Warmer Autumn brings predictable climate change alarm from ABC News
June 5th, 2007 at 04:58am
Good morning Mike,
I don't know if you saw ABC Television News last night or not, but I saw one of their updates and was, unfortunately, not surprised by one of the stories.
They ran a story about autumn being warmer than usual. As far as I can tell it came from the following press release from the Bureau Of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/ho/20070601.shtml
The press release doesn't mention how much warmer it was, just that various places didn't have their usual cold temperatures, and a few were actually cooler than usual.
ABC News took a different angle…according to them the temperature was two degrees warmer than usual, and the cause? Climate change of course! Never mind that a two degree increase in temperatures as a result of climate change in the space of a few months would not only be unprecedented, but completely contradict the entire "carbon levels equal temperature" nonsense.
I'm just waiting for the end of winter when we all get told that it was a bit colder than usual, and it's all due to climate change. They will probably tell us some nonsense about how all that ice that melted because of global warming during summer and autumn made the water and therefore the entire southern hemisphere a bit colder during winter.
By the way, when you get a chance have a listen to the 3am news from 2UE…that silly story about some nutter from CommSec saying we should sell Australia Post to prevent climate change, then another person saying that the government needs to spell out their policy on selling Australia Post before the next election. Oddly enough, Senator Helen Coonan did that yesterday.
And today, apparently, is World Environment Day, which inevitably means yet another excuse for a bunch of nutty press releases from people who claim the Black Mountain will soon be under water (yes, somebody did suggest that to me the other day…I think they were joking, but knowing the way these things spread it will probably be the headline some time in the next year).
Have a great day!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Entry Filed under: Global Warming,Talkback Emails
2 Comments
1. donescobar | June 6th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Good morning Sam
I noticed this statement in the above post.
Never mind that a two degree increase in temperatures as a result of climate change in the space of a few months would not only be unprecedented, but completely contradict the entire “carbon levels equal temperature” nonsense.
I saw the report, and I’m not sure if you’re deliberately misstating the story or accidentally misinterpreting it The report mentioned that Australia’s eastern seaboard had suffered its hottest autumn on record, where temperatures were two degrees above the historical average. This doesn’t mean that “a two degree increase in temperature occurred” what it means is that in this instance the average temperature for May 2007 was two degrees above the historical average. No-one suggested that this was a permanent increase, so I don’t know where you got this idea from. The reason it was linked to climate change was that it was unprecedented high temperatures, and it was also in line with a long term warming trend.
Also, when you referred to
that silly story about some nutter from CommSec saying we should sell Australia Post to prevent climate change
I don’t know if you’re deliberately misstating the story or accidentally misinterpreting it. CommSec chief economist Craig James said that Australia Post should be sold off and the proceeds should be invested into counteracting the effects of climate change and securing our water supplies. There is a chronic water shortage throughout Australia. By accusing him of “saying we should sell Australia Post to prevent climate change” is not only missing the point of what he actually said, but its spreading misinformation. If you did this accidentally, it may be worth checking stories before commenting on them on your website if you want to maintain any credibility. James was suggesting that a public company should be sold off and the proceeds used to address national issues. The Howard government has had this policy for years. They sold Telstra and used the proceeds to reconcile public sector superannuation liabilities. Are they therefore also nutters?
Have a great day!
Regards,
Donald Escobar
2. Samuel | June 6th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Thank you for taking the time to explain the ABC news story Donald. It would have been nice if they had explained it properly in their 9:30 news update, which my comment was a summary of.
As for Mr. James’ comments about selling Australia Post, I probably did mis-phrase it, but either way what he said was silly. We have a massive sustainable surplus to put towards water.
As for climate change, well if we must spend money on it, we can make plenty of money out of carbon trading to throw at climate change. The Guardian has an interesting article about how carbon trading is doing more to help the bottom lines of companies than it is to reduce emissions.
The main point of my comment about the story about selling Australia Post was that people were still asking the government to explain their policy on selling Australia Post, long after Senator Helen Coonan had already done so.
Incidentally, I would not support selling Australia Post, as it’s purpose is to provide a mail delivery service whilst upholding the legal obligations of such a service. It is not there to make a profit.
I’m not happy about Telstra being sold as I believe the infrastructure should have remained in government ownership. Actually that reminds me, I have a story about Telstra which I need to post.