Taxes as punishment don't work

5 October, 2011 by

Tax as punishment?

I wonder if the government will listen as intently to the Productivity Commission now as it did when the Commission was providing support for the carbon price:

THE Productivity Commission chairman, Gary Banks, has sounded a warning to the government against using the tax system to change community behaviour in areas such as gambling, road congestion and carbon pollution.

Speaking at the end of the first day of the tax forum in Canberra yesterday, Mr Banks warned that raising taxes to change behaviour had to be done in “the right way to the right extent”.

“That is very hard,” Mr Banks told the forum. He argued that much of the detail on how to change behaviour with taxes was “unresolved” and risked authorities’ ability to convince the community that the taxes were worthwhile.

On carbon pricing, Mr Banks said “the complexities are unbounded” and a key challenge for the government would be reviewing which of the 200 other climate schemes around Australia “deserve to stay and which of those deserve to go”.

His comments echo the Productivity Commission’s findings that state climate change schemes such as solar feed-in tariffs were greatly increasing the cost of carbon emissions abatement.

Taxes really don’t change people’s behaviour – people will just use more of their disposable income to maintain the status quo.

Read it here.

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The Climate Alarmism Machine

4 October, 2011 by

Click for PDF

UPDATE: Kudos to Andy for linking to my map with the comment “I think some, though by no means all, aspects of the map are spot on.” [Well, it did say that originally, it’s now been toned down somewhat… and I think Andy may have missed the fact that this is satire – Ed]

Andy Revkin, in the New York Times, indulges in a full frontal denier orgy today, proudly showing a map of “organised climate change denial”. So I thought I would respond with my own Map of the Climate Change Alarmism Machine.

P.S. Check out some of the comments on Revkin’s post… ouch.

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Idiotic Comment of the Day: Clive Hamilton

3 October, 2011 by

No picture, because it would sully my monitor

Another classic Hamilton rant on ABC’s The Drum (see here for a previous example). I seriously considered whether to give this [snip] any more oxygen, but then I couldn’t resist. It’s just too funny to pass up:

At last, the ABC has broadcast a program that accurately reflects the debate over climate science.

That is, a program in which a large body of eminent scientists with an overwhelming case built and tested carefully over many years using the best procedures of science meets a politically-motivated coterie of ratbags who manipulate the truth, endlessly repeat falsehoods, harass their opponents and grandstand at every opportunity.

Poor old Hamilton has missed the obvious irony of his desperate ravings, namely that “a politically motivated coterie of ragbags who manipulate the truth, endlessly repeat falsehoods and harass their opponents” is the perfect description of the IPCC.

Read the rest here – it’s hilarious.

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Coalition will force double dissolution on carbon tax

3 October, 2011 by

Greg Hunt

As we would expect, the Coalition will not allow the undemocratic “poison pill” tactics of Labor to stand in the way of its right to repeal the carbon tax legislation if (when) in government:

THE Coalition will go to a double dissolution election if it wins government and Labor baulks at repealing the carbon tax and its associated compensation, opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt says.

But Mr Hunt has declared he expects Labor to eventually support the Coalition’s push to unravel the Gillard government’s climate change policy, if it loses the next federal poll.

Speaking on Sky News’s Australian Agenda yesterday, Mr Hunt said doing otherwise would be “an act of almost breathtaking democratic arrogance”. Indicating the opposition had been busy behind the scenes building its election policy platform, Mr Hunt said he had been up till 5am one night last week trawling through previous years’ budget papers for viable savings.

The Coalition has confirmed it is looking for savings of about $70 billion to fund its policies.

“We are preparing for an election at any possible time, so we are ready to go in case the instability in government translates to an election,” he said.

“If there is more time, we can do more work. But we are ready for an election because we believe this government is unstable.” (source)

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Quotes of the Day

2 October, 2011 by

Quote of the Day

Writing in The Conversation, Prof Steven Sherwood must have access to some very ancient observers of Canadian ice:

“The real significance of this, in my view, is that this ice has reportedly been there for thousands of years.” (source)

Reportedly? Who was noting the ice extent in Canada thousands of years ago?

And from the press release, Derek Mueller says:

“The ice shelves were formed and sustained in a different climate than what we have now. As they disappear, it implies we are returning to conditions unseen in the Arctic for thousands of years.” (source)

So thousands of years ago the climate was different, without any help from man-made CO2 or Stone Age SUVs? Who’d of thunk it?

Watts Up With That? has more on the story here.

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ACM is 3 years old today

1 October, 2011 by

Post-carbon tax birthday cake

Three years of Australian Climate Madness, 2,100 posts, nearly 8,000 comments, and now over 5,000 fans on Facebook.

Despite the fact that we have seen the back of Kevin Rudd, the ETS and Malcolm Turnbull, we are still staring down the barrel of a pointless carbon tax, the sole purpose of which is to appease the Greens and keep Julia Gillard in the Lodge. There is much work still to do.

Just a reminder that you can subscribe to the ACM email – you will receive at most ONE email each day when there is new content on the site. Just use the subscribe box at the top of the right sidebar.

Thanks to all my readers for your support!

P.S. Want to check out what ACM looked like in October 2009? Click here.

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Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism "basically a farce"

1 October, 2011 by

The UN at work

Why does this not surprise me in the least? Virtually everything remotely connected with the UN is “basically a farce”, but this disaster has been exposed more comprehensively than most. As Nature reports:

Critics have long questioned the usefulness of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established under the Kyoto Protocol. It allows rich countries to offset some of their carbon emissions by investing in climate-friendly projects, such as hydroelectric power and wind farms, in developing countries. Verified projects earn certified emission reductions (CERs) — carbon credits that can be bought and sold, and count towards meeting rich nations’ carbon-reduction targets.

But a diplomatic cable published last month by the WikiLeaks website reveals that most of the CDM projects in India should not have been certified because they did not reduce emissions beyond those that would have been achieved without foreign investment. Indian officials have apparently known about the problem for at least two years.

“What has leaked just confirms our view that in its present form the CDM is basically a farce,” says Eva Filzmoser, programme director of CDM Watch, a Brussels-based watchdog organization. The revelations imply that millions of tonnes of claimed reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions are mere phantoms, she says, and potentially cast doubt over the principle of carbon trading. “In the face of these comments it is no wonder that the United States has backed away from emission trading,” Filzmoser says.

…

[Yet] on the evidence of discussions at the meeting, most of the carbon-offset projects in India fail to meet the CDM requirements set by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The cable also describes the UN’s validation and registration process as “arbitrary”. 

Once again, this kind of revelation demonstrates that climate mitigation policies are nothing more than pointless gimmicks, moving billions of dollars around the globe for minimal or no environmental benefit whatsoever.

Commenter on the article William Eschenbach sums it up:

I love the CDM. It takes money from people in Europe who wouldn’t dream of allowing a hydroelectric dam to be built in their country, and gives it to China to build … of course … hydroelectric dams.

Couldn’t be a better symbol for the whole climate madness.

Read it here.

(h/t Bryan H)

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Article in Spectator Australia: "Defining Denial"

30 September, 2011 by

Spectator Australia

ACM editor Simon has an article in The Spectator Australia today. It considers the use of the term “denial” as a blunt instrument to silence dissent in the climate debate.

It is available in the shops here in Australia today, Friday, and I will post a link when it is available online.

Huge thanks to editor Tom Switzer for the opportunity.

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Deaths from "extreme weather" at their lowest since 1900

30 September, 2011 by

More Gore-bull

Al Gore claims that “global warming” is causing more extreme weather events, because his investments will go south if he fails to keep up the fear. Note the irony that he was speaking at a “low-carbon investment conference”. You really can’t make this stuff up – just follow the money:

“Observations in the real world make it clear that it’s happening now, it’s real, it’s with us,” he said. Failing to take action meant the world would face a catastrophe. [In other words, his bank balance would face a catastrophe – Ed]

He added that nearly every climate scientist actively publishing on the subject now agreed there was a causal link between carbon emissions and the sharp increase in intense and extreme weather events seen across the globe. (source)

Gore cited the Pakistani floods as evidence of this claim. But unfortunately, the official report into the floods found NO LINK to climate change. Read the whole Guardian article – it’s a scream.

And it is strange that deaths from such “extreme weather events” are at their lowest for over a hundred years, even taking into account the greater reporting of such events thanks to better monitoring facilities:

Despite concerns about global warming and a large increase in the number of reported storms and droughts, the world’s death rate from extreme weather events was lower from 2000 to 2010 than it has been in any decade since 1900, according to a new Reason Foundation study. 

The Reason Foundation report chronicles the number of worldwide deaths caused by extreme weather events between 1900 and 2010 and finds global deaths caused by extreme weather events peaked in the decade running from 1920 to 1929, when there were 241 deaths a year per million people in the world. From 1930 to 1939 there were 208 deaths a year per million people. But from 2000 to 2010 there were just 5.4 deaths a year per million people in the world. That’s a 98 percent decline in the weather-related death rate since the 1920s. Extreme weather events were responsible for just .07% of the world’s deaths between 2000 and 2010. (source)

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Daily Bayonet GW Hoax Weekly Round-up

30 September, 2011 by

Skewering the clueless

A welcome return for the Round-up – as always a great read!

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