Dangerous Abbott unleashed, speaks the truth, critics froth and flounder

Finally the gloves are off

The critics called him a climate denier anyway, even when he toed the politically correct line, so there was nothing left to call him. For former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, there is no point in pandering. Now after a great speech, the EcoWorriers are left saying he is “loopy”. The new unleashed Abbott is so much stronger, more compelling, and his message is being spread far and wide. Not only will his GWPF speech fire up the footsoldier deplorables, but he is more likely to reach the undecided centre by speaking his mind freely. The ABC was pasting his message in large type all over the TV news and in article after article. That’s great for skeptics. The ABC is so blindly consumed with the dominant paradigm they can’t see how appealingly sensible Abbott looks by speaking about cold being a killer, CO2 being good for agriculture, and a bit of warming being beneficial for humans. His message of irrational electricity pain is so terribly sane. He looks at Manly beach and can see that sea levels haven’t changed much which surely everyone else with open eyes can see too. The ABC frames it as “Abbott has examined a century of photos, and he detects no rise” implying he is an amateur out of his depth (pardon the pun). But it won’t do Abbott any harm, thousands of people know Manly beach.

The 2017 Annual GWPF Lecture: DARING TO DOUBT

 

“Primitive people once killed goats to appease the volcano gods. We’re more sophisticated now but are still sacrificing our industries and our living standards to the climate gods to little more effect.” — Tony Abbott

 In most countries, far more people die in cold snaps than in heat waves, so a gradual lift in global temperatures, especially if it’s accompanied by more prosperity and more capacity to adapt to change, might even be beneficial. — Tony Abbott

The reply: “Tony Abbott has gone from just destructive to quite loopy”. — Tanya Plibersec, Deputy Opposition Leader.

The ABC narrator, Andrew Probyn, tosses out any pretense of being impartial, just blows that facade away:

Tony Abbott – already the most destructive politician of his generation — now intends waging war on what he calls environmental theology, …

What exactly did Abbott destroy?

As Hold my beer says at #12.1: “He’s currently threatening their authority-protected, grant-dependent, welfare-sapping livelihoods.”

This is the man who led Australia to the most definitive election victory so far this century, who saved lives by stopping the boats, and who didn’t cause deaths with inept programs like rushed “pink batts” schemes. Other politicians promised to not do a major economic transformation which they then went on to exactly and specifically do. That’s a whole new league of political lie. How’s that for destroying democracy?

Probyn goes on to say that  “…if [Abbotts position] tells us anything, it’s that Malcolm Turnbull can’t do anything to appease Tony Abbott on climate action which may embolden cabinet to pursue and deliver the energy policy it wants.

Instead, the truth is that no one can do anything to appease the Climate-Masters — full obeisance, with bowing, is still not enough.

Probyn has some Christmas fantasy that this will embolden cabinet, that an outspoken Abbott is somehow less of a threat. Good luck with that theory.  Are the voters likely to run from an open skeptic? Ask Donald.

Only yesterday Turnbulls team hinted they may have to drop the Renewable Energy Target. Pundits blamed “backbenchers” — which means Abbott and supporters.  Abbott on the fringe, or is he ahead of the pack?

The reaction:

Tony Abbott says climate change action is like trying to ‘appease the volcano gods’ (ABC)

Louise Yaxley:

Federal Labor’s treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said the speech was spectacular evidence that Mr Abbott thinks “we can put our head in the sand” and pretend climate change is not happening.

“It is 2017 and we have got a former PM overseas denying the science of climate change and … he is calling the shots on the policy of Australia,” he said.

Tony Abbott’s climate change speech in London reveals his true self (ABC)

Andrew Probyn again:

Now freed from any belief he will be prime minister again, [so Probyn hopes] Mr Abbott claims virtue in saying it as he sees it. Even if it is from the fringe.

This is ruinous to Malcolm Turnbull’s ambition to end the climate wars, which is what he had originally hoped for the review conducted by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel.

The prospect of a bipartisan peace on climate policy with Labor, however unlikely, is now impossible. Mr Abbott will not be satisfied even by orthodox expressions of environmentalism.

Tony Abbott’s climate change claims just don’t stack up (ABC again)

Andrew Street starts with “Heatwaves are better than cold snaps…”, but has to admit that “That first claim appears to be true”. The best Street can come up with is the threat that things will be worse 30 years from now because the WHO says so, and malaria might  spread (he probably doesn’t know it was more of a threat in northern Europe in the cold 1800s), and besides, Himalayan Glaciers will melt. Whatever. Street — probably watches the ABC — so he doesn’t realize the WHO projections are based on models that might as well be magic spells. As for floods, 1,000 years of paleohistory shows that, if anything, floods and droughts were longer and worse. Climate change is bringing us… nicer weather. Tough eh?

“We can tell ocean levels aren’t rising by looking at Manly Beach”

Street thinks global sea levels are rising at 3mm a year (still a tiny amount) because he believes the IPCC, and probably doesn’t know that 1,000 tide gauges estimateit at 1mm a year, as do detailed studies, and as did the satellites until someone adjusted themup based on one sinking gauge in Hong Kong.

“Carbon dioxide increases agriculture yields”

Poor Street again has to admit this is a lot like what we were taught in primary school (because it’s true, eh?) But he repeats the old Nature study that claims the extra food will be less nutritious. Supposedly if rice has 3% less zinc or 5% less iron, people will die, or then again, if you think about it, no sane person eats rice for its zinc or iron content, and as I calculated, people just need to eat one extra chickpea for every 100g of rice and their nutrition problem is solved. People in abject poverty may not be able to afford that pea, but the answer is to help them get cheap reliable energy so they can get out of poverty, not to panic about small declines in minerals.  Bulk carbohydrate crops grow faster in a CO2 rich world. That dilutes the other stuff. It’s just chemistry.

“People prefer clear policy to endless uncertainty”

You can’t push ..it uphill forever. We’ll have uncertainty as long as policies are levitating on a namecalling campaign instead of being based on hard data. If we want certainty we need to drop the pagan belief that our power stations can be used to control the climate.

From the transcript:

It would be wrong to underestimate the strengths of the contemporary West. By objective standards, people have never had better lives. Yet our phenomenal wealth and our scientific and technological achievements rest on values and principles that have rarely been more widely challenged.

To a greater or lesser extent, in most Western countries, we can’t keep our borders secure; we can’t keep our industries intact; and we can’t preserve a moral order once taken for granted. Eventually, something will crystalize out of this age of disruption but in the meantime we could be entering a period of national and even civilizational decline.

In Australia, we’ve had ten years of disappointing government. It’s not just the churn of prime ministers that now rivals Italy’s, the internal divisions and the policy confusion that followed a quarter century of strong government under Bob Hawke and John Howard. It’s the institutional malaise. We have the world’s most powerful upper house: a Senate where good government can almost never secure a majority. Our businesses campaign for same sex marriage but not for economic reform. Our biggest company, BHP, the world’s premier miner, lives off the coal industry that it now wants to disown. And our oldest university, Sydney, now boasts that its mission is “unlearning”.

Of course, to be an Australian is still to have won the lottery of life, and there’s yet no better place to live and work. But there’s a nagging sense that we’re letting ourselves down and failing to reach anything like our full potential.

We are not alone in this. The Trump ascendancy, however it works out, was a popular revolt against politics-as-usual. Brexit was a rejection of the British as well as of the European establishments. Yes, the centrist, Macron, won in France but only by sidelining the parties that had ruled from the start of the Fifth Republic. And while the German chancellor was re-elected, seemingly it’s at the head of an unstable coalition after losing a quarter of her vote.

 — The Federal Member for Warringah

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232 comments to Dangerous Abbott unleashed, speaks the truth, critics froth and flounder

  • #

    The reactions are coming in thick and fast.
    HuffPo for instance The Saddest, Wrongest ‘Fact’ In Tony Abbott’s Climate Speech
    They state

    In fact, the paper which first identified the 97 percent consensus was a 2013 survey of the scientific literature that was already out there.

    Cook et al 2013 was pre-dated by Doran and Zimmerman 2009 and Anderegg et al 2010.
    But accuracy does not matter in consensus messaging.

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      Ted O'Brien.

      When 97% is the answer, what was the question?

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      • #

        The question is whatever the alarmists want it to be.
        Take two surveys. Doran and Zimmerman 2009 got 97% (well 77 out of 79) from the answer to the question.

        Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?

        Cook et al 2009 got 97% consensus from looking at peer-reviewed academic papers, looking to the assumption that humans cause some warming, whether explicit or implied. This did not by just by climate scientists, but also by psychologists, sociologists and other academic disciplines. Those with no statement were left out.
        But Bernie Sanders, when questioning Scott Pruitt in the Senate in January stated:-

        As you may know, some 97% of scientists who have written articles for peer-reviewed journals have concluded that climate change is real, it is caused by human activity, and it is already causing devastating problems in the US and around the world. Do you believe that climate change is caused by carbon emissions from human activity?

        As John Cook himself has admitted, the consensus is about the banalest belief in the greenhouse effect causing warming, yet none of the consensus team calls out when the likes of Sanders grossly exaggerate that consensus. In fact in the same 2014 lecture, he boasted about a Barak Obama tweet that said:

        Ninety-Seven Percent of Climate Scientists agree: #climate change is real, man-made and dangerous.

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    • #
      William

      Interesting to see that the author of the Huff Post article is the “Sports and Environment Editor”, now that is an interesting combination of specialities!

      I looked at some of the articles he has written – most bringing politics into sport or the environment, and his grasp on both topics seems limited, demonstrated by his ignorance of the 97% of the literature being debunked, and his complete ignorance, as you point out Kevin, of the earlier junk studies.

      Meanwhile I am still bashing my head against the combined ignorance of the Fairfax readership collective.

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      • #
        Hivemind

        These people aren’t ignorant of the fact that their favourite factoid has been comprehensively debuncked. The simply know that if they keep repeating it, somebody will believe it.

        Just because their followers are ignorant bogans doesn’t mean they don’t have the same vote as the thinkers.

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  • #

    From a Guardian article

    While Abbott’s London outburst forced government colleagues into various acts of public diplomacy on Tuesday, one fellow conservative, the Sydney Liberal MP Craig Kelly, and chairman of the backbench committee on climate and energy, defended Abbott’s rationale.

    “The point that Tony makes is 100% correct, and the chief scientist has actually confirmed this, the chief scientist has said, no matter what we do here in Australia with our emissions, it’s not going to change the weather, it’s not going to change the temperature of the globe, it’s not going to prevent bad storms,” Kelly told Sky News.

    More broadly, there should be a huge consensus that policies will fail to change the weather, from both believers and realists. It is from accepting that the idea of reducing global emissions to near zero will not happen, as it is countries that impose policy. COP21 Paris revealed that most countries in the world, with over 80% of the global population have no intention of reducing emissions. The policy gap is clear for all to see. But the climate believers have shut themselves off the real world and hence from the harms the climate policies are causing.

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    • #
      sophocles

      there should be a huge consensus that policies will fail to change the weather,

      There is no point to “reducing global emissions” whatsoever, especially so-called “Carbon emissions.” One of the central tenets the propaganda relies on is that the small warming experienced from c.1983 was caused by “greenhouse gases.” There are no such things as greenhouse gases, which means the small warming from c. 1983 must be solar, not human emissions and the `hiatus’ or `pause’ must also be solar.

      Ergo, in the absence of the Sun’s remote control, any “policies to change the weather” or the climate can only fail.

      All emissions of CO2, both human and natural, are so small, that any changes in the concentration of a trace gas will have only an effect on life; vegetable life and through improved food, animal life.

      Cyclones, Hurricanes, and Typhoons seem to be effects of Solar flares interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. [You Tube Video: The Sun and Storms, September 2017] Very interesting!

      Reducing some industrial emissions of some other things will have a local effect on quality of life in a few places through cleaner air, as China around Beijing and Shanghai have noticed, so they should be encouraged rather than decried.

      All atmospheric gases react to solar insolation in the same way, including CO2. [Allmendinger 2017] (pdf). In fact, the small amount of CO2 in the atmosphere turns out to actually cool very slightly.

      The IPCC and the Greens have no case.

      They do have a case to answer to us.

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      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Completely correct, sophocles, only the Sun controls the atmosphere. The circulation is mainly due to the Coriolis effect.

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  • #

    That’s very funny. I like the one that says his facts don’t stack up before admitting that the heat vs cold point is correct according to a paper in the Lancet. Frothing and floundering is quite right. Here in the UK, the Guardian has also written three articles foaming and fumbling, see links in my write-up.

    Josh has a cartoon of the talk, see Bishop Hill.

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    • #
      OldGreyGuy

      The local resident warmy at work was all full of himself yesterday saying out loud that Abbott had made a fool of himself, he seemed happy that I said I agree until he realised I was agreeing with Abbott. He also launched into a safe the barrier reef and then a people will die in the heat moment. I let him stew for a minute and asked about the coral reefs near the equator, his only response was different corals which I then applied to the more than 1,000km length of the barrier reef. I then sent him the Lancet report.

      He is not talking to me now. A good result all round.

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  • #
    Andy Pattullo

    The truth always floats to the surface eventually. Unfortunately the brainwashed environmental zealots take much longer to catch on. There does appear to be a political shift appearing where one after another political leader dares to speak the truth that is forbidden in polite company. This is a good start, but Trump for all his various perceived flaws deserves some sort of recognition for being first up.

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    • #
      Kevin Lohse

      Wasn’t Abbott removed by the elite due to his sceptical call on AGW? You know, the one that secured the election for the Liberal alliance? I think you’ll find that Mr Abbott was the first western leader to publicly disown the “consensus”.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        I believe Tony Abbott was probably one of the first to experience what is now commonly referred to as the “Deep State” and what President Trump has taken head on now, it was ways there but didn’t have enough clout until the spread of Marxist ideology infiltrated society and gathered the numbers.

        President Ronald Reagan was an early example of this “State” using the 5th column (MSM) against a conservative politician that wasn’t compliant to their agenda, have a look at any literature on him and 99% is negative with a strong bias towards incompetence or senility which is the opposite of what the man was but the effectiveness of this subversion of truth is such that most people will reiterate the narrative as fact.

        Much like the “scientific consensus”

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      • #
        TdeF

        He was also the first one to call climate change as socialism masquerading as environmentalism. He also called it crap, just to prove he can be succinct.

        At the same time he warned the world and Europe on particular about the dangers of loose borders and the refugee scam. As Donald Trump says, roughly, it is easier and far cheaper to fix problems where people live than import the people and the problems. Abbott stopped the boat invasion, fighting our ABC, our public service and those of the left who said categorically, it simply could not be done. Since then we have had so many mass attacks on innocent people, the Manchester massacre simply of young girls out to a music concert, something unacceptable.

        As John Howard said clearly, we should decide who comes to this country and under what conditions. That is how it used to be and 40% of Australians were born overseas, like Canada. Uncontrolled migration though is a disaster but wrecking society is the aim of the Greens. Like Climate Change. Then revolution.

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        • #
          TdeF

          I mean unacceptable to one regressive social group who refuse to accept Western values of freedom for women of any age.

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        • #
          Glen Michel

          If he applied his convictions when P.M I would be more pleased. Still, he shows sometimes that he is a conviction “politician” and I was impressed by his delivery at GWPF. It confirms Clausewitz ‘s dictum – ” Attack is the best form of Defence”.

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          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            Glen, that meme that Abbott should have “applied his convictions when he was P.M” is all well and good. However, it fails the political reality test.

            The position of P.M is the “first amongst equals”. The position is not that of a dictator.

            Yes, he failed to get 18 C repealed.

            Yes he put the RET in place – but at a very much reduced rate than that which was being pushed by the green-left (including the green-left in the Liberal Party).

            However, he stopped the boats. He removed the Carbon Tax. He removed the Mining Tax. He managed (against all predictions) to secure free-trade agreements with South Korea, Japan and China.

            Not too bad. He was PM for less than two years.

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            • #
              Glen Michel

              Sure thing Sceptical. T.A has been loaded withe all types of negative labels – like Mad Monk,misogynist and monarchist. The man has a fine social conscience in my opinion. Try and tell the brain dead leftists that!

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      • #
        richard verney

        If you call The Czech Republic the West, then probably the first politician of note to be openly sceptical of AGW was Vaclav Klaus, the Czech President between 2003 to 2013. Per Wikipedia:

        Klaus was the principal co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), a Czech free-market Eurosceptic political party.[1][2] His presidency was marked by numerous controversies over his strong views on a number of issues, from global warming denial to euroscepticism,[3]

        That guy talks a lot of sense.

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        • #
          William

          Sorry Richard, I didn’t see you response before I made the same point! No matter, the more times people are told of, or reminded about Klaus’s stand, the better!

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    • #
      William

      Actually Andy, credit should go to Czech President, Vaclac Klaus, who was an early public climate sceptic – well before Trump or Abbott. But it is fantastic to see leaders with the guts to stand up and be counted.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Actually, if you remember, Abbott and PUP were first up, but PUP turned out to be a Trojan Horse.

      I want to know how Al Gore persuaded Clive Palmer to change his mind.

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    The political establishment does not like politicians who think. They might start to have ideas, heaven forbid. They might even think ideas, that have the potential to disrupt the general order of things. That will not do. It would mean the end of the world, as they know it …

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Acually Tony Abbott is harking back to the old Roman principle of Bread and Circuses. Keeping the price of food down and distracting the plebs with entertainment. The circuses were brutal but with intervals of farce.
      Our Governments in Australia (and elsewhere) are doing, some might say over-doing, the farce bit but making electricity and food more expensive is a departure from the old tried and true method, and we shall have to see how long this new political idea lasts.

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    • #

      since when was Tony Abbott not political establishment? He is pure elite and has been pursuing politics as his career most of his working life. He has done nothing else. Speeches like this underline his eliteness – he is using it to grapple his way back to relevance and, as he has done in the past, will take any position that gives him that relevance.

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      • #

        “…since when was Tony Abbott not political establishment?”

        How about 1984 – 1987 when Abbott studied at St Patrick’s Seminary with the aim of becoming a priest.

        He has always been a man of conviction. This is what makes him so dangerous to the establishment and possibly why you dislike him so much despite not knowing much about him.

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        • #

          3 years of his life not pursuing or being involved with public office and even then in a seminary! He has the common touch.

          And conviction is great when applied to something worthwhile but if you value it per se you have about 50% of parliament on both sides to love.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          (oops, red thumb to Jo.. accidental !)

          GA, you really should talk about any sort of personal conviction.

          Stick to things you know something about, like twitter comments.

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        • #
          Glen Michel

          Not to mention his practical efforts in giving his time on remote communities ,charities and volunteer fire-fighting. He has my respect for these and his common sense.

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          • #
            Annie

            Hear, hear! Tony Abbott is someone with a good moral sense…what a great difference from those on the gravy train who are trying to drive us to destruction. He is not the destructive one, they are and, in my opinion, that constitutes treasonous behaviour.

            90

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          No, Jo. That is only a small part of why some people don’t like Tony Abbott. When Tony Abbott was elected to lead the Liberals, the ALP threw policy out the window. They put all their effort into the notion that by vilifying Tony Abbott they could make him unelectable. No policy, just bag the man. And who remembers the loose women of the ALP, the nodding sock puppets that couldn’t make a speech on any subject without dropping the name of the unavailable iron man at least twice. The hatred was palpable.

          While all this was going on Tony Abbott either didn’t see it or just soaked it up. The biggest reason why so many people hate him is that he mounted no defence whatever against the vilification, the liars and their lies!

          Tony Abbott’s speech is one for the history books, but to win this war he must still right that wrong. He must kick some heads that should have been kicked a long time ago.

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        • #

          I’d be more than happy to engage in listing the many flaws and bungles of Tony Abbott…except that South Australia is about to install Big Diesel and Big Battery, electricity consumers are being presented by Frydenburg with a win-win which is nothing less than voluntary beggary and the current PM is a globalist stooge who believes in agile driverless mini-cities appearing like Brigadoon in the green mist.

          Remember that demon in the Exorcist? Pazuzu was its name. Well I’d take Pazuzu right now if it said the things Tony just said. I’ll certainly take Tony.

          It’s getting rather urgent. What does it say at the top of every Jo Nova post? A perfectly good civilization is going to waste…

          So yeah, Abbott.

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        • #
          Jonesy

          ..not to mention, Tony also worked in a concrete plant…a most unusual source!

          20

  • #
    Leonard Lane

    This is a very hopeful sign. Now the battle with the Green Blob and the green left is on. At last, the general public in Australia can hear some of both sides.
    The truth is powerful, and once expressed at the national and international scale things will begin to change for the better.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I love asking questions that expose the CAGW nonsense….they hate me…but I just keep plugging away….

      Just squeeze……and squeeze….and squeeze….

      People arent stupid…they know when people are speaking truth….

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  • #
    AndyG55

    Now, if only we can get rid of Turnbull, and bring back TA will this zeal and drive that we expected from him the first time around. !!!

    Liberals could actually stand a chance at the next election.

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    • #
      el gordo

      It was a brilliant speech by Tony, but I still can’t see him getting the big seat back because of bad blood.

      Dutton (who appears to be an empty vessel on climate change) could easily hop on Tony’s bandwagon and secure the leadership. His quip on sea level rise was a throwaway line, but he has plenty more where that came from.

      I want to see Talcum resign before Xmas and replaced with Dutton, and Abbott getting the pick of any portfolio he fancies.

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      • #

        A conviction-Tony could win again. The Libs were struggling to even get people to hand out how-to-vote cards at the last election. Dutton doesn’t appear to stand for anything (yet) and he doesn’t get standing ovations and cheers.

        But here in Australia the Deep State is well funded, and the media dominated by the ABC (even if it doesn’t rate well, it influences the journalistic cadre).

        Abbott would still thrive on talk-back radio and online.

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          el gordo

          Okay, we’ll have to wait and see. He maybe popular out on the hustings, but the political wing must be terrified that he’ll return as PM and purge the party, weeding out those who supported the coup.

          Peter Dutton appears to me as someone in the Keating mould, who could devastate the Opposition with scathing wit. Its what the electorate needs right now, with climate change and energy top of the agenda.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          And he has a story to tell!

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      • #
        Analitik

        Tony is a magnificent campaigner. Out on the trail, even those who don’t like him have a measure of respect in THE MAN. He is the man who led the Coalition from nowhere to a resounding electoral victory (albeit with some help from Kevin Rudd). The man who actually had the Coalition pursuing conservative policies despite being hamstrung by a fractured Senate.

        In contrast, Malcolm is only ever comfortable in front of camera with a set speech or being interviewed by a fawning member of the center left like Leigh Sales. Starting from a firm party majority and high public approval rating, he only just held on to the office courtesy of Victoria’s Dan Andrews choosing to impose a leftist, union hierarchy upon a voluntary public institution mid-campaign.

        Can TA take back the top job and lead to Coalition back to representing the values it purports to? I think so.

        40

  • #
    turnedoutnice

    Looks like we have critical mass as Abbott derides [snip] IPCC climate modelling and, by implication, supporters who are part of this biggest [snip] in History.

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      Will Janoschka

      “Looks like we have critical mass as Abbott derides [snip] IPCC climate modeling and, by implication, supporters who are part of this biggest [snip] in History.”

      Perhaps! Near me in the USA I know several veterinarians that can do a perfect [snip] on even a chicken! Can we use such skill on politicians that promote “this biggest [snip] in History.”?
      All the best!-will-

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  • #
    Ruairi

    More skeptics now sound the death knell,
    For the climate-change dogma from hell,
    Which intends to make worse,
    Our lives, like a curse,
    Or a wicked malevolent spell.

    362

  • #
    SMS

    We were told that the seas were going to rise by 20′ in 30 years in 1988, we were told the rains were going to stop, we were told the Arctic ice was going to disappear, we were told………………..so many things.

    A theory is only as good as its predictions vs the data. This one is dead.

    Tony Abbott is right to call these people out.

    How many are going to die because they can’t afford their power bill? How much of the publics money is going to be wasted on de-sal plants and water pumping scams, renewable power, funding for the IPCC and our rent seeking climate scientists?

    Get mad Harpo

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  • #
    KinkyKeith

    It was a good speech but the real issue is to get the truth out in public and to do that you have to get the message past and through the mainstream media.

    Last night I spoke to a retired journalist from our local newspaper and he spoke of absolute chaos in the local journalism workforce.

    The industry has changed so much that journalists have a very uncertain future in print.

    What this means for us is a media that can easily be subverted to the wishes of any forceful pressure group and the eventual rise of an influential manipulative government style rule by our ” betters”.

    It seems that we have arrived but maybe the Tony Abbott speech is a beginning of the fight back, hears hoping.

    KK

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    • #
      KinkyKeith

      Here’s

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    • #
      gnome

      Those local journalists have so covered themselves with glory on this subject that we should worry about the way things are heading for local media?

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    • #
      TedM

      It’s neither hear nor their.

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    • #
      Will Janoschka

      “The industry has changed so much that journalists have a very uncertain future in print.”

      That print industry (journalism) has been completely subverted by advertising money! I suggest temporary reduction\elimination of taxes on citizens\individuals in lieu of 500% tax on any advertising dollars or any other payment to promote anything, especially candidates!
      All worthwhile products, goods, services need no advertising\promotion whatsoever! Only the worthless crap needs promotion. Oh whoa are we!

      41

  • #
    Dave in the States

    His naysayers keep describing him as “destructive.” What exactly has he destroyed?

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    • #
      Hold My Beer

      He’s currently threatening their authority-protected, grant-dependent, welfare-sapping livelihoods.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      What exactly has he destroyed?

      The concept of a free ride on the gravy-train, and an early lunch, to-boot.

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  • #
    Hold My Beer

    Tony Abbot has nothing to lose. He’s certainly not going to lose any votes. The eco-worriers abandoned him long ago. He gets my acclamation now. Pity we can’t take the paddy wagon around and collect the political zealots responsible for this economic mess.

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Paddy wagon? Tumbrils might be more the style?

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      • #
        sophocles

        Motorised tumbrils, with FF engines. More Black Marias needed. Can’t have polluting grass-burners back in the city. It took the car and truck, fuelled with fossil fuel, to clean the cities up. Let’s not forget that.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Being the duty pedant for today, I feel I must point out that the word is, “tumbrel”; meaning an open two wheeled cart, that can be tipped backwards to empty out its load.

        They were much used to transport people to la guillotine during the French Revolution.

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        • #
          Annie

          Both versions, ‘tumbril’ and ‘tumbril’ seem to be correct. I’ve only ever seen ‘tumbril’ used however.

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          • #
            Annie

            Sorry, second version ‘tumbrel’! It shows how engrained the ‘tumbril’ version is in my mind and my finger took its cue! 😉 or was it predictive text getting the bettervof me unnoticed when I read it back before posting 🙁

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            • #
              Rereke Whakaaro

              Well, given that “tumbril”, is obviously a word that you use quite frequently, I will bow to your preferred spelling.

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              • #
                sophocles

                My OED says:
                tumbril (also tumbrel) noun: historical an open cart that tilted backwards to empty out its load …
                -Origin: Middle English (originally denoting a type of cucking-stool); from Old French tomberel, from tomber ‘to fall.’

                Okay folks: there we have it: tumbril or tumbrel. Both are correct so it’s your choice. (Or perhaps it’s neither are incorrect … 🙂 ).

                Words are fun.

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              • #
                Will Janoschka

                sophocles October 12, 2017 at 12:55 am

                “Words are fun.”

                Indeed!!
                Q: How much of the left is left?
                A: Too much! Isn’t dat right? 🙂

                30

              • #
                Annie

                ‘Ducking-stool’? At least, I think that’s what you meant in the context!

                30

              • #
                Will Janoschka

                “Words are fun.”

                Indeed!!
                Q: How much of the left is left?
                A: Too much! Isn’t dat right? 🙂

                Annie October 12, 2017 at 12:09 pm

                “‘Ducking-stool’? At least, I think that’s what you meant in the context!”

                Englitch HA! How so very different in meaning from similar “Duck stool” (medical).

                Englich seems the latest version of “Babble”: (to utter sounds or words imperfectly, indistinctly, or without meaning.)! 🙂
                Loglan could be humorous or sarcastic without being imprecise! Oh woha are we!!

                20

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                sophocles

                The origin is given exactly as it is in my dictionary. I can answer it here if you really really insist, because I thought as you did, at first. I had to look that up as well.

                It’s a bit more than that, adding a higher nuance of humiliation for its victim.

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                Will Janoschka

                “cucking-stool”

                A husband only becomes a cuck-old when deprived of the “right” to ‘Bear’ “arms”! The dunking was applied to only one of the two! Must be sexual discrimination. Words are fun! 🙂

                20

              • #
                sophocles

                Will:
                You’re off to one side. Close, but no cigar. Cuckold and cuckoldry are from a different root. From the OED:

                Origin: late Old English, from Old French cucuault from cucu ‘cuckoo’ (from the cuckoo’s habit of laying its egg in another birds nest.)
                The equivalent words in French and other languages applied to both the bird and the adulterer; cuckold has never been applied to the bird in English.

                The cuckolded husband was (is) often made to suffer the derision of those in the know. The cucking-stool, though is from a different root. Both the ducking- and cucking-stool work similarly with the cucking-stool nuanced for greater humiliation. Sexist? Extremely so.

                Since English comes from so many languages—Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Norman French, some Dutch, Old Norse (early Scandinavian and Viking), and some of the Latin deriving from Greek, it’s a real melting pot with lots of quite interesting highways and, especially, by-ways. Words, and their etymology, are not just fun, but very interesting.

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              • #
                Will Janoschka

                sophocles October 12, 2017 at 4:01 pm

                “Will: You’re off to one side. Close, but no cigar. Cuckold and cuckoldry are from a different root. From the OED: “{

                Thank you for your detailed correction! Mea Culpa.
                Left, right vs port, starboard: along with all other misused Englitch directions drive me bonkers! 🙂

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  • #
    Manfred

    Instead, the truth is that no one can do anything to appease the Climate-Masters — full obeisance, with bowing, is still not enough.

    The UN definition of ‘climate change‘ used by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides perpetual justification, justification ad infinitum for the ‘Climate Masters’ and their ideology.

    The MSM et al. need to understand ‘climate change‘ can NEVER be zeroed in the UN sense unless humanity is expunged from the World because ‘climate change’ is defined as solely due to humanity.

    ‘Climate variability’ on the other hand is the UN speak for the natural order of things sans any human influence on atmospheric composition or land usage. Tellingly, it is almost never mentioned that the signal of ‘climate change’ has yet to emerge from the chaos of ‘climate variability’ beyond the modelled and theoretical.

    Bravo Tony Abbott, bravissimo!

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    Sean McHugh

    For former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, there is no point in pandering.

    Let’s hope that he really does realise that now. He was a bit slow before. Thought he could make friends with the Left.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Not fair. Many people believed the CSIRO/BOM/ABC/NASA/Royal Society/UN/IPCC/ were telling them the truth. You cannot do anything from opposition, so he gave them what they wanted, reductions in CO2 by growing trees. That just infuriated them. So everyone conspired to get rid of Mr Abbott. In fact half his ministry, the Black Hand led by Malcolm Turnbull.

      So $100Bn on desalination plants (mainly debt), $40Bn in the last 10 years on Windmills and a Federal government debt of $500Bn and the world’s highest electricity prices, including $6Bn of RET taxes for nothing. The world’s highest Carbon Tax at $200 to $400 a tonne.

      The only thing holding our electricity system together is coal. Transparently nothing else works and the Snowy Scheme is good for three days at most. The solution, giant batteries?

      Meanwhile Daniel Andrews in Victoria is scheming to close the rest of Loyyang, leaving us with nothing. Just like Weatherill. They want pandemonium, devastation, revolution and so absolute power. Couldn’t happen in Australia? Russia and Germany were taken over by minorities and they are the model for our Left, especially Adam Bandt. His PhD on communism was on this, the way to absolute power.

      It’s not about the weather. It never was.

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        gnome

        Totally fair. He pandered on 18c as well.
        All he stood firm on was knighting pommy princes.

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        • #
          TdeF

          That was outrageous deception by ‘our’ ABC. There was a specific request from the Palace to recognize Prince Phillip for all his work, sixty years of gracious generosity as head of so many organizations. This was not Tony Abbott’s idea but simply more deception from our very anti British, anti Royalty, anti democratic press. Pommie Princes? Of course, what have the British done for us? Well, just about everything.

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          clive hoskin

          He new he wouldn’t get the reform of 18c through,so concentrated on other things just as important.Blame the Labor party,the leftards and the Greens,not Tony Abbott.

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      • #
        Sean McHugh

        I’m talking generally, YdeF, not specifically about power. A lot of people were disappointed at how, when he was PM, he seemed to be trying to suck up to the Left. When I say I hope that will no longer be the case, I am being quite sincere. In any case, Turnbull has to go.

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        • #
          TdeF

          Sucking up? Many good people are Greens, sucked into a pretend caring political group. An enormous percentage of GPs and doctors generally. They only have time to read headlines, judge by the covers. They are being deceived.

          The poor, the animals, the environment. Who doesn’t care about them? However the Green leadership is not about any of these things. They are watermelons. Green on the outside, red communists on the inside. Bandt, Rhiannon.
          A responsible leader like Abbott recognizes that many of the things the Greens stand for are reasonable. Ecology, environmentalism, protection of our natural resources, but Climate Change is crap.

          Most Australians care about the environment. Abbott addresses this. That is not sucking up to the left.

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          el gordo

          ‘…not specifically about power.’

          When it comes to political animals, its all about power.

          Turnbull, Hunt and Bishop et al worked against the PM and eventually forced a coup. Tony can now lead the charge on the most important issue of our time… mass delusion.

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          • #
            Will Janoschka

            “Tony can now lead the charge on the most important issue of our time… mass delusion.”

            Careful there! Many many earthlings prefer to be told ‘what to do’ and ‘how to think’! How does Tony handle that?
            All the best!-will-

            10

            • #
              el gordo

              We’ll shortly bring the ‘earthians’ around to our way of thinking, they are sensitive to a change in the weather.

              20

      • #
        Manfred

        Many people believed the CSIRO/BOM/ABC/NASA/Royal Society/UN/IPCC/ were telling them the truth.

        And therein lies the rub.
        And it wasn’t the ‘truth’ born of science and free debate, it was the sort of ‘truth’ promulgated by ideology that brokered no debate, that demonised and slandered, ruined careers and shattered lives, stole jobs, extorted money, invoked the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, that reeked with the rank stench of ideological corruption, the nauseating stench which permeates academia, bureaucracy and so many of the formerly respected institutions of rigour, relentlessly peddled by an intoxicated MSM who became addicted to their own manufactured narrative, a pathological form of narcissistic journalism … a characteristic well illustrated by the self-appointed raconteur who is the only person in the room laughing at their own joke, openly declaring themselves a fool. From ‘coal trains’ to ‘deniers’, skeptics to ‘flat Earthers’ the tsunami of abuse has been epic and telling.

        The ideologues betrayed themselves over and over again.

        Any institution that DEFINES ‘the truth’ a priori has immediately blown the whistle on itself, think (UN IPCC defined ‘climate change’; UNEP defined ‘ethical‘ investing, UN defined ‘civil society’ … if you don’t belong are you un-civil? Why hasn’t the hypocritical Left called this out as discriminatory? /sarc ),

        Absolutely accurate and stated recurrently at this site , “It’s not about the weather. It never was.” IT NEVER WAS! What do you take us for?

        Now, if they truly succeed in causing ‘chaos’ and ‘collapse’ I suspect we’ll be running out of piano wire and lamp posts, tar and feathers … metaphorically speaking.

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          Sceptical Sam

          Beautifully written Manfred.

          Lovely turn of phrase.

          And so true.

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          clive hoskin

          The piano wire was used very effectively by the “Mafia”(don’t know if they have a patent on it)during Prohibition.Cheaper that “Ammo”and much quieter(well apart from the girgling sounds)It may be the only way to turn this “Ship” around.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Sean, when Tony Abbott was elected leader of the Liberals, it was by a single vote. He was lumbered with a very substantial left wing of his own. That is why he had to for example tolerate a reduction of the RET instead of making abolition of the RET a double dissolution issue from day one.

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    pattoh

    If this summer is warm enough & the ACs kill the grid; you will probably see ( imported ) windmill luddite T- shirts for sale & “Strange Fruit” will be on the radio.

    How long would civil society persist without power, water, sewerage, government ( evacuated high rise buildings), fuel pumps & fresh food? ( Venezuela in Western Sydney?)

    A proper grid crash & no politician who wanted to build up his super, will ever vote for renewables again.

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  • #
    Manfred

    How long would civil society persist … ?

    I’m certain that UN definedcivil society‘ will likely suck it up with arm waving, virtue signalled joy, or maybe just throw the spade of disillusionment in altogether?
    On the other hand, real World civilised society will be repulsed by the wanton ideological motivated destruction.
    Classic example, dare I say, it of successful UN conflation of terms or just an omission of /sarc tag?

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    manalive

    Andrew Street doesn’t like Tony Abbott, he admits it himself, so why does ‘our’ ABC go to him to give taxpayers the unbiased assessment of Abbott’s speech, as the law demands?

    Street thinks speculation on the effects of tropical diseases “by the middle of the century”, based on models, is evidence.

    He doesn’t know or want to know that most Himalayan glaciers are stable.

    He thinks Tony Abbott is crazy because he can’t see a 1mm per year sea level rise with the naked eye.
    But Abbott is merely dispelling the crazy scares spread by the likes of Gore and Flannery.

    Presumably Street thinks someone like the ABC’s own Robyn Williams is completely sane in stating the sea level will possibly rise 100 meters this century.

    BTW Andrew Street, any thermal expansion of the oceans (which is tiny) will not affect the sea level at coastlines where the water depth approaches zero.

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      RickWill

      BTW Andrew Street, any thermal expansion of the oceans (which is tiny) will not affect the sea level at coastlines where the water depth approaches zero.

      ?????

      20

      • #
        manalive

        … Mechanism 3 (temperature-driven expansion) only affects the uppermost part of the oceans on human time scales. Usually, temperature-driven changes in density are more important than salinity-driven changes. Seawater is characterised by a relatively small coefficient of expansion, but the effect should however not be overlooked, especially when interpreting satellite altimetry data. Temperature-driven expansion of a column of seawater will not affect the total mass of water within the column considered, and will therefore not affect the potential at the top of the water column. Temperature-driven ocean water expansion will therefore not in itself lead to lateral displacement of water, but only lift the ocean surface locally. Near the coast, where people are living, the depth of water approaches zero, so no temperature-driven expansion will take place here (Mörner 2015). Mechanism 3 is for that reason not important for coastal regions …

        (Prof Humlum @ Climate4you-Oceans-Sea Level in General).

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        • #
          RickWill

          In the last 50 years the top 700m of the oceans has gained 0.2K in temperature within the ability to measure such a small change. The ocean below 700m has also warmed but to a lesser amount. The expansion in the top 700m alone equates to an increase in volume of 28mm across the entire surface as there would be negligible gain in the surface area. The ocean surface is not necessarily level as it is affected by the weight of air it supports and that is not constant across the surface. However on average the surface will have risen 28mm due to the reduced density. It does not matter if the measurement is taken at the coast or or in the middle of the ocean. It is a matter of taking the reading over long enough period to get an average.

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          • #
            manalive

            The link in my reply at 11:01 clearly shows sea level changes responding to thermal expansion: “… Higher-than-normal sea levels are red; lower-than-normal sea levels are blue. El Nino is visible as the red blob in the eastern equatorial Pacific …” (NASA Ocean Surface Topography Team).

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            manalive

            Further to thermal expansion and sea level rise (if I may):

            In summary, it is a mistake to compare satellite-measured deep-ocean sea-level rise to tide gauge-measured coastal sea-level rise. Even if the satellite data were trustworthy (which it isn’t), and even if we had perfectly accurate numbers for PGR/GIA corrections (which we don’t), and even if we also had accurate corrections for local subsidence (due to factors like groundwater extraction, oil & gas extraction, etc.), and even if we had comprehensive tide-gauge coverage of all the world’s coasts, it would still be a mistake to compare coastal sea-levels and deep-ocean sea-levels, because they are different quantities. Comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.

            There is a full explanation of what may seem counterintuitive here.

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    • #
      amortiser

      The ABC ridicules Tony Abbott because he says he can’t see any evidence of sea level rise when he stands on Manly Beach. It makes no criticism of those who spout the dangers of CAGW from the rooftops who then go and buy beachfront property – the likes of Gillard, Rudd and Gore.

      It’s not what they say that tells you who they are, it’s what they do.

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    TdeF

    It’s not just about Manly beach. It’s about every beach. This scare is now 30 years old and everyone has photographs, memories of the beach of their childhood. Where is the 30 metre rise promised by ABC Science Guy, 100 metres in 100 years and Sydney drowned. The clearance under Sydney Harbour bridge is 50 metres, so the water should reach the traffic in another 20 years. In fact few people could notice even a mm change in their lifetimes. This was not just a mistake, it was a blatant lie and absurd falsification. Remember we pay the ABC to give us facts. Tony Abbott simply reminded everyone that they do not need ‘scientists’ to tell them about sea rise.

    In fact has anything been right? More hurricanes? More bushfires? More droughts? Dying polar bears? Was it all made up. Of course.

    ‘The Science’ is not science. It does not even pretend to be science. It is a fact free zone and without the creation of the IPCC in 1988, we would never have known about these now debunked theories.

    Still we are suffering. Our power system is crippled. The poorest people are being robbed by their government who force them to pay far too much for what used to be cheap and plentiful. Even the economists are saying that there is something very wrong.

    Remember Australia is a rich country. There are people who wish our success, want our cash and conspire to take it. Unfortunately some of these people are in positions of power and tell us what to think, who to pay, who much. This includes career journalists who form and inform opinion, politicians who misinform us, companies who want our wealth and want to tell us what to think.

    Tony Abbott is just reminding everyone that they can judge ‘The Science’ for themselves, the predictions. The 30 year old prediction of rapid sea rise, any noticeable sea rise is simply not true. Forget the 97% consensus. This is obviously fake science which means it always was. There is no rapture. The day after tomorrow is fine. What fools we were to think our politicians had our interests at heart. Now can we have our money back? How much for a used windmill?

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    • #
      TdeF

      We also have $100bn of unused desalination plants for sale. Perfect condition. Taken out of the box but never used. Possibly not working and out of warranty but maintained by hundreds of full time salaried people in perfect not working condition. Offers invited.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Plus whole forests of Goldilocks Windmills. Useful where there are steady winds and no coal or gas or uranium or shale or coal seam gas. The Goldilocks warranty though says they do not work if the wind is too low or too high and have a very limited lifespan, are totally unserviceable and cannot be easily connected to an AC distribution grid. The box says RENEWABLE. The caution says this means REPLACEABLE. No warranty. Offers invited. Sets from 4 to 100. Pickup only.

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      TdeF

      Plus thousands of acres of solar panels. Suitable for someone with huge amounts of waste land and sunshine. The box says does not work at night, will go off if the grid goes off and most importantly BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED. Sold by the acre. Pickup only.

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  • #
    John in Oz

    Let him know you appreciate his thinking:

    http://tonyabbott.com.au/contact/

    We should be encouraging any in positions of influence to get the facts out, no matter the backlash from the green blob.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Done so. Thanks. He is one of the few politicians in Parliament you can admire, an actual hero. Three degrees. A real sportsman. Ran a concrete company. Degree in Economics not just law. Strong character. Clear thinker. Brave and fearless. He will not abandon the Liberal party of Menzies. Malcolm’s Liberals has abandoned him. Liberal does not mean Progressive. Progressive now means retrograde and communist. The rot is in parliament and the Black Hand is now in the open, crowing about the ability of the few to control the country.

      When Joyce loses his seat, it will all fall apart for Malcolm and as he has done before, when his country needs him, Malcolm will go home to write his memoirs.

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      • #
        gnome

        “ran a concrete company”??? He worked in a batching plant.

        He’s really never been anything but an aspiring pollie and a pollie. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do to achieve polliehood and less he wouldn’t do to stay there.

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          TdeF

          For a time he worked as a plant manager for Pioneer Concrete before becoming press secretary to Liberal Leader John Hewson from 1990 to 1993, helping to develop the Fightback! policy

          He was also a journalist on the Bulletin. Not a real job, I know.

          As a Rhodes scholar, these people including Turnbull are selected on the Rhodes principles. Multi skilled sportsmen and potentially strong business or political leaders. His Masters in Oxford was in International Politics.

          He could have been many things, unlike most politicians. We are lucky he chose politics, unless you can name someone else who has shown such leadership fighting the Climate Change scam. Who else has dared call it crap?

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            Serp

            Nick Minchin probably.

            The last time the ABC allowed the running of arguments counter to AGW was the Anna Rose and Nick Minchin show in 2012.

            30

          • #
            Ian Hill

            I’ve always been under the impression Tony Abbott said “the science of climate change is crap” which is a far more credible position as he wasn’t actually commenting on climate change as such. All the mis-quoting by his detractors does is make them look foolish!

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      • #

        His real world experience was very fleeting. Private schools university politics religion and more politics. He is a poster boy for career politicians.

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    • #
      Annie

      Just done…thanks for the link.

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    Another Ian

    Might be a waste of time but I’ve forwarded this and Josh’c cartoon link to some local politicians

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    robert rosicka

    When you get called Neanderthal and Troglodyte on their ABC you’ve certainly got their attention, I absolutely loved the interview with Craig Kelly who defended what Abbott said , point by point and to me frustrated the interviewer to the point she kept cutting him short .
    If you don’t like the answer don’t ask the question but at least they had one counter to the already biased program .

    I thought the fort Denison tide gauge had not changed at all in the last 100 years .

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  • #

    While some want this in the N. Atlantic others are looking at the area near New Zealand for this wonderful project: won’t it be great. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wind-farm-world-renewable-energy-green-deep-sea-india-electricity-power-north-atlantic-a7991326.html

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      It is either silly season, or the alarmists are really worried that they might be loosing the debate.

      Consider the depth of the water in the North Atlantic, and in the Pacific, and in the Tasman. What would they anchor the foundations to? What would be the environmental impacts from building such a wind farm? How would they bring the generated power onshore? What would happen to international shipping, and the principle of freedom of the seas? It is someone’s wet dream. The picture, by the way shows small turbines in an estuary.

      The other file showing ten pictures have been totally done to death. They all show naturally repeating events, or accidents, and none are related to the climate.

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    robert rosicka

    OT but something happened with the AEMO at around 7am this morning can anyone understand the cryptic message .

    Market Notice 59448
    AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

    Issued by Australian Energy Market Operator Ltd at 0710 hrs on 11 October 2017

    PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO REVIEW for dispatch interval 11-Oct-2017 07:15.

    AEMO is reviewing these prices in accordance with:
    – Clause 3.9.2B of the National Electricity Rules for Manifestly Incorrect Inputs

    This is an AEMO autogenerated Market Notice.

    30

  • #
    PeterS

    Power companies must be fuming at what Abbott said. They are on a gravy train and the last thing they want now is someone to spill the beans. Good on you Tony Abbott. Please keep repeating the truth and perhaps, just perhaps enough sleepy Australians will wake up and act accordingly. Turnbull MUST go, not just because he’s useless but more importantly he is selling this country short and leading us over the cliff. The first point of business of any new leader to come must be a massive program to encourage the building of super-critical coal fired power stations to catch up with what the rest of the world is doing. Not doing so will send this country broke. If this means the abolishing of the RET then so be it.

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  • #
    Peter Cynical of Sandy Bay

    Jo, a small correction. Not thousands but millions know Manly Beach. And, Bondi Beach is known by millions and millions of people all over the world. I have swum at Bondi since the early 1950s, my family since the 1920s. My grandfather built/dug out, as a stonemason, the first rock pool at North Bondi and while the sand has variously moved in and out there has been virtually no overal change in almost 100yrs.
    Please spread the new three letter slogan: “BTB” (Bring Tony Back).

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    Another Ian

    Jo

    I’d suggest that this less about “gloves” and more about “gauntlets”

    50

  • #
    philthegeek

    Lol. Our Tones out there with Trembling Truffles genitalia firmly in his monkey grip. 🙂

    Good to see that regardless of his official station he’s the one actually setting policy limits for the Liberals.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Good thing too, we need a champion like Tony to set policy because the PM is a dill.

      Malcolm badly wanted a republic but the people said no, so he decided to go mainstream and unite the left and right with green goo. Similar to the Merkel model.

      Its now becoming unstuck, what should he do?

      40

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        I voted against a republic.

        Turnball was never going to be La Presidente And nobody else was going to be President whilever I had some say in it.

        If they couldn’t be trusted to run the present system well, we were not going to improve things by becoming a republic.

        KK

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      • #
        philthegeek

        Its now becoming unstuck, what should he do?

        Resign and endorse Tones for PM, with Dutton as DPM.

        Polling will go ballistic, we can have any early election and drain the swamp!!!

        🙂

        20

        • #
          el gordo

          Dutton for PM and Barnaby as his deputy, Tony could have the Treasurer’s job.

          I agree that the PM should resign, because the electorate don’t want any more coups.

          10

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    TdeF

    On a related point, consider that Australia is moving far faster horizontally.

    The Australian plate is the fastest continental plate on the planet, moving northwards and slightly to the east by about 7 centimetres each year.”

    That’s 70x as fast as the sea is rising. Maybe it is moving up and down too, at locations like this. In other words the sea rise is of no consequence even on the few hundred year time scale. The coastline of the East coast of England varies by metres per year with erosion. Coastlines around the world move massively. Many ancient ports are now 40km inland.

    So here are we, shutting down our coal power generation because of a terrifying 1mm/year? We may be the Lucky Country, but not terribly smart. Perhaps we should have a basic entry exam for politicians? General knoweldge, arithmetic, logic. Maybe even ethics. The question is not whether our politicians would pass, but how many?

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The Australian plate is the fastest continental plate on the planet…

      Speed isn’t always important 😉

      Is PNG moving northwards as well? My World Physical Map, implies that you might be on the same tectonic plate.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      So the sea isn’t rising, it’s just a bow wave.

      60

  • #
    RickWill

    I have a feeling that the NEM is already cactus:
    https://www.9now.com.au/a-current-affair/2017/episode-201

    I fear Today Abbott has done too little too late. The make your own energy horse has bolted.

    According to ACA reporter Dan Nolan, solar panels used to take a decade to pay off. But rising electricity costs and a drop in the cost of solar panels has shortened the gap between investment and return.
    “Solar systems now pay themselves off in a much faster time – just a few years,” Mr Nolan said.

    With grid electricity unaffordable for industry and households having the rooftop option, the grid costs will be spread across a smaller consumer base. Those stranded on the grid will have ever accelerating prices. There is still the expectation that power generated from rooftop solar in the middle of any day is actually worth something so people producing it still expect to get paid.

    SA poses an interesting situation with enough rooftop solar installed to now cause grid issues. It is getting to the point where rooftop solar is now driving the SA market. Gas plant has to run for stability reasons and wind can only produce if that power can be exported to Victoria when the sun is shining. The NEM metered demand in SA collapses on a sunny day. It can be down to 800MW at noon on a sunny day compared with over 1200MW on an overcast day. Imagine the mess as they add more intermittent generation. I suspect it is not far off SA having to prohibit further grid connection of rooftop solar.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      “Solar systems now pay themselves off in a much faster time – just a few years,” Mr Nolan said.

      Mr Nolan sounds like another innumerate product of the dumbed-down Australian education system.

      Has anybody seen his arithmetic?

      60

      • #
        RoHa

        I’ve never seen any figures for the original construction cost of the solar system, or of the income from running it. I suppose downgrading Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet saved a bit, but surely not all that much.

        30

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    Harry Twinotter

    Another two-faced lying Australian politician. I am having trouble stifling my yawn.

    I am surprised Abbott came out with such a banal list of standard climate change denier talking points.

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    • #
      Mark D.

      Another two-faced lying Australian politician. I am having trouble stifling my yawn.

      You would be the expert and we know it takes one to know one.

      Yawn.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      “I am having trouble stifling my yawn.”

      So are we… your comment is tediously EMPTY, yet again. !!!

      Now, prove that any one of his points was incorrect.

      Waiting for your further empty comment.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        Come on Twotter.

        You FAILED MISERABLY to counter anything that Plimer said in his Bolt interview.

        Now it seems you are going to FAIL MISERABLY, yet again.

        42

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘…..standard climate change denier talking points.’

      He said a little bit of warming is not a bad thing, as we have reached the end of the Holocene I tend to agree with him.

      91

    • #
      Glen Michel

      Oh look a dog has ” chucked up” on the lawn.

      40

    • #
      philthegeek

      I am surprised Abbott came out with such a banal list of standard climate change denier talking points.

      I’m not surprised at all.

      67

      • #
        AndyG55

        OK Plop.. prove that any one of his points was incorrect.

        32

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘I’m not surprised at all.’

        I was a little disappointed that he took a lukewarmer perspective.

        ‘Physics suggests, all other things being equal, that an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide would indeed warm the planet. Even so, the atmosphere is an almost infinitely complex mechanism that’s far from fully understood.’ Tony Abbott

        11

        • #
          KinkyKeith

          El

          The Earth’s atmospheric temperature is affected by three things:

          1. Residual energy left in Earth’s core. Many years ago at uni I was given a figure for this, perhaps a leakage of 4 watts per square metre?

          2. The temperature and insolation of the Sun

          And

          3. The temperature of space surrounding our planet: very cold, about 1.4 degrees k above absolute zero.

          Whatever green house gases or clouds want to do is their business but the overwhelming control of the atmospheric temperature is due to the Sun and deep space.

          Equilibrium Rules.

          KK

          01

          • #
            Will Janoschka

            “3. The temperature of space surrounding our planet: very cold, about 1.4 degrees k above absolute zero.”

            To the extent space has no mass; space has no temperature! Space wideband radiance can be approximated as that ‘radiance’ of a blackbody of 7.2 Kelvin. Only in isolated directions does that drop to 2.3 Kelvin. Neither of these approximations can be considered “temperature” (only a measurement value of the sensible heat of a known fixed mass)! What you accept is but political brainwashing!
            All the best!-will-

            00

            • #
              KinkyKeith

              My question Will is this: inbound energy from the Sun reaches Earth’s surface and is degraded.

              This lower virtue energy then moves back out and away from the Earth.

              Why do we have Outgoing Long Wave InfraRed as opposed to OLWIR sitting happily on the surface?

              Is it pushed or is it drawn?

              KK

              10

              • #
                Will Janoschka

                My question Will is this: (reversed)

                “Is it pushed or is it drawn?”

                Thermal (sensible heat powered) EMR exitance is always spontaneous, but only in a direction of lower ‘radiance’ and always limited in magnitude by such opposing ‘radiance’; at each direction, wavelength, polarity, chirality, and parity. This is all well written in the Gus Kirchhoff’s Laws of thermal radiation. In space this is how mass rids itself of ‘entropy’; maintaining dynamic equilibrium! All other claims are but some deliberate contradiction of 2LTD

                “Why do we have Outgoing Long Wave InfraRed as opposed to OLWIR sitting happily on the surface?”

                Because ‘space’ has lower ‘radiance’ than the Earth and its atmosphere, except in directions such as the Sun and other stars!

                “inbound energy from the Sun reaches Earth’s surface and is degraded. This lower virtue energy then moves back out and away from the Earth.”

                Please stop with the energy nonsense! Solar power flux limited by any opposing Earth ‘radiance’ is somewhat reflected (both forward and back scattered in any direction of lower ‘radiance”). Almost none, except gamma and shorter wavelengths are transmitted. The rest must be ‘absorbed’! Enough power through photosynthesis goes into production of foodstuffs for each and every mobile critter, creature, varmint, or beast (including politicians) on or about this Earth. This insolation is the one most necessary and useful to earthlings. Some now is converted to electrical ‘current’ and stored as ‘charge’ on batteries. The rest is absorbed as mass sensible heat. This re-thermalization of mass from EMR, is promoted by WUWT and others as some sort of scientific conflict! This is but grossly sloppy thinking. 🙂
                All the best!-will-

                00

              • #
                Will Janoschka

                Entropy!!! Do not click if easily offended!!
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEmdNT1tEEw

                00

    • #
      Will Janoschka

      Stifle Edith! 🙂

      30

    • #
      toorightmate

      Dear Twotter the Twit,
      Don’t the truth just hurt a bit???

      11

  • #
    John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

    Why was Abbott such a wimp when he was PM. He should have continually called out the ABC like Trump does with CNN. And look at CNN ratings now.

    40

  • #
    John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

    Remember the polar bear scare?
    Drowning bears having lunch

    30

  • #

    The media will try to tell us that Tony is loathed. It is the media which are loathed, as well as the climatariat and neo-totalitarians. (Check out this sheila, a leftist interviewed by an anarcho-libertarian, on sustainablity and green globalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7T7ulzNG7o ).

    Abbott’s weakness is his desire to be accepted by those who will never accept him. In reacting to the headbutt, instead of saying “bit of a dog act, but I’m okay” he launched into a long and lumbering lecture on manly decency etc. His supporters don’t need to hear all that, his haters find it a gold mine for ridicule.

    Tony, talk blunt, talk slang and talk like an Australian male who is bit sexist. Mansplain and manspread as much as you like and make no apologies. Attack the effeminacy and victim-posturing of those who try to attack you for being an Australian male. Attack immediately, attack hard and attack every time they try it on you. But stay easy-going. Keep a stone face for the ABC and the luvvies but laugh with the rest of us.

    Got that?

    Now go crush the loathed and reviled climatariat.

    90

  • #
    pat

    great speech and wonderful to see it causing a stir.

    9 Oct: Breitbart: Report: Renewable Energy Is Bigger ‘Scam’ than Bernie Madoff and Enron
    by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
    The greatest scam being perpetrated against taxpayers and consumers is renewable energy, according to a new analysis published by the Australian, greater even than Ponzi, Madoff and Enron.

    While sinking enormous financial resources into propping up renewable energy prospectors, national governments are providing no perceptible benefits to their citizens, writes Judith Sloan, a renowned Australian economist who has served on the Australian government’s Productivity Commission…
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/09/report-renewable-energy-is-bigger-scam-than-bernie-madoff-and-enron/

    10 Oct: UK Telegraph: Sarah Knapton: Conservationists take nine flights a year, despite knowing danger to environment, study shows
    Conservationists may preach about the importance of going green to save the planet, but most have a carbon footprint which is virtually no different to anyone else, a new study has shown.

    Scientists as Cambridge University were keen to find out whether being fully informed about global warming, plastic in the ocean or the environmental impact of eating meat, triggers more ethical behaviour.
    But when they examined the lifestyles of conservation scientists they discovered most still flew frequently – an average of nine flights a year – ate meat or fish approximately five times a week and rarely purchased carbon offsets for their own emissions.

    They were also less green in travelling to work than medics, and kept more dogs and cats. A recent study suggested pets are a hefty ecological burden. It takes more than two acres of grazing pasture to keep a medium-sized dog fed with meat, while the eco-footprint of a cat is similar to a Volkswagen Golf.

    Even the study’s four authors – all conservation scientists – admitted that between them they took 31 flights in 2016 and had each eaten two meat dinners in the week before submitting the research.
    “As conservationists we must do a great deal more to lead by example,” said lead author Dr Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at Cambridge.
    “Obvious starting points include changing the ways we interact, so that attending frequent international meetings is no longer regarded as essential to making scientific progress. For many of us flying is probably the largest contributor to our personal emissions.
    “While it may be hard to accept, we have to start acknowledging that increased education alone is perhaps not the panacea we would hope.”…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/10/conservationists-take-nine-flights-year-despite-knowing-danger/

    40

  • #
    pat

    6 Oct: Politico: The Strange Political Afterlife of Arnold Schwarzenegger
    By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE
    Now, six years after leaving Sacramento, he’s still reinventing himself—as a kind of globetrotting do-gooder, promoting a handful of causes like fighting climate change and gerrymandering. But mostly, he’s having a hell of a good time. Wherever he goes, everybody knows him. Everybody loves him. With a net worth estimated at $300 million, he zips around the world in private jets and has restaurant owners pick up his tab because they’re just so honored he chose to eat there. Constant selfies. He sounds off on whatever he wants, but has no actual responsibility. His perfect day is waking up and not knowing what country he’ll eat dinner in…
    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/06/arnold-schwarzenegger-oktoberfest-215685

    10 Oct: WUWT: Weather Channel Founder: Life on Earth getting better – Al Gore is “guilty of scientific fraud”
    Greenhouse Gases are making Our Lives Wonderful
    By John Coleman, Meteorologist, founder of the Weather Channel
    After more than two decades of study I am convinced that life here on Earth has been getting better and better for the billions of we people who make this little blue marble our beloved home.
    The “tons and tons of carbon we are spewing into the atmosphere every day” as Al Gore puts it are actually a good thing…
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/10/10/weather-channel-founder-life-on-earth-getting-better-al-gore-is-guilty-of-scientific-fraud/

    9 Oct: American Thinker: Another climate prediction gone off the rails
    by Brian C. Joondeph
    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/10/another_climate_prediction_gone_off_the_rails.html

    50

  • #
    Boyfromtottenham

    The CAGW crowd love to tell us about the bad things that are supposed to happen if we ‘double (atmospheric) CO2’ from the pre-industrial level of about 300 ppm. Let’s keep telling the real story – if we were to halve atmospheric CO2 to about 150 ppm most plants would die, then most animals (oh, and humans) would die. Then ask a simple question: Which would you prefer?

    60

    • #
      RoHa

      Far more importantly, CO2 puts the fizz in beer.

      40

    • #
      Another Ian

      Just imagine the mayhem you could add if soya beans happened to require high minimum levels of CO2

      – reduce co2 = no tofu

      (At a quick look I can’t see such a reference though)

      30

  • #
    David Maddison

    O/T

    Government’s starting to panic as summer approaches.

    People will be rewarded for doimg things to shed load like turning off air conditioners when it’s hot.

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sms-to-urge-consumers-to-turn-off-appliances-during-peak-load/news-story/8aded1c3301c062e07dbcc9494773a74

    62

    • #
      pat

      David Maddison –
      your link was behind paywall for me.

      11 Oct: news.com.au: Charis Chang: Households will be paid to reduce power consumption during peak periods
      WOULD you turn your air conditioning off if the government sent you a text message? A new program aims to reduce power consumption.
      THOUSANDS of Australian households will be paid to keep their air conditioning off during times of peak demand.
      The Turnbull Government has announced the trial of a new program that will provide incentives such as rebates, for businesses and households to reduce their electricity use during peak periods.

      The government has been trying to find a way to keep the lights on in states such as South Australia, Victoria and NSW as coal-fired power stations close down and more pressure is put on the network.
      It now wants consumers to do their part — and sign up to reduce their electricity by turning off their appliances.
      Over the next three years, 10 pilot projects across the three states will pay users to reduce their electricity consumption during short periods.

      This is aimed at freeing up electricity supply during extreme peaks — such as summer heatwaves or during extreme weather events and blackouts.
      Tens of thousands of households are expected to participate in the demand response initiative in exchange for cheaper power bills.

      EnergyAustralia and AGL will offer their customers the ability to sign up and those that reduce their consumption will be rewarded with money off their bill or they can get vouchers if they choose.

      Residential households will have to install smart meters to measure their usage. The hardware will have optional user overrides.
      The pilot projects will also involve installing remote monitoring and control devices in commercial and industrial businesses — such as cold storage facilities, manufacturing plants and commercial buildings

      An AGL spokeswoman said the project was expected to harvest 20 MW of electricity from its customers, 3 MW from residential households and 17 MW from commercial and industrial customers.
      EnergyAustralia is expected to contribute a total of 50 MW from its program
      http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/budgeting/households-will-be-paid-to-reduce-power-consumption-during-peak-periods/news-story/5ce9fc72bdf789569d8069fdbdf45e39

      the following piece is ridiculous, it’s so badly written. btw David Blowers is from the Grattan Institute, not the “Grant Institute”:

      11 Oct: Sky News: Frydenberg announces $36m energy trial
      In a bid to reduce blackouts and power shortage this summer, thousands of households will be given the opportunity to voluntarily cut their power bills in return for incentives.
      Mr Frydenberg said the new technology will ‘reduce the stress on the system at times of peak demand.’
      ‘It’s a win win for the public and for the energy system,’ he said…

      It comes after former prime minister Tony Abbott’s speech in London this week, he said ‘climate change may be doing more good than harm.’
      Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the trial is giving households the opportunity to play a bigger role in the energy market.
      While he also pointed out, ‘Australian’s expect a better standard of analysis and governance when it comes to energy policy.’
      The Turnbull government will spend almost $29 million on 10 pilot projects while the New South Wales state government will pay $7 million towards the operational costs of trials in NSW.

      Energy Fellow from Grant Institute, David Blowers said, ‘it’s going to be straight forward for people.’
      http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2017/10/11/frydenberg-announces–36m-energy-trial.html

      20

      • #
        amortiser

        Ok. Let’s have The Houses of Parliament and public Service Offices being first cab off the rank. They won’t even need to have bpayments made to them. It’s their stupid political decisions that have brought on this mess so let them suffer the consequences of them. No heating or air conditioning for the government. That could catch on.

        40

      • #
        amortiser

        Ok. Let’s have The Houses of Parliament and public Service Offices being first cab off the rank. They won’t even need to have payments made to them. It’s their stupid political decisions that have brought on this mess so let them suffer the consequences of them. No heating or air conditioning for the government. That could catch on.

        20

    • #
      Annie

      Rewarded by death by heatstroke? Just what certain bossy boots seem to want for us all, except themselves of course.
      Presumably, come winter, people will be ‘rewarded’ by death by hypothermia?

      20

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        I have experience hypothermia.

        The people I was with, recognised the symptoms, and pulled me out of it.

        But when it is my time, and if I have any choice, then that is how I would choose to go.

        20

        • #
          KinkyKeith

          I want to go after being unable to eat for a while and then reducing the CO2 levels in my bloodstream by “letting go” And lapsing into the breathing pattern that is the opposite of that used in singing.

          Twenty minutes should do it.

          CO2; the gas of life.

          KK

          01

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Not on your Nellie will I power down to keep the state going , the state should have thought more before letting Hazelwood close to keep in good with the green and commie vote .
      Matter of fact I might just turn on every electric device I have , just as I do on earth hour .

      51

      • #
        AndyG55

        I have over 2000W of stage lighting available at home, (plus what’s in storage)

        Earth hour is BRILLIANT at my place. 🙂

        Light up the whole large backyard with beautiful reds and blues 🙂

        32

    • #
      AndyG55

      “like turning off air conditioners when it’s hot.”

      They can go sit on it and rotate.

      I’ll turn my air-conditioner whenever I need to.

      32

  • #
    pat

    so much news to choose from, but theirABC’s “Breakfast” managed to have 3 segments covering the California wildfires. perfect guest for this one!

    from 1min in: Guardian’s Alastair Gee: there has been a trend in Calif in recent decades for wildfires to be more severe and that has been linked to CLIMATE CHANGE.
    Gee also claims he hasn’t heard anything about the possibility they were deliberately started.

    AUDIO: 4mins16secs: 11 Oct: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: Sixteen wildfires rage across Northern California
    Guest: Alastair Gee, Journalist with the Guardian in San Francisco
    http://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/pgo6RMAY9G?play=true

    the “unprecedented” in the headline refers to the 5 wine country wildfires beginning around the same time; “inferno” quote is merely one person’s view:

    11 Oct: Guardian: California fires: at least 15 killed in ‘unprecedented’ wine country blaze
    Julia Carrie Wong in Napa County and Alastair Gee in San Francisco
    Wildfires leave 150 missing and destroy 2,000 structures and large swaths of land, as powerful winds fuel ‘an inferno like you’ve never seen before’
    “We often have multiple fires going on, but the majority of them all ***started right around the same time period, same time of night – it’s unprecedented,” Amy Head, the fire captain spokeswoman for Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for fire protection, told the Guardian…
    “It was an inferno like you’ve never seen before,” said Marian Williams, who caravanned with neighbors through flames before dawn as one of the wildfires reached the vineyards and ridges at her small Sonoma County town of Kenwood…
    ***Head, the Cal Fire captain, said the fires were probably linked to a warming climate. “It has been hotter, it has been drier, our fire seasons have been longer, fires are burning more intensely, which is a direct correlation to the climate changing,” she said.

    9 Oct: Sacramento Bee: Homes and businesses burn as fire rips through Santa Rosa. One confirmed dead in Mendocino
    By Ryan Lillis, Molly Sullivan, Tony Bizjak and Benjy Egel
    Most of the fires started at about 10 p.m. Sunday and their causes are under investigation, officials said…

    10 Oct: ABC America: Dan Noyes: Officials say it’s like that North Bay fires were caused by man, I-Team interviews Cal Fire Director
    (Cal Fire chief Ken) Pimlott added, fire crews are focusing on saving lives first, property second, and finally getting some containment of the flames. He said the investigation into the fire’s origin will come later, ***but that 95-percent of the time, wildfires are caused by man…

    10 Oct: NBC Bay Area: Noreen O’Donnell: California Fire Experts to Probe Why 17 Fires Erupted in Just 24 Hours
    One expert said falling power lines and arson are being considered as causes

    12 Sept: ScienceMag: Who is starting all those wildfires? We are
    By Warren Cornwall
    As parts of the western United States choke on smoke from wildfires scorching more than 660,000 hectares, renewed attention is falling on the role that people have played in starting some of these blazes. An Oregon fire that has consumed 13,000 hectares, for instance, is thought to have been started by teens tossing firecrackers.

    Jennifer Balch, a wildfire ecologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, has examined just how big a role people are playing in starting wildfires in the United States. Nationwide, humans are responsible for starting 84% of wildfires, according to a paper co-authored by Balch, published this past March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In California, the eastern United States, and the coastal Northwest, people are behind more than 90% of wildfires. And, by starting so many fires, humans are essentially lengthening the fire season, into times of the year when natural causes—such as lightning—don’t play a major role.

    ScienceInsider spoke with Balch about those numbers, and their implications. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity…READ ON

    Postscript:
    In a follow-up email, Balch provided a scorecard for the 2017 fire season. “This year so far (1 January 1 – September 11), there have been 41,775 wildfires started by people vs. 6,354 wildfires started by lightning across the U.S.,” she wrote. The total area burned by human-started fires, she added, was about 1.459 million hectares, compared with 1.843 million hectares burned by lightning-started fires.
    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/who-starting-all-those-wildfires-we-are

    Man Faces Arson Charges in Eight San Bernardino County Wildfires …
    NBC Southern California-7 Aug. 2017

    Utah Man Charged With Arson For 4 Oregon Wildfires
    OPB News-12 Sep. 2017

    Former fire explorer linked to 8 Southern California wildfires charged …
    The Mercury News-8 Aug. 2017

    BC wildfire status Wednesday: Arson suspected in 2 wildfires
    Globalnews.ca-2 Aug. 2017

    Two teens in custody on suspicion of arson after devastating wildfires hit France’s Riviera
    ITV News-28 Jul. 2017

    News coverage of fires may promote arson, specialists warn
    The Portugal News-18 Sep. 2017
    News coverage of wildfires that trivialise and sensationalise the events, may promote arson among vulnerable groups, experts warn.

    20

  • #
    pat

    comment in moderation – this is followup.

    other MSM have also commented how it’s common to have wildfires in Calif in October.

    10 Oct: WHNT19: Why wildfires are so common in California
    by Gabrielle Deabler
    This news story might sound familiar to you. We see similar stories every fall as California wildfires break out. The combination of California’s climatology and terrain make it a common victim of destructive forest fires.
    A uniquely extreme dry season is the first reason the California is so prone to wildfires. The state receives 91% of its annual rainfall from November to April. That means by October California is 5 months into the dry season and in desperate need of rain…
    The weather pattern that tends to set up over California sends the winds into the states, while the valleys create tunnels to accelerate the winds…The winds also, of course, fan the flames of wildfires…
    ***While these factors make California more susceptible to fires the number one cause of forest fires is human activity. Up to 90% of forest fires across the country are traced back to human activity.

    AUDIO: 8mins55secs: 11 Oct: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: Bushfire risk: ‘We could be in for a pretty rough summer this year’
    Here at home — there are also fears the bushfire season could start unseasonably early after an unusually warm and dry winter.
    The fires in California have come quite late in the year — it’s already autumn in the northern hemisphere.
    Here at home — there are also fears the bushfire season could start unseasonably early after an unusually warm and dry winter.
    Yesterday the Bureau of Meteorology warned that Australia is facing scorching temperatures and strong winds this summer.
    Guest: Dr Richard Thornton, CEO of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre in Melbourne
    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/we-could-be-in-for-a-pretty-rough-summer-this-year/9037094

    above is Fran’s opportunity to lay into Tony Abbott for his speech, with plenty of assistance from guest, Richard Thornton, paraphrasing:

    Thornton: unusual to see these kinds of wildfires in Calif in October. have to go way back;
    warmer winter in Australia could cause a problem with bushfires this year.

    Fran & Thornton keep the climate change theme going.

    Fran then says there’s a reluctance to link more intense bushfire seasons, more bushfires, earlier bushfires, with climate change. politicians in particular not prepared to make that link. are you prepared to make that link? she asks Thornton.

    Thornton: it’s always difficult to link any individual fire to climate change, but lots of research has shown a link blah blah. we’re seeing on average a 1C increase in temperature & that seems to be there year in, year out.

    Fran: Tony Abbott speech excerpts…what did you think of that?
    Thornton: we were a little bit surprised blah blah. heatwave is by far bigger than all of the other hazards combined, the biggest killer, in Autralia. he knows from looking back at research over 100 years.

    LISTEN TO IT ALL. disgraceful.

    50

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      pat:

      “Our ABC” can’t get a majority of people who have their TV tuned to one of their stations for 1 minute a week. Why should I boost their numbers?

      And why do Pippa Pig etc. feature so heavily in their claims of relevance? Is that the average mental age of those who do watch the ABC?

      70

    • #
      pat

      ***Fran’s breakfast guest, Richard Thornton:

      20 Sept: Thomson Reuters Foundation: Feature: As Europe scorches, goats and sheep fight wildfires one bite at a time
      Reporting by Lin Taylor, Editing by Laurie Goering and Megan Rowling
      It’s a scenario that has become all too familiar in recent months. Over the summer, Europe was scorched by wildfires, fueled by hotter temperatures, high winds and poorly managed forest and scrubland that can often burn along roads and near villages and towns, fire experts say.
      Exceptionally dry and hot weather in June ignited Portugal’s worst fire disaster in memory, killing 64 people and injuring a further 160. Fires continued to flare afterward with the arrival of each new hotter spell of weather…

      “GOING TO GET WORSE”
      As temperatures rise as a result of climate change, Europe’s death toll from weather disasters, including heatwaves, wildfires and drought, could increase 50-fold by the end of this century, according to a study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.
      “With human-caused climate change, it’s just going to get worse,” said fire expert David Karoly from the University of Melbourne in Australia – a largely arid country prone to what are known as ‘bushfires’.

      Karoly said climate change is increasing the likelihood of weather conditions that are conducive to wildfires – namely, less rainfall and hotter temperatures.
      “Not only do we have more intense and more frequent fires, but the fire season is starting earlier in the year and lasting longer – and all of that is due to climate change,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

      ***Extreme fires that were once rare, such as the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires that killed 173 Australians in 2009, will become more frequent, predicted Richard Thornton, director of the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Center in Australia.
      “We’re seeing the same with floods, the same with heatwaves – what used to be a one-in-a-thousand-year event is now much more frequent,” he said.
      Though wildfires are common in hot Mediterranean regions, in the coming decades they are expected to occur more often as well in cooler northern European countries such as Britain, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, due to rising temperatures, Thornton said…
      “The fires will move further north into areas that are not traditionally fire-prone,” he said. “So a lot of countries are now having to think about how to do things differently.” …
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heatwave-wildfire-goats/feature-as-europe-scorches-goats-and-sheep-fight-wildfires-one-bite-at-a-time-idUSKCN1BV00W

      re the main writer, Lin Taylor:

      LinkedIn: Lin Taylor
      Journalist covering global humanitarian issues, London, United Kingdom
      Previous: Previous
      CNN, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia
      Education: University of Technology, Sydney…ETC
      https://au.linkedin.com/in/lintaylor

      more on Richard Thornton:

      The Conversation: Richard Thornton
      Dr Richard Thornton is the CEO of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, where he manages the $47M investment by the Commonwealth government which is matched by cash and in-kind contributions from States, Territories, research organisations and not-for-profit organisations. The research agenda is comprised of around 40 separate but interconnected research projects as well as support for up to 50 PhD scholarships.
      Previously, he was Deputy CEO and Research Director of the Bushfire CRC, a role he held from 2004 until mid-2013. His responsibilities included leadership and oversight of the research program…

      5 Sept: SBS: AAP: Populated areas at risk of bushfire this season
      Populated areas of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia have been marked “red” in the 2017 Southern Australia Seasonal Bushfire Outlook…

      ***Chief executive of Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre Dr Richard Thornton said that overall temperatures had been increasing on an annual basis, leading to an increase in fire danger.
      “Fire danger is high virtually every year now,” Dr Thornton told reporters.
      “This is becoming the new normal.”

      20

    • #
      Annie

      I don’t think I can bear to Pat. So many l**s and distortions of the truth. Never mind the forests being extra- combustible, thanks to the minority greenies being give power way beyond what their actual numbers justify, never mind the fact that a lot of us, far from having a warmer winter have had a markedly cold and long one. The recent rain leading to rampant growth will cause trouble from a fire point of view if we get hot dry weather.
      Droughts, flooding rains, bushfires….what’s new? Except that the bushfires become firestorms as in 2009 thanks to lack of cool burns and clearing…I blame all the greenie wets.

      60

      • #
        Dennis

        Australia, as we now refer to this country, was managed by controlled seasonal fires and removal of growth that would have choked the bush and provided fuel for very hot fires.

        The Australian Aborigines looked after country for tens of thousands of years, new settlers made changes to the land and not always for the better.

        And then along came the green curse.

        60

  • #
    RoHa

    “In Australia, we’ve had ten years of disappointing government.”

    I make it one hundred and sixteen years.

    60

    • #
      Dennis

      I disagree, Australia has done very well as a nation despite the changes in politicians and related governments.

      The modern problem is socialism and the Union Labor Greens are the culprits, with some exceptions in the ALP, but from Whitlam Labor Government the post war development and prosperity resulting came to a crashing halt. With Hawke Labor some sanity returned such as “the accord” with the unions and the major economic reform process commenced, based on the Liberal Treasurer Howard “Campbell Report” his reforms were based on. But the deregulation of the banking and finance industry coupled to currency deregulation, and no checks and balances, resulted in the economy over heating and the worst recession for 60 years.

      We then had almost 12 years of moving forward, Australian Prudential regulatory Authority established 1998, economic reform process continued and good management. By 2007 our standard of living in OECD listing was 8th down from 13th in 1996.

      But the rot set in again with the Rudd Labor Government.

      The following Abbott Coalition Government based on independent audit of Labor’s last budget set out a budget repair plan and return to balance or surplus in their first budget announced May 2014.

      But that was cut short when the Turnbull black hand faction replaced PM Abbott and Treasurer Costello.

      “The Lucky Country” has prospered despite the rogue politicians we have suffered. But also because to the good guys that carried out repairs in between unlucky periods.

      Hopefully a good guy leading good guy patriots will be in government again soon.

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    Another Ian

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/10/10/maganomics-pruitt-at-the-plate/#more-139736

    “President Trump is uniquely qualified as a successful businessman (non-politician) to have developed actual life-skills on Main Street that help him see the bigger value in policy shifts. Politicians usually speak in esoteric terms about economic “costs”; but President Trump has direct experience in how shifts in costs can directly contribute to the Main Street economy.

    Manufacturing and industry sectors have three top-tier costs as they transfer to Main Street: 1) Raw materials (or finished goods depending on sector); 2) Labor costs; and 3) energy costs. If you lower any of the three drivers you lower the cost of business operations.

    President Trump is actually the only President in modern history who is working to lower both material costs and energy costs simultaneously. In doing so, the short term benefit to the middle-class worker is a lower consumable good prices and subsequently a higher level of disposable income.

    In essence by lowering material and energy costs the internal economic action actually gives a raise to the middle-class faster than waiting for full economic expansion/growth to drive wage rates higher.

    See how that works?”

    The Abbott critics would choke on this!

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    OldOzzie

    Tony Abbott’s climate change claims just don’t stack up (ABC again)
    Andrew Street starts with “Heatwaves are better than cold snaps…”, but has to admit that “That first claim appears to be true”.

    Try putting ‘global warming’ in perspective

    Maybe people should put global warming in perspective.

    In Chicago in July 1995, there were over 700 heat-related deaths. In the twenty years after 1995, there were only 585 total heat-related deaths (less than 30 per year) and over 1,000 cold-related deaths. Does that look like a global warming trend? My guess is that national statistics look similar.

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  • #
    pat

    McKenna speaks for the Inuit? not really. just an alleged encounter with a 14-year-old boy:

    10 Oct: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Canada to Tony Abbott: Inuit don’t think climate change is ‘probably good’4
    (Environment minister) Catherine McKenna told a Chatham House conference she did not normally spend much time talking about climate science, preferring to focus on policy.
    “Unfortunately, some people in positions of power continue to propagate myths, including yesterday just here in London,” she said…

    McKenna described meeting indigenous youth in Canada’s high Arctic region, which is warming three times as fast as the rest of the country.

    One 14-year-old boy came to her with a list of environmental changes he thought might be caused by climate change. These included a decline in caribou numbers and experienced hunters falling through thinning sea ice and being lost forever. His observations were backed up by a climate scientist in the group.
    “I can say with complete and utter certainty my young Inuit friend does not think that climate change is ‘probably good’,” said McKenna…

    Abbott’s speech was heavily criticised back in Australia, with the Labor opposition’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek describing it as “weird stuff”…
    Former British climate minister Ed Miliband was also scathing, tweeting coverage with the comment: “I know Donald Trump has lowered the bar for idiocy but…”…
    McKenna also talked up Canada’s pledge to phase out coal by 2030 – “coal isn’t coming back” – and the jobs being created in clean technology sectors…

    ***Asked if tar sands’ heyday was over, McKenna defended the government’s backing for pipelines. “We still are going to get our resources to market in the near term; we are still going to use oil and gas,” she said. “I am elected to represent the people of Canada… that includes tar sands workers.”
    http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/10/canada-tony-abbott-inuit-dont-think-climate-change-probably-good/

    meanwhile, McKenna was hanging out at this exciting event! sponsors HSBC, Munich Re; speakers include Rachel Kyte, Laurence Tubiana, Greenpeace, etc:

    9 Oct: Chatham House: Climate Change 2017
    Politics, progress and potential
    This 21st annual Chatham House Climate Change conference will address:
    ◾New dynamics of international leadership of the climate change agenda
    ◾Mobilising capital for the low carbon transition
    ◾Business responses to disruptive change brought by climate change and the clean energy transition
    ◾The future of carbon pricing regimes and the prospects for expansion

    The Chatham House Rule
    ***To enable as open a debate as possible, this conference will be held under the Chatham House Rule.
    https://www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/climate-change-2017

    ***aren’t we important?

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    • #
      KinkyKeith

      An “experienced” Hunter falls through the ice and is lost forever.

      Caused by KLIMATE change.

      Definitely not caused by stupidity.

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    pat

    11 Oct: CNN: EPA makes ‘climate change’ vanish from four-year plan
    By Rene Marsh and Gregory Wallace
    The Environmental Protection Agency has identified its priorities, and climate change is not one of them.
    In fact, the phrase “climate change” does not appear in the agency’s draft four-year strategic plan, a 38-page document quietly released for public comment last week.

    The three priorities outlined in the plan are consistent with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s public comments about how he plans to run the agency: focus on the “core mission” of clean air, land and water…
    What doesn’t appear in the agency’s strategic plan for 2018 through 2022 is any mention of the words climate change or the causes behind it, including carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions…

    Dr. Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy manger with the Union Of Concerned Scientists, blasted the removal of climate change from the report.
    “Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time and it doesn’t even appear in the strategic plan for this agency — that’s stunning,” Cleetus said. “This wasn’t an oversight, this is a deliberate strategy by this administration.”…
    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/epa-climate-report/index.html

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  • #
    Michael Cunningham (aka Faustino aka Genghis Cunn)

    My letter to the Oz:

    Paying people not to use energy after heavily subsidizing unreliable sources is adding madness to madness. Better to have blackouts so those who aren’t aware of our self-created mess finally get the message. And, yes, Mr Frydenberg, cold is far more deadly than heat, and the last Ice Age almost wiped out the human race, reducing the population to about 15,000.

    I don’t believe that the case for dangerous warming has been made, nor do I accept that more warming would be net harmful. But even if dangerous warming does lie ahead, Australia’s policies are destroying our economy for negligible impact on any further warming. It’s not a question of believing the scientists, it’s about rational policy. The future is always uncertain, the best response is to increase the growth and flexibility of our economy so that we are better equipped to deal with whatever comes our away, good or bad.

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    • #
      Serp

      Yep, I agree completely.

      I fear it’s too late for any rational intervention as we’re now descending into hare brained schemes — an election promise of batteries to be rolled out to suburban Adelaide homes!

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      • #
        KinkyKeith

        The proposition that the solution to the energy crisis is to “roll out batteries” is so far divorced from reality that I am forced to make a request.

        Can we please have some adults in parliament.

        KK

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    el gordo

    ‘Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said it was time for the Liberal Party to take away Mr Abbott’s megaphone.

    “The Liberal Party, if it wants to stop giving Tony Abbott a platform for his wrecking, should move to disendorse him. If not, it is tacit acceptance of the promotion of climate change denialism,” he said.

    SMH

    ———

    If they disendorse Tony, he could join Cory.

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  • #
    Leo Morgan

    I went to view the evidence on the ABC link.
    It reads “Episodes are normally available for 14 days.”
    Elsewhere on the page it reads:
    “This episode was published 10 Oct 2017. It was available until Wed 11 Oct 2017.

    Error or concealment?

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  • #
    Leo Morgan

    I went to view the evidence on the ABC link.
    It reads “Episodes are normally available for 14 days.”
    Elsewhere on the page it reads:
    “This episode was published 10 Oct 2017. It was available until Wed 11 Oct 2017. ”

    Error or concealment?

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    Guy Leech

    I attended the Tony Abbott GWPF speech and I thought it was well written and well delivered. I was impressed with his answers in the Q&A because he thought on his feet and articulated thoughtful responses. Almost all the points in his speech and in his answers, however, were simple ones which could have been culled from the last ten or fifteen years of postings and comments on climate sceptic websites – WUWT, Bishop Hill, Climate Audit, Jo Nova, Judith Curry etc, from NIPCC reports and from the series of good books on the subject, e.g. those by Bob Carter, Nigel Lawson, Christopher Booker, Andrew Montford, Harold Ambler, Tim Ball, James Delingpole, Rupert Darwall and many others. He even gave two name checks to Matt Ridley who was in the audience.

    So what I think is interesting about this is that Tony Abbott makes headlines by articulating facts and arguments which are long familiar to those who care to study the subject because he’s a prominent public figure, not because he’s being original or that he’s an authority in the field. It is the psychology of delusions, the madness of crowds which I am beginning to find more interesting than the subject of climate change itself. Is that why four of the leading sceptic website hosts of the past ten years have more or less stopped their work?

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    • #

      Not everyone has the time to do original research and craft original thoughts.
      I certainly don’t have the time to wheel, deal and network to the top of a political party.

      Don’t begrudge that others have already said what Abbott said to some degree. When most of the people you name do speeches it doesn’t garner world wide news attention. Abbott has spent years getting to the position where he could achieve that. He had to build up political capital in order to spend it.

      We all wish the media would simply assess an idea and a speech based purely on its own merits, but few minds seem able to do that AND to be in a position to control the machines/trucks/distribution networks that get words onto paper/screens and into homes. That’s a shame.

      Only a big team, a network can take apart a paradigm with so much money, support and identities behind it. No one man…

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    Guy Leech

    Thanks you for responding to my comment Jo – I agree with all you say and I’m sorry if my comment came across as critical of Tony Abbott. I admire his courage enormously and agree with all he said in his speech & the Q&A – public figures who take a stand against climate change orthodoxy take a great risk with their reputations and can be sure of being attacked from many sides. He, Nigel Lawson, Vaclav Klaus, Fritz Varenholt, David Bellamy, Matt Ridley himself and a few others are all high profile figures who have suffered from talking sense on the subject but not been intimidated or backed down. I didn’t mean to criticise Tony Abbott for not being original; I was trying to make the point that anyone who wanted to know would have learned about what he said long ago; the criticism implied was of the naivety of the coverage and political response, not criticism of the the speaker. Maybe if David Beckham, Kim Kardashian & Kylie Minogue delivered the same speech, we would really make progress.

    I was musing rather aimlessly about the fact that it is when these high profile people articulate points you and others know so well, they stir up a storm when it’s so easy for journalists and other politicians to read up on the subject, but thy don’t. When I was a student, I thought that the evolution of ideas from the Enlightenment onwards was a continuously upwards path where rationality and empiricism gradually displaced superstition and each generation understood the world better than the last. I don’t think that any longer and in my earlier comment I was alluding to the Madness of Crowds as one sort of explanation of why this is the case. A couple other books I’ve found interesting on this sort of subject are Matt Ridley (him again, I’m a bit of a fan-boy) “The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature” and Peter Foster’s “Why We Bite the Invisible Hand: The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism” (should be much more widely known) which both explore and explain much human behaviour and thought processes in the context of evolutionary psychology.

    Another connected musing I’ll table is – what triggers the end of these subsidy manias? Is it, as in the case of the Soviet Union, economic collapse? Or is there a social or economic process which causes them to wither and die? And on a lightly different issue, is the slow or negligible productivity growth in the UK and other developed countries in the last ten years which so mystifies analysts a result of the misallocation of capital to high cost energy production and the pricing of a supposed but non existent negative externality what is driving our economies to a point where these climate change policies are dropped because they are unaffordable?

    01