Dumb poll, fake headline: Not climate change, 70% of Australians want cheap reliable electricity, 61% biggest worry is “cost of living”.

One survey — so much spin

The Fin Review headline is entirely misleading. “Climate rises as the No. 1 voter concern“. In fact, the same survey shows that two thirds of Australians didn’t even mention “climate change” as one of their top three concerns. The exact same survey shows that when prompted with different topics (rather than just asked what was on the top of their mind) the main concern of a whopping 61% was “cost of living”. Only 34% had said “climate change” in the unprompted question, and that was probably only because climate change is all over the media with bushfires, droughts and duststorms this month. It was the first issue that came into their heads, but not the issue they cared about when asked to choose among the major issues.

The exact same survey also showed that when it comes to Energy Policy fully 70% of Australians wanted cheap reliable energy more than they want “lower emissions”.

Australians prioritise energy affordability (38%), ahead of security and reliability (32%) and reducing emissions (30%).

So the message is unmistakable, yet JWS and all the media missed it.  The JWS media release appears to have an agenda. How could JWS miss the main meaning in their own survey? Somehow none of the media geniuses bothered to check the results of the original survey.  Phillip Coorey of the Fin Review swallowed the press release saying “climate change was No.1 concern” when five minutes of analysis shows the opposite.

UPDATE: Not only that but as TdeF points out they’ve bundled “environment” and “climate change” together. Many studies show that far more people are concerned about water pollution, litter, extinction, crown of thorns and other environmental causes. 55% of the population worries about water pollution but only 32% feel the same level of concern for global warming. (Gallop poll, 2015). In 2016 Australians were just as concerned about beach litter as they were about climate change. (Goldberg et al). If JWS was serious about finding out what people thought about climate change (as in their press release) they would ask better questions to find that answer. If, however, they were being paid to create a particular headline, they would conflate the two, ignore their own contradictory data….

What’s top of mind? Whatever the media say:

This first graph is mostly just a proxy for media coverage.

Poll, Australians, 2019, JWS, cost of living, concerns, climate change, graph.

Whereas, the same group said something totally different when prompted with a bigger list of topics.

Send this graph and the next one to your M.P. and send a letter to the Editor. Don’t let gullible politicians be fooled into thinking that the voters will actually vote “for climate change”.

Poll, Australians, 2019, JWS, cost of living, concerns.

And on energy policy, the 30% who care most about reducing emissions are probably already voting for the Greens or Labor.

Energy policy, survey, poll, emissions reductions, climate change, affordability.

..

 

Four take home messages from the survey:

Firstly, even if 34% of Australians put it as their top concern, that means two-thirds didn’t.  In an unprompted survey, two thirds of Australians didn’t mention “climate change” as one of their top three concerns.

Secondly, an unprompted survey invites people to repeat items they’ve seen in the news — and since the media go on and on about climate change and aging, it’s hardly a surprise that that’s the first thing to spring into people’s minds.

Thirdly, when prompted with topics, climate change rapidly falls down the list. Instead, 61% of of Australian’s name “cost of living” as their main concern. It’s not so sexy, not in the news, but that’s what they really care about. If the media stopped obsessing about the fake Climate Emergency, almost no one would name “climate change” at all.

Fourthly, most Australians want cheaper and more reliable electricity, not “emissions reductions”.

Do the maths. The people deciding elections are not the ones who think solar panels cause global “climate control”.

REFERENCE

Jeremy Goldberg, Nadine Marshall, Alastair Birtles, Peter CaseErin Bohensky Matt Curnock Margaret Gooch  Howard Parry-Husbands , Petina Pert , Renae Tobin , Christopher Villani  & Bernard Visperas (2016) Climate change, the Great Barrier Reef and the response of Australians  Palgrave Communications 2, Article number: 15046 (2016)   doi:10.1057/palcomms.2015.46

9.5 out of 10 based on 50 ratings

121 comments to Dumb poll, fake headline: Not climate change, 70% of Australians want cheap reliable electricity, 61% biggest worry is “cost of living”.

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    This whole thing is a disgusting illustration of how far “leadership” has gone off the rails.

    Politics has corrupted our basic services;

    Water supply, stuffed. Level 6 water restrictions are now in force. Obey or else. No more dams.

    Electricity supply; if you go “online” you can get a better deal. Scomo; if needed, I can hit them with a big stick!

    Education: what education?

    You must learn to read bar graphs, you old people: bar graphs don’t lie: especially those from the government.

    KK

    280

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Well the Fin usually has an intelligent readership, funny how the eds and readers dont seem to match….

      70

      • #

        The Fin Review has been a Leftist rag for some years now, totally unreliable and fully dressed in a warming worrier suit. The Australian is also rapidly heading in the same direction with its increasingly Leftist bent.

        230

      • #
        sophocles

        It’s intensification of the Propaganda Campaign — the democracies are not demanding Socialism fast enough or hard enough, yet.
        The media have to, just have to, push the KC (Klimate Change) meme harder and harder at us!

        I was outside this morning, looking at and enjoying the early stages of the diurnal climate change. It was about 18° C or so it felt and the sun had only just scraped over the eastern horizon. I couldn’t see it: it was all wrapped up in white cotton wool like the rest of the sky. You could tell roughly where it was by the light. Yep, there was definitely going to be more climate change during the rest of the day: the temperature is going to increase to a prophesised maximum of c. 23° C. That’s a little more than the UN’s desired 1.5° … but for this time of year, that’s slightly on the cool side. The Svensmark Effect means that that shouldn’t be surprising. So yes, it’s visible and it’s all around us, but nothing to worry about: it’s just weather, as usual.

        120

        • #
          GD

          it’s just weather, as usual

          Maybe. Every week’s forecast of warmer or hotter days here in Geelong lately has been downgraded to much cooler days. The cooler days have then happened.

          20

  • #

    I want a better future for our children, fewer black jellybeans in Allen’s packs, world peace and more NRL games at suburban grounds.

    But ask me tomorrow and I might say something else.

    One opinion remains constant, however: I want an end to the mendacious dogspew of surveys, polls and statistics.

    280

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      🙂 🙂

      71

    • #

      And talk about false headlines etc, this one has to take the cake:

      Black Carbon Found in the Amazon River – Most From Recent Forest Burnings

      Black carbon as opposed to what, colourless carbon?

      100

      • #
        sophocles

        White carbon?

        70

      • #
        truth

        Just plain soot…that deposits on polar ice..glaciers and permafrost…melts the Arctic and Antarctic ice..destroying albedo…leaving dark water that absorbs more solar heat that should have been reflected…warm dark water that melts ever more ice ….setting up a soot-made self-perpetuating GW cycle that the High Priests of the HOAX ignore …knowing that warmist scientists testified to Congress in 2010 that soot could be to blame for more than 50% of the very slight warming…that it’s relatively easily mitigated compared with CO2….that it’s not much use doing anything else with that unmitigated..

        The fact that IPCC and the world’s poobahs of CAGW have allowed the sources of the soot…fires for palm oil plantations and soy crops etc the main ones… to blaze away every year since…that they pull every propaganda trick in the book to alarm the world about CO2 from coal…..remain silent about the much more potent GHG emissions from turbine and solar panel manufacture…ie SF6:23000x potency and resident 1000years in the atmosphere and NF3: 17200x potency and resident 100years…that they are more intent on bringing down clean…successful…environmentally sound democracies like Australia…demanding we relinquish huge elements of our sovereignty…security [food…health and military]….lifestyle and our children’s futures…to be herded into despot-ridden UN-administered Global Socialist control of our future….no going back…proves IMO without any question of doubt….that CAGW is the criminal hoax of the millennium…..the ultimate Armageddon for freedom in the world.

        80

    • #
      Lawrie

      I like black jelly beans. What’s your problem? You do realise that some might say you are showing racist tendencies by being biased against black jelly beans. I think the white ones are too sweet, sugary.

      40

  • #
    WXcycles

    Australian Financial Review, eh?

    Going to remember that bunch of “Gillettes”.

    No trading with the enemy.

    110

    • #
      David Maddison

      I don’t think Australia has a single conservative or rational paper anymore. Even “The Australian” has taken a turn to the Left.

      60

  • #
    Deplorable Lord Kek

    yep, it’s a big mess.

    how did it happen?

    1. politicians (by and large) don’t work for us, they work for the factions that put them in ‘their’ ‘safe’ seats and their lobbyists.

    2. the permanent bureaucracy has its own ideas about how the country is going to be run.

    voters are just an annoying inconvenience on the way to their globalist utopia (aka the slave pen of the ‘elites’).

    240

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Letter from the Nats today about all the good stuff their (supposedly) doing and on the back was a questionnaire much the same as above only the climate change issue was missing .

    30

  • #
    Zigmaster

    Whilst you’re right to say it’s a dumb response to a dumb poll. The fact that they had both prompted and unprompted responses is clear acknowledgement that an unprompted response is not necessary a reflection of people’s views. What it shows is the reality that whilst people have an emotional response fed by the pushy indoctrinating media, politicians and educators which makes them say climate change is a moral issue they should care about. When they have the ability to use their brains they then realise that there are in fact many other issues that are more important. If they are then pushed to decide what to spend their own money spent on climate change goes even further down the pecking order.

    140

  • #
    TdeF

    It’s another leading Yes Minister question, either way. The Environment AND Climate Change.

    One is a matter of concern. The other is not true.

    However if you are concerned about the environment and who isn’t, you find you have voted for the truth of Climate Change, whatever that is.

    I wonder if Climate Change was on the list by itself it would rate any votes?

    320

    • #

      Excellent point TdeF. Will add to post.

      140

      • #

        Added to the post:

        UPDATE: Not only that but as TdeF points out they’ve bundled “environment” and “climate change” together. Many studies show that far more people are concerned about water pollution, litter, extinction, crown of thorns and other environmental causes. 55% of the population worries about water pollution but only 32% feel the same level of concern for global warming. (Gallop poll, 2015). In 2016 Australians were just as concerned about beach litter as they were about climate change. (Goldberg et al). If JWS was serious about finding out what people thought about climate change (as in their press release) they would ask better questions to find that answer. If, however, they were being paid to create a particular headline, they would conflate the two, ignore their own contradictory data….

        210

        • #
          Dennis

          National Parks being looked after for future generations.

          Therefore no sustainable logging, no dams, no minerals and energy exploration, block off access tracks including for fire fighting purposes, token fuel hazard reduction activities to counter complaints in the event of damaging out of control wild fires, globalism socialism rules.

          90

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Its called Agenda 21 & rewilding.

            The Elite figure of they can get the population down soon-ish ( probably large WW3 by pitting chunks of humanity against each other ), but also mount a massive “no fiossil fuels” propaganda campaign before hand ( powered by a veritble smorgasboard of Soros-funded ships of fools & useful idiots ) then all the fossil fuels will be there just for *them*, and no need to share it with the 10% of humanity left after the Elites planned conflagration…..

            Clever, no?

            111

    • #

      That’s how all these surveys are represented nowadays, concern about the environment is taken as concern about climate change. This started many years ago because people weren’t concerned about climate change. But they are concerned about how the cost of all these climate change activities affects their lives.

      130

  • #
    nb

    The only way forward, to get to the next level, is for the government to create more jobs. Jeremy Corbyn understands it. We need more jobs in regulation, more jobs in government approval, more jobs in climate research, more jobs in government inspection. This has a twofold benefit. Not only do we create a safer happier society and more jobs through extending government oversight, but the economy will boom because of the level playing field and equality for everyone.
    Vote Labor, or Labour, or Democrat. And if you don’t, don’t worry, we’ll ignore it. Watch the ABC or BBC or CNN to find out more.

    90

  • #

    Jo, I really did appreciate the ‘crown of thorns’ bit, but you probably will receive some snot for offending some folk who still believe in miracles; or something.

    60

    • #
      sophocles

      I was invited to dinner at some friends earlier this week and I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever be invited back. Another guest set forth on the environmental/climate damage meme and the harm mankind had done to the planet over the previous century. I agreed, pointing out the extreme nitrous/nitrate emissions from all the explosives used during the First and Second World Wars over their combined ten years and megatonnes, and the smaller but not much less significant emissions of the Korean and Viet Namese conflagrations.

      I wonder why the conversation stopped? I hadn’t said anything about the unfair treatment of the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and given the “Klimate Change” the conversation suffered, I’m glad I wasn’t that “tasteless.” I could see my host was desperately trying to keep a straight face (he is an ex-industrial chemist turned farmer) and our hostess (also an ex-industrial chemist) had rushed out to the kitchen — to “rescue the desert” — but it must have been something I said which killed that subject … so they weren’t the source of the conversational “Younger Dryas.”

      Ah well. Maybe it was all the cooling over the 1950’s through to the 1980’s …

      Some people are easily offended …

      160

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Well, combatting Klimate Change brainwashing is ultimately a battle of wits…in your case you clearly had the upper hand…..and by sounds of it you had no discernable opposition.

        This is the problem with a whole fragile and emotive subject that is really just a delinquent emo teenager dressed up in “science”….

        50

  • #
    william Bauerhuit

    PM Morrison campaigned to lower power bills by 25%, 2019 election

    My power bill are still going UP

    Trump NO Paris agreement, Today power cost are still 30% of what they are in Australia?

    Why are we still in the Paris agreement

    190

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      “Why are we still in the Paris agreement?”

      Anyone remember voting for Australia to commit to Agenda21/2030?

      The SDGs embody Australian values and our ambitions for our region: prosperity, stability and inclusivity.
      We joined with others to reaffirm our commitment to the UN’s 2030 Agenda at September’s SDG Summit.
      https://twitter.com/AustraliaUNDPR/status/1184151987220336640

      pdf: https://unny.mission.gov.au/files/unny/151019_adoption_of_the_sdg_summit_political_declaration.pdf

      110

      • #
        Russell

        Who the Hades is this Tegan Brink anyway? OK, apparently she’s our UN Ambassador but I’ve never heard of her and I certainly don’t support her views (nor those of our Federal Government if, as I assume, Ms Brink is expressing those views and commitments). We definitely need some sort of public consultation on this SDG topic – I don’t believe the majority, nor even a small minority, of our population is aware of the commitments this woman is making, ostensibly on our behalf.

        70

    • #
      robert rosicka

      The Libs had reduced electricity prices in some states a small amount but there is nothing the Feds can do about failed socialist states like ours in Victoriastan and South oz .

      60

    • #
      John in Oz

      My recent email to my local (SA) member:

      I hear WE are to spend another $50M on more batteries in SA and the Minister is shouting loud and proud that electricity prices are falling.

      MY per KwH power prices are/have been:

      Oct – Dec 17 $0.38
      Jan – Mar 17 $0.38
      Mar – Jun 18 $0.38
      Jul – Sep 18 $0.378
      Oct – Dec 18 $0.378
      Jan – Mar 19 $0.378
      Mar – Jun 19 $0.378
      Jul – Sep 19 $0.378

      I am sufficiently aware to be able to analyse pricing regimes to get the best deal I can so I do not need suggestions to ‘shop around’ for better deals as they all work out to be around the same annual cost as lower KwH rates are offset by higher daily supply charges

      The 0.2c/KwH reduction over 2 years is nothing to crow about, especially with so much money being thrown at ‘renewables’.

      There is also much being made in the press at the moment about the lack of capacity in the coming Summer months in SA and Vic. Well done all those touting for wind and solar whilst destroying the reliable, constant, base-load, coal-fired power stations that used to provide cheap electricity

      Please pass my lack of appreciation on to the Minister.

      140

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        John in Oz
        Did you get a response from dan Cregan our local Liberal state MP ?
        Of course all local Hills members are concerned about the Adelaide Hills Courier’s constant propaganda nonsense
        About ‘Klimate Change”.
        It seems that parading it’s virtues on this issue has become a way of being ‘profitable’ for the Courier.
        So I have simply stopped buying it.
        I look at in the local library instead
        At NO cost to me
        Or any financial benefit to the Courier

        20

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          PS A climate catastrophe is happening
          To all my Summer garden plantings
          Tomatoes, Capsicums, Zuchinis, Cucumbers etc
          Why ?
          Because each morning it is so bloody cold !
          Five, Six & Seven degrees minimums
          In Late November !
          WE need some more Global warming here in Mt Barker SA !

          30

          • #
            greggg

            I’ve been growing bacopa for twenty something years, which largely dies off over winter. This year it has barely survived winter and there has been very little new growth because of the cold. 1.6 degrees colder than average this month here according to the BOM, so in reality more like 2 degrees colder.

            10

            • #
              OriginalSteve

              We had our open fire going 2 days ago….if this is climate change bring it on….

              10

            • #
              Bill In Oz

              You mean Brahmi…
              Ummmmm ?
              Yes it does not like the cold.

              Today I spent an hour or so pruning my nectarine & peach trees.
              In full flower they were,
              When a huge cold frost dropped by 4 weeks ago.
              Flowers frosted off
              And branches killed off as well.
              I wondered if they were all dead.
              Frankly I’d prefer some global warming
              Than our current cooling.
              But no each has now grown new leaves from further down the branches.

              00

    • #
      Dennis

      As with water supplies the web is difficult to follow and is protected with red and green tape regulations, and most importantly administration is a cooperative of federal and state governments, and industry members, with federal government responsible for signing international (UN) treaties and cooperating with the state and local governments to implement and manage.

      The federal government does not have primary responsibility for water or energy, or the development applications approval power.

      AEMO for example;

      AEMO is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Corporations Act. We operate on a cost recovery basis and recover our operating costs through fees paid by market participants. Our members are made up of Australian governments (60%) and industry participants (40%).
      AEMO operates under the governance of a Board of nine skills-based non-Executive Directors and the Chief Executive Officer.
      The Board’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
      Oversight of AEMO’s activities to achieve the objectives set out in its Constitution.
      Setting AEMO’s goals and strategy.
      Determining the financial, operational, human, technological, and administrative resources AEMO needs to meet its objectives and goals
      Establishing and maintaining adequate and effective reporting lines and procedures.
      Approving AEMO budgets and monitoring compliance with financial reporting obligations.
      Appointing the Managing Director.
      Reviewing and assessing the performance of AEMO’s senior management.
      Establishing and approving the charters of Board Committees.
      Establishing effective controls and procedures to enable key risks to be identified, assessed, and managed.
      Monitoring compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements including occupational health and safety, equal opportunity, environmental, corporate governance, and reporting obligations.
      Reporting to AEMO’s members.
      The day-to-day management of AEMO is delegated to the Managing Director with support from Board Committees as appropriate.
      AEMO operates within a broader energy market governance structure alongside the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).
      The Board has approved various policies and procedures as part of its Corporate Governance Framework which include:

      20

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Dennis – if you think the government does not have the prime role in the Energy Market you are mistaken;
        For AEMO – Our members are made up of Australian governments (60%) and industry participants (40%).
        For AER – The AER has an independent Board made up of one Commonwealth member and two state/territory members. The Governor-General appoints the members for terms of up to five years. One member is appointed as chair.

        So both the operator and the regulator are the government, in effect.

        03

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Dealing with beaurocracy is easy….take one bulldozer…engage forward…..

        30

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    “Do not look at that man behind the screen”

    – The Wizard of Oz

    “Wizard of Oz”

    40

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Vale Clive James.

    I used one of his poems for my song, No Global Warming Catastrophe:

    https://travistjones.bandcamp.com/track/no-global-warming-catastrophe

    70

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    So which comes first – the reporting or the concern?
    If it is the reporting, then climate stories drive sales and therefore revenue
    If it’ is concern, then where did that become newsworthy enough?

    120

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘So which comes first – the reporting or the concern?’

      The journalists are to blame for climate hysteria, there is no doubt. There are three pillars holding up the AGW myth: MSM, politics and science.

      If tomorrow all the media began to tell the truth, that global warming has ended, then the game would be over.

      170

    • #
      sophocles

      As the concern is based on what is purely an exercise in propaganda, it’s not at all important.

      110

    • #
      el gordo

      Here is aunty talking about the coming season and I can’t fault it, doesn’t mention climate change.

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-28/bom-summer-outlook/11734828

      SAM is negative.

      50

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      So most of the internet lists these as the criteria for newsworthiness

      1) Impact. People want to know how a story is going to affect them. …
      2) Timeliness. It’s called news for a reason—because it’s new information. …
      3) Proximity. …
      4) Human Interest. …
      5) Conflict. …
      6) The Bizarre. …
      7) Celebrity.

      The bottom 3 get rearranged depending on which site you visit. – but I’m guessing that Bizarre is the category for the environment and climate change

      As to splitting the Climate Change issue from the Environment (including the urban environment) – how? are they not inextricably linked?

      Finally
      “Firstly, even if 34% of Australians put it as their top concern, that means two-thirds didn’t”
      also means
      Cost of Living at 11% means that 9 out 10 didn’t feel that the cost of electricity (which is a cost of living) was an issue.

      This is a great survey, you can take away anything you want.

      111

      • #
        el gordo

        2) Timeliness. It’s called news for a reason—because it’s new information. …

        If you look at the Sky News setup there is a little news and a lot of opinion. In this way they create news.

        What people really want is a credible news source and hopefully analysts and commentators who can tell the masses what is going to happen.

        In the old days, before the communications revolution, good journalists were considered part of the intelligentsia. The credibility of wordsmiths needs to be restored.

        80

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          Yep, el gordo, and this decline coincides with the uptake of the internet. Until then, choice in news was constrained, but the coverage was broad Nowadays you can select your channel, filter topics and ignore anything you don’t like, narrowcasting.

          16

          • #
            sophocles

            Nowadays you can select your channel, filter topics and ignore anything you don’t like, narrowcasting.

            If only …

            90

          • #
            el gordo

            ‘ … this decline coincides with the uptake of the internet.’

            And now TV is going through withdrawals, Channel 7 sacks everyone and puts reality TV on a loop.

            30

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Except ironically we have more channels of nonsense…

            30

      • #
        sophocles

        As to splitting the Climate Change issue from the Environment (including the urban environment) – how? are they not inextricably linked?

        Nope. The environment is real, Klimate Change is invented — purely propaganda, which is Fictional.

        60

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          Definition of environment. 1 : the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded. 2a : the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (such as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. (Merriam-Webster)

          IT is a trope of this blog that the climate is always changing, and we are overdue for a cooler period. That cooler climate will change the environment.

          Now if we are talking about man made climate change, that is a beast of a different colour. Whereas this definition includes the build environment, which with aspects like the UHI, have changed the local climate.

          I’ll stick with the original remark – to split climate change from environment can not be done.

          19

          • #
            el gordo

            ‘ … to split climate change from environment can not be done.’

            We can try. Climate change is out of our hands and global warming a fiction, but I see where you’re coming from and concede.

            From memory Robert Baker at UNE is a strong believer in the power of solar cycles and is also involved with environmental science in built environments.

            50

          • #
            sophocles

            Climate Change is defined as solely the human contribution. As none has been found, nor proven, it’s propaganda so it can be ignored. Totally.

            Global Warming is not a fiction:it having been caused by been by changes in cloud cover, but Anthropogenic Global Warming is in the same category as Climate Change — Propaganda.

            50

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘Impact. People want to know how a story is going to affect them. …’

        What they want is nooze before it happens. Intuitive reporters and journalists, given a free hand, can do this.

        The collapse of institutional media outlets should create a vacuum to be filled by small independents on the interwebs.

        30

  • #
    graham dunton

    was so brilliant,
    Sad news, notified by Benny Peiser the gwpf.
    The link below is to a gwpf commemorative pdf.

    Clive James, Legendary Author, Poet, Humorist & Climate Sceptic Dies
    Our good friend and fellow climate sceptic, the Australian author, poet, journalist and humorist Clive James has died, aged 80.

    We republish his 2016 poem Imminent Catastrophe and his 2017 GWPF Essay ‘Mass Death Dies Hard’ in his memory.

    Benny Peiser

    https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2017/07/Clive-James.pdf?utm_source=CCNet+Newsletter&utm_campaign=62b7629648-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_27_04_49&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fe4b2f45ef-62b7629648-36429261&mc_cid=62b7629648&mc_eid=52f33a9b9c

    100

  • #
    Drapetomania

    but only 32% feel the same level of concern for global warming.

    Yet their faux concern does not mean they will touch their wallet..and will drive a car..and stay connected to the evil fossil fuel grid..
    But they are so brain dead they are happy for the “guvmint” to throw money in the air..because its not directly from their wallet.
    Enjoy the decline.. 🙂

    80

    • #
      Dennis

      Too many Australians are clueless as to where governments obtain money.

      Even former Labor PM Whitlam QC believed, according to his wife Margaret Whitlam appearing in the ABC series The Dismissal, that government had a bottomless pit of money to spend, not a clue apparently about printing money devalues the currency, etc.

      And Labor’s “Worlds Greatest Treasurer” Swan had strange views on matters including the debt is not a problem.

      50

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        And what exactly is the US doing then? They are printing money by the bucket load

        QE explained

        05

        • #
          el gordo

          We can all agree there won’t be a helicopter drop and so I’m thinking infrastructure spending and increased migration should keep the ship steady.

          50

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            We are on the road to .25 as the base rate – given inflation, even our current .75 is a negative rate. We are, in effect already printing money. If you want to know where it is all going, look at stock buybacks – the market is going private.

            13

  • #
    Bruce of Newcastle

    Polls are increasingly unreliable, as the following story today shows:

    Here’s How Reuters Gamed A Poll To Show Rising Support For Trump Impeachment

    The problem? Reuters sampled a disproportionate number of Democrats. Buried at the bottom of their report, they disclose:

    The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,118 adults, including 528 Democrats, 394 Republicans and 111 independents. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points.

    That is a breathtaking bias in respondents. I strongly suspect such tricks in any MSM poll about climate change, because the topic is the biggest political objective for activists like the AFR.

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    Robert Swan

    The “prompted” issues aren’t much chop. For a start, there are huge overlaps, e.g. “cost of living”, “employment and wages”, “economy and finances”, “housing and interest rates”. Secondly they are undirected. What are you to make of “Energy” as an issue? Devout warmists see it as an issue — more renewables. We see it as an issue — dump renewables. So what would large numbers tell you here? Not much.

    But the “unprompted” issues are even worse. If I were to drop my blanket ban on surveys and respond to this one, I’d put my #1 as “rampant bureaucracy that costs more but delivers less”. Now it’s up to whoever I’ve spoken to to turn that into whatever they like. Doesn’t look like a winner in the unprompteds, but they might class my issue under “vision and leadership” in the prompted list. And what would that tell you of my concerns? Nothing at all.

    A good reason to tell them nothing in the first place.

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    […] Jo Nova on spectacularly fake news at the Fin Rev. MUST READ! The Fin Review headline is entirely misleading. “Climate rises as the […]

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    pat

    Delingpole has picked up GWPF essay/poem:

    27 Nov: Breitbart: James Delingpole: RIP Clive James – Poet, Broadcaster And, More Importantly, Climate Sceptic
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/27/delingpole-rip-clive-james-poet-broadcaster-and-more-importantly-climate-sceptic/

    reiterating what has already been said, ABC RN “AM” omitted to mention James’s scepticism in their opening, then went on to an orgy of CAGW madness.

    ***”new data?” – ABC’s Australia Talks’ Vote Compass rubbish! note it begins in N Qld – who says Queenslanders won out over the “climate election”?
    we’re virtually all “believers”:

    AUDIO: 3min13sec: 28 Nov: ABC AM: Behind the rhetoric – farmers adapt to climate change
    By Caitlyn Gribbin on AM
    It’s a divisive debate in Australia – what role is climate change playing in our lives?
    Political parties have spent years arguing about it, but some farmers are now going it alone to respond to an issue they say is affecting their businesses.
    And ***new data shows most Australians agree something must be done about the changing climate.
    National rural reporter starts our story in north Queensland.
    Featured:
    Deb McLucas, Freckle Farm
    Rohan Thorn, farmer
    Jeff Burch, Margaret River wine maker
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/behind-the-rhetoric—farmers-quietly-adapt-to-climate-change/11744488

    summary doesn’t bother to say it’s been “scuttled” by Labor and the Greens who – when it comes to CAGW – says look at the science. SA farmers, near the Vic border, see their neighbours benefitting from the science:

    AUDIO: 2min45sec: 28 Nov: ABC AM: Plans to lift GM ban on for SA farmers scuttled by Opposition, Crossbenchers
    By Rhett Burnie on AM
    South Australia is the only mainland state that bans farmers from growing genetically modified food.
    The ban’s been in place for nearly 16 years and was due to be lifted by the State Government in just a few days time.
    Now it’s hit a political snag that’s seen it aborted at the eleventh hour, and farmers hoping to cash in on the practice have been left high and dry.
    Featured:
    Michael Hunt, grain grower
    Tim Whetstone, SA Minister for Primary Industries
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/plans-to-lift-gm-ban-on-for-sa-farmers-scuttled-by-opposition/11744514

    followed by reminder, coal kills, Labor to the rescue:

    AUDIO: 5min36sec: 28 Nov: ABC AM: Can Industrial Manslaughter laws stop Queensland mining deaths?
    by Katherine Gregory
    The family of a Queensland coal miner killed earlier this year has cautiously welcomed the (LABOR) state government’s announcement it will extend tougher industrial manslaughter laws to the mining industry.
    Featured:
    Brian Gerdes, father of miner who died
    Steve Smyth, CFMEU
    Dale Last, LNP’s shadow mining minister
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/can-industrial-manslaughter-laws-stop-queensland-mining-deaths/11744542

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    Peter C

    We have issues with:

    1. The cost of Electricity
    2. Reliability of Supply
    3. Quality of Supply

    This email received from an electrtical expert at our clubhouse near Bacchus Marsh;

    The main use of the UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is to protect the equipment from the poor quality power, as opposed to a power outage. Out issue is with outages of a couple of seconds.

    All the failed web cams have been lost due to poor power quality. The only one that has survived to date is the one that was connected to the UPS in the club house. We have lost many routers, numerous web cams, OGN stations and management computers.

    So he blames fluctuations in voltages and momentary power outages for damaging a lot of equipment at the clubhouse.

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      I take comfort in the knowledge that those routers, web cams, OGN stations and management computers – like the renewables themselves, and the diesel and gennies which support the renewables – are all Australian products, coming out of Australian factories and refineries…

      Then I wake up screaming.

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        OriginalSteve

        I was having a discussion with a work colleague who had bought a tesla. Now this guy is a nice guy but very neat and gets a bit annoyed when his garage gets a bit dusty. But he loves his electric shopping trolley and is very urban in his thinking.

        We had a difference of opinion on if you could go 4x4ing. I said energy density of batteries would need to be 3x what they are now to be viable, but even then until I see the Army using spark trucks i wont believe they are tough enough.

        I mentioned offroading needs often big long range fuel tanks and suggested that out on the Birdville track, a rapid charger just wont exist. Ironically he did suggest taking a portable gennie to charge his offroad EV. I just shook my head….. i mean what is the point.

        In a way he just confirmed EVs are nothing more than tarmac bound shopping trolleys….

        I can see EVs are fast and quiet, great for a city, but out on farms and offroad i think a long way off, but I also love mechanical stuff, but that said, a solid reliable diesel will get you out and back, through deep river crossings, up steep tracks with a camper trailer on…and back.

        The internal combustion engine is still king offroad for a long time i think.

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          Yeah, if EVs are left alone they might find a little niche. As you say, quiet and nippy for some city conditions. But they won’t be left alone.

          Printed trillions have to find a new sub-prime home, and my guess is that a whole new car fleet will be one of those homes. Magically materialised investment money will keep finding its way into Tesla stock, the way it found a way into Amazon stock and Google stock. Who needs a profit when, like Blanche Dubois, you can rely on the kindness of strangers?

          The “liberation” of Bolivia is pointing that way, and we haven’t flipped the world’s fleet in ten years. Need slogan…Cash for oilers instead of cash for clunkers? Cash for oily clunkers? Electric Streetcar Named Desire?

          Cash for lithium clunkers in 2030 should be pretty funny…if we’re still allowed to laugh.

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    Rupert Ashford

    And this is why polls conducted by the media cannot predict election outcomes any more. They’re all in the “solutions driven journalism” business nowadays and not in reporting the news and searching for the truth any more.

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    Chris

    This is off topic but connected in that around about way that everything is. Clive James has died and climatechangedispatch has published his 2017 essay to the GWPF. In his own humorous style he bags the media and the use of language to create a climate crisis where there is none. It’s well worth a read. We have lost a great clear eyed talent.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Dumb Poll – Fake Headlines: Fallout from The Great Carbon Rapture where we’re all caught up with Al to worship Gaia.

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    pat

    followup to comment #20, now out of moderation.
    theirABC couldn’t find space for mention of James’s climate scepticism on “Breakfast” either:

    AUDIO: 8min40sec: 28 Nov: ABC Breakfast: ‘Kid from Kogarah’ Clive James mourned by arts and literary world
    Guest: Dr Mark Wormald, fellow and director of English, Pembroke College
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/kid-from-kogarah-clive-james-mourned-by-arts-and-literary-world/11744754

    Fran was more interested in “celebrity” than asking about his CAGW scepticism:

    AUDIO: 9min44sec: 28 Nov: ABC Breakfast: Australian author and broadcaster Clive James dies aged 80
    RN Breakfast’s Fran Kelly spoke to Clive James in 2006 about the curious phenomena of celebrity.
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/australian-author-and-broadcaster-clive-james-dies-aged-80/11744460

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    pat

    Brexit Party may not be destined for success at the polls, but Farage draws attention to the downplaying of “Brexit”, which I’ve noticed in the British MSM in recent days. it’s a “climate election”, u know:

    28 Nov: Daily Mail: Nigel Farage boycotts Channel 4’s climate debate because it will not address Brexit ‘the defining issue of our age’ and he will not be treated fairly by the ‘Remain’ broadcaster
    •In a speech in Barnsley, Mr Farage also railed against the BBC for Remain bias
    •Boris Johnson is also set to swerve hustings after saying he won’t debate the SNP
    By Jack Elsom
    Farage: ‘Brexit is the defining issue of our age and the fact that Channel 4 does not want to discuss it speaks volumes about this broadcaster and its Remain position.’…
    Jeremy Corbyn, the Lib Dems’ Jo Swinson, Ms Sturgeon and the Greens’ Sian Berry have each confirmed their attendance.

    Although the broadcaster claims to be neutral, they have come under fire in the past for adopting a left-leaning political slant.
    Michael Gove recently became tangled in a tense exchange with one of their reporters, who he accused of pushing a ‘polemical’ line of questioning.
    Their lead anchor Jon Snow was memorably filmed at Glastonbury Festival chanting ‘f*** the Tories!’…

    Mr Farage’s rebuff to Channel 4 came shortly after he whipped up Brexit Party grassroots into a frenzy on a campaign trip to Barnsley, where he also railed against the BBC.
    He said: ‘The BBC is an outdated anachronism whose political behaviour since the referendum has been biased at every single level so we propose a phasing out of the BBC licencing fee over the coming years.’
    In the heavily Labour Leave seat, Mr Farage also hit out against Mr Corbyn’s position of a second referendum, which he condemned as a ‘betrayal’ of working class communities…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7727263/Nigel-Farage-boycotts-Channel-4s-climate-debate-not-address-Brexit.html

    funny how the result of the Brexit referendum was never SETTLED, according to virtually all MSM worldwide!

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    Bill Hall

    Phillip Coorey, is just a ‘Political Editor’ at the AFR, and at best, a mediocre one. He didn’t correctly call the last Federal election either.

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    pat

    UK Times churns this stuff out daily.

    behind paywall:

    26 Nov: UK Times: UN climate change report: Depressing, but not altogether hopeless
    by Tom Whipple, science editor
    Baldly, they list the policies that could achieve the necessary reduction. For the EU, they want total carbon-free electricity. For the gas-guzzling US, they want new cars to be 100 per cent electric by 2030. For China, they want a ban on all new coal power stations. That last call while the country is midway through building more than 100 gigawatts of new ones. That’s 30 Hinkley Point Cs.

    It has been 30 years since Margaret Thatcher spoke at a meeting of world leaders about the dangers of climate change. In those 30 years, 30 years of conferences, summits and noble words, emissions have carried on up, oblivious…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/da633b68-1063-11ea-aa63-2a87a83b86bb

    27 Nov: UK Times: UN warns of 30ft sea surge unless emissions cut now
    by Tom Whipple, science editor
    Massive and immediate cuts in carbon output are required if world temperature rises are to be limited to 2C, according to a “bleak” UN assessment of the so-called global emissions gap.
    The annual report, which looks at the disparity between action and intention on climate change, concludes that on current trends, temperatures will rise 3.4C to 3.9C by the end of the century.

    Warming on that scale will lead to a sea level rise of up to 9m (30ft), inundating coastal areas and countries such as Bangladesh, plus more violent storms in the tropics, with some equatorial regions becoming uninhabitable…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/only-drastic-cuts-to-emissions-will-keep-temperature-rises-in-check-un-warns-h6jd3m0zk

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    OriginalSteve

    O/T… but….

    PC is about to start collapsing…people have had enough Marxism.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-28/australia-talks-annabel-crabb-political-correctness-analysis/11742380

    “A glance at the Australia Talks breakdown of attitudes by voting record provides confirmation of how tribal the tug-of-war between duelling freedoms — freedom of speech on one hand, and freedom from discrimination on the other — has become.

    “Among One Nation voters, 98 per cent agree that political correctness has gone too far. Among Greens voters, only 29 per cent agree. The sentiment has the support of a narrow majority — 52 per cent — of Labor voters, while 88 per cent of those who voted LNP at the last election agree.

    “Everyone, except Greens voters, thinks political correctness has gone too far
    …………………..
    “The ‘exhausted majority’ are disengaging

    “Members of the American “exhausted majority” were more likely to feel that politics did not include or respond to the concerns of people like them, researchers found.

    “They felt excluded from civic debate and often felt hesitant to contribute on political issues in case they said the wrong thing and were attacked.

    “When confronted with the proposition “The people I agree with politically need to be willing to listen to others and compromise,” 65 per cent of the “exhausted majority” agreed, compared with 51 per cent of those who were identified as belonging to the louder “wing” groups at either end of the spectrum.

    “The study echoes themes identified in Australia Talks, where the proposition “Australians should show more respect for each other” was the issue on which respondents were the most fervently in agreement.
    Ninety-three per cent supported this statement, with very little difference across any demographic. And 87 per cent agreed that “Australians need to try harder to understand points of view that differ from their own”.

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    pat

    26 Nov: BBC: Climate change: ‘Bleak’ outlook as carbon emissions gap grows
    By Matt McGrath
    Countries will have to increase their carbon-cutting ambitions five fold if the world is to avoid warming by more than 1.5C, the UN says…

    ???That leaves China, the EU and Mexico as three countries or regions that are set to meet their promises or nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as they are called, with their current policies…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50547073

    Beeb already spruiking COP26!

    26 Nov: BBC: COP26: Glasgow Science Centre events to tie up with UN climate change summit
    About 30,000 delegates and 200 world leaders will attend the summit at Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in November next year…
    Lasting for two weeks, it will be the largest summit the UK has ever hosted, with up to 200 world leaders expected to attend for the final weekend…

    The 2020 conference is seen as a major crossroads in the battle against global climate change. It will likely be held just after the next US presidential election…
    Campaigners have said the event will give the UK the chance to set the tone for the world’s future.

    (FINAL SENTENCE?) Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg appeared at the 2018 conference in Poland.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50558688

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    Zane

    The Guardian today suggests the climate has finally reached its infamous ” tipping point “. They would say that, wouldn’t they? It’s getting old, this tipping pointery…

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      Tipping point, twelve years, total extinction.

      I guess we’re all doomed then.

      I’m again reminded of that infamous ‘World Doomsday Clock’, and again, this is a further wry comment that I have mentioned previously on how maths is totally outside the understanding of virtually everyone these days.

      That Doomsday clock is now set at two minutes to midnight.

      The clock represents the last 4.5 Billion years of Earth’s existence.

      It’s now set at two minutes to Midnight.

      So, panic, run around like the proverbial chook with its head gone, it’s at two minutes to Midnight.

      So, umm, we only have 150 million years left then.

      Tony.

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      Another Ian

      Zane

      You could almost say “pointless”

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    OriginalSteve

    One day I will be shocked to find actual news amongst the climate propaganda…..

    I love this – apparently its too late to act.
    Good – then stop moaning and we will ignore the nonsense and just enjoy life….

    Apparently scientists take advice from children…..

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-11-28/climate-emergency-kids-are-right/11735942

    “But the kids are right. The world is now dangerously close to tipping points that will set in motion unstoppable ecosystem collapses. This is a climate emergency.

    “That’s the message from scientists writing in Nature today, who say that for some systems, the window to act may have already closed.

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      sophocles

      … just wait while the geomagnetic excursion makes more progress. It’s been underway for 400 years and is only just coming on the science radar screen with 15% change in magnetic field strength over just the last 10 year. The last one was 12000 years ago, so yes, it can happen fast. That was the Gothenburg excursion. It took out the mammoths, the sabre-tooth cats, clovis man and all the other mega fauna. It’s in the climate record as the Younger Dryas, and was a big freeze — a snap freeze.

      No amount of emissions reductions will help to change it or fix it so the Climate Crises popping up everywhere are dangerous distractions.

      The up side is that it might take out the UN … we can hope, can’t we?

      It’s starting to move fast … I think it’s safe to say it’s passed the tipping point. I don’t know how long the window to act is or isn’t. It could be as little as, say, 80 years. It could be a bit longer. We don’t know.
      This SuspiciousObservers video shows the magnetic field in 2015.
      Here is more recent information. There is some hope for us as long as our food chain is not too mangled.

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    Dennis

    A link to hoax information at a New Zealand website, comprehensive coverage;

    http://www.wakeupkiwi.com/agenda-21-new-zealand.shtml

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    pat

    the positive reporting by FakeNewsMSM of the following should ring alarm bells:

    25 Nov: TheVerge: Tim Berners-Lee launches Google and Facebook-backed plan to fix the web
    The Contract for the Web includes nine principles for a better internet
    by Jon Porter
    At launch, the initiative has received the backing of over 150 organizations, including tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, DuckDuckGo, and Facebook, and nonprofit groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Guardian initially reported that Amazon and Twitter were absent from the list of backers, however as of November 25th, Twitter’s logo has appeared on the Contract’s homepage. Twitter’s increasing role in political discourse was recently brought into sharp focus after it chose to ban political ads on its platform, citing the “challenges to civic discourse” that they create…

    The governments of Germany, France, and Ghana have also signed up to the Contract’s founding principles…
    “The forces taking the web in the wrong direction have always been very strong,” Berners-Lee told The Guardian, noting that it will be vital for citizens to hold governments and companies to account if the situation is to improve.
    https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20981502/contract-for-the-web-tim-berners-lee-google-facebook-principles-techlash

    download the report here – I’m focusing on the “Positive Tech” section:

    Contract for the Web: Positive Tech
    Download 32-page PDF
    https://contractfortheweb.org/principle-theme/positive-tech/

    p8: Principle 06: Develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst So the Web really is a public good that puts people first
    1. By being accountable for their work, through regular reports, including how they are
    a. Respecting and supporting human rights, as outlined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
    b. Establishing policies designed to respect and promote the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those pertaining to education, gender equality, systematically excluded groups, ***CLIMATE, and socio-environmental justice…

    Annex: Glossary
    p31: Sustainable Development Goals: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN in 2015 sets 17 goals: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, ***AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, ***CLIMATE ACTION, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals (Source: UN SDGs).  PRINCIPLE 6…

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    pat

    more from theirABC on the “tipping points”!

    AUDIO: 3min18sec: ABC The World Today: Ice melt, Great Barrier Reef near climate change ‘point of no return’
    By Isobel Roe on The World Today
    In a report published today in the journal Nature, scientists suggest that some of the signals that indicate that earth has reached a “point of no return” may already have been reached.
    The scientists say that the melting ice sheets in Antarctica have reached a “tipping point” – where the melting will get exponentially worse.
    And they warn that ‘tipping points’ are still not widely understood.
    Featured:
    Emeritus Professor Will Steffen, Australian National University climate scientist
    Dr Sue Cook, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/ice-melt,-great-barrier-reef-near-climate-change-tipping-point/11745718

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    pat

    just speculation:

    27 Nov: BBC: Climate Change: Are we passing some key ‘tipping points’?
    By Roger Harrabin
    The authors claim this could lead to a “climatic emergency” in which one shift amplifies another.
    But other researchers say the argument is speculative…
    Co-author Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, says it is not only human pressures on Earth that continue rising to unprecedented levels.
    “It is also that as science advances, we must admit that we have underestimated the risks of unleashing irreversible changes, where the planet self-amplifies global warming,” he says.
    “This is what we now start seeing, already at 1C global warming.
    “This provides strong evidence for declaring a state of planetary emergency to unleash world action that accelerates the path towards a world that can continue evolving on a stable planet.”

    But not every scientist agrees with the thrust of their argument. One critic is Professor Mike Hulme from Cambridge University, who is disturbed by the talk of planetary emergency.
    “Their position is speculative; there are no new research findings presented here.
    “Their mathematical ‘formula’ contradicts everything that social science and humanities scholarship tells us about public emergencies – namely that they result from political argument, reflection and judgement.
    “Emergencies are declared by legitimate political actors; they are not calculated mathematically by self-appointed scientists.”

    Professor Richard Betts from the Met Office says the chances of passing these tipping points increases with the level of global heating…
    “Even if we do pass a ‘point of no return’ (or if we have done so already – which may or may not be the case) we still have a chance to limit the damage if we don’t overshoot too far.”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50578516

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      pat

      27 Nov: BBC: General election 2019: What parties’ environment promises really mean
      By Roger Harrabin
      It’s been by far the greenest campaign in UK election history, with parties pledging tougher policies on the environment and climate change.
      But in a year of Greta Thunberg’s UN speech and Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries on the state of the planet, how far do the parties really go?…READ ON
      https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50552535

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    pat

    27 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Angela Merkel criticises EIB decision to ban gas lending
    By Julian Wettengel for Clean Energy Wire
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she disapproves of the European Investment Bank’s decision to ban funding for natural gas projects by the end of 2021, days after the German government agreed to the new guidelines…

    As Germany exits both nuclear and coal, natural gas is needed as a bridging technology in the energy transition, Merkel said in a parliamentary speech on the 2020 federal budget.
    “That is why I find it rather complicated that the European Investment Bank decided to no longer finance gas as a bridging technology. I don’t think that this is right,” Merkel told parliamentarians. The German government supported the EIB’s decision to end gas lending earlier this month…

    Alexander Reitzenstein, climate and energy policy advisor at the environmental think-tank E3G, called Merkel’s remarks “a shocking and surprising statement” given the German support a little more than a week earlier…
    While the chancellor criticised the bank’s decision in Berlin, president-elect of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen – a close Merkel-ally and a member of Merkel’s Conservative CDU party – lauded the “progress” the bank made “to strengthen its role as EU climate bank.”…
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/11/27/angela-merkel-criticises-eib-decision-ban-gas-lending/

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    pat

    26 Nov: IMF December 2019, Vol. 56, No. 4: Putting a Price on Pollution
    Carbon-pricing strategies could hold the key to meeting the world’s climatestabilization goals
    by Ian Parry, principal environmental fiscal policy expert in the IMF’s Fiscal AffairsDepartment
    The case for carbon taxation
    A tax of, say,$35 a ton on CO2 emissions in 2030 would typically increaseprices for coal, electricity, and gasoline by about 100, 25, and 10percent, respectively. Carbon taxes also provide a clear incentive forredirecting energy investment toward low-carbon technologies like renewablepower plants…

    Another important argument for carbon taxes is that they could raise asignificant amount of revenue , typically 1–2 percent of GDP for a $35 a ton tax in 2030 (Chart 2). Usingthis revenue productively to benefit a country’s economy could help offset the harmful macroeconomic effects — reduced employment and investment — ofhigher energy prices…READ ON
    https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/the-case-for-carbon-taxation-and-putting-a-price-on-pollution-parry.htm

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    pat

    28 Nov: Reuters: Demands grow for ‘global justice’ on climate damage at U.N. talks
    by Megan Rowling
    BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Droughts, floods and storms are nothing new to poor communities in Mozambique – but in recent years, the weather has become so extreme that neither the people nor the state can cope, said an international charity head in the southeast African nation…
    ActionAid and scores of other green and development groups want this year’s U.N. climate change talks to agree to set up a fund to bail out countries on the frontline of “loss and damage” as a hotter planet brings wilder weather and rising seas.
    Sven Harmeling, who leads on climate change policy for aid agency CARE International, said U.N. science reports in the past year had made clear that worsening damage will happen…
    Loss and damage – and finance to help avoid and repair it – is expected to be a hot topic at the Dec. 2-13 U.N. conference, both as losses mount and as a six-year-old body created to tackle the problem comes up for review in Madrid.

    NO MONEY
    The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) has advanced knowledge on key points like ways to help people forced from their homes by rising seas or degrading farmland.
    But the WIM has yet to lead to concrete action, especially on providing new sources of finance to deal with climate-related damage, developing countries and humanitarian agencies say.
    Ever since talks to establish the mechanism started, there has been push-back from governments, including the United States and Australia, against paying money to mend the rising damage in poorer nations…

    The study (by Stockholm Environment Institute) found the United Stated owes at least 30% of the bill and the European Union about a quarter, compared to 0.5% for India.
    It used estimates of loss and damage costs in developing countries to suggest that new finance of at least $50 billion a year should be provided by 2022, rising to $300 billion by 2030…
    While the sums of money required may seem eye-wateringly large, such amounts could be raised through measures including levies and taxes on polluting air travel, financial transactions and the fossil fuel industry, research suggests…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord-disaster/demands-grow-for-global-justice-on-climate-damage-at-un-talks-idUSKBN1Y124S

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    John

    Yeah I saw it front and centre on the “unbiased” ABC – 79% Australians think action on climate change is most important.

    We just had the “climate change election” with one side promising big cuts. That side was defeated.

    I wish they’d just go away. Or at the very least report on it impartially, rather than lying about how wind powered grid is so much “cheaper”.

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    pat

    read all:

    27 Nov: Science Mag: In unpublished paper, former White House climate adviser calls methane ‘irrelevant’ to climate
    By Scott Waldman, E&E News
    A climate skeptic with ties to the White House is back—this time as the co-author of a new paper that could help the Trump administration roll back climate rules.
    William Happer, an emeritus Princeton University physics professor, previously worked within the White House to conduct a hostile review of climate science. While that effort didn’t go far, Happer at the same time worked on research into methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

    Happer and his co-author, William van Wijngaarden, worked “quickly” to put together research that claims that fears of methane emissions as a driver of climate change are overwrought, said van Wijngaarden, a physicist at York University in Canada…

    Van Wijngaarden said he and Happer communicated regularly while Happer was in the White House, and that their collaboration has been ongoing for years.
    He said they have completed another, more significant paper on carbon dioxide emissions that they now are seeking to publish.
    One major journal refused to run it and would not send it for a review, he said. He blamed it on a conspiracy to keep those who question climate science from established periodicals.
    “There’s a lot of funny business going into this climate world, so that’s a bit frustrating,” said van Wijngaarden.
    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/unpublished-paper-former-white-house-climate-adviser-calls-methane-irrelevant-climate

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    pat

    AUDIO: 5min37sec: 28 Nov: 2GB: Steve Price: Greens have done ‘more harm than good’ demanding action on climate change
    The Greens have been slammed for doing more harm than good in the fight to reduce carbon emissions.
    School students are continuing to strike for climate change across the country, including on the lawn of Parliament House today.

    But a union leader has slammed the Greens and other protesters for not considering the livelihoods of thousands of people who work in the coal industry.
    National President of the CFMMEU Tony Maher tells Steve Price they haven’t thought things through properly.
    “They’ve failed to take into the account the importance of the export coal industry is $60 billion. If you’re going to replace that, you’ve got to be careful what you wish for.”
    https://www.2gb.com/greens-have-done-more-harm-than-good-demanding-action-on-climate-change/

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    pat

    28 Nov: BendigoAdvertiser: Climate science report shows Bendigo set for hotter and drier 30 years
    by Tom O’Callaghan
    BENDIGO should not expect a gradual rise in extreme weather over the next 10 years.
    Instead, the city will likely see periodic “jumps” or “steps” in the number of hot days, along with drops in average rainfall, a new report on Victoria’s climate science has warned.
    The city should brace for an average 10 days over 38 degrees by the 2050s, compared to four now. It should also prepare for 14 per cent less rainfall…

    “This is particularly important for considering the near-term climate to 2030,” the report noted, citing 2019 CSIRO research…
    Factoring in shifts in weather conditions are among the most challenging for those helping the region prepare for the 2050s, Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance executive officer Rob Law said.
    His group supports councils across central and northern Victoria react to the changing climate…
    https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/6516115/prepare-for-temperature-jumps-not-steady-rises-climate-report/

    same report, apparently:

    Snow will almost disappear in Victoria, days of extreme heat to double by 2050: report
    Herald Sun – 7 hours ago

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    pat

    27 Nov: TheLocalSwitzerland: Is Switzerland set for a referendum on climate change?
    A Swiss initiative entitled ‘For The Glaciers’ has gained more than 112,000 signatures and will on Wednesday evening be presented to parliament…
    Among the demands of the Swiss Association for Climate Protection – which is behind the initiative – is to completely remove reliance on fossil fuels by 2050, along with making Switzerland carbon neutral by that time.
    Although the Federal Government has indicated it is on board with some of the demands – such as cutting carbon usage by 2050 – the specific requirements of the initiative would represent some of the most ambitious climate-focused reforms anywhere in the world…

    Although the signatures were collected quickly, the vote is unlikely to happen for the next three years, as enough time must be given for its provisions to be debated.
    “Everything in Switzerland is really slow,” Hänggi told The Local.
    “We will need 12 months for the government to discuss it, while it will take around 18 (more) months for parliament to do so.”…
    https://www.thelocal.ch/20191127/for-the-glaciers-is-switzerland-set-for-a-referendum-on-climate-change

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    pat

    28 Nov: SMH: ‘Need to get smarter’: western Sydney call for mandated water recycling goal
    By Peter Hannam
    The Berejiklian government should set a minimum 20 per cent water-recycling goal for Sydney as part of a wide-ranging plan to tackle the worsening heat-island effect baking the city’s fast-growing western suburbs, a western Sydney thinktank said.
    The Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue said having a 100 billion litre annual recycling target would also steer investment into a region likely to swell by at least a million people over the next two decades

    “We’re the ones with the hotter temperatures, and the dying trees and the higher bushfire and grass fire impacts,” Christopher Brown, the group’s chairman, said…
    “We just need to smarter,” Mr Brown said. “We’re on the driest [inhabited] continent on earth, in the middle of a long-term drought, facing permanent climate change issues. We have to change the way we deal with water.”…
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/need-to-get-smarter-western-sydney-call-for-mandated-water-recycling-goal-20191128-p53f1w.html

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    pat

    28 Nov: LiveMintIndia: Delhi may urge developed nations to fulfil climate finance pledges by 2020
    by Srishti Choudhary
    NEW DELHI : India is likely to urge developed countries to fulfil their climate finance commitments by 2020 at the 25th Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change on 2-13 December…
    India has been chasing ambitious climate goals but has struggled to find the money. Developed countries including the US had committed to mobilizing $100 billion per annum for climate adaptation and mitigation by 2020…
    However, the funds are yet to be disbursed. The process has also been marred by continuing lack of clarity on climate finance.
    “India has reduced its emission intensity by 22% over 2005 and is among the few countries to have increased its tree cover in and around the forests,” (environment minister Prakash) Javadekar said…

    The country will need $206 billion (at 2014-15 prices) between 2015 and 2030 to implement new technologies and practices in agriculture, disaster management, and other allied sectors for climate action, according to India’s recent Economic Survey…
    https://www.livemint.com/news/india/developing-nations-shouldn-t-be-asked-to-shoulder-extra-burden-india-ahead-of-climate-summit-11574850789132.html

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    OriginalSteve

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-fight-europe-on-climate-demands-in-free-trade-deal-20191128-p53f3y.html

    Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has described France’s push to force Australia to adopt climate change targets in a planned trade deal with European Union as “unprecedented”, declaring he will only accept terms that are in the best interests of the nation.

    “Senator Birmingham wants to clinch a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the EU by the end of next year, followed by Britain in early 2021, after Parliament this week ticked off on deals with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru.

    “Climate change targets are shaping to be a major sticking point in trade negotiations with Europe – already Australia’s second-biggest trading partner – after France publicly tied Australia’s domestic action on climate change to the proposed FTA.

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    OriginalSteve

    Brexit Brexit Brexit!!

    Could it be any more important now?

    The European Soviet has become mad…..

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/european-parliament-declares-climate-emergency-20191129-p53f8n.html

    “Berlin: The European Parliament has declared a climate emergency, a largely symbolic move that nonetheless pressures member states to pass more decisive legislation to curb emissions. In recent months, hundreds of similar declarations have been passed – most of them by regional or local administrations. Thursday’s EU vote is significant because it was passed by a parliament that represents more than 500 million citizens, vastly expanding the number of people worldwide who live in jurisdictions that have declared such an emergency.
    ……………….
    “The declaration could add further pressure on von der Leyen, who has pledged to increase efforts to fight climate change. Referring to what she calls a European Green Deal, she elaborated this week that Europe would become the first continent to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050, and that targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 must be made “more ambitious.”

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      RickWill

      Net zero emissions in EU by 2050 – these dingbats are in desperate need of a clue. That deadline is a miserable 30 years away. There is no viable alternative to fossil fuel. Their populations will revolt as their living standards reside in the gutter.

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    OriginalSteve

    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2019/11/sacrificed-on-victorias-green-altar/

    “Sacrificed on Victoria’s Green Altar

    “Two developments are changing the nature of Victoria’s public lands. The first is increasing restrictions on the activities allowed in the state forests. Over the past 30 years governments have progressively constrained the use of the forests for timber harvesting and grazing. Grazing has been all but eliminated and only 6 per cent of Victoria’s public forests are available for timber production, the annual harvesting area having been reduced from 25,000 hectares 40 years ago to just 3,000 hectares today. Last week, the Andrews government announced a 2030 phase-out of all timber-getting in the state forests.

    “The second change is the conversion of state forest to national park and other conservation reserve categories. This not only imposes restrictions on use but is also an essential step to converting the land to Aboriginal title, which unlike Native title, grants beneficial-use and veto rights over the activities and intentions of others. Even within the remaining state forest, the government is moving to enhance designated Aboriginal groups’ influence by granting them controls over exploration licences.

    “To effect the transfer the title of the land to National Parks or similar classifications, the government funds the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC), an environmental bureaucracy comprised largely of former eco-activists, to sequentially investigate regional areas. Under the guise of community engagement, VEAC acts largely at the behest of environmental activists and Aboriginal groups (see, for example, the latest annual report). The latter are paid to rediscover long-dormant attachments to the area under investigation and, with the prospect of title and financial support for management, are quite naturally all in favour of a change.
    ………………….
    “Several hundred regional forest workers have held a rally outside Parliament House to protest the new measures that will bring needless and counterproductive job losses. Coalition MPs showed their solidarity, but with green philosophies dominating the bureaucracy and a state government determined to court inner-city votes, the march to transform Victoria into an unproductive tinderbox continues apace.

    Hopefully this wont go into moderation as well…what gives Mods?

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