Remember how Curtin University, in Perth Australia, put up a sacred Nobel Wall? We had so much fun with it. The mural deified a climate saint — Prof Richard Warrick — one of the numberless thousands who helped the IPCC win a peace prize for generating no peace. It appears the University was embarrassed about people pointing out that the mural implied Prof Warrick had earned a Nobel Peace Prize while the Nobel committee said he hadn’t.
Curtin University not only changed the web pages, but the mural has been removed. I would have thought they might just change the wording, but the whole climate theme is gone. Possibly the University felt some pain being mocked for the religious overtones.
Call this a small win. Thanks to AndrewWA who alerted me in comments. It shows sometimes it is worth sending polite letters, getting those embarassing photographs and writing those blogs. This mural below has been replaced with another mural entirely (see below).
The former mural on Curtin Universities wall.
As for the web pages, the official Curtin page was corrected. The bio page has evaporated? (I can’t see it at all, can you?)
From Feb 2014: “Warrick’s bio pages say that he is a “co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize” and that “he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and other selected IPCC authors in 2007.”
I was all so meaningless in the first place: a fuss about a scientist not-winning a non-science prize? As I wrote then:
Everyone knows these Nobel claims are just an empty fawning political embellishment. Firstly, good scientific work gets a science prize, not a peace prize. Secondly, a peace prize is worthless even as a peace prize since Obama got one for 11 days of just being in office.
Not only is the peace prize meaningless, but Prof Warrick didn’t get one, even the low-standard Nobel committee themselves say so. With every tom-dick-and-michael-mann connected to the IPCC suddenly claiming to be a Nobel Laureate, the Nobel committee declared that it was not so.
Here is the reply Curtin University sent to AndrewWA which he posted in comments. I confirmed it with someone on the ground:
You indicate that in your view, the material asserts that Professor Warwick is a recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize. Professor Warrick was a lead author of the IPCC reports, and received a personalised certificate from the IPCC for “contributing to the Award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC”.
The University is proud of the achievements of Professor Warrick but has considered your views and has amended the wording in the website articles and the mural has been removed.
Thank you for taking the time to write about your concerns.
Now there is a new mural on the wall-next-door featuring Astronomer Professor Steven Tingay.
Inside our walls Professor Steven Tingay is looking into the origins of our Universe.
For scale – a wider view — so you can appreciate just how large and imposing these murals are:
…
Thanks to the dissident for the photos.
Lordy, talk about the writing on the wall for climate alarmism …
Pointman
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“mene mene tekal upharsin” very timely comment considering the present situation in Iraq.
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Tiocfaidh ár lá, it’s arrived Alanna. Get used to the idea.
Pointy
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“Rydyn ni’n yma o hyd” despite the warmist jihad – Cymro sgeptig ydw i 😉
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Certainly a most pleasing outcome……
My original email was sent on Feb 21 and final response was May 28 – 3 months – which in the circumstances, I consider reasonable.
At all times the Curtin staff were courteous in acknowledging my original email and quickly responding to my queries re progress.
The gist of my email was:
“The Internet is a wonderful tool for the sharing of information.
It is also a great way to discover activities which portray practices which are at best disingenuous, far from satisfactory and totally unacceptable as examples for gullable students.
In my 40 years in the Mining Industry I have found professional misrepresentation to be a serious problem. It should not be tolerated, accepted nor encouraged. It certainly should NOT be promoted.”
and (after a bit of background which took a bit of research in addition to Jo’s blog article – including reference to Michael Mann making similar claims in 2011)
“I respectfully request that this matter related to Professor Richard Warwick be investigated and if claims such as “sharing in a Noble Peace Prize” are found to be erroneous or constitute professional misrepresentation that appropriate action be taken to remedy the situation.”
Curtin’s action was both appropriate and appreciated.
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I think I can just hear a tiny little foot stamping far far away.
It doesn’t sound like a happy little foot.
There is so much absurdity in the world of today’s climate science that a breath of fresh air and common sense like this is a welcome change.
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Interesting that both murals share the same shape.
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Should of put both up…Mural’s Wedding.
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I’d say they come from the same supplier, I actually have quite some experience in putting up advertising and what is probably displayed is a simple banner printed on a vinyl backing adhered a wooden or plastic type of base, usually a banner or “skin” would be stretched across a lighting box backlit by led’s for night time illumination (duh Yonnie).
Recently we put up some large (18m long) digital signs complete with internal walkway and service ladder in the Melbourne CBD, everything is pre assembled before the lift so once up and secured the tech/sparky just has to plug and play.
The sign has internet connectivity so it’s display can be changed remotely anywhere in the world, funny thing is as technology advances the display and operation of these signs might be better but they still weigh 5+ tons so we have to be sure they are going to stay up after installation.
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“Inside these walls is a brickie trying to explain the cock-up he made in his mortar mix.”
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Perhaps with more mud thrown we can help to finish the cock-up. 🙂
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That comment reminds me of the movie, ‘American Pie’.
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Push back against the climate kooks and their deceptions every way and every time.
Congratulations. Yet another climate profiteer has had his nose thumped and he deserved it.
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I dunno…I’d have felt embarrased at having a quasi-religious mural fawning about my rather normal activities….
Remonds me of the time Menzies did the “I but saw her passing by” – if you see the actual footage where says it at a reception for the Queen, you see the Queen actually physically cringe at the words….he he
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Another brick in the wall …
Saturday 14 June 2014
Apparent pause in global warming blamed on ‘lousy’ data
❝ A widely reported “pause” in global warming may be an artefact of scientists looking at the wrong data, says a climate scientist at the European Space Agency.
Climate scientists have been arguing for some time that the lack of warming of the sea surface is due to most of the extra heat being taken up by the deep ocean.
A better measure, he said, was to look at the average rise in sea levels. ❞
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Climate Scientists, see what happens if they think there’s a Nobel Laureate in it.
They’ll never learn, sooner or later they will have to go back to basics… chicken gizzards.
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The comments at that ‘lousy data’ link are highly amusing.
As number one comments . . .It is looking like a script for a black comedy.
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HJ,
The piece on ‘lousy’ data seems somewhat sparse so which part of the planetary mechanism did suddenly kick in 50 years ago and decide to bypass the surface of the ocean to transfer heat directly from the atmosphere to the deep ocean floor?
I suppose it makes as much sense as CO2 concentrations increase during an ice causing the the ice to melt, the oceans to rise, the green house effect, the planet to overheat, volcanoes to erupt, floods to inundate, dams to dry up, snow to evaporate, polar vortex to freeze, deserts to bloom, crops to wither, harvests to increse, women to turn to prostitution, men to abuse women, civilisation to turn to drugs, opportunists to cash in…
I particularly like the last one, at least we have direct evidence to support the cashing in on the global warming fear campaign by the opportunists.
Carbon Tax, Renewable Energy Targets, Carbon Trading Scheme, Nobel Laureates, Government Grants, Tax Payer subsidies, Academic Kudos, Denier Stigmata, anyone?
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Hahahaha….the third paragraph of the article sums it up perfectly.
Maybe they discovered the oven is the best place to start looking?
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Reminds me of the old Union poster:
“Beatings will continue, until morale improves…”
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At least he’s now doing something harmless… …hopefully.
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It must have provided a good contract job for whoever painted the mural and then repainted it again. I hope he bled them for every dollar he could get.
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What about the University of NSW, Prof. Chris Turkey and the “ship of fools”, can’t efface this.
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Also from the link provided by handjive “…..over the past decade scientists have homed in on the key parameters of the Earth’s system.
They call these the Essential Climate Values or ECV”s.”
The cattle industry has EBV’s – Estimated Breeding Values- essential key parameters when buying a new bull. However, despite all this technology and research, two years ago I ended up an infertile bull, whilst Dad once ended up with a gay bull.
Moral of the story: Just when you think you understand, Mother Nature does what it bloody well wants!
Instead of Essential Climate Variables, try Estimated Climate Variables.
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Hi Jo,
I too was under the impression that Obama was only in office a few days before receiving his Nobel. There must have been a story somewhere.
In fact ( if you can say that about Wikipedia )
Elected Nov 4 2008.
Inaugurated Jan 20 2009.
Prize announced by press release Oct 9 2009.
Nearly 9 months.
Just another web factoid. How annoying.
Please forgive my pedantry.
Cheers.
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Further googling gives
“The winner was chosen unanimously on October 5”
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And he has been dividing Americans ever since, one wonders how the USA system can govern for all citizens when they have a partisan president, one single person with one single opinion, with so much power (the power to regulate).
At least here, there always has to be at least consensus of cabinet, portfolios don’t roll up to a single partisan mind, we have the good sense to avoid instilling the Governor General with regulatory powers, and we have ways to dismiss governments and start again, though not nearly accessible enough. The fact is that here, politicians live a life much more in fear of the public, which is as it should be. A government that doesn’t govern for all, like say Gillard’s or even Howard’s, is pretty much doomed here, not so in the USA. In fact I’d say the major reason why Governments lose here in Australia is a failure to govern for the benefit of ALL citizens.
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One man, lots of power – that would be called a dictatorship normally….
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“Nominations for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize closed just 11 days after he took office.”
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That means that the only logical reason for nomination could be that he was an Afro American?
Giving a Nobel peace prize based on the color of the nominee skin?
That’s racism isn’t it?
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Remind me,who also got totally undeserved Nobel Peace Prizes, and even worse those who claimed they were awarded ones, but were telling fibs?
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Okeydokey. He must have shown amazing promise.
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“looking into the origins of our Universe.”
Heh, from one disillusioned megalomaniac to an other.
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To be fair, at least this one is doing science.
Speaking of which, climate change researchers at work.
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“disillusioned” should be delusional.
My fingers are faster than my brain.
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Unfortunately the bums niffing cretins who authorised the shrine in the first place are probably still there. Just using the back door for a while until the PR flacks get the matter sorted out. Stress leave?
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Ursus, probably best not to mention the ‘bum sniffing’ as the good folk of the West get a bit touchy about that thanks to a certain ex Treasurer and Science and Innovation Minister :).
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Nice try Curtin, but it’s all been done before.
http://fakenobellaureates.com/
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In Politics and in Life I have over my lifetime come to the conclusion that Newton’s Third Law of Physics seems to apply in a generalised sense.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”
Perhaps for politics and life in particular it should read more along the lines of;
“For every action there will be an opposing reaction which in time will be at least equal in power and effect to the original action “
And so via Judith Curry’s Climate Etc blog we get the Weekly Standards headlines from Prof Steven F Hayward’s
Climate Cultists
Has the desperate global warming crusade reached its Waterloo?
Here we see as Judith Curry comments deplorably on both the use of and the reaction to the constant use of the term “deniers” by what is now designated by Steven Hayward as the “Climate Cultists”
[ brief bio ; Steven F. Hayward is the inaugural visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Ronald Reagan distinguished visiting professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy.]
________________
Some selected quotes from Haywards quite long Weekly Standard article
[ selected quotes ]
The climate change crusaders, who have been at it for a quarter-century, appear to be going clinically mad. Start with the rhetorical monotony and worship of authority (“97 percent of all scientists agree!”), add the Salem witch trial-style intimidation and persecution of dissenters, and the categorical demand that debate about science or policy is over because the matter is settled, and you have the profile of a cult-like sectarianism that has descended into paranoia and reflexive bullying.
&
While climate skeptics are denounced for mentioning “uncertainty,” the terms “uncertain” and “uncertainty” appear 173 times, while “error” and “errors” appear 192 times, in the 218-page chapter on climate models in the latest IPCC report released last September. As the IPCC admits, “there remain significant errors in the model simulation of clouds. It is very likely that these errors contribute significantly to the uncertainties in estimates of cloud feedbacks and consequently in the climate change projections.”
&
The real “deniers” today are the climateers who refuse to consider that their case for catastrophe has weakened even as they promote unserious solutions that do little or nothing to stimulate the genuine energy transition they say they want. Their default position continues to be simpleminded exaggeration or distortion of every possible angle for political gain.
The best opinion polls from Pew and Gallup show that the public doesn’t buy it and is suffering from a case of “apocalypse fatigue.” The rank politicization of the issue and the relentless demonization of any critics within the scientific community are a catastrophe for science and debilitating for serious deliberation about policy. But the left is so far gone into climate madness, and the Democratic party so beholden to its green faction, that they are likely to persist in their inordinate fear of the Keystone pipeline, natural gas fracking, and the extraordinary revival of American oil production, all of which, in a relatively unmolested market, would tend to displace coal. Absent an unusual level of political resolve from Congress, the climate campaign may yet succeed in hobbling the electric power sector in America. That would be a high price to pay for indulging a fanatical movement that in every other respect must be reckoned a pernicious failure.
[ / ]
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Aesthetically I think promotions such as this come across as garish and cheapens any genuine hard work done behind the walls of any educational institution.
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What are the regulations for any normal advertisement board producing a bare-faced lie?
The ‘murals’ on the wall are an advertisement of the importance of the people there and the work they are doing or have done. Personally an equally big ‘mural’ saying WE WERE WRONG ABOUT THIS, should be placed up for equal the amount of time the lie was up for.
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disappointed, but not surprised, to hear BBC World Sce give this plenty of time last nite. bit about using IPCC models made me laugh:
AUDIO: FIRST 7 MINS)14 June: BBC Science in Action: Indian Ocean Extreme Weather
Devastating droughts and crippling floods could become many, many, times more frequent in areas as far spread as India, Australia, the east of Africa, and Indonesia. These all border the Indian Ocean, and extreme climate and weather events are predicted to become more common as greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. This warning comes from scientists in India, China and Japan, who modelled the effects of CO2 on a climate cycle known as the Indian Ocean dipole. Dr Andrew Turner, a lecturer in monsoon systems at the University of Reading in the UK, explains more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p020d8ph
reminder:
11 June: SMH: Peter Hannam: Climate change to almost triple risk of extreme Indian Ocean weather events
The research, to be published in the journal Nature on Thursday, used 23 climate models and assumed greenhouse gas emissions would continue on their current trajectory…
Earlier this year, research led by Dr Cai identified that global warming would double the incidence of extreme El Ninos, such as 1982-83 and 1997-98, from one in 20 years to one per decade on average…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-change-to-almost-triple-risk-of-extreme-indian-ocean-weather-events-20140611-zs43n.html
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Andrew Leigh’s comments indicate the idea we’re now committed to reducing emissions by 18% is merely a figment of Christine Milne’s CAGW-fevered imagination!
14 June: News Ltd: Govt optimistic on scrapping carbon tax
THE federal government is cautiously optimistic it will succeed in scrapping the carbon tax now the Palmer United Party has dropped its demand the repeal be retrospective.
FINANCE Minister Mathias Cormann says he will not disclose details of negotiations with PUP leader Clive Palmer.”What I can say is that we are cautiously optimistic and we welcome the comments that were made by Clive Palmer earlier this week,” he told Sky News on Saturday.
“We think it is absolutely in the national interest to get rid of the carbon tax.”…
“Our party policy was that if it’s a bad tax, it should be repealed back to the day it was first introduced. But I mean, I guess on those sort of things we’re prepared to compromise to a certain degree,” he told ABC radio.
However, Mr Palmer still wants a requirement that savings be passed on to consumers…
Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh said the government was pressing ahead with plans to get rid of the carbon tax in the face of evidence it was working at reducing emissions.
He said new figures showed a 0.8 per cent reduction in emissions for 2013.
“Now, that’s nearly one per cent. If we can get one per cent on an annualised basis, we would comfortably meet the five per cent emissions reduction target by 2020,” he told Sky News on Saturday.
Mr Leigh said this was the biggest fall in emissions in a quarter of a century and much of that was in the electricity sector…
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/govt-optimistic-on-scrapping-carbon-tax/story-e6frfku9-1226954243720
why this generalised headline? why not specify Aviation?
13 June: Australian: Steve Creedy: Global push for carbon scheme
(Steve Creedy travelled to Doha courtesy of IATA)
AIRLINES and governments are working towards the adoption of a global carbon offset scheme to aid industry environment efforts that have seen worldwide traffic growth decoupled from increases in carbon-dioxide emissions…
“We’ve already decoupled our emissions growth from our traffic growth,’’ IATA senior vice-president Paul Steele said at the organisation’s annual meeting.
“Currently, traffic’s growing around 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent per annum and emissions are growing at 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent per annum.’’
Despite these gains, there is industry recognition a market-based measure is needed to help meet the 2020 pledge, but IATA is keen to avoid piecemeal introduction of taxes or emission trading schemes, such as the controversial EU emissions trading system…
Mr Steele pointed to the difficulties Europe faced in its attempts to unilaterally impose an ETS on international flights, a move that almost sparked a global trade war, as one of the reasons a global emissions scheme failed to gain traction. “You’ve got the situation in Australia where the government has changed its policy on emissions trading and carbon treatment,’’ he said.
“So there’s not even a platform for doing a global emissions trading scheme. It would take years to put that platform in place.
“So a much faster and more effective way to do it is through an offsetting scheme…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/global-push-for-carbon-scheme/story-e6frg95x-1226952291150
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the “affable”, “not controversial”, Michael Mann talks to Joshua Holland at BillMoyers.com!
12 June: Bill Moyers.com: Joshua Holland: Six Things Michael Mann Wants You to Know About the Science of Global Warming
There is nothing controversial about the work of climatologist Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center…
It’s another story in the realm of politics, where Mann, an affable scientist, has been dragged into the fray by diehard climate change deniers. He was a central figure in the trumped-up “climategate” scandal, accused with other scientists of fraud by conservative bloggers and pundits before being vindicated by eight separate independent investigations. He was later the subject of an “academic witch-hunt” by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli until a circuit court judge ruled that Cuccinelli had provided no “objective basis” for his crusade.
But if he began as an unwilling combatant in the public debate, he has since become a fierce defender of scientific discourse. He’s currently suing for defamation the National Review, right-wing columnist Mark Steyn and the Competitive Enterprise Institute — a libertarian think tank dubbed “a factory for global warming skepticism” by The Washington Post that has received funding from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and Arch Coal, among others.
Mann believes that climate change “skepticism” could not exist if the public had a better understanding of how science works — if they got that climatology is based on the same scientific method as any other field of knowledge.
BillMoyers.com spoke with Michael Mann, and here are six things he’d like you to understand about the scientific consensus on global warming…BLAH BLAH BLAH…
http://billmoyers.com/2014/06/12/six-things-michael-mann-wants-you-to-know-about-the-science-of-global-warming/
enjoy…
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btw don’t miss the almost-entirely fawning comments below Mann’s piece of work!
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They have an almost endless supply of people writing praise for Michael Mann. I understand one is born every….
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I don’t understand the praise, most dendrochronologists run rings around him. :I
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hahahahaha…anyone who thinks the baby boomers’ retirement funds haven’t been earmarked for CAGW looting, isn’t paying attention. from $16 trillion to $48 trillion to $53 trillion – whatever. desmog’s Sharon doesn’t blink!
13 June: Desmogblog: Sharon Kelly: Over $48 Trillion Energy Investment Needed by 2035, IEA Report Concludes
That’s a massive jump from the $16 trillion predicted the last time the report was fully updated in 2003.
“The headline numbers revealed by this analysis are almost too large to register,” the IEA World Energy Investment Outlook special report notes…
***The report was written with input from officials from some of the world’s largest and most powerful investment firms, including Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Barclay’s Capital, along with major energy companies like Shell, Schlumberger and General Electric…
The report concludes that it would cost a total of $53 trillion to shift to an energy policy that would allow the world to keep climate change below the critical 2 degree threshold…
http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/06/13/over-40-trillion-investment-needed-keep-energy-demand-2035-iea-report-concludes
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What a ridiculous and dangerous bit of propaganda by the investment community. No critical review of the premise of climate catastrophe. No concern about rent seeking and moral hazard. No due diligence on the effectiveness of the proposed investments to prevent the allegedly dangerous, allegedly well proven 2.0C. Just banal acceptance of the diagnosis and the prescribed solution.
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All such murals would be greatly improved if someone hung a Curtin in front of them. Or a Venetian blind … after all, if it weren’t for Venetian blinds it would be Curtins for us all …
(runs for cover)
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Grrrrooooooaaaaaannnnnn…. 🙂
And I thought mine was bad #21.1.1 we don’t want to be accused of hoarding all the bad jokes but it has proven no barrier to Curtin Uni in this instance.
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“Or a Venetian blind ”
darn, a racist and a disability slam in 2 words !! 🙂
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Heh heh. I seem to have lowered the tone of the hole thread! 😀
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No doubt they will claim it was only ever meant to be temporary. If that is so, then they have way too much money!
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Love the wording on the original mural…..
I wonder if Warrick would consider the fact that he did not actually receive a Nobel Prize a “game changer”……..
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did ever anyone check if that mysterious nobelprize comitee has huge profits from providing the prize? I think its obvious! especially with that climate-peace-prize they must have made millions together with AlGore- insider knowledge- planned and executed perfectly and ,as they knew it will not last forever, pushed to maximum profit in short time(with the little Obamahelper).
of course, this is also possible with many other prizes!
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