Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan has accused the Opposition of misrepresenting how the Government's carbon tax will work.

The Government plans to introduce the tax by the middle of next year before switching to an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Mr Swan is now distancing Labor from the term "carbon tax" and accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of lying about how it will operate.

"What we're talking about here is an interim price which some people describe as a carbon tax and they can do that legitimately," he said.

"It's just that it doesn't operate like a traditional tax; it is not deducted from your pay packet or anyone else's pay packet, it comes from the big polluters.

"The money from the big polluters is then paid to assist householders and industry.

"That's where the big lie from Mr Abbott is coming from.

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/comment/reply/11866#comment-form

I despair about the way journalists — and scientists baiting them — represent a "new" scientific discovery... For example, recently, a study of a meteorite that landed in Antarctica showed there was "the building blocks of life" (ammonia, etc) in it... So our midgets (scientific and professional spruikers) are already concluding that "life came from space"... Bollocks. We can also conclude that life came from the big bang...

The same elements would have also been on the earth and would have also combined to form the same (or better) "building blocs of life" in the heat and tourmented surface of the planet more than 4. 6 billion years ago. And life is more than its "building blocks". A house is more than a heap of bricks. Having the elements of life does not mean it evolves because you have the elements. I've had many bits of watches that did not a watch make. It takes a chemical leap of reactivity between these elements to turn into enzymes, then proteins, then the rest... in possibly specific brackets of conditions of heat, quantities and pressure.

Conclude nothing, my friend... apart that life EVOLVED on this planet, attached to this planet in a relationship with the planet's surface and its atmosphere.

No, the earth and humanity is not an accidental refuge for little green men and their garbage...

Whenever I see science fiction movies (good and bad) I always have in the back of my mind, this Gus-imagined spoof about aliens using this planet as a big dunny dump... Imagine martians doing a low flyover over the earth to empty their latrines. In space, doing so could lead to the content following you until you slowed down and the stuff would catch up. Not a good look. The planet's gravity would grab onto the stuff while as a martian in your spacecraft you could throttle up, back into the dark beyond. I imagine this panic in the streets below... Instead of space invaders coming to fight with lasers and blazing atomic guns, one would be showered with ugly smelly stuff. "Danger! Danger! take cover! Incoming turd!!!" There, from the sky above, a giant cow pat would, in slow motion, splat on the cities — mostly New York and London where the best minds in science fiction know how to react to such invasion...

How long is a piece of string?... Good question...

I was about to write a piece on "measurements". Scientific measurement as opposed to guesstimates and "market prices"... Then I fell onto two articles on the ABC opinion pages... One basically telling the government how to suck eggs and the other one disputing the global warming data's interpretation...

If I did not know better, the latter would make me look like a fool...

The former miss the "subtle" point that even with the best intentions and data in the world, when you have a rabid opposition lead by Tony and his gangsters, well-targeted ten point plans are not going to cut mustard.

First let's talk about measurements...:

"Since the methods of homogeneity corrections used by NIWA are similar to those used by BoM it was no surprise that BoM found no fault with them.

But at no time did BoM consider whether the raw data was sufficiently faulty so as to justify the homogeneity corrections.

The involvement of BoM in the New Zealand dispute is problematic because a formal request has been made to the Australian Auditor General to audit BoM’s official Australian temperature record and the methods used by BoM to adjust the Australian raw temperature data.

Researchers have found that BoM has adjusted the raw data upwards by 40 per cent for rural temperatures and by 70 per cent for the urban temperatures. This means that a temperature trend of 0.6 degrees for rural locations was increased to 0.85 degrees while in the towns and cities the trend of 0.4 degrees was increased to 0.78 degrees.

The reasons for these adjustments which involve changing well-established data from the beginning of the 20th century and also more recent data has been provided by BoM in a 2003 paper by BoM scientists, Della-Marta, Collins and Braganza. The five criteria for BoM’s adjustments of the raw data include missing data and various “suspected” defects in the temperature recording process and equipment. However, in Dell-Marta et al’s paper only those sites which have been removed from the official record have criteria noted. Those sites still included and which have been adjusted have no indication as to why they have been adjusted. The odd thing is that the older data is usually adjusted by making it cooler while the modern data is usually adjusted to make it warmer. This has the automatic effect of increasing the temperature trend.

When researcher Ken Stewart sought an explanation from BoM he was informed by Dr David Jones, the head of Climate Monitoring and Prediction, National Climate Centre that:

“On the issue of adjustments you find that these have a near zero impact on the all Australian temperature because these tend to be equally positive and negative across the network.”
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44718.html

--------------------

So does this mean that we are cooking the books..?

Hell, no....   Even a piece of string has a bit of elasticity in it... The ABC should be ashamed of letting this fellow, Anthony Cox, get away with his crap...

Yes this piece of rubbish writing takes the cake... I don't know who Anthony Co is but to say:

"Researchers have found that BoM has adjusted the raw data upwards by 40 per cent for rural temperatures and by 70 per cent for the urban temperatures. This means that a temperature trend of 0.6 degrees for rural locations was increased to 0.85 degrees while in the towns and cities the trend of 0.4 degrees was increased to 0.78 degrees."

Total CRAP... and he's got the gall to deliver this with a straight face...!!!!

This is where the length of a piece of strings comes in — or the daily graph about the stock-market report every night on the tele... For example they show a traumatised red line on a graph that goes at sharp angle in relation to a baseline — that ISN'T THE baseline... The amplitude of the stock market variation is sometimes amplified 1000 times to what it should be if we take into account the "real" total value, but it's more dramatic to put a penis enlargement in the figures... One could argue on the other hand that if someone bought some stocks two years ago for 2 bucks and yesterday these were 25 dollars but today they are 24.99 dollars, the investor lost 0.04 per cent of the value... but then the graph can look dramatic and show a baseline at 24.50 with a major dip of nearly 2 per cent... Suddenly, investors panic.

Distorting the length of string is a magician's job or that of economists... or in this case it is a denier's job to cast doubt on the way things are measured. And the way this fellow explains it, we'd be freezing our balls off or burning in hell with his magic trick. Adjusting the raw data by 40 to 70 per cent would REALLY mean that when something is measured at 25 degrees say, the data entered would be 25 x 140 (or 170 whichever case may be) : 100 = 35 (or 42.5 which ever case may be).

No way José...

So from what level is the raw data "adjusted"? From what I can make out, this fellow is making the correction of 70 per cent on the "very small top of the reading" not on the temperature itself... If for example a correction is made on the temperature number say 35.6 degrees and was adjusted to 35.85 for whatever reason (say "statistical anomaly correction of collection of raw data") the adjustment is not even 0.7 per cent. Somewhere else, in another part of the continent, this adjustment will be negative in the same proportion or more. Nothing problematic about it. Instruments record with some discrepancy in accuracy and there might have been two instruments readings in the same place: one up one down...

From what I have studied, city temperatures are discounted in global warming corrections. Cities create their own micro-climate that is a notch up on what it was in the past. Temperature readings in Sydney in 1848 would be different (colder) to what is measured now on the sheer size of the city that creates and disperses a lot of energy. Thus present city measurements are either DISCOUNTED or discarded...
I note too that this fellow stayed clear of the NASA world temperature recordings. Satellites can gather far more accurate data over far more points of reference than plonking thermometers in the atmosphere wherever there is a lamppost.
Going back to the comparisons between the major temperature recording devices, the match is reasonable and within the statistician range of observations. Here they are below. Of course these do not include the similar recordings from the Yourpeans and the Chinese who unfortunately know that climate change is on... Global warming is a major worry for them, even if their own politics are also warming up.

But I would suggest that the temperature adjustments at this level of recording would be far less than 0.5 per cent, either way. Statistically, adjustments such as these are nonetheless valid.

------------------------
On the other side of the polemic is "what are we going to do about it":

This fellow's, Andrew Dyer, musings are good, but proposes nothing new. The major problem is how to shut up the deniers and their religious adherents. How to muzzle Tony is the art of politics. We can say all what has to be done right — and open doors that are already opened — but how are we going to make sure the public understands the REAL problem, not just the political gymnastics, when a Tony does a loopy-de-loop...

1. Be clear about the problem we are trying to solve here. For example, we may want to achieve an agreed target reduction in emissions per capita (or some other benchmark) by 2020 and beyond. The problem statement needs to be crystal clear with defined targets and timelines. This drives everything else. There are a number of well-researched targets that can be embodied in an appropriate problem statement.
I BELIEVE THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT IS CLEAR ABOUT THIS. THE OPPOSITION IS MUDDLED- HEADED AND SNEAKY ABOUT IT'S MOTIVES.

2. Detail the various options for solving the stated problem. For example: reducing our reliance on coal-fired power generation; reducing vehicle emissions; reducing other industrial emissions, etc, and then prioritising the quantified options based on parameters such as cost to implement, ease of implementation, timeframes, and so on.
BEEN THERE DONE THAT

3. Make the choices about which options should be implemented by when. Not easy, but this is where leadership becomes key.
AH AH... TRY TO TELL THIS TO TONY AND HIS MIDGETS... LEADERSHIP TO HIM MEANS BEING A BULLY BEFORE PLAY SCHOOL...

4. With the chosen options as the foundations, paint the picture of the vision for our new 2020 and beyond landscape and why Australia will be a better and more sustainable place as a result. This will be our modern day "pyramid" to rally the entire community.
WE'VE BEEN PAINTING FOR YONKS MATE...

5. Develop and define the detailed programs that need to be implemented so as to facilitate the implementation of the options selected in 3) and achieve the vision.
REPEAT STEP ONE TWO AND THREE...

etc

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44718.html
---------------
Science can go blue in the face with real facts and figures, but science can't compete with the lying shock-jocks and their ally Tony-da-porkie... These mongrels are the master of bullshit and will use any low tricks to make sure nobody understands anything and have doubts about the lot, whichever it is. The cultivation of doubts is their brilliant attack. This tactic has been used by churches of various creeds for century and people are conditioned to accept the fanciful spin before reality.

Anthony Cox tells other bullshit at other level. May the ABC wake up to his tricks.

see toon at top...

TIMBÍO, Colombia — Like most of the small landowners in Colombia’s lush mountainous Cauca region, Luis Garzón, 80, and his family have thrived for decades by supplying shade-grown, rainforest-friendly Arabica coffee for top foreign brands like Nespresso and Green Mountain. A sign in the center of a nearby town proclaims, “The coffee of Cauca is No. 1!”

But in the last few years, coffee yields have plummeted here and in many of Latin America’s other premier coffee regions as a result of rising temperatures and more intense and unpredictable rains, phenomena that many scientists link partly to global warming.

Coffee plants require the right mix of temperature, rainfall and spells of dryness for beans to ripen properly and maintain their taste. Coffee pests thrive in the warmer, wetter weather.

Bean production at the Garzóns’ farm is therefore down 70 percent from five years ago, leaving the family little money for clothing for toddlers and “thinking twice” about sending older children to college, said Mr. Garzon’s 44-year-old son, Albeiro, interviewed in a yellow stucco house decorated with coffee posters and madonnas.

The shortage of high-end Arabica coffee beans is also being felt in New York supermarkets and Paris cafes, as customers blink at escalating prices. Purveyors fear that the Arabica coffee supply from Colombia may never rebound — that the world might, in effect, hit “peak coffee.”

In 2006, Colombia produced more than 12 million 132-pound bags of coffee, and set a goal of 17 million for 2014. Last year the yield was nine million bags.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/science/earth/10coffee.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

from Boris Johnson

A caller rang a London radio station to discuss the lessons of the Japanese earthquake, and said something both death-defyingly stupid and brilliantly illuminating. He knew why there had been a seismic event measuring 8.9. It was because man was forever drilling for oil, and our planet was angry at the intrusion. The Earth, in the view of this caller, was like some vast animal shrugging its pelt at an irritating flea-bite - and mankind was that irritating flea.

That analysis is of course stupid, because there is no evidence of a connection between the colossal movements of the Pacific tectonic plates and our feeble scrapings and probings for oil or any other minerals.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/earthquakes-and-tsunamis-are-not-the-planet-taking-revenge-on-man-20110314-1bue6.html

 

-----------------

Here, the trick used by Boris is obvious like a "du soleil" circus tent, under which he conjures a magic trick by dismissing the moral relationship between what we do to the earth and the shit we get in return... And it's brilliant because we — the scientifically enlightened mob — all know there is no morality to it... Yes! We all know that. So what's the beef? Just because a lonely caller to a UK radio station made the silly connection, we, those who are opposed to some more drilling, are all tainted with the silliness of the argument?

All there is to it, are mechanical/chemical processes on earth — some we have an effect upon and some we don't... The resultant of our effects on these processes can be limited or large or nil. The largest of the effects we are having at the moment on the surface of the earth (atmosphere included) is the release of EXTRA CO2...

Imagine for a minute that we mine coal under a field and the top either collapses or that the water table sinks below... Does this ever happens? Yes... Imagine we mine in Indonesia for oil and end up with a mud volcano that spews mud — drowning a town in yuck for the next 50 years... Imagine we cut trees on the side of a mountain and then wonder that when it rains the side of the mountain collapses...

Cause and effect. It's not a question of morality , it's a question of knowing when to duck...

Imagine we build a nuke power station on a fault line... and ...

Boris is another brilliant idiot...

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