Gillard address: empty platitudes and a sickly grin

10 July, 2011 by

More spin

A prime ministerial address to the nation – are we at war or something? No, just introducing a tax in breach of an explicit pre-election promise. I guess the fact that she felt the need to conduct such an address shows how desperate she is to smooth the feathers of a very angry electorate. It won’t work – despite an over-the-top make-over and a forced rictus that looked so fake it was embarrassing.

I know I said I wasn’t going to watch it, but I’m prepared to suffer for my work… As expected, the address was full of nauseating, sickly clichés, lacking substance and credibility. Here’s an example:

Putting a price on carbon is a big change for our country.

I know we can do it together.

Our economy is the envy of the world.

We have world-leading renewable technology, a coal industry determined to cut pollution among the world’s richest reserves of natural gas.

And we are a confident, creative people.

I see a great clean energy future for our great country.

I know we can get there together. (source)

Pass the sick bag. By my count the phrase “carbon pollution” was used four times, “carbon” and “pollution” individually seven each. Every one a lie. She doesn’t even have the honesty or integrity to use the correct terminology – it is carbon dioxide and it is not pollution. But who cares? We can lie and mislead just to get our way and appease the Greens.

Tony Abbott must have read ACM because he said exactly what I said this morning:

“This is socialism masquerading as environmentalism.”

Julia, Wayne, Greg, Bob, Rob and Tony: the battle has only just begun. It will get far, far worse.

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Carbon madness: 80% emissions reduction by 2050

10 July, 2011 by

Forget for a moment the $23 a tonne carbon price, the really shocking figure in the Government’s new climate policy is its “ambitious” (read: suicidal) target of reducing emissions by 80% on 2000 levels by 2050. This is a figure which has “added to appease Green extremists” written all over it.

But at least the government have set this insane target well into the future, with no hope of it ever being legislated or achieved.

The rest of it is moving money around for no reason whatsoever (your money, that is).

You can download the climate policy here (PDF).

UPDATE: Just to put all this nonsense in perspective, the policy is due to reduce Australia’s emissions by 160 million tonnes of CO2 by 2020. Sounds impressive right? Well, China’s emissions rose in just one year by 750 million tonnes, nearly five times Australia’s planned reduction by 2020 – in just one year. Climate Madness.

P.S. No mention of how much of the revenue will by siphoned off to the UN either…

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Ignorance and arrogance drive carbon crusade

10 July, 2011 by

Hubris

I assume Julia Gillard must be a reasonably intelligent person to have achieved the rank of Prime Minister. And you don’t make partner of a law firm without a modicum of ability. However, her wilful blindness on the subject of climate change and Australia’s response to it is breathtaking – and embarrassing. She has abandoned all critical thought on the subject and is guided by a toxic mixture of ignorance and arrogance, as this quote reveals:

Ms Gillard said yesterday the Government had no option but to take action on climate change.

“We know we must lead because the science says we must,” Ms Gillard told the NSW ALP state conference.

“From July 1 next year, the freedom to pollute our skies must cease – polluters will have to pay.” (source)

Ignoring the disingenuous, but now ubiquitous, use of the word pollution for a harmless trace gas, the hubris at work here is astonishing.

  • Australia has “no option” on climate change action, but China, India, the US and most of the rest of the world have, apparently, because they aren’t doing anything.
  • Why must Australia lead the pack? We produce less than 1.3% of global emissions. Nothing we do will make any difference to the climate, globally or locally. This is pure arrogance. And the rest of the world isn’t going to follow our lead, believe me.
  • “The science says we must”? Really? If you surround yourself with alarmist advisers, all of whom have their snouts in the global warming hysteria funding trough, exclude or suppress any dissent, only listen to one side of a highly complex story, and suspend all rational thought processes, then I guess you’re right! Simple!
  • “Freedom to pollute our skies”? Amazing how words can be twisted when there is a political agenda to force through. Nothing about the carbon tax has anything to do with pollution. And her assumption that a carbon tax in Australia will somehow “clean up” Australian skies alone, ignores the fact that we don’t live in a polythene bubble, isolated from the rest of the global atmosphere.

As this blog has said many times before, a price on carbon in Australia will do nothing for the climate, locally or globally. Judging by the newspaper reports this morning, all it will do is redistribute wealth amongst the population, from rich to poor.

Stealth socialism at work, under the guise of environmentalism. Let’s hope the people aren’t fooled.

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Government climate scare campaign targets schoolchildren

9 July, 2011 by

Marty the spot-tailed quoll

Brainwash them while they are young – it’s so much easier then. Indoctrination Alert as the Herald Sun reports that children are being terrified by apocalypic climate change lessons in schools:

PRIMARY school children are being taught climate change will bring “death, injury and destruction” to the world unless they take action.

The concept of climate change is being taught to school students and used to underpin environmental studies in classrooms across Australia.

Resource material produced by the Federal Government for primary school teachers and students says climate change will cause “devastating disasters” in Australia.

“As well as their terrible impact on people, animals and ecosystems, they cause billions of dollars worth of damage to homes and other buildings,” the material says.

“Australia is one of the hottest and driest continents on Earth and is in danger of being severely affected by climate change if we do not act now.”

Psychologists and scientists yesterday slammed the lessons, accusing educators of being alarmist, creating unnecessary anxiety and endangering children’s mental health.

Sue Stocklmayer, director of the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at Australian National University in Canberra, said climate change had been presented as a doomsday scenario.

Dr Stocklmayer said she was not a climate-change sceptic [everybody has to say that, or else they would be ostracised, branded a denier and silenced – Ed] but worried “too much time was spent presenting scary scenarios, especially to young people”.

“To put all of this before our children . . . is one of the most appalling things we can do to children.” (source)

None of this should surprise us. The government simply recycles the IPCC line without a second of critical thought.

And do you expect the government to care about the chidren’s welfare? In a word, no. All they are concerned about is indoctrinating another generation of children to believe their lies, spin and exaggerations on climate change, so they will stop thinking for themselves and turn into brainless zombies – at which point they will meet the requirements to vote Labor and join GetUp.

The link to the government material for primary schools is here – have a click around, it’s an eye opener to think our children are being exposed to this.

By the way, Marty the spot-tailed quoll is endangered partly because of climate change, apparently.

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Power surge due: 6.30pm Sunday

8 July, 2011 by

Power surge

Hey kids, I hope Charlie the Coal-Fired Power Station is ready for this. Of course he is, he’s always ready for anything, thankfully (unlike his pitiful playmates, Wussy Wind and Sissy Solar).

Just as well, because on Sunday evening, at about 6.30pm, there will be a massive spike of electricity demand as everyone abandons their TV sets, goes into their kitchens and switches on their 2.4kW electric kettles to make a cup of tea and while away the next five minutes.

Why? Because Julia will be spruiking her pointless carbon tax to the nation. Here’s a checklist of the lies and spin we can expect to hear:

  • how “climate change is real” and we must take action
  • how Australia is “lagging behind the rest of the world”
  • repeated references to “carbon pollution”
  • repeated references to “big polluters”
  • how climate change is damaging Australia (but omitting to mention the tax will do nothing to change that…)
  • lots and lots of compensation for everyone (which kinda cancels out the intended effect of the tax, but still…)
  • how a carbon price is in the national interest
  • how a carbon tax will do nothing for the climate, oops sorry, that one slipped out.
  • how I was forced into this at gunpoint by the Greens, oops, sorry, that too.
Make sure you have those kettles at the ready folks.
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GetUp! thugs threaten carbon tax "blackmail"

8 July, 2011 by

GetHisFaceOffMyMonitor!

Doing Labor’s dirty work for them yet again, GetUp! has threatened to boycott grocery companies if they oppose the carbon tax:

A POWERFUL consumer lobby group [leftwing political activist group – Ed] has threatened a mass boycott of major grocery companies if they oppose the carbon tax.

Activist group Get Up has been accused of blackmail after sending a warning letter to 150 companies including Coca-Cola, Heinz, Kraft, McDonald’s, Schweppes and Nestle.

Get Up says it will urge its 570,000 members to “boycott goods and services that are linked to the scare campaign”.

Get Up confirmed it was prepared to mount a national boycott of the products of any company that was “holding our climate to ransom” by supporting a multi-million-dollar anti-tax advertising campaign by business.

Australian Food and Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell described the letter as blackmail and bullying.

“There is no doubt this is blackmail,” she told the Herald Sun.

“I’m horrified that an entity like Get Up who supposedly encourage free speech, seems only to believe that’s OK when people agree with Get Up.

“Threatening a boycott is really bullying.”

Ms Carnell said some of her smaller members who received the letter were worried the boycott could cost jobs.

“They are saying to our members if you support the Australian Food and Grocery Council taking a position against the carbon tax then we will encourage our members to boycott your goods and services,” she said.

Other companies who received the letter include Arnott’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Foster’s, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Sanitarium, Unilever, Patties Foods, Jalna and Eagle Boys Pizza.

Ms Carnell said her members were not climate change deniers but they did have concern about the carbon tax harming competitiveness and the 300,000 jobs in the food and grocery sector. (source)

You can read the letter here (PDF).

Under the New South Wales Crimes Act 1900, “blackmail” is defined as follows in section 249K:

(1) A person who makes any unwarranted demand with menaces:

(a) with the intention of obtaining a gain or of causing a loss, or

(b) with the intention of influencing the exercise of a public duty,

is guilty of an offence.

Section 249M what constitutes a “menace”, in particular towards a corporation:

(1) For the purposes of this Part, “menaces” includes:

(a) an express or implied threat of any action detrimental or unpleasant to another person, and

(b) a general threat of detrimental or unpleasant action that is implied because the person making the unwarranted demand holds a public office.

…

(3) A threat against a Government or body corporate does not constitute a menace unless:

(a) the threat would ordinarily cause an unwilling response, or

(b) the threat would cause an unwilling response because of a particular vulnerability of which the person making the threat is aware.

In this case there is a clear intent to cause a loss arising from the boycott, and there appears also to be an “unwarranted demand with menaces”, or threats that these actions will take place if the grocery companies oppose the carbon tax. Also, there is an awareness of the vulnerability of small grocers to such threats, and the possibility of them being put out of business. I’m not a criminal lawyer, but it’s arguable at least…

We can only hope that ordinary Australians see through these desperate, cheap scare tactics for what they are. GetUp! does not represent the majority of Australians, just a vocal and dangerous minority of extremists.

One word for Sheikh and his bullies: GetLost.

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Václav Klaus in Australia

8 July, 2011 by

From the Institute of Public Affairs:

A new poll by the Lowy Institute shows only 46% of Australians think climate change is a pressing issue for the country. That’s down from 76% just three years ago. And 39% of Australians say they aren’t willing to pay anything at all to tackle climate change.

This follows on from an IPA commisioned poll from February which found that 26% of Australians thought climate change was natural, 34% thought man was to blame and 38% weren’t sure either way.

There could not be a more important time to hear from one of the world’s most important critics of global warming ideology – Václav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic. He’s been warning of the dangers of the climate change “consensus” for many years. In 2007 he published the acclaimedBlue Planet in Green Shackles on the subject.

President Klaus warns in Blue Planet in Green Shackles: “The constraints of political correctness, tougher than ever, are being enforced and only one permitted truth is – yet again – imposed on us. Everything else is being denounced.”

In July and August, the Institute of Public Affairs is honoured to be presenting these important public events with President Klaus.

Click here for more information, and to make bookings.

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Daily Bayonet GW Hoax Weekly Roundup

8 July, 2011 by

Skewering the clueless

As always a great read!

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Must see: Global warming in cartoon form

7 July, 2011 by

Brilliant.

h/t Jo Nova

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Solar effects only cause cooling

7 July, 2011 by

Thames Frost Fair, 1694

Climate scientists in the consensus camp are scrambling to find a reason for the slowing of the global temperature rise in the last decade. According to their models, in which climate sensitivity is very high and positive feedbacks rule, temperatures should have continued rising with CO2.

Solar effects are to all intents and purposes ignored, since as the IPCC states in AR4, changes in solar irradiance are too small to affect the climate, and other methods such as cosmic ray modulation are “controversial” [translation: they don’t fit our agenda – Ed]. So they are simply glossed over.

Just yesterday, we read that the additional aerosols from burning coal have “offset” the greenhouse warming over the past decade and are actually cooling the planet, and today, we read that solar effects may cause UK winters to become colder, as the BBC reports:

Britain is set to face an increase in harsh winters, with up to one-in-seven gripping the UK with prolonged sub-zero temperatures, a study has suggested.

The projection was based on research that identified how low solar activity affected winter weather patterns.

However, the authors were keen to stress that their findings did not suggest that the region was about to be plunged into a “little ice age”. [Note the essential caveat – don’t anyone start thinking this is some kind of global effect – Ed]

The findings appear in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

“We could get to the point where one-in-seven winters are very cold, such as we had at the start of last winter and all through the winter before,” said co-author Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics at the University of Reading. (source)

There is a clear double standard at work here. The IPCC and the consensus scientists are terrified of investigating solar links to climate change too closely, since it may blow their CO2 driven cash cow out of the water. In their book, virtually none of the current warming is linked to increased solar activity or other solar-related phenomena, it’s all down to man-made CO2. That’s despite the fact that by their own admission, the level of scientific understanding of forcing by solar irradiance is “low” and that of cosmic rays “very low” [translation: “virtually zero” and “zero” – Ed].

But suddenly, as soon as there is a need to find a reason for cooling, the fog clears, as it were, and they invoke the sun as a cause.

Either we understand enough about the sun to link it to regional or global changes in climate or we don’t. You can’t have it both ways.

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