David Bellamy (or is it Lenny Henry…?)
Image © Daily Mail

Thanks to Tom Nelson. We all know that, despite protestations to the contrary, the BBC has made up its mind on climate change, having said in a report (note long PDF):

The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts, and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.

So it is sadly little surprise that David Bellamy, one of the most recognisable naturalists and botanists in the UK, and whom I used to watch without fail on TV when I was a kid, has been shunned for over 10 years by the BBC because of his views on climate change, as the UK Daily Mail reports:

People such as former American Vice-President Al Gore say that millions of us will die because of global warming – which I think is a pretty stupid thing to say if you’ve got no proof.

And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that carbon dioxide is anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry. In fact, it’s not even science any more, it’s anti-science.

There’s no proof, it’s just projections and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry pick the ones that support their beliefs.

To date, the way the so-called Greens and the BBC, the Royal Society and even our political parties have handled this smacks of McCarthyism at its worst.

Global warming is part of a natural cycle and there’s nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist.

Right on the money. Read it here.

From Andrew Bolt:

John McCain is beaten, and this is what I haven’t yet seen or heard:

• Screams that the vote was rigged.
• Lawyers taking the result to court.
• The loser blaming anyone but himself.
• Angry celebrities vowing to move overseas.
• Stickers claiming the winner stole the election.
• Furious reporters denouncing ads by the losers’ critics.
• Furious reporters blaming the winner’s evil genius.
• The bitter losers warning the country “is more divided than ever”.

Graceful losers in a democracy need to be acknowledged just as much as graceful winners, if not more. At the very least, it may help to ensure the example catches on.

Too true.

Once famous for their numbers, Norwegian lemmings are disappearing, say scientists, who point an accusing finger at global warming.
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Global warming has shortened the period in which the lemmings can hole up in their wintry haven.
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“This research provides a striking example of how climate change can modify the working of the natural world – raising the question of what the consequences such change might have for us.”

Yet another “global warming” alert, when global temperatures are heading down and records for cold are being broken left, right and center. And how long will it be before we read that it wasn’t actually “global warming”, but something else? It’s odd, but stories like that never seem to get published… I wonder why?

Read it here.

The Herald reports that Yvo do Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is very encouraged by Barack Obama’s stance on global warming (shurely “climate change”? Ed).

“I am very encouraged by the stated commitment of Senator Obama to the issue of climate change, and I really hope that he or his representatives can come to the climate change conference in Poznan (in western Poland) and speak to his vision of the way forward,” he said.

Obama has set his sights on crippling the US economy with emissions reductions much as Rudd’s ETS will in Australia, by setting a targets of 80% by 2050. Let’s see how far that gets.

Read it here.

Watts Up With That:

Obama’s energy plan: bankrupt coal power plants, skyrocketing electricity rates

More doom and gloom from the Herald, which wallows in spreading bad news. A new report, launched by our own “Climate Penny”, is full of scaremongering nonsense:

All forms of infrastructure in Australia including electricity, dams, roads and even footpaths will be severely affected by climate change, a new report has found.

What climate change do they mean? The gentle cooling that has taken place over the last decade, perhaps? The authors of this report must live in an impermeable bubble somewhere, but that doesn’t stop them spreading climate hysteria to an unsuspecting public:

Drought would slash hydroelectric generation, while hot temperatures interfered with power plants and increased demand for electricity.

More frequent bushfires would interrupt supply.

Water infrastructure would also suffer because of more droughts across southern Australia.
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“The consequences of the impact of climate change … may range from discomfort, inconvenience, economic loss caused by interruption of services, property damage, threats to heath, to injury and death,” the report found.

Ludicrous. Read it here.

The Treasury’s modelling on the ETS was hopelessly optimistic yesterday, but now looks even more shaky as Kevin Rudd has to admit that keeping the budget in surplus will become harder.

Today the Government released its revised economic forecasts, which slashed around $15 billion from the Budget surplus due to a predicted loss of around $40 billion of revenue over four years.

Speaking in Tasmania, Mr Rudd said the Government will do everything possible to maintain a “reasonable” Budget surplus.

“But the global financial crisis represents a real threat and if the global financial crisis continues to deepen these challenges for Australia will become tougher and tougher and tougher,” he said.

“That’s just the reality.”

The reality, of course, is that the tighter the budget becomes, the harder it will be to justify a pointless emissions trading scheme.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans says it is likely the Budget will slide into deficit in 2009-10 because of the need for more economic stimulus next year.

And when is the ETS due to be introduced? 2010. Labor has a record for economic mismanagement even at the best of times, and it is inevitable that Krudd & Co will be no different. Add to that the significant effect of an ETS, despite what the Treasury says, and you have a recipe for economic disaster.

I look forward to the “revised” Treasury modelling for the ETS – how long do you think I’ll have to wait?

Read it here.

Spoof alert… In a shock new development, a climate change expert has proposed that Australia could solve its energy crisis by making billions of “lemon batteries” to supply endless renewable electricity. The suggestion follows the “lemon powered torch” that made its way across Australia to demonstrate support for a 50% cut in emissions by 2020. Speaking today, the expert said:

“I remember making a battery from a lemon in school science lessons. Recently, in a carbon-dioxide-induced haze, I realised that lemons are the obvious way to solve our energy crisis. Not only are they clean and green (yellow, actually, but you could use limes instead…) there will be millions of jobs planting and harvesting the lemons, then sticking bits of metal into them to make the batteries and wiring them up to the national grid. Not only that, but there will be plenty left over to squeeze into my gin and tonic after a taxing day at the office of my cushy climate-related corporation.”

Not really, but the actual suggestion isn’t much better…

Read it here.

Waterbirds in Victoria have declined by 80% over the past 25 years, but The Age has to concede through gritted teeth that it isn’t attributable to climate change:

Scientists from the University of NSW have taken to the air to criss-cross Australia over the next two months for what they say is the world’s largest waterbird aerial survey.

A team of 12 spotters flying in three light aircraft, mostly at treetop level, has begun counting the birds on every important wetland and river in the country.

They started in south-western Victoria and the findings are alarming. Team leader Professor Richard Kingsford said the 80% drop was not from climate change.

“It is mainly due to the alienation of the natural river flows and the over-allocation of river water to uses such as agriculture,” he said.

This must be some kind of record.

Read it here.

Thanks to Climate Change Fraud. Martin Durkin, the producer of the documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle” talks to FrontPage Magazine:

I have followed green politics for a while now. I was asked to make a documentary series for Channel 4 in the UK more than a decade ago (they got very cross with me) so I’ve been sucked into it in a way. It is transparently obvious that the greens sit squarely in the tradition of Romanticism. Like the romantics, they hate industry, love nature, idealise peasant life, they think capitalism is wicked, they think people in modern society lead depraved shallow lives and have forgotten the true value of things, they don’t like cars or supermarkets or lots of proles taking cheap long-haul holidays, etc, etc.
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Romanticism is in essence anti-Capitalist. Not in the sense of traditional Marxism. The Marxists wanted to go forwards not backwards. They wanted to build bigger factories than the capitalists, not folksy medieval craft workshops. No. Romanticism was a kind of reactionary anti-capitalism. And it was the ideology and aesthetic worldview of those people who lost most, or gained least from capitalism.
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You can easily tell that global warming is really a political idea rather than a scientific one. In any gathering in polite society you can tell who will be ‘pro-global warming’ and who will be sceptical, in the same way as you can guess who will hate George Bush, or who will be sympathetic to Sarah Palin.

Read it here.

Check out this post if you want to see how our ever-impartial ABC handled the showing of his documentary in Australia.