UPDATED: Rudd loses all grip on reality


Get his pasty slab of a face off my monitor

Get his pasty slab of a face off my monitor

UPDATE: Marc Morano at Climate Depot has compiled a brilliant line-by-line demolition of Rudd’s climate nonsense. Read it all here.

Roger Pielke Jr. comments on Rudd’s chilling speech.

More coverage in The Australian:

In a speech at the Lowy Institute yesterday afternoon, Kevin Rudd appeared to lose it completely on climate change, launching into an astonishing tirade against “sceptics” and “deniers”. The facade has slipped away to reveal the mealy mouthed Rudd at his worst, hurling insults and abandoning any pretence of good faith negotiation on the ETS. The speech was packed to the gills with tired old clichés, as you would expect:

“It is time to be totally blunt about the agenda of the climate change sceptics in all their colours, some more sophisticated than others,” he said.

“It is to destroy the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme at home and it is to destroy agreed global action on climate change abroad. [Yes, and your problem with that is…? – Ed]

Nauseating Mawkishness Alert:

“And our children’s fate – our grandchildren’s fate – will lie entirely with them. It is time to remove any polite veneer from this debate; the stakes are that high. [I actually lost count of how many times he roped in the “children” – Ed]

“The clock is ticking for the planet [boring cliché – Ed], but the climate change sceptics simply do not care.”

“Climate change sceptics, the climate change deniers [Denier Alert – Ed], the opponents of climate change action are active in every country,” he said.

“They are a minority. They are however powerful and invariably they are driven by vested interests [and are] powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia.”

Actually, the “sceptics” care, but they care for something different – raising people out of poverty, the standard of living of Australians, cheap energy availability for all, not sacrificing all of that on the altar of Gaia. Unfortunately, Rudd’s speech is just a catalogue of typical responses to those who aren’t stupid enough to have swallowed the IPCC line whole, like Rudd and Penny Wong have. I’m amazed he didn’t say they were all paid for by “Big Oil”!

And to conclude, Rudd continues to rely solely on the politicised and biased IPCC as his only source of information, talking up the number in the consensus each time it’s mentioned:

And the most recent IPCC scientific conclusion in 2007 was that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and the “increase in global average temperatures since the mid 20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.

This is the conclusion of 4,000 scientists appointed by governments from virtually every country in the world, and the term “very likely” is defined in the scientific conclusion of this report as being 90 per cent probable.

I guess that’s why the climate has cooled for nearly a decade, despite CO2 emissions rising faster than ever?

Climate madness.

Read it here.

Read the full text of the speech here (if you dare).

US puts climate bill on hold until 2010


Another nail in the coffin of Hopenchangen, I mean, Copenhagen. The US has confirmed that it will not pass any climate bill before the COP15 summit in December, delaying it by at least five weeks to review the potential costs (which will be huge):

The delay, which would push a Senate vote on a climate change bill into next year, frustrates a last-minute push by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to get America to commit itself at home to cut greenhouse gas emissions before the Copenhagen meeting. World leaders – and US officials – have repeatedly said US legislation is crucial to a deal on global warming.

However, the appeals for urgent action were overridden by political concerns in the Senate, which formally began debate on a proposed climate change law last week. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill in June. But the Senate version has been repeatedly delayed, first by the battle over healthcare reform and now by Republican demands for more time to study the proposals.

In a move to stem the Republican protest, and quieten Democrat critics, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, said he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to spend five weeks reviewing the potential costs of the bill. Opponents of the proposal argue the target of a 20% cut in emissions on 2005 levels by 2020 is overly ambitious, and will be too costly for US businesses and families.

The five-week delay would all but rule out passage of a bill before the Copenhagen meeting begins on 7 December.

So just remind me again: why on earth is the Rudd government so desperate to pass the ETS before Copenhagen? Give me one good reason.

Read it here (h/t Watts Up With That)

Rudd: Australia will contribute to climate change fund


Yesterday it was global socialism in the EU, today in Australia, as Kevin Rudd confirms that Australia will contribute to a fund to help developing countries to help “tackle climate change”. Where do those dollars come from? Your pocket. Did you vote for that?

Mr Rudd also conceded a tough road lay ahead for negotiators at Copenhagen after German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote off the chances of next month’s talks agreeing to a comprehensive successor to the Kyoto treaty. EU leaders agreed at the weekend to call for a global fund to total €100 billion ($161bn) by 2020 to pay developing countries to combat climate change, but failed to agree on how much money it was prepared to put into it.

Mr Rudd said yesterday Australia would play a role in helping to fund the project.

“Look, I have worked very closely with Chancellor Merkel in recent months on both climate change and a whole range of global financial challenges, and she is a strong and active contributor to trying to forge consensus for Copenhagen,” he said. “Negotiations are really tough, that is absolutely right, and I’ve been completely up front about that, and they’ll continue to be tough.”

On the subject of the fund, Mr Rudd said: “Australia, once a global agreement is shaped, would always be prepared to put forward its fair share. At this stage there’s no global agreement as to what long-term financing arrangements should underpin a deal at Copenhagen for emerging and developing economies.

And then of course there is the pious plea to the Opposition to pass the ETS:

“And I would appeal to all fair-minded Liberals, all fair-minded conservatives, that this is a national interest question which literally should transcend politics for the next 20, 30 and 50 years.”

Literally.

Read it here.