Gosh, I’m zorched, living a life out of a suitcase on the yellow brick road in Oz. Two presentations today, flying, driving, walking, running. It’s a whirlwind tour. All my travel photos are taken from car windows, airline windows, airports, or at weather stations.
Coming to WA soon. Check the schedule here.
I want to take a moment to thank many people. I’m sure already I’ve forgotten some. Apologies in advance for such oversights. First, the people of Emerald, Queensland.
Your town gave David Archibald and myself a very warm welcome. I felt right at home. As I said in the landowners meeting that afternoon, your predicament with land use and the government cries out for some measured, reasoned, and effective protests.
Thanks to Mr. David Stockwell not only for his talks, but also for his hospitality.
Also, thanks to the people of Noosa, Case and Peter, and the organizers of the Gold Coast (especially to farmer John and his son in law) for the exposure to footy and hospitality.
Hobart, despite my luggage loss was interesting and entertaining. Some greens laid out the welcome wagon via press release for us to local media, who ran it up unquestioningly. I guess the local greens must have really seen a threat if they had to go to all that trouble:
Community members speak out in response to the news that “Watts Up with the Climate? Australian Tour” speakers Anthony Watts and David Archibald are coming to Hobart to spread misinformation about the climate at the Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Hobart, 6.30 pm on Wednesday 23rd June.
Of course, they wrote this PR not even knowing what we were presenting, and of course, they didn’t attend. Heh, such closed minds.
Even so, we had a great turnout in Hobart. Note: negative publicity helps too.
I found this banner in downtown Hobart quite interesting:
Some 47% of Tasmania is protected preserves forests, and they want more. Seems excessive to me. Kids, if you want to save the Tasmanian Devil, I suggest you worry about the real immediate and present danger: The Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease. Banning furnaces and fireplaces won’t matter if there are no Devils left to habitate the forests. IMHO, all your campaign will do is piss people off enough to wish the Devil is gone. But that’s just an opinion of a visitor who you hate in advance.
In Adelaide, special thanks to Ian for the fine gift of the fruits of the land. Also to the two ladies that drove 11 hours just to hear our presentation that night – David and I have never been more honored.
Today David Archibald and I flew via REX Airlines to Mt. Gambier for a noon presentation. I hoped the airline didn’t perform like it sounded. After landing and renting a red micromobile (no Gore-esque stretch limos for us), we drove to south Mt. Gambier. I gazed at the extinct volcano known as Blue Lake, much like Crater Lake in Oregon:
…and of the lush greenery in South Australia. It is quite a marvel when my distorted USA view sees it all as brown. Special thanks to our earthmoving friend from Mt. Gambier who came up to us afterwards with his kind help.
We drove from Mt. Gambier across the lush farmlands of SA to the state of Victoria, gaining back the confounding 30 minute time zone difference in the process when we crossed the border:
Tonight, 25 June, I David and I made presentations in Hamilton City VIC at their new hospital conference center. We had excellent newspaper coverage and attendance, and the facility was superb for making our computer presentation easy.
I’d also like to thank Paul Collits for his introductions, plus Pat Healy for his organizational help (hope you feel better soon). Kudos to Pam and Peter Small for their fine hospitality.
Per our dinner conversations tonight, I leave you with this image from the USA:
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Anthony love your site and the fact that you have taken the time to visit Western Australia.
If you have 3 or 4 hours available on Tuesday let me know and I will take you on a boat ride (weather will be clear and sunny and cool with almost no wind) I will take you out to Rottnest (15-20 km offshore from Perth) where the aboriginals managed to walk to about 10,000 years ago long bafore the lunatic fringe thought of AGW. I would love to take you and David Archibald across to Rotto with a good friend of mine (and hard core sceptic) Stefan Frodsham and we can have a beer at the Quokka arms and wonder what Rottnest and Perth will look like with a 20 foot sea level rise.
Let me know by return email
Regards
Noel Davies
Yes, the Australian tourism board spreads so many images of the red centre around it’s a surprise to many to find just how green and lush much of the country where people live is. The USA would have the same problem if they only used images of Arizona to promote the country.
Hope you got to see some wild ‘roos – too many visitors don’t get the chance, but with that much country driving it’s a dead cert that you saw at least a mob or two.
I heard that Kevin Rudd was so dismayed by your presentations that he immediately resigned his office in response.
Thanks for the updates, Anthony! I’ve always enjoyed my dealings with the Aussies, some of the nicest people anywhere! Your stories confirm what I’ve felt for many years.
Travel safely, and we’ll look forward to having you back safe & sound Stateside.
I love Australians! Always have. We have so much in common, being the descendants of unwanted cast-offs from mother England. And look at what we’ve both accomplished in only a couple of short centuries.
Kudos to Anthony, David and the rest for accepting this grueling assignment in the interest of spreading the truth. If not for people like them, most folks would still believe that down is up, white is black, evil is good — and CO2 is a terrifying demon, instead of being the harmless and beneficial trace component of the atmosphere that it really is.
Thanks for being a beacon of light in a sea of MSM darkness.
Tasmania is infested with greenies. The state is doomed. They never work, just organise protests and spread lies about the forestry industry. Mainlanders call us two-headed, but it is their vermin that has infected the state.
Our government did a deal with the greens to form a government, they quickly stuck their noses into the trough.Hypocrites of the worst kind.
http://www.blogotariat.com/node/192832
Yes, yes, I know correlation is not causation, but, as wws mentioned – Anthony goes to Oz, Rudd loses job.
May we book you for a flight to Washington DC, please? I think it’s a theory worth testing.
I felt right at home.
I’m glad. After losing your luggage must be good to have that.
Congratulations to all of you! WELL DONE!!! You’re reaching the world the hard way; and many would say the best way. Hope the local media have been taking a friendly note at each stop and are also having a good (if only minor) impact spreading your message.
Is it just a “correlation” the change of government during that tour? ☺
I was on the USS Kennedy during a port call to Freemantle, Western Australia circa 1983. (Best place on Earth 10,000,000 flies can’t be wrong.) I took a bus tour of the area an visited an old olympic swimming training area, some caves and a bluff overlooking the city. While on the bluff an elderly gentleman came up to me and asked if I was a “Yank” off the ship. I said yes and he proceeded to thank me a number of times for saving Australia from the Japanese in WWII. I said he was welcome several times. It brought a small tear to my eye, a lump to my throat and large fondness for the Australian people in my heart.
If you get a chance take the tour up the Swan River to visit the wineries. Lots to taste.
Well done! I have dual UK (Welsh) / Australian citizenship and I hope your tour has enough of an impact to influence a little the coming Aus. election. The new prime minister, Julia Gillard was born in Wales (Barry – made famous by a recent sit-com “Gavin and Stacy”) which has a strong history of militant socialism. Ms. Gillard seems to come directly from that political legacy of economic illiteracy. Her re-election would seriously threaten the economic well-being of a resource rich country, not least by the introduction of a ‘cap and trade’ bill to which she is committed.
With luck, the good sense of Australians will prevent this disastrous scenario.
Red micro-mobile? You’re saving all that “oil money” to buy beach property next to Al Gore? 🙂
Sounds like you got your luggage back. That at least is a blessing. I hope Barrie Harrop didn’t show up in Adelaide. He is one of the true horse’s butts of all time. [Consult the urban dictionary for Barrie Harrop or harrop].
The highway shot looks like you’re driving on the wrong side of the road. I hear they do that on islands like Britain, Japan, and the Bahamas.
Great shot of an old Allis.
I do wonder if it has right-hand drive?
Yes Mike, Right hand drive, and we drive on the left. Why? I don’t know…
Anthony, 11 hour drives aren’t that big a deal here – I giggle when “Foreigners” come in and are aghast at the distances we routinely travel! I’ve done Brisbane to Adelaide by car for a day and a half stay. That’s well over 2,000 km each way. 1,000 a day, it’s less than a week away!
What have McDonalds and Australia in common?
They’re both run by a red headed clown…
Cheers, thanks, and keep up the good work.
Tim
I’d submit (I think I read this on the internet, so it MUST be true) that the penchant for driving on the left has it’s roots in medieval times, specifically from things like jousting. If you pass on the left, then the right side (the weapons bearing arm) is free to flail at your opponent. Of course, Dr. Mann would likely dispute this, considering his contention that nothing at all happened in medieval times. . . .
Re Tasmanian forests preserves — the funny thing is they are not wilderness at all but have been homelands to humanity for millennia:
http://westinstenv.org/histwl/2010/06/25/plain-facts-tasmania-under-aboriginal-management/
And locking them up does not “protect” the a-historically fuel-laden Tasmanian forests from catastrophic holocausts, such as the 1967 Tasmanian fires which burned 652,360 acres and left 62 people dead, 900 injured, and over seven thousand homeless.
Too much Kool Aid, not enough coffee. It’s a worldwide problem.
Timiboy and Windrider.
Everyone rode horses on the left to leave the sword arm free (90% right handed).
The French revolutionaries (1789 and onward) decreed a new beginning for the calendar, weights and measures i.e.metric ( lol Mars mission) and the side of the road to ride on. Left sided driving persists in UK and many Commonwealth countries and in much of Scandinavia into the 60s.
USA is one of the few countries to persist with Imperial measures, lbs, gallons, miles.
The UK is hopelessly confused ; officially metric (E.U.) but colloquially imperial.
Our kids are functionally innumerate as a result.
Anthony, the Greens have been a force in Tasmania for a while. This is partly because it had a major controversy over dams and hydroelectric power in the 1980s. But also Tasmania has an unusual (Hare-Clark) voting system which I a former university lecturer struggle to understand; but it makes it easier for minor parties like the Greens to gain seats and form coalitions.
You noted the media’s compliant treatment of your Green critics. This is endemic to the Australian media and is probably a worldwide phenomenon, and a very frustrating one. If they can be so critical of any harm real or supposed to the environment, how about some reasonable questioning of the Greens too.
All the best with your tour, Anthony.
When might we see you in NZ?
We drive on the left because we have a long history of ignoring the French, and if oil is banned, we may still need swords given our chainsaws will stop working. At least in Oz, they still drive on the ‘right’ side of the road, although I’m not entirely convinced about right turns at lights in Melbourne.
But I love Oz, and also want to go back and see more of it. It’s just.. huge. Flew to Melbourne via Singapore, and remember Captain announcing we were crossing the coastm, many ours later, we’d flown over the narrow bit.
RE: “Coming to WA soon. Check the schedule”
Of course, that means Western Australia not Washington State as it would imply if used in the USA.
The greens who laid out the welcome wagon need to get their facts straight,
“Real science is conducted through peer-reviewed publications in respected journals”, said Phil Harrington from Climate Action Hobart. “If these people had any credible science to present, they would be presenting it through such a journal as well as going on a national speaking tour.””
I take it they have not been informed that skeptics have extensively published,
750 Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of “Man-Made” Global Warming Alarm
the only reason that it is green is because of global warming.” bring it on. “