January 23, 2010
This was published by New Matilda, 22 Jan 2010.
The Republican victory in Ted Kennedy’s former senate seat in Massachusetts may seem a long way from Australia, but there are similar forces at work in both countries. So far, no major political party in the Anglophone world has been willing to directly challenge the right-wing ascendancy of the past three decades, and we continue to pay a heavy price for their timidity and lack of vision.
January 14, 2010
Published by On Line Opinion 18 January.
A report by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change finds no evidence for fraud or scientific misconduct in the emails hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. To quote the Pew report:
“Although a small percentage of the emails are impolite and some express animosity toward opponents, when placed into proper context they do not appear to reveal fraud or other scientific misconduct by Dr. Jones or his correspondents.”
December 3, 2009
Published by On Line Opinion, 8 Dec.
The triumph of climate delialists in the Liberal Party and the recent unauthorised release of allegedly damaging emails from a British climate research group are being portrayed by some as the end of the global warming “conspiracy”.
However the so-called scandal of the emails is a manufactured storm in a teacup. Anyway the evidence for human-caused global warming is far more diverse and robust than denialists make out. In fact the latest evidence is even clearer, and more ominous. Denialist politicians are on the wrong side of history.
November 18, 2009
The latest of many “sceptic” claims about global warming is that sea level is falling. Satellite altimetry (measuring sea-surface heights from satellite radar systems) supposedly shows the steady rise of sea level has reversed. Well, no, sea level is rising faster than ever.
November 12, 2009
Another favourite argument of global warming sceptics is that increases of carbon dioxide (CO2) lagged increases of temperature during the ice ages, so CO2 can’t be the cause of global warming. At first sight this seems like a very reasonable argument. However climate scientists are not as stupid as some make them out to be.
November 2, 2009
It is almost universally believed that reducing Australia’s carbon emissions will be very expensive and therefore our economy will be disadvantaged if our emission reductions get ahead of the rest of the world, but it is not true.
October 31, 2009
Scepticism about global warming continues, along with outright denial that it is caused by humans, or even that it is happening at all. Informed debate is healthy, but much of the discussion is ill-informed, much of it addresses the wrong questions, and much of it misconceives science as a source of “proof” or “truth”.
October 30, 2009
As Kevin Rudd twists slowly in the asylum-seeker noose of his own making, it is not only the flimsy basis of his “Indonesian solution” that is exposed to the world. Also exposed is a consistent failure to assume leadership, a failure that has defined the Labor Party for a generation, and that comes at a critical time in our history.
Full article at New Matilda
October 15, 2009
One of the most frequently and loudly repeated claims of climate sceptics is that the Earth has cooled since 1998. The data to not show that.
June 26, 2009
The way global warming and our efforts to stop it have been discussed in this critical Parliamentary week tells a sorry tale of Australian society’s scientific illiteracy, myopia and psychological denial.
According to global warming sceptics and denialists, climate scientists are variously really stupid, prone to irrational herd behaviour, egotists pushing barrows, trying to feather their nests, or all of the above. According to the media they are apparently nerdy pains whose gloomy message is easily trumped by serious, reality-based political dramas. According to politicians they are another interest group to be placated. According to the Prime Minister they are radical greens.
