(Above: those bloody tree hugger cartoonists).
As the Monckton follies tour of the antipodes swans through the secessionist west, we yearn for his tour of the eastern states to commence.
CHRIS DOEPEL, DEAN OF BUSINESS, NOTRE DAME UNI: We are happy to provide a climate where those views, particularly the ones on public policy responses, and that is the gist of much of his talk this evening, can be aired and be tested.
JONATHAN LEAKES, SUNDAY TIMES, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT EDITOR: They've prevented the media going in, reporting what he's saying and allowing it to be subjected to the full scrutiny of the public at large. (Academics protest Monckton speaking tour).
Monckton, who is perhaps best labelled as sceptical or agnostic to the idea that global warming is generated by humans, received wide-scale coverage when he visited Australia in February last year. Commercial radio and television, along with the tabloid press, tended to report him seriously. However, he was ridiculed on some ABC programs and in parts of the broadsheet press.
Henderson, as anyone who reads the pond knows, is perhaps best labelled as a prattling Polonius, always banging on about the ABC and the broadsheets (such a quaint term in this digital age, and so bizarre that it should be juxtaposed with the "serious reporting" of the tabloid press. What does the man take, and can I have some of it please?)
He (Garnaut) addressed the National Press Club in May in his capacity as head of the Garnaut Climate Change Review. In this talk he accused "parts of big business" of having taken the "role of spoiler" in the climate change debate and implied that those who declined to embrace his views were neither informed nor thoughtful. Garnaut also suggested that his critics believe that Australia is a "pissant country" and then accused his opponents of "shouting ignorant slogans".
Oh the wicked, wicked man and his fascist ways. What on earth could he be talking about?
As the Monckton follies tour of the antipodes swans through the secessionist west, we yearn for his tour of the eastern states to commence.
Strangely some people want to ban Lord Monckton - as if he were the Showgirls of sceptical climate change thinking - but surely this completely misses the showbiz point.
How else could we arrive at these two statements, one arriving on top of the other?
CHRIS DOEPEL, DEAN OF BUSINESS, NOTRE DAME UNI: We are happy to provide a climate where those views, particularly the ones on public policy responses, and that is the gist of much of his talk this evening, can be aired and be tested.
JONATHAN LEAKES, SUNDAY TIMES, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT EDITOR: They've prevented the media going in, reporting what he's saying and allowing it to be subjected to the full scrutiny of the public at large. (Academics protest Monckton speaking tour).
Yes there's nothing like airing and testing and rigorous scrutiny by banning the hapless chooks of the media from their daily feed of corn.
And Godwin's Law - surely now the most famous and well proven scientific law doing the rounds - can always rely on an outing whenever Monckton is doing his thing.
Strangely the commentariat seem to have largely abandoned Monckton, at least compared to his previous tour.
Oh sure Gerard Henderson offered up Cool heads needed for climate talk, back when there were only two sleeps in silk pyjamas before Monckton delivered his talk. The fatuous Henderson delivered up some splendid bon mots:
Monckton, who is perhaps best labelled as sceptical or agnostic to the idea that global warming is generated by humans, received wide-scale coverage when he visited Australia in February last year. Commercial radio and television, along with the tabloid press, tended to report him seriously. However, he was ridiculed on some ABC programs and in parts of the broadsheet press.
Henderson, as anyone who reads the pond knows, is perhaps best labelled as a prattling Polonius, always banging on about the ABC and the broadsheets (such a quaint term in this digital age, and so bizarre that it should be juxtaposed with the "serious reporting" of the tabloid press. What does the man take, and can I have some of it please?)
Of course Henderson understands that Monckton is in the circus or showbiz game, and really calling Ross Garnaut is just a splendid double flip on the high trapeze:
Monckton, a mathematician, understands that one sure way to get coverage in the media is to ham it up and, on occasions, throw the switch to hyperbole.
Yes, yes, he's the Laurence Olivier of scepticism, always eager to show his love of Mel Brooks and The Producers and that great hit showbiz tune Springtime for Hitler and Ross Garnaut ...
Yes, yes, he's the Laurence Olivier of scepticism, always eager to show his love of Mel Brooks and The Producers and that great hit showbiz tune Springtime for Hitler and Ross Garnaut ...
The only trick left in this bag is to call for a cooling of the political debate by citing wild words from all sides. This way you don't have to mention any actual science - sssh, no one mention the science - and instead you can concentrate on the name calling in the playground.
Why there's the evil Ross Garnaut daring to lash out at the world:
Oh the wicked, wicked man and his fascist ways. What on earth could he be talking about?
Surely not the news that an alliance of big industry organisations are preparing to drop a cool ten million in a campaign against the pricing of carbon, as noted in Industry push to wipe out carbon price. Yep, it's the faceless men (and possibly women) of business:
As well as a general message designed to reinforce negative perceptions of the scheme, the campaign will also home in on regions where the carbon price will supposedly have a greater impact.
The government must think they're heaven sent, as suddenly there's an excuse for them to run their own advertising campaign to counteract the big business campaign. And will anyone be any the wiser when the ad men retire to consider their nest eggs? So it goes ...
Reassured by endless soft interviews on the ABC, lapped around by paid acolytes singing their praises, buttressed by endless supplies of official government propaganda reinforcing their prejudices, anything approaching the robust interchange of healthy democracy is deeply distressing to them.
Garnaut makes a couple of specific complaints against the media which are absurd and ridiculous. He pretends to find it especially shocking that some in the media - myself among them - apparently assume bad faith on the part of the US government.
I interviewed Jim Sensenbrenner, the senior Republican congressman on climate change, who confirmed, as is routine within American political discussion, that there was no chance of the US meeting its greenhouse emissions target.
The Australian people have been magnificently immune to the oceans of propaganda Garnaut and the other agents of the government's carbon machine have produced.
The Australian people are better than the government's advisers.
The last thing we should be doing is abandoning our standards of conduct towards those with whom we disagree. Let the alarmists call us names and try to silence us, but at the same time, we must try our very best to maintain dignity and rise above the petty schoolyard bullying of the alarmist camp. As Anthony Watts correctly states, this doesn't help.
I'm prepared to keep an open mind and propose another stunt for climate sceptics - put your strong views to the test by exposing yourselves to high concentrations of either carbon dioxide or some other colourless, odourless gas - say, carbon monoxide.
You wouldn't see or smell anything. Nor would your anti-science nonsense be heard of again. How very refreshing.
Garnaut is a little Hitler and deserves all the verbal abuse he receives. Garnaut is 'unrepresentative swill', a total liar and a closet Communist.
And speaking of scientific stupidity, let us never forget Dr. Dennis Jensen's contribution to the debate.
The organisations involved include the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Coal Association, the Plastics and Chemical Industries Association and the Australian Logistics Council, which is a loose collection of freight and transport companies.
And it will involve the kind of negativity beloved of Dr. No:
As well as a general message designed to reinforce negative perceptions of the scheme, the campaign will also home in on regions where the carbon price will supposedly have a greater impact.
The government must think they're heaven sent, as suddenly there's an excuse for them to run their own advertising campaign to counteract the big business campaign. And will anyone be any the wiser when the ad men retire to consider their nest eggs? So it goes ...
Meanwhile, Henderson got exceptionally outraged by Deborah Cameron, which raises the question yet again - does he listen to any radio station other than the ABC? Does he ever listen to Alan Jones? Does he ever feel the need to give Jones a blast for singularly ill-mannered, offensive, boorish, bullying behaviour?
Most likely not, but let's leave the inflammatory Henderson, as he proposes a cooling of the political debate by pouring petrol on the fire, and turn instead to good old Greg Sheridan, ungracious to the last in The US won't make its carbon target.
Sheridan, who in recent days has taken to channeling such supreme climate change denialists as Jim Sensenbrenner, is simply outraged that the fascistic Ross Garnaut has taken it into his head to criticise the media. Once again the enemy is the ABC:
Oh the wicked ABC.
Garnaut makes a couple of specific complaints against the media which are absurd and ridiculous. He pretends to find it especially shocking that some in the media - myself among them - apparently assume bad faith on the part of the US government.
Oh the naughty man. Yet before the precious flower known as Sheridan wilts under this shocking, unfair, absurd and ridiculous abuse, quick, let's turn with Sheridan to others for reassurance:
Now in any balanced world, a reporter working outside the fantasy world of Sheridan would have noted that Sensenbrenner is a climate change denier of the first water, routinely tracked for his statements in support of big business, big oil, big coal, and a set of absurdly unscientific statements about climate science.
If there's any reason the US won't meet its greenhouse emissions target, it's thanks to the spoiler work of denialists like Sensenbrenner. Instead there's not boo to a goose in Sheridan's description, but the window dressing of calling him the senior Republican congressman on climate change ...
And Sheridan - who bobs up at unnervingly regular intervals on the ABC, last night on 702 on the ABC claiming he's never promoted a single sceptical thought about climate change - is mightily pleased at the prospect that Australia will do nothing, just like the United States:
The Australian people are better than the government's advisers.
Yes, and Sheridan is so much more scientifically sound than the scientists, and he never peddles scepticism.
You have to have a deep pity for scribblers who actually try to shift the discussion back to actual science, as Jo Chandler tried in When science is undone by fiction, as she dares to mention actual research currently taking place in Antarctica.
Outrageous broadsheet behaviour, completely unlike serious tabloid reporting, and what's worse it takes us even further away from Lord Monckton's splendid contributions to the debate.
Sadly even the sceptics seem a tad upset with Monckton, as explained in Australian Climate Madness's Monckton oversteps the mark:
The last thing we should be doing is abandoning our standards of conduct towards those with whom we disagree. Let the alarmists call us names and try to silence us, but at the same time, we must try our very best to maintain dignity and rise above the petty schoolyard bullying of the alarmist camp. As Anthony Watts correctly states, this doesn't help.
Yes, yes, I say old chum, you went a tad too far. Why not just settle for calling them alarmists, hysterics, warmistas - polite, non-inflammatory terms? Or perhaps think of them as women in the grip of female hysteria. You know, calm, soothing terms ...
Of course the non-alarmist Shanghai clocks at ACM - solemn time-beaters all - had whipped themselves into a lather because Jill Singer had dared to suggest Carbon tax sideshow must stop, and proposed a scientific experiment for politicians who drank Coco Cola to prove that carbon was a friendly gas:
I'm prepared to keep an open mind and propose another stunt for climate sceptics - put your strong views to the test by exposing yourselves to high concentrations of either carbon dioxide or some other colourless, odourless gas - say, carbon monoxide.
You wouldn't see or smell anything. Nor would your anti-science nonsense be heard of again. How very refreshing.
Oh dear. You see non-alarmists don't understand whimsy of any kind, especially gaseous jokes, and so it was refreshing and reassuring to scroll down the comments column to cop this:
Garnaut is a little Hitler and deserves all the verbal abuse he receives. Garnaut is 'unrepresentative swill', a total liar and a closet Communist.
That's more like it. Measured scientific discussion of the cool kind requested by Gerard Henderson.
Now speaking of treacherous lickspittle fellow travellers, let's turn to Malcolm Turnbull:
Malcolm Turnbull: Well Monckton should be ashamed of himself. He’s increasingly a rather sick vaudeville character who makes more and more outlandish charges in order to get attention for himself. I don’t think Ross Garnaut will lose any sleep and making absurd, over the top allegations like that really just demean and bring discredit on Monckton. But you know, he’s done this sort of thing before. He’s a sensationalist and he knows that he gets in the newspapers if he says outrageous things. And he’s got a business. He’s paid to go around and give outlandish speeches and those people that pay for that sort of thing I suppose get what they pay for. They don’t get any science. They don’t get anything credible, they don’t get anything knowledgeable they just get a vaudeville act. (Sky News transcript, here)
Oh big Mal, big Mal, technical point. Surely it's a circus act, complete with Notre Dame big tent ...
And speaking of scientific stupidity, let us never forget Dr. Dennis Jensen's contribution to the debate.
DENNIS JENSEN, LIBERAL: Does anyone know what that is? Charcoal, also known as carbon. If you notice when I let it go, it doesn't float into the air. .... All of those little bubbles there, it's the same stuff that you breathe out. This government has managed to actually tax the air that we breathe. (here).
Time for Dr. Jensen to take the Jill Singer science test?
Oops, I see the pond is being frivolous and whimsical again. Thank the lord there's no need to mention any actual science when discussing climate science, but instead playground childishness can be all the go.
Thank heavens we have the likes of Monckton and Greg Sheridan and Gerard Henderson and the Australian media to keep the debate at this elevated level of insight and name-calling ...
(Below: an oldie but a pond favourite goodie, as Dr. Jensen demonstrates the beneficial role of carbon. You can catch the video at the Jensen link above).
This is all very depressing at the moment, Dorothy. If it continues this way, there's going to be a lot of explaining required by the next generation.
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