Set the agenda
That’s how The Australian described my question on The Sunday Age’s Climate Agenda. Yesterday’s Cut and Paste reported the top questions (mine is number two):
THE Sunday Age is launching The Climate Agenda — giving you the chance to decide what stories we cover. What are you confused about in the climate debate? The Sunday Age commits to reporting on the 10 most popular questions and publishing regular updates . . . So if you’ve ever been critical of the media’s coverage of climate change, here’s your chance.
Top question so far (961 votes):
THE very point of Australia’s carbon tax is to reduce global warming. How much will reducing 5 per cent of Australia’s about 1.5 per cent contribution of global CO2 emissions reduce global temperature by?
Question two (303 votes):
THE magnitude of any future warming is highly uncertain. Why is it, therefore, that the Fairfax press is reluctant to engage with and investigate this uncertainty with an open-minded impartiality, and instead continues to publish articles based on a rigid editorial agenda that “the science is settled”? (source)
And today in Strewth:
Vox populi paper
THE Age website yesterday ran the story “Hypersonic plane: Fly Sydney to London in 49 minutes”, which we suspect wouldn’t be the preferred direction just now. Meanwhile, The Sunday Age was continuing its quest, as meticulously noted in Cut & Paste yesterday, to give readers “the chance to decide what [climate debate] stories we cover . . . The Sunday Age commits to reporting on the 10 most popular questions and publishing regular updates.” A cry for help or a courageous piece of crowd-sourcing? Either way, the most popular question last night — with nearly 2700 votes — began, “The very point of Australia’s carbon tax is to reduce global warming. How much will reducing 5 per cent of Australia’s around 1.5 per cent contribution of global CO2 emissions reduce global temperature by?” The second was nearly 2000 votes behind but was a bit rude to Fairfax, which struck us as akin to arriving at someone’s else’s party and spitting on the Jeffrey Smart print. (source)
Not exactly what the Sunday Age was after…!
Australian Climate Madness 
Number one is the ‘Bolt’ question. Is number two going to be referred to as the ‘ACM’ question from now on? Nice work btw Simon, I voted for your question.
Hate to see the Hypersonic plane’s add on taxes and charges to the basic fare given this proposed murky extortion….
“The European Union is starting to look like the bully in the sky.
Airlines from around the world that fly into and out of the EU are fighting to overturn a new rule that would cost them billions of dollars for their carbon-dioxide emissions, not just over European skies, but during the whole trip. The United States, along with a number of other countries, has denounced the move and is begging the EU to reconsider.
The biggest concern for airlines is that they would be paying for a majority of emissions miles that fall outside EU airspace. For example, according to ATA, in a trip from San Francisco to London, only 9 percent of the flight would be spent in Europe. The rest would take place in the U.S. (29 percent), Canada (37 percent), and over the high seas (25 percent). But the airlines would be charged for the entire trip.”
Full story http://www.thegwpf.org/international-news/3609-climate-wars-european-airlines-may-be-banned-from-north-america.html
Global thuggery coming to a place near you…….Thanks a lot Julia!
Who says we have to be polite?
They are pushing a scam that will cost us billions and all they are copping in return is a few pointed questions.
[Editors comment: nothing prevents you from asking more than one question. You may ask as many as you like. Personally I see this as a cock-up rather than a conspiracy – YMMV.]
BTW folks the poll is rigged as their system gave me a double post. On day one I notified them of this fact and requested them to cancel the lowest vote post and leave the highest highest voting post which was then 13. You guessed it they left left me with 6 votes, instead of giving me a total of 19 last Sunday! So if you have already voted for Simon please dump the balance of the 7 votes onto http://oursay.org/s/75
“Labor constantly says per capita Oz world’s worst polluter. …. “
Ask em why Flannery’s and Garnaut’s (or Gore’s) per capitas don’t count, just the common man’s!
I’m waiting for an explanation from them as to why they think it was “a bit rude to Fairfax”. I don’t expect one, but suggest the following: “because it was true, and embarrassing”
Oh, you party pooper, you. They’ve been having so much fun, until now, pulling the wool.
True to form, Sunday Age editor Gay Alcorn assures rusted-on believers that
Good questions, huh? Good, as in “accept the science (sic)”? Good, as in Al Gore’s idea of “shared reality“? We shall see.
Yes, just what exactly does Gay Alcorn mean when she says, “We are only four or five days in, so it could go in any direction. We are not controlling this. That is the whole point. It is a completely open process. If good questions are asked, we will answer them.”
I thought they would answer the top 10 questions regardless … seems now there is a caveat – only if the question is ‘good’!
Well done Simon for being 2nd place so far … hopefully your question will hang in there unless GetUp! gets organised and shuts down another debate.
See here and here.
There is a while to go yet. If “The Age” can’t rig a count like this they shouldn’t be running a newspaper.
I’m sure they will do something, I see there are a couple of passionate “anti-denier” people at work already, full of vitriol, but severely lacking any detail, and not answering any questions asked of them. Perhaps they are forward scouts for GetUp! ?
The truth hurts sunshine. Suck it up.
Just to clarify, I was talking about the person at Strewth.
I dunno bout the Jeffrey Smart painting analogy. I would have thought it was more akin to telling someone their fly is open.
Well done Simon
Congratulations Simon. I couldn’t see where the Australian described it as rude. Did they remove that comment?
Nicely done, Simon. Thats what I would call a body blow. Although I must say, the top voted question is also a well loaded one too.