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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DaveG says:
May 14, 2012 at 10:16 am
steveta_uk says:
May 14, 2012 at 9:45 am
……….
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
In case any one wondered the one for you ninteen for me refered to the then higher tax rate of 19/6 (nineteen shillings and six pence; pronounced ninteen and six) in the pound – or in todays simplified decimal system £0.95 per pond — yes; that really was 95% tax – ok it was a marginal rate; so it only applied to high earners; but did cause a lot of people to flee the tax regime and move to other area; thus costing the UK tax man a hell of a lot more than he ever made out of this legalised theft.
Flannery also said in the Future Eaters in the 1990s that Australia shouldn’t invest in minerals, as they were on the way out.
He also said in 2011 that the greatest threat to hunanity is from mining. He also said that the miners undo what the oceans do-which take the nasty minerals out of seawater, and put them in mineral deposits. No mention of what volcanoes do to increase the same nasty minerals.
T
Betapug says:
May 14, 2012 at 9:58 am
…
Somehow I don’t think Flannery really “has the kids”. Even a fairly naive 18 year old would only have to watch about 30 seconds of him on TV to know that he lives on an entirely different planet. A more Peter Pan-like individual would be difficult to imagine.
The 130 year downward temperature trend of Alice Springs looks a bit more realistic, though it is much further northwest.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=501943260000&data_set=14&num_neighbors=1
Affizzyfist says: May 14, 2012 at 8:36 am
This story is important. Its the first time a really mainstream newspaper has taken him on in Australia anyway….
This is true.
With the recent exception of the excellent work by Graham Lloyd on the Brisbane floods The Australian has very rarely critiqued the CAGW science or the promoters or the major policy of which they report.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/wind-farm-scam-a-huge-cover-up/story-e6frgd0x-1226345185075
After the fact, yes, as with the deaths of the young men installing roofing insulation for the pink batts scheme/green govt pseudo-police scheme. And what an absolute horror and injustice for those young men and their wives/lovers and families. A truly dreadful fiasco that was.
Thanks Dale, for bringing to our attention Pickering’s exactness of human behaviour; of Flannery, the pseudo-scientist and his vile hypocrisy.
betapug says:
May 14, 2012 at 3:38 pm
[snip]
Again I point out that with 38,000 students to impress at a University ranked seventh in Australia, (out of 21) and a huge majority of sympathetic minds on the other 20, Flannery can act like a clown, but it really does not matter.
———————————————————–
In what universe is Macquarie University ranked 7th in Australia? There are only a half a dozen or so Australian universities ranked in the world top 100, on various scales, and Macquarie ain’t one of them. It’s not even close. It may well have individual courses that are well regarded, but isn’t even in the top 10 in Australia.
And Professor Tim Flannery was appointed by a former College of Advanced Education in the bush which has excellent courses in viticulture, and knows as much about philosophy and ethics as Sydney University knows about viticulture. That would be zero.
Flim Flammery was on Oz TV this week and was asked about his failed statements of droughts, etc.
His response was not to address the question but to offer ‘scientists all agree…” etc, etc.
He is the Dodgeball (dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge) response to his inane predictions (or were they scenarios?).
Meanwhile:
Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet announced Dr Lee’s appointment in a statement today.
His role will be to lead negotiations on Australia’s behalf within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, based in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’s international division.
We do use the most highly qualified people to represent us in climate change matters –
Dr Lee holds a BA (Jur.) (Hons), a PhD in Development Geography from the University of Adelaide and a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from Monash University. He is married and has two children. Dr Lee is a fluent Indonesian speaker.
Reblogged this on The GOLDEN RULE and commented:
Cherry-picking, scientific garbage. This is the science that drives the Australian government to introduce a carbon tax. It also drives the Australian economy downhill and the thinking Australian public to distraction.