Every member of congress should be FORCED to Plimer's book On Aug 25, 9:16 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Could Australia Blow Apart the Great Global Warming Scare?by Robert Tracinski > and Tom Minchin > As the US Congress considers the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, the > Australian Senate is on the verge of rejecting its own version of > cap-and-trade. The story of this legislation's collapse offers advance notice > for what might happen to similar legislation in the USand to the whole global > warming hysteria. > Since the Australian government first introduced its Emission Trading Scheme > (ETS) legislationthe Australian version of cap-and-trade energy > rationingthere has been a sharp shift in public opinion and political > momentum against the global warming crusade. This is a story that offers hope > to defenders of industrial civilizationand a warning to American > environmentalists that the climate change they should be afraid of just might > be a shift in theintellectualclimate. > An April 29articleinThe Australiandescribed the general trendand its leading > cause.There is rising recognition that introduction of a carbon tax under the > guise of "cap and trade" will be personally costly, economically disruptive > to society and tend to shift classes of jobs offshore. Moreover, despite > rising carbon dioxide concentrations, global warming seems to have taken a > holiday….With public perceptions changing so dramatically and quickly it is > little wonder Ian Plimer's latest book, Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The > Missing Science, has been received with such enthusiasm and is into its third > print run in as many weeks. [It's now up to the fifth printing.]The public is > receptive to an exposé of the many mythologies and false claims associated > with anthropogenic global warming and are welcoming an authoritative > description of planet Earth and its ever-changing climate in readable > language.One of the most remarkable changes occurred on April 13, when > leading global warming hysteric Paul Sheehanwho writes for the main Sydney > newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, which has done as much to hype the > threat of global warming as any Australian newspaperreviewedPlimer's book and > admitted he was taken aback. He describes Plimer, correctly, as "one of > Australia's foremost Earth scientists," and praised the book as "brilliantly > argued" and "the product of 40 years' research and breadth of scholarship." > What does Plimer's book say? Here is Sheehan's summary:Much of what we have > read about climate change, [Plimer] argues, is rubbish, especially the > computer modeling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he > describes as "primitive."…The Earth's climate is driven by the receipt and > redistribution of solar energy. Despite this crucial relationship, the sun > tends to be brushed aside as the most important driver of climate. > Calculations on supercomputers are primitive compared with the complex > dynamism of the Earth's climate and ignore the crucial relationship between > climate and solar energy.To reduce modern climate change to one variable, > CO2, or a small proportion of one variablehuman-induced CO2is not science. To > try to predict the future based on just one variable (CO2) in extraordinarily > complex natural systems is folly.In response, this is Sheehan's conclusion: > "Heaven and Earth is an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, > including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of > ideology subverting evidence." This cannot be interpreted as anything but a > capitulation. It cedes to the global warming rejectionists the high ground of > being "evidence-based," and it accepts the characterization of the global > warming promoters as dogmatic conformists. > The political impact has been manifested in a series of climb-downs as Prime > Minister Kevin Rudd's government has been forced to delay its plans for > cap-and-trade controls. On May 4, the governmentannouncedit would postpone > the onset of the scheme until mid-2011, a year later than originally planned. > On June 4, this delayed emission trading scheme passed the House of > Representatives despite a vote against it by the opposition. But it now faces > almost certain defeat in the Australian Senate. Whereas the Labor government > controls 32 votes in the Senate, the opposition Liberal-National coalition > controls 37 and is committed to vote against it if the Rudd government will > not grant more time to consider the outcome of the Copenhagen climate > conference in December and US Senate deliberations. This itself is a > compromise position, because many of the coalition parliamentarians now want > to vote unconditionally against an ETS in any form. > There are 7 other votes in the Senate: five Greens who say the scheme doesn't > go far enough but who could be induced to go along; one independent, Nick > Xenophon, who has pledged to vote against the bill unless the government > waits till after Copenhagen; and one other, Senator Steve Fielding of the > Family First Party, who has decided to investigate the whole thing first > hand. Fielding could turn out to be the single deciding vote. > His story is particularly interesting. Andrew Bolt, who has been leading the > charge against the global warming hysteria for years,notesthat Fielding's > investigation "could blow apart the great global warming scare." > Fielding went to the US to assess the American evidence for global warming at > close quarters. As Melbourne's Agereportedon June 4:Senator Fielding said he > was impressed by some of the data presented at the [US Heartland Institute's] > climate change skeptics' conference: namely that, although carbon emissions > had increased in the last 10 years, global temperature had not.He said > scientists at the conference had advanced other explanations, such as the > relationship between solar activity and solar energy hitting the Earth to > explain climate change.Fielding has issued a challenge to the Obama White > House to rebut the data. It will be a novel experience for them, as Fielding > is an engineer and has an Australian's disregard for self-important > government officials. Here is how The Agedescribedhis challenge:Senator > Fielding emailed graphs that claim the globe had not warmed for a decade to > Joseph Aldy, US President Barack Obama's special assistant on energy and the > environment, after a meeting on Thursday…. Senator Fielding said he found > that Dr. Aldy and other Obama administration officials were not interested in > discussing the legitimacy of climate science.Telling an Australian you're not > interested in the legitimacy of your position is a red rag to a bull. So here > is what Fieldingconcluded:Until recently I, like most Australians, simply > accepted without question the notion that global warming was a result of > increased carbon emissions. However, after speaking to a cross-section of > noted scientists, including Ian Plimer, a professor at the University of > Adelaide and author of Heaven and Earth, I quickly began to understand that > the science on this issue was by no means conclusive….As a federal senator, I > would be derelict in my duty to the Australian people if I did not even > consider whether or not the scientific assumptions underpinning this debate > were in fact correct.What Fielding's questioning represents is just the tip > of the kangaroo's tail. He speaks for a growing number of Australians who > will no longer take green propaganda on trust. > And that's what makes Plimer so influentialnot just his credibility as a > scientist, but the righteous certainty with which he dismisses man-made > global warming as an unscientific dogma. Hewrites: "The Emissions Trading > Scheme legislation poises Australia to make the biggest economic decision in > its history"Australia generates 80% of its electricity from coal, which would > essentially be outlawed"yet there has been no scientific due diligence. There > has never been a climate change debate in Australia. Only dogma." > Plimer is not a "skeptic," a term which would imply that he merely has a few > doubts about the global warming claims. Instead, he rejects the whole myth > outright, and this seems to have emboldened and liberated a great many > Australians who were already chafing under global warming conformity. As > Plimer puts it:[T]here are a large number of punters [Australian for > "customers" or "gamblers"in this case, skeptical customers who may or may not > buy what the government's selling] who object to being treated dismissively > as stupid, who do not like being told what to think, who value independence, > who resile from personal attacks and have life experiences very different > from the urban environmental atheists attempting to impose a new > fundamentalist religion. Green politics have taken the place of failed > socialism and Western Christianity and impose fear, guilt, penance, and > indulgences onto a society with little scientific literacy.Australia is not > that different from America. If a shift in public opinion against the global > warming dogma can happen on one side of the earth, it can happen on the > otherespecially when the US edition of Plimer's book, scheduled for July 1, > hits the stands. > His role, Plimer says, is to show "that the emperor has no clothes." After > three decades of relentless global warming propaganda, it's about time.Robert > Tracinski writes daily commentary atTIADaily.com. He is the editor of The > Intellectual Activist and TIADaily.com. Tom Minchinis a writer, researcher, > and businessman in Melbourne, > Australia.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/06/24/could_australia_blow_apart_the_great_global_warming_scare_97148.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
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