Clive James was no skeptic, say people who have no idea

Climate Change, The Facts, Book, IPA, 2017,

In comments Peter Fitzroy claimed Clive James was no skeptic:

There is lots about scepticism, but no thing to say the Clive himself was sceptical about Climate Change. It should be remembered that he was primarily a wordsmith, and would write about anything for money.

I did, he is sceptical, but he does not link that to a personal position. But you will, no doubt. You really need the context, and that is, that he would take any topic, and any view, if there was money in it. His autobiography is chock full of this sort of stuff, much to the angst of his compatriots who were never cast in a favourable light.

Digging himself totally in..

Yep, proves my point, he would write anything for money, and to stir the pot. All this article does is rehash 10 years of anti science media, there is not one ‘fact’ that has not been debunked, countered or proven to be an outright lie.

Let’s cremate this meme and spread the ashes of what was pure baseless speculation…

Jennifer Marohasy, editor of what may have been his last major work, tells me that Clive James was absolutely a skeptic, wasn’t paid a cent, took months to finalize the 5,000 word chapter he wrote on climate change and the two of them exchanged 161 emails.

To put a fine point on it — One of the most significant works he did in last years was a long skeptical work. He was fighting cancer, didn’t have to do it, didn’t earn anything, yet went out of his way to do this, and do it well, despite the only reward being big thank you’s from groups who are maligned and called names. He risked his good name and with nothing to gain.

Would anyone who wasn’t a skeptic bother?

Which brings me to my original point — The ABC modus operandi is a million lies by omission. Their story on Clive was another example of how the ABC is a political agency, not a news one. (Save the children: sell it now).

Clive’s words on how the power of hyperbole could send careers down a fork in the road with no way back:

Kevin Rudd said this was the greatest moral challenge . . . of our generation’ before he arrived at the Copenhagen climate shindig in 2009.

When he left Copenhagen, Rudd scarcely mentioned the greatest moral challenge again. Perhaps he had deduced, from the confusion prevailing throughout the conference, that the chances of the world ever uniting its efforts to ‘do something’ were very small. Whatever his motives for backing out of the climate chorus, his subsequent career was an early demonstration that to cease being a chorister would be no easy retreat, because it would be a clear indication that everything you had said on the subject up to then had been said in either bad faith or ignorance. It would not be enough merely to fall silent. You would have to travel back in time, run for office in the Czech Republic instead of Australia, and call yourself Vaclav Klaus.

Clive’s essay “Mass Death Dies Hard” was published in “Climate Change. The Facts 2017 Published by the IPA, edited by Jennifer Marohasy.  Copies of the essay are available online (here) and in hard copy from [email protected]. To order a copy of Climate Change: The Facts 2017, click here.

Dear Peter F, now’s your chance to prove you can reason…

9.8 out of 10 based on 49 ratings

76 comments to Clive James was no skeptic, say people who have no idea

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Well I’ll go for anything at least once so Peter, Jo handed you the challenge, convince me Clive was not a skeptic. In the meantime I’ll do some research on him and see what that tells me. Since I never knew him or his work I should get a good picture of him free of any bias I might otherwise bring to this little challenge of Jo’s.

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  • #
    PeterW

    Not holding my breath.

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  • #

    Dear Peter F, now’s your chance to prove you can reason…

    Sarcasm at its best.

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  • #
    pat

    with links:

    27 Nov: Electroverse: “Extreme” November Cold Engulfs Russia — Lows of -54C (-65.2F) Recorded
    A brutal Arctic outbreak has developed over Russia, the result of a Meridional (wavy) jet stream flow itself associated with the historically low solar energy earth is currently receiving (the lowest in 200 years — NASA).

    Bone-chilling lows swept transcontinental Russia during the first half of this week. The nearby nations of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and eastern China have also suffered.
    On Tuesday, November 26, Russia’s Verhojansk station reported a vodka-chugging –54C (-65.2F).

    A November reading below -50C (-58F) is considered “extreme,” said Severe Weather Europe, adding that the pattern supporting such a phenomenon is “led by a disturbance of the polar circulation, allowing outbreaks of frigid cold air-masses to spread south into Russia.”

    LINK: Over the past 30 days, the United States set 8,742 New All-Time Low Temperature Records vs just the 1,832 Max

    In addition, Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover is at unprecedented levels for the time of year
    https://electroverse.net/extreme-november-cold-engulfs-russia-lows-of-54c-65-2f-recorded/

    behind paywall – photo gallery is a mess, can’t even tell how many pics there are, but clicked middle right of pic where arrow is usually situated, and managed to note a few captions:

    1 Dec: UK Telegraph: Ukraine and Russia hit by extreme cold snap and heavy snow
    Cold weather has killed 37 people in Ukraine so far this month as temperaturesreached minus 23 Celsius in parts of the former Soviet republic. Nighttemperatures are expected to drop to -28C in northern, central and easternUkraine this week. The cold snap followed heavy snowfall which left someareas covered with as much as 53 cm (21 inches) of snow. Cars were blockedfor 18 kilometres (11 miles) overnight on Saturday on the main road betweenthe capital Kiev and Lviv, officials said…

    Two women play in the snow in temperatures of about minus 30 degrees Celsius in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia…

    A woman shields her face while braving the abnormally cold temperatures in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, which dropped to -35C…ETC ETC
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9753603/Ukraine-and-Russia-hit-by-extreme-cold-snap-and-heavy-snow.html

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    • #
      WXcycles

      27 Nov: Electroverse: “Extreme” November Cold Engulfs Russia — Lows of -54C (-65.2F) Recorded
      A brutal Arctic outbreak has developed over Russia, the result of a Meridional (wavy) jet stream flow itself associated with the historically low solar energy earth is currently receiving (the lowest in 200 years — NASA).

      Bad enough in mid-Winter, but it occurred in the month before Winter.

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    • #
      WXcycles

      … Cold weather has killed 37 people in Ukraine so far this month [November] …

      Can you imagine the global freak-out if a heat-wave did that in Ukraine late Spring?

      But when it’s a cold-wave in late Autumn it ain’t a problem at all … oh look over there! … a cute yellow puppy!

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    • #
      Roger Knights

      “and eastern China have also suffered”

      Shouldn’t that be western China?

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    • #
      sophocles

      … and so the cooling begins. I’m thinking it is going to get worse over the next few years:

      My estimate is: Grand Solar Minimum (or SC 26 in 2030) + Magnetic Excursion = Very Cold.

      Winters especially but the cooling will spill over into summer. The cicadas should be emerging over the next three to four weeks here in Auckland. They didn’t emerge until the last weekend of January last summer, and then only for a few days which were alleged to be a “heat wave.” (temperatures reached c. 30° C in places — nicely warm.)
      Last summer and this one have been very cloudy over the northern North Island. The Svensmark Effect?

      I hope Guterrez enjoyed his swim in the South Pacific this year. If the geomagnetic-excursion speeds up, he may become “snap frozen” like some of the mammoths 11,000 years before him. Hey, I can hope, can’t I?

      Present pressure on farmers (like the NZ Zero Carbon Bill) + Very Cold = Food endangerment — a true national emergency/crisis is brewing.

      People will see food shortages.
      Hungry people riot.

      This is not necessarily going to happen next year, but it will soon.
      (Predicting the future is not easy but some trends, what will happen, become obvious. When is always the hard one,)

      `Business as usual’ is coming to an end well before 2100.

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  • #
    a happy little debunker

    It is like claiming Thatcher totally believed in climate change, even though she distanced herself from the notion latter in her life.
    Unlike Clive the wordsmith, she was prepared to fight her politics dirty.

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    • #
      a happy little debunker

      I should add that the peoples that lauded Thatcher for what they perceived her ‘climate change views’ were – also sang ‘ding dong the witch is dead’ upon her passing.

      Not even ghouls would do that!

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Just googled the subject (JoNova was first two listings) but then there were mixed results , it’s totally clear to me he was a skeptic but not militant in his views .
    And the book at the top of the post sort of puts paid to Poiters belief .

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    I’m afraid ‘I’ll be eating some humble pie.

    I must admit that I was unaware of his post 2007 writing which is where I drew my point about Clive being sceptical, almost to the point of contrarianism, on any number of topics, particularly in relation to anything published by Germain Greer.

    Obviously, he did publish that essay, and he did write that chapter. I’ve not read the chapter, but I have read the essay, and find it a very powerful, and well reasoned argument, but I will dispute these three points

    1 – I never denied that Clive was a sceptic
    2. – I’ll stand by the fact that even reading that latest essay, it is difficult to discern Clive’s personal opinions on the matter, that may because it is not a first person narrative, and I did not know him personally
    3. – He did not trouble to reference science in the essay, relying on secondary sources, and media reports.

    However, and the reason for the humble pie, is that there are in the obituaries enough references to his anti climate change stance, that I will concede that point.

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    • #

      And a thumbs up from me.

      The bigger and more important question is about the ABC. Given how significant this debate is to Australians why did the ABC hide it:
      1. Incompetence and a lack of research.
      2. They can’t say “brilliant” and “climate skeptic” in the same sentence. It’s against their religion.
      3. They were afraid it would encourage more Australians to admit they are skeptical, plus fence-sitters might discover Clive’s skeptical thoughts. It might start a national debate on climate change which the ABC knows believers will lose.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Sceptical thought is as Clive said, a fundamental necessity in today’s world.
        As to the ABC, I would agree wholeheartedly, they should have had the integrity to either publish Clive’s own obituary, with no other comment, or do a proper job. After all Clive’s beliefs, are as much a part of him as was his writing.
        The idea of a debate, where the result is a foregone conclusion, would not decide anything, but it would dig the trenches deeper. The reason I say this is that the losing side, would always claim that they were robbed, it was unfair, they were somehow silenced, the questions were biased etc.

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        • #
          KinkyKeith

          More blah, blah, blah.

          And the contrition, pretending to eat humble pie.

          Who cares what you write, thanks to Jo we’ve been able to see the real you and consequently your credibility is accurately assessed.

          DKK

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          • #
            el gordo

            Importantly he conceded because the facts were laid before him, its the way to defeat Fitz and all his ilk.

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            • #
              WXcycles

              2. – … it is difficult to discern Clive’s personal opinions on the matter, that may because it is not a first person narrative, and I did not know him personally

              But what a lot of hog-wash that was though, he still can’t admit that Clive wrote it and meant it, and that that’s as ‘first-person‘ as it gets.

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        • #
          sophocles

          Mr Fitzroy, you earned some kudos and increased respect by admitting to a failure. So why throw it away in almost your next breath?
          But experience tells me that is what a Space Cadet does …

          20

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        And a green thumb from me as well.

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    • #
      Alan

      Oh Peter

      3. – He did not trouble to reference science in the essay, relying on secondary sources, and media reports.

      But surely that is how all you alarmists operate, particularly the ABC and their like

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Alan that comment really stuck out didn’t it ?

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Rubbish, I will always quote a source, I did when discussing Clive’s attitudes. Don’t put me in with your crowd.

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        • #
          Mark D.

          Always quote A source but not THE source. Your claim to eat humble pie sounds lame and unrepentant to me. More like you like the taste that pie. Like you can’t get enough of it….

          Fake news, fake humble.

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    • #
      Tides of Mudgee

      Well done Peter for your concession. I just wish that you had finished your entire reply with a full stop in the second paragraph after “and well reasoned argument.” That would have been elegant.

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  • #
    George4

    I watched the Clive James tribute on ABC with the Kerry O’Brien interview when he was terminally ill.
    Not one mention of climate change skepticism.
    He did say how long it took him to finish work now he was so sick.

    80

    • #
      Alan

      Do you think the ABC would have possibly edited out anything along those lines or at least O’Brien would have avoided the topic at all cost

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      • #
        George4

        I didn’t mean that I was doubting Clive’s skepticism, just that ABC didn’t include it.

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      • #

        The ABC will edit your sentences. They sliced up a sentence David Evans said to change the meaning. They took hours of footage of me for the I can change your mind doco — in the end they flew all the way to perth to interview me and left in 17 non-sequential words.

        The editors with 1 billion dollars to spend decide what the nations news is.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          I know it only too well and it’s nothing short of criminal.

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        • #
          Dennis

          During the late 1960s or early 1970s I was witness to an interview conducted by ABC, I recall that the current affairs programme was This Day Tonight, the guest was a cabinet minister.

          As often done with recorded interviews the interviewer would stop at certain points and go back to a previous question. When the interview was broadcast the group of people who were there during the interview quickly realised that answers and questions did not match, the editing had created a very different story from what the minister had been aiming for, and he was not happy, and advised ABC that in future he would only accept live to air interviews.

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          • #
            WXcycles

            In the late 1980s I took part in an ABC TV science program and watched an entire 8-minute segment being recorded over three days. It was all fake, every shot was a setup, they glamorized the area and did not hesitate to manually insert fake props for visual drama. The story-telling to camera was literally ‘alien’ sounding, so out of place, so fake, needlessly melodramatic, mostly wrong or exaggerated. A couple of post-grad tutors had seen the segment and recognized me, they were impressed. Then I told them what had really gone on and BS was involved in making it. I viewed the ABC very differently after this, I had no illusions that every science ‘report’ they put to air was hyped and faked drama. They make fake entertainment, they don’t make accurate, reliable science reporting.

            The impression people have is that the ABC went off the rails in the last 10 to 15 years, but it was off the rails decades before that. What we see now is just the result of so many decades of deep fakery and a whole ‘industry’ that does nothing but lie and misrepresent, in all ways, and at all times. They just gave up on trying to hide what they do, and what they are.

            They’re simply past trying to hide it now, their entire ‘professional-ethos’ (for many decades) is that lying is an essential, valuable critical ingredient to everything the ABC does. Without such lying at depth and implicit misrepresentation of everything that goes to air, there could not and would not be an ABC program put to air. So don’t be expecting any level of self-reform, the more the veil is lifted on them the more they double-down on lying for a living.

            170

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          You should not let anybody put any words into your mouth, unless said words are previously sanitised.

          20

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          You should not let anybody put any words into your mouth, unless said words have been previously sanitised.

          00

  • #
    Fred Streeter

    PF’s original post brought to mind:

    “You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British Aussie journalist.
    But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there’s no occasion to.”

    As this is a lazy Sunday afternoon:
    PF, if an AGW ‘Believer’ Journalist would write an AGW ‘Denier’ article “for shekels of silver and gold”, it is just as likely that many ‘Belever’ articles have been written by ‘Deniers’ for the lovely, lovely money.

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    • #
      PeterW

      Excellent point…

      Here we have Fitz claiming that Clive would “write anything for money”…… yet I doubt we’d have to go vary far back through his own posts to find him waxing indignant about similar claims WRT the climate-industrial complex.

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  • #
    glen Michel

    Clive was imbued with the Enlightenment characteristics of knowledge,reason,empathy and wisdom. Such an iconoclast.Told life as it is – and was.

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  • #
    Bill In Oz

    It is NOT just the ABC which suppresses knowledge of Clive James.
    So too does Wikipedia
    There is absolutely nothing in it of Clive’s views on climate change.
    NOTHING !
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_James

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    • #
      WXcycles

      Oceania is not at war with east Asia. Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Oceania is is essentially the Pacific Ocean States, that straddle the Date Line. Each state has voting rights in the UN, and each state has an allocation of rocket vehicle launches.

        They are under pressure from their neighbours to the west, namely China, Malasia, and Indonesia. This is essentially balanced in the east, by New Zealand and Fiji.

        Oceania is about as far away as you can get from Eurasia, in geographic terms. Even in the case of commerce and politics, they are diametrically opposed.

        I fail to see how you can claim that, “Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.”

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        • #

          I’m assuming you know what that is quoting?

          I always assumed that his Oceania included the Indo and the Americas

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          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            Oceania comprises of the islands, and the island-groups, of the Pacific Ocean and its adjacent seas, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It also includes Fiji, Tonga, Polynesia, Melanisia, Kirabati, Tuvalu, Marshal Islands, et al.

            Most of Oceania is only accessible by boat, or seaplane. There are few solid landing strips.

            It is my opinion that WXcytcles comment that “Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia”, is off the planet.

            If you disagree, please calculate the size and number of canoes and paddlers required, for Oceania to go to war with Eurasia.

            10

          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            I got Melanisia in the list twice. Please ignore the one that you feel most offensive.

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    • #
      Analitik

      Wikipedia has always had a very “progressive” editorial stance which has become increasingly obvious since they locked down contributions from the public at large.

      40

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Just on that book – Climate Change: the facts. One of the other chapters was written by the noted Kiwi [snip]Ken Ring, of the almanac fame. If you like a giggle, read the book, and you can find it in the comedy section, next “how good is Australia” by the boys from Betoota.

    18

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘The astrological weather forecaster spoke this week from a secret location, saying he feared for his life after a media frenzy erupted due to his prediction that a major earthquake was going to strike Christchurch on March 20.

      ‘The fear of prosecution for inciting a riot has also silenced him on earthquake predictions.’

      NZ Herald

      ————-

      The lunar hypothesis is weak.

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    • #
      R.B.

      He put his ten cents, was wrong and should shut up about it.

      A lesson for us all.

      20

  • #
    WXcycles

    That’s one PDF I will be reading, thanks for posting a link to it Jo.

    https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2017/07/Clive-James.pdf

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  • #

    Amplification and repetition by one interested group of people does not make something important.

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    • #
      WXcycles

      XR disagrees.

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    • #
      Mark D.

      Amplification and repetition by one interested group of people does not make something important.

      Agree!

      Please note: This obviously applies to the IPCC right?

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      It worked for the Hitler youth … jus’ saying.

      40

      • #

        So you are equating the people on this blog with the HY? By repeating the fact that James was a skeptic means that they are trying to leap frog a minor part of his life over his vast number of much more notable achievements to get into published obits.

        06

        • #
          Peter C

          Good Try Gee Aye,

          Climate Skeptic might have been a small part of Clive James’ life (if you say so). But it was ignored by the left wing media, including the ABC. Just an inconvenient fact. That makes it important.

          The vast number of achievements have been well and truly aired and rightly so. It was noted also that Clive James was an unlikely Lothario. That might well be unimportant, but it was fairly well known so it was not expunged from his obituaries.

          Clive was mostly a man of the Left, but he was smart enough to see the truth about the Global warming hysteria and he broke ranks about that, albeit fairly quietly. That is why it was ignored and that is why it is important.

          40

  • #
    PeterW

    Attempted distraction by Fitz only validates scepticism on our part.

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Have just finished reading Clive’s essay that Jo linked to above… articulate, concise, witty, with just enough wry/dry humour to put a smile on my face. He stated his case fairly well, though I’m sure some would – ‘could’ – read into it whatever they wanted to (not mentioning any names).

    Has been enjoyable checking your ski area webcams the past 2 days: Thredbo, Perisher, Charlotte Pass, Buller, Hotham, even Mt Mawson in Tasmania, looking more like Switzerland or Colorado instead of Australia. Can we send you warm blankets or extra layers of clothing? Please dont hesitate to ask – snow shovels? gumboots? warm socks? ski jackets? goggles?

    A complete ban on any info about the COLD WAVE sweeping your southeastern hills over this side of the ditch: Clive wouldn’t be surprised about that at all. Stay safe and – ha! – warm. It, too, shall pass.

    20

  • #
    Wert

    I see the police is relentlessly policing Wikipedia. There is no mention on his climate change opinions on his article. He was “on the left”, so his name Must Not be smeared, but if the need arises, then the smear will be total.

    20

  • #
    JohnW

    So the big argument is about whether Clive James is a skeptic. He says he is a dissenter. What is the argument about? Oh, I see. It is about the ABC not saying he is a skeptic. You want him to be advertised as being on your side. But he is not a very good skeptic, not enough science and just borrowing from some skeptics who have already been debunked.
    Then we have statements here about cold in some parts of the world. Surprise surprise. So what will be said about the unprecedented fires burning in NSW and other parts of the country now for weeks – and we are not yet at Christmas. Even James was amazed there is still ice in the Arctic in a time of global warming. What was he thinking?
    It is a skeptic technique: set up some expectation and use it to make some illogical claim. Ice? So there cannot be global warming!
    Skeptics cannot agree with each other, because there is no coherent science of denial, just a number of cherry-picked topics with different answers. For example, Ian Plimer says CO2 has no connection with Climate Change, whereas the late Bob Carter said CO2 is a strong greenhouse gas. Go figure.

    00