Not your asked for summary Aussie, but something nonetheless.
“Climate Change” – something that has always occurred.
It is long past time that we stopped the hysteria and accepted the fact that “Climate Change” has always been with us, was here long before us, and will in all probability, be here long after us.
I remember when “climate change” was just “global warming” then “cooling”, then “dimming” then “warming” again, till it finally became
any change in the weather. The problem seems to be, that when it comes to climate change, some look at the facts presented and see a coming global catastrophe, some see “business as usual” and yet others see a hoax. So in order to make some sense of the debate lets set some definitional ground rules. Like
what is Weather and what is Climate?
Whether ‘tis weather or whether ‘tis climate…
Weather - The state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place.
weath·er (w r)
n.
1. The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure.
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Climate - A region's usual weather patterns.
cli·mate (kl m t)
n.
1. The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.
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Weather and Climate, have existed long before man, and our planet has been through naturally occurring cyclic extremes and continuous “change” many times in the past. These naturally occurring cyclic changes are not just going to stop because Man is now on the scene. The climate extremists on both sides of the “man-made” argument do themselves no favour, inciting hysteria or completely denying our impact on the planet. Of course we have an impact on the planet, but we don’t control the weather and ipso facto…
we don’t control the climate.
Weather and Climate are created by a much more vast and complex system of variables than just “man-made” CO2 emissions.
Even if the “Climate Believers” are right… wait… that isn’t an accurate description of those that believe Al Gore and believe in “Man-made Global Warming”. Why not you ask? Well, because the majority of the so-called “Deniers” or “Skeptics” also believe that climate changes. That is right, they do. The argument to them is about Man’s contribution and the results of that contribution. So let’s say, even if the “Climate Alarmists” are right… and the catastrophic “Global Warming” at the heart of their climate beliefs was caused by man alone. (Which it isn’t), Carbon Dioxide would still be released into the atmosphere as it has always been, its amount will increase and decrease naturally.
If we in Australia stopped all our CO2 emissions right now, from this very second onwards, we would have virtually
no impact on the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and the global average temperature. Even though some would like us to believe that it would.
In fact if every country ended their emitting it would take hundreds of years before we would notice any impact and the so called global average temperatures would vary, hardly a degree.
*A FACT recently backed up by the government’s own Climate Commissioner – Tim Flannery.
According to the average of many future climate change predictions, the global temperature rise will be 3 degrees Celsius by 2100. Yet, in comparison, just the other week in Australia, we had a temperature variation of 1-10 degrees Celcius per day.
But what about the; heatwave, drought, flooding, and cyclone you ask. After all the “Alarmists” have predicted all sorts of disasters due to… “climate change”. The “Alarmist” Politicians tell us, the “Alarmist” Media bombard us, and the “Alarmist” Greens scream it at us. Every chance they get. Every weather event and hot day is due to our CO2 emissions. Hell, even the record cold, snows and blizzards are due to “man-made global warmi…” oops, “climate change”.
Do you ever wonder why, when man-made CO2 emissions are continually increasing, that temperatures all over the Earth, do not continue to increase proportionally? Could it be that it “climate change” and “global warming” just isn’t that simple after all? Could it be that slapping on a carbon tax also won’t be the simple solution?
As for Australia, it has always been a land of extremes weather-wise. We even have it enshrined in our popular culture. The Poet, Dorothea Mackellar , born in 1885 (before our man-made CO2 problem), once wrote in her poem,
“My Country”…
“I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.”
Ah yes,
“droughts and flooding rains.” It would seem then that even Literary Artists have noticed the weather patterns and climatic extremes of our country. So what then, is the point of blaming every weather event, on ourselves and what we do? Whether you believe in “man-made Climate Change” or not, there is no immediate solution to climate “problems” and extreme weather events. There probably never will be. Man has never controlled the weather or climate, on Earth.
Yet the “Alarmists” tell us the solution is simple. A tax on carbon will fix it. Not in your or my lifetime it won’t.
*A FACT recently backed up by the government’s own Climate Commissioner – Tim Flannery.
All that a tax or an
economic “solution” will do, is make energy and everything else that uses it, that much more expensive for us. It is already doing that and we haven’t got a Carbon Tax yet. Our Politicians don’t believe in “the Carrot or the Stick” they just believe in the stick. Force people to use less by making it more expensive to use and depleting their bank accounts. (If they have anything in them of course.) Well let me tell you, this stick will be the straw that breaks may Australians backs.
Let’s look at some predictions and prognostications for Australia, by the so-called “Climate Alarmists.”
Tim Flannery, warns us that we face “global warming” doom. He was recently made Australian of the Year, so esteemed is he in certain political circles.
Tim said: “The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009.”
Fact; In just weeks from 2009, Adelaide’s reservoirs were 75% full.
Tim predicted: Sydney’s dams could be dry in just two years.
Fact; 3 years later its dams were over 60% full, and it had recently had its wettest year since 1951.
Tim said: (Brisbane’s) “water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months”.
Fact; 18 months later, Brisbane’s dams were over 45% full after its wettest spring in 27 years. Recently the Wivenhoe Dam (Brisbane’s flood mitigation dam) had to release water as it was over 100% capacity.
Tim said: “there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis”.
Fact; Perth has low water restrictions, due to its desalination plant and dams that are 40% full after the city’s recent wettest November in 17 years.
Most recently the Government’s Climate Commissioner, Tim Flannery, has said;
“If the world as a whole cut all emissions tomorrow, the average temperature of the planet's not going to drop for several hundred years, perhaps over 1000 years.” Surely no one doubts that within 1000 years that there will be many changes in our technology and the ways we use and produce energy.
Professor
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of Queensland University, is Australia’s most quoted reef expert.
In 1999, he warned that the Great Barrier Reef was under pressure from global warming, and much of it had turned white.
In 2006, he warned high temperatures meant “between 30 and 40 per cent of coral on Queensland’s great Barrier Reef could die within a month”.
In 2007, he warned that temperature changes of the kind caused by global warming were bleaching the reef.
Fact; the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network stated there had been no big damage to the reef caused by climate change in the four years since its last report.
A bad ski season (amongst good ones) several years ago, had “The Age” blaming it on “global warming.” The
CSIRO, Australia’s top scientific body claimed resorts such as Mt Hotham and Mt Buller, could lose up to 25% of their seasonal snow cover by 2020.
Fact; Since then we have had another boom season, with Mt Hotham and Mt Buller covered in snow a full five weeks before the start.
Recently
The Australian Greens have had much to say…
Senator
Bob Brown said of the recent Qld floods: ''There's very little doubt that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the hottest oceans we've ever seen off Australia, which in turn the scientists are saying very clearly is responsible for the quite extraordinary and harrowing floods that we've seen''
Senator
Christine Milne recently said of Cyclone Yasi: "This is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy of climate change”
Green Party politicians continually make hysterical statements like this, even though climate scientists have warned politicians time and time again that;
individual extreme weather occurrences cannot be blamed on “climate change.”
Many younger Australians of course aren’t aware that we live in a country prone to
“droughts and flooding rains.” But a quick look back into our past shows the pattern repeating itself time and time again. These weather events are not new to Australia.
Oh and of course we all know what
Kevin Rudd said about “climate change.” It was, "the greatest moral, economic and environmental challenge of our generation". Of course it was Kevin. I gather he’s also blaming “climate change” for his recently infected toe.
Our planet is not static, it cannot and will not always stay the same. No matter how much, “Environmentalists” and “Conservationists” want it too.
That… is unnatural. We live in a dynamic world where the one constant is change itself. The Earth and its weather and climate patterns over its long history, attest most clearly to this.
