Scott Morrison and the big lie about climate change: does he think we're that stupid? : The Guardian

"Of all the horrors that might befall the burnt-out, the flooded, the cyclone-ravaged and the drought-stricken Australian this summer, perhaps none could be viewed with more dread than turning from their devastated home to see advancing on them a bubble of media in which enwombed is our prime minister, Scott Morrison, arriving, as ever, too late with a cuddle.
It’s fair to say that Morrison has pulled off other roles with more conviction – the shouty Commandant of the Pacific camps perhaps his most heartfelt to date, the Gaslighter-in-Chief his most audacious, his Mini-Me to Donald Trump’s Dr Evil not without tragicomic charge – but sorrowful Father of the Nation has begun to feel a firebreak too far.
In Australia we are all now being treated as children, quietened Australians, most especially on the climate crisis. While the climate crisis has become Australians’ number one concern, both major parties play determinedly deaf and dumb on the issue while action and protest about the climate crisis is increasingly subject to prosecution and heavy sentencing."

Read the complete The Guardian article 

"All this theatre hides a deeply cynical calculation: that Australians will keep on buying the big lie, a lie given historic expression last Thursday morning when on national radio the prime minister declared that Australia’s unprecedented bushfires were unconnected to climate change."

Read the complete The Guardian article 

Student organised climate action in Coffs Harbour, NSW, November 29

Folk gathered outside the office of the local National Party MP.

Year 4 student reads his speech

Election 2019: Boris Johnson Top Beneficiary of Donations from Supporters of Climate Science Denial: DESMOG

"This election cycle has seen an unprecedented number of announcements from all parties on renewable energy, reforestation, and other items generally reserved for only the greenest on the political spectrum. So much so that some are calling this the ‘climate election’.

But elections are expensive things, and politicians rarely turn down a cheque. So if climate change really is going to be a vote decider, it makes sense to take a look at who is funding our politicians. In particular, where have those known to support climate science denial campaigns in the UK put their cash?

DeSmog has analysed donations registered on The Electoral Commission database and found that — by a very long distance — supporters of climate science denial have donated predominantly to the Conservative Party and Tory politicians. "

Read  the article

Stanford Study Says Renewable Power Eliminates Argument for Using Carbon Capture with Fossil Fuels: DESMOG

New research from Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson questions the climate and health benefits of carbon capture technology against simply switching to renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Carbon capture technology is premised on two possible approaches to reducing climate pollution: removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere anywhere in the world, an approach generally known as direct air capture, or removing it directly from the emissions source, such as the smoke stack of a fossil fuel power plant.

Here Are 3 Climategate Myths That Have Not Aged Well: DESMOG

Excessive media coverage of an email hacking tilted the outcome of a critically important event against the victims of the crime. Sound familiar?

In 2016, it happened to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. That was déjà vu for climate scientists, who seven years earlier had experienced a nearly identical chain of events leading up to the 2009 UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. 

In summary: emails from the University of East Anglia in the UK were hacked, and many journalists assumed that where there was smoke, there must be fire. Even the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart jumped on the bandwagon, accusing climate scientists of trying to “trick you” based on a few selective, out-of-context quotes from the hacked emails (though he also later ripped the media for not covering the debunking of the Climategate myth). Commentators at the time were divided over whether this was a media storm, or just a storm in a very British teacup. Nonetheless, the Copenhagen climate summit a few weeks later was widely considered a failure. That wasn’t only because of the hacked emails, just as another cache of emails aren’t the sole reason for the words “President Donald Trump” — but in both cases the media-amplified story played a significant role in shaping subsequent events. 

Nine separate inquiries into the email hack exonerated the climate scientists, but came well after the damage had been done. And a decade on, many of the climate science denial myths that emerged from the email hack are still in play.

So, on the 10th anniversary of what came to be known as ‘Climategate’, let’s examine three of the key email quotes that so captured the media’s attention, and how the associated science has since evolved.

Spoiler: the deniers’ lies haven’t aged well.

Read the complete article 

See also: Quit Obsessing About Climate Change. What You Do or Don’t Do No Longer Matters.: Medium

#criminales climáticos de la cárcel  #criminalesclimáticosdelacárcel

#jailclimatecriminals  #gaolclimatecriminals

Cartoon by Mike Peters: See No Global Warming ....

Australia Bushfires Renew Anger Over Climate Change: The Youth Times

Unprecedented bushfires in eastern Australia have turbocharged demands the country's conservative government do more to tackle climate change, and have rekindled an ideological fight over the science behind the blazes.

The huge fires have touched communities up and down the east coast, killing four people and affecting millions of Australians threatening homes and blanketing major cities in hazardous smoke.

For many, the scale and intensity of the conflagrations, weeks before the Australian summer, have brought the dangers of climate change home.

"The whole east coast is on fire," said Julie Jones, who almost lost her house in the Blue Mountains. "I think it's climate change."

A group of ex-fire chiefs on Thursday warned climate change is "supercharging" the bushfire problem and they challenged Prime Minister Scott Morrison over his failure to confront the issue.

"I am fundamentally concerned about the impact and the damage coming from climate change," former fire chief Lee Johnson said.

"The word 'unprecedented' has been used a lot, but it's correct."

For days Morrison has refused to address the link between climate and bushfires, arguing the focus should be on victims despite being heckled about climate change while touring fire-ravaged areas.

Photo Credit : AFP / Laurence CHU

Morrison has made no secret of his support for the country's lucrative mining industry, which accounts for more than 70 percent of exports and was worth a record Aus$264 billion ($180 billion) in the last financial year.

He once carried a lump of coal onto the floor of the Australian parliament and recently proposed banning environmental boycotts of businesses.

His government insists Australia will meet its Paris climate agreement target of reducing emissions by 26-28 percent on 2005 levels by 2030.

But the approval of vast coal mines like the controversial Adani project which will ship most of its product overseas to be burned make global targets of keeping warming below 1.5 Celsius more difficult.

'Woke greenies'

Until now that has been good politics for the Liberal leader. His party unexpectedly won re-election in May, in part by framing the climate debate as a choice between jobs and higher energy costs in places like coal-rich Queensland.
Morrison's allies have also deployed the issue as a potent wedge issue to divide the electorate.

Photo Credit : AFP / Jonathan WALTER

When the Australian Greens attacked the government response to the bushfires this week, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack went on the offensive.
"We don't need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital cities greenies at this time, when (people) are trying to save their homes," he said.

But the scale of the bushfire crisis has made it more difficult for Morrison to dismiss his political foes as out-of-touch lefty city slickers.

And after several exhausting days of spearheading crisis response, commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Wednesday the New South Wales Rural Fire Service acknowledged the new reality.

"We are mindful that the science is suggesting that fire seasons are starting earlier, and extending longer," he said.

Politicians who refuse to discuss climate change have been heckled as they tour areas destroyed by fire Photo Credit : AFP / WILLIAM WEST

The government's own Bureau of Meteorology has acknowledged human-caused climate change is "influencing the frequency and severity of dangerous bushfire conditions".

Scientists say the link between climate change and bush fires is complex, but undeniable.

Wind movements around Antarctica and sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean can also help determine fire-friendly conditions in Australia.

But warming provides key ingredients for fires to thrive: high temperatures, low humidity, strong winds and drought.

"Bushfires are not directly attributable to climate change," said Janet Stanley of the University of Melbourne. "However, the fast-warming climate is making bushfires more frequent and intense."

"The mountain of irrefutable evidence linking global warming to bushfires makes the federal government's failure to act or even talk about the problem extremely hard to explain," she said.

Away from the political bickering, a growing number of Australians appear to agree.

A 2019 survey by think tank The Australia Institute found 81 percent of people are concerned climate change will cause more droughts and flooding, while 64 percent want the government to set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Claire Pontin, a deputy mayor in badly-hit northern New South Wales, told the ABC it was "always" the right time to discuss climate change.

"It's not going to go away if we bury our heads in the sand."

From The Youth Times