However, like many other energy producers, Origin said it feared what an emissions trading scheme could do to its bottom line if not all costs from an ETS could be passed on.

In other words, we’re very happy to recommend a 20% cut in emissions by 2020, so long as we don’t have to pay for it. Guess who will, however? You and me and every other customer of Origin in Australia. Typical.

Read it here.

As always, a great read.

Desperate Attempt to Sell Product Alert. Here in Aus, we have a brand of waste disposal units which attach to the waste pipe of your sink, named InSinkErator, which is trying to make us assuage our guilt about the environment by installing of one of their products.

Other research findings reported that respondents were most concerned about drought and climate change, and importantly a FWD [food waste disposal] unit addresses these concerns as they use little water and power.

…

Homeowners can drastically reduce their carbon footprint by installing a FWD unit. InSinkErator encourage consumers to make a real difference to their impact on the environment.

You really can’t make this stuff up. Read it here.

No, not really, although they will be racing hybrids next year. From the “Token Gesture” Department:

Formula One teams and drivers have signalled their readiness to embrace eco-technology and other environmental initiatives being championed by the sport’s governing body.

There is widespread agreement that the fuel-guzzling sport must respond in a responsible way to the environmental challenges of the modern era, with unique green-grooved tyres being run at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

The tyres are largely symbolic although next season energy-regenerating hybrid devices, which store energy otherwise lost during braking and convert it into power, will be introduced to Formula One.

Regenerative brakes aren’t going to make much of a dent in the gargantuan copper-bottomed carbon footprint of the whole Formula 1 roadshow…

Top drivers also jumped on board the eco-bandwagon, keen to do their part to raise public awareness of green issues.

“Green technology is the future of Formula One and we can help ensure it will be the future on our roads as well,” said Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

“As drivers in the public limelight it is good that we can help spread these important environmental messages.”

Massa’s teammate, defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen, said he would do anything he could to help save the planet.

“If the safety and the new green technology lessons learned in motor sport are applied to motoring then the sport will have played a really important part in saving lives as well as perhaps helping to save the planet,” he said.

Read it here.