Posts tagged…Carbon
Feather duster ambush
Fri, Jul 23 2010Of course, the Labor party would not have needed to "back down" if it hadn't inflated the issue with worse-than-WMD hysteria, religious zeal (cf. Ross Garnaut's invocation of Pascal's wager) and contempt for contrary evidence.
"Julia Gillard has put the pretty wrapping paper of conviction and consensus around Kevin Rudd's emissions trading backdown. But inside it's the same poll-driven backdown."…
Read more…Led by lunatics
Wed, Jul 21 2010Mark Lawson's new book "A Guide to Climate Change Lunacy" (ConnorCourt Publishing, 2010) arrives with brilliant timing, just as Australia gets another chance to make a choice on climate change policies in the 2010 election. Based on his credentials as a respected journalist -- he's a leading science journalist and editor for the Australian Financial Review -- Lawson has a great opportunity to…
A climate ambush
Sun, Jul 18 2010When she took power, Julia Gillard said she wanted a national conversation and 'deep community consensus' about climate change. What she has given us, instead, is an election campaign that is, by its nature, guaranteed to produce neither.
“I was concerned that if you were going to do something as big to your economy as put a price on carbon, with the economic transfer that implies … you need a…
Revisiting the climate evidence
Tue, Jun 29 2010Julia Gillard's determination as Prime Minister to revisit the debate about an Australian response to the potential dangers of climate change calls for a review of the evidence to ensure that any response is proportionate and effective. In my view, the relevant data show less and less reason to attribute recent warming to human activities ('anthropogenic warming').
Simple deductions about climate change
Fri, Mar 05 2010The UK Met Office (which has been unable to predict British weather recently) now claims to be certain about climate.
"The fingerprint of human influence has been detected in many different aspects of observed climate changes,” said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Research. “Natural variability, from the sun, volcanic eruptions or natural…
Lamy’s assessment of Copenhagen
Thu, Jan 14 2010It's called whistling in the wind.
"The outcome of the conference in Copenhagen represents a step forward. The Kyoto Protocol addresses about 30% of global carbon emissions. In contrast, the framework accord hammered out in Copenhagen last week may encompass the majority of world emissions. " Extract from WTO | 2009 News items - Lamy praises Copenhagen efforts, calls for more to be done
The…
Don’t tell the trees
Tue, Dec 08 2009Like the 'Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme', this is appalling twaddle. The main 'GHG', CO2, and the cycle of energy distribution that it mediates throughout the biosphere is essential to just about every form of life on earth.
"After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that…
Why Australia should not adopt an ETS
Tue, Oct 13 2009The mainstream media offer us nothing but politics on the question of whether the proposed Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) legislation should be adopted. Political calculation is less demanding for the journalists and offers readers an engaging melodrama. But the politics are no guide to a responsible decision on the ETS. In this post I review both the governments' stated reasons for the ETS and my…
The Emissisions Trading bill madness
Mon, Aug 10 2009The text of my email to all Victorian senators at the start of the week in which the bill comes to the Senate.
Dear Senator,
As a Victorian constitutent, I urge you to oppose the wasteful, ineffective "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" legislation. There is no plausible case for concern about global warming which has been mild (0.5 deg per century since 1850s) and has presently stopped. The…
Carbon tariffs, permits and subsidies
Thu, Jul 09 2009Gary Horlick, Washington trade attorney, former senior official of the Commerce Department and a very fine analyst of WTO law, sets out some of the impossibly tricky technical questions in plain langugage
"Perhaps the biggest international trade challenge -- and one on which a lot more work needs to be done -- is how the mechanics of international trade will work if each of the hundred and ninety…
Plimer’s Heaven + Earth
Mon, May 18 2009
I have finally finished reading and skimming Ian Plimer's thick book Heaven + Earth. I found it admirable for being a comprehensive and intelligent account of relevant evidence on climate change. I did not like it so much for the writing, or for the organization of ideas in some places, but that's a quibble in light of the book's strengths.
Prof. Plimer's book looks like a text book (and weighs…
India against ‘green protectionism’
Fri, May 15 2009No to binding targets, no to 'carbon tariffs'.
"India on Thursday urged other emerging countries to oppose developed countries' efforts to force developing nations to make binding commitments on reducing their carbon emissions or pay tariffs, Press Trust of India reporte" Link via Kyodo News
India's opposition will have a big impact on the prospect for any decision in Copenhagen in December.