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On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 17:01:17 +1000, "ozonb" <...@o.com
April 18, 2009
APT QUOTE: . The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open
QUOTE: . One of the lessons of 500 million years of history, he says, is that there is no
relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature.
QUOTE: Plimer says the business world would never "make trillion-dollar decisions without
a comprehensive and expensive due diligence".
"To have government policy based on propaganda is very dangerous."
QUOTE: Plimer says that if government had read the fine print of "the crucial Chapter 5"
of the IPCC's 2007 report "Humans Responsible for Climate Change" they would have realised
that it is "based on the opinions of just five independent scientists".
QUOTE: "Governments are planning to structurally change their nations' economies where
most people will suffer from increased taxes and costs . based on the opinion of the
fabulous five whose computer models have not been able to accurately predict the cooling
that has occurred since 1998," Plimer says.
QUOTE: Plimer, 62, has spent much of his life working in Broken Hill, in the real world of
rocks and soil, far enough from the social pressure of academia to think for himself.
The global warming scare campaign is reaching fever pitch.
We have had one eminent Australian scientist claim this week to the senate inquiry on
climate policy that global warming has already killed people in Australia.
We have had another four CSIRO "scientists" at the inquiry arguing for Australian
emissions reduction targets up to six times greater than planned, 90 per cent by 2050, and
warning of catastrophic consequences otherwise.
We have also had the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, agree on ABC's Lateline program
this month that sea levels would rise as much as six metres due to human-caused global
warming this century.
Yet even the IPCC, the United Nations body dedicated to discovering evidence of
human-caused climate change, forecasts less than half a metre rise in the century to 2090.
It seems that when it comes to convincing the Government to take drastic, jobs-killing,
economy-crushing and ultimately futile unilateral action on climate change, the ends
justify the means. "How we get there matters much less than the fact that emissions are
very low by 2050," CSIRO's Dr Michael Raupach, told the inquiry.
While debating with a National Party senator the wisdom of imposing reductions of carbon
dioxide emissions, the University of Melbourne's Professor David Karoly declared: "Loss of
jobs is important but loss of life is really important".
True enough, but where is the evidence that climate change has killed a single Australian?
More to the point, since Australia accounts for just 1.4 per cent of global emissions,
even if we shut down all industry and move into caves, how would any theoretical effect on
climate be more than negligible?
There is no doubting the passion and intelligence of these "scientists" and many of their
colleagues in the climate change movement in advocating the cause of eliminating so-called
"carbon pollution" to save the planet.
But the tactics are not very scientific.
As a University of Adelaide geologist, Dr Ian Plimer, writes in his new book, Heaven And
Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science, scientists are usually "anarchic, bow to no
authority and construct conclusions based on evidence . Science is not dogmatic and the
science of any phenomenon is never settled."
His dense book, crammed with 2311 footnotes, is a comprehensive scientific refutation of
the beliefs underpinning the idea of human-caused climate change.
"It is meant to be an overwhelming demolition job," said Plimer on the phone from Adelaide
where he is preparing a field trip this weekend to Broken Hill to study rocks.
He wrote the book, "for those out there with an open mind wanting to know more about how
the planet works. The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open".
From the geologist's perspective he says our climate has always changed in cycles,
affected by such variables as the orbit of the planet and our distance from the sun, which
itself produces variable amounts of radiation.
One of the lessons of 500 million years of history, he says, is that there is no
relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature.
Plimer's book comes at a crucial time in the debate about whether and by how much
human-produced carbon dioxide causes climate change, and, if it does, what are the
effects, and can they be stopped.
It is a warning to government, as it refines its emissions trading scheme, in the lead-up
to the Copenhagen Climate Convention next year, not to back itself into the corner of
relying on dubious computer models in an attempt to stop climate change by reducing
so-called "carbon pollution".
Plimer says the business world would never "make trillion-dollar decisions without a
comprehensive and expensive due diligence".
"To have government policy based on propaganda is very dangerous."
Yet our Government has already promised to reduce emissions by 5 to 15 per cent below 2000
levels by 2020, and 60 per cent by 2050, and is trying to construct a carbon trading
scheme by July.
A Senate report into this Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, tabled on Thursday,
demonstrated the difficulty of consensus, containing, as it did, three dissenting reports.
Meanwhile, the coal industry has warned that at least two NSW coalmines will have to close
under climate legislation already planned. Those power outages in Sydney lately will be
just a small taste of things to come. The consequences are everywhere, with cost of living
surges ultimately borne by individuals.
And for what?
Plimer says that if government had read the fine print of "the crucial Chapter 5" of the
IPCC's 2007 report "Humans Responsible for Climate Change" they would have realised that
it is "based on the opinions of just five independent scientists".
"Governments are planning to structurally change their nations' economies where most
people will suffer from increased taxes and costs . based on the opinion of the fabulous
five whose computer models have not been able to accurately predict the cooling that has
occurred since 1998," Plimer says.
Plimer, 62, has spent much of his life working in Broken Hill, in the real world of rocks
and soil, far enough from the social pressure of academia to think for himself.
Such independent scientific dissenters have been demonised, their evidence marginalised,
as climate change has become a quasi-religious belief. But you cannot stop one side from
debating what is the biggest policy decision of our era.
Plimer's book, accessible as it is to the layperson, will help redress the power imbalance
between those who claim to own the knowledge and the rest of us.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/planet-doomsayers-need-a-cold-shower-20090417-aa4 s.html?page=-1
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
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