The Great Unravelling: Even fans of “climate fear” admit skeptics are fashionable

Just another signpost on the road to Sensible-land. Remember how skeptics were the fringe minority, the dying dinosaurs, and there were only a few left on the planet? That was last week. Suddenly, begrudgingly, being a skeptic is fashionable (but still wrong, of course). This is “fashionable” in the sense of popular but meaningless, not storming Gucci-type chic, more like getting a high-def TV built into the fridge door. It’s trendy but essentially useless. (By the way, the cool TV has a remote control, DVD and FM radio so you…  don’t have to get off the kitchen floor. I suppose it’s just a matter of time before the TV in the family-room will get a fridge built in?)

But I digress.

The Telegraph has the headline “Global warming – there’s hope amid the gloom” .

Geoffrey Lean tells us “scepticism has replaced concern about climate change”, and you and I might think, that therefore, global leaders ought to pay attention to their citizens. But Lean says more skepticism means world leaders have to shout at the punters even louder. Never, ever assume the voters are right.

Lean hasn’t read Marcel Crok and Nicholas Lewis’s report about climate sensitivity being lower now than past IPCC estimates:

“Here we go again. On Monday the world’s governments and top climate scientists will publish the most devastating assessment yet of what global warming threatens to do to the planet.”

The last thing any fan of climate fear wants is for a repeat of Copenhagen. So look out for the PR-theme for Paris 2016. Firstly we-the-friends-of-the-IPCC must reduce expectations, secondly (contradictorily) we must not be too pessimistic and well, alarmist about our chances of getting a more global bureaucracy. Thirdly, repeat after me, it’s different this time.

As Lean says:

World leaders will meet in New York in September to address climate change for the first time since the ill-fated 2009 Copenhagen summit. Then they assemble again in Paris in December next year to try once more to conclude a pact to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases. But they are approaching it in a very different atmosphere from five years ago.

Not that I’m suggesting that Lean got instructions on how to do this, just that all the people hoping Paris is not another Copenhagen will probably adopt similar strategies intuitively.

Here’s the lowered expectations, combined with a token red herring scapegoat:

Last time, such warnings were almost universally accepted, but they now fall on much more sceptical ears. That is partly because the predecessor to Monday’s report contained several inaccuracies, most notably vastly overestimating the rate at which Himalayan glaciers are melting.

If only the IPCC had double checked the Himalayan Glaciers, it might have panned out alright then?

Here’s the line admitting the skeptics are winning, and look out, the Copenhagen pain was so bad it left scars:

Over the intervening years, fashionable scepticism has replaced fashionable concern over climate change. And government leaders, traumatised by their experience in Copenhagen, have tended to stay quiet.

Those poor government leaders forced to sit through cold waste-of-time meetings. The pain. The pain!

Can they lower expectations more than this? Sure, but there must be hope left too:

So while expectations were sky-high for what was dubbed “Hopenhagen”, they are rock-bottom for Paris next year. Yet it is possible that the present pessimism is equally misplaced. For there have also been more positive changes.

Then sigh, there is the obligatory myth making about “momentum” and how really good things are happening:

Almost unnoticed in Britain, the two main obstacles to agreement in the Danish capital – the United States and China – are taking a lead in combating global warming, no small thing considering that they together account for two-fifths of world emissions. President Obama – who privately feels his record on climate change was the biggest failure of his first term – has made it a top priority for his second.

China of course has gone cold on climate change and is building as many coal powered stations as ever. Obama, has “said stuff”.

Read it all at the Telegraph. UK

Normal caveats apply: Skeptics are winning, but apart from that, not much has changed. The institutions, organisations and people pretending to be scientific are still getting paid (and by us). The junkets continue, and the legislation is still on the table. Sigh. There is much to be done.

 

 

 

9.3 out of 10 based on 100 ratings

227 comments to The Great Unravelling: Even fans of “climate fear” admit skeptics are fashionable

  • #
    Eliza Doodle

    Gullible is no longer fashionable it seems

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    Eddie

    Fashionable scepticism replacing fashionable concern ?
    Just remember who was sceptical before it was fashionable.
    Many nouveau sceptics will be just as ripe for picking by the next big scam.

    400

    • #
      mike

      I love the euphemisms “fashionable” and “unfashionable” that the hive is employing here recently to describe their failing, agit-prop “plight”.

      Sorry, but the terms “fashionable/unfashionable” don’t quite capture the nature of the hive-masters’ signal, strategic vulnerability, in this area–namely, the blind-spot discomfort with any type of hireling-tool other than socially-incompetent, testosterone-hater, geek-ball weirdos.

      And so it was from the left’s ubiquitous, freak-show of milquetoast-slob, dumb-kid that the hive-masters recruited the cannon-fodder “shock-troopers” of their flim-flam, scare-mongering eco-hustles. In other words, we’re not talkin’ “unfashionable”, when it comes to the hive-bozos. NO!!! We’re talkin’, like, in-your-face, con-genital “un-cool”, to the max!!!

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        • #
          mike

          @ jammies

          Yr: “Huh”

          Two things, “Jay”, ol’ buddy:

          -My comment, as it appears above, is not in its original form, having been astutely purged of certain “over-the-top” language. And, in that regard, I am delighted to have my comment so improved (though regret any extra work I may have caused) since I have every confidence in Jo’s unerring editorial judgement, which has, after all, produced this distinguished, fearless, respected, important, and influential “Jo Nova” blog. Indeed, upon reflection, I now fully realize that my comment, in its original form, had no place here–though I note it would have been right at home if it had appeared in a comment-thread of some flop-house blog for eco gutter-snipes, like “Deltoid” (BARF!). Having said all that, my above comment had a better “flow”, in the original, than in its overall much-improved, current form, if that is any source of your high-brow “Huh?”-remark.

          -Otherwise, you and I both know, jammies ol’ sport, that your “Huh?”-booger is just you having some cheapshot, goof-ball fun playing dumb–cuz you know perfectly well what I’m saying in my last. Right, guy?

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Double, “Huh?”

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            My English teachers taught me a couple of things that have served well over the years.

            1. Never send a $10 word to do what a 10 cent word can do.

            2. Never try to bamboozle your audience with gobbledygook.

            The objective is communication, not to impress anyone with your great language prowess.

            Said another way:

            Men may have their ideal embodied by the glamorous model but they marry the more down to earth types who have more to offer than a lot of makeup, a professional hairdo and expensive cloths.

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            • #
              mike

              @Roy Hogue,

              Jeez, Roy, thanks for the unsolicited, utterly fascinating, little account of those youthful mentors of yours–your “English teachers”–that helped prepare you for and shaped your continuing, little journey through this “vale of tears”. And I see they also encouraged you to be a lecturing, self-important, tiresome, little prig in matters of prose-style criticism (I always liked the word “bamboozle”, incidentally. But “gobbledygook”?–not so much).

              But since we’re ol’ pals, Roy, let me offer you some friendly advice of my own, just as you, being a good buddy, offered me some of your own friendly advice. When you’re trying to adopt the blog persona of some sort of “down to earth”, plain-speaking, folksy-dude “regular guy”, Roy, you should probably avoid metaphors like your:

              “Said another way: Men may have their ideal embodied by the glamorous model but they marry the more down to earth types who have more to offer than a lot of makeup, a professional hairdo and expensive cloths [sic].”

              Roy, I mean, like, other than the mildly hare-brained, cock-eyed improbability of your above metaphor (just what kind of “English teachers” did you have, anyway, Roy?), it is just not a “regular-guy” type of speech–exhibits way too much of a metrosexual-inflected interest in hair-styling, the price-tag hanging off the pricey threads, and make-up connoisseurship. You know what I mean, Roy?

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              • #
                the Griss

                Have you been taking a verbal laxative.. or what ! 🙂

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              • #
                mike

                @ the Griss

                So what’s the deal here Griss?–you part of some sort of tag-team or something? So you’ve decided to try your own hand (fore-finger and thumb actually) at flicking a mealy-mouthed, potshot-and-scoot zinger-booger my way. And I do so much want you to know that I think your “smiley face” is an especially “snappy” touch, Griss.

                Somehow I’m thinkin’ you, Roy, and jammies were the “teacher’s pet” trinity in the same grammar-school, English classes, Roy recalls so fondly. Mr. Milquetoast would be so proud of you three, I just know.

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              • #
                the Griss

                Gees, that was a dopey drawn-out load of spewed verbosity.

                You have obviously had a serious overdose of verbal prunes, little boy. 🙂

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              • #
                the Griss

                Have you been taking lessons from Oakeshott, or something ?

                So many words to say so little.

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              • #
                mike

                @ the Griss

                Just for yuks, Griss, I note that my earlier comment, the one that mentions you, Griss, and Roy and jammies in dispatches, now has three–count ’em–“dislikes”. I’m thinkin’ that must be Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe venting their displeasure–but I could be wrong.

                Otherwise, Griss, it’s good to see that you’ve adopted a feeble approximation of my “verbal-prune” prose-style, with your last, and given the old adage that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, I judge that your new-found brand of vitriol pays my prior comments a handsome compliment that more than cancels out all those tacky dislike-boogers, my comments have received. Thank you.

                “little boy”?–kinda, sorta a playacting-dork, how-a-status-anxiety-ridden-parvenu-like-you-Griss-would-imagine-one-of-his-aristrocratic-betters-might-do-it attempt at a sneering disparagement, don’t you think, Griss? More school-marmish than cutting. More pompous-ass than haughty.

                As for your continuing “caca boudin” fixation–I’m sure you’ll understand, Griss, when I say I don’t want to go there, even a little bit. Otherwise, let me quote a famous “Jo Nova” blog commenter, in reference to the balance of your geek-ball-in-over-his-head comment:

                “Have you been taking a verbal laxative–or what!”

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              • #
                the Griss

                Yet more rainbow word spew..

                You really are very funny, in a CLOWN sort of way .

                They paint themselves to look silly, too, y’know… just like you do.

                70

              • #
                the Griss

                Poor mike.. all I was doing was noting that you don’t seem to know that what you are spewing is NOT literary erudition …..

                …… but far more like a constant flow of verbal logorrhoea.

                And you think that continuing actually helps your cause. 🙂

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              • #
                mike

                @ Griss, Roy, and jammies,

                @ Griss: Your last two masterful comments were a devastating take-down of my “verbal logorrhoea” (“logorrhoea”?–good word, Griss, I’ll have to remember that one!). And they were so inventive and clever and witty too! And I was especially impressed by the way in which you combined an earthy, “trash-mouth” invective with an evident, refined, literary sensibility. “Erudition”, I think you called it, Griss.

                What can I say, Griss. I’ve got no come-back. You’re the winner, Griss! Yeah, buddy, Griss, you won this exchange!! You’re the champ, guy!!!

                @ Griss, Roy, and jammies: You know, guys, lookin’ through your blog comments, it sure seems like we all are pretty much singing from the same sheet of music. So it mystifies me a bit why you guys suddenly decided to “razz” me and give me “the business”. Look, guys, I’ve got my “schtick” and you’ve got yours. Live and let live is my motto. But if you guys are determined to burst my little bubble, then I’ll most likely respond in kind. Kinda juvenile, I know, but there it is–I’m a tit-for-tat kinda guy. In the meantime, I’ll continue to “do my thing” and comment my way (consistent with the moderator’s requirements, of course).

                Regardless, my druthers are that we end our bickering. However, if you all insist on seeing “things” differently, I’m willing to accommodate you further. Fair enough?

                05

              • #
                the Griss

                Come on mike, I had a quick dig at your overly verbose style.. (which switches one off from reading it, rather quickly.)

                I will try not to comment about it too much in future. 🙂

                Peace ??

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              • #
                Mattb

                hey mike – is your language a direct mimic of Mr Dean Moriarty?

                10

              • #
                mike

                @Mattb

                Yr: “hey mike–is your style a direct mimic of Mr. Dean Moriarty.”

                You know, Matt, I kinda have the feeling that if I had the faintest idea who or what “Mr. Dean Moriarty” is or was, I’d find your last a real knee-slapper. But since I don’t know a “Mr. Dean Moriarty”, it’s all over my head.

                And since I don’t know who or what you’re talkin’ about–I guess I’d have to say my style is not a direct mimic of “Mr. Dean Moriarty”. But if you want to think so, Matt, be my guest.

                03

              • #
                Mattb

                he’s the/one of the protaganists in On the Road (Kerouac). It was just an observation, not a criticism.

                01

              • #
                Roy Hogue

                Jeez, Roy, thanks for the unsolicited, utterly fascinating, little account of those youthful mentors of yours–your “English teachers”

                Thank you. I see that it was to no avail, however.

                00

              • #
                Roy Hogue

                Or should I say, you’re welcome? It’s hard to tell.

                But either way, the point was seen, apparently by everyone but you.

                00

              • #
                mike

                @Roy Hogue’s last two:

                Hmmm…Could be wrong, Roy, but you seem to have declined my offer of an olive-branch. But that’s O. K. Roy cuz you’re my all-time favorite, fluffed-up, ol’ biddy scold. And if I’m ever in the market for a “boss hen”, then you’ll be my first choice–you can be sure of that, Roy.

                03

            • #
              James Bradley

              See, this is precisely what happens when you put more than one warmy in the same bowl – they try to kill each other just for the attention.

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              • #
                mike

                @ James Bradley

                Yr: This is precisely what happens when you put more than one warmy in the same bowl…”

                Your use of the term “warmy”, James, makes me suspect that you consider this sub-thread’s topside tiff to be one among “warmists”. If so, then your comment is another misperception curiosity of this sub-thread. Rather, Griss, jammmies, Roy, and moi are all on the skeptic, “headless-chicken” side of the “global warming” issue, as a perusal of our other comments on this post, and elsewhere, will show.

                Having noted all that, let me hasten to add that we’ve all seemed to have reached a tenuous truce (and with Griss and me something of a peace-treaty, even). So now we can all get back to the serious business of collectively kicking hive-bozo butt, each of us in our own, individual–sometimes dopey, verbose, logorrhoea-infected, clownish, gobbledygook, glamorous-model, verbal-prune, “Huh?”-inducing–way.
                [But this has gone far enough – it has turned into a meta-language debate which has little to do with the topic. -Fly]

                02

    • #
      Manfred

      Yes indeed. As if climastrophe couldn’t be wound up enough…..which in fact it can’t and won’t any longer, peoples brains have been pulped with the diet of thumping nonsense…….the fear mongering folk are now frantically peddling another scam in the form of the UN science report: Warming worsens security woes.

      Yes folks, your fears can be laid to rest if you adopt global governance (UN Agenda 21) and trust all of us at The-Ministry-of-We-Know-Best-For-Your-Own-Good.

      Not only can we guarantee the weather, (for a small fee) one better, we can guarantee your security too.

      BTW, all deals are off perchance we tumble into sustained (not to be confused wth ‘sustainable’) declining temperatures or perishing cold the thought, another ice age. Scant resources, little food and brain numbing cold (well, except for us at Elite HQ – no need to worry about us — thank you for your kind thought!)

      What was I saying, oh yes, it’s definitely everyone for themselves, but thankfully of course, there’s no charge for the privilege of autonomy.

      It’s Sunday PM and I’ve enjoyed a fine glass of vino tinto. Life is good, and it seems, getting better!

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      • #
        john robertson

        Manfred, the security scam, of give up all your rights and freedoms is as old as hiring the brigands to protect your village from the brigands.
        Smith& Wesson solved that little problem, to the extreme discomfort of those who prolong this racket.
        Now we disarmed sheeple find out that how it works; Is the cops are always minutes away, when seconds count.
        It is time to move to the next stage of personal security, social distrust and paranoia, the battery operated needle gun.
        Simply a hand held rail gun that shoots any iron projectile.
        Just waiting for that “breakthrough battery”, the one that will make all the alternate energy pipe dreams come true.
        Not to mention the wonderful potential such a battery has for levelling unwanted structures.

        Given the crushing weight of current government, more will be interesting.
        How long before producers start treating these parasites as the social cancer that they are?

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      • #
        helen brady

        About the time you sent this channel Nine I wake up with Today had the latest Bad News…The human race will be extinct because we can’t adapt fast enough. Never mind the reef, we saved that on Saturday, and hey we still have polar bears but becos of warming/climate change we wont be here.

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      • #
        Steve

        Sorry…for a second there it sounded like the UN was making us an offer too good to refuse….mafioso style?

        Nah…surely not?

        20

  • #
    Jimmy Haigh

    “Skeptics are winning”. Why? Because we are right. And always have been.

    560

    • #
      Steve B

      A skeptic should never consider whether he or she is ‘right or wrong’, what is important is the questioning. A true skeptic will never claim victory nor be %100 certain. A skeptics role is to get others to question their position, thereby leading people to either entrench their views or review/change their position. As far as the concept/theory of AGW goes, the main problem being, that it seems much of it has been built on a ‘belief’ rather than solid science, and generally speaking when a persons faith/belief is questioned they tend to become rather defensive because it is personal to them, and because it is personal, they see it as a questioning of their integrity rather than the subject matter. Being skeptical is very healthy, and only through skepticism do we get closer to the answers we seek, yet skepticism is merely the journey not the destination. I hope this helps.

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      • #
        Steve

        So the sceptics job is to jackhammer a few weak points ( i.e. using proper & solid science ) into the seemingly impregnable CAGW argument “wall”, and let its own weight collpase it then?

        Sounds like a sound stategy….seems to be working…..

        Cue “The Great Escape” theme music…

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      • #
        Steve

        Hang on…maybe “The Dambusters” might be a better theme?

        Hmmm….

        20

      • #
        Gregg

        When I was a teenage BSc student – back in the early mesolithic, from memory – I had a t-shirt that read “Subvert the dominant paradigm”.

        I still enjoy doing that. I tell people it’s because I’m a skeptic, but really I’m just a stirrer.

        00

        • #
          bullocky

          “I tell people it’s because I’m a skeptic, but really I’m just a stirrer”

          Confession accepted!

          00

    • #
      Boris

      Quite correct Jimmy. Listened to ABC rural report today (31st) to the utmost drivel of a Doctor or Professor of something pushing the latest CSIRO report with the female presenter all gush with unending praise of the telling facts that we the planet will rise in temperature by 4-5 degrees this century – according to the CSIRO of course. When is the ABC going to retire this festering nonsense to the scrap pile? Its about time the ABC interviewed a ‘denier’ who has a little bit more brain and common sense than these people from CSIRO. Hint to CSIRO – next time you do a ‘report’ include the data from all the years and records prior to 1910. Take note also that the mean average temperature is actually dropping – cooling if you don’t understand the word. If you (CSIRO) live in Canberra – the city of the fogged brain – you need to leave and live amongst the real people in real climate conditions. AND you are obviously being paid tooooo much.

      10

  • #
    Raven

    As long as being a ‘denier’ doesn’t go out of fashion you know we’re on the right track. 🙂

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  • #

    So it was the Himalayan glacier claim that caused all the problems? It seems to me that this fellow has a rather shallow understanding of the debate. Then again, he would not be alone. I think it is a mistake to assume that the people most involved in the AGW debate have any sort of expertise.

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    • #
      Peter Carabot

      Very good salesmanship, admit that one of your products is no good and automatically you are an honest bloke! It dont work this time!

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Like- the car clock doesn’t tick so loudly now, but the wheels falling off or the bursting into flames are exaggerated myths?

        It seems good old Geoffrey will wind up being portrayed by cartoonists as an old draught horse wearing blinkers, saying “but I have always gone down that road”

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    • #
      blackadderthe4th

      @john s
      March 30, 2014

      ‘it is a mistake to assume that the people most involved in the AGW debate have any sort of expertise.’ what? Even people like this?

      AGU and Greenland melt!

      Starts at 30:00 sec.

      ‘I‘ve studied Greenland for 20 years now….and 2012 was an astonishing year…in 2012 Greenland ice sheets changes accelerated…surface melting, ice area loss and volume losses… extensive surface melting at the highest elevations of the ice sheet…about a 7% decline in ice reflectivity…part of a self forcing feedback [in other words positive feedback-more melting]…volume changes as measured by the Grace satellite…more than twice the rate…etc, etc’

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztj16pC-UdA

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      • #
        James Bradley

        BAD,

        Youtube…. really?

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      • #
        Eddy Aruda

        Youtubedude, quit worrying!

        Grist, a big proponent of anthropogenic catastrophic global warming, has some good new!

        http://grist.org/climate-energy/finally-some-not-terrible-climate-news-greenland-not-melting-any-faster/

        But don’t start building your flood-proof ark quite yet: Advanced imaging released in August suggested the ice sheet is capable of quickly reversing its melting habit. And a study out today in Nature finds that the sped-up ice loss on the water’s edge, while still a problem, is unlikely to get much worse, even with a big rise in global temperatures.

        Although you probably restrict your research to youtube videos and books with lots of pictures, you may want to read the paper that Grist was raving about!

        http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7448/full/nature12068.html

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        • #
          blackadderthe4th

          And we see ‘We use this model to simulate behaviour of four major marine-terminating outlet glaciers, which collectively drain about 22 per cent of the Greenland Ice Sheet’ MODELS is that all you have, whatever happened to the empirical evidence that is required by all doubters of AGW require? One must conclude you are therefore not a true doubter!

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          • #
            Eddy Aruda

            Let me keep this simple for you because that is the only way that you will have even a remote chance of comprehending what I write.

            The key to success in using models is to know all the variables. In climate modeling, they do not know all the variables and with many of the ones they know they are not sure if it will be a positive or negative forcing. Thus, GIGO.

            There are times when modeling does work. Let us keep it simple, shall we? As an example, if I was to model the amount of times you add anything relevant or intelligent to the conversation on this site I would subtract the intelligent comments (0) from the total comments you have made and the result would be the total number of comments you have made. Since every comment you have made never once contributed anything intelligent to the conversation, I could forecast with better than 99% confidence that you never will contribute anything intelligent to the conversation.

            20

            • #
              blackadderthe4th

              ‘whatever happened to the empirical evidence that is required by all doubters of AGW require?’, you’ve avoided this question! No doubt because you have no answer!

              00

      • #
        Backslider

        extensive surface melting at the highest elevations of the ice sheet

        LMAO…. yet another troll who believes that ice melts at seriously sub zero temperatures.

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        • #

          Yes, lets extrapolate the melting rate of ice that is just below zero to the ice that is a few degrees below zero, then put it in a Youtube clip for activist-but-illiterate teenagers.

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        Annie

        Greenland might actually turn green again and produce crops again? Would that be such a bad thing?

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          Steve

          Well its not an issue I’d have thought.

          The main game the CAGW mob play is only showing a certain ammount of data so you are deceived into thinking one thing. But then if they cant hide the data, then they use statistics to hide the data ( Hockey stick anyone? ) MWP…..hmm…hang on..it was here a minute ago….

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        Boris

        You’ve got to be kidding – aren’t you? No ice in Greenland – now that’s climate change. Perhaps you can help revive my memories of my school days of people called Vikings – TV show about them on now. In the days of the Vikings there was little to no ice in Greenland. Please correct my memory if necessary. The ice and snow came at a later time as I understand and its now finally melting. Doesn’t that mean that Greenland will become again as what it was in the days of the Vikings. But then a veritable tropical forest/jungle existed on Antarctica for millennia. Pray tell if the ice melts there (well its not – highest levels of snow and ice ever recorded in Antarctica)will we see the green forests again. Who the hell is going to worry about ice melting in Greenland when Yellowstone is getting ready to blow. Seven earthquakes in caldera in past week, largest at 5.1R with a huge basin of molten lava (thousands of cubic miles) sitting 15kms under the caldera surface. If this blows, you can forget about Greenland and the entire Northern Hemisphere for that matter.

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    Sonny

    Being an outspoken sceptic of climate change is not yet “fashionable”.
    How do I know? Facebook.

    Facebook “likes” are a direct indication of what is fashionable (at least within the circle of friends of this commenter).

    I irregularly post news and my personal, sceptical opinions about climate change and I can tell you now that they are some of my least poppular posts.

    I do not care, because I have done, and continue to do everything within my limited power to expose the hoax that is CAGW, and I do so unashamedly and without consideration to the popularity of the views I express.

    When climate scepticism becomes fashionable, not only will I receive likes when I, for instance, support Human Acheivement Hour, denounce “Ethical Super Investment”, discuss Climate scientists getting stuck in ice.. Etc etc, I will see my colleague post their own skeptical viewpoints.

    One thing I can tell you is that climate alarmism is getting pretty unfashionable too. My friends that were 5 years ago spouting off with “denier” this and “think of the children” that, are strangely quiet these days. Perhaps, since I live in Melbourne, these fools have noticed that we have not had a hot summer in about 7 years, despite the BOM slavishly telling us how hot it is.

    Maybe the tides of popularity are turning but the thing is sceptism is NEVER popular. People make friends on the basis of being agreeable, not disagreeable.
    Sceptics are the rare breed that value intellectual curiosity and a pursuit of truth above and beyond their social standing.

    We are a minority, but we have the TRUTH on our side. And we will prevail.

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      observa

      I irregularly post news and my personal, sceptical opinions about climate change and I can tell you now that they are some of my least poppular posts.

      Yes but the number of comments/hits depends on motivation of the squawkers and not necessarily the true popularity of what’s being stated. Lots of noisy minorities out there, usually because they’re frustrated the world doesn’t see it their way.

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      Danielle

      One of my green friends posted that during earth hour one should take care not to burn palm wax candles (Palm oil being evil and all that). I pointed out that should you burn candles your carbon emissions would be greater than leaving the lights on. The response, “All the more reasons to go solar”. What a great idea! Then you can have earth hours every night after the sun goes down.

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    James Bradley

    Could be the right time for “screw Earth Hour” T-shirts.

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      WhaleHunt Fun

      Earth Hour seems to have vanished. I noticed nothing other than some people pointing to the lack of promotion by Fauxfacts and the ABC.

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      Joe V.

      Sorry, did I miss it ?
      Didn’t realise Earth Hour was supposed to have happened already.
      I think most in UK may have deferred it to the hour between 01:00 and 02:00 this morning, which was lost to the start of British Summer Time, a rather more worthy if little less futile a cause than Earth Hour.

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      Franny by Coal light

      Why on Earth is it supposed to start at 8.30 pm anyway, making it just two half hours rather than a whole hour ?

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      ian hilliar

      I always turn on all my lights, and light up all the trees around my house with large portable lights, from 8.30 till about 10 or 11 pm, just for Earth Hour. I am celebrating modern humanity, and all it entails. I would have missed it altogether if I had not been reading the Australian, and noted Bjorn Lomberg’s opinion piece. Thanks again , Bjorn!

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      Angry

      Here in the Coffs Harbour area there is a population of approximately 70,000.

      The local newspaper (a LEFTIST RAG) they had the gall to report that “Coffs Coast Climate Action Group launch with Earth Hour film” was a huge success with a turnout of a whole 40 people !!

      FFS WHAT DRUGS DO THESE “individuals” consume !!!!!!!!!!!

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      • #
        James Bradley

        Hi Angry, in answer – as many as they can get I’d say.

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      • #
        Boris

        Perhaps the leftist rag can calculate the amount of power needed to turn all the lights back on. Well known fact that start up uses more power than running – then we have all those pictures of idiots lighting and burning candles. If this paper and the idiots with matches or lighters represent the so called purveyors of the dreaded climate change global warming crap, then they have lost their argument as well as adding to their own definition of climate change. You achieved nothing with the lights going out you morons.

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  • #
    Dagfinn

    Very entertaining post, Jo. 🙂

    You missed one funny point, though:

    And this week a World Meteorological Organisation report concluded that recent extreme weather – such as our floods, the icy American winter, and an unprecedentedly hot 2013 in Australia – are consistent with global warming

    In other words, it hasn’t been established that extreme weather will cease to exist due to global warming. At least not yet.

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      WhaleHunt Fun

      Seems to me that ice age: North America cold; Today : North America cold, but not as cold means global warming reduces extreme cold. Never hear this chap warning us how death by cold will reduce if his religious beliefs are not followed. Or that his concern is to work hard to maintain the rate of deaths by cold.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Dagfinn:

      “it hasn’t been established that extreme weather is due to global warming.” With 16 years of hiatus in warming, and a freezing winter in Nth. America it seems that recent ‘extreme’ weather must be due to lack of global warming.

      You might look up what extreme weather happened in Europe in the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries during the Little Ice Age to balance the opinion of the WMO.

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        alex

        This ‘extreme’ weather must be the result of The Pause. 20 years of (slight) warming caused (not) extreme weather way back in the 90’s. The current spate of extreme (cold) weather must be the result of The Pause. I know; this is not science, but then neither are the IPCC’s billion dollar reports of the last 20 years. At least my science has not cost anything to the taxpayer, unlike the IPCC’s.

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      Bones

      recent extreme weather – such as our floods, the icy American winter, and an unprecedentedly hot 2013 in Australia – are consistent with global warming

      How can anybody come up with a statement like this.Have we had global warming before,if so when and if not how does anybody know what would be CONsidered CONsistent with global warming.The ipcc putting the blame on Himalayan glaciers is a bit lame CONsidering they have some many failed examples to pick from.

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        Dagfinn

        It’s very simple. Any weather is consistent with global warming. That’s why I find it funny.

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  • #
    Pat Frank

    Skeptics aren’t “winning.”

    What’s happened is the global average air temperature has ceased to rise. That has embarrassed the environmental narrative. That, and only that, has taken wind from the AGW sails.

    In Australia (California perspective here), Tony Abbott wasn’t elected because skeptics are winning. He was elected on grounds of economic pain, and a populace angered by Julia Gillard’s obvious lie.

    Apart from certain scientists abandoning integrity in favor of activism, the most amazing spectacle has been how AGW has swept every institution before it. Not just political institutions but the very institutions to which we look for critical judgment. The CSIRO is become a pit of dissemblance. So is the US NAS. How ever did that happen?

    Every institution is composed of individuals, each of whom must have made a personal decision to firmly believe one thing and reject another. My experience is that the scientists who don’t believe don’t speak up mostly because they are afraid of looking foolish. Violent career-destroying criticism of those who do speak up is now the norm, and the lesson is not lost.

    None of these groups are in retreat before skeptics. Air temperature has merely become an inconvenience, rather than an ally. Their strategy is unchanged. They intend to merely modify their tactics. Explain away the lack of warming as an aberration. Insist upon the danger of emissions. Continue to deride skeptics.

    From the beginning, these people have bet on the come. They are sure they’re right, and it doesn’t matter that just now circumstances are lacking. Nature is presently not cooperating and they’re publicly embarrassed. The IPCC has found the need to temporize. Let air temperature peek upwards, and expect them to roar back with ‘we told you so!.’

    Jehovah Witnesses have not abandoned their faith after two centuries of failed end-times predictions. Expect climate fanatics to be as tenacious. Their beliefs are equally irrational; their grip equally as fast; their need equally as great. They’ll just reformulate their catastrophe and be back at your door.

    Let no one relax their guard. The end is not in sight, unless the wind of air temperature stays out of AGW sails pretty much permanently. Fanatics never give up. Disappointments are always temporary. Inner certainties are truths.

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      john robertson

      True, however we do not need to win, we just need to stop these fools long enough that the truth catches up with the lie.
      This has almost happened, as the cool part of the weather cycle dominates,the semi-sane pull away from the cult.
      CAGW is an intelligence test.
      The fools and bandits infesting our bureaucracies are full exposed.. as failing this test.
      As the human tide turns, suddenly formerly strident alarmists will be proclaiming themselves to have always been sceptical of the Catastrophic aspect of man made global warming, I mean CC….
      Buy popcorn, the ship is going down and the rats on board are scrapping over the lifeboats.
      In true warmest tradition they will go down with the ship as they will still be in committee, seeking a consensus as to what colour to paint the lifeboats.
      The negotiation stage starts next, but why should I forgive a parasite that has diminished my wealth and hindered my health?

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        Ian H

        They say a scientific paradigm changes not because people change their minds, but because all the old farts who believe the old paradigm die or retire and the young scientists go with the new one. If that is true in science where people are supposed to maintain open minds, it is doubly true in the worlds of politics and political journalism where changing your mind can be a career ending move.

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    • #
      ianl8888

      Let air temperature peek upwards, and expect them to roar back with ‘we told you so!.’

      The AGW advocates are just hanging out for the next Nino event. Variations of “we told you so” are already prepared, as another Nino event will obviously occur, sometime

      Just note that Nino events are “linked” to atmospheric CO2 levels somehow (never explained) while Nina events are just natural variation

      You’re right, of course, fanatics never give up. The MSM is populated by scientifically-illiterate journos who use “consensus” to hide this illiteracy; we do not expect a change of attitude here

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      Pat Frank

      When you shoot a cow they fall down dead, a quiver, a stretch and then still. Shoot a snake and they are dead but they go on writhing for hours. So it is with the alarmists as they will go on writhing believing thay are not dead but temporarily incapacitated. As for Obama; he has been the most ineffective and hopeless president in the history of the US and is striving for some recognition. He can’t get it from thinking people so he goes to the stridently incorrect for affirmation. A continuation of his ineptitude; he has backed a loser.

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    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Welcome, Pat,
      As to mechanisms, there might be some explanation from North Korea where even talented, serious and experienced men are said to have been told to get a hair cut like the President’s.
      It does not require conspiracy theory, sorry Lew, but it is happening in real time if the reports are accurate.

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    • #

      Pat, it’s true there is no winning over the religious fanatics. But I don’t aim to.

      What matters is the bulk population. Even when the next El Nino comes, as it must, people are sick of the prophesies of no snow, no full dams, of warm winters, droughts, and of electricity bills that go up and up. The holy-denier chant is losing it’s sting. The message of alarm has worn down with the populace. But we must not let up while the river of green runs with billions. We may divert the flow, but it will merely run over new ground unless we deal with the source.

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      • #
        helen brady

        Jo on Channel 9, even though they obviously did not believe we will become extinct did still think we needed to take action and not listen to “deniers”. I wonder how they cannot see how silly they sound.

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        • #
          Angry

          The LAMESTREAM MEDIA caters to the sheeple of Australia.

          A waste of time listening to their BS……

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      • #
        PhilJourdan

        Very true. There are still flat earthers (real ones, not the imaginary ones of Lewandowsky and company), 9-11 Truthers and of course JFK conspiracy believers. The goal is to make the alarmists as believable as any of the above.

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      TdeF

      I know this is heresy, but has anyone considered that global temperatures might go down? Or is that too outrageous, even for sceptics?

      Even framing the lack of warming as a ‘hiatus’, a ‘pause’ is to continue the underlying logic that it might ‘come roaring back’ as suggested.

      From what I understand of the physical chemistry of 98% of the world’s free CO2 dissolved in the oceans, if the oceans cool, CO2 will drop too. We will return to the 1970s and the scare of another ice age, which is actually due but Monckton’s Profiteers of Doom will somehow blame carbon. Guaranteed. It is the first time any government, anywhere or any time has managed to tax the air we breathe and the stuff from which all plants and thus all animals are made. They are not going to give up the income and it has always been about the money, not science. Ask non scientist billionaire benefactor and all round good guy, Al Gore. It would be an inconvenient question.

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        the Griss

        “but has anyone considered that global temperatures might go down”

        I think its actually already started. I have said many time that if the Sun continues on its sleepy little snooze, then global temperatures will start to drop.

        In fact, since the 1998 ElNino settled by the beginning of 2001, 3 of the 4 main temperature records have a hint of a downward trend.
        UHA seems to have a similar hint of a + trend since 2001, but only because it didn’t register quite as large a jump at the ElNino.

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        • #
          the Griss

          ps.. An ElNino is a release of energy from the ocean to the atmosphere. ie… It is an ocean cooling event .

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      • #
        TdeF

        Sorry. Al is the beneficiary.

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      alex

      The only way the Big Lie can win is for the socialist/false-green cabal to reduce our economies to North Korean levels, practically killing all fossil-fuel use. Then when global cooling hits because of natural forcings they would claim victory and credit for the cooling and ‘saving’ the planet.

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    • #
      Jammies

      “Julia Gillard’s obvious lie.”
      Lie, yes, and incompetence, viciousness, stupidity, badly aimed speech, waste, corruption, duplicity, mendacity (I know there are overlapping meanings here but they each have their own impact.), sneakiness, (see?) lack of self awareness, spite, torque, vindictiveness, caprice and nastiness. They might have been factors too.

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      • #
        James Bradley

        And ‘Screw Gillard’ T-shirts too.

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        Angry

        julia “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead) gillard……

        A bloody FABIAN SOCIETY traitor to all Australians !

        Hopefully the AWU scandal “she” is part of will see “her” jailed !!!

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    Peter Miller

    We have to remember that left wing political parties require a cause to justify their existence, as few (even their own supporters) would ever want to accuse them of economic competence or how to manage a country efficiently.

    So global warming came like manna from heaven to the left; here was the best of all causes, namely “Only we can be trusted to save the planet.”

    Obviously to the intellectually challenged, this sounds much more compelling than “Let’s run the economy properly and make sure we have sufficient cheap and reliable energy.”

    And what started out as an obscure theory on climate quickly became a cause célèbre with people erroneously claiming”the science is settled”.

    So the IPCC was born to meet the demands of left wing politicians and the perpetuation of the Global Warming Industry, which had grown like Topsy.

    To justify the concept of global warming/climate change, you need to use historical data and/or computer models – the problem is that in order to demonstrate the global warming theory you first have to manipulate the data and also ignore the fact that the models have already demonstrated they are highly inaccurate and biased.

    And that is the bread and butter of the IPCC: highly manipulated data and inaccurate, biased climate models.

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    • #
      Peter Carabot

      You have overlooked one thing: Money! The lefty want to fleece the populace so that they can then control it, (Lenin lives…), the IPCC needs money to keep on going and the bs about the climate is just the justification for them having a job! Money, a very powerfull incentive! If I could only assemble a panel of scientist to demonstrate that the earth is becoming flatter by the day!!!!

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        The President of the Flat Earth Society came out as believing in Global Warming last year.

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        • #
          Karl W. Braun

          Or is it Planar Warming?

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          Franny by Coal light

          Aren’t the Climate Models constructed for a flat Earth anyway ?
          Perhaps if it was flat it would be warming catastrophically. Or could we just flip it over and start toasting the the underside ?

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          • #
            alex

            in fact and a sort of way, that’s what the planet does every 4 hours, only we don’t get toasted lie the warmist religion’s high priests want us to believe.

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            • #
              Eliza

              So is it the very fact, that the models have overlooked, that we are on a giant rotisserie that is saving us from being barbecued as they predict?

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      Ian H

      It is a pity that the left will never be satisfied with a useful cause like ending world poverty or eradicating smallpox or malaria or putting a colony on the moon. Their fundamental mindset is always “capitalism has failed because …” and the only causes they consider are those which enable them to complete the sentence.

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      • #
        Backslider

        It is a pity that the left will never be satisfied with a useful cause like ending world poverty

        Not true. Bob Hawke promised that by 1990 no child would be living in poverty (in Australia). Isn’t it wonderful how Labor carried that through and continued to do so under subsequent Labor governments?

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          Bones

          Backslider,krud and juliar bypassed poverty and went straight to massive debt.

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          Angry

          Australians are STILL WAITING for Hawke and the alp (Australian LIARS PARTY) to fulfill that promise……

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            James Bradley

            That’d be at about the same time they encouraged students to stay at school and dis-encouraged apprenticeships and traineeships in order to mask a rising unemployment rate long enough to get them through the next election.

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  • #
    Curt

    I’m reminded of Bertold Brecht’s poem containing the immortal lines:

    “… the people
    Had forfeited the confidence of the government
    And could win it back only
    By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
    In that case for the government
    To dissolve the people
    And elect another?”

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    • #
      CyrilH

      Replacing the people is what mass immigration is for. Why the left thinks that the new people will not turn on them as well, but for different reasons, is never clear.

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    turnedoutnice

    Unfortunately, the Great Technologically Unwashed Fools of whom your Rudd and Gillard are prime examples fell for fake IPCC fizzicks no professional scientist or engineer accepts. It gives c. 40% increase of atmospheric warming compared with reality, heavily biased to the lower atmosphere.

    In thermodynamic terms, it is a ‘perpetual motion machine of the second kind’, the lower atmosphere purportedly using its own heat to cause itself to expand and create imaginary ‘positive feedback’.. The final part of the fraud is to use about 25% extra cloud albedo in ‘hind casting’ to offset the imaginary temperature rise.

    There is no significant CO2-AGW. There was AGW from a different cause, but it saturated about year 2000. The World is starting to cool as we enter the new Little Ice Age. Pray for cheap gas reserves to keep us warm for the next 50 years…..

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    turnedoutnice

    Unfortunately, the Great Technologically Unwashed Fools of whom your Rudd and Gillard are prime examples fell for fake IPCC fizzicks no professional scientist or engineer accepts. It gives c. 40% increase of atmospheric warming compared with reality, heavily biased to the lower atmosphere.

    In thermodynamic terms, it is a ‘perpetual motion machine of the second kind’, the lower atmosphere purportedly using its own heat to cause itself to expand and create imaginary ‘positive feedback’.. The final part of the fraud is to use about 25% extra cloud albedo in ‘hind casting’ to offset the imaginary temperature rise.

    There is no significant CO2-AGW. There was AGW from a different cause, but it saturated about year 2000. The World is starting to cool as we enter the new Little Ice Age. Pray for cheap gas reserves to keep us warm for the next 50 years…..

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    TdeF

    Underpinning long term changes are cyclical changes, connected at least to the 11 year solar cycle of activity. A documentary on WWII pointed out that Germany’s war on Europe was timed with five years of extremely cold winters, winters which stopped the wehrmacht, winters which only the Russians could survive. The same happened to Napoleon. The Egyptians since 600AD have kept written records on which they predicted the cycles as they depend utterly on the one river and even the ancients had wells and paid taxes on the water level. The British built 1 year dam at Aswan was replaced by Nasser with a 10 year capacity dam for this reason, but that was before the IPCC told them carbon dioxide was the problem.

    So until the modern scientific era, everyone knew that an average was the middle and that periods of drought and flood were not only normal, they were predictable. In fact after years of flood we in Australia are due for another drought and every major drought ends in flooding rains, by definition. However this would all now be classified as climate change punctuated by extreme weather events. So after 26 years of scaremongering by the IPCC, they have created their own skeptics, even utter disbelievers, agnostics and athiests. The rapidly melting Hindu Kush scare was just one of the more ridiculous alarmist warnings without any evidence at all. I just hope we Australians are building more dams for the next drought? Of course not. It is not part of the IPCCs advice. Meteorologists do not tell you what to do to cope with the weather, except to take an umbrella.

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    Ursus Augustus

    In light of the free speech debate going on in Australia at the moment ( “THe Bolt Case” etc) I am all for more and more of it. Free speech works by making sure that ideas are aired in public where they can be responded to. It is great that we hear from the likes of Al Gore, Hansen, Nuccatelli, Orestes and say Flannery and Lewadowsky even as just a representative sample of the fringes of the bell curve of human intelligence.

    For me the You Tube videos made be Lewandowsky (those weird, close to camera talking head shots with the strange, exaggerated mouth distortions, the psychobabble that ushered forth and those eyes, those eyes) were enough to lose all sense of fear of what these loons might achieve over time. My instincts told me the was a nut job which was confirmed by a UWA PhD student from his department who just rolled their eyes when I asked what he was like.

    I knew the world had weathered the misinformation storm after watching similar videos by the lead fool on the Ship of Fools, Professor Chris Turney. It was clear that he was,[snip], just an undergraduate narcissist who had drifted into a sheltered environment where he could flourish while providing a useful service to his employer in seducing funding from fellow suckers in government.

    We catch colds, we cut ourselves, we get drunk and have a hangover etc. None of it portends the end of the world or our own imminent death ( well mostly). Nut jobs preaching doom and gloom have been with us in the public domain for ever. Who do you think convinced us to come down out of the trees? The irony is the longer we spend out of the trees, the less these creeps have a hold on us although not for want of trying on their part.

    I’m very much a rational optimist and a long time gardener. The s**t that these cretins have been peddling is going to make great compost which will be of great use to the real world’s future.

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  • #
    Keith L

    Good old Geoffrey Lean!
    I love his articles, just not for the reason he would like to think.

    The Telegraph do a fine job with him, a bit like the way Bedlam was run in the 19th century.
    They allow us to go and poke fun at him through the bars of his cage whilst at the same time telling the believers that they are giving column space to provide a safe sanctuary for him and his whacky alarmist ideas.

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  • #
    Winston

    Here we go again. On Monday the world’s governments and top climate scientists will publish the most devastating assessment yet of what global warming threatens to do to the planet.

    Even alleged believers in the paradigm of “catastrophic climate change” like Philip Sheahan acknowledge that there has been a pause or at least “statistically insignificant warming”, and this they assure us will eventually return to further warming in spite of the evidence of our eyes to the contrary, BUT given that between time there have been two reports by the IPCC since with this lack of correlation to the warnings of impending doom has become more stark, THEN why oh why would the assessment be the most devastating ever!

    That is the most amazing feat of cognitive dissonance of all- A complete lack of correlation with their initial predictions firstly makes them more certain that they were correct, and now the effects are certain to be even more devastating than they predicted, even though what they predicted isn’t actually happening. The alarmist level of delusion is incredible, and they are increasingly turning themselves into climate angels tap dancing on the head of an ever-dwindling pin.

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      llew Jones

      “The alarmist level of delusion is incredible, and they are increasingly turning themselves into climate angels tap dancing on the head of an ever-dwindling pin.”

      Most it seems are dancing on the wrong end of the pin.

      Given the CAGW disciples’ complete lack of any understanding of the inadequacies of the science they believe backs their alarmism would it be surprising that they are not sure which end of the pin causes most pain?

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  • #

    The scam is built on some basic human frailties. The old “you’re so smart because you believe me” stunt, fear of being the odd one out and the fear that comes with job insecurity. After the third time of falling for it, people finally start thinking for themselves.

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    Betapug

    EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says, even if they are wrong, they are right.

    “Let’s say that science, some decades from now, said ‘we were wrong, it was not about climate’, would it not in any case have been good to do many of things you have to do in order to combat climate change?.”

    The Greenleft network connects through hundreds of thousands of government and academic (is there a difference?) departments, foundations, political parties, “sustainability offices” etc. to pervade the entire social universe like one of those largely invisible, giant fungi that run underground for kilometers.

    Fertilized by The new American Oligarchs, billionaires like Tom Steyer, George Soros, Warren Buffett partner Dick Holland, Michael Bloomberg and hundreds of others, they think nothing of dropping $22 mil, (100x the opposition) to buy an election or rather the Teachers Union and Greens future support.

    http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_39,_Income_Tax_Increase_for_Multistate_Businesses_(2012)

    Currency speculators and hedge fund profiteers like Soros and Steyer can never the less demonize the Koch brothers (whose real businesses employ 40,000 people) with the bulk of their philanthropy going to 200 US universities, medical research, performing arts and PBS, lefty public television in the US.

    The recent metastudy revelation that consumption of saturated fats is not linked to heart disease, a foundation of medical orthodoxy and national government policy for 60 yrs, raised only a slight murmur from the chattering classes. Generally the stories fudges and blurred, clearly more comfortable with the old narrative and ignored the explosive revelation in the report that there, is not and never was any justification for Ancel Keys pet theory.

    No interest at all in how the error cascade began and propagated.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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    Alexander K

    I was working in the UK during the tenure of the one-eyed Prime Minister Brown; his fuminating against us ‘flat-earther sceptics’ and his ’50 days to save the world’ prior to the debacle of Copenhagen made me very aware of the fact that he wass barking mad at that time. I have no idea if his mental health has improved as he has quite gone from the public eye, almost without trace, since losing to the equally daft and warmist Tory/Lib-Dem alliance. The average bloke that I spoke with during that time knew very well that the politicians were away with the faeries and CAGW as Spain’s really bad experience with green energy was a very public scandal in the UK at that time.
    I also know that his financial tight-rope act that kept major capital works off the State’s books and fattened dodgy construction enterprises, as in private enterprise building new schools etc and leasing them back to the State for silly money over absurdly long periods was an utter failure and the pigeons have come home to roost on that scam.
    And I am not being nasty about one-eyed people as I operate quite happily with one very-largely inoperative eye and one very good eye.

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    • #
      LevelGaze

      Sorry to disillusion you, but Brown is back in the public eye as a UN ambassador to save Pakistani children or get them vaccinated or something like that. He was mouthing off about it on radio this morning with the same maniacal fervour he once showed for saving the world and the rest of us, not just unvaccinated kids.

      So once again we see discredited politicians of all stripes being rewarded with cushy jobs at the UN and other non-accountable organisations. Tony Blair’s done very well out it, and Kofi Annan now has so many positions of this sort that I’ve heard if he were to attend to them all he would barely manage 4 days a year for each.

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      • #
        Angry

        Yet another good reason to abolish the anti human “united nations”.

        A boil on the face of humanity !

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  • #
    pat

    MyBarackObama: Organizing for Action
    Climate Change Action Event
    (Climate Change — Action Event)
    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be releasing a 5-year study on climate impacts at the end of March. We will be visiting climate change deniers on April Fools Day to show them how foolish being a denier really is.
    Time:
    Tuesday, April 1, 2014 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
    Host:
    Blair Lawton
    Location:
    In front of Rep. Paulsen’s Office (Eden Prairie, MN)
    250 Prairie Center Dr
    Eden Prairie, MN 55344
    https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/climatechangeactionevent/gs8fj4

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    pat

    India’s PTI has picked up the lingo: ***the opportunity to exchange ideas with thought leaders in this space.

    29 March: Economic Times India: PTI: US unit offers India to co-develop, test carbon capture tech
    With India relying heavily on coal-fired power plants to meet its electricity needs, a major US’ research facility has offered Indian tech experts, scientists and companies the opportunity to co-develop and test technologies related to carbon capture.
    Once these technologies are implemented and proven to be cost-effective, they could lead to significant reductions in the amount of CO2 emitted world-wide, officials pushing for this collaboration argued…
    The testing will be done at the US Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), where technologies that can capture CO2 can be proven in an industrial setting…
    The NCCC is managed and operated by Southern Company, an electric utility serving 4.4 million customers in the Southeastern United States…
    According to latest statistics India is emitting around two billion tonnes of CO2 per year and it is increasing every year.
    Observing that as many as 70 percent of power in India is generated by coal-fired power plants, experts argue that India needs to join the initiative so it can become a member of an elite research facility.
    This will allow India scientists to be part of the various carbon capture technologies being developed globally…
    The access to such a facility, through collaboration, ***the opportunity to exchange ideas with thought leaders in this space, and studying the various carbon capture technologies developing at this facility will shore up the domestic research that is being performed…
    The NCCC has identified and screened more than 500 different carbon capture concepts and worked with scientists and technology developers to help them harden technology for actual power plant operating conditions and safety requirements…
    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/power/us-unit-offers-india-to-co-develop-test-carbon-capture-tech/articleshow/32901462.cms

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    pat

    TonyfromOz –

    need your assistance. would you please comment on the following:

    News-Forage: One-third of Texas was Running on Wind Power this week
    On Wednesday, March 27th, the largest state in the contiguous United States got almost one-third of its electricity by harnessing the wind. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the bulk of the Lone Star State’s power grid, a record-breaking 10,296 MW of electricity was whipped up by wind turbines. That’s enough to provide 29 percent of the state’s power, and to keep the lights on in over 5 million homes.
    ERCOT notes in a statement issued today that “The new record beats the previous record set earlier this month by more than 600 MW, and the American Wind Energy Association reports it was a record for any US power system.”…etc
    http://www.newsforage.com/2014/03/one-third-of-texas-was-running-on-wind.html

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    • #
      Robert Austin

      Pat,
      That is an “instantaneous” output. If only the wind system could do that 24/7. Instead, there must be “instantaneous” backup capacity on standby ready to ramp up if the wind quits. A power system that must accept as much as 1/3 the demand from an unpredictably variable source such as wind is risking instability.

      “March 28, 2014, AUSTIN, TX – March winds brought a new wind power record to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region Wednesday evening, March 26, when instantaneous output reached a record 10,296 megawatts (MW) at 8:48 p.m.”
      http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/show/26611

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      Thanks pat.

      Ever notice how when it’s really working well, there’s big headlines about how great this is.

      That’s why the Industry Standard is power delivered across the whole year.

      Here they have cherry picked just ONE DAY.

      There’s no headlines when there’s no wind.

      Take the whole Month of August last year when wind power delivered (for the whole month) a daily average of just over 2000MW, less than one sixth of this ONE DAY total.

      That 2013MW average for the Month is a Capacity Factor of 16.4%.

      The yearly total comes in at a daily average of 3419MW, around a quarter of this ONE DAY total, and that equates to a Capacity Factor for the whole State of Texas of 28% for all wind plants.

      Incidentally, the total Nameplate for Wind in Texas is 12,212MW which is 4.7 times the total of ALL Australian Wind Plants.

      In Texas, the total electrical power generation comes in at 360TWH. (for comparison, the whole of Australia consumes only 230TWH of electrical power) In Texas, Wind power supplies just on 8% of all the State’s power. Texas is so big, it is the only State with its own power grid.

      So, where you read articles about how wind had this really huge day, be aware that Wind power is still only marginal, even in the State with the largest wind power generation in the U.S.

      Tony.

      Source – EIA.

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      Graeme No.3

      Geoff:

      “when INSTANTANEOUS output reached a record 10,296 megawatts (MW) at 8:48 p.m”.
      At the time the new record was set, wind generation was providing nearly 29 percent of the 35,768 MW of electricity being used on the ERCOT grid”. It may come up in April

      Unfortunately I cannot find graph on the ERCOT site, but I note that earlier this month ERCOT issued 2 press releases, one claiming a new record for wind power and on another day asking users to curtail consumption to avoid blackouts. Try

      http://www.ercot.com/content/gridinfo/generation/windintegration/2014/03/ERCOT%20Wind%20Integration%20Report%2003-13-14.PDF dropping the last bit of course.

      Previous record claims include “9,868 MW of wind generation was serving a record 38.43 percent of the 25,677 MW systemwide demand at 3:19 a.m. on Thursday, March 27.
      3 comments;
      Firstly ERCOT only supplies 85% of Texas electricity.
      Secondly ERCOT runs a course fraught with trouble as it has 18-19 % NOMINAL wind capacity, and peak demand can be very close to capacity without wind. They claim 6% reserve (Australia 25%+) but even that is computed including some wind capacity, as BY DECREE of the TEXAS Government a certain percentage of wind power WILL ALWAYS be available. I am not sure if the Governor of Texas is called Canute but he should be. (ERCOT is hoping that extra gas capacity will be on-line before the summer peak. Perusal of their Press Release archives will show up the number of times they ran into trouble last year).
      Thirdly; Wind power comprised 9.9 percent of the total energy used in the ERCOT region in 2013, compared to 9.2 percent in 2012.

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      Angry

      Sounds like BS “Pat”.

      What about when the wind is not blowing ?

      How much power do these bird munching windmills generate then?

      ZERO !

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    Tim

    “Never, ever assume the voters are right.”

    I think, unfortunately, vast majority of ‘voters’ are naive, ill-informed and easily manipulated by the constant, professional spin and appeal to higher authority. Let’s hope the ‘hundredth monkey’ principle kicks in soon.

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      el gordo

      Strongly disagree, the electorate is intelligent and well informed. On so many platforms they can see politicians performing and often making fools of themselves.

      Fairfax and Aunty have been manipulating public opinion on climate change, while the Murdocracy has presented a sceptical bent. The majority of voters are not naive, but they have been brainwashed by the national broadcaster into thinking the science of AGW is credible.

      In a nutshell, Abbott somehow needs to get rid of the leftoid watermelons in the ABC newsroom and quick, just in case he has to go to a Double Dissolution election.

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        Tim

        Some electorates may be ‘intelligent and well informed’, but I believe there’s a huge percentage of the brainwashed out there. (Yes, the ABC and Fairfax are major Australian players in a global PR game and you could add imports such as GetUp.)

        When I see hefty petitions to government and large demonstrations, then I might agree that people have got the message about a global push for centralised power based on the need to fight the CAGW ‘threat’. Think global, mate.

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          el gordo

          Its only a matter of time before we slip into cooling, but still the AGW juggernaut will require closer attention if we are to eliminate the propaganda out of aunty. I think Abbott is channelling me.

          ‘COMMUNICATIONS Minister Malcolm Turnbull says ABC board members who do not want to get involved in ensuring news content on the public broadcaster is accurate and impartial should get off the board.

          ‘Revealing he receives hundreds of complaints about the ABC each week, Mr Turnbull said “the law of the land” couldn’t be clearer — the board needed to take responsibility for addressing issues of accuracy and impartiality.’

          Markson / Oz

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        Angry

        Abbott must privatize the abc (Australian BRAINWASHING COMMISSION).

        If they want to spew forth their biased leftist drivel let them do it on their own dime and not the Australian taxpayers !

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    the Griss

    I think that everyone needs to be aware that all it would take for it to turn back the other way, is for Roy Spencer and John Christy to be somehow removed from their positions looking after the satellite record, and replace with AGW apologists……. the temperature data would then start rising again.

    This is the logical next step for the alarmists, particularly as the quiet Sun looks like continuing for a while.

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    pat

    28 March: Mark Steyn: Behead Those Who Insult the Prophet Mannhammed!
    Everyone is in agreement that everyone is in agreement.
    Salon:
    10,883 Out Of 10,885 Scientific Articles Agree: Global Warming Is Happening, And Humans Are To Blame
    What? There’s two articles that don’t toe the party line? Who wrote them? Where do they live? How did they slip through the crack peer-review perimeter security?
    If you see these highly dangerous individuals, don’t approach them. Instead, call the SWAT team.
    Gawker: Arrest Climate-Change Deniers
    That’s Adam Weinstein, and he means it:
    Man-made climate change happens. Man-made climate change kills a lot of people. It’s going to kill a lot more. We have laws on the books to punish anyone whose lies contribute to people’s deaths. It’s time to punish the climate-change liars…
    Those malcontents must be punished and stopped…ETC
    http://www.steynonline.com/6215/behead-those-who-insult-the-prophet-mannhammed

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      Angry

      islam – the so called “religion of peace”.

      Making a difference in the world “one body at a time”……..

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    pat

    TonyfromOz –

    did some searching. guess the “one-third” for only ***”For that moment”, 8.48pm! 10% would appear to be more like it!

    28 March: Dallas Business Journal: Nicholas Sakelaris: Texas wind power generates 10,000 MW to breeze past old record
    Wind turbines produced 10,296 megawatts of electricity on March 26, shattering the old record by 600 MW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
    The record came at 8:48 p.m. that night. ***For that moment, wind provided 29 percent of the 35,768 MW generated in ERCOT…
    ERCOT has 11,000 MW of commercial wind power capacity so at that moment the state was using 94 percent of the total power available. Another 8,000 MW of new wind projects are in development and another 26,700 MW of wind power is being studied.
    In 2013, wind power produced more than 37 million MW, or 10 percent of the power in ERCOT…
    Nationwide, new wind turbine installation declined 93 percent in 2013 c ompared to the previous year. The AWEA blames the decline on uncertainty with the Wind Production Tax Credit that wind developers rely on…
    http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/03/28/texas-wind-power-generates-10-000-mw-to-breeze.html

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      Bones

      Nationwide, new wind turbine installation declined 93 percent in 2013 c ompared to the previous year. The AWEA blames the decline on uncertainty with the Wind Production Tax Credit that wind developers rely on…

      Well blow me down,imagine that.No tax credit,no wind power.What happened to affordable renewable energy,where are you Bilb,the renewables need your help.

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    Geoff Sherrington

    Climate change is about delivering the message.
    Science is about delivering the goods.

    Only in climate change is the message so often delivered before the scientific goods are delivered.

    Thanks, you climate change people, for debasing proud traditions of science.

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    pat

    still framing CAGW sceptics as rightwing – a false but necessary meme to keep the scam going and which, unfortunately, some rightwing CAGW sceptics have helped to promote:

    29 March: Salon.com: Dale Jamieson: The right’s new climate change lie: It’s all the scientists’ fault
    Conservative hucksters argue scientists are politicizing their work. They’re wrong — and climate change is real
    One remarkable feature of Pielke Jr.’s discussion is its shrillness. “Clique,” “coup,” and “plotting” are the kinds of terms usually reserved for organized crime syndicates, terrorist organizations, and other conspiracies against the public good. The repeated use of the word “activist” mobilizes a characteristic trope of right-wing ideologues…
    What is most troubling about Pielke Jr.’s account is its lack of balance. As we will see, the politicization of science by a handful of climate change deniers and their patrons is extremely well documented, and continues to be a major obstacle to the United States adopting effective climate policy…
    In my opinion, however, scientists have largely behaved admirably in bringing climate change to public attention, and in doing what they can to motivate action in ways that are consistent with their professional responsibilities. In some cases this has come at a high personal price. Sure, supersized egos can be annoying and there have been stumbles and falls, but scientists are not trained to be public figures, and they have been arrayed against vastly more powerful and well-organized forces. In any case-blaming scientists doesn’t go very far toward explaining why we haven’t acted on climate change.
    Excerpted from “Reason In A Dark Time: Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed and What it Means for Our Future” by Dale Jamieson. Published by Oxford University Press. Copyright 2014 Dale Jamieson
    http://www.salon.com/2014/03/29/the_rights_new_climate_change_lie_its_all_the_scientists_fault/

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    handjive

    Maybe a small marker in the war, but don’t be fooled.

    A feign & what looks like a retreat, or diversion, in a section of the front line.

    With the release of more UN-IPCC junk climate science due on April Fools’s Day, the assault on the intelligence & abuse of common sense will continue unabated.

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    Catamon

    Even fans of “climate fear” admit skeptics are fashionable

    Note stupidly point shoes are fashionable too, and are still stupid.

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      the Griss

      Do you still wear your jeans with the waistband around your thighs, with most of your boxer shorts showing

      ….. and your cap on sideways.

      That would seem to be totally your style.

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        Isn’t it funny how this youngest generation thinks that they invented everything.

        I’m a huge fan of Australian crime fiction author Arthur W Upfield.

        He wrote the first book in his Bony series in 1929, and in that, he mentioned a young man wearing a recent fashion innovation, a cap with the visor at the back instead of the front.

        He also mentioned it in further novels as well, and the last entry was in Venom House which was written in 1952.

        Everything old is new again.

        Tony.

        Tony.

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  • #
    Catamon

    with most of your boxer shorts showing

    I dont wear boxers dearest Gris. XXX

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    pat

    1 hr 17 mins of brilliance from Tim Ball:

    Tim Ball Interview 2013 : On the Politicisation of Climate Science
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53h73YVMcEs&list=UUOHpLQ4g_rQTHVnt8EZaaTg

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    handjive

    Cartoon Corner

    Dilbert, on “green energy”.

    (credit to omnologos)

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    speedy

    Afternoon all.

    So truth has a way of coming out? Whooda thunk???

    Cheers,

    Speedy

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    RoHa

    I would love to see scepticism become more fashionable than skepticism.

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    pat

    Robert Austin & TonyfromOz –

    thanx for the comments. as u will see, i did find an article to explain the “one-third” was only momentary. this deceptive reporting of renewables does, however, convince some CAGW sceptics i know that it is possible to go over to renewables almost immediately.

    again, it is such a shame the MSM does not inform the public of the simple facts behind the claims.

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    pat

    anthony has a new thread up, loved the “farmers” quote:

    WUWT: Before you read the upcoming IPCC report, note this
    Richard Tol Pulls Out, Says IPCC Draft Report Alarmist
    Date: 27/03/14 Cheryl K. Chumley, The Washington Times
    He said, for instance, farmers could grow new and different crops to offset any negative impacts from climate change that impacted food supplies.
    “They will adapt,” Mr. Tol said, Reuters reported. “Farmers are not stupid.”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/29/before-you-read-the-upcoming-ipcc-report-note-this/#more-106650

    also from the link to Washington Times:

    “He (Tol) also decried the fact the U.N. report downplayed possible economic benefits of warming. For example, he said: Warmer winters could mean fewer deaths among the elderly and possibly better crop growths in some areas.
    “It is pretty damn obvious there are positive impacts of climate change, even though we are not always allowed to talk about them,” Mr. Tol said in the Reuters report.”

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      Bones

      farmers could grow new and different crops to offset any negative impacts from climate change

      Pat,this little gem of wisdom must have been around the world a few times.I’ve heard this from our own well of untold depths of wisdom,christine milne.Farmers would be so glad to know people are looking after their future.

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    janama

    I suspect we are underestimating just how much the general public have tired of the global warming meme. I’ve found people have gone cold on it, they just don’t discuss it anymore, it’s no longer important and they have better more important things to concern them.

    Sure there are the diehards who believe Fern Gully and Avatar were documentaries and want to save Gaia and the planet but I reckon they are slowly being sidelined and are now taken for the eccentrics they are. Everyone respects the planet, healthy food and exercise nowadays, you’re not special if you do and there’s no need to make a big deal out of it.

    Even the rabid Tony Jones is starting to soften his AGW religious beliefs and is starting to ask some pertinent questions, I think his road to Damascus occurred during the David Suzuki Q&A when genuine questions were put by serious scientists and Suzuki became a dribbling mess.

    Like a large ocean liner it takes time and patience to turn public opinion around but I believe it is finally turning and that turning will gradually increase.

    All I’ve heard so far about Russell Crowe’s new epic, Noah, is ridicule.

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      Angry

      “better more important things to concern them”, yep !

      Like the enormous cost of living, thanks to the carbon DIOXIDE (PLANT FOOD) TAX !

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    Richard

    The good news is I see far more skepticism in comments on articles about climate change, it feels like it is building but this a fraction of the population and until the msm give way the alarmists can keep the scam running forever.

    Most people don’t care or don’t think about it so it will continue.

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      Owen Morgan

      Richard: “Most people don’t care or don’t think about it so it will continue.”

      They’ll have to start thinking about it, when the lights go out and then go out again and then go out again. I’m old enough to remember when the lights used to go out in Britain before. It’s almost unbelievable that politicians such as Ed Davey are deliberately envisaging black-outs – but they are. We have had decades in which power-cuts were thought of as disastrous. Now, the “energy” minister actually thinks they’re a Good Thing.

      In 2007, I spent a few days in Honduras. Back then, the country had supposedly rotating power-cuts, except that I had three successive days’ worth of cuts in Roatan, with none in two days in Copan, or during an evening in Tegucigalpa. The third night in Roatan, we ate a fabulous meal, cooked by gas, illuminated by candles, on a day that Roatan was supposed to have electricity. English is quite widely spoken along most of the the Caribbean coast of Central America, that of Honduras included (not the Mexican bit), and the restaurant’s owner, who was also the chef, had no trouble in expressing her fury at the situation, when I asked her about the cuts. They were happening all the time. She was expecting electricity which didn’t turn up. I suppose she didn’t have to pay for electricity which she never used, but, on the other hand, she had to get in gas canisters and candles (just the things for a restaurant on a wooden wharf), to compensate. She was coping, just, because everyone knew she cooked the best food in town.

      That’s the future for any country which follows the path of statutory power-cuts. Honduras used to be considered “Third World”. Now, presumably, it’s “First World Minus One”.

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    Owen Morgan

    Lean gets published once a week in the paper paper and possibly once a week, additionally, in the on-line version of “The Daily Telegraph”. He has, I believe, far fewer readers than James Delingpole (now at Breitbart London) had/has, but I assume that the editorship of “The Daily Telegraph” still promotes the alarmist ideology. Gone are the days when editors of the Tele actually had recognisable names. One editor recently went off in a huff and it wasn’t until I got halfway down a piece by Guido (order-order.com, British political commentator), describing the resignation, that I realised who he was even talking about. OK: thicko me, for not knowing who edits (or used to edit) London’s major broadsheet, but no huge plaudits to whatever-his-name-was for failing to imprint his name on to my memory. I don’t know if the current editor is as indulgent to the likes of Geoffrey Lean and Charles Clover (the latter with the Murdoch press, these days, but formerly a Telegraph journalist). I truly hope not.

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    Richard111

    Interesting to read that Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, believes Western lifestyles are causing climate change that is “pushing the environment towards crisis”.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/10732121/Rowan-Williams-warns-of-climate-catastrophe.html

    I find it strange that a ‘man of the cloth’ can believe that mankind can over rule the word of God. After all, Who else set up the laws of physics?

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      Eliza

      Rev. Williams sees his cause a standing up for the poor.

      Whatever pretext serves that purpose will do nicely.

      He has no more idea what causes any of this than your average politician, though you might expect him to be a bit more accepting.

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      Angry

      Dr Rowan Williams, what a disgrace !

      Clearly he does not know anything about the teachings of Jesus or Christianity !!

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        Mattb

        clearly… you idiot.

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          Angry

          “Mattb”,
          Stop looking into a mirror, MORON !

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            Mattb

            Angry – he’s the goddam former Archbishop of Canterbury!!!! you say “Clearly he does not know anything about the teachings of Jesus or Christianity”… and you think I’m the idiot… you idiot.

            Seriously you are free to say he knows nothing about AGW, but it would be like someone suggesting you don’t know anyting ABOUT THE CAPS LOCK KEY!

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      Mattb

      pray tell where it is said that “mankind can over rule the word of God”. Climate change aside for one moment, I’m unaware of any part of the bible that says “mankind shall be able to do whatever it wants and I’ll make sure that the laws of science I’ve set up for it can be tweaked to keep it all hunky dory”. My reading of the bible suggests that a God is actually more likely to tweak things the other way to remind us all who’s the boss here.

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        Climate change is not science, Mattb. We keep pointing out the flaws and you keep ignoring them because you have faith in a higher authority. Now apologise to Angry.

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          Mattb

          that seems to avoid my question Vic. I said put climate science aside so forget about or differences there. I’m asking where this word of god is that anyone is saying is being overruled?

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          • #

            Who is arguing anything like what you wrote.

            I’m unaware of any part of the bible that says “mankind shall be able to do whatever it wants and I’ll make sure that the laws of science I’ve set up for it can be tweaked to keep it all hunky dory”.

            It only makes sense if you in your warped little mind, sceptics are changing the laws of physics because they disagree with models. Remember, the ones that say the gravitational potential energy of gasses are negligible?

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              Mattb

              Vic… it’s a forum/blog. Generally you look at the earlier posts to see what a reply is about…

              Richard 111: “I find it strange that a ‘man of the cloth’ can believe that mankind can over rule the word of God”

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        James Bradley

        Greek gods maybe.

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    It doesn't add up...

    Then they assemble again in Paris in December next year to try once more to conclude a pact to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases. But they are approaching it in a very different atmosphere from five years ago.

    Lean jests. One measure has the CO2 content at 387.37 ppm in 2009, and 396.28 ppm in 2013. It that a “very different atmosphere”?

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      Eliza

      While it mat still be one helluva lot of carbon, I don’t think he was referring to the sctual physical atmosphere but to the climate of indifference that has developed since 2009.

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    Eddie

    OMG. Here we go again. The blame stream media performing right on cue, hyping up the usual gullible suspect’s rantings.

    UK Must Lead Climate Change Fight

    declares UKs No Energy Left minister.

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    aussiebear

    The problem with the Climate Change Movement is this: They treat it as a “Social Issue”. (Because its largely promoted by politically Left leaning groups). As a result, they run it like a Global Activist Campaign with the cooperation of mainstream media.

    And that’s where problems start for them. For you see, activism only works if the material it promotes makes sense and produces good results/consequences that everyone can see or experience. Basically, the truth with good outcomes.

    The issue with modern activism (especially the Left leaning kind), is that it forgoes much common sense and intellectual honesty in favour of pushing an agenda. ie: Truth is NOT a Left-leaning value. But feeling good about one’s self is!

    So what happens when those “end of the world” claims don’t happen? Well, the general public ignores them. Think of trust like a bank account. If you lie, you make a withdraw. If you consistently do it, you’ll be overdrawn and everyone will ignore you! Well, this is where the Climate Change Movement is at. They are overdrawn! (This analogy also applies to children and their parents, as well as politicians and their electorates. Pretty much any relationship.)

    How do they respond? By applying more exaggerated BS and excuses! …This is the greatest flaw of any Left leaning activist group. They believe they should BS like they initially did to try and gain back support. The reality is that it alienates them even more! People will no longer care or laugh at them. What has been claimed has NOT happened! So they BS more! Its a self-fulfilling downward spiral!

    Really, the moment they started BS’ing was the very moment the timer started ticking. When time ran out and their claims didn’t match reality, the public began having doubts. (It also helps that their political policies hurt the general public. eg: Carbon Tax.)

    So now? Well, now they don’t have public support like they use to. The only thing left is to complain or try to spin a bad situation (like a politician or marketing rep). It is like that “March in March” nonsense. Its what one calls Impotent Rage. To complain loudly and create a ruckus (attention seeking), but it doesn’t mean anything once its over…Like spoiled, entitled children in denial.

    On a side note:
    In regards to “March for March” the kind of people who posted pictures of themselves in the march have all the same distinct characteristics. They are unhappy about their lives, but they don’t actually do anything productive to change their situation. They project their unhappiness and expect someone else to fix their problems for them. (Mainly the Govt).

    Side note 2:
    I became skeptical of their claims when I found out they were intellectually dishonest about what they were doing. Circumvent procedures, not following them, or intentionally spinning the interpretation of results to back their narrative! (The science side became corrupted and a propaganda manufacturing arm to help push an agenda). I realised their rhetoric isn’t truth-based, but agenda driven. And it was pushed hard. Red flags in my head their actions/behaviours didn’t align with their words.

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    Leo Morgan

    There is indeed much to be done.
    Abbott still has three government departments working on telling the tides not to come in… er the climate not to change.
    He’s still collecting carbon tax.
    And now he’s planning on introducing racism into the Constitution.
    Not to worry, it’s not the bad old racism that used to pick on Aboriginals. It’s now good racism to benefit aboriginals. It doesn’t even pick on everyone of every other race, since it’s just a meaningless motherhood statement like “We undertake to avoid dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system”.

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    Roy Hogue

    Always nice to be “fashionable”. It’s about the next best thing to being politically correct. Unfortunately being politically correct doesn’t help solve the problem.

    Maybe, just maybe it’s a hopeful sign that they’re a long way along toward fearing our influence will eventually stick.

    It couldn’t be happening to a more deserving group. 🙂

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    Ross

    A comment from WUWT by Ivor Ward deserves wider circulation and reading

    Ivor Ward says:

    March 30, 2014 at 2:20 am

    As yet I have not seen any evidence that there is such a beast as climate science. There is weather forecasting which is pretty good out to four or five days; utterly pointless beyond that as is evidenced by the Met Office’s continuing debacles. There is Atmospheric physics to keep an eye on the soot; useful for me as an asthmatic. There is Oceanography + marine civil engineering (See the Netherlands for hints) We know that trends depend on La Nina/El Nino: PDO/AMO Jet Stream, etc. and are all reversible. We know from the evidence that there are no trends in Hurricanes, Storms, Rainfall, Tornados, Floods, on a global basis, Even a Congressman managed to work that out. We have no real idea if the temperatures are going up/ down or sideways on a global scale. We know some places are a bit warmer perhaps, some a bit cooler, more ice here, less ice there. We have no idea what sea temperatures really are or were. ( I was one of the people taking sea temperatures to the nearest degree in a bucket, now I see them repeated to me in three decimal places.) We think the sea level is rising or is the land sinking….choose your place. Add a foot to the levee every 50 years if you are that worried or stick your posh ocean front palace on stilts. So as far as I can see, climate science is a construct, based on no actual physical evidence. I have been around for a good few years and have yet to see anything in terms of weather, heat or storm that I have not seen before. The only consistent temperature records appear to be European Cities for 400 years plus which show no trend, and we are told they have to be adjusted because the observers were unable to read them properly through their animal skin hats. History gives us grapes in Yorkshire, farms in Greenland, a frozen Thames. Yet we are told to believe that that is flawed because some idiot astrologer is reading tree rings.
    Quite frankly I am disgusted by so called climate science, with its constant parade of computer gamers, soaking up money that should be put in to cancer cures, food distribution and infrastructure in poor countries, education for girls, ( It is known that this is the best way forward in poor countries), fighting malaria, dysentery, HIV, The salary of one Climate scientist would buy enough Mosquito nets to save thousands of children from a lifetime with malaria. The amount of money that has been thrown at that charlatan Hansen would pay for miles of roadway, diesel and trucks to deliver aid to refugees in Somalia. The money spent on the Met office garbage grinder that cannot even tell us if it is a wet or dry summer should be spent on desalination plants in Gaza. I don’t need to go on, you get the drift.
    My answer to global warming/climate change/climate/ disruption/chaos…whatever the hell this weeks buzz phrase might be, is DEAL WITH IT WHEN YOU SEE IT. There are 870,000,000 people in the world who are hungry today, (http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats) , right now, and they really don’t give a rats ass what happens in 100 years time and nor do I.

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      I was one of the people taking sea temperatures to the nearest degree in a bucket, now I see them repeated to me in three decimal places

      this needs to be on a T-Shirt.

      I think that I like Ivor. A serious man crush. Someone else who winces uncontrollably when they read about computer models emulating instead of simulating, or a plot of the increasing heat content of the oceans. Even that WUWT link doesn’t mention that the Argo floats only measure to 0.1°C. You can average all you like, readings in the one spot at the same time, but you still need to ignore any changes less than 0.1°C.

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        Roy Hogue

        Even that WUWT link doesn’t mention that the Argo floats only measure to 0.1°C.

        And then you have to convince me that the 0.1 degree C is both accurate and significant. My bet is that it’s significant but after a long time in the water how accurate is it? All instruments need calibration periodically. And if inaccurate it’s automatically insignificant because you don’t know what you have.

        Three decimal places is a joke! If I had written software that gave digital output with more than 2 decimal places I would have been told to cut it down to only 2. And no one took the second decimal place seriously except as an indicator that one reading was possibly greater than or less than another.

        Our spec was +/- 2.5 but if the box was kept calibrated we could do much better than that. But everyone, engineers and management knew it was foolish to spec in the best performance we could squeeze out of the hardware.

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    Bob Malloy

    O/T

    Fauxfax are at it again.

    Climate change could make humans extinct, warns health expert

    The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming ”extinct” as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned.

    Helen Berry, associate dean in the faculty of health at the University of Canberra, said while the Earth has been warmer and colder at different points in the planet’s history, the rate of change has never been as fast as it is today.

    ”What is remarkable, and alarming, is the speed of the change since the 1970s, when we started burning a lot of fossil fuels in a massive way,” she said. ”We can’t possibly evolve to match this rate [of warming] and, unless we get control of it, it will mean our extinction eventually.”

    My BS,metre screamed so load when I heard this on the radio this morning, it’s left me with a headache. ”We can’t possibly evolve to match this rate [of warming] and, unless we get control of it, it will mean our extinction eventually.” 0.8C over a century, no warming for 17 years. She must have found Trenbeth’s missing heat and isbathing in a bath full of it.

    ”What is remarkable, and alarming, is the speed”at which some of our press accept this shi faec manure.

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      Bones

      Bob,did’nt someone come up with special schools for those with learning disabilities,Helen Berry was obviously hiding behind the door.On the other hand,how long do we have,will I have time to scribble out a will,I think she may have watched ‘the earth after humans’.She covered her rrr’s at the end though,’it will mean our extinction EVENTUALLY’.Oh good,still got time to mow the lawn.

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      Angry

      I pray every day that Fauxfax will go extinct !

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      Angry

      PS My BS Meter broke years ago with all this utter crap !

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      Roy Hogue

      The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming ”extinct” as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned.

      Here we go again. Professor or not, Berry shows herself to be deluded by the party line to the point where she can’t look at actual temperature trends and understand them. Or she won’t look, which is even worse.

      I could ask, what’s new? But it would be pointless so I won’t.

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    Graeme No.3

    Bob Malloy:

    I heard part of that on the ABC. The bit..Climate change could make humans extinct, warns h.. at which stage the radio OFF switch cut off the rest. I don’t need that sort of thing before (or after) breakfast.

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    Robert O

    Here we go again on ABC 24 with dire predictions from the IPPC report, but no balance, nothing about the 17 year pause in global temperatures, and of course nothing about how a carbon tax will stop it when there is no valid relationship between CO2 and temperature.

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    Neville

    I know this is out there, but I think it’s important. The Coalition looks to be on track to keep 3 senators at next sats election in WA.
    There could be a battle between Labor and an independent for the last seat. Greens vote is on track to return the Ludlum nong.

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/coalition_recovers_out_west/

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    A C of Adelaide

    Hi Jo,

    I was just looking at the news report of a big earthquake under the Yellowstone National Park – think Super volcano – and had a little thought. An idea for a competition?

    Given that the IPCC predictions have now strayed from reality to the point where they have crossed into the 98% probability of being wrong … What about a competition to come up with a list of dangers with a greater that 2% probability of being real that would require billions in “precautionary principle” spending?
    they could be environmental political medical social ???

    What do you think?

    No body talks enough about the precautionary principle any more

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      Graeme No.3

      Surely a 97% cut off ?

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      The San Andres fault has to have a better than 97% chance of an earthquake that could kill a million people in 100 years. According to Wikipedia “the 2008 Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) has estimated that the probability of an M ≥ 6.7 earthquake within the next 30 years on the northern and southern segments of the San Andreas fault is somewhere between 21% and 59%, respectively.”

      Palm Springs could easily be wiped out soon but people would rather buy a Prius than move out.

      Don’t get me started on the Cumbre Veja.

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    Neville

    It looks like Russell Crowe’s “NOAH” is even more loopy and delusional than the biblical version. What an achievement.

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/the-noah-film-is-afloat-with-extremism/story-fni0ffxg-1226869091537

    This BIG GREEN creator god hates humans but loves animals or the polar opposite of the bible’s yaweh. But Crowe isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed so he is a very good choice to play this silly fool.
    And the actor Crowe hates sceptics in no uncertain terms, just read the Bol;ter’s column.

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      Angry

      Suggest that everybody boycotts this global warming propaganda movie “noah” !

      By the way you gotta love the rm williams boots that “noah” wears in the movie. Didn’t know they had stores back then !

      PS Here is a funny, but sadly very telling article about government red tape that people might enjoy…..

      What if Noah Tried to Build the Ark Today?

      http://governmentgonewild.org/noahandtheark

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        JDAM24

        If you think Noah had problems, then stick a pair of wings on it and you fall under the auspices of CASA/DGTA and it will never be built.

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    Tim Channon

    Bloggies 2014, commiserations Jo, Steve McIntyre beat you.

    Off Topical…

    Lifetime Achivement JoNova Nice result.

    List here
    http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/bloggies-tallblokes-talkshop-best-european-blog-2014/

    —————–
    Oh I forgot that was on. Thanks! -Jo

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    Who Else

    Proud sceptic that I am, it annoys the crap out of me when I hear/read sceptics using the warmists language. ‘Pause’ suggests and acknowledges that it is a forgone conclusion that warming will restart within a fairly short time frame. That is why warmists use the term pause.

    For around 17 years now, warming has stopped and possibly cooling has started. Maybe we will have cooling for the next 20 years. After that does cooling ‘pause’?

    No, for the time being warming has stopped.

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    • #
      scaper...

      Hip, hip…

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      Ross

      The interesting thing about the winners is I think ALL the sceptic sites that were nominated for a category won ( or if there were two in the same category then one of them won). When voting I don’t recall any alarmist site being nominated ( I stand to be corrected on that). But it does illustrate the huge interest in people trying to find the alternative view to that presented in the MSM. It also shows they think the quality of the presentation at the various sites is very high.

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      the Griss

      How SWEEEEET it is 🙂

      Well done Jo !

      But also a well done to Tallbloke, Small Dead Animals, GWPF, Climate Audit and WUWT,(twice, and again) 🙂 🙂

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      mike

      Congratulations Jo! A richly, richly deserved award. And thank you for your courage and elan in fighting the good fight for ethical, quality science and for the transparent, hidden-agenda free development of public policy, derived from science, that serves the general welfare of our nations.

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    Ross

    Sorry, I should had added a huge congratulations to Jo on her win.

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    Jeremy

    Yet, more Australian cheer leading (by the usual suspects).

    http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2014/IPCC_fifth_assessment_report_forum.shtml

    Why is our new government still paying for propaganda instead of science?

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    Skience

    Even fans of “climate fear” admit skeptics are fashionable

    … now that is really below the belt!

    You can call skeptics anything you want, denier, nazi, ignorant, anti-science but please don’t ever call us fashionable.

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    Ted O'Brien.

    Jo, do not gloat. Those “world leaders” are indeed shouting at the punters even harder.

    Yesterday ABC Raio National at about 9 am aaas runnig the same set of lies as they did from day one, just as if nobody had ever questioned them. The ABC website later in the day was pushing the line heavily.

    Tony Abbott was promising to stick to his election plan as if he was frightened of them..

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