Will Steffen: Labor's Alarmist-in-Chief

23 May, 2011 by

Knows everything there is to know about the climate

It really is no wonder that the Climate Commission, headed by warmist Tim Flannery (salary $180k), and advised by Will Steffen, the Labor government’s chief scaremonger, has produced the skewed and catastrophist projections that it has. Let’s look at Steffen’s previous form:

In January 2011, Steffen linked the Queensland floods to climate change (whilst at the same time saying he wasn’t):

Climate change committee member Professor Will Steffen, the executive director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, said there was no direct link between global warming and the tragic flash flooding in Toowoomba which has killed at least nine people in southeast Queensland.

But he told The Australian Online that climate change would lead to heavier, more frequent rain.

“As the climate warms, there is more water vapour in the atmosphere,” he told The Australian Online.

“This means that there is a probability that there will more intense rainfall events around the world.

There is some evidence that we can see them now. I think the place where the best data is the US.” (source)

Then back in May 2010, he compared those sceptical of catastrophic man-made warming to “flat-earthers”:

While there were uncertainties about the pace and impact of change, he said, the core of climate science – that the world was warming and the primary cause since the middle of the last century had been industrial greenhouse gas emissions – should be accepted with the same confidence as the laws of gravity and relativity.

“Right now, this almost infantile debate about whether ‘is it real or isn’t it real?’, it’s like saying, ‘Is the Earth round or is it flat?’ [Climate change] is a hugely important question and yet we are not having a rational discourse in the media in Australia on this question. That is my biggest frustration.” He called on the media to focus on areas where there was not a consensus, including the link between climate change and the south-east Australian drought and how rapidly sea levels would rise. (source)

Steffen has never, ever, conceded that there is any doubt in the debate. EVER. He clearly believes that he knows all there is to know about the climate, and anyone who dares suggest there are unknowns is simply branded a filthy denier.

So is it any wonder that a climate report prepared by him spouts the usual alarmist hysteria? Nope. Not in the slightest.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Shock: "It's all worse than we thought!" sez Commission

23 May, 2011 by

Alarmism in graphical form

What a surprise. Just exactly as expected, given the Climate Commission doesn’t have a single sceptical viewpoint represented, and right on cue for Julia Gillard to say, “see we told you so, we need to take action on climate”, despite the fact that nothing Australia does alone will make any difference whatsoever.

Parroting the IPCC line all the way, and blaming the media (natch), the Climate Commission  is simply a cheer squad for climate alarmism, and that’s exactly the result they have delivered. The Sydney Moonbat Herald virtually wets itself this morning:

THE evidence for global warming is now ”exceptionally strong and beyond doubt” and actions this decade will determine the impact of climate change for the rest of the century, according to the first big report produced by Australia’s Climate Commission.

The report, to be presented to federal parliamentarians today, is designed to cut through the noise of political debate about the government’s carbon tax and find common ground.

It catalogues the latest [alarmist] research on the impact of climate change on Australia, updating the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including reduced rainfall, recorded sea level rises and increasing temperatures.
Climate science was ”being attacked in the media by many with no credentials in the field”, the report said.

”The questioning of the IPCC, the ‘climategate’ incident based on hacked emails in the UK and attempts to intimidate climate scientists have added to the confusion in the public about the veracity of climate science. [See? Climategate and fudging data was just a storm in a teacup – move along, nothing to see here – Ed]

”By contrast to the noisy, confusing ‘debate’ in the media, within the climate research community our understanding of the climate system continues to advance strongly.” (source)

Words are useless to describe the hysteria. Coming at the same time as new research in Nature shows that it is the oceans that have far more of an effect on the climate than the composition of the atmosphere. And then there’s the non-existent sea level rises:

SYDNEY will be the Australian capital most vulnerable to extreme flooding events, the Climate Commission says.

While the likelihood of damaging floods, storm surges and king tides will increase around the coast, Sydney can expect to see ”extreme events” once a month by 2100, the commission’s report The Critical Decade says.

”While a sea-level rise of 0.5 metre … may not seem like a matter for much concern, such modest levels of sea-level rise can lead to unexpectedly large increases in the frequency of extreme high sea-level events,” it said. (source)

Sea level has been rising at 3mm per year since the year dot, with no sign of acceleration. Yet the Climate Commission manages to spin this into a scare story.

Isn’t it funny how the decade we are living in right now just happens to be the “critical decade” and we must act now. Planet has been here for four and a half billion years, but we have to save it in the next ten…

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Gillard descends to personal attacks on Abbott

22 May, 2011 by

Before the makeover…

What can she do? Nothing she says makes any difference. The people just won’t listen. Tony Abbott is flying high in the polls and Julia Gillard is sinking into the depths, so she pulls out the lowest trick of all – personal abuse, plain and simple. We should be pleased, as it shows the level of desperation that exists in the Gillard camp. It doesn’t reflect on Abbott though, it reflects on Gillard, so please, keep it up!

FACING her greatest political challenge, Julia Gillard played the man yesterday, accusing Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of behaving like the political love child of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.

The PM made her personal crack to at the ALP state conference at Monash University yesterday, telling the delegates Mr Abbott was running a hysterical campaign against the carbon tax. [Well, Gillard should know all about hysterical campaigns. She’s run enough of them – Ed]

“Tony Abbott has said of himself that he is John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop’s political love child,” she said. [Yes, if you hadn’t noticed, it’s OK to make jokes about yourself – Ed]

“Heaven knows that’s bad enough, but the truth is he is acting more like the love child of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.”

Mr Abbott did not respond to the jibe yesterday. [Perfectly proper to rise above such childish petulance – Ed]

An opinion poll yesterday showed Labor’s primary vote had crashed below 30 per cent in Queensland. (source)

Of course, it appealed to the great unwashed of Victorian Labor, but everyone else thought it was embarrassingly immature.

Desperate times call for truly desperate measures.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Green/Left can't handle balanced media

21 May, 2011 by

Brown and Sheikh

Apologies for the lack of posts – unexpectedly engaged in other things. But the two most ridiculous stories of the last day or so must be Bob Brown’s meltdown about the Murdoch “hate media“, and GetUp!’s protest about ABC’s “lurch to the right“.

This shows so many things it’s hard to know where to start. Firstly, of course, Bob Brown is so used to being treated with kid gloves that as soon as anyone asks anything like a curly question which he can’t answer, he flies off the handle and attacks his questioner, rather than actually addressing the issue. The Greens have for too long been regarded as above criticism, because their aims, supposedly “saving the planet”, are regarded as being on a higher moral plane than usual grubby politics. The reverse is actually true. The Greens are the grubby, people hating party, happy to sacrifice the well-being of the population on the altar of pointless environmentalism.

Brown has shown himself to be the shallow, inept politician we all knew he was. But now the Greens are in government and wielding power, they seem to expect the same easy ride. Well, sorry Bob, it doesn’t work like that. Your policies, ludicrous as they are, will be subjected to the same scrutiny as those of Labor and the Coalition. So my advice to you is: get the hell used to it. Because it will only get worse – far worse.

As for GetUp!, you really have to laugh, don’t you. This bunch of leftard lemmings is similarly so used to being pandered to by a lefty media, like ABC and Fairfax, that when Chris Uhlmann asks some difficult questions, it’s branded, Pavlov’s dog fashion, as a “lurch to the right”. Ding ding. No it isn’t Simon Sheikh, you halfwit. It’s a tiny, almost imperceptible step back towards something vaguely approaching the centre, which is exactly what is needed at the ABC.

Brown and Sheikh are like toddlers who have had their favourite toy (a compliant and biased media) cruelly taken away from them – and they just can’t cope.

Too funny for words.

Filed Under: ABC Bias, Climate Tagged With: , , ,

Wong pounces on Turnbull's comments

19 May, 2011 by

Traitor to the Coalition

Could this guy be any more of a quisling treacherous rat? Inevitably, after his criticisms of the Abbott climate policy (see earlier story), Labor has pounced, damaging Abbott and the Coalition in the process:

Finance Minister Penny Wong said Mr Turnbull was one of the few people in opposition truly committed to tackling global warming.

“What we saw last night is Malcolm really telling the truth about what the Liberal policy is,” she told Sky News.

“It’s very expensive and … it’s a con because those on his side of politics who we know really don’t want to do anything on this issue are able to roll it back and switch it off whenever they want.” (source)

Bravo Malc. Well done. Now, what else can you do to damage your own party? Just pack your bags and go and join Labor. Idiot.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

Dump Turnbull now

19 May, 2011 by

Time is up for Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull has done enough to wreck the Coalition’s chances of government. Message to Tony Abbott, sack him now, before it’s too late:

FORMER Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull has attacked the Coalition’s direct action policy on climate change, declaring it cannot produce deep emissions cuts without putting a strain on the budget.

The opposition communications spokesman, who lost the Liberal Party leadership over his deal with Kevin Rudd to legislate a carbon pollution reduction scheme, told ABC’s Lateline last night the Coalition’s policy on climate change was a short-term one that could be easily stopped.

Mr Turnbull told the program that if a government was looking for a long-term solution to making deep cuts to carbon emissions, “a direct action policy where industry is able to freely pollute and the government is just spending more and more taxpayers’ money to offset it, that would become a very expensive charge on the budget.” (source)

I guess Turnbull wants to see an ETS so he can cash in on the billions to be made trading carbon (allegedly). Enough is enough.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Labor and Greens in disarray on carbon price

18 May, 2011 by

More spin

Hands up who didn’t see this coming. As every political commentator in Australia is correctly stating, Labor is wedged between alienating their core vote by setting a carbon price too high, and the Greens by setting a carbon price too low.

Too high, and Labor will lose in a landslide at the next election. Too low, and the Greens will abandon their cosy little deal with Labor and force an election sooner – which they will lose anyway. I think that popcorn moment is approaching:

DEEP divisions have emerged between the government and the Greens over the starting price of Julia Gillard’s carbon tax as negotiations enter their final weeks.

After a meeting of the Prime Minister’s multi-party climate change committee, Greens leader Bob Brown seized on a report to be released today suggesting a carbon price of $40 a tonne may be needed to force electricity generators to switch from coal to gas.

But Climate Change Minister Greg Combet declared after the meeting that “from the government’s standpoint, it’s going to be well south of $40 a tonne and no matter what the starting price, there will be generous household assistance”.

With the committee expected to finalise its position on the carbon pricing mechanism ahead of an announcement late next month or in early July, Mr Combet conceded the government and the Greens continued to have “policy differences”, but they were “in good faith endeavouring to negotiate on those issues”.

Hilarious. More spin than a launderette. At least Tony Abbott can see through the fog:

As the MPCCC met in Canberra, Tony Abbott toured the Geelong Ford plant, saying a carbon tax of $30 a tonne would increase the cost of a car by $412. He dismissed Mr Combet’s assurances that the starting price for the carbon tax would be less than $40, saying the tax would rise every year.

“The point of this tax is that whatever level it starts at, it’s going to go up and up and up, and I say to the Australian people: you trust this Prime Minister at your peril,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Never forget the Prime Minister said six days before the election there ‘will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’, (and) within a couple of months ‘yes there will be a carbon tax’. So this is a government which is both incompetent and untrustworthy.” (source)

True. So true.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

UK: Huhne "the Hoon" on the ropes

17 May, 2011 by

Double demerits?

Looks like the UK’s dangerous and downright unhinged Energy and Climate Secretary’s days are quite possibly numbered, as he “does an Einfeld” by allegedly getting his estranged wife to take the rap for a speeding offence:

Chris Huhne’s career was hanging by a thread last night after his estranged wife agreed to testify that he asked her to take speeding points for him.

A close friend said Vicky Pryce would swear in court that she was busy all day in central London when the offence was committed 40 miles away in Essex.

As political support ebbed away from the Energy Secretary at Westminster, Essex Police appointed a senior detective to look into the allegations that Mr Huhne broke the law.

Sources said that if Miss Pryce co-operates and provides corroborating evidence, it is almost certain to lead to a full criminal inquiry. This could mean Mr Huhne facing charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. [maximum penalty: life imprisonment – Ed]

A friend of Miss Pryce told the Mail: ‘She was working in London during the day and evening of the date the offence took place in Essex. And she’s quite prepared to stand up in court and say so if necessary.’ (source)

Maybe there is a glimmer of hope that the UK climate madness could be reversed if Hoon Huhne was a guest of Her Majesty for a while. A few years, say.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Pachauri slaps down Aussie Greens

17 May, 2011 by

Pachi cloud

I don’t often agree with Rajendra Pachauri, but in this case I’m prepared to make a limited exception:

SPECIFIC natural disasters such as Cyclone Yasi and the Brisbane floods could not be directly linked to man-made climate change, the world’s leading climate change authority said yesterday.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri said the general observation that climate change was bringing about an increase in extreme weather events was valid [what increase? – Ed] but scientists needed to provide much finer detail.

“Frankly, it is difficult to take a season or two and come up with any conclusions on those on a scientific basis,” Dr Pachauri said.

“What we can say very clearly is the aggregate impact of climate change on all these events, which are taking place at much higher frequency and intensity all over the world. [Really? – Ed]

“On that there is very little doubt; the scientific evidence is very, very strong. But what happens in Queensland or what happens in Russia or for that matter the floods in the Mississippi River right now, whether there is a link between those and climate change is very difficult to establish. So I don’t think anyone can make a categorical statement on that.”

Dr Pachauri’s comments contradict assertions by Greens leader Bob Brown in the wake of the floods that the coal industry was to blame because the sector’s contribution to global warming was responsible for the extreme weather conditions. (source)

But on the other hand, the Greens might end up as our saviours. They may vote against the carbon tax because it isn’t tough enough. Gillard, on the other hand, wants to make sure the carbon tax has as little impact as possible in order for it to sneak through, unnoticed.

A CARBON price of $40 a tonne is needed to force a switch from coal to new, gas-fired electricity generation and reduce Australia’s emissions, the federal government has been advised as it prepares for a meeting to run all weekend with the independents and Greens to begin crunching a final climate deal.

The carbon price has been widely expected to start at between $20 and $30 a tonne, but confidential research by Deloittes for the Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, says that with east coast gas prices rising, black coal will remain the cheapest way to generate power unless the price on emissions rises relatively quickly to $40 a tonne. (source)

There’s no way you can sneak $40 a tonne past the electorate, Julia. Doesn’t get any easier, does it?

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Labor ship hits iceberg – sinking fast

16 May, 2011 by

Goodship Gillard

She’s holed below the waterline, Cap’n. Six compartments are flooded and it is a mathematical certainty that she’ll be heading to the bottom of the ocean in no time at all. But not to worry, the carbon tax lifeboat will save the government, just you wait and see…

SUPPORT for Julia Gillard has plunged after voters gave their lowest rating to Labor’s fourth budget, the overall worst reaction in almost 20 years, leaving the Prime Minister’s personal standing below that of Kevin Rudd when he was removed as leader.

Voter approval of Ms Gillard is the lowest it has been since she became Prime Minister last June. Tony Abbott is as close to her as preferred prime minister as he has ever been and closer than he ever was to Mr Rudd.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian at the weekend, the Coalition’s primary vote rose to a six-year high of 46 per cent to Labor’s unchanged 33 per cent, giving a two-party preferred calculation of 54 to 46 per cent.

Satisfaction with Ms Gillard as prime minister dropped to a record low for her of 34 per cent compared with 38 per cent before the budget, and dissatisfaction rose six points to 55 per cent, her highest level of dissatisfaction. (source)

Radio Operator – send out an SOS.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,
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