Unprecedented hail, phenomenal damage in Canberra: 1871, 1877, 1897, 1919, 1936, 1956, 1963

Yesterday hail the size of golf balls fell on Canberra:

Windows, cars, gardens smashed. Already there have between 15,000 insurance claims made and it’s been declared a catastrophe. (Tough few weeks for insurers in Australia).

Not too good for solar panels:

Canberra aims to be 100% renewables (but they aren’t cutting the line to the coal power). Will we ever find out how much the bill for the solar panel damage was?

One hundred and thirty three years ago:

h/t John in Oz.

Canberra hail, severe damage, 1877

… (Click to enlarge)

 

Queanbeyan is Canberra’s twin city, 15 minutes from Parliament House but in the next state. Long before Canberra was even founded, there were shocking hail storms. At a glance, terrible hail storms appear more common in summer.

January 7, 1871: Queanbeyan  Hail of “large jagged shapes”, “bigger than pigeon’s eggs” shattered “hundreds of glass windows”, “cut ripe paddocks of wheat to pieces”, was “ruinous on fruit” crops, vine and trees. Many buildings were damaged. Hail lay in “deep drifts on the ground”.

Dec 29th, 1877: Extraordinary Hailstorm in Queanbeyan — large as “oranges” and “cricket balls”, cut through corrugated tin, killed “40 lambs”, knocked down foals, felled a horse.  Left a trail of “terrible” destruction.

 Sept 7th, 1897: Phenomenal Hailstorm:  “the hailstones so large that two of them filled a pint pot”.

Dec 15th, 1910:  Hail as “large as hens eggs” hit Weetangera. The crops were “a woeful sight”. Two and a halff inches of rain fell in Burra. 30 sheep drowned in Mt Campbell. At Woden Creek wire fences were washed away.

Dec 2nd, 1919: Destructive hailstorm:  “on roofs with the noise of musketry, while others came with such force upon the ground as to bury themselves deep in loose soil, or to rebound from harder lodgements, especially the roads and streets, like tennis balls, two or three feet high…”

Dec 28th, 1936: Hailstorm in Canberra: Hailstones the size of hazelnuts battered … Canberra. … Hail pierced the hood of a sedan car.

Jan 24, 1951: Hailstorm causes Severe Damage in Queanbeyan “Hailstones almost as large as hen eggs and golf balls weie reported from several parts of the town.”  “Police described the storm as the worst they could remember”.

Feb 16th, 1956: Hailstorm Canberra’s Longest:   …lasted 29 minutes. Some of the largest hail ever seen… “4.8 inches” fell on Yarralumla in 12 minutes. The hail caused “up to 100% losses in stone fruit”… “the most disastrous storm for many years”. 182 points of rain fell on the suburb of Griffith.

 

Hail, Canberra 1877.

1877 Hail storm part b. (Click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 out of 10 based on 61 ratings

215 comments to Unprecedented hail, phenomenal damage in Canberra: 1871, 1877, 1897, 1919, 1936, 1956, 1963

  • #
    Mr Farnham

    But but but the ice is colder this year because climate change

    341

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Hail that can kill a horse…..scary stuff….

    Poor horse….

    110

    • #
      Graeme#4

      The 2010 hailstorm in Perth punched large holes straight through car’s windscreens and rear windows. I have some photos that look like the car was subjected to cannon fire.

      160

      • #
        Hasbeen

        In the early 70s a hail storm hit a couple of Brisbane northern suburbs. The hail was so big, & so heavy that it pounded much of the corrugation out of corrugated iron roofing iron.

        The flattening made the distance between the ridges so much greater that the expanding area of iron actually pulled nails out of the roofing structures, unroofing large areas of many homes.

        90

        • #
          rk

          That would have been in November 1972 when for a number of days huge lines of thunderstorms hit S.E. Queensland. On one such day the 6th of November the line of storms destroyed most of the crops on the Darling Downs, hail was around 5″ to 6 ” in diameter and storm tops were around 70,000′. I happened to be flying that day, the storms stretched from at least Coffs Harbour to Taroom, a day I don’t forget. Many days saw storms at least as high as 65000′, clouds green as they approached Brisbane but strangely no records by the BOM. Such storms not seen these days, not hot enough for the storm development

          90

    • #
      James Poulos

      It’s only unprecedented to school children and uni students… the rest of us have seen it all before.

      570

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Ive said for a while the eco lunacy is driven by an eco religion/belief system……is this now being called out?

      https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/barilaro-accuses-government-agencies-of-ideological-opposition-to-hazard-reduction-20200122-p53tns.html

      “NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has accused state government agencies of being “ideologically opposed” to hazard reduction, as he backed the Prime Minister’s proposal for national targets.

      “Mr Barilaro, the minister responsible for leading the state’s bushfire recovery, also doubled down on his criticism of his cabinet colleague NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean, saying he was “playing the politics of the moment” in his advocacy for tougher action on climate change.

      “Mr Barilaro took aim at the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service – which falls under Mr Kean’s portfolio responsibilities – as he linked the “intensity” of the recent bushfires to high fuel loads in forest areas.

      “”I genuinely do believe that we have agencies within government that, over decades, haven’t actually honoured their commitments for fuel reduction because of ideological positions, especially in national parks. We just lock them up,” Mr Barilaro told Sky News on Wednesday.

      60

  • #
    Deplorable Lord Kek

    likely because of cow methane, a well known climate change risk factor, obviously.

    130

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    Only journalists who are
    Unprecedentedly ignorant
    Could not be aware of Canberra’s
    Haily history !

    280

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    These hail storms demonstrate clearly
    That Canberra as a national capitol
    Is far far too dangerous .
    It must be evacuated immediately
    And the entire population of
    pollies, bureaucrats, servicemen
    And ORDINARY citizens
    Provided with relocation grants.
    I suggest that all of then
    Should be relocated to Jindabyne immediately

    240

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      it seems my sense of humour & fun
      Is not understood..
      Sighhhh
      🙁

      60

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        I got it 🙂

        60

      • #
        sophocles

        Oh it’s understood, Bill,
        and when you hit the nail on it’s head,
        it’s enjoyed but not necessarily acclaimed.

        I was driving south from Canberra in summer 1991. (January, IIRC) It was
        a cloudless sky. At least I thought it was, until I spotted this tiny little
        dark blue-ish grey little cloud way off in the distance sort of to the South
        west. It was a while yet before I realised that it was walking across the
        landscape on legs of lightning and that we were going to intercept each other.

        I managed to hide under a petrol station canopy as that ‘little’ cloud now
        covered the sky. It was throwing down these cricket ball sized balls of ice
        which were bouncing well higher than the canopy I was now hiding under. My
        first (and so far only) experience of a dry-lightning storm and Australian hail.
        By this time, I was inside the petrol station store … the car
        had to take care of itself.

        101

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          Ahhhh Sophocles !
          Reality has a nasty habit
          Of spoiling our sense of humour.

          BTW I suggest Jyndabyne
          On the intuition
          That being higher & colder
          It would get more hail & snow & ice
          That Canberra.
          It would also upset their
          Climate Change fixations .
          🙂

          40

    • #
      GD

      I suggest that all of then
      Should be relocated to Jindabyne immediately

      I’d suggest Birdsville or Bogabilla. Not that I have anything against the people in those towns.

      70

  • #

    Sheesh! It’s starting to sound biblical for Australia. What’s next, a plague of frogs?

    Regards,
    Bob

    210

    • #
      Graeme#4

      On 2nd March 2010, residents in the small Northern Territory town of Lajamanu were bombarded by hundreds of live fish falling from the sky. Australia can be a weird place…

      150

      • #
        Environnment Skeptic

        ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Historical records always get a green tick…. hundreds of live fish falling from the sky like green ticks…a weird place indeed..2nd March 2010

        100

    • #
      Bob-l

      We already have one of those, except it’s cane toads.

      60

  • #
    Mal

    I’m waiting for an “average” day.
    Would that then be unprecedented?
    It would more probably be just outrageous and would no doubt offend someone!

    210

    • #
      John in Oz

      This has been a long-held complaint of mine.

      The news always reports weather conditions (rain, hail, temp, etc) as a variance around the ‘average’ as if ‘average’ is to be expected.

      This is fodder for the numerically challenged who conflate ‘average’ with ‘normal’, then look for someone/something to blame for the variation.

      Climate anywhere is variable within extremes but the CAGW-obsessed seem to think that climate should be a constant. Who are the real deniers?

      170

  • #
    AndyG55

    Been in at least half a dozen big-sized hailstorms that I can remember.

    And numerous tiddlers.

    Regular occurrence in Sydney and many other parts of NSW.

    120

    • #

      Last year we hired a car in Italy. It was almost new but a bit of a wreck as it was peppered with hundreds of indentations all over it’s body as the rental firms car fleet had been caught in a ferocious hail storm.

      I was pleased to accept the car on the basis that the rental firm couldn’t possibly have the cheek to try to charge me for any barely noticeable scratches or marks, as seems to be their life’s mission

      160

  • #
    Rod McLean

    Jo, you might check spelling in the heading.

    41

  • #
    John

    Oh but they are 100% renewable! They’ve even got a certificate from Al Gore to prove it! Same as his carbon neutral jet.

    130

  • #
    AndyG55

    Actually, if you look at the dates..

    … the time since the last big hailstorm events is totally unprecedented

    All the other events were less than 20 years apart.

    I wonder how many there have been since 1963, or is this the first “in living memory” 😉

    140

    • #
      AndyG55

      quick search found ACT hail storms in 2007, 2013, so there are almost certainly others.

      120

      • #
        AndyG55

        nice little link, just use the arrows to go back through time to see WEATHER events.

        http://actfirst.org.au/history/weather-events/hail-storms/6-jan-2006

        Almost seems to occur on a yearly basis somewhere in the ACT.

        80

        • #
          AndyG55

          Around 1959 there are a couple of interesting pages on heatwaves 😉

          http://actfirst.org.au/history/weather-events/heatwaves/dec-1959

          60

          • #
          • #
            OriginalSteve

            But but but…..apparently the sky maybe falling…..they quote the IPCC.
            At least they keep good records….

            http://actfirst.org.au/about-act-first

            “OUR CLIMATE IS CHANGING

            “Click to enlarge imageIPCC observed change in average surface temperature 1901-2012
            “1/1 IPCC CHANGE AVERAGE SURFACE AREA
            “IPCC graphic showing observed change in average surface temperature 1901-2012.
            “Click to play videoCSIRO on understanding why our Earth system is warming
            “1/1 CSIRO ON UNDERSTANDING WHY OUR EARTH SYSTEM IS WARMING
            “CSIRO’s Dr Steve Rintoul, Dr John Church and Dr Pep Canadell discuss the climate science research to understand how and why the Earth system is warming.

            “THE CONVERSATION ARTICLE ON THE IPCC REPORT INTO GLOBAL WARMING

            Global warming is undeniable, according to the recently released assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It concluded the 30 years until 2012 were probably the warmest in 1,400 years and were driven by greenhouse gas levels not seen for 80,000 years.

            “More temperature records were broken than ever before during the decade between 2001-2010.

            “Follow the link on the right to read more of the IPCC’s recent report.

            “In the featured video, CSIRO’s Dr Steve Rintoul, Dr John Church and Dr Pep Canadell discuss climate science research to understand how and why the Earth system is warming.

            51

            • #
              AndyG55

              “It concluded the 30 years until 2012 were probably the warmest in 1,400 years “

              They mean from before the freezing cold anomaly called the Little Ice Age ??

              They are admitting the Medieval Warm Period was warmer…

              Welcome to the Modern SLIGHTLY Warm Period.

              And then they go at that most anti-science meme of CO2 warming…..

              Which we are all STILL waiting for some actual scientific proof of.

              160

          • #
            Bill In Oz

            So is this
            http://actfirst.org.au/trends
            They supply trends up to 2050.
            ut the data stops at 2112 !
            There have been 7 years since then
            What do they do to the trends projected I wonder ?

            And Canberra is a classic example of Urban Heat Island effect!

            20

        • #
          WXcycles

          Yes but this is the first in an actual climate-cristhisth!

          40

        • #
          truth

          That ACT rainfall graph seems to show no drying trend…in fact the opposite… except for projections…yes?

          20

  • #
    toorightmate

    Please, please be fair.
    This hail storm was the worst on record.

    Records commenced in 2019.

    240

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    So what you are saying Jo is that this event was not “unprecedented” and by Virtue of the obligation of the vendor of these rooftop systems the purchases have been badly treated by the vendors.

    They failed to disclose relevant facts relating to significant loss of function posed by known hailstorm activity.

    Classy.

    KK

    140

  • #
    RobertR

    Oh- ice blocks falling from the sky – how can this be happening when the planet is suffering from global warming?
    I’m terribly confused! 🙁

    160

  • #
    Russell

    With such a clear history of hail damage in this area, should we ask about responsible officers at CSIRO who did not take adequate precautions to protect the glasshouses that were damaged yesterday. Their Chief operating officer Judi Zielke told Their ABC that these buildings contained “years of valuable research” (probably costing a packet of taxpayer funds). And clearly were not subject to an adequate risk assessment from hail destruction. Who’d bet me they now say assessed as a 1 in 100 years risk?
    These “organisations” are trying to convince us that the science and story about climate change is professional and we should be doing more.
    Good luck with that … such woefully-inadequate and tin-pot management.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/years-of-scientific-research-lost-in-canberra-hailstorm/11884062

    200

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I was mystified by CSIRO losing all that research when their green houses got demolished by hail.

      All that plain glass roofing , and not one super smart ( allegedly ) boffin thought to put a polycarbonate layer over the glass?

      110

      • #
        jaymam

        I have a clear plastic roof over my kitchen and bathroom. Because of a number of incidents where objects have fallen on the roof from a height of over 30 metres, I have put steel mesh above the plastic. I would probably put mesh over solar panels if I had any.

        60

      • #
        hatband

        All that plain glass roofing , and not one super smart ( allegedly ) boffin thought to put a polycarbonate layer over the glass?

        Polycarbonate completely blocks the UV-B wavelength, drastically affecting plant growth.

        20

        • #
          sophocles

          Polycarbonate completely blocks the UV-B wavelength, drastically affecting plant growth.

          The atmosphere does that anyway except for four hours around the middle of the day. (two hours before and two hours after.)

          The atmosphere doesn’t seem to affect plant life much for all that.

          So why worry?

          31

          • #
            hatband

            You’re confusing UV-B with the shorter wavelength UV-C, which is blocked

            by the Ozone Layer.

            UV-B reaching the surface declines to zero depending on the angle of the Sun, the

            less UV-B, the less Plant Growth.

            Stone fruit Orchardists found that out the hard way when Hail Netting first came

            out, and they used the cheaper black netting rather than the more expensive and

            more UV-B friendly white netting>

            20

        • #
          Fred Streeter

          “Polycarbonate completely blocks the UV-B wavelength, drastically affecting plant growth.”

          Which is why it is extensively used in commercial greenhouses? What is your source?

          It has been explained to me that plants can detect UV-B, triggering a series of responses which protect them against the effects of UV radiation.

          Since Polycarbonate effectively blocks all UV radiation, that response is not required.

          21

          • #
            hatband

            Plants don’t need protection from UV-B

            In general, the more UV-B, the more growth.

            See: Tropical regions.

            20

    • #
      truth

      Not to worry..,those lost results can be fudged…after all that’s what post-normal science is all about.

      40

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Is “unprecedented” a new branch of climate science ?
    Paul Murray was tonight looking into keywords such as this one and the frequency of use since last November .
    From memory I think it was around 54,000 times .

    70

    • #
      robert rosicka

      That was just for print and TV probably radio as well but if they factor in twitter and Facebook etc I think it was around 180,000 and “climate change ” was around 800,000 mentions .

      70

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Unprecedented weather
      Has Always happened before !
      🙂

      Mayhap the jounos involved
      Lose all memory of what happened the day before
      Like some women in a suss movie a long time ago

      70

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      I reckon its use has been as advertising for Greta’s speech at Davos.

      50

  • #
    robert rosicka

    On the way home last year just before Oodnadatta a rock somehow hit the 200watt solar panel on the camper it looked much like the ones in the photo .
    Although only one impact mark the whole thing was crazed and I thought surely it was knackered but to my surprise it’s still working as per normal .

    50

  • #

    “Let’s design them so that the photovoltaic cells are embedded in, umm, let’s say ….. glass.”

    “Uh, why would you do something that stupid.”

    “Think about it. They have to mount them on the roof, and facing upwards.”

    “So?”

    “Think about what’s going to happen in a hailstorm.”

    “Yeah, umm, but wouldn’t Insurance cover that?”

    “Yeah, but they would still need the panels to be replaced.”

    “But we only get the subsidy once.”

    “We’re making the money out of the Insurance Company this time, for removal, and replacement, and the labor. Same price as the first time round, and these Chinese panels are cheaper. Who’s to know?”

    “That’s a lot of panels to get rid of.”

    “Well that’s not our problem now is it. That’s for the Council. We just take them to the tip.”

    “Win win. Another beer?”

    “Yes please.”

    Tony.

    300

    • #
      toorightmate

      The broken panels should be shoved up Adam Brandt’s Kaiber – sideways.

      60

      • #
        toorightmate

        OOOpppsss
        Khyber

        50

      • #
        sophocles

        A neighbour had some rooftop solar panels installed a couple of years ago.
        Trouble is, Auckland’s hail is kiddy stuff compared with yours and what they get further south of here.
        Still, I’m watching. I haven’t mentioned the possibility to their proud owner.

        40

  • #
    Gerry, England

    Anecdotal evidence from the Little Ice Age refers to giant hail being a feature of that time. I did respond to a spam email from solar panel pushers asking about impact testing and they didn’t respond. Funny that.

    160

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    Insurance policies can be tricky things. Can a reader check and report?

    Can a homeowner take a payout and use the money for something else?

    Or will there be a payout only to reproduce what was installed?

    IF we had solar panels they would be on an isolated rack. But at 47°N they don’t seem like the best use of our money. Bird dogs, horses, and wine are better value.

    70

  • #
    Mal

    Such storms must have been common in Roman times
    Didnt they greet each other with “Hail” Ceaser?

    80

    • #
      Curious George

      That was “Ave”. “Heil” comes from northern barbarians.

      60

    • #
      sophocles

      Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant!

      The Circus salute …

      40

      • #
        sophocles

        Ice from the sky as in hail comes from Old English hagol Old Norse hagl.
        Probably neither were pronounced exactly as spelt.

        Hail as in Hail fellow well met is a variant of HALE. Middle English.

        Helpful?

        50

      • #
        robert rosicka

        In the field of climate science does “etal” mean ” once upon a time” ?

        40

        • #
          sophocles

          I thought it was short for ‘the huge list starts here!’
          especially for paper authors. As in ‘et al’ and all the bl**dy others!
          or as one author said ‘plus all the departmental parasites.’

          Your choice …

          40

  • #

    On Easter Monday 1360 around ten thousand English troops were camped outside the cathedral town of Chartres. In one half hour a hail storm killed some thousand English and some six thousand horses. My guess is that trampling killed more than hail, but who knows? Black Monday was one of several turning points in the Hundred Years War.

    The miserable weather of the 14th century had struck again. So, climate botherers, when you are dialing back the climate better just skip the century from 1315 onward…

    In fact, just stop dialing, okay? If you reckon there are too many sourpuss Swedes now just check out their weather for the Great Northern War after 1700.

    140

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    October 1, 2019: ACT has ‘100 per cent renewable’ electricity from today. But what does that mean?

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-01/act-is-100-per-cent-renewable-but-what-does-that-mean/11560356

    >> What it does mean is that no amount of renewable energy can prevent the climate from changing.

    100

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Canberra hailstorm damages valuable research as record number of emergency calls lodged

    PHOTO: Greenhouses at the CSIRO were badly damaged by the hailstorm that tore through Canberra on January 20.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/years-of-scientific-research-lost-in-canberra-hailstorm/11884062

    >> Hail storms never happen inside a greenhouse, yet the CO2 greenhouse effect causes hail outside a greenhouse that can only prevented with a carbon (sic) tax.

    Go figure.

    100

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      2011: Carbon tax hit small: CSIRO

      http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/carbon-tax-hit-small-csiro-20111112-1ncvq.html

      We’re gonna need a bigger carbon (sic) tax.

      51

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      Say “when”

      CSIRO, 1986: 50-year weather forecast: warm, becoming hot

      “CSIRO climatologists urged the federal and state governments yesterday to begin urgentplanning for a rapid and pronounced warming of Australia’s climate during the next 50 years.

      Dr Brian Tucker, chief of CSIRO’s Division of Atmospheric Research, said a huge research effort in Australia in the past five years had confirmed that levels of carbon dioxide, methane and fluorocarbons in the atmosphere were rising and would lead to the so-called “greenhouse effect”, lifting average temperatures by as much as 3 degrees in the next two decades, and by as much as 5 degrees within 50 years.

      Dr Graham Pearman, another CSIRO climatologist, specialising in the study of gases in the atmosphere, said it was no longer question of whether the greenhouse effect would occur, but when.

      https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118126098

      90

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Winning!

    Thank you, President Trump …

    Trump at Davos: We must reject ‘prophets of doom’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBbBMVZHHSw

    120

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Oh no…and to think every generation had its apocalyptic Establishment “control phrase” used to make people cower….

      1950s – hide under desk from nuke attack/cold war
      1960s – same
      1970s – global cooling
      1980s – aids
      1990s – global warming/SARS
      2000s – global warming
      2010s – global warming on steroids
      2020s – pretty much anything that scares people….coronaviruses, global wamring etc etc

      50

    • #
      PeterS

      Indeed but here in Australia we have one as our leader otherwise we would not still be focusing on reducing our emissions to fight a so called climate catastrophe and instead taking us out of the Paris Agreement ASAP. PM Morrison can’t have it both ways. Either he believes reducing emissions is good for mankind or he rejects the CAGW myth outright. There is no middle of the road. So far he is fully supporting the former. So of course is the alternative leader. Whoever is the PM we are stuffed. We have a stalemate. We need a breaker to smash it. So vote for a party that if they held the balance of power at the federal level they will have the mandate to force whoever forms government to reject the CAGW myth and stop supporting renewables and start supporting coal and nuclear. We as a democracy have the power to do it but it appears we don’t have the will.

      120

      • #
        truth

        That IS the only answer..but even that wouldn’t work because one or other of the major parties will win with preferences…and no matter how strong the One Nation vote[ they’re the only climate realists amongst minor parties]…with Morrison leading Libs we’d be back to square one because the majors would join forces to defeat any One Nation obstruction….unless the policy at issue was so extreme that the LNP couldn’t bring themselves to vote for it …even under the influence of guru Photios as proxy for comrade Gore.

        Only Tony Abbott would have told Europe to get lost …that Australia will do its own thing…he’s virtually told them that every chance he gets.

        I don’t believe Tony Abbott would ever have ratified the Paris Agreement despite having signed it under extreme duress

        60

        • #
          PeterS

          Advance Australia Party is another minor party with the right stance. One of the two major parties will only ever win a majority rule with or without preferences as long as none of the minor parties win enough seats to block them form said government in the first place. Therein lies the rub, we don’t have the will to vote for a minor party with the right attitude on energy policy and climate change to stop the rot. So the madness continues at least until the music stops.

          20

  • #
    Ruairi

    When updraughts of hot air prevail,
    The downdraughts can rain stones of hail,
    Which past records show,
    Worldwide to be so,
    And from peanuts to grapefruits in scale.

    200

  • #
    Vishnu

    These hailstones were clearly formed by climate change as their unique shape which can penetrate solar panels with kinetic energy enhancement could only be made in a globally warmed atmosphere.

    93

  • #
    Gowest

    Is this what happens when you jail the most senior catholic in the country???

    You cant write this stuff – Dan Andrews goes spastic because Abbott visits Pell in Jail – the next thing is massive bush-fires / deaths, apocalypse on the beach / beach evacuation and gas masks in Melbourne… Following that Hailstones in Melbourne and Canberra… on the CSIRO the main AGW protagonist..

    Talk about the revenge of the Catholics – Whats next?

    81

  • #
    el gordo

    Many women (probably witches) were blamed for creating hail, according to Bavarian and Swiss chronicles:

    “1445, in this year was a very strong hail and wind, as never seen before, and it did great damage, […] and so many women, which it’s said to have made the hail and the wind, were burned according to the law.”

    80

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Mod alert
      What an advanced idea. I recommend it so long as it doesn’t discriminate by gender. We need to line up lots of Greens and let them be stoned to death by hailstones.
      They can’t object because from their utterances so many are already stoned.
      And we don’t have to supply a reason, just as they don’t supply one to explain the policies they want.

      61

    • #
      GrahamP

      Interesting video here:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcAy4sOcS5M

      According to the alarmists our PM is the modern equivalent of a witch.

      50

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        And I bet Peter F. see himself as Witch Finder General.

        It should be noted that the Salem Witch ‘Trials’ in the USA were partly influenced by the division of the accused persons wealth.

        60

        • #
          AndyG55

          He wouldn’t know which witch was witch.

          Poor little troll turns to stone as soon as you say the word “evidence” 😉

          30

    • #
      hatband

      Let’s not knock earlier ways just because we’re the most brainwashed people that ever lived.

      Women, in general, are forces for Conformity rather than Invention and Progress, and it’s possible that our forefathers took advantage of disasters to cull the potential Wokesters of the day.

      25

      • #
        william x

        There are too many outstanding women to list, hatband, that have contributed to our society in invention and progress.

        Don’t be ignorant you can research lt. 🙂

        Though I will give you an example of one outstanding woman that I personally know.

        My mother was a force for change. She was able to harness my potential energy source and direct that energy to be used for progress.

        I washed dishes, mowed the lawn, painted rooms, cleaned, swept and put the bins out. My mother was able to convert my potential energy into kinetic. It only cost her 1 dollar a week to release that energy.

        She is a very smart woman.

        30

  • #
    George Cross

    And don’t forget today is the “hottest” day in history since yesterday.<:o)

    100

  • #
    David Maddison

    Today, every unusual weather event is regarded as “unprecedented”. That is the planned result of the Left stopping the teaching of real history, research skills and critical thinking skills in schools.

    How hard can it possibly be to do the research? These lazy people don’t even have to visit a library any more, it is all accessible online.

    90

    • #
      PeterS

      Therein lies the real problem. People are too lazy to do their own research and instead rely on information from politicians, MSM and our education systems, all of which produce so much lies and exaggerations and less of the truth and facts. If we continue that way, which appears to be the case then we will only change direction when we hit a wall and it hurts.

      70

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        The kids are bored out of their brains
        By the new modern curriculum
        So heading out to a demo protest
        Is a good break from the boredom.

        60

        • #
          PeterS

          The voters are stoned out of their brains
          By the new modern corporate lies
          Heading home after work to release their strains
          Only to be bombarded with more from the MSM cries

          60

  • #
    TdeF

    Slightly off topic but about on the real difficulty with getting objective facts from the press, not opinion.

    The UK Telegraph. “Trump takes swipe at Thunberg and Davos elite as impeachment begins”

    “Donald Trump launched a thinly veiled attack on eco-campaigner Greta Thunberg, as well as the global elite in the Davos crowd, in an apparent bid to deflect attention away from historic impeachment proceedings back in the US and appeal to blue-collar workers ahead of this year’s presidential election.

    So was Thunberg mentioned? No. In fact “the US President urged delegates to “reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of apocalypse”. So Trump talked about all the many and long standing prophets of doom and Thunberg only appeared in the last 18 months. This is a thinly Veiled attack on Thunberg? Evil Trump is beating up a vulnerable, fragile girl and not Michael Mann, Al Gore, James Hanson and the thousands of profiteers of doom over the last 32 years. This is total deceit, not reporting. Michelle Grattan of the Age would be proud.

    As for trying to “deflect from Impeachment proceedings”, how? So Trump went to Davos to attack Greta? Really? That is entirely the imagination of the author, Ben Wright in Davos and one partial sentence from Trump and a whole sentence from Thunberg in alleged rebuttal to create the semblance of a conversation which did not happen. A total fabrication.

    So with all modern reporting on Climate Change and evil Trump we read what the reporter thinks. It’s a wonder there was even a partial quote from Trump and it contradicts the headline. A ridiculous article by a reporter who knows what people are thinking and reports his own prejudices and fantasies as news. Typical.

    150

    • #
      TdeF

      Like the hailstorms, the droughts and flooding rains and bushfires, everything is unprecedented and Climate Change and Trump and Morrison. History is irrelevant. There is no ‘perennial prophet of doom’ but Greta who appeared first in August 2018. So we get alarmist fact free articles presented as objective reporting. The Telegraph may lose my subscription too.

      60

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      “A ridiculous article by a reporter who knows what people are thinking and reports his own prejudices and fantasies as news”.

      The real tragedy is that the Reporter doesn’t even have a clue that he is being used and manipulated.

      The greater tragedy for society is that he is not alone.

      I’m sure that people like Kristianna pontificating in luxury at Davos see him as an expendable drone.

      KK

      70

      • #
        truth

        IMO the behavior of LW journalists these days is plain sinister.

        So much is at stake…especially for Australia.

        30

        • #
          hatband

          That’s right.

          If CFPSs get the bullet, something will replace it.

          If Petrol powered transport goes, something will fill in the gap.

          But if Cattle are removed from our diet, then nothing can can take their place, and

          the money making opportunities for Big Agra and Big Pharma are limitless.

          10

    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      deflect attention away from historic impeachment proceedings back in the US

      The percentage of people in the USA — not within TV viewing distance of Wash. D.C. — that even know the President is out of the country, is likely in the single digits.
      I’ll guess more people are interested in Megan & Harry (going somewhere), or Taylor Swift’s mom (brain tumor), or Ozzy Osbourne (Parkinson’s). Then, of course, is the approaching super duper football game between … (I don’t know.).
      Davos? Is he a member of U2?

      50

    • #
      Bushkid

      If the Swedish kid was genuinely “fragile” she wouldn’t be able to front up at any of these shindigs, or cope with the publicity that surrounds her.

      10

  • #

    The word “unprecedented” has lost its meaning due to poor reporting. It is lazy reporting and should not be reduced to a synonym for “extreme” or “rare”. One thing that will be actually unprecedented is the insurance bill for hail in the ACT but so what?

    150

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      In Melbourne 6 months back the authorities were warning of “extreme weather” and to stay home etc etc.

      It was just heavier than normal downpour with a bit of flash flooding…big deal.

      But the mindset was very snowflake…..

      I recall a heavy downpour in South yarra one year….this guy in a Range Rover idles up to the foot deep water across the road….I’m thinking ..OK, its arangoe…no probs…..nope….decides its not his thing and scoots off…..er…..

      50

    • #
      RoHa

      And they can’t even pronounce it properly. They keep saying “unpreeeecedented”.

      10

  • #
    DavidGeo

    Ever wondered why stone fruit growers in southern NSW and the Blue Mountains have hail netting protecting their fruit at this time of year?
    Oh yeh, we get hail in southern NSW most years between Dec-Feb.

    130

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    ABC ‘JOURNALIST’: What do you say to people who present evidence that Australia has had 50°C days and catastrophic bushfires in the 1800s?

    Government/IPCC climate ‘SCIENTIST’: The thermometers must have been in the sun.

    https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1219371850808975360

    Science (climate).

    60

    • #
      Maptram

      I look at the weather data for Deniliquin because it is one location I have found where BOM records for the Information Centre site go back continuously from 2003 to 1867. The current site they use is at the Airport, about 4 km from the Info Centre site, which has been operating since 1997, so there is some overlap between the two sites, and the data can be compared. The data from both sites shows a little variation, but the notable difference is that, until 2003 when the info centre site closed the Airport site temperature data was whole degrees, no decimals. Most of the data has been quality controlled by the BOM so I would guess that means thermometers were not in the sun

      40

  • #
    exsteelworker

    All the damaged sun mirrors and now cancerous heavy metals being washed out of your panels with just rain, filling up your water tanks, enjoy.

    50

  • #
    Brian

    Since Canberra has little generating capacity apart form limited solar I cannot see how they can claim to be 100% renewable. Do they have some kind of clever widget on the incoming transmission lines from the eastern grid that filters out those horrible black amps and only lets wiggly green amps into the ACT?

    80

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Brian:

      The Canberra City Council (I refuse to call them a Territory) did a deal with wind farms, principally in South Australia, to ‘purchase’ their output. By contracting for enough capacity they can claim that they only use Green Electricity**. That meant they didn’t have to buy Certificates under the RET so Canberra got cheaper electricity (about 25% cheaper than the prevailing cost in S.A. or N.S.W. at that time).
      Those Certificates had to be bought by the public outside the ACT. So they got cheaper electricity and a nice warm smug feeling (useful in winter).

      **Of course they actually run on coal fired power from N.S.W. unless that Green Electricity is sent there in parcels via Australia Post.

      130

  • #
    David Maddison

    Slightly off topic but as we approach the end of January 2020, I’d be willing to bet “our” BoM will declare it the hottest January eeevvveeerrr…. The narrative is necessary to go along with the false claim that the bushfires were caused by “climate change”.

    After all, you can’t have “unprecedented fires” without “unprecedented high temperatures” due to “climate change”, can you?

    70

  • #
    George4

    It’s a bit misleading putting a photo from the Dec 2018 Sydney Hailstorms.

    https://ramblingsdc.net/CCDisasters.html

    I tend to think that solar panel glass is designed to be reasonably hail resistant and hail damage is not really a big issue.

    21

  • #
    David Maddison

    We need to find alternate terms for “journalist” and “reporter”. These terms used to imply objectivity and a general lack of bias but this is no longer the case.

    Ever since the Marxists hijacked the education system, these persons are nothing more than paid political propagandists of the Left. Their present roles are fully explained in their instruction manual, Orwell’s “1984”.

    60

    • #
      TdeF

      Perhaps low paid teenage casual worker? Thanks to the swing to the extreme left of politics in reporting, most older reporters are out of a job now. Except in the ABC/BBC/CNN and what’s left of Fairfa/NYT/WPO where they hang on by being even more extreme and fact and history free than the kids. And the world get its opinions and views from teenage dropouts like Greta.

      The Age was killed off by extremist journalists simply because they brought their fact free opinions and histrionics to a paper respected for quality reporting and journalism and clear thinking. The whole front page could be fact free drivel courtesy of Michelle Grattan and friends. The same for history books bulk written by closeted teams hired by rugby player Peter Fitzsimmons and giving his very biased view of Australian history, nothing more. Gallipoli, Tobruk, Captain Cook, …. as he imagines them. They are almost straight into the yellow and green bins. Who needs facts when you hate Australia and the British and the Royal Family?

      50

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Didnt bob hawke famously insult a senior female journo one day?….

        30

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Every time I see one of his “books” in a bookstore I want to throw up.

        Of all people, making money off the wonderful achievements and sacrifice of others.

        KK

        30

        • #
          TdeF

          Yes, a good friend told me that Australians played no part in the Rats of Tobruk battle. It was all the English. I was aghast. Later he sent a picture of the cover. Another bl**dy Fitzsimmons historical fantasy! 14,000 Australians and 10,000 English trapped in the old Italian fortifications fought the Germans to a standstill and while the English soldiers were essential anti aircraft gunners, it was the Australians who fought through the night in the desert. To paint this seventy years later as an exclusive English victory is highly offensive and wrong. Like all on the extreme left, the facts do not count, even in an allegedly historical book. At least the bookstore gave a refund. His books should be in the leftist fantasy section along with how wonderful Stalin, Hitler and Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot were. These are the same people who say that Hitler, leader of the National Socliasts was an extreme right wing conservative!

          50

          • #
            TdeF

            As with Climate Change and Hailstorms and bushfires, the easily available history archives on the internet including all the records, newspapers, books on Trove are just ignored. Getting your facts right does not take years of training and buried in the archives. You can just search.

            But who needs facts when you can write a book and say what you like? Facts get in the road for a modern progressive historian who can say what he likes without fear of criticism from universities or the press.

            So we are told everything is the worst ever recorded when a drover’s dog could prove Fitzsimmons wrong. Or the BOM. And as for the haze in Melbourne being the ‘worst air in the world’, that is just ridicul*us n*nsense. A quick trip to Bangkok or Shanghai or Beijing or Mumbai or Lagos or a hundred other places would change that opinion. Facts and the media have parted ways. And their ‘fact checkers’ are the worst offenders, like Media Watch.

            60

        • #
          TdeF

          Yes, the book was on Captain James Cook. Presumably leader of the ‘invasion’ of Australia. This from the leader of the Australian Republic group, after extreme Green Malcolm Turnbull. As in parody of Monty Python, what have the British done for us? The roads, the peace, the wine, the laws, the food, the language, the tolerant culture.

          40

  • #
    David Maddison

    It would be interesting to know how many solar subsidy installations were destroyed and if removing them from the grid had any noticeable effect on power production figures.

    Tony?

    40

  • #
  • #
    sophocles

    David:
    I won’t take you up on what is looking like a ‘sure thing

    Have a look at the weather in Southern and South Eastern Spain over the last weekend:
    https://electroverse.net/storm-gloria-brings-heavy-snow-to-spain-killing-at-least-3/

    The reporter had a nice warning: ‘Open your eyes, not a copy of The Guardian — prepare for the COLD

    Sure, it’s the middle of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter but the South East of Spain is its Mediterranean coast where ‘ it never snows

    The Straits of Gibraltar (35.9°N) are roughly the same latitude as Melbourne (37°S) and Auckland (36°S) so maybe your hail was ‘in sympathy.
    That storm you had is heading to the South of us (NZ) but there’s a tangle of fronts coming our way.

    60

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      sophocles:
      I was in Granada in winter 1977/8 and there was light snow. Outside the city there was extensive snow on the Sierra Nevada. 3 Canadians were taking the bus out to the top of the nearest pass, skiing back down, then boarding the bus again. No need for a ski lift.
      The Sierra Nevada is home to Europe’s most southerly ski resort, with a season running from November to late May or early June (depending on snowfall). Mount Veleta’s northern slopes provide a spectacular setting for the resort, which offers over 100 kilometres (62 miles) of skiable routes spread between 124 pistes.

      January 14 and 15, 1914. During these two days more than 20 centimetres of snow fell in the city of Barcelona. It was the first and biggest snowfall of the 20th century, and it really took people by surprise back then. December 24, 25 and 26, 1962. Snow began falling during the traditional Midnight Mass, and on Christmas morning Barcelona woke up to almost half a metre of snow. November 21, 1999. This was the last snowfall of the 20th century, and strangely enough it fell right in the middle of autumn.
      March 8, 2010. On this day Barcelona experienced its biggest snowfall after 1962.
      There was snow in Barcelona in 2018, 2019 and this year. It must be UNPRECEDENTED.

      50

      • #
        sophocles

        The Sierra Nevadas are more than high enough to get a good regular snow cap. But Majorca?
        Barcelona is well away to the north east at 41°N by about 500km.
        It’s still on the Mediterranean coast.

        20

        • #
          RoHa

          “The Sierra Nevadas are more than high enough to get a good regular snow cap. ”

          Considering the name, I would hope so.

          30

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    Those solar panels will be useless …
    Will they be recycled? I have my doubts.
    Hope the insurance people push up the premiums on these crap items and do not pass the costs on to the rest of us. GeoffW

    50

  • #
    Destroyer D69

    We are assured that accurate predictions of sea level rises, temperature rises,global warming.species extinction,melting ice caps, the cessation of rain, and sundry other catastrophic events are just part of the normal services on offer from the BOM and other camp followers. However they appear to lack the expertise to predict an approaching serious hail event despite the massive resources, obviously at their disposal to fulfill the aforementioned predictions,which,incidentally, have a high rate of failure to eventuate as promised.

    60

    • #
      sophocles

      which,incidentally, have a high rate of failure to eventuate as promised.

      One has to wonder why! 😀

      30

    • #
      PeterS

      They would have a better batting average if they predicted earthquakes and volcanoes since we always had them. SO it makes their predictions on CAGW totally worthless. It should make the public in general really question why BOM and others even talking about climate change when their focus is supposed to be on weather forecasting not climate change forecasting.

      40

  • #
    pat

    ABC churns out more Canberra “unprecedented” rubbish, with dramatic flourishes:

    22 Jan: ABC: Canberra scientist tells of fear as giant hailstones rained down on CSIRO glasshouse
    By Niki Burnside and Jordan Hayne
    PIC: Evans Lagudah, a chief research scientist at CSIRO, was inside a greenhouse when the hailstorm struck. (ABC News: David Sciasci)
    As an unprecedented hailstorm bore down on dozens of greenhouses containing national research projects on Monday, researchers working inside the vulnerable buildings were faced with a split-second decision…

    Evans Lagudah, a chief research scientist at the national research organisation, said the storm came on “within microseconds”…
    Canberrans had been warned of the approaching storm and many field workers associated with the CSIRO and the Australian National University had opted not to go out that day.

    But Dr Lagudah said he felt safe enough to walk the short distance to the glass building to do a little work.
    “It was just like a normal, reasonably clear morning,” Dr Lagudah said.
    “It started like just a gentle raindrop and then within a few seconds the hailstones started splattering on the [glass].
    “To be honest it was scary, because it was a situation where we were just working in the glasshouse, everything was normal and then within microseconds you’ve just got these hailstones just dropping in from everywhere.”…

    The pair ran for cover to a nearby building that offered better protection from the hail…
    “At that point I think I could have beaten Usain Bolt in a 100-metre race because it was just the adrenalin — it just got into me to get out of there,” he said…

    CSIRO director of agriculture and food Michiel van Lookeren Campagne said the organisation had been set back an entire growing season by the storm damage…
    He said there was a neat irony to the disaster.
    “We always need to stay one step ahead of nature … and nature got the upper hand.”
    But he said despite everything, scientists were optimistic about the future.
    “We’re all scientists, we’re passionate about our projects, and we’ll use all the creativity that we have, all the resources that we have to overcome this disaster,” he said…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-22/canberra-scientist-tells-of-fear-as-hail-fell-on-glasshouse/11886442

    40

  • #
    pat

    note how ABC uses “unprecedented” in the headline, compared with how it is expressed in the opening para, etc!

    19 Jan: ABC: Unprecedented locust plague in Kenya and Horn of Africa threatening food security
    by AP/Reuters
    The most serious outbreak of locusts ***in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, authorities say…

    The further increase in locust swarms could last until June as favourable breeding conditions continue, IGAD said, helped along by unusually heavy flooding in parts of the region in recent weeks…

    Major locust outbreaks can be devastating: a major one between 2003 and 2005 cost more than $US500 million ($727 million) to control across 20 countries in northern Africa, the UNFAO has said, with more than $US2.5 billion ($3.6 billion) in harvest losses…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-19/locust-plague-east-africa-devastates-crops-worst-25-years/11880696

    how AP expressed it (and as it was picked up by other MSM)

    17 Jan: AP: Locust outbreak, most serious ***in 25 years, hits East Africa
    By ELIAS MESERET and CARA ANNA
    ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame…

    Wikipedia: African migratory locust
    There was a major plague of the African migratory locust from 1891 to 1903, followed by one that lasted from 1928 to 1941. For many years after that, the African migratory locust was in recession, which perhaps lulled the authorities into a false sense of security. The Sahel region experienced several years of drought in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The rains and more normal weather returned in 1984, providing ideal conditions for the locusts to breed abundantly…

    CAGW-infested Reuters sneaks in “unprecedented” halfway through their piece:

    17 Jan: Reuters: Locust plague devastates crops in Horn of Africa
    by Giulia Paravicini; Additional reporting by Maggie Fick and Njeri Mwangi;
    “These infestations represent a major threat to food security in Kenya and across the entire Horn of Africa, which is already reeling from floods and droughts,” said Bukar Tijani, FAO’s Assistant Director General, calling the swarms “vast and unprecedented”….
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-locusts/locust-plague-devastates-crops-in-horn-of-africa-idUSKBN1ZG1GC

    40

  • #
    pat

    12-year-old Indonesian girl knows we just had “unprecedented bushfires”. theirABC gives maximum coverage/follows up by questioning PM’s office, etc. wow.
    a 12 year oldCAGW sceptic needs to write a letter to our PM and the US President and then get ABC to give it equal coverage:

    22 Jan: ABC: Indonesian 12yo activist tells Scott Morrison to take back Australia’s waste
    By Erwin Renaldi and Alan Weedon
    Aeshninna (Nina) Azzahra from Gresik, East Java, made the request in an open letter to the PM which was delivered personally to the Australian embassy in Jakarta yesterday evening…
    Ms Azzahra told the ABC that during her trips to East Java’s rubbish fields, waste with Australian labels was the most common she found after US-labelled rubbish.
    The Prime Minister’s office told the ABC in a statement the Australian Government would phase in a ban on waste plastic, glass and paper exports starting from July…

    Last year, Indonesian environment activist group Ecoton accused Australian companies of “smuggling” huge amounts of plastic and waste paper (LINK) supposedly sent for recycling.

    Azzahra also tells Morrison to ditch coal
    Ms Azzahra’s message to Mr Morrision follows similar letters addressed to world leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump..

    She told the ABC that it was critical for Australia to curtail its environmental impact, especially given its ***unprecedented bushfire season.
    “Australia also needs to find a more environmentally friendly fuel, not using coal,” Ms Azzahra said…

    To Mr Trump, she said American waste had made Indonesian rivers “very dirty and smelly”…

    Only one official representative has met with Ms Azzahra in response to her pleas — Germany’s ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof, who spoke with the activist earlier this month.
    Ms Azzahra told the ABC she hoped to meet Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Gary Quinlan, but she had so far been unable to secure an audience.
    For now, she hopes Australia heeds her call…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-22/indonesian-activist-urges-scott-morrison-to-halt-waste-exports/11885848

    Nina clearly has MSM connections. it was CNN Indonesia last July – translated here:

    17 Jul 2019: AsiaPacificReportNZ: Indonesian schoolgirls tell Trump ‘take back your toxic rubbish’
    By PMC (Pacific Media Centre) Editor
    (Translated by James Balowski of the Indoleft News service)
    The two schoolgirls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina) and Zahira Zade and their hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump. Image: Farida/CNN Indonesia.

    Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia.
    The letters were sent through the US Consulate-General in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, reports ***CNN Indonesia (LINK)…
    Aside from Nina and Zade, a six-year-old boy Ramadhani Wardana also took part in a protest against the importation of waste from the US…
    https://asiapacificreport.nz/2019/07/17/indonesian-schoolgirls-tell-trump-take-back-your-toxic-rubbish/

    31

  • #
    Rollo

    “… and it’s been declared a catastrophe.”

    Is that worse than a crisis?

    20

  • #
    pat

    ***ABC finds a way to insert the “unprecedented bushfires”:

    21 Jan: ABC: Landmark decision from UN Human Rights Committee paves way for climate refugees
    Pacific Beat By Evan Wasuka
    A landmark decision by the United Nations Human Rights Committee has found it unlawful to force “climate refugees” to return to their home countries — but the man at the centre of the case will not benefit.
    Kiribati man Ioane Teitiota made international headlines in 2015 when he challenged his deportation from New Zealand for overstaying his work visa…
    Mr Teitiota had argued a sea-level rise in Kiribati has resulted in “the scarcity of habitable space, which has, in turn, caused violent land disputes” that he said endangered his life, and that it made it difficult to access safe drinking water.
    But New Zealand’s High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court all rejected his argument and allowed the deportation to go ahead.

    The UN Human Rights Committee considered a challenge brought by Mr Teitiota, and while the committee found he was not at imminent risk, it did find that such claims may be upheld in future as the impacts of climate change worsen.

    In a ***non-binding ruling this month, the committee found that governments must take into account climate-related human rights violations when they consider deporting asylum seekers.
    It is a decision legal experts said could pave the way for more claims from the Pacific…

    “The human rights committee followed the decision of the New Zealand tribunal and courts and said at this point in time his life wasn’t at risk,” refugee law expert Jane McAdam of the University of New South Wales told the ABC.
    But Professor McAdam said it was a landmark decision because the committee accepted his argument in principle…
    Kate Schuetze, a Pacific researcher at Amnesty International, said the decision “sets a global precedent”…

    But from his home in Kiribati, Mr Teitiota told the ABC the decision was a source of personal disappointment.
    “Forgive my ignorance, but to be frank, I’m quite disappointed with the outcome of my case which has been recently released from the UN,” he said.
    “It’s still the same as before — I’m still worried about my family [because of] climate change … the sea level rise, the drinking water is not good … [and] I’m still yet to find a job until now…

    Richard Pearshouse, a human rights lawyer with Amnesty International, said the decision has major implications for future cases.
    As climate emergencies become more frequent in the Pacific, it is expected that such claims will be easier to prove.
    “We know that the effects of climate change are increasing in the Pacific, they’re becoming more present every month, every day, every year,” he said.
    “And we can expect that imminence can become easier and easier to show in evidence.”…

    The ruling comes as ***unprecedented bushfires rage across Australia, forcing one of the largest peace-time evacuations in the nation’s history…

    It also comes as four of Australia’s leading aid agencies — World Vision, Oxfam Australia, Plan International and Save the Children — called on the nation’s leaders “to do everything in their power” to set ambitious emissions reduction targets and to transition to a zero-carbon future…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/un-human-rights-ruling-worlds-first-climate-refugee-kiribati/11887070

    20

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Those climate ‘refugees’
      Can’t come here
      They would be burned alive
      by ‘unprecedented’ bush fire !
      Better try Siberia
      Somebody claims it’s safe there !
      🙂

      20

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      I read in the Guardian yesterday
      That the population of one island
      Has grown from 1700 to 50,000
      Since 1946.
      No wonder the island is sinking !
      50,000 people at an average weight
      of say 70 kilograms
      = 3500 tonnes of human mass
      Weighing things down !

      30

  • #

    Did anyone notice WHO the hail hit most?? Whose solar panels had to be cleaned up, by.. wait for it… the Fire brigade!??
    Whose Greenhouses had their climate systems (air conditioning) affected?

    70

    • #

      I’d say that the hail hit those in the path of the storm. I did notice as I’ve been cleaning up for 2 days now and the suburb to the east got nothing. It hit the churches and missed the temple and mosque!

      40

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Now, now, don’t try to see a connection.

        Although I saw that the Great Earthquake (& tsunami) of Lisbon in 1755 destroyed or severly damaged 98% of the Churches there, but left the Red Light District untouched. When this was pointed out by an English visitor, he was assured that was because The Holey One didn’t know what it was.
        MORAL: If the all-knowing didn’t know that, how is it that some people are so certain about their knowledge?

        50

        • #

          The All Knowing knew it. The English Visitor had the right question.. a capital P Protestant could explain it to you. Rahab is honored as harlot. Jesus was somewhat tougher on the religious leadership than the Magdalen… it has to do with who is proud. But you are right – no human should be certain beyond all doubt of – anything. Faith is nothing if it not based on evidence, dogmatism in all places is never useful. The Quake knocked out of building of the Inquisition. They were not so dogmatic afterwards… now if the CSIRO spruikers featuring on ABC etc.. might be less dogmatic..just a thought..!

          40

      • #

        Interesting..Thankyou! Churches often are hit. Lot of political correctness in some Churches these days, of the sort which isn’t an issue in the Mosque or Temple… and the Judeo-Christian God it is recorded tests only His own (this you may know? Let me know if you don’t and I’ll explain). So in effect a hit on the CSIRO..and the Churches.. if the path had been a bit one way or the other, it would have missed. Notice some those of the CSIRO in Canberra already thinking. I know some of the CSIRO that work locally, it is likely they will also ponder.
        As a kid I wanted to be an archeologist and avidly read National Geographic; the impermanence of it all, the ‘edgyness’ of food and nature, the fact we do have to struggle with forces bigger, clean up, repair, to build and break down to be reminded that nothing, but nothing ever stays the same or lasts forever: to pray for safety and to be thankful for when it is given and to face, without fear, mortality. To be thankful for powertools to clean up and rebuild.
        The horror on some kids faces when I told them the earth and buildings are always moving…
        May your cleanup lead to good. It often does. Blessings to the helpers.

        40

  • #
    Zane

    Meanwhile Florida is warning of ” frozen iguanas “. Climate change strikes again! :).

    40

  • #
    MudCrab

    Fun Fact – As can be seen from photos, Parliament House has a pyramid like glass structure under the flag pole that allows light into the Great Hall. In 2018 all glass in this structure was completely removed and replace with thicker products with a much greater damage resistance.

    Why?

    Well… basically, CANBERRA KNEW!!!

    #canberraknew

    also, cat, pigeons, deliberate. 😀

    60

  • #
    Jeff

    Hi all.

    I would like to insert a bit of balance.

    I got caught in that hailstorm and could see it coming. It started to rain heavily, with a few small hailstones, and I was a kilometre from home trying to get under the carport. I got about half way there and then it started and I didn’t go any further. I sheltered under a big thick gumtree but that got stripped so I did get some damage mostly on the bonnet. The largest stones I saw were about as big as an unshelled almond. Small dents mostly about 1 cm across. But happened in a microsecond? Come on, thats stupid, the thunder was intense and we had warning that it was coming from the morning on. When I got home half a kilometre away the largest stones were a bit bigger than a golf ball.

    To be fair, the CSIRO and ANU got smashed. Many cars had front and rear windows, and vertical side windows, smashed and dents about the size and half the depth of a cricket ball. To be fair to the glasshouse managers, we have had many hail storms without significant damage. A person I had to pick up said the stones were as big as oranges, and very jagged. This is very unusual but I can remember similar reports from nearby regions with hailstones like that. But the glasshouses have been there for years and have never suffered SIGNIFICANT damage in the past despite the the many hail storms

    Last year I got caught in a hailstorm on Yarra Glen in Woden. I sheltered along with about a hundred other cars under the big trees down by the National Mint. Those stones were as big as a golf ball.

    Two years ago I had a hail storm over my home in Page with stones bigger than a golf ball.

    Andy, I think the 2013 storm was the one where every tree in the city was stripped of every single leaf. The government swept the hail into piles along the edge of the footpath, long rows of it about 60 – 70 CM high. They were green from the tiny little pieces of leaf, and they persisted for about four days, in the middle of summer. I think the 2007 storm was the one where the roof of Charnwood High School collapsed with the weight of the hail on it – reported as two feet deep.

    Hail storms with large stones are not unusual in Canberra. This latest one was a bad one, but not unprecedented. But stupid comments from people with doctor in front of their name, who should know better, don’t help anyone.

    110

  • #
    Dave

    The same happened when I was in Sydney in the mid 80s. Car yard destroyed.
    40 plus temps the week before inland a little.

    40

  • #
    WXcycles

    Almost a religious aspect’: Tony Abbott downplays link between bushfires and climate change

    smh – Matthew Knott 2 hrs ago

    Tony Abbott wearing a microphone: “His style sometimes grates but he has been a very good president,” said Tony Abbott of Donald Trump. Former prime minister Tony Abbott has downplayed the contribution of climate change to the Australian bushfire crisis, telling a US audience he believes the link between extreme weather events and carbon emissions has become akin to a religious dogma for many people.

    In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, Abbott also heaped praise on US President Donald Trump, essentially endorsing him for a second term in the White House. “I’m not one of those people who sees the current bushfires as confirmation of all we’ve ever feared about the changing climate,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Washington on Tuesday (Wednesday Australian time). “I see the current bushfires as the sort of thing that we are always going to be prone to in a country such as ours – a land of droughts and flooding rains as the poet [Dorothea Mackellar] said all those years back.”

    Abbott, who serves as a volunteer firefighter in NSW, continued: “Everything associated with an extreme weather event these days is taken as proof of climate change. “Bushfires prove climate change. Floods prove climate change. Superstorm Sandy, I think that proved climate change. “Whether it’s extraordinarily cold or extraordinarily hot; whether it’s extraordinarily dry or extraordinarily wet. It all proves climate change.

    “If you think climate change is the most important thing, everything can be turned to proof. I think that too many it has almost a religious aspect to it.”

    Abbott said the duration of the current bushfire season may be the longest in Australian history, but past seasons had claimed more lives and burnt out bigger areas of bushland. “I think the Prime Minister is right: he said climate change may be playing a role in the drought which triggered the bushfires,” he said. “But we have to remember that bushfires are hardly unknown in Australia.” Abbott praised Scott Morrison’s handling of the fires, saying: “I don’t think anyone could fault the extraordinary effort that the Prime Minister has put into responding to the current or now I think starting to recede bushfire emergency.

    “In terms of money, time, and commitment of the armed forces it has been unprecedented so all credit to Scott Morrison for what he has done there.” Abbott said that Australia should be praised by other countries for meeting its carbon reduction targets under the Paris climate accord. “The great thing about Australia is that while we are perhaps not the most enthusiastic members of the climate squad we are actually meeting our Paris targets in a way few other countries do,” he said. “I think we should get more credit when it comes to actually meet our commitments when it comes to reducing emissions.”

    Australia should take “sensible measures” to reduce carbon emissions but not at the expense of economic growth, he said. Abbott said he would have been a “reluctant Trump voter” in 2016 but had now been converted into a strong supporter of the US President. “He might seem crass or intemperate – that doesn’t mean he’s not the best possible president,” Abbott said. “The one thing you can’t say about Trump is that he’s been shy to lead. “The singular feature of Donald Trump is that he has supreme self-confidence in himself and his country and that frankly was the missing ingredient in the previous presidency.”

    Abbott was speaking just as Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, examining his dealings with Ukraine, was beginning in the Capitol Building. He said Trump had made some “questionable calls”, such as pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal and announcing the withdrawal of US troops from Syria. But these were overshadowed by his strengths. “Given officialdom’s tendency to fudge, maybe an unfiltered US president is what the world needs,” he said. “His style sometimes grates, but he has been a very good president. “Maybe it’s been overtaken by Trump derangement syndrome, but for the first time in years, the main narrative has not been one of American decline.

    “It’s refreshing actually that Trump doesn’t talk about what America can’t do, but what it can do.” Abbott said Trump embodied a trend among conservative leaders around the world to prioritise social conservatism over free-market economics – a shift from the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. “President Trump is not a free marketeer in the way that Reagan was,” he said. “Boris Johnson is not a free marketeer in the way that Thatcher was.”

    He said the political slogan that defined the 1990s – “It’s the economy, stupid” – has been replaced by a new mantra: “It’s the society, stupid”.

    90

  • #
  • #

    […] Nous sommes Canberrans? […]

    00

  • #
    pat

    Former Goldman Sachs Asia boss Malcolm Turnbul has…

    22 Jan: SMH: Trump the world’s ‘leading climate denier’, Turnbull says
    By Nick Bonyhady
    Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled United States President Donald Trump the “leading climate denier in the world”.

    “[Mr Trump] is leading the most influential nation in the world and he is actively working against global action to reduce emissions,” said Mr Turnbull on the BBC overnight…
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/trump-the-world-s-leading-climate-denier-turnbull-says-20200122-p53tmv.html

    22 Jan: Daily Mail: Donald Trump tells Davos audience he rejects environmental ‘prophets of doom’ as grim-faced Greta Thunberg looks on before she tells delegates ‘our house is still on fire’ and ‘to act as if you loved your children’
    •Donald Trump gave first keynote address to leaders at the World Economic forum in Davos on Tuesday
    •He called on countries to ‘reject the prophets of doom’ on the environment, calling them ‘foolish’
    •Remark was a swipe at teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who was sitting in the audience as he spoke
    •Thunberg gave a speech insisting ‘our house is still on fire’, before adding: ‘What will you tell your children?’
    By Chris Pleasance and AFP

    (CHECK OUT MATHIAS CORMANN SITTING IN FRONT OF GRETA AT DAVOS, IN PIC CAPTIONED) The remark was swipe at teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who sat in the audience during his speech (pictured)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7910695/Greta-Thunberg-tells-world-leaders-fight-climate-change.html

    40

    • #
      pat

      Phil Mercert interview:

      VIDEO: 2m52s: 22 Jan: BBC: Australia fires: Malcolm Turnbull accuses Scott Morrison of ‘misleading’ nation
      By Phil Mercer, BBC, Sydney
      Malcolm Turnbull, who was deposed in 2018, told the BBC that Mr Morrison had misled the country by “downplaying” the influence of global warming…
      In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Turnbull also said US President Donald Trump was the world’s “leading climate denier” and that America’s lack of leadership was “extremely damaging”…

      In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Turnbull also said US President Donald Trump was the world’s “leading climate denier” and that America’s lack of leadership was “extremely damaging”…
      Mr Turnbull said “everybody knew we were in a very dry time” before the fire season, and that it “was likely to be very bad”.
      “Rather than doing what a leader should do… [Mr Morrison] downplayed it, and at times discounted the influence of climate change, which is just nonsense from a scientific point of view. So that’s misleading people,” said Mr Turnbull.
      “Then of course [he] chose to go away on holiday in Hawaii at the peak of the crisis. So I can’t explain any of that.
      “It’s just not consistent with the way in which a prime minister would or should act in a national crisis like this.”…

      2ND VIDEO: 3m46s: Can Australia’s PM Scott Morrison recover from the fires?
      Mr Turnbull took aim at former colleagues in the governing Liberal Party, accusing another ex-prime minister, Tony Abbott, of being “probably the most prominent climate denier in Australian politics, but there are plenty of others” who were engaged in a “war against science”.
      “It is an extraordinarily irrational and self-destructive approach,” Mr Turnbull said…

      But the University of Oxford graduate, and former barrister and banker told the BBC he was the victim of a ruthless political insurgency.
      “The right [wing] in the Liberal Party essentially operate like terrorists,” he said.
      “Now I’m not suggesting that they use guns and bombs or anything like that, but their approach is one of intimidation.
      “And they basically say to the rest of the party…if you don’t do what we want, we will blow the show up. Famously one of the coup leaders said to me, ‘you have to give in to the terrorists’.”…

      “Trump is playing a very destructive role in terms of climate action. Trump makes no bones about it. He says global warming is rubbish,” Mr Turnbull said.
      “Trump is trying to put a brake on global action to reduce emissions. The lack of American leadership is extremely damaging.”
      He added: “How many more coral reefs have to be bleached? How many more million hectares of forest have to be burned?
      “How many more lives and homes have to be lost before the climate change deniers acknowledge they are wrong?”
      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51202534?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cdx4zj8r9ket/malcolm-turnbull&link_location=live-reporting-story

      30

      • #
        pat

        ends with: ***If only we had a leader, between say 2015 and 2018, who could have pushed for that (Green New Deal). Perhaps then there would be no fires…

        THIS IS ALSO IN THE SECOND YOUTUBE VIDEO, WHICH IS BASED ON THIS ONE.

        22 Jan: Sky News: ‘Miserable ghost’ Malcolm Turnbull tries to re-write his record on bushfires
        Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton
        The miserable ghost of Malcolm Turnbull has been caught out trying to re-write history by penning an article in US media claiming he was the Prime Minister who held back the “climate-denying political right in Australia”.
        Mr Turnbull wrote that the deadly bushfires were proof the “wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism must stop”.

        “Even as the fires rage, Murdoch’s News Corp newspapers and television networks have been busy arguing that arsonists or a lack of controlled burning are the real causes of the fires,” he wrote.
        Oh Malcom, how times have changed since you were Prime Minister. It is almost as if you forgot how you overlooked how you personally responded to the horror bushfire which tore through Tathra, wiping out 69 homes in 2018.
        Greens Senator Richard Di Natale complained in the aftermath that a lack of renewable investment had contributed to the bushfire season become more dangerous. And how did Mr Turnbull respond to those comments?

        “I’m disappointed that the Greens would try to politicise an event like this,” he said. “You can’t attribute any particular event, whether it’s a flood or fire or a drought or a storm, to climate change.
        “But clearly this is an environment, we have an environment, which has extremes. Bushfires are part of Australia, as indeed are droughts and floods.”…

        But Mr Turnbull was not done attempting to re-write history. “As Prime Minister, I tried to ensure that our climate and energy policies were governed by engineering and economics, not ideology and idiocy,” he said.
        “Tragically, the climate-denying political right in Australia has turned what should be a practical question of how to respond to a real physical threat into a matter of values or belief.”
        Mr Turnbull has even gone as far as to call for Australia to adopt a version of the US Green New Deal, championed by the insufferable elitist group of radical Democrats who have been dubbed “The Squad”…
        “Australians no longer need to sacrifice economic growth to reduce emissions,” he wrote. “We must not waste this climate crisis. There are no excuses and not much time left. Australia and the world need a Green New Deal now.”

        ***If only we had a leader, between say 2015 and 2018, who could have pushed for that deal.
        Perhaps then there would be no fires…

        Institute of Public Affairs director of policy Gideon Rozner said Mr Turnbull’s comments from 2018 were “the same kind of denialism” he derides today.
        ‘In 2020, Malcolm Turnbull says that bushfires are the ‘inevitable reality’ of global warming. In 2018, Malcolm Turnbull – ***rightly – admonished Richard di Natale for politicising bushfires.” he said…
        “One suspects Turnbull’s conversion to born-again climate evangelism is less about genuine conviction and more about ingratiating himself with the well-heeled cultural elites whose approval he has always craved.’

        “Scott Morrison would be wise to ignore his predecessor from now on. The extreme and sub-rational climate alarmism to which Turnbull now subscribes would, if taken seriously, cost thousands of jobs, jeopardise whole industries, and diminish living standards and prosperity for millions of Australians.”
        https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6125407743001

        Youtube: 3m33s: Sky News Australia: Miserable ghost Malcolm Turnbull tries to re-write his record on bushfires
        The miserable ghost of Malcolm Turnbull has been caught out trying to re-write history by penning an article in US media claiming he was the Prime Minister who held back the “climate-denying political right in Australia”.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtYQg7vS_0

        10

        • #
          pat

          Turnbull’s Time Magazine article referred to in article posted:

          16 Jan: Time: Australia’s Bushfires Show the Wicked, Self-Destructive Idiocy of Climate Denialism Must Stop
          by Malcolm Turnbull
          (Turnbull was Prime Minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018)
          VIDEO: 47s: Dead animals line the road in fire-ravaged Australia
          Australia’s fires this summer—unprecedented in the scale of their destruction—are the ferocious but inevitable reality of global warming. A hotter, drier climate means more and longer droughts and more and fiercer fires.
          So if Australia is on the front line of the climate crisis, why are we not also a world leader in climate action?

          In most countries, asking people whether they believe in the science of climate change is like asking them whether they believe in gravity. It is a simple matter of physics. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the hotter our climate will become.
          But in Australia, as in the U.S., this issue has been hijacked by a toxic, climate-denying alliance of right-wing politics and media (much of it owned by Rupert Murdoch), as well as vested business interests, especially in the coal industry.

          As Prime Minister, I tried to ensure that our climate and energy policies were governed by engineering and economics, not ideology and idiocy…

          These fires show that the wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism must stop. The world must drastically cut its greenhouse-gas emissions. Above all, we have to urgently stop burning coal and other fossil fuels…
          https://time.com/5765603/australia-bushfires-prime-minister-essay/

          20

      • #
        pat

        extraordinary the wya Turnbull has been exploiting the bushfires for the sake of solar, wind and hydro!

        12 Jan: Guardian: Scott Morrison can’t afford to waste the bushfire crisis when Australia urgently needs its own green new deal
        by Malcolm Turnbull
        (This essay was originally commissioned as part of Guardian Australia’s forthcoming 2020s Vision series, in which we are asking prominent Australians for ideas that will make Australia better in the next decade. It is published today because of its relevance to the current debate)

        The lies of the climate deniers have to be rejected. This is a time for truth telling, not obfuscation and gaslighting, writes former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull

        How much of our country has to burn, how many lives have to be lost, homes destroyed before we resolve as a nation to act on climate change?
        Have we now reached the point where at last our response to global warming will be driven by engineering and economics rather than ideology and idiocy?
        Our priority this decade should be our own green new deal in which we generate, as soon as possible, all of our electricity from zero emission sources. If we do, Australia will become a leader in the fight against global warming. And we can do it.

        The cheapest new generation is from wind and solar. And every year they are getting cheaper. That is a fact. But they depend on the wind blowing or the sun shining. That’s why it is called variable renewable energy.
        So we have to plan to store the energy when it is abundant so that supply is maintained when it is not…
        We can demonstrate that abundant zero emission energy will create thousands of new jobs that will vastly exceed those lost as coal burning comes to an end.
        Take the Hunter Valley. It has enormous transmission capacity which need not be wasted as its coal-fired generators close. The degraded landscape of old mines could be covered with solar panels…

        But above all we have to face this fact; coal is on the way out. It is, as we are seeing today, a matter of life and death. Whether we like it or not, demand for our export coal is going to decline and expire.
        The world must, and I believe will, stop burning coal if we are to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. And the sooner the better. The good news is that thanks to technology we can have abundant energy which is both green and cheap…

        We can adapt to a hotter drier climate. But the lies of the deniers have to be rejected. This is a time for truth telling, not obfuscation and gaslighting. Climate change is real…

        (FINAL SENTENCE) And our response must be real too – a resilient, competitive, net zero emission economy – as we work to make our nation, and our planet, safe for our children and grandchildren.
        https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/12/scott-morrison-cant-afford-to-waste-the-bushfire-crisis-when-australia-urgently-needs-its-own-green-new-deal?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&__twitter_impression=true

        40

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Well, without wishing to boost SloMo I have to agree with Malcolm. How Dare he go on holidays when he must have known through his advanced ESP that major fires were going to happen, especially as it was a State responsibility.
        Malcolm showed his superiority by doing SFA when he was P.M.

        60

  • #
    peterg

    I hope my house insurance premiums are not going to pay for smashed up solar panels.

    30

  • #
    Vishnu ((Figjam))

    I have been listening to the blog feedback and when you are wrong you need to admit it and accept the truth. Hence the name change.

    10

  • #
    pat

    “environment” being spun to mean CAGW!

    21 Jan: BrisbaneTimes: Environment now trumps economy on Australian list of biggest worries
    by Jessica Irvine
    The environment has catapulted to the top of the list of Australians’ biggest worries, leapfrogging cost of living, healthcare and the economy.
    When asked to pick the top three biggest issues confronting the nation – out of a potential list of 19 – 41 per cent of participants in an online poll conducted by Ipsos Australia this month put “the environment” in their top three, up 10 percentage points since last month…

    Ipsos social researcher Daniel Evans said the summer’s bushfire crisis and continuing drought had focused minds, but environmental concerns had been climbing steadily for half a decade…
    “The environment is now clearly the top issue facing Australia,” Mr Evans said. “The truth is that the tide of Australians’ concerns about environment issues has been slowly rising for the past couple of years.”
    Unsurprisingly, younger Australians are the most worried, with 48 per cent of Millennials and 45 per cent of Gen Z’ers putting the environment on their top three list…
    But concern among older people is catching up, with 42 per cent of Baby Boomers also putting it on their list and 30 per cent of “Builders”, aged over 73…

    When asked to explain their environmental concerns, participants gave a range of answers, Mr Evans said.
    “When we unpacked the reasons why Australians selected the environment, people mostly attributed their worry to climate change, drought and bushfire. Some linked these topics, and others discussed climate change and drought in relation to natural resource management failings related to water and bushland. Comments were also made about waste, consumption, population growth and plastics.”
    Participants were asked which political party they felt was best able to address their environmental concerns.

    Generation X, Millenials and Gen Z’ers ranked the Greens highest, while Baby Boomer and Builders nominated the Coalition.
    No age cohort put Labor first to manage the environment.
    “The ALP was mostly absent from Australians’ psyche when we asked them about which political party is most capable to manage environmental concerns,” Mr Evans said…
    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/environment-now-trumps-economy-on-australian-list-of-biggest-worries-20200121-p53td7.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

    20

  • #
    pat

    full text:

    21 Jan: White House: Remarks by President Trump at the World Economic Forum | Davos, Switzerland
    But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune-tellers — and I have them and you have them, and we all have them, and they want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen. They predicted an overpopulation crisis in the 1960s, mass starvation in the ’70s, and an end of oil in the 1990s. These alarmists always demand the same thing: absolute power to dominate, transform, and control every aspect of our lives…
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-world-economic-forum-davos-switzerland/

    22 Jan: Quadrant: The ABC’s 24/7 climate of fear
    by Roger Franklin
    Here’s an experiment, the result of which ABC viewers will know in advance: Switch the telly to the national broadcaster and count the seconds until the words “climate change” are uttered. If five minutes pass without mention being made, check your remote controller, as it won’t be the ABC you’re watching…READ ON
    https://quadrant.org.au/the-abcs-24-7-climate-of-fear/

    40

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      I used once to listen a lot to
      ABC Radio 891 & Radio National.
      I stopped years ago because I got sick & tired
      Of the all the propaganda.
      Climate change/global Warming
      Are just the latest causes that the ABC has adopted
      For our indoctrination.

      30

      • #
        TdeF

        Yes it is amazing how many times in one edition of the Australian that people use the phrase “Climate Change” even in the boring business section. It is pushed at us from every direction. The pope. The Prime Minister. The newspapers. Television. Conversation. So much so that it would seem that it is real. What Climate Change? Where?

        50

        • #
          WXcycles

          The media did the same trick with the clear and present danger of Iraq in 2003. At least that shameless, factless scare-campaign ended with an invasion.

          This vastly more stupid, shameless and factless climate propaganda farce has literally no end in sight, until the ABC, labor and green scum get the proto-communist dictatorship which they can’t survive, in the way to which they have become accustomed, without.

          00

          • #
            farmerbraun

            Yes , the survival of the “proto-communist dictatorship” elites is ultimately of no concern whatsoever to “we the people”.
            This is what has become known as a “Ceaucescu” moment.
            The elite collective will always be fascist ; dictatorship always controls by violent means.

            10

  • #

    All of which goes to show the extreme recency bias whenever “climate change” is uttered.

    These clowns seem to work on the principle that if they didn’t see or or can’t remember it then it did not happen.

    Normally people would recognise this for how brain dead it is… but climate change is special and the normal rules no longer apply…

    70

  • #
    toorightmate

    All the hail stones I have ever seen are larger than Mars.
    I often look for Mars on cloudless nights and it really is very small.

    30

  • #
    Steven Fraser

    We get hail occasionally in North Texas, USA. It most often occurs in three circumstances: 1) A rapidly moving Spring Cold front, advancing into warm, moist Gulf air, 2) Hot-weather convection storms in the late afternoon, and 3) in front of a tornadic system.

    The last time it happened close to me, A home not far from mine had an impact by a softball-sized (30cm circumference) stone, hitting the roof at terminal velocity. It went through the plywood subroof, the drywall ceiling, and the solid wood dining room table. Made the news.

    40

  • #
    Lank

    Did the solar farm (Royalla) south of Canberra get damaged?
    I can’t find any reports on this and there may have been a coverup. Royallla had 83,000 panels when it was completed in 2014 and I’d be very surprised if it escaped damage from hail this large.

    10

    • #

      the band of hail was quite narrow. Draw a line between belconnen town ccentre ANU acton and PH and follow it. It missed the panels out the back of mount majura too.

      While you are there with the map the hail that hit the ANU (Acton) only hit the southern half of Turner missed Hughes Curtin garren and Campbell. Gives a sense of the width.

      20

  • #
    Hivemind

    There was a very bad hailstorm in Sydney in around 1998 or 1999. Roofs still covered in tarpaulins were still visible on the flights carrying spectators to the 2000 Olympics.

    00

  • #
    wadesworld

    I love the advice in the solar panel post. “Turn your system off.” Yeah, you’re going to be loving life without your solar power for a few months.

    00