Letter to the Editor
Watts Up With That?
11th March 2012
The Australian government’s plan to sell their un-saleable carbon tax has hit a snag – their pollsters have discovered that the word ”carbon” provokes anger in the electorate.
This is no surprise. Most decent people hate liars and the carbon tax campaign has been mired in lies from the start.
The first big lie was from Penny Wong who described carbon dioxide as a “pollutant”. But people soon learned that this colourless, non-toxic, natural atmospheric gas is the essential source of food for all life on earth.
The second big lie was graphic – government propaganda pictured a “dirty” coal power station belching black pollution. Three lies in one here – the power station pictured is closed, it is in England, and all carbon dioxide it ever released was invisible.
Their next mistake was to use paid academics to spread scare forecasts of searing heat and never ending drought, all caused by the demon carbon dioxide. The reality has been no global warming for twelve years, heavy snows in the Northern Hemisphere and heavy rains in Australia.
The fourth big lie was from the leader of the government, Julia Gillard: “There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead”.
No amount of weasel words from government propagandists and apologists will erase our memory of these four big lies about carbon.
Their negative image problem is profound: Whenever the Australian people hear “Carbon” they think “Lies.”
Viv Forbes,
forbes@carbon-sense.com
I am happy for my email address to be published.
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it’s worse than you think….. “greenery” pervades every level of Australian government infrastructure and propaganda. The locals seem to have swallowed the Kool-Aid….
Oh I really really really hope the up coming election will be the circuit breaker for this whole political circus that plunges the politicians behind the tax into the political oblivion that they deserve.
The tax is pointless, ineffective, expensive and utterly destructive. For people who claim they are acting to protect the environment – I find it hard to think of anything so harmful in unforeseen effects – apart from wind turbines… and don’t start me on those…
you get what you settle for.
and pay for.
good luck with that power dive.
what upsets Australians most is we have so much coal, and we are the largest exporter of coal in the world, most of it going to Asia, including Japan and China.
yet while China builds new coal-fired power stations by the week, we are NOT ALLOWED to build a single one!!!
Wikipedia: Coal in Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia
China benefits on the CDM/CER front as well, while Aussies are supposed to cop a carbon tax and an emissions trading scheme (the latter still with bipartisan support) to satisfy the banksters. go figure:
5 March: RTCC (Responding to Climate Change): Press Release: CDM applications soar in February
Over 872 million CERs have been issued since the CDM’s birth with projects in China accounting for nearly 60% of the total number of credits handed out to date…
http://www.rtcc.org/business/cdm-applications-soar-in-february/
DD More says:
March 10, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Anthony Watts says – Article
The second big lie was graphic – government propaganda pictured a “dirty” coal power station belching black pollution. Three lies in one here – the power station pictured is closed, it is in England, and all carbon dioxide it ever released was invisible.
Make that Four – at least 3 and probably 4 of those supposed belchers are Natural Draft cooling towers. Yes they are emitting GHG’s, but it is condensed water vapor, you know the most dominant one. See –
http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com/the-nuclear-cooling-tower.html for a very good description.
———————————————————————————————————————————
The quote is from the letter by Viv Forbes not Anthony Watts DD More.
Actually the ad shown on Oz TV as part of the Carbon Tax Sell (propaganda) was the Battersea Power Station in the UK belching black soot smoke using probably paintshop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battersea_Power_Station
The station was closed in 1983 and is the one referred to by Viv Forbes.
The stacks shown in the graphic above are not the ones in the UK but probably in the Hunter Valley of NSW in Oz also enhanced probably with paintshop
Goldie says
to get off their rear end and travel a bit can get a well paid job so long as they are fit and healthy. But still the marxists insist on compensating those who can’t be bothered.
————-
The rest of Australia is on something like 6.5% unemployment. But thanks to the mining industry the rest of the economy is heading towards recession so its going to go higher.
Because the mining industry pays half the tax rate of most industries it’s distorting the tax take, so government expenditure will have to be reduced to keep budgets in surplus.
At the same time the exchange rate inflated by mining exports is making a mess on other export industries.
So the place to be is western Australia. But don’t count on getting $120000 or $150000 jobs if you go there. They are few, specialized and closed to outsiders and limited to mining industries or to industries which compete with the mining industry.
Steve from Rockwood says:
March 10, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I suppose pointing out the fact that she was voted into power doesn’t help.
=========================
SHE WAS NOT!!!!!! Voted into power at all
there was a even number split with the greens and labour/Lib Nat coalition.
the ONLY way this *^^%$## piece of lying crap got in was sweetheart deals with the three Independents who held the deciding votes.
and their assent was due to self interest ie pensions and deals etc more than what their OWN electorates wanted.
all 3 will probaly never get their bums into a canberra seat again OR their own electorates. BTW nor should they.
andrew wilkie went with them after juLIAR agreed to the restricted pokie scenario.
she just completely backed out of that and hes now left looking a fool like everyone else who trusted this…**&^%^$# excuse for human.
AND WE HAVE SOME SAYING SHES HASSLED COS ITS A FEMALE PM?
no, actually i do NOT know a single woman who would put her out if she was on fire! we are disgusted with her. a more inept lying two faced useless piece of shite has yet to be elected. male or female!
and weve had some pretty bad one prior. she takes first prize!
The chickens are coming home to roost.
Hospitals and schools are already looking down the barrel of substantial increases in electricity costs. Of course, those costs are to be borne by the State governments because the federal government has no legislative power in those areas of service provision. State governments will have to find the money elsewhere to pay the bills imposed via the federal government’s tax.
Western Australia, which produces a large proportion of actual wealth by primary industry is already slugged by unequal distribution of the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST), getting back only about 66% of the GST revenue paid in the State. That is set to reduce to 44% after July 1st; when the world’s biggest carbon tax is to commence.
July 2nd could be when Western Australians start cutting the trench at 129° East.
The ALP has pretended that only the “big polluders” will be paying the tax. A massive lie by diversion and omission. The “big polluders” are producers of energy (and therefore large consumers of coal, etc) but they produce that energy to sell to other companies and to ordinary people. They can pass on the costs of tax compliance by increasing the rates that they charge.
Energy users are already paying dearly for the energy providers having to accommodate the idiotic policies of the federal and state governments. They have to upgrade substations and electricity distribution networks to cope with substantial cogeneration; which can exceed the power consumed within a subdistributiion area. That makes e.g. the secondary side of transformers the primary; whereas transformers have been optimised to operate the other way. The control of power at substations also needs upgrading. Control devices have been designed on the basis of current flowing in one direction; now there is the potential for power to have to flow (intermittently) from in the other.
Richard Hill says:
March 10, 2012 at 7:19 pm
“Commenters on WUWT consistently miss the point. WUWT commenters seem to think that politicians should ignore the advice of the peak scientific bodies and drop action against CO2. It is a brave politician who goes against the AGU, the AMS, the APS, the NAS , the Royal Society,,,, and, in Australia, the CSIRO. Instead of talking to each other, the commenters on WUWT should be trying to get at least one world recognised peak scientific body to go on record as saying that action against CO2 is a mistake. AFAIK, there is not one, repeat, not one, recognised scientific body that has. Our politicians rely on advice from these trusted senior scientific groups. Most people would agree that politicians should rely on this source of advice. If the advice from the trusted sources provides a platform on which the government can launch a nice new tax, who can blame the politicians.”
Senator Fields is a smart cookie – maybe he even reads WUWT. He has mades speeches in parliment railing against global warming and the carbon tax but unfortunately is not listened to.
ianl8888 says:
March 10, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Come on Australians, take your medicine and acknowledge you voted her in. First you gave her party half the popular vote and enough votes to get exactly the same number of seats as the Opposition. Second you voted heavily enough for the green party that they had a say in the forming of a new government (that is your voting problem right there). Finally you voted for enough double-crossers so that when Gillard tried to form a government she had the support. Voted, voted, voted.
This is your electoral system in progress. If instead of giving 10% of the vote to the green party you instead gave it to the “rational” party you would be happily exporting your coal to China and building clean coal fired energy plants and laughing at all the solar and wind power companies now going bankrupt. But instead you are preparing to eat a carbon tax.
I’m not here to make Australians feel bad, but come on. You voted her in. Now vote her out.
I cannot recall a past situation in Australian politics as has been experienced in the last four years. First the government panicked over the 2008 GFC and gave away Treasury savings. Then there was a ‘coup’ against Prime Minister Rudd by his own inner circle. The new Prime Minister Gillard then proves herself to be the most deceitful Prime MInister ever. Her senior ministers publicly savaged Rudd in contradiction to what they used to say about him 18 months ago. Strange… you see, the recently appointed Foreign Secretary praised Rudd saying he would seek Rudd’s advice. Then there is the Defence MInister who wrongly trashed the Commodore in charge of Defence officer training, and the Minister now refuses to apologise to the Commodore, thus undermining the officer’s ability to function. The lies over climate change is all too sickening… appointing a biased climate change commissioner notorious for getting his climate predictions totally wrong… relying on an economist’s report as the basis for the carbon tax, even though the economist has relied on wrong science and wrong assumptions. In four years, the Australian Labor Party has produced policy debacle after policy debacle, causing a loss of many lives as a consequence. It’s a government that is going ruin the Australian economy with its global warming policies. It’s Treasurer publicly now sees fit to attack certain wealthy business people largely in the mining industry. It is a government gone mad!
Murray Grainger says:
March 10, 2012 at 5:18 pm
“You have to listen to what Juliar actually says: “There will be no carbon tax under the government that I lead”.Since there is now a carbon tax voted through in Australia by the government it is clear that what Juliar is actually saying is that she does NOT lead that government. It is actually lead and run by the UN, Club of Rome, Sierra Club etc. Juliar is just the poor fall-gal they put in front of the TV cameras. Any other possible interpretation of Juliar’s statement would mean that a politician was a bare-faced liar, and that cannot possibly be right, surely.”
We had one of those in the UK.
His name was A. (call me Tony) B liar.
Edi Tior?
I know her brother – Goodyear.
I think the Australian people should help their PM keep her promise – by NOT paying any carbon tax.
The cards are very heavily stacked against the moderate conservatives in Australia. For years the educational institutions have been the target of green environmentalists, to infiltrate the universities, to set up the structure of social engineering, within those sanctuaries of learning and promoting a form of intellectual elitism and snobbery, all under the guise of saving the world and the endangered environment.
Most Australians love their country, they love the bush (outback) and the illusion of fresh clean air, bright blue skies, and the idea of healthy sports and recreation. Most though are city based couch potatoes, pompous in their quasi intellectual status, and give at least lip service to environmental concerns and embrace the idea of saving an evil western world from its carbon addiction. A very trendy noble thing to speak about, over a glass or two of wine, while comfortable under the intellectual cloak. They don;t have to think, they know!
The labor party worked hard to cultivate this middle ground of voters and used the teaching unions and Labor lawyers who were busily working behind the scenes on the wonderful green agenda and social adjustment. Since the labor government got into power originally under Rudd who was ousted by Julia G, vast sums of money have been wasted on riding the wave of saving the world from disaster. So many academics and scientists are dependent on government employment, they won’t dare speak out and take the risk of losing their comfortable well paid jobs.
Meanwhile the Government and the unions are funding left wing lobby groups including a shadowy group that calls itself “Getup”, a well funded, very green but run a hard left agenda from within a small dedicated unit, using every deceptive trick in manipulating public opinion to serve their purposes. They are determined to undermine any newspaper, and use economic blackmail against private organisations that might potentially fund or support the opposition to the Labor governments carbon agenda, or sceptical scientists who oppose the tax.
So while the anger is there, stand by for the dirty tricks, as they have no morality and indirect but solid government backing.
[snip . . indeed but it probably crosses the line. . . kbmod]
Wayne Delbeke says: March 10, 2012 at 6:34 pm
clipe says:
March 10, 2012 at 4:29 pm
In Canada it was to be called “Green Shift”.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wayne says:
Yeah, and with that and its sister the “National Energy Policy” from the 80′s, the Liberals can’t figure out why people in Western Canada can’t vote for them – ever. The Liberals have lost our trust as they keep telling big lies that only work on the urban unknowing masses, Those of us that live in the country or work in the oil patch know that they are blowing smoke ….
____________________________________________________________________________
To understand the Chretien Liberals, you have to follow the money. Chretien’s government was a Liberal Party of Canada Kleptocracy. Any big Liberal government program, such as Chretien’s adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, was an opportunity to hand out high-paying jobs to party insiders and skim cash into Liberal pockets. Anyone who remembers the NEP, the Sponsorship Scandal, AdScam, Shawiningate, etc. etc. will start to notice a pattern. Just follow the money – Chretien cared no more for global warming than he did for the welfare of Western Canada – it was all about creating a big program as a vehicle to enable the big skim.
God, I wish I was Canada, or Japan, or USA or Russia or…..
anyone but Julia`s Country… sigh…
It is curious that Australia is initiating a “carbon tax”. The government notes the carbon tax will not adversely affect Australian mining. The government notes it is time to bury the hatchet. People are worried about climate change and it is time to do something about it. The world’s largest exporter of coal is instigating a carbon tax.
This appears to group mania. Public policy removed from logic and reason.
There is public push back as the public learns CO2 is not a poison. Plants eat CO2 and hence thrive when CO2 levels are increased. (Cereal crop yield, for example increases by 30% to 40% if atmospheric CO2 doubles.)
What has CO2 ever done for us?
It is time to take action against CO2. Business as usual (BAU) is completely unacceptable.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/10/letter-to-the-editior-carbon-lies/#comment-919022
Planetary clouds in the tropics increase which reflect more sunlight into space which resists global warming. (negative feedback). The IPCC predicted extreme warming requires amplification of the CO2 warming (positive feedback). As there is negative feedback the warming due to a doubling of CO2 will be less than 1C with most of the warming occurring at high latitudes where the growing season is restricted due number of frost free days and night time temperature, such as the Canadian prairies or Russia wheat growing region. The biosphere is and will expand due to atmospheric CO2 increases.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/only-tiny-carbon-tax-effect-on-mining-jobs-20110605-1fnj5.html
‘Only tiny’ carbon tax effect on mining jobs
THE impact of the carbon tax on the mining industry will be “trivial” – so small that for practical purposes it will be “invisible,” according to one of Australia’s leading labour market economists.
Professor Bruce Chapman is president of the Economics Society of Australia and director of policy at the Australian National University’s Crawford school of government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia
Coal in Australia
Production and Reserves
Australia is the largest exporter of coal in the world, with most of that going to Japan. Total production of raw black coal in Australia in financial year 2010-11 was 405 million tonnes (Mt.), down from 471 Mt. in 2009-10. This drop was largely as a result of the Queensland floods of January 2011 where production in that State fell by some 30% [16]
Coal in Australia is mined primarily in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It is used to generate electricity and 54% of the coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2000/01, 258.5 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 193.6 million tonnes exported. Coal also provides about 85% of Australia’s electricity production.[1] In fiscal year 2008/09, 487 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 261 million tonnes exported.[2] Australia is the world’s leading coal exporter.[3]
Coal mining in Australia has been the subject of criticism from members of the environmental movement,[4][5] because burning coal releases carbon dioxide, which is generally understood to contribute to climate change, global warming, sea level rise and the effects of global warming on Australia.[6] [7] The burning of coal produces 42.1% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, not counting export coal, based on 2004 GHG inventory. [8]
Both Greenpeace Australia Pacific (Energy [R]evolution [9] and Beyond Zero Emissions (Zero Carbon Australia 2020 [10] have produced reports claiming a transition can be made to renewable energy and Greenpeace has called for a just transition for coal based communities, [11] but others argue at present there is no strong evidence of a viable alternative for the vast majority of Australia’s electricity generation, or for the significant economic and social benefits coal mining delivers to regional communities.[1][12] Coal Seam Gas, methane-based gas associated with deposits of coal has historically been flared, however over the past 10 years has been recovered and used to generate further electricity.[13][14][15]
The proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which followed the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review would put a price on carbon through a reducing cap and trade emissions trading scheme and this would be likely to impact most heavily on brown coal usage within Australia (particularly in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria) for power generation.
http://economics.com.au/?p=7780
I set readers of this blog a challenge – tell me the objective of the Gillard government’s carbon tax. From the many responses I think that there are seven broadly claimed objectives:
1. The carbon tax is driven by the politics of minority government (the objective is political);
2. We need to carbon tax because it is morally the right thing to do (the objective is moral);
3. We need the carbon tax to reduce domestic carbon emissions (the objective is domestic emissions reduction);
4. We need the carbon tax to prepare us for when the rest of the world acts on carbon emissions (the objective is to ease transition in the future);
5. The carbon tax is a solution (or part of a solution) to global climate change and its terrible consequences (the objective is reducing global emissions);
6. We need the carbon tax to be an example to other developed nations or to avoid claims of hypocrisy by developing countries when global solutions to carbon pollution are being mooted (the objective is reducing global emissions by setting a global example); and
7. We need a carbon tax to help maintain a (Pareto superior) solution to the repeated n-player international prisoners’ dilemma of carbon pollution (the objective is reducing global emissions through strategic behaviour).
clipe says:
March 10, 2012 at 4:29 pm
In Canada it was to be called “Green Shift”.
_____________________________________________
Is this a typo? Is “shift” misspelt?
The solution is easy for Australian companies: Just emigrate to South America and forget troubles. Let them enjoy their carbon free paradise!. As time passes they will learn how to survive taught by the australian aborigines.
Evan Thomas says:
March 10, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Camburn must be under the impression that we have government censors in Australia. Government censorship ended circa 1946.
There is absolutely no need to do it in the old fashioned, fairly transparent way any more. All gov’t officials have to do is to let CEOs of large corporations know (conceivably on the golf course, where chance of being bugged is low), if they happen to place too many ads in non-compliant media outlets, they may experience inexplicable difficulties gaining government contracts and/or bank guarantees. From that point on it is the job of marketing dept’s to inform editors in no uncertain terms about political preferences of their customer base, that’s all.
But even that may be unnecessary, as business leaders (and editors) already know that much.
Luckily there are countries like Poland that know that carbon-intensive coal is life and wealth.
http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/
Poland blocks EU’s climate policy nightmare
Out of 27 countries, only Poland has the common sense and foresight to oppose the EU’s suicidal, and ultimately utterly pointless, emissions reduction policy, guaranteed to send the bloc back to the Dark Ages.
Poland rightly considers that allowing its population access to cheap and affordable energy is more important than politically-correct environmental posturing which will achieve nothing for the climate. Reuters is shocked:
Of course we also could live like the people in this German town.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,820369,00.html
German Village Becomes Model for Renewable Energy
Feldheim town of 150 inhabitants where 43 giant wind turbines loom over the village’s 37 houses. Feldheim is the only town in Germany that started its own energy grid and gets all of its electricity and heating through local renewable sources, primarily wind and biogas.
just one little problem
Even Frohwitter of the Energiequelle company admits that “Feldheim is not a blueprint; it cannot be copied one to one.” He estimates that it could be another 10 years before the entire Treuenbrietzen municipality can achieve what Feldheim has so far, due to a lack of FUNDS and the right specialists.
Maybe I am stupid but how can 150 people pay 43 x 1.500.000 Euro(minimal) = 64.500.000 Euro = 430.000 pp claim they have cheap energy.
Berényi Péter is exactly right. Is there any doubt? If there is, allow me to give a few examples out of many:
The Obama Administration has been handed $trillions with apparently carte blanche over its spending. Congress need not get involved; the Administration will hand out the money to whomever it wants. And if the taxpayer loot goes only to his political cronies, every business in America will sit up straight and pay attention to the new rules of the game.
Give $400 million in taxpayers’ GM bailout funds to a foreign automaker? A-OK. Give $20 million to ACORN to generate fraudulent election votes? A-OK. Select crony capitalists like Solyndra, GE, and many similar crony capitalists to receive hundreds of millions to $billions, with no accountability or oversight? A-OK . Give a “Get Out Of Jail Card Free” to fellow Democrat John Corzine, who preposterously claims that $1.2 billion in peoples’ savings suddenly “vaporized” and can’t be located or traced? A-OK. Claim there are too many GM dealers to be competitive — then arbitrarily shut down only those dealerships across the country owned by Republican car dealers, and allowing them no legal recourse? A-OK.
This government has decided that it knows better than the free market how to allocate resources. And no one in Congress demands any accountability. Congress authorized the spending, and the Administration spends the money any way it likes. And now Obama wants yet another $trillion to hand out to his favored special interest groups, in order to buy the next election.
The definition of Fascism is state control of business. Is that not exactly what has happened under the Obama Administration? What other American govenment has ever shut down businesses across the country based on those owned by Republicans? And by what criteria is that A-OK?
April 15th is fast approaching. Don’t forget to pay your taxes, folks, because the little people will never get Corzine’s or Holder’s free Get Out Of Jail Card.
But it’s a coalition Government. They can always claim it’s The Greens that made us do it. as the side kick tried to to that dear Lady in Brisbane.
”though she was having none of it.
I guess she was speaking for all of us, when pointing out these home truths, about the electorate not being as stupid as pollies take them for and what sticks in their craw…