Just don't tell me the debate's over…
Bloggies 2012
If any readers feel like nominating ACM for a Bloggie award in the Best Australian and New Zealand blog, I would be most honoured.
We have no chance of winning this prestigious award, but if we get into the shortlist we may generate some publicity for the message we are trying to communicate, which can only be a good thing. [Read more…]
Mad bubble
Climate sense as always:
In the 20 years since the scare was launched, global man-made CO2 emissions have risen by 50 per cent. But at the end of 2011, global temperatures measured by Nasa satellites stood barely a tenth of a degree Celsius higher than their average throughout the 32 years since satellite measurements began – far lower than the projected warming. The computer models on which the scare relied have proved so wrong that it is incomprehensible how they were ever taken seriously.
Hardly surprisingly, in 2011 any attempt to get global agreement on drastic meaures to meet this supposed threat finally expired, as the third mammoth UN conference in as many years fizzled out in Durban. There is no chance that China, India, Brazil, Russia or even the US will agree to a replacement for the failed Kyoto Protocol – not when China alone, with its coal-fired power stations, is increasing its CO2 emissions each year by an amount greater than the UK’s entire annual output.
On all sides, mad schemes dreamed up to meet this imaginary crisis are falling apart. The EU’s carbon trading scheme is collapsing, The dream of solar power is disintegrating, as country after country slashes its subsidies, and firms set up to cash in on the bonanza close in droves (5,000 in Germany alone). Evaporating likewise is the fantasy of “carbon capture and storage” – CO2 from power stations being piped away, at vast expense, and buried in holes in the ground.
More and more, this leaves Britain isolated in a mad little bubble of its own, the only country in the world committed by law to the completely unrealisable goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 80 per cent within 40 years. (source)
Add Australia to the mad little bubble as well, with its pointless carbon tax, albeit nowhere near as insane as the UK’s efforts to destroy its economy permanently.
Climate comedy
Those in showbiz seem eager to jump on the “global warming” bandwagon more readily than most (think Bono, Leo, Cate etc etc). So it’s not surprising that writers are using their works to disseminate climate propaganda, as the Silly Moaning Herald reports:
CLIMATE change was supposed to be ”the greatest moral challenge of our time”, as the former prime minister Kevin Rudd put it, but it was pigeon excrement that caused headaches for Nigel Jamieson.
Inspired by the 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference, Jamieson’s As The World Tipped features a stage that slowly becomes vertical, leaving performers hanging in the air.
Floods, famine and drought will be screened on the vertical stage as actors perform aerial theatrics in the show, which will play at Sydney Festival’s first night next Saturday and at the Parra Opening Party on January 14.
Jamieson said the spectacle of harassed bureaucrats failing to notice as the world around them slides towards disaster ”seemed the perfect metaphor” for the climate change debate.
[…] the night’s producer, Vernon Guest, said a major theatrical piece such as As The World Tipped was important to keep the event fresh. Highlighting the danger of climate change inaction also attracted Guest.
”It is an important message that is on everyone’s mind at the moment both politically and socially,” he said. ”To have an environmental message woven into a large theatre work is really important to us.” (source)
Hilarious (unintentionally, of course), all reported without any critical thought by the SMH.
By the way, Jamieson lives in a “straw bale house.” Kinda figures.
No agenda?
UPDATE: View the letters in response to Sandiford’s article here (thanks to reader Bruce in the comments).
Writing in The Australian Mike Sandiford takes a pop at Ian Plimer. Just by way of background, Sandiford:
so I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. Looks like Sandiford has had a problem with Ian Plimer for a while – another article in The Aus covering similar ground is here.
GINA Rinehart notoriously claims she has never met a geologist who believes “adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will have any significant effect on climate”.
To listen to prominent “contrarian” geologists such as Ian Plimer, you might imagine she never could.
But, despite the bluster, our contrarian geologists are out of kilter with their own community and seem deeply confused about the way the greenhouse effect – by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere, for example – has shaped both the past and the present.
All geology students learn of the importance of the greenhouse effect. It’s simply impossible to understand the geological record without it. [Read more…]
December in Sydney
Naturally there shouldn’t be any mention of climate change in such an article – this is merely weather, after all.
Except of course, if it had been the “hottest” December in 50 years, we would have had all the usual rent-seekers and alarmists crawling out from under their rocks to announce that such a record was “entirely consistent with anthropogenic global warming” and that we can “expect more of the same in the future”… such are the blatant double standards endemic in both the alarmist camp and the mainstream media.
Actually, since you can now attribute anything and everything to climate change, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to read some desperate hack on the ABC or the Silly Moaning Herald claiming that “greater extremes” such as a cold December, are “consistent” with some flaky climate model somewhere.
From the Daily Telegraph:
IT’S a good thing December is almost over – it’s been the coldest for more than 50 years.
With two days to go, it seems certain Sydney will record its coldest December since 1960, with the average daily maximum so far this month 2.2C below the long-term average.
Sydney’s average top temperature so far this month was a chilly 23C – only 0.2C more than in 1960.
That isn’t going to change much over the next two days, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting showers and tops of just 24C.
Not once has the temperature reached 30C in the city this month, the first time since 1999 the mercury has failed to reach that mark in December.
Even in 1960, Sydney recorded two days with top temperatures above 30C.
The Weather Channel meteorologist Dick Whitaker said Sydney wasn’t the only city to suffer a cold start to summer, with Canberra and Brisbane also experiencing below average temperatures.
“Across eastern Australia we had a lot of cloud cover in December and on top of that we had an above average frequency of southerly winds,” Mr Whitaker said. (source)
In other news, the Daily Bayonet has crowned Julia Gillard as Hippie of the Year. She deserves nothing less.
Happy New Year!
"Seriously real science"?
More indoctrination from our national scientific research organisation. Reader KA sent me a photo of the kit on sale, which sadly doesn’t provide many details of the materials inside. However, I thought we could have a pretty good guess, so here we go:
Contents:
- 1 hockey stick (broken)
- 1 climate change calculator (multiplies everything by a fudge factor automatically)
- software for deleting emails (Windows and Mac)
- phone numbers of editors of all sceptical climate journals with handy script for threatening voicemail message
- model windmill (self-combusting)
- Himalayan glacier ice cube kit
- application form for government funding (pre-approved)
- plastic polar bear to create your own Al Gore-style weepy animation
- model pink batts insulation experiment, with fire extinguisher and pro-forma writ for negligence
- fake carbon credit certificates (actually real ones, but hey, they’re the same!)
- guide to Freedom of Information legislation in 50 major jurisdictions
- application for IPCC lead author status (pre-approved)
Have I missed anything?
A bargain at just $29.99 (or $48.50 after the carbon tax).
I saved the best until last. Prawns on a barbecue (“barbie” as it is colloquially known, as Aussies insist on abbreviating everything and suffixing “-ie”, “blowie”, “mozzie” etc) are a cliché and an institution at the same time. So naturally, it is an excellent target for the climate killjoys who try to blackmail us with scares and threats. None is more blatant than this one, seen in the Powerhouse Museum’s climate change exhibit (see yesterday’s post for more). The text reads:
“One third of the carbon dioxide we release dissolves in the ocean and turns into carbonic acid. Today the oceans are about 30% more acidic than they were in preindustrial times. High acid levels make it very hard for sea creatures to build calcium carbonate shells and skeletons. These include corals, clams, prawns and plankton that form the base of the ocean food web. Without their shells they will simply disappear. Animals that normally eat them will be affected too.”
Propaganda masquerading as science (click to enlarge)
The oceans have in fact become marginally less alkaline, since today the pH is a few tenths less than it was pre-industrially. The 30% figure is derived from the increase in H+ ions – but since pH is a logarithmic measure of hydrogen ion concentration, absolute percentages sound large (which the PH has exploited for dramatic effect) but are really fairly small (an increase of just 1 full unit of pH would be a 1000% (10x) increase in concentration of H+ ions). The ocean pH is around 8.07, down from about 8.17 in pre-industrial times. Still well short of even neutrality (pH 7), let alone acidic.
And again, such dire prophecies, whilst great for scaring children, ignore nature’s remarkable capacity for adaptation and survival. We have had higher CO2 levels present in the atmosphere before, yet shellfish remain in the oceans… When we fail to look at geological timescales, we fall into the trap of thinking that everything we see today is “unprecedented”.
A visit to the Powerhouse Museum to see the Harry Potter exhibition today was marred by an unexpected encounter with an area devoted to “explaining” climate change.
The purpose is clearly one of indoctrination and propaganda rather than a dispassionate and informative explanation of the subject, as evidenced by this video on display within the exhibit:
In fact, according to the PH museum website, the science is settled, with a typical “flat-earth” style smear aimed at anyone vaguely sceptical:
“Scientific ideas aren’t always popular. It took 400 years for the public to accept that the Earth travels around the Sun, so it’s no surprise that there’s some public resistance to the notion of human-induced climate change. Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of centuries to debate the causes, so it moves into the realm of risk management.”
…
The world’s climate scientists say we should prepare now for hotter temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme weather like floods and droughts. Consequently, systems that supply our food, water, clothing and shelter will be affected. The exhibition explores options for adapting these systems and for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. (link)
So for a bit of post-Christmas fun, your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to point out the errors, misrepresentations and spin masquerading as impartial science in the following exhibits [click to embiggenify if necessary]:
ACM Towers chewing through plenty of coal-fired electricity
Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas (or happy holidays if you prefer) and health and happiness for 2012.
Simon
This is what happens when we finally arrive at the pointy end of the ludicrous and dangerous policies implemented in the EU to theoretically reduce emissions [note: which don’t work]. The Chinese are furious at the EU’s unilateral decree that it will start taxing international flights as part of it’s carbon pricing regime:
China has warned the European Union to abandon its controversial carbon tax on airlines or risk provoking a global trade war.
Adding weight to the warning, an industry insider told the Financial Times that the Chinese government was seriously considering measures to hit back at the EU if it insists on charging international airlines for their carbon emissions.
In a case initiated by US airlines, the European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme did not infringe on the sovereignty of other nations, and that it was compatible with international law. The change is set to go into effect from January 1.
Chinese airlines have also been preparing an legal challenge in Europe and they still plan to proceed with it, but Chai Haibo, deputy secretary general of the China Air Transport Association, conceded that the European ruling complicated matters as it means they will need to find an alternative reason to challenge the law.
Even if court action fails, Mr Chai was optimistic that concerted global pressure could yet persuade the EU to repeal its law. In the short term, he called on Brussels to delay implementation in light of the intense international outcry that it has provoked.
“Except for the EU, no countries support this,” he said.
He added that several Chinese government departments in Beijing were in the midst of researching possible counter-measures. Chinese airline officials have said before that they might refuse to pay the carbon tax, raising the prospect of a drawn-out legal fight. (source)
The realities of the imaginary green utopia begin to sink in.
Australian Climate Madness 
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