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The Australian gets serious

In Hot and Bothered, the Australian has ramped up the descriptors of the hacked emails from the CRU. The terms are  appropriate: “apparent fraud”, “disturbing”, “doctoring evidence”, and “scandal”.

This is a story finally that the media just cannot ignore.

Nick Minchin is also elevated to unofficial chief climate change sceptic of Australia, a post that didn’t exist yesterday. Suddenly unconvinced people have credibility.

“Minchin says the apparent fraud signifies a “rather disturbing culture, at least in the East Anglia CRU, which is one of most significant in the world in terms of determining outcomes of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”.

“For those who don’t think the IPCC should be taken as gospel, this does confirm that we shouldn’t be unquestioning of the opinions of the UN committee.”

Brendan O’Keefe also collects comments together from Ian Plimer, Phil Jones, Minister Penny Wong, Kevin Trenberth (“I feel violated”), as well as Tom Nelson,  Tim Ball, Greg Hunt (opposition climate change spokesman) et moi. Yes, a whole paragraph.

Finally, a major paper is investigating, and it’s just in time. Today is D-Day for Turnbull. A big day in Australian politics. The Rudd government hands down a new version of the ETS, but there are only three sitting days left in the parliamentary year.

This is what it comes down to. At the current rate of increase it will take 3,000 years for carbon dioxide levels to hit a record (atmospherically) but we’ve only got three days to consider how we will change almost every transaction in our economy. With three millenia on the clock before we hit uncharted territory, you’d think we could wait just one more election cycle.

It’s also the day the second Skeptics Handbook will appear publicly in hard copy, thanks to Graeme Campbell who has flown over to distribute it to our Senators. The former member of The Labor Party, then independent member for Kalgoorlie, volunteered to give out copies of both versions of The Skeptics Handbook I & II. All up, 600 booklets will be roaming Parliament House tomorrow. Let’s just hope a few get read by the right people.

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