UPDATE: Veteran Australian cartoonist Pickering weighs in, see below. (h/t to Dale Stiller)
There’s yet another scare coming from Australia’s Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery hot of the heels of his failed drought predictions. And who could forget Flannery’s “quote of the millennium” immortalized by Josh?
Junkscience.com reports that: Slippery when wet – Tim Flannery’s climate warnings questioned after recent flooding
Flimflam is probably worth the $180K/yr this government pays him for his part-time position. He’s an implacable liar. Absolutely relentless with his climate hysteria, audacious and unrepentant. Definitely delivering all that this government asks.
FIVE years ago, Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery predicted that the nation’s dams would never be full again and major Australian cities would need desalination plants to cater for our water needs.
Yesterday, in his latest report, he said “climate change cannot be ruled out” as a factor in recent flooding rains, which led to some of those dams overflowing.
The apparent contradiction accompanies predictions that heatwaves, made worse by concrete, asphalt and buildings, will cause deaths and violence in western Sydney.
So he’s given up on climate change and now blaming UHI? I like it.
Jennifer Marohasy finds that the broader Sydney climate data shows another grandiose cherry pick to define the start of the trend in “hot days”.
Climate Commission Fudges Hot Day Data
IF you believe Australia’s Climate Commissioner, Tim Flannery, it is getting hotter and hotter in Western Sydney.[1]
But scientist Basil Beamish noticed that in the Climate Commission report they only show the trend of the number of hot days from 1970-2011. There is data for Sydney, measured at Observatory Hill, back to 1890.
…
Dr Beamish noticed that if you use all of the hot days data back to 1890 it is clear there is a different long-term pattern in play (see blue line in chart). In fact the year with the greatest number of hot days for Sydney is 1926 (12 days) and this has not been beaten since.
But instead of reporting on the long term trend for Sydney as measured at Observatory Hill from 1890, Professor Flannery has chosen to just focus on Western Sydney and in particular use only the data for Parramatta North (see orange line in chart). This data set begins in 1970, which was a low point in the hot days cycle. By choosing Parramatta and beginning in 1970, Professor Flannery can make the upward trend in hot days look dramatic.
Parramatta is further inland than the Observatory Hill site and so the summers are warmer and the winter’s colder. But if there were data for Parramatta back to 1890 it would almost certainly show the same pattern as Observatory Hill. Indeed it was almost certainly hotter in Parramatta, in Western Sydney, in 1926 than anytime since.
Once again the observational data does not support the nonsense claims made by Australia’s Climate Commissioner, Professor Flannery.
******
Basil Beamish provided the chart and many of the words. Thank you.
1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-14/heatwaves-bushfires-predicted-to-hammer-nsw/4009006
=========================================================
UPDATE: WUWT reader Dale Stiller writes
“The very funny, veteran Aussie cartoonist Pickering has drawn a classic about Flim Flan’s utterances.”
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Mr Flannery is already “a little bit confused” – so it’s worse than we thought!
2007:
“Environmental researcher Tim Flannery has warned that Brisbane and Adelaide – [3 mio. people] – could run out of water by year’s end.”
2008:
“The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009.”
2009:
“Our fifth-largest city, Adelaide, may be out of drinking water next year.”
2010: ?
Here he is on radio, saying that temperatures may yet rise by 4 to 5ºC globally: http://bit.ly/KlJWCF
steveta_uk says:
May 14, 2012 at 7:48 am
Mr Flannery is already “a little bit confused” …
In the same way that water is “a little bit damp”…
Just heard about Sydney getting hot on channel 7 news update, here in Aus. Last line quoted was something like this. ‘Critics claim it is based on faulty science’ LOL It followed an earlier story stating the Government has sent out 3 letters to households how they might be able to claw back some of the ever increasing energy bills, not one of these letters mentions that your bill has increased because of the new carbon tax. So Channel 7 news is taking no nonsense.
They forget that there’s already temperature variation across the globe much greater than this proposed global warming jump. Who’s ever heard it’s better to live in colder climates to avoid stress? In Australia we have the option of living in Queensland or Tasmania, very different climates. Are people in Tasmania less stressed? Dumb Flannery, dumb.
This story is important. Its the first time a really mainstream newspaper has taken him on in Australia anyway….
@petermue — I’ve tasted Adelaide drinking water. It is salty and heavy with mud. You wash your hair and it sticks to your head like a helmet. If they run out of the stuff, nobody will miss it.
Greens Senator Christine Milne says the climate science is clear.
“Every report that comes out anywhere in the world has shown that climate change is accelerating,” she says.
======================
so much for flat out lies
In the Old West they had a rail, feathers and some tar around for his ilk.
Australians better watch out – their country still holds the record of number of days over 100 degrees.
Most consecutive days above 100 °F (37.8 °C): 160 days; Marble Bar, Western Australia from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924.
160 days over 100 degrees. A little more than 5 months. NOBODY has even come close to that record. Not even Death Valley.
Yet we hear that the weather extremes will get more extreme as CO2 goes up. If any place in Australia should be getting hotter due to CAGW, it should be Marble Bar.
Someone needs to plot out THAT series to check for increases…
Tim Flannery epitomizes the portrait of a Flim Flan man!
A Fiim Flam man is a con artist who uses the tricks of the trade. Some of the scams which one of the 3 pods (cups) is the pea under the answer is none it’s always in his hand so you never win. But the big guys only start that little trick’s young when young and move on quickly through life always looking for the big score.
The Term Ponzi scheme is a classic snake oil sales job designed to separate the gullible from their money or possessions. Bernie Madoff was one such con man he just went for a mere $50 Billon of Flim Flan trickery.
Governments are constantly looking for Ponzi schemes and sales men who can sell them – Example: Real and phoney War’s based on false premises, manufactured data and so called intelligence – Ever increasing Taxes and Fee’s – Changing or relaxing of good and beneficial laws’ that protect’s a country’s economy by relaxed regulations that change the banking act and allow Derivatives and banks to act like gamblers, that nearly ( and still might) bankrupt the Western world Example The EU – UK – USA Etc…
The Flim Fam crooks over at Enron designed (Cap and Trade) the big tax of an invisible gas that drove the Western governments, socialist, and bureaucrats wild with anticipation of (Flim Flan) Co2 money tax = an Existence tax = you’re alive we tax your breath.
(George Harrison of the Beatles the Taxman song says it all way back in 1964)
Global warming is the biggest con job in the history of the world with tax’s that will and do sharply affect EVERY man woman and child on the planet – lots of BS sold as science = lot’s of money for a relatively few and a lot of financial pain and reduced quality of life for the many.
Flim Flan is a Confidence trickster, a fraud scheme run by the scam designer, and if necessary covered up by phoney boards of inquiry (at great expense) known as the white washing, hiding the truth or the nothing to see here deceleration, after all every one but the victim MUST benefit from the scheme!
A confidence trick is also known as a con game, con, scam, grift, hustle, bunko, bunco, swindle, flimflam, gaffle, or bamboozle. The intended victims are known as marks. The perpetrator of a confidence trick is often referred to as a confidence man or woman, con man or woman, con artist or grifter. When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills. Confidence tricks exploit typical human characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation and naivete. As such, there is no consistent profile of a confidence trick victim, the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith, sincerity, belief that the message is truthful.
All tricks and ability’s of the con artist are learned early in life. Victims of Grand world saving scams tend to show an incautious level of greed, gullibility or true concern that the bill of goods being sold is truly genuine or dire enough to to warrant immediate action ,even if it make them a slave to the idea and consequent poorer life style.
“climate change cannot be ruled out”
Neither can ‘super intelligent alien’ influence be ‘ruled out’. Pretty much nothing can be ‘ruled out’. These kinds of statements are long on implication, short on containing any actually useful information and are generally a waste of CO2 to utter.
Kaboom says:
May 14, 2012 at 9:13 am
In the Old West they had a rail, feathers and some tar around for his ilk.
_______________________________
Kaboom, I live in the Tarheel State and have been busy gathering feathers for a few years now.
Interesting that the link to the state website giving the origin of tarheel now has no reference to the name at all. Political Correctness strikes again or are they afraid we might get ideas….
(George Harrison of the Beatles the Taxman song says it all way back in 1964)
I think not – 1974 perhaps.
It may not matter what the MSM say as Tim Flannery already has the kids. The Panasonic Chair in Environmental Sustainability at Maquarie University is teaching SCOM200:
“The role of truth, ethics and power in science communication… a ‘must do’ unit for anyone who is passionate about the importance, relevance and function of science in today’s society”.
http://www.science.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/news/tim_flannery_launches_new_science_communication_program
As part of the endowment conditions, Dr. Flannery reports to Panasonic executives on “emerging consumer attitudes towards environmental products”. http://www.science.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/news/new_panasonic_chair_in_environmental_sustainability
Looks like a Green end to end solution.
steveta_uk says:
May 14, 2012 at 9:45 am
(George Harrison of the Beatles the Taxman song says it all way back in 1964)
I think not – 1974 perhaps.
Sorry Steve’
We are both wrong, it was released in 1966 on the Revolver LP. However it does not matter when it was released, rather it’s the deadly serious content and meaning in the song that I was trying in a long winded way to portray.
The U-tube was done much latter with Eric Clapton.
If George was singing it today he might have an extra verse
If you take a breath, I’ll tax your heart beat!
Lyrics – Taxman.
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat, === Energy poverty thanks to Co2 policy’s
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
***And you’re working for no one but me.***
Mark Twain described this kind of magicians in Chapter XXIV of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. The magician knows that “The high and mighty Emperor of the East doth at this moment put money in the palm of a holy begging friar–one, two, three pieces,and they be all of silver.”, but he can not tell what a guy in the audience is doing with his right hand.
To be fair to Prof. Flannery, he actually made a prediction for a 5-year timeframe. Most esteemed climatologists only tell you what is going to happen to CLIMATE in 100 years. Where can I get a reliable WEATHER forecast for 100 hours? No models there?
henrythethird says: @ur momisugly May 14, 2012 at 9:23 am
…. If any place in Australia should be getting hotter due to CAGW, it should be Marble Bar.
Someone needs to plot out THAT series to check for increases…
____________________________
You can get a graph of the temperatures of the closest area to that from GISS: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/findstation.py?datatype=gistemp&data_set=14&name=&world_map.x=642&world_map.y=291
But you would have to do some real digging to find the actual raw data.
– Are we sure Tim Flannery History of Mammals scientist wasn’t switched around with a look-a-like Tim Flannery the TIMESHARE SALESMAN ?
cos that’s what it sounds like from the lines he uses
– “you’ve gotta get into right now, you can’t wait a few years, then it’ll be too late !”
– and of the incredulous hype : “you won’t believe what it’ll be like in a few years, everything will have completely changed… the sea level will have risen, the Great Barrier Reef will be dead, but we’ll have magic windmills & solar”
– Just like the compelling pitches of those timeshare salesmen turn out to be completely different from reality .. so it seems the same for Flannery’s grand visions
… and his guarantees are worthless, he won’t be giving you your money back.!
BTW I see someone has a list of Timbo’s predictions …. apparently this year is the last year of the Arctic Ice Cap
Kaboom says:
May 14, 2012 at 9:13 am
“In the Old West they had a rail, feathers and some tar around for his ilk.”
Careful now. Some may read this statement as a death threat…
Re: Con men vs. Alarmists
The Warmista ‘consensus’ is 2-3 deg C ‘global’ warming and a 2-3 ft sea-level hike, always delivered in somber, near-sepulchral tones dripping in self-assurance. Their models are as authoritative as the very laws of thermodynamics, their data is immaculate and unambiguous, their conclusions not to be doubted, their policy reccomendations to be implemented immediately.
If you thought the medieval Catholic Church was dogmatic, scope out this bunch. Flim-flam grifters they’re not, for the latter believe not a ‘jog or a tittle’ of their deceptive pattern, while the Warmistas cling to their credo like a drowning man to a toothpick. These credulous miscreants are True Believers all, much more dangerous than con men. When you pop up all three shells to reveal there’s no pea, the con man will instantly flee, but the Warmista will sit there and innocently insist the pea is invisible and intangible, and won’t fully materialize until 2100.
Heh, Tim the Flim Flam Man based quite a bit of the foolishness in his big steaming pile he called “The Weathermakers” on Lovelock’s “Gaia” theory. Must sting a little now that Lovelock has recanted his Alarmist stance.
Interstellar Bill says:
May 14, 2012 at 11:06 am
Re: Con men vs. Alarmists
_________________________
Bill you are just describing two different subspecies of Alarmicus Warmisttus of the Family: Muridae.
The Conman subspecies is rarer but occupies the highest place in the heterarchy while the common alarmist are those with blind faith following the lead of their leaders/gurus sort of like lemmings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOOs8MaR1YM&feature=related