This is from MTR 1377 radio today. Our regular feature, “Quote of the Week” just doesn’t work here. Neither does decade or century. No, a whole new category all by itself is reserved for this quote from the newly appointed Climate Commissioner of Australia, Tim Flannery, noted zoologist and author of the book The Weather Makers.
Here it is, brace yourself:
If we cut emissions today, global temperatures are not likely to drop for about a thousand years.
Lest you think that is an errant remark out of context, here’s the follow up from Flannery:
Just let me finish and say this. If the world as a whole cut all emissions tomorrow the average temperature of the planet is not going to drop in several hundred years, perhaps as much as a thousand years because the system is overburdened with CO2 that has to be absorbed and that only happens slowly.
Crikey! So much for the “think of the grandchildren” argument used by Dr. James Hansen.
Read the entire transcript and listen to the audio here
h/t to Lawrie Ayres and Scarlet Pumpernickel
Richard Allcock says:
March 24, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Richard,
I believe the point Andrew Bolt was trying to make was, why tax Australians to hell, $300Billion, to get a result we may (never) see in a Thousand years time. That would be about 48 generations down the track. I’m sure my great, great grand children will ever see the result of today’s pain because of a tax, further, I doubt any decedents of mine will exist in a Thousand years time.
@Lady Life Grows – March 24, 2011 at 9:33 pm
“Who/what funds European and Aussie science?”
We – the people!
Tim should know. He is a mammalogist and an expert if dinosaur fossils.
But he probably is much more talented in these fields rather than a prophet.
Some of Tim’s Predictions
“The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009.”
Current Adelaide dam levels – 84%
In June 2007, Flannery prophesied “Brisbane’s water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months”.
Current Brisbane dam levels – 87%.
(The $1.3 billion desalination plant at Tugun Queensland advocated by Flannery is now in mothballs):
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/tugun-desalination-plant-to-be-mothballed-20101205-18l30.html
In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in just two years.
Current Sydney dam levels – 72%
In 2004, Flannery said global warming would cause such droughts that “there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis”.
Perth to-day:
http://www.escapelocally.com.au/images/stories/perth-wa.jpg
(Although Perth dam levels are presently definitely low. Getting warm Tim.)
In 2008 he stated “This may be the Arctic’s first ice-free year”.
Sorry, Tim missed again. Even the Catlin Arctic Survey and the international conservation group WWF, believe that the Arctic will be ice free in the summer in about 20 years. I suspect even that may be wishful thinking. But the main question is why and what about the Southern Hemisphere?
What is Tim doing right now?
Tim is right at this moment in Adelaide as the Government’s Climate’s Commissioner preaching to the masses why a carbon tax is going to be good for us. I guess that this year we are stopping floods rather than droughts.
For the UK and OZ it’s a race to the bottom.
Trouble for the Ozzies is they don’t have help like us in the EU.
Ignoring all the failed predictions of a paleontologist, which are serial and serious (ht, KoCool above), not to mention his massively failed government funded geothermal project, why isn’t the government using a climate physicist, or one of climate related disciplines.
Its a bit like getting a proctologist to speak on heart conditions.
But I honestly can’t believe he got up on radio on day one and talked such rubbish.
As soon as they get pinged on numbers and results they start drowning.
Mike said:
“The modern AGW movement is thus inherently influenced by these puritanical christian archetypes…”
Max Hugoson says:
March 24, 2011 at 10:24 pm
“I would hasten to point out, the writer of this claim probably knows LITTLE about Christianity, and even LESS about the Puritains. The term “Puritain” comes from the desire to “purify” the Anglican Church of it’s Roman Catholic influences.”
Actually I was raised catholic, church and sunday school every weekend, altar boy for many years, and grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where puritans settled and their influence remains to this day in various places. That plus a good education in english and american literature, a lot of which was religious… yeah I know plenty, thanks.
To King of Cool..
Just a note of correction.
After the floods, the Brisbane Desal plant was going flat chat, because it was the easiest way to provide adequate clean drinking water (Iirc, a couple of the other water treatment plants were flooded). Not sure of the current status.
Just think its funny that the desal had to be used because of TOO much water. :-))
What Flannery should have added is that if we don’t cut emissions, we are going to get a lot of more warming than what is already in the pipeline due to the emissions so far. But maybe he thought that would be obvious.
Though the very silly Tim Flannery is not a corpse animated by ants, he does want to resurrect mammoths and modify human babies.
Further.. statistically speaking, with population growth and totally ignoring any mythical AGW, (ie based purely on past real climate records) the Qld desal plant should probably be kept in an operational condition. There have been long severe droughts even in the short history we have, so there will almost certainly be long severe droughts in the future. That’s part of the defined Australian climate.
GregO says:
March 24, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Somebody answer this humble question
While the comments above that talk about ‘western guilt’ and ‘other motives’ hold truth, beneath that the phenomena is explainable, I believe, in terms of a social evolutionary entity. Ultimately, it is the high uncertainty in the science that allows this to happen.
See http://judithcurry.com/2011/03/11/talking-past-each-other/#comment-55915
and the more substantial
http://judithcurry.com/2011/03/06/climate-story-telling-angst/#comment-53804
plus the paper posted by dixie pooh in reply
We used to have a name for people like Flannery – insane. These days we call them politicians.
Al Gored says: (March 25, 2011 at 12:42 am)
“Hmmm. Let me think. Who was the last guy with a thousand year plan? I believe there was a firm consensus in Germany at that time.”
So true, and the 10:10 video has shown what they are up to.
Green is the new BROWN.
And another point that has just come to mind..
Anyone who has been near Warragamba Dam recently will notice that there is a massive new spillway.. obviously to cope with the empty dam overflows.
(The Dapto floods scared the —- out of the real scientists/engineers wrt the dam.)
Unmanipulated (by AGW hysteria) calculations of the PMP (probably maximum precipitation) showed an awkward situation.
hmmm…. I wonder how much water was dumped in that storm in the Illawarra the other day… might make an interesting study to see what would have happened if it had hit the Warragamba catchment near the dam.
Oh, good no Ice-Age in the next 1000 years. Thankyou CO2!
Won´t someone think of our children?
Err, I mean great,great,great,great, great, etc,
grandchildren.
I’ve read one of Flannery’s books.
Rather intemperate throughout – eg “the medieval warm period is bunk”.
brc says:
March 25, 2011 at 12:00 am
“I’ve not seen anyone with carbon dioxide phobia dispute those calculations.”
*Now * we have the label for these folks : “carbophobes”
Mike Lorrey says:
March 24, 2011 at 9:46 pm:
” It was the fault of man that Earth was not a Paradise, but instead was a barren wilderness that required man to labor to tame it in order to eke a living from the earth.”
“The modern AGW movement is thus inherently influenced by these puritanical christian archetypes.”
!!!!! The ideas you quoted above were in existence LONG before Christianity! Don’t blame us for the fact that Man is inherently superstitious. The AGW cult is just the latest in a long line of guilt-inducing nonsense. Real Christianity should not be tainted by superstition.
@Mike Lorrey (0946): You have made the best and most succinct argument regarding the insanity that is the environmental/(alleged) AGW movement I have ever seen. It is exactly right that they see no one being able to “have” unless someone (or in this case something) else is hurt. Except for them, of course.
I promise to credit you when I use this argument.
God please save us from nut cases like Flannery. His “solution” is to pump sulphur into the stratosphere … easily done by adding it to jet fuel :
http://www.news.com.au/climate-plan-could-change-sky-colour/story-e6frfkp9-1111116384553
Chris Cox says:
March 24, 2011 at 9:22 pm
What Flannery didn’t say was that not only would it take up to 1000 years for temperatures to start dropping, but that temperatures will continue to rise for up to 50 years even if we were to stop emitting CO2 tomorrow.
And your scientific evidence for this is………………………….? Purrrleeeeze, not a puter model!
AND, nobody has mentioned the fact that interglacials last around 10-15,000 years, the Holocene started around 12,000 years ago, (& we’re still in ice-house conditions geologically speaking) why are we worrying, from what I can see we’re at the wrong end of the squiggly bit on the ice-core graphs?
and what proof is he using to say ALL forms of presently emitted carbon floating around now, all have exactly a 1,000yr lifespan.?
and then, as others have asked…so what or who emitted the previous carbon that made us this presently Unwarming?
the last 220 years
and really only since the 20’s? have we been emitting much carbon as power and car use grew, and populations increased fast, doesn;t gell with that statement either.
FlimFlannery ,Brown,JuLiar and penny Wrong and Guano, what a collection!
Makes me embarrassed to be an Aussie.
“Man-made CO2 seems to be accounting for just about nothing. No sea level rise. No increased storm activity. No unprecedented warming. No crises. No crises at all. All crises in fact, being as a result of poor political leadership.
Are we collectively mad?”
In Great Britain (and I use the term “Great” loosely) the greenies have taken over, the BBC is in cahoots with them, the latest is UNICEF preeching in the schools, under the guise of helping the starving by combating climate change; our children are being indoctrinated, heaven knows how you stop this?
What model did he use?
If we cut our CO2 output now(!) climate will continue its cyclic changes regardless.
Keep producing electricity with coal! It is cheap and plentiful.