What’s better than Pravda? When Pravda is controlled by big government but masquerades as “commercial” and, even better, when it competes with and sucks money from independent competitors–making it harder for journalists who do ask the government hard questions to be heard at all.
Who needs the ABC? The BBC has arrived to provide the propaganda for free and wants to compete with commercial news outlets. They’ve appointed the most gullible journalists they could find (who’ll believe any official edict). Their new Australian Editor, Wendy Frew, accidentally revealed that while she’s good at rearranging a press release and calling it news, she is not too good with numbers.
In a BBC article yesterday by Wendy Frew titled “Australia has hottest spring on record as temperatures soar” comes the extraordinary news that Australia has warmed by 90C since 1910.
“Australia has been warming up by about 0.9C [a year] since 1910,” Dr Braganza told the BBC.
The online article was fixed this morning (with no mention of the mistake), though copies of the error appear elsewhere. It says something that Frew went out of her way to add “[a year]” into Braganza’s quote without doing the numbers and realizing what that meant. Despite her history of reporting climate news, evidently she did not know that all the climate fuss was about a total warming in Australia of only a tiny 0.9C in 100 years. (And that’s all the BOM can find even after sweeping adjustments that throw out the hottest original records, ignore the hot decades of the late 1800s, and artificially cool old temperatures down and make trends warmer by as much as 2C.) Was she surprised? We’ll never know.
BBC Global want Australian audiences and Australian advertising dollars too
The BBC announced on October 2, 2014 that they want Australian marketshare online — ratings matter, and so does the money:
BBC Global News Ltd, the world’s most trusted international news brand, is extending their local coverage in Australia by launching a dedicated Australian news service on BBC.com from October 21 and producing a series of programs called Australia Direct to air on BBC World News throughout the period of the G20 Summit.
BBC wants to beat commercial rivals:
“…director of advertising sales Alistair McEwan said. “We’ve got to increase our positioning up that ranking. We wouldn’t want to put a number on what rank we’re looking to achieve.
“We have growth international growth objectives for audience, traffic and revenue.
“We’ll aim to commercialise that growth across desktop and mobiles.”
“We’re the most globally tweeted news source in the world,” Davies said. “What we are seeing globally is that people will go to a trusted news source.”
Naturally, the BBC is filling all the holes left by the private media:
In addition to news, untold Australian stories on a range of topics will be commissioned for the BBC.com verticals: Future, Culture, Autos, Capital and Travel, as well as the newly launched BBC Earth.
Evidently there are not enough stories on cars and holidays.
Wendy Frew’s role is to “drive the news agenda” in a “priority market”:
BBC News has appointed Wendy Frew as Australia Editor, Online. Wendy is a former SMH journalist and Chief of Staff and her remit will be to drive the news agenda of the day and work with our global correspondents and growing team of freelancers on news features and analysis. She will be joined by another journalist who together will work with the BBC’s Sydney correspondent Jon Donnison, and regular contributors Phil Mercer and Katie Beck.
Chris Davies, Director of Sales and Marketing, BBC Global News Limited said: ‘Australia is a priority market for us and with this local market investment together with our large network of international journalists, we are uniquely placed to offer readers stories they don’t normally hear from local media, giving them the full picture on news that affects them.’
When the government runs a commercial media outlet
Is the British taxpayer funding it? Hard to say, but it’s wholly owned by the BBC, and its aim is “commercial returns”. What’s better than Pravda? When Pravda is controlled by big government but masquerades as “commercial” and, even better, when it competes with and sucks money from independent competitors–making it harder for journalists who do ask the government hard questions to be heard at all. The Green Blob expands.
In Australia we think of the ABC as being a media octopus:
It is now easily the biggest media outlet in the country, with five radio stations, four TV stations, an online newspaper, a huge social media presence, a publishing house and a string of bookshops promoting ABC-approved writers and journalists. — Andrew Bolt
But the BBC is really the giant deep sea squid. Look at the reach:
BBC World News and BBC.com, the BBC’s commercially funded international 24-hour English news platforms, are owned and operated by BBC Global News Ltd. BBC World News television is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and over 380 million households and 1.8 million hotel rooms. The channel’s content is also available on 178 cruise ships, 53 airlines and 23 mobile phone networks. BBC.com offers up-to-the minute international news and in-depth analysis for PCs, tablets and mobile devices to more than 76 million unique browsers each month.
“BBC Worldwide is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Its vision is to build the BBC’s brands, audiences, commercial returns “
Wendy Frew has been producing climate “news” for years (without realizing all the fuss was about 0.9C of warming). Check out this article from 2007 in the SMH (an excellent training ground for unskeptical reporters).
Senator Nick Minchin had merely pointed out that there were eminent scientists in the skeptical camp, and asked why they were called “loonies”. The headline “Minchin denies climate change man-made” misrepresented the content, and Frew repeated baseless ad homs against the then-Professor Bob Carter. This failure of logic, reasoning and rhetorical skill evidently makes her prime material for a BBC Editor.
The best comment I’ve seen on the old 2007 comes from 
JamesG at Bishop Hill
From the Minchin article we got this gem of idiocy:-
“A former CSIRO climate scientist, and now head of a new sustainability institute at Monash University, Graeme Pearman, said Professor Carter was not a credible source on climate change. “If he has any evidence that [global warming over the past 100 years] is a natural variability he should publish through the peer review process,” Dr Pearman said. “That is what the rest of us have to do.” He said he was letting the fossil fuel industry off the hook.”
Ignoring the ‘one true Scotsman’ fallacy…
a) You’d think if your current jobs entirely depend on the green scare you’d be aware of your own multiple conflicts of interest before discussing those of anyone else.
b) Since when in Science did the null hypothesis have to be proven? Just how do you become a climate scientist anyway – just by spelling your name right?
c) The fossil fuel industry supplies us all exactly what we demand of it. Anyone who pretends it is somehow the fault of the fossil fuel or energy industries is a sanctimonious hypocrite.
d) Meanwhile what has the Monash Sustainability institute ever done to reduce poverty, keep us warm or supply power by comparison? These people natural assume just they a superior moralistic air that they don’t deserve. Some of us think the cure is worse than the disease and we have been 100% right on almost everything so far. – Dec 1, 2014 at 12:48 PM |
>Followed by Howard Prior: Frew’s grotesque bias and lunatic embrace of the most crazed AGW ideas finally drove me to cancel my SMH subscription.
If only British citizens and Australian taxpayers could cancel their subscriptions to the BBC and ABC.
Why should Australian taxpayers pay for a public media service? We need that billion dollars back to pay off the obscene debts that the ABC helped them to accrue.
h/t to Colin, Robbo, James G and Phil Bratby (in comments at Bishop Hill)
It has occurred to me that when George W. Bush left office and the US voted for “hope and change” the major news organizations, greens, warmists, anti-war, and so on groups had no one to scream at. About the same time the UK, Germany, and – ready for this – Australia all went warm and fuzzy.
So, where could folks, such as the Frews of the world, direct or project their guilt. The answer is at anyone that happens to question the coming rapture, or catastrophe (seems to be the same thing). All one has to do is read the Frew article from 2007 and view it in this context.
As for the BBC in OZ, this can only be of interest to the ABC. See Delingpole’s post “So Farewell, Then, Telegraph Blogs” dated 1 Dec. about the online journalism market being saturated with . . .
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BBC=Labour/Green=Guardian=FauxFacts=ABC=Labor/Green=FauxFacts=BBC=Guardian=ABC=…
Ad infinitum.
Gets a bit dizzying, doesn’t it.
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Or you could just simplify it down to: The Left Media
ABC
BBC
Fairfax
MSNBC
CNN
etc
They tell you what they think you should know…And its often the Left’s narratives and ideals. They behave exactly like state media of Communism. They cover their master’s mistakes by downplaying or intentionally NOT reporting certain things.
The American radio “shock-jock” Rush Limbaugh calls them “The Drive-by Media“. (Because they keep pushing out new crap to meet the 24/7 news cycle they have created). He knows them so well, that he can accurately predict what they’ll do next BEFORE they even do it! That’s how predictable they are. (Which explains their utter hatred for Rush. Ironically, their hatred leads people to become curious enough to start listening to Rush. Over time, those people politically switch sides! It turns out the Left make up lies about him and people are actually surprised that he is nothing like what the Left say!)
Suffice to say, its no surprise people tire of the Left that they stop watching or even listening. People just tune out when they are played for a fool for too long. The biggest weakness of The Left Media is their own BS. It drives their marketshare down. Mainly because they have political agendas to push, instead of go searching for the truth. ie: Those who pursue political agendas will always ignore the truth. (This confirms my theory that time is NOT on an activist’s side. The moment they lie is the moment the timer starts ticking. Sooner or later, it all unravels itself. This is when you get some popcorn and watch them squirm and play dumb. Fundamentally, a Left Media outlet is an activist speakerphone.)
Meanwhile, on a complete side note: Greenie Senator Larissa Waters demonstrates she has much time on her hands…
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/christmas-shoppers-should-not-buy-gender-based-toys-for-kids-greens-say/story-fni0dobt-1227141319300
…Our taxpayer money at work people! (AUD$180K + benefits + expenses for 6 years).
This is just as bad as that scientist who was bullied to tears over a bloody shirt he was wearing! Apparently, a shirt can hold women back! They made him cry! Forget his achievement of leading a team (which also had three females in it), who landed a probe on an asteroid! He is holding women back with his SHIRT!
Fundamentally, the Left have ALWAYS been about control of people to THEIR utopia. Its under many guises: “Climate Change”, education system, corruption of science departments, news media, etc…to even toys! They cannot stand that someone out in the world has a different view to them.
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ABC (US) = All Barack Channel
MSNBC = My Socialist Nightly Barack Channel
CNN = Clinton News Network
BBC = British Bulls___ Channel
ABC = Australian Bulls___ channel
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This. Most definitely this. I was taught how to think, I grew up around technically and mechanically inclined and proficient people who did not give me answers, when I asked questions they responded with questions designed to get me thinking forcing me to reason out the answers myself.
I do not want or need a media that is going to be telling me what they want me to think about something, I want a media to just tell me what is happening and let me determine what it means and why.
Since the media in general is unable to do this any longer, taking it upon themselves to tell me what I should think, then I have absolutely no use for them.
I am not alone in this assessment, other than the gullible who do need someone to tell them what to think because they are unable to do so otherwise, there are many of us out there that no longer trust the media, care what they say, or waste the time listening.
The longer they continue on the path they have chosen the more people they will alienate. In today’s world they are no longer relevant, they know it, and it terrifies them.
40
I always think of them as Obamamedia.
30
I think we need to educate our kids on the Red Menace.
I also think we need to take the gloves off and start calling stuff what it actually is instead of being polite and hoping it wil go away , because it wont…..
Congressional Record–Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
20. Infiltrate the press.
And then more aims that more than likely explain why society has been actively undermined.
Point 27 – the “social religion” is the Climate Change death cult.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
50
At the risk of being called an alarmist I have been observing the march of socialism for decades ever since I listened to an ABC radio presentation regarding a new world order, one world government, an end to sovereign nations, what we now see taking place that was first called the European Economic Union and now just the EU. And now noting the economic and financial problems in many EU member countries.
The World Trade Centre in New York has been rebuilt and is now the One World Trade Centre, and the POTUS is showing his true left leaning bias since entering his second and final term in office. As read here there is a seemingly endless flow of propaganda based on climate change, and continuous requests for money to fund this disgraceful fraud. In my opinion these things are all parts of the ultimate agenda to control the world. I doubt that it will succeed however in between times nations and citizens are paying a high price. Consider the extra funding the previous federal Union Labor Green government provided ABC with, and ABC doing everything they can to undermine the Coalition government.
There is a lot more to cover, UN Agenda 21 for example, but keep in mind what former PM John Howard once said in reply to a journalist’s question about international law, treaties, impacting on Australia. Howard replied only if the government of the day accepts external judgement. In other words sovereign laws of Australia prevail under normal circumstances, but what if a socialist government used external powers to sign Australia up to a one world government? No sovereign borders, as former Greens leader Bob Brown told the National Press Club, he referred to a world parliament.
When the UN was started early 1950s an Australian lawyer, Clive “Doc” Evatt, a former Labor attorney general in Australia, made a recommendation to his UN based socialist (and other fellow travellers) comrades that UN Treaties should be signed by all member nations, treaties covering every area of government possible, and for those treaties to be prepared to force sovereign nations to join the one world government, regardless of what the citizens wanted. As has taken place in various EEU/EH countries already.
While voters remain complacent, while they ignore the criminal activities being exposed by the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption and the responses of Union Labor, example in the Victoria state election Labor sending workers to door knock wearing essential service uniforms and telling lies to voters, and the unprecedented one million pre-poll votes lodged (how many of those votes were again lodged on polling day, and will the electoral commission check to see if fraud has taken place?). The left is determined to get what they want.
Does the expansion of the BBC and ABC really surprise people?
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I heard on the lunch-time news yesterday that the people in charge of dealing with the Ebola outbreak are screaming that Ebola is now poised to sweep through the entire world, wreaking undreamed-of levels of death and devastation. I take this pronouncement to be the same code used by the hysterical proponents of global warming, namely meaning “Quick! Give us stupendous amounts of money!”
220
Oh how faithless are these people,Gaia in her wrath is going to do all manner of nasty things to us parasites/vermin,so why aren’t they cheering and hoping that ebola does spread universally and destroys a major section of the human race.
Could it be that Gaia isn’t too fussy about who she wipes out,that one vermin is the same as the next including the green ones.
160
Yes but the problem is the UN flunkies will help out “gaia” if necessary by artificially increasing the worlds death rate.
A communist heart beats within the UN – ask the Romanovs what happens when the comunists decide to get rid of you.
30
90°C sounds about right, in another 100 years we’ll start to cool down when it hits 180°C and it flips back as that’s what 180° means.
Earth Scientists have calculated this
projectionhallucinationprediction on an IPCC model redesigned using an Atari 2600 and copious amounts of medical marijuana at Byron Bay University.260
So a 90 degree change means the Australian climate took a left hand turn?
310
It’s not funny Joanne, keep up that blasé attitude and we’ll destroy the planet, just ask Anna Rose…..
260
Almost Jo. What I can guarantee though, is that while two wrongs may not make a right, three lefts do!
130
Someone once said that Communism (or Socialism) would only fully develop after Capitalism had had its day, or something to that effect. I can see that something of that ilk is growing strongly around the world, a different Communism/Socialism from that of the 50s, but one just as deadly and inhumane. And many seem to be allowing, and even welcoming, its arrival. It reminds me of that old say about forgetting history.
180
I think it was something along the lines of a true socialist state cannot come into being in a less than fully industrialised society, which is why Lenin and the lads all stood around after the revolution and thought ‘hang on, the instructions don’t say anything about agrarian soceties. Bugger, we’ll have to industrialise the state so we can nationalise the means of production’.
The crucial factor Marx left out of his crackpot theory was human nature. The last world leader to not be corrupted by absolute power was nailed to a tree a couple of thousand years ago.
191
The only industry this lot knows is consumption.
20
When I had to learn Marxism in my younger years the following society development was peddled and all history was presented through that prism.
1. Cavemen society – primitive communism as everyone was equal and got stuff according to their needs
2. Slavery – all Roman and other ancient civilisations. Obviously Greek democracy was explained as an aberration
3. Feudalism
4. Capitalism (with democracy that caused greed and people deserved to die, not just the big business, but particularly small business, even trade unions, anyone that would display a slight trace of individuality, so blue collar workers too)
5. Socialism ( the system that I gloriously experienced for many years anxiously awaiting to enter the highest communist stage and all the time feeling like a looser for not being there)
6. Communism – the highest form of society where there was nor war, no jealousy as there was no private property and who needs democracy as this creates inequality, jealousy, wars etc etc again.
Very simple deceptive look at life. My dad still thinks that wealth enjoyed in west was stolen during colonialism in the 19th century. In other words the value was is not created through hard work but simply stolen from the poor. If the value was stolen by the rich why not steal that again and give this to the more equal.
Communism, the highest form of society always smelled to me like going back to the caves again. Not just smelled, I saw people leaving in huts with no electricity until 1990-ties in the middle of Europe only to get their first TV and electrical bulb (not environmentally friendly) only when democracy came.
25 years ago I thought that we erased the communist ideal forever. How wrong I was.
Is likening cave societies is the same as camping or carvaning? If so, I had done enough of that in my life and have no wish to go grotto hunting again.
120
The UAH global satellite data for November is not yet available, but a comparison of the September and October maps with the corresponding maps on the BoM website, even given the different reference periods, reveals some stark disagreement, particularly for October.
120
Manalive, the headlines are for the Jan-Oct average are they not? UAH data is here. Can someone graph the jan-oct average from 1979 – 2014? I’d be keen to see it. UAH also have Australian data. I’d like to see a graph of UAH Australian Sept-Nov averages as soon as they come in.
70
Top 10 Jan-October averages from UAH Australia.
2013 0.800
1998 0.684
2009 0.581
2007 0.571
1980 0.484
2005 0.481
1988 0.460
2014 0.395
1991 0.385
2006 0.377
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And top 13 aug,sept,oct average from UAH Australia..
why 13 ??? because that’s how far you have to go to include 2014 !!!!!
2013 1.360
2009 1.083
2007 1.077
2006 1.030
1998 0.750
1980 0.697
2012 0.650
1988 0.633
1995 0.613
2005 0.560
2011 0.470
2002 0.437
2014 0.387
90
Jo, email me when you see November data becomes available, and I’ll do the sept,oct,nov order.
60
Brilliant. Thank you!
50
I might add, that if you believe in the use of linear trends in climate, the monthly data in UAH gives a trend of 0.165°C/decade over the satellite period over Australia.
However if you look for patterns of “what’s happening”. The trend is close to level from 1979 to about 2003, there is then a step up from 2003 to 2006 then level off.
The aug-oct 3 month average shows a peak in 2013, but this does not show up anywhere near as much in the monthly data because it came from 3 somewhat elevated months in a row
50
Jo, It looks like Roy has UAH up for November.
At work at the moment.
I’ll recalculate for sept,oct,nov when I get home.
20
ok, no November data there yet. maybe in a few days.
00
I’ve linked to the BoM max. October anomaly instead of the mean anomaly (my mistake) but still the BoM map looks far too hot compared with UAH.
30
It might have something to do with missing data. That big dark-red blob in WA has only Warburton airfield in it. Gilles plains is the only other one within 200km.
Warburton airfield has only daily data available after 1969. There is still a lot of monthly data missing between 1973 and 1999.
There is no yearly mean maximum temperatures for 1977 and 1979 when the Dec and Jan means were the largest recorded. The second highest Dec mean was in 1940, the starting month for the site.
I haven’t checked how much daily data is missing pre-1969, but I noticed something else with a remote station in NSW. A lot more days that should have been well above the long-term average are removed than those below. They seem to have recorded to the nearest 1/2°F often and BOM think that two days in a row of the same temperature must be a mistake.
This unreliable data is then used to show that an area that is the equivalent of 100 east coast stations is 4-6°C above the long term mean.
30
When 90 degrees is not the right angle?
80
When it is a Left Angle, of course.
“Wendy is a former SMH journalist ” who would ever have guessed?
60
LeftTangle?
40
Wombat –
for BBC & the rest of the MSM, ebola is a ‘BUSINESS’ story:
26 Nov: BBC: GSK hails Ebola vaccine breakthrough
by Kamal Ahmed, Business Editor
The devastation of the Ebola outbreak in parts of West Africa has been one of the most shocking and distressing stories of the year.
Tonight there is a glimmer of hope – the first evidence that a vaccine could be available for health workers and others battling to bring the virus under control.
Ultimately, it could mean a vaccine for everyone in areas at risk.
Sir Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GSK, told the BBC that new clinical data published tonight was “very encouraging” and that a viable vaccine could be available in the second half of next year – If these early trials continue to provide positive results…
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in America has just released the first trial data for the vaccine that GSK is working on in its laboratories in Italy and Belgium.
Twenty adults were tested and an immune response to Ebola was prompted in each of them. The vaccine was also “well tolerated” by each of the people tested…
***Witty: “We are busy working out how we scale up manufacturing capacity, so that as we move into the second half of next year we would be in a position to manufacture very large quantities – that means millions of doses of the vaccine [being] available if governments and health authorities felt it necessary to go further than vaccinating health care workers.”…
As well as GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Merck are also proceeding with trials…
In this emergency situation, the pharmaceutical sector as a whole has been asked by G20 governments and the World Health Organisation to take on a considerable degree of financial and legal risk through this accelerated programme.
For example, the programme is not going through all the usual stages of a vaccine’s development – which would normally take many years.
If something does go wrong in the future, the pharmaceutical sector does not want to be the only part of the process exposed to, for example, legal action.
To tackle that, Sir Andrew said that GSK is in discussions with governments of the G20, including America and the UK, about an indemnification agreement…
“There is a risk [in the] development – and it is important to know that organisations like the NIH in America and the European Union are helping to support some of these trial costs – so that is an important contribution and shows good solidarity.
“In terms of the indemnity risk, those conversations go on – we have a good precedent for this with the pandemic influenza case of three of four years ago.”…
“Whether we are a big company or not, we are still humans.
“We are talking about people’s lives here, every day counts, we get that, our employees get that. Our scientists are working 24/7 to deliver for those people in those camps.”…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30219536
10
“Ultimately, it could mean a vaccine for everyone in areas at risk.”
That would, I guess, be mandatory.
20
A great little earner….
Bear in mind too historically in some vaccines a “deactivated” virus has in the past been not-so-“deactiveated”, creating a virus break-out from the vaccine, and subsequent infection of the host.
I’d avoid the ebola vaccine like the ( pun alert ) plague.
40
Shush you are not allowed to say things like that. You will find yourself labelled a conspiracy theorist. Don’t you know all vaccines are perfect? Having been proven to work with NO side effects worth mentioning? Just a pity to the poor people who pay the price of death or horrendous ill health, but from a public health perspective they are just collateral damage which is just expected if unfortunate – but just so long as the vaccination programs keep being implemented they keep getting paid and have the added benefit of self righteous about doing “good”.
40
Yes I know…off to re-education camp for me….
I’d be interested to track ebola cases once a vaccine is deployed into an area.
4 legs good, 2 legs bad…oh hang on….
10
“she is not too good with numbers”
[S]he who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense
— John McCarthy, 1995
130
Most lefties have trouble with math, physics, chemistry and geology, in fact anything to do with real science (I don’t mean bogie science like psychological and political “science”). But they do believe in models, not understanding that garbage in/garbage out rules in climate “science”.
110
And yet only 6% of scientists in the USA are affiliated with the Republicans.
(ref. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-politics-and-religion/)
So in fact it would appear that the best at maths, physics, chemistry in society are your “lefties”.
22
perhaps they like being big fish in little ponds, cognitively speakig.
40
This is making the assumption that because someone is a scientist they are the best at math, chemistry, etc.
Consider that the best rather than pursuing an academic career or a role where they are labelled a “scientist” are instead engaged in the private sector where they make far more money and where their skills are put to use in practical applications of their abilities in math, chemistry, etc.
That quote is conjecture, provide the proof that those scientists are “the best at…” There is none in the quote. Nothing at all there in any way shape or form based on logical reasoning proves that “in fact it would appear that the best…”
First you have to prove they are the best. Good luck with that.
30
Yes, the best at maths and physics and chemistry aren’t those who have completed years of study followed by years of relevant professional development.
Of course not. What a crazy thought, eh?
It’s obvious that the best at maths and physics are lawyers and property developers, because they earn heaps. And Gina Rhinehardt and James Packer, of course, their annual income proves they are the absolute best at maths and physics. Makes perfect sense…..if you’re on LSD.
03
Missed the point, no surprise. Prove they are the best, years of study and professional development does not guarantee these people will be “the best.” You claim it so prove it.
Did I mention lawyers or property developers? I was thinking of Engineers and Technical entrepreneurs. Leave it to you to try and twist even that.
Straw-man arguments and logical fallacies by you will not prove your point here. But you are welcome to keep trying.
We’ve seen years worth of crap science from “the best” by your standards.
Naturally since you can’t prove your point you have to resort to the only thing you do have for an argument, trying to claim the person disagreeing with you is stupid or on drugs or whatever. Anything but actually proving your point with a well reasoned argument.
Typical.
40
Try asking Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and undoubtedly one of the leading climate scientists. He is quite dismissive of the ‘usual suspects’.
As for their statistics try looking up the report of the Wegmann enquiry for Congress.
Sorry, but the IPCC crowd are great scientists only in their own minds.
20
“Sorry, but the IPCC crowd are great scientists only in their own minds.”
And let’s not forget that the final reports for the media often have major input from Greenpeace and other rabid far-left activists.
The final reports are not based on real “science” in any way shape or form.
They are a POLITICAL summary, with a POLITICAL agenda.
Just like Craig… zero science, all propaganda.
31
Is this the same Richard Lindzen who said this about his own 2009 Climate science paper (Which made him an international laughing-stock), “some stupid mistakes… It was just embarrassing”?
The same Richard Lindzen who says the link between smoking and lung cancer is weak?
The same Richard Lindzen who made an entirely failed prediction of global cooling 5 years ago?
The same Richard Lindzen who was wrong about a decrease in water vapour would allow CO2 to escape into space?
Lol. You should be more sceptical.
04
Ah yes I see Craig is full steam ahead with the lefties favorite, and apparently only, method of argument: attack the man and state personal opinions as though they are fact.
To tough for you to actually use a reasoned argument? You’re the one opened your mouth claiming “the best” at mathematics, chemistry, etc. are leftists. To prove your point you engage in logical fallacy, character slurs, innuendos, everything but actual proof of your claims and a reasoned argument to support it.
Good on ya, by commenting as you did on what you did you demonstrated exactly what we were talking about. Leftists certainly are “the best” at something, but in deference to the moderators I won’t specify what that is.
10
I’m not attacking the man. I am attacking his absolutely pathetic reputation when it comes to the accuracy of his beliefs.
01
It seems some here are grappling with their inability to successfully identify a logical fallacy, so let me show them how it is done:
Graeme, your reference to Lindzen is a textbook case of “argument from authority”, which is of course a logical fallacy that renders your “argument” (such as it is) entirely invalid.
00
Ah yes, he attacks the man, provides no links to the claims he makes about him, then tries to tell us that’s not really what he’s doing.
Craig then tries to give us an example of a “logical fallacy” when he has already provided us with so many.
Still waiting for some proof of your assertion that “the best” at mathematics, etc. are leftists per your claim. Your reasoning thus far to support it is only supported by opinion and fallacious reasoning. Yet you claim it as fact. Where is the proof then?
As I said, knock yourself out, you prove what we are talking about with each of your comments.
10
Nope,its easy to see the logical fallacy, just read your posts.
Its all you have.
Nothing else to offer but brain-washed, non-thinking propaganda bulls**t !
00
Percentages are to be treated with caution at the best of times. In the hands of lefties they’re to be downright distrusted.
10
Meanwhile, Joe Hockey has doubled the deficit. But you trust him, right
01
Provide proof of your claims. Use something that could be called an argument if you know how.
00
Um, well, not sure which rock you’ve been hiding under, but I’ll start at the start: the IMF said that John Howard presided over the most profligate government in recent history and that Wayne Swann ran the world’s best economic response to the GFC.
Since then, We’ve got Hockey who’s implemented the same kind of income-reducing nonsense as Howard, but without managing to find the one-off asset-sales with which to fudge the books. So he’s not just a very poor economic manager, he’s in fact totally incompetent, because he can’t even pretend he’s doing a good job, as Howard did.
And, it is a fact that Hockey has doubled the deficit:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-06/has-the-government-doubled-the-budget-deficit/5423392
Australia will be paying for this incompetent pack of Liberal-Party-hijacking-nutters for decades to come.
00
Oh gee. Perhaps the fact that I don’t live in Australia might have something to do with it don’t you think? But rather than being decent about it, which you obviously are incapable of, you have to do the “which rock you’ve been hiding under” crap.
Now provide us with some proof that Matty trusts him, since you claim that as well.
Also you could get around to proving your claim as fact that “the best” at mathematics, etc. are leftists. Still waiting on something besides fallacious arguments and innuendo from you.
00
Craig, you again prove your absolute ignorance on most matters.
This time its economics.
The irresponsible of the Lab/Green farce set up the system so that there was way more going out than coming in.
Now they have blocked the Liberals attempts to rectify this.
ANY deficit increase is down wholly and solely to the stupidity of Shorten and his economy wreckers.
10
Its Labor and the Greens with PUP’s help that have doubled the deficit, by not allowing the necessary changes through the senate.
That is the fact that you rabid regressive socialists will have to face.
YOU and your rabble of erratic inconsiderate economic illiterate MP’s have doomed several generations to a life paying off YOUR debt !
The really UGLY thing is that YOU are proud of it !!!
That is just SICK and DISGUSTING.
10
He must be related to SF, BA^4, Fin, et. al. He comments and argues just as they do. Badly.
10
He obviously missed out on a basic education….
… and think listening to the ABC and reading FauxFacts (does anyone really still do that? )..will broaden his mind 🙂
I haven’t seen anyone quite so ignorant on so many subjects since I taught low IQ teenagers in the western suburbs.
00
we should be grateful for these impartial bbc reporters. gore in front of a wall of “climate reality project” logos:
Twitter: Katie Beck
the @BBCWorld’s @JonDonnison and @algore discuss climate change WATCH: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28199131 …
VIDEO 3 MINS: (CONSISTS ALMOST ENTIRELY OF SMUG MOCKING OF PM TONY ABBOTT plus praise for Hillary Clinton)
BBC News – Al Gore: climate change is the ‘biggest challenge our…
Former US Vice President Al Gore told the BBC that climate change is “the biggest challenge our civilisation faces”.
https://twitter.com/KatieB/status/486283644021919745
20
LinkedIn: Wendy Frew
Environment Reporter Sydney Morning Herald
January 2005 – January 2007 (2 years 1 month)Sydney, Australia
Covered breaking news and wrote features in the environment round – everything from desalination to damage to the environment from mining, issues related to climate change, endangered fauna and flora etc. Won the 2007 Australian Government Peter Hunt Eureka Prize for Environmental Journalism.
https://au.linkedin.com/pub/wendy-frew/2b/24/374
fairfax environment reporter til jan 2007, but managing to do an “objective” CAGW review in may 2007:
May 2007: Fairfax: Wendy Frew, Reviewer: Scorcher: the dirty politics of climate change
Individual carbon rationing is one of the most radical ideas to emerge in the climate change arena. In Britain, both the Government and the Tory Opposition are considering a future in which citizens would need a carbon currency to pay for the greenhouse gas pollution that comes with the electricity and petrol they use…
How it came to be that a country as wealthy and educated as Australia is so far behind other nations when it comes to the challenge of climate change is now explained in a new book by Clive Hamilton, director of the Australia Institute.
As Hamilton himself sums it up, Scorcher: the dirty politics of climate change is about greedy corporations, craven politicians and public disengagement…
His criticism of the media’s failure, until recently, to cover climate change seriously (and some media organisations’ decision to support unfounded claims by climate change deniers) is well-founded…
The Government’s position has relied heavily on spin: ignore the scientific evidence proving climate change is real; deny economic modelling that shows it will cost more to ignore the problem than to tackle it; dismiss environmentalists as hysterical; and persuade people there is nothing to worry about.
“In short,” Hamilton writes, “the Howard Government has been able to hoodwink the community with impunity because many Australians have preferred to believe the lies.”
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/book-reviews/scorcher-the-dirty-politics-of-climate-change/2007/05/16/1178995222073.html
10
Wendy Frew won the 2007 Australian Government Peter Hunt Eureka Prize for Environmental Journalism, something that was duly reported at the time by Tim Blair in his old blog
http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/comments/money_not_evil_after_all/
Click the first link in Tim’s page to appreciate her intellectual depth… truly BBC Editor material!
So, let’s test whether she’s doing her *daily* duty of “setting the daily news agenda”.
There is one new “BBC Top Story” from Australia today,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30288053
it’s about Australian Open tennis… and there, too, our Wendy finds an excuse to jump in and talk about climate change.
60
Here’s another amazing contribution from Ms Frew, just before her BBC appointment.
http://thegreenenergyblog.com/uncategorized/wind-energy-transforms-australian-township
On that green activist blog, she claims that
“experience around the world shows renewable energy can smooth out the spikes in wholesale electricity prices on very hot and very cold days because that is when renewable energy tends to be available. In other words, renewable energy can help keep electricity prices down.”
50
I wonder if the ‘perks’ of her new position includes a straight jacket? And if not, why not?
60
ROFL
These people live in alternate universe of lollipops and rainbows…..
You could smooth out power supply *IF* renewables could be relied upopn to be available when you needed it….
Renewable Reliable
10
That would be like giving obama the Nobel for jsut being…well…obama….
Does that measn we’re all eligible for the Nobel just by being ourselves?
/sarc
30
From the BBC article:
“Spring rainfall for Australia as a whole was 34% below the long-term mean.”
Probably a massive clue there as to why it is so hot, relative absence of the moderating effect of water, think desert vs ocean temperature variations.
80
Because of the vast desert to our North we are always going have these bursts of intense heat that are mostly dependant on the positioning of high pressure belts. The dominance of Eucalypts in our flora tell us that this has been so for tens of thousands of years. Bearing that in mind, our continent was most barren during the ice ages.
30
Added to Post quotes from this article:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/bbccom-targets-higher-news-ranking/story-e6frg996-1227078017607
BBC wants to beat commercial rivals:
“…director of advertising sales Alistair McEwan said. “We’ve got to increase our positioning up that ranking. We wouldn’t want to put a number on what rank we’re looking to achieve.
“We have growth international growth objectives for audience, traffic and revenue.
“We’ll aim to commercialise that growth across desktop and mobiles.”
“We’re the most globally tweeted news source in the world,” Davies said. “What we are seeing globally is that people will go to a trusted news source.”
40
BBC ? Trusted?! Not by me.
10
BBC = British Bullshit Co-operation. (official, mouthpiece of MI6 also)
30
The 1930s publicly funded adventure of government funded media competing in online media is wrong. The 1970s need for a multi ethnic channel we call SBS is gone.
There was a time when it made sense in an information starved world to have an independent media, government funded but adhering to a strict apolitical code of balance. There was a time when homesick migrants wanted home news, movies and memories. That has all gone with satellites and now the internet.
Now we in Australia have an aggressive utterly unaccountable ABC media giant publicly funded and doing as they please and pushing their exclusive and extreme political and social views at our great expense. It is not our ABC, it is their ABC. There are only two types of Australians, those who want nothing to do with the ABC but have to pay for it and those who love having their own advertising free media, paid by other. Public service media. Sell the ABC. Peppa Pig was a BBC import anyway and probably did not pass quarantine.
120
Look at the ABC programming and the demographic it tends to.Anglo-centric in the extreme- same goes for SBS, it appeals to the rich ladies in Malcolm’s seat or the supercilious twits in inner suburbia.Endless cop shows or mysteries set in England’s pleasant countryside.SBS defaults to exotic cooking shows for most of the time.Seriously defund television and retain rural radio.
40
I rarely disagree with stuff here but the BBC is absolutely NOT controlled by government. Any government, regardless of the party in charge. If anything the controlling is the other way round. The views it espouses are all its own. It makes itself the unofficial opposition for anything it doesn’t agree with and because of its unrivalled access to the public psyche it influences British thinking in a way politicians can’t. Without the BBC, warmism wouldn’t have gained as much of a foothold as it has here. Despite their determined left wing viewpoint they don’t even support a labour government, except when they’re doing as Aunty Beeb demands. The cross party support for CO2 reduction has far more to do with the view of the BBC than climate scientists.
Needless to say the BBC is arm in arm with the Guardian.
110
Tiny, I don’t like to disagree since I admire your forthright determination to say exactly and clearly what you think whatever. However the relationship between the BBC and the Government is more complex and its “left wing” bias has always tempered its criticism of Labour governments. It certainly uses its (rapidly fading)reputation for “objectivity” to further an increasingly collectivist agenda – though with more deference to the UN than traditional UK socialism.
I think the cross party support for ACGW is more determined by our EU commitment and the global perspective of the UNFCCC. Those are the primary determinants.
In this the BBC are part of the supporting cast not the principles (nor is the Guardian – when have they ever taken a stand against the EU or UN on a matter of principle since the Old King died).
30
The UK government is playing with the idea that the BBC should be funded through a voluntary subscription instead of the present compulsory licence fee for each household.
Now it is a couple of years or more since I have listened or watched the ABC more than once or twice a week and thats usually only for a couple of minutes when my wife thinks / insists I should watch something.
Frankly I can no longer stand the rabid leftist, hypocritical pulp that is passed off as programming by the ABC.
But maybe Australian ABC watchers in their red and green uniforms, both of them, are getting a good deal compared to the Poms and their BBC.
The ABC is supposed to get AUD $5.2 billion funding over the next four years.
About $1.3 billion a year
The BBC through the UK’s compulsory license [ I still remember such a system here in Auustralia and the angry reactions of my father when he got the annual bill for the ABC license fee ] . gets an annual income of £4 billion. [ 2010 figures ]
That translates under the current rate of exchange as some AUD $7.4 billion dollars annual income for the BBC.
The BBC receives an annual income from compulsory licence fees of £4 billion or about $7.4 billion dollars , about 5.7 times the annual $1.3 billion the ABC receives direct from the government.
The UK population is around 64 millions, about 2.8 times the Australian population of some 23 millions.
In very simplistic terms it looks like the BBC costs about twice as much per head of population to operate than does the ABC.
With the waste, the casual and ABC’s divine right to exploit of the taxpayer to the maximum plus the sheer bigotry and bias of the ABC, the mind boggles at the overt and covert grafting and straight out fraud that must be a part of the culture of the BBC to warrant such a major disparity in operating costs with a similar increasingly disparaged and biased, bigoted publicly funded media rganization on the opposite side of the planet.
For more information on the BBC and the rethink under way on the continuation of the license fee structure to fund the BBC , the 2010 UK Parliamentary Briefing papers on this subject can be found here;
Future of the BBC
Is it time to start re-thinking the funding of the BBC?
For later developments the UK Parliamentary Briefing papers list a number of broadcasting research and briefing papers from 2014.
80
there’s a bbc oxford phil mercer, but i am posting some bbc sydney phil mercer:
13 June 2009: BBC: Phil Mercer: Australians demand climate action
The National Climate Emergency Rallies called on Australia to take the lead at the UN environment summit in December in Copenhagen.
Activists also want an end to Australia’s dependence on cheap and plentiful supplies of coal.
It is one of the world’s worst per capita emitters of greenhouse gases…
In Sydney, rally organiser Moira Williams said that a coalition of trade unions and religious groups, as well as students and environmental campaigners, was pushing for immediate action…
Scientists have warned that Australia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of a shifting climate.
As temperatures increase, there are predictions that coastal communities will be threatened by rising sea levels, while other parts of the country could suffer more severe droughts, cyclones and bushfires…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8098452.stm
interestingly, omnologos had something to say about that article:
13 June 2009: Omnologos: BBC And Climate: News Before Things Happen?
Has Mr Mercer written his piece before the fact (could happen), and much worse, before having the information needed to verify the contents of his article?
It is rather strange, for example, that there was no picture of those thousands of people available for the BBC to publish…
http://omnologos.com/tag/perth/
40
a little video, so you can know phil.
finishes with “even foreign politicians as far away as britain believe that the conservative government is being reckless in axing the carbon tax”…
VIDEO 1 MIN 47 SECS: July 2014: BBC: Australian government says pollution tax a ‘handbrake’
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who promised to axe the country’s pollution tax during his election campaign last year, is doing his best to have it scrapped…
The BBC’s Phil Mercer explains.
http://www.bbc.com/news/28289139
30
If the brits have the nunce to vote UKIP the BBC won’t exiçst in 5 years. Good ridance. GET VOTING YOU BRITS.
130
Strewth, every time I travel abroad and reluctantly albeit very briefly and switch to and watch BBC world news – I cringe, there never is any news it’s all propaganda – it actually makes me want to bring up whatever food is in my stomach.
I have a name for it, BBC world news – I call it “global warming telly”. And if you haven’t had the misfortune to watch it – don’t bother.
But there is something you should know down in Aus…….
What indeed?
As Tiny CO2 [above] alludes to, the bbc is a many headed HYDRA, a monster who deigns to visit its sweet pearls before
the swine…. us plebeians. Truly, a captive audience [the UK] does help along pushing its spavined; Politically Correct-OWG-“we love the UNESCO-EU”-Cultural Marxist-Frankfurt School-extreme/green left wing propaganda: its agenda.There are wheels within wheels here, the BBC bolstered and ordained in Brussels/UN HQ, a bridgehead and invasion into Australia, is first and foremost is a land grab which should be repulsed by Australia – fight it and fight it hard.
The OWG mob [namely the EU/UNESCO] see Australia backsliding under its PM Mr. Abbot, where what was previously Australia being one of the pin up girls for ‘all things green’ and a brazen CAGW whore – if ever there was one. Now and panicking, as their global agenda slips off the world news and the
plebsdo not see climate armageddon as a major threat…..ars*s and butts need to be re-booted – where better to commence the ‘re-education’ think the societal engineers within the walls of Broadcasting house [and Berlaymont]……. than in Aus?It’s bad enough that Australia has its own claque of alarmist climate loonies, you certainly don’t need any more coming down from the London Lubyanka….@ “Cultural Marxism central aka – the BBC.
150
““Australia has been warming up by about 0.9C [a year] since 1910,” Dr Braganza told the BBC.”
forgive me Joanne but ““Australia has been warming up by about 0.9C since 1910,” is a reasonable statement to make.
22
I believe you missed this part of the article:
100
So, is it going to be “Our BBC” as well as “Our ABC”? Words fail me!
20
Wouldn’t that be:
50
Skeptics and deniers, be warned:
The Empire Strikes Back.
21
In the US National Public Radio, NPR, is doing the same thing. Affiliate stations are cloning into multiple local channels. Their “journalist” move in and out of private sector lefty media. They report in a prejudicial and deceptive manner that always just happens to support the prevailing lefty views. They utterly ignore anything except the climate apocalypse view of climate. Conservative mainstream views are reported as “the extreme tea party wing”.
They receive direct tax subsidies of hundreds of millions but still soak up an unreported amount of national and local advertising revenue at the same time.
The headquarters are a publicly funded palace in Washington, DC.
60
Wow, Australia has some serious warming problems. A warming rate of 0.9 Deg C per year since 1900? Hats off to the people of Australia for their ability to cope with a 90+ deg C increase in temp, but don’t take off your hats. The tops of your heads might melt.
I hope I don’t have to add a [sarc off] to the end of that comment.
100
Oh come on, there are big “green” advantages that the Aussies should be applauded for. Cooking is much more efficient and uses far less fuel when you only have to add an extra 10°C to boil your organic rice. Look at all the CO2 they no longer emit. The rest of the planet that has to add 80°C or more to boil stuff… how horribly inefficient.
70
Well, I guess that kills any intent I ever had to visit Australia. You’re worse than Death Valley in August by at least 100° F, about 200° F more or less on a hot summer day. Maybe the reason nearly all your major cities are near the coast is because you can get a cooling ocean breeze? 😉
Seriously, doesn’t anyone do basic idiot checking anymore?
Don’t answer, I know who does and who doesn’t. I also know why I don’t have my cable company’s option that includes the BBC.
A toad has a better chance of getting it right than this bunch. But maybe not. I forgot that all the toads must have been boiled in their own juice several years back.
30
When people say In 11 years time that the weather is boiling hot they won’t be kidding.
50
AUSTRALIA EMBROILED IN BBC CLIMATE SCANDAL
(Well, nobody else said it.)
Meanwhile, there’s another conference.
50
Kudos to JoNova,
Looks like the BBC corrected one of the errors.
Australia has hottest spring on record as temperatures soar
By Wendy Frew
Australia editor, BBC Online
10
footnote:
“Australia has been warming up, by about 0.9C since 1910,…”
Do the Math, noting the accuracy, and its a So What’s Your Point Karl!
10
To Be Fair, I run over BBC News every morning because they cover International issues.
Most of the reporting is insightful and the business model is News Worthy.
Reporters are not nor will ever be Scientists. Give them an Insight and then Judge their intent as none of them have the coin for proper research!
30
A Tool Is as a Tool Does.
20
does — present 3d singular of do?
10
Warwick Hughes has recently run a couple of articles about the full time Met office in Cobar.
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=3433
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=3441
He zeroed in on a couple of astounding “homogenization “adjustments.
One is a staggering 0.41 to the Tmax in 1995 to the Acorn Sat which is difficult to justify in the face of adjacent & remote stations of a lesser quality. Further other historic adjustments appear (as we have come to expect) to very conveniently & consistently reinforce the “Warming Story”.
I regularly enjoy articles here & on Ken’s Kingdom pertaining to the “raw V homogenized”data.
However when the manipulation is done/created/applied at fully maintained, permanently manned multi-million dollar weather stations, i.e. the control/reference points of the network, you have to wonder just how much of the “0.9’C”is real.
90
The smartest thing the BBC could do is put a skeptic in charge of their OZ organization.
40
Is there a doctor in the court?
Peter Spencer is finally getting his day in court against the Commonwealth over his claims that it acquired carbon credits from farm land without compensating the farmers or landowners.
That will be the question this Thursday when the John Howard-era environment minister, Dr David Kemp, has to show up at the Federal Court as a subpoenaed witness in a long-running legal battle.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/cbd/dr-david-kemp-called-to-court-to-explain-prescription-for-carbon-credits-20141202-11y8wu.html
~ ~ ~
The last dark deed of the Howard Government was the passage of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act in October 2007.
That act is the auditing basis of the carbon tax.
Mr Howard’s plan was to get the auditing system bedded down, then start taxing. Labor’s carbon tax would be a couple of years behind schedule if Mr Howard had not laid the bureaucratic foundations for it.
http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=5257
40
Do you Have any clue?
Peter Spencer has completely been Screwed by YOU!!!!
You pitiful Dolt, don’t you Realize, You support stupidity?
Allodial title is the Prize and all you claim in Your Life is a “stupid shrimp on the BBQ…
20
OUR PLANET!
In the Nature of Law, — Plea resolved.
Has IT BEEN Resolved Logically?
IF NOT — Take Your Best Shot!!!
10
G’day John.
Regarding Peter Spencer, Jonova posted recently (20 Nov. 2014)
Peter Spencer versus The Commonwealth — starts Monday in the Federal Court. Help Needed!
http://joannenova.com.au/2014/11/peter-spencer-versus-the-commonwealth-starts-monday-in-the-federal-court-help-needed/
Just an update, with interesting note.
My second link is from a speech against the carbon(sic) tax.
I attended/supported the rally in Brisbane on same day.
I voted for Howard Govt. back in the first decade, so, yes, “Peter Spencer has completely been Screwed by YOU!!!!”
I have since researched my own information, hence here I am @jonova.
Now, I trust no politician.
I want accountability for the biggest quackery ever perpetuated.
90
In Germany the extremists are now blaming grandma for inaction on their CAGW.
http://notrickszone.com/2014/12/02/germanys-green-dictatorship-grandmothers-putting-climate-protection-targets-in-jeopardy/
They claim that elderly women are driving their cars more and should walk more during the cold weather months.
If this isn’t more barking madness then what is?
110
It is beyond madness. It is the fanaticism generated by the acceptance of a big and simple idea. All CO2 emissions are absolutely evil and must be suppressed. From this follows such oppression with impeccable logic. Those who follow it do so with joy at the “moral authority” of indulging their desire to control the minutiae of other peoples existence.
Such people are legion within political administration the world over. The only counter is derision but power in their hands, as you say, frightening. Their mind set reminds me of the brief, if notable, career of Matthew Hopkins in the 17th century.
As a youth I visited Hanover, rebuilt after its recent almost complete destruction in 1945. From there I was taken to see the actual “iron curtain”, watch towers and minefields prominent, which was one outcome of this way of thinking. It is ironic that, with its removal, the “released” philosophies flowed both ways.
Close by was Hamelin, which also knows the consequence of municipal arrogance.
60
There is hope for Germany yet !
Nearly all of the comments on the original article in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ) are mocking/outraged/sarcastic etc.
An interesting exchange between two commentators (my translation):
(1) Someone who is retired is no longer a commuter, therefore doesn’t need a car !
(2) Someone who has children like [you] doesn’t need enemies !
40
2 Dec: Fairfax: The Pacific is tilting towards El Nino and a hot, dry summer
A hot and dry summer is looking likely for Australia as conditions in the Pacific tilt towards an El Nino event, writes Peter Hannam.
In its latest fortnightly update, the Bureau of Meteorology said many indicators were now close to or exceeding El Nino thresholds. Climate models suggested “further intensification of conditions remains likely”.
The bureau estimated at least a 70 per cent chance of an El Nino being declared “in the coming months”.
The updates are followed particularly closely in the agricultural sector as El Ninos tend to be bad news for farmers across eastern and southern Australia. Bushfire risks are also elevated…
The bureau noted El Nino-like conditions were already having an impact across much of Australia as well as Asia, South America and southern Africa.
Australia has just posted its warmest spring in more than a century of records for both maximum and mean temperatures, with rainfall about one-third below average…
Since El Nino years typically result in the Pacific taking up less of the extra heat trapped by rising greenhouse gases, they add about 0.1 degrees or more to the background warming already under way because of climate change, climatologists say.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last month that the January-October period was the warmest on record. Should November and December be among the 10th warmest for those months, then 2014 would eclipse 2005 and 2010 as the warmest calendar year, NOAA said.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/the-pacific-is-tilting-towards-el-nino-and-a-hot-dry-summer-20141202-11yjqt.html
compare with the following, which is a surprising piece for WaPo during Lima:
2 Dec: WaPo: Jason Samenow: Why prosperous autumn snows in Eurasia may portend a brutal East Coast winter
The increase in snow cover extent this October in Eurasia was fast and furious. That’s a compelling signal, says pioneering seasonal forecaster Judah Cohen, that the eastern U.S. faces a cold and snowy winter.
Cohen, who directs seasonal forecasting efforts at the firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), a unit of Verisk Climate, discovered the linkage between the behavior of Eurasian fall snow cover and eastern U.S. winters nearly 15 years ago. He has since applied the relationship in his winter outlooks and established an impressive track record. His outlooks have been on the money many years and at least in the ballpark most others…
Cohen: The snow cover was the second highest observed going back to 1972 and the speed of the advance was the fastest observed going back to 1997 (the first year that daily snow cover data became available). The signal from the snow cover was both strong and consistent…
***Cohen: Like everyone else, we include the El Nino Southern Oscillation (El Nino). But the developing El Nino looks to be weak and was not much of a factor in our model.
Q: The National Weather Service has assigned “equal chances” for a cold or warm winter for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Why do you think it’s reluctant to incorporate the AO-Eurasian snow cover relationship – which would suggest cold – more prominently in its outlook?
Cohen: It has been my opinion for my entire career that El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is too heavily emphasized in seasonal forecasting, especially for temperature, at all the national forecast centers, not just the National Weather Service…
Cohen: My colleague, Jason Furtado, and I have started a new Arctic Oscillation blog on the AER website that is updated weekly…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/12/02/why-prosperous-autumn-snows-in-eurasia-may-portend-a-brutal-east-coast-winter/
30
i know it’s weather…but now check this which is all over our MSM, though none mention Leighton is fully employed by BOM:
2 Dec: Guardian: AAP: Cooler weather forecast for Australian Open tennis as third roof completed
Meteorologist says 2014’s heatwave won’t be repeated
***Was the Australian Open a victim of climate change?
Meteorologist Bob Leighton said his long-range forecast for the Open, which starts on 19 January, was a milder one than last year, with little or no rain.
“We’re expecting a slightly warm summer but this should result in about five days over 30 and perhaps one near 40,” he said.
“The heatwave situation will probably increase in further years but this summer I don’t think there will be one.”
The veteran weatherman was unruffled by the suggestion that such predictions more than a month away were largely guesswork.
“I’ve been with the bureau for 57 years, so if I don’t get a feel for it, I don’t know how you could,” he said…
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/dec/02/cooler-weather-forecast-for-australian-open-tennis-as-third-roof-completed
***Guardian “cleverly” links to Readfearn!
Jan 2014: Guardian: Graham Readfearn: Is the Australian Open tennis feeling the heat of climate change?
As tennis players complain and collapse due to the heat, scientists say climate change is driving a rise in extreme temperatures across Australia
You can’t blame climate change entirely for hot weather, but you can say that it increases the risk of extreme hot weather events occurring…
Dr Sarah Perkins is a researcher at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of New South Wales and specialises in studying heat waves.
I asked her if human-caused climate change was contributing to charred bums and Snoopy sightings at the tennis.
“It’s contributing,” she says. “In Melbourne we are seeing an increase in the amount of extreme heat – there’s a disproportionate change when compared to the 1C increase we’ve seen in the average temperature for Australia.
“We are also seeing an increase in heat waves not just in Melbourne, but across Australia…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/jan/16/australia-tennis-open-climate-change-extreme-heat
20
Japan’s NHK channel featured this in their weather report last nite, but i saw no mention of it on other channels’ weather reports i then checked:
2 Dec: Accuweather: Cold Wave Grips Beijing and Seoul, Brings Snow to Japan
By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
On the backside of the blizzard pounding places near the easternmost border of China and Russia, a dome of high pressure is expanding its frigid grip across northeastern Asia.
The high is bringing the coldest air since last winter to many communities, including Beijing, China, and Seoul, South Korea…
By the time this week ends, some western slopes of the mountains in northern and central Honshu and Hokkaido will be buried by a meter (3.3 feet) or more of snow. Travel in these communities will be brought to a standstill.
Relief from the cold wave is in sight but will not last long, according to AccuWeather.com International Weather Expert Jason Nicholls.
“It appears that the cold will ease early next week with more seasonable temperatures. However, there will be a reinforcing shot of cold later next week into next week.”…
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/cold-wave-to-grip-beijing-seou-1/38287455
NHK mentioned the following:
PICS: 2 Dec: Shanghaiist: Beijing gets a taste of Winter Wonderland after pipe bursts, coats area in ice
The temperature reached -5.5 degrees on Monday, a mere breeze of unpleasantness compared to the current -15 degrees recorded in the Ice City that is Harbin…
http://shanghaiist.com/2014/12/02/beijing-gets-taste-of-winter-wonderland.php
the aljazeera weather report i saw focused on a tropical storm heading for the Philippines & CNN focused on flooding in southern Europe.
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hottest year evah!
1 Dec: The Weather Channel: Jon Erdman: November 2014 Shattered Cold and Snow Records For Some
Record coldest November: Marquette (Negaunee Township), Michigan; Rhinelander, Wisconsin
One of top three coldest Novembers: Alma, Georgia (2nd coldest); Jacksonville and Wauchula, Florida (each 3rd coldest)
Other locations chalked up a daily low temperature that set a record for the month of November, including:
Casper, Wyoming: -27 (Nov. 12) and -26 (Nov. 13) each was colder than previous record of -21 (Nov. 23, 1985)
Burlington, Colorado: -10 (Nov. 13) bested previous record of -3 (Nov. 30, 2006)
Redmond, Oregon: -17 (Nov. 15) and -19 (Nov. 16) each was colder than previous record of -14 (Nov. 15, 1955)
Joplin, Missouri: 6 (Nov. 18) bested previous record of 7 (Nov. 29, 1976)
Many other records were set for the coldest temperatures (highs or lows) so early in the season, including:…
http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/november-2014-cold-snow-records-us
3 Dec: Sky News: AFP: 100,000 Czech rail passengers snowed in
Trees toppled by heavy snow also caused power cuts nationwide and police reported dozens of road accidents caused by black ice.Ice also grounded soldiers headed for Afghanistan when it prevented their plane from taking off from the Prague-Kbely military airport…
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/world/europe/2014/12/03/100-000-czech-rail-passengers-snowed-in.html
another headline today:
Blizzard in northeast China suspends school, traffic
Global Times – 10 hours ago
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link posted by Don K in WUWT Tips & Notes:
1 Dec: Science Daily: Research confirms how global warming links to carbon emissions
Source: University of Southampton
Summary: Research has identified, for the first time, how global warming is related to the amount of carbon emitted. A team of researchers has derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions since the late 1800s when human-made carbon emissions began. The results are in accord with previous data from climate models.
A team of researchers from the universities of Southampton, Bristol and Liverpool have derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions since the late 1800s when human-made carbon emissions began…
The results show every million-million tonnes of carbon emitted will generate one degree Celsius of global warming. They also show that the build-up of carbon emitted over the last 200 years will then last for many centuries to millennia, even if carbon emissions are subsequently phased out.
The results also reveal that surface warming is related to the total amount of carbon emitted from fossil fuels, with little change over time as ocean carbon and changes in heat uptake almost cancel each other out…
The research is published in Nature Geoscience.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141201113036.htm
comment by John West in WUWT Tips & Notes, re the above:
Perhaps worth noting from the abstract:
“When we incorporate estimates of terrestrial carbon uptake, the surface warming response is reduced to 1.1 ± 0.5 K for every 1,000 Pg of carbon emitted”
It seems to be substantially lower than AR5’s estimate.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/unfccc/cop19/2_knutti13sbsta.pdf
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Seth’s weird contribution to Lima:
2 Dec: AP: Seth Borenstein: Hotter, weirder: How climate has changed Earth
In the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate. It’s gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder…
“Simply put, we are rapidly remaking the planet and beginning to suffer the consequences,” says Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University…
To see how much the globe has changed since the first such international conference — the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 — The Associated Press scoured databases from around the world. The analysis, which looked at data since 1983, concentrated on 10-year intervals ending in 1992 and 2013…
It’s almost a sure thing that 2014 will go down as the hottest year in 135 years of record keeping, meteorologists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center say…
The effects of climate change can be seen in harsher fire seasons. Wildfires in the western United States burned an average of 2.7 million acres each year between 1983 and 1992; now that’s up to 7.3 million acres from 1994 to 2013, according to the National Interagency Fire Center…
WHAT SCIENTISTS SAY
“Overall, what really strikes me is the missed opportunity,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, said in an email.
“We knew by the early 1990s that global warming was coming, yet we have done essentially nothing to head off the risk. I think that future generations may be justifiably angry about this.”
“The numbers don’t lie,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State…
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0ec806f3702b4b61b65f7d3de3867729/hotter-weirder-how-climate-has-changed-earth
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The story is in the arrangement.
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2 Dec: WSJ Blog: Jun Hongo: Climate Change in Tokyo? City’s Weather Observation Station Relocates
If you find the temperature shown in Tokyo’s weather report to be a bit lower than what you feel today, you are not mistaken.
Japan Meteorological Agency on Tuesday began operating its new weather observation station in Tokyo which was relocated for the first time since 1964.
The observation spot moved approximately 900 meters west from its previous location in Otemachi to Kitanomaru Park near the nature-filled Imperial Palace. Annual average temperature in the new site is about 0.9 degree Celsius cooler than Otemachi, one of Japan’s largest business districts with a high density of people and buildings, according to the agency…
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/12/02/climate-change-in-tokyo-citys-weather-observation-station-relocates/?mod=WSJ_Japan_JapanRealTime
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1 Dec: Reason: Ira Stoll: Government-Backed Green Energy Goes Bust
What the Xunlight solar energy firm bankruptcy reveals about crony capitalism.
The recent Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation filing of the Toledo, Ohio-based solar-panel manufacturer Xunlight Corp. has attracted barely any national attention.
Maybe it’s gotten to the point—after Solyndra, Evergreen, Abound, and Satcon—that the failure of another government-backed alternative energy company is a dog-bites man story. It’d be newsworthy if any of them actually ever succeeded.
But it’s worth pausing for an autopsy and retrospective on Xunlight, because it’s a great (or terrible, depending on how you look at it) example of how government at all levels—state and federal—and in both parties—Republican and Democrat —wastes taxpayer money by subsidizing politically connected businesses…
According to the Toledo Blade, one of the few press outlets following the story, “In 2010, the company received $34.5 million in tax credits as part of the stimulus bill. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) helped secure nearly $3 million in federal earmarks for the company. The company received a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a more than $4 million loan from the state, and more than $2 million in state and local tax credits.”…READ ON
http://reason.com/archives/2014/12/01/government-backed-green-energy-goes-bust
2 Dec: BBC: Julian O’Neill: County Down offshore wind farm plans scrapped
An energy consortium has scrapped plans for Northern Ireland’s first major offshore wind farm.
The £1bn project would have seen up to 100 turbines placed by First Flight Wind off the south-east coast of County Down…
The farm was to have been operational by 2020, cutting Northern Ireland’s dependence on imported fuel to run its power stations…
Green Party MLA Steven Agnew said the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) “must shoulder” some of the blame.
“DETI have not persuaded the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to be flexible regarding the how renewable incentives will progress in Northern Ireland…
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30280697
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ABC felt the need to replay this Catalyst Special last nite – for Lima?
3 June: ABC Catalyst Special: Earth on Fire
NARRATION
Whether or not climate change has a hand in fires we are seeing today has been a major bone of contention, but it’s a question Professor Tom Swetnam can answer. At the tree ring laboratory, Tom’s team has helped demonstrate that the current surge in the size and frequency of wildfires in the American West has more to do with rising temperatures, than fuel load changes…
Prof Tom Swetnam: The snow is melting in the spring, so by the time you come to the summer months it’s just, it’s dry there and its burning like it hasn’t in hundreds of years, maybe thousands. So the mechanism is really quite evident. Warming temperatures, earlier springs, longer fire seasons, more big fires. There’s no other explanation, there hasn’t been a major fuels change. The sizes of the fires are extraordinary…
Prof David Bowman: The thing we can be certain of is that if you add CO2 to the atmosphere it will warm the atmosphere and a warmer atmosphere will be correlated with more fire activity…
Prof David Bowman: I am worried that the worst case scenario is that we get a tumbling out of control of the feedbacks between more fires, more emissions of CO2, more climate change, more hotter weather, less rain, you can go into a fire spiral making it harder for us to pull the brakes back on…
***Peter Jacobs: I’m not sure if there is a natural fire anymore. We, unless we completely take ourselves out of this landscape and do nothing, I don’t believe there is a natural fire…
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4014144.htm
***Peter Jacobs: US Insurance Info Inst would seem to be in 90% agreement with your estimate!
Insurance Information Institute: WILDLAND FIRES
As many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson. The remaining 10 percent are started by lightning or lava…
2014 AND 2013 WILDFIRES
Between January 1 and October 10, 2014 there were 41,790 wildfires in the U.S., which burned about 3.1 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center…
In 2013, 47,579 wildfires burned over 4 million acres, with California, North Carolina, Oregon, Montana and Arizona experiencing the most wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center…
GRAPH: NUMBER OF ACRES BURNED IN WILDFIRES, 1980–2013
http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/wildfires
go to the following Wikipedia page and check the dates & numbers of the section indicated (have not included the url cos it will probably take this comment into moderation). however, this is hopefully, my final comment for a while! LOL.
Wikipedia: Bushfires in Australia
Major bushfires in Australia
Some of the most severe Australian bushfires, in chronological order, have included…
(CHECK THE NUMBERS)
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Timely article: The Unquenchable Bushfire Bureaucracy
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Jo, but where does Greenpeace come into this? (BBC – Where science reporting means asking Greenpeace what they reckon). Would it not be more appropriate to take the piss out of BOM and all the scientists who are spruiking the scam? (BBC – Where science reporting means asking scientists what they reckon). Why give all the credit for the scam to the Green Blob? Are these scientists taking the lead from Greenpeace or is it the other way around? Are the complicit MSM folk scientists or greenies? Greenpeace is not exactly renown for their collection of great scientific thinkers. What is the point of making the gullible do-gooders the scapegoat? You make apologies for Conservative politicians here in Aus implying that they are the victims of the ‘lefty’ media teachings. Is that the case all around the world?. Surely that is not very scientific if you want to get to the root cause/motivation of the scam? We might not have 97% of scientists spruiking the scam as the MSM tells us, but there is surely a great percentage of otherwise bright science minds who are sucked in by it and seem quite willing to partake in the scam. Should we be suing them all for professional malpractice? Are you really 97% convinced that the perpetrators of this scam are ‘green’ groups and are thus prepared to promote this to the masses? It seems to me that the scientists involved get off lightly and groups like Greenpeace wear the blame.
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Joe,
Where Greenpeace and other AGW groups come in is that they take the original ‘scientific’ statement and exaggerate it. They control the output of the IPCC, it is not the scientists who write the various lead items. Then it gets repeated by every other AGW group to drown out any dissension. There is certainly a central group of Climatologists pushing the alarm button, and quite a few believers who have never looked into the scam. These just parrot the standard line, or even the exaggerated claims because their social group repeats them. Hence this nonsense statement by Professor Penny Sackett. (see previous story on Only 3 days to the end of the World.
Generally scientists like to stick to their own specialty and take others on trust. It is this trust that is abused, and frequently something raises a doubt in someone’s mind. As scientists start looking and getting deeper into the matter they soon turn sceptical. Hence the importance of Climategate, which caused a lot of scientists to start checking “The Science”. Thus Dec. 2009 led to a flood of new sceptics from late 2010 onwards.
As for who deserves the most blame, I feel that the inner circle of Climatologists who keep adjusting figures, and issuing lame press releases about imaginary coming disasters deserve a fair share of it.
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The Klimatariat deserves to get a serve, this inner circle won’t be able to get the egg off their faces.
Politicians will say they were misled, like the rest of the community who put their faith in the science from on high, but the main criticism needs to be directed at the Australian Brainwashing Corp. This would sit well in their Art Show.
http://suyts.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/image_thumb265.png?w=636&h=294
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Read Judith Curry’s current post The Legacy of Climate Gate 5 years on plus her Heresy and the Creation of Monsters 10/25/2010 & Reversing the direction of the positive feedback loop 11/3/2010
Then you might get an inkling as to what Graeme No3 is alluding to, the subtle and not so subtle but intense pressures and desires for conformity and not rocking the scientific boat that is the driver for so many scientists not speaking out when they suspect or even know that what is being promulgated as settled. established beyond doubt science is nothing more that a botched up psuedo science run by little more than a quite small cohort of shameless, self promoting scientific charlatans and their chicken entrail models. as Climate Gate showed us.
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ROM:
there no doubt that there is an inner group of Climatologists, anybody following the history (as best we can) knows some of the names. Hansen, Jones, Wigley, Brissa, Trenberth etc. clustered around the UEA, the NASA GISS laboratories and in Colorado. They were some of the early believers in CO2 causing warming.
Their ideas did not sweep the scientific community as legend has it. From the start they seemed to have felt isolated and showed a defensive attitude. When Margaret Thatcher and Al Gore took up the idea for purposes of their own, the inner group found the pressure for details oppressive and became secretive about their methods and data, contrary to the usual approach in science where outsiders expect to be able to reproduce the results. Meanwhile the IPCC had become “the source” of predictions, largely because ‘green’ activists had captured the key positions in the reporting process and they suppressed the doubts and inaccuracies of the scientists and presented them as true. The pressure on the scientists involved to conform would have been intense.
Then there was Michael Mann and his hockey stick. When you read the Climategate e-mails it is obvious that some were very wary of his activities (Briffa in particular), but others went along with his deliberate falsifications because it seemed to strengthen their case. From about 2000 that inner group has been captive to the alarm process, and I don’t think they like it so much. Sure they like the prestige and perks of the IPCC but the smarter ones are desperately wondering how to get out of their self made trap, but by now any retreat gets them abused not only by sceptics but by the ‘green’ activists and organisations that leapt onto the bandwagon. Worse, in succumbing to temptation and fiddling the figures they found themselves “riding the tiger”; in other words unable to get off without being destroyed financially and in reputation.
Meanwhile a whole herd of third-raters (and I am being polite) have leapt onto the bandwagon, and are trying to keep it rolling. As the solar cooling continues for the next 5 years these people will find themselves out in the cold. The original group are getting to an age where they can try sliding into the obscurity where they belong, but I think they may face a lot of public fury, because the gullible politicians will want scapegoats.
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Graeme No3
I think you may be providing the best possible construct on what occurred, note I used” construct”.
The realities I think are far harsher and far more devastating to that small CRU centred group who created the entire supposedly science based fabrication that has driven this whole CAGW climate science debacle.
“Berniel” a scientist himself who uses this non de plume has a very interesting historical outline of the whole global warming catastrophe meme.
Berniel is obviously well acquainted with the in group of climate alarmist scientists whom he interviewed for his articles, a situation you can check in the notes following the articles.
Ben Santer, one of the CRU Climate Gate insiders was in 1995 a then a young newly minted PhD. He played a leading role when he as the then editor of the 1995 Madrid Conference proceedings altered the official final draft of the proceedings.
On whose authority whether his own volition or at the instigation of someone a lot further up the totem pole, [ Houghton is suspected as the messenger from Clinton ] he altered the central findings of those large group of scientists at the Madrid conference has never been ascertained.
Santer has admitted to changing the Proceedings which then and subsequently confirmed Hansen’s very spurious claims at the Congressional enquiry of 1988 and so launched the Anthropgenic Global Warming catastrophe debacle onto an unsuspecting public, political and scientific establishments.
Around or soon after about 2004 or 5 when I started to follow this Catastrophic Global Warming thing there were still some references around to the fact that at the Madrid conference there were I think some 300 papers listed and provided to the organisers that were doubtful of the man made global warming theme let alone it’s propensity to be catastrophic along with what we today would call openly skeptical about Mankind’s influences on the global climate through increasing CO2 and other factors.
The comments from that decade ago were firm in stating that every single one of those “skeptical” papers doubting or discrediting man’s influences over the climate disappeared at Madrid in 1995 never to be seen or mentioned again.
The alterations which completely changed and reversed the findings of the agreed final draft of the conference papers were only discovered when the printed versions of the proceedings were recieved by the Madrid Conference attendees some weeks later
I will quote from Berniels Madrid 1995: Was this the Tipping Point in the Corruption of Climate Science? The last Day of Climate SciencePt1
[ Selectively quoted below but the whole complete Madrid Conference debacle as outlined in Berniels articles needs to be read in full for an overall picture and even then it can get confusing.]
When Ben Santer arrived in Madrid in the late autumn of 1995, did he know that this conference would change his life forever?
Undoubtedly ambitious, a rising star in the climate modelling scene, he was doing well at age 40 to be leading the writing of a key chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report. In fact, the convener of this IPCC Working Group, John Houghton, had asked him to take it on quite late in the day, only after more established scientists had turned down the offer. Perhaps they had a hunch of what was about to unfold, for it would be Santer’s fate that great forces of history would bear down on the lead author of his chapter at this conference. When he was through with it, when Houghton had accepted the final draft a few days later, climate science would be changed forever. After a long struggle, the levees of science gave way to the overwhelming forces of politics welling up around it, and soon it would be totally and irrevocably engulfed.
&
Alas, by the early autumn of 1995 the signs were not good. Although a draft leaked in September managed to say that the warming is unlikely to be entirely due to natural causes, this was hardly in dispute, and this was not exactly announcing imminent catastrophe. Moreover, there remained extraordinary strong caveats, especially in Chapter 8, to every positive conclusion. The draft that was circulated to the participants at the Madrid conference, and the only one available when the Report was finally ‘accepted’ by the meeting (see explanation in a following post), also stated in its introduction that results of recent studies point towards a human influence. This was the strongest statement yet, but the body of the document and the concluding summary were not so confident. Some of the boldest retractions were as follows:
* Of Studies of Changes in Global Mean Variables (8.4.1): ‘While none of these studies has specifically considered the attribution issue, they often draw some attribution conclusions, for which there is little justification.’
* Of the greenhouse signal in studies of modelled and observed spatial and temporal patterns of change (8.4.2.1): ‘none of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed changes to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases.’
* Of pattern studies ‘fingerprinting’ the global warming (see discussion in later post): While some of the pattern-base studies discussed have claimed detection of a significant climate change, no study to date has positively attributed all or part [of the climate change observed] to [anthropogenic ] causes. Nor has any study quantified the magnitude of a greenhouse gas effect or aerosol effect in the observed data—an issue of primary relevance to policy makers.
* Of the overall level of uncertainty: Any claims of positive detection and attribution of significant climate change are likely to remain controversial until uncertainties in the total natural variability of the climate system are reduced.
Of the question: When will an anthropogenic effect on climate be identified? (8.6): It is not surprising that the best answer to this question is, `We do not know.’
[A copy of the 9Oct95 draft of Ch 8 has not been obtained. UPDATE 29June12: 9Oct draft obtained and changes have been verified]
&
Pt 2
Now, at last, the discussion can move on to the ‘bottom line’ attribution claim:
Nevertheless, the balance of evidence now suggests that the global climate system is being affected by human activities.4
The proposed title of the D&A section condenses this statement with the removal of ‘suggests’ giving it more force:
The balance of evidence points towards a human influence.
As the Global Climate Coalition pointed out when they broke the scandal, these statements were removed from the final draft of the Working Group 1 Assessment that appear in May 1996 (and that, despite their protests, was subsequently published in June). Moreover, these inconclusive conclusions were not inserted elsewhere, while more positive statements were substituted, strengthened or added. Nature’s first editorial response to the scandal was all about not disrupting the political message before the US election. Yet it conceded that the complaints about the changes to Chapter 8 ‘are not entirely groundless.’
IPCC officials claim that the sole reason for the revisions was to tidy up the text, and in particular to ensure that it conformed to a ‘policymakers’ summary’ of the full report that was tortuously agreed by government delegates at the Madrid meeting. But there is some evidence that the revision process did result in a subtle shift in the relative weight given to different types of arguments, and that – not surprisingly – this shift tended to favour arguments that aligned with the report’s broad conclusions. Conversely, some phrases that might have been (mis)interpreted as undermining these conclusions, particularly if, as IPCC officials feared, they were taken out of context, have disappeared. [13Jun96]
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<Graeme No3
My reaction; You are damn right on those third raters and carpetbaggers !.
And you are being very polite to that lot of parasitical scum
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He’s “damn right” even thought the solar cooling nonsense is not only not backed by any science, but is now even contradicted by direct observation?
Is this something to do with this mysterious “Kool-Aid” that this group seems to mention a lot?
00
Kool aid
Quoted from Wiki for convenience and the facts are as listed in Wiki.
Approx 918 people died at the Jonestown cult centre from drinking that poisoned “Kool aid” soft drink
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‘Overall, the study found that more than 530,000 people had died worldwide from 15,000 extreme weather events in the last two decades, including floods, mudslides and droughts, with economic losses of $US2.17 trillion.’
The Age
The sin of omission, not a word on how the numbers of deaths, due to contrary weather, have been on the decline for more than a couple of decades.
10
Is the sin of omission actually intentional omission or the sin of being too stupid?
00
As the oil price hits new lows, I thought this was amusing.
http://peakoiltas.org/
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90c above 1910 temp is over 100c, we should all be dead, is this the new science, 2+3=9
00
Just cancel all the funding to the ABC, let the British taxpayers provide you BBC television. Locals will also develop content as well. The Government does enough advertising already to tell you what a good job they are doing, why do they need to lose billions running a tv station in this day and age.
In this day and age of 500 channels, why do you need to pay billions for 1?
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[…] her post The Green Blob expands: BBC wants Australian ratings. Their editor Wendy Frew heats Aust by 90C., Jo Nova reports on a BBC News editor in Australia who managed to exaggerate the warming in […]
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Who needs the BBC or ABC when I’ve got the Newcastle Morning Herald and the LMCC (Lake Macquarie City Council);
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2738313/would-a-giant-prawn-help-us-see-levels-rise/?cs=2338
……and to think I pay rates to these [self snip]!
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Horrible thing to say, I suppose, but like the New York Times or the Washington Post, it occurred to me to tune out, so to speak, the British equivalent, the BBC. Never saw a documentary on it worth watching, a show that I found interesting, and certainly not news worth digesting. Best thing to do about them? Same thing as I do, don’t turn them on. Let them make their living off the people that believe the drivel they espouse. As it is, too many people believe in their reputation and integrity. They have the first, the lack the second.
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[…] Feisty Oz blogger Jo Nova thus summed up the BBC’s expansion as follows: […]
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