On Jo Nova’s site, the cat is set amongst the pigeons:
A team of skeptical scientists, citizens, and an Australian Senator have lodged a formal request with the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to have the BOM and CSIRO audited.
The BOM claim their adjustments are “neutral” yet Ken Stewart showed that the trend in the raw figures for our whole continent has been adjusted up by 40%. The stakes are high. Australians could have to pay something in the order of $870 million dollars thanks to the Kyoto protocol, and the first four years of the Emissions Trading Scheme was expected to cost Australian industry (and hence Australian shareholders and consumers) nearly $50 billion dollars.
Given the stakes, the Australian people deserve to know they are getting transparent, high quality data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). The small cost of the audit is nothing in comparison with the money at stake for all Australians. We need the full explanations of why individual stations have been adjusted repeatedly and non-randomly, and why adjustments were made decades after the measurements were taken. We need an audit of surface stations. (Are Australian stations as badly manipulated and poorly sited as the US stations? Who knows?)
The NZ equivalent to the Australian BOM is under an official review
The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition found adjustments that were even more inexplicable (0.006 degrees was adjusted up to 0.9 degrees). They decided to push legally and the response was a litany of excuses — until finally The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) was forced to disavow it’s own National Temperature Records, and belatedly pretend that it had never been intended for public consumption. But here’s the thing that bites: NZ signed the Kyoto protocol, arguably based very much on the NZ temperature record, and their nation owes somewhere from half a billion to several billion dollars worth of carbon credits (depending on the price of carbon in 2012). Hence there is quite a direct link from the damage caused by using one unsubstantiated data set based on a single student’s report that no one can find or replicate that will cost the nation a stack of money. NIWA is now potentially open to class actions. (Ironically, the Australian BOM has the job of “ratifying” the reviewed NZ temperature record.)
Thanks to work by Ken Stewart, Chris Gillham, Andrew Barnham, Tony Cox, James Doogue, David Stockwell, as well as Cory Bernardi, Federal Senator for South Australia.
Copied below is the cover note of our request.
Click on the image to download the full PDF (3.3 Mb)
Read more here
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Great news, I’ve emailed this to Andrew Bolt, so he can give it full coverage.
You gotta give up the cash… show me the money, baby. 😉
I just posted this comment over at Jo’s site.
Sorry guys, this won’t happen.
Once Julia gets wind of this, you’ll find there will be a massive funding cut to the Australian National Audit Office because all the money has gone fixing up the flood damage in Queensland.
Really, do you think the guvmint will let this happen, after all, they have a pretty good track record at feeding mushrooms !
Several hundred tins of special whitewash paint have just been ordered in the UK by an unknown Australian source. I hope this is just a rumour but…………………….
I sure hope there are opportunities to support this move by other Australians; polls, letters, signatures, whatever. This needs to be pushed.
A reminder to people that the ANAO is a statutory authority. Governments cannot interfere nor can they take the risk of being caught out.
The key is to convince the Auditor that this is a worthwhile audit to carry out.
[snip]
From a hard-headed Aus with many years of observing Aus politics:
Sorry, not a hope
The Barrie Harrops of Australia will attempt to make sure that this never sees the light of day, it would put them out of business.
Big news! It this perhaps a watershed moment when the politicians and citizens began to mobilise themselves against the twisted world of consensus science and politics
This will go nowhere. The Auditor will prioritise tasks and this won’t make it anywhere near the top of the pile. That’s the way Australian Government works.
We have an Australian Transportation Safety board modeled on the US NTSB. Ours however has only the resources to investigate 100 aviation accidents and incidents a year. They start with International airlines and work down from there. Private aviation accidents are rarely more than summarily investigated.
I have no faith in non interference with the auditor. A quiet word in someone’s ear who passes it on through another couple of cut outs and the auditor gets worded up over Friday night drinkies that a bunch of ratbags are trying to undermine the integrity of the BoM.
This will sink without a trace.
[snip]
They can adjust until they get the answers they want, but water still freezes at the same temperature.
Here in Merritt Island, Fl two mornings ago the official temperature just a few miles to our north (KSC) was 37F. I had ice on my cars and frost on the ground.
Leaving to one side motivation that may be the result of ideology and/or the application of the precautionary principle, it is grossly negligent of any government to sign up to this level of expenditure without at least confirming the accuracy of the temperature record.
Accordingly, one would have expected at the very minimum that each country would carry out an independent audit of their own temperature record (which is freely within their control), and as far as possible an independent audit of the global temperature record. Each and every adjustment to raw data should be noted, analysed and the reasons underpinning the adjustment fully explained. I am off the view that it is a dereliction of public office/duty if the government official in charge of environmental/climate issues does not commission such independent audit.
Suit ought to lie against any government that does not exhibit at least that minimum duty of care towards its citizens. Perhaps if enough citizens write to their respective MPs/Senators/Congressmen (what have you) expressing the view that it would be a dereliction of public office/duty to fail to carry out an independent audit and reserving ones rights to proceed against the MP/Senators/Congressmen and/or the government in the situation where no such independent audit is carried out, just may be (I would not put it any higher than that) the ‘politicians’ may come to their senses and look into this issue.
Good luck to all those willing to write an appropriate letter.
pay money for Kyoto “obligations”?
ya right, like that is going to happen.
This is good to see. At least we will see either of 2 things:
1) The audit office support the process and we are able to find out exactly what has been going on in BOM and determine whether it has been ideologically infected
2) Various forces try and bury it and we can understand how deeply the system has been corrupted and to what extent cauterization is required.
A squeaky wheel will get greased. Good job Climate Audit and Jo Nova.
Australian Govt: “We have bought a pig.”
Concerned Australian Taxpayer: “That is a poke. How do you know there is a pig in it?”
Australian Govt: “We have bought a pig. The pig is within the poke. We have a consensus about the pig, so there is no need to check inside.”
Concerned Australian Taxpayer: “Fifty BILLION dollars of taxpayer monies will be paid for this particular pig – wouldn’t it be fiscally prudent to verify the quality of the pig that is, supposedly, in the poke?
Australian Govt: “We have bought a pig. The pig is within the poke. Your questions are very troubling – are you questioning the Australian Govt.? You should take our word for it – we are very smart and talented and we have in mind the best interests of the planet and all the creatures on it. And we have a consensus about the pig, so we shall not waste any time checking inside the poke.”
Concerned Australian Taxpayer: Of course, if the poke is opened and there isn’t a pig there or if the pig is of poor quality or undersized, I can understand that would be embarrassing to the Australian Govt. and many wonderful people would then lose their very important Govt. jobs and that would certainly be a sad turn of events, however, I am willing to risk it to save fifty billion dollars of taxpayer’s monies. Open the poke and let us all see that there is a pig in it, please.”
Australian Govt: “We have bought a pig. The pig controls the weather. We shall control the pig and therefore we shall control the weather by default.”
Concerned Australian Taxpayer: “Would you like to buy a bridge?”
Love to hear what some old Aboriginal fellas’ records would be
Mike Borgelt says:
February 15, 2011 at 5:05 pm
“We have an Australian Transportation Safety board modeled on the US NTSB. Ours however has only the resources to investigate 100 aviation accidents and incidents a year. They start with International airlines and work down from there. Private aviation accidents are rarely more than summarily investigated.”
Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. They probably have the NTSB manual that states:
“When in Doubt-Pilot Error.” and let it go….
Personal Experience here…
Meanwhile Australia’s Gillard Labor Government continues trying to sell the carbon tax that it promised at election time it would not introduce. Climate change extremist Tim Flannery has been appointed Climate Commissioner to “better inform” the Australian public about climate change.
Courtesy of Australian Climate Madness Prof. Bob Carter injects some sanity into the debate.
ATTN: ALL
For quick and easy access for weather data from anywhere go to:
http://www.wolframalpha.com
On the hompage, enter info request in the input box . For example, “weather alice springs”. Click on red box with equal sign. The computer them retrieves and displays weather data for the present date from about 1940 if it can find it.
In the section “Weather History” click on drop down menu for addditional selections for display of weather info. Plots of various weather metrics are displayed and other info such as record highs and lows. There is also a short term weather forecast available.
If you select “All”, a plot of the annual mean temperature is diplayed with the OLS trend. For Alice Springs this is really low like almost zero. Note data is from airport.
If no info can be found, a definition about weather and climate is displayed.
The foolish, needless waste of money is mind boggling. We have a whole lot of stupid, ignorant people in the world. This is just so sickening I can hardly take it anymore.
With luck the Gillard Lefty government will shoot itself in the foot, loose the support of the three independent M.P.’s keeping them in government and find itself requiring a new electoral mandate before the end of this year.
Take note that the Australian upper house (Senate) will be effectively under control by the Greens from June this year – Australians can shake and shudder at this eventuality.
Australia requires a double dissolution of federal parliament to clear out the rot.
Kyoto was only signed by that deposed idiot Kevin KRudd so that he could big note himself. The general populace never realized that KRudd making this futile gesture would hit them mightily in the hip pocket
Someone set us up the BOM!