Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – The floor show from Aussie climate scientists whose jobs are on the line is continuing. Now that climate job security is a thing of the past, it turns out there are all sorts of uncertainties about climate projections, which maybe didn’t get much exposure, back in the golden years of government funded research.
According to The Guardian;
In the email to staff on Thursday, Marshall said that since climate change was proven to be real, CSIRO could shift its focus.
“Everybody is laughing at Marshall’s statement,” the scientist told Guardian Australia. “Who is he to declare that climate change is answered? The IPCC says so many problems are not answered yet. And unless you know how the climate is changing, how do you adapt to it?”
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/05/senior-csiro-scientist-derides-chief-executives-claim-climate-change-is-answered
It gets better. Tony Haymet, who seems to have parachuted safely into a professorship at the SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography in the US, before the Aussie climate job cuts started, had this to [say];
“If you are a complete failure, what you do is take one of your best divisions, shut it down, and invest in your pet project,” Haymet said.
“That’s the coward’s way out … The job is to raise more resources. It’s like shutting down the Australian cricket team, saying we need a lacrosse team, and spending three decades investing in that.”
…
“We’ve only seen the beginning of climate change. We don’t know what the heck is waiting for us
Read more: Same link as above
Then there are really lame excuses for keeping the tax money flowing, like the following from Neville Nicholls, Professor Emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University;
This decision cedes our place at the big table with the adults discussing what to do about climate change. From today we join the minnows on the little table on the veranda, waiting to be told what we will have to do by the grown-up countries that still have access to high-quality climate science.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/csiro-is-poised-to-slash-climate-research-jobs-experts-react-54170
I mean seriously? Does it matter who produces the information? Not that much actual usable information has been produced to date, if we are to believe the sudden rush of assertions about the uncertainty of climate projections, and the need for more research.
Just imagine if similar climate research job cuts were looming in the USA and Britain. We might discover that we don’t really understand the climate system at all.
From Sydney Morning Herald via Andrew Bolt, desperate climate scientist gather
http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/o/h/g/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620×349.gmo81n.png/1454914592095.jpg
what’s with the happy snap of a flock of unperched spangled drongos ? 😉
“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned”-Richard Feynman. This quote pretty well puts things in a nutshell. If they claim their science is settled, then no new research is required. If they turn around and say they need to do more research, it means the claim is simply untrue. This then means the “debate is over” is also untrue. As both assertions were always highly questionable, we need to scrutinize why certain bodies have always been making these 2 outrageous statements. They are both from the realms of religion.
To be really cynical – it just shows that climate “scientists” are no longer helping politicians get elected. Scaremongering with bad science is no longer winning votes – so now the politicians need a scape goat – and here we have 350 of them all tied up and ready for slaughter.
And all because … the politicians think that will get them votes.
““Everybody is laughing at Marshall’s statement,” the scientist told Guardian Australia.”
Even this they can’t get right – tears and fear I suppose can make you laugh in a crazy sort of way. I do feel bad for the legions of young scientists though that were inveigled into this dead end career, dead end precisely because it was settled and not to be questioned. From personal experience, there is nothing you could do to advise these students of the abyss that lay ahead.
As pointed out above, the pink slips haven’t been handed out yet, but I think governments, virtually all facing grim economic times and citizens that are critical of their killer energy and environmental policies, may be encouraged to do the ‘unthinkable’ with this lead from Australia. I hope this is the beginning of the end of this global pandemic self immolation movement. It will only get more painful if they try to keep this beast alive.
I propose that any former climate scientists be put to work as heat wave observers on Adak in the Aleutians.
The government would be money ahead to send them there and feed them.
Should they not been “given 40 acres and a mule” … on the west coast of Greenland? There, they could grow their own food!
This is my own favourite example of the great Australian CAGW and renewables madness cash giveaway.
Here is a wayback machine copy of a press-release from Wollongong University – which plainly states that
“Researchers from UOW are developing technologies for next generation offshore wind turbines that are one-third the price and 1,000 times more efficient, and they could be installed off the coast of Australia in the next five years.”
The claim from this esteemed organization lead to viral coverage.
The researcher received about $200,000 for this project.
I do not know whether the grant awarding body were aware that wind turbines can never become 1000 times more efficient without a very significant relaxation of the laws of physics.
Since the generator unit in modern large turbines is already more than 90% efficient.
90,000% efficiency seems unlikely anytime soon. (sarc)
http://web.archive.org/web/20150227044807/http://media.uow.edu.au/releases/UOW184359.html?ssSourceSiteId=UOW_Main
My second favourite is the Antarctic Climate Change exploration ship that got stranded in the ice and had to be rescued at great expense.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/26/so-much-ice-in-antarctica-that-a-research-vessel-gets-stuck-in-summer/
And the third must be the proxy study published widely in MSM which was withdrawn only hours after publication (never to return) and yet cost the Australian tax payer approx. a quarter of a million dollars (by recollection).
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/06/08/american-meteorological-society-disappears-gergis-et-al-paper-on-proxy-temperature-reconstruction-after-post-peer-review-finds-fatal-flaws/
There must be more ways of wasting millions of oz dollars of other people’s hard earned cash, and I’m sure that the Australian CAGW crowd are busy trying to find them…
Yes, Turney’s steel ship never made it to Cape Denison, but Mawson’s wooden boat did. Mawson’s Hut was recently dug out of ice and snow. Seems the Antarctic has had both more and less snow and ice over time.
Yeah, it makes you realize that Mawson and other polar explorers of that time where part of a breed of heroes. The modern ship had access to satellite ice data and modern weather forecasting, GPS and radar – PLUS the ability to call mayday and receive aid in the event of the ice closing in.
Back in the early 20th century explorers were seemingly reliant only on luck, judgement and an astonishing level of personal bravery.
On the other hand Shackleton’s Endurance which had specifically built for Polar operations was crushed in the ice and only superhuman efforts enabled the survival of the crew. Prior to good weather forecasts and satellite imagery it was always a risk. The thing about sea ice is it shifts rapidly and what was open water can close in very fast Last summer (the warmest evah) the Canadian Icebreaker Amundsen had tobreak off its normal research cruise to resupply northern settlements that were running out of supplies as they were still ice bound in July.
As an interesting sideline the Guardian is running an article today which reports that any Arctic shipping route is at least 40 years away and will require ice reinforced ships. It contains this interesting quote from the Arctic Institute.
“It is highly unlikely that large-scale containerised cargo transports will appear in the near future. The question then arises: when, if ever, will the ice conditions allow for continuous and economically feasible container transport along the route?”
Certainly not before 2056, and possibly for the final twenty years of the next solar warm period, which should end around 2188 and the start of the next grand mimimum.
Well. In Paris Mr. Bon Ki Moon Hoisted his “big” glass of Champagne and uttered …. ! … [cough] [cough] Rule Da … Verld ! HA Ha . and gasping for air refrained from further eruptions.
Well. Mr. Bon Ki Moon, your turn at the UN is coming of an … End. That IS good!
Ha ha
Not if he’s replaced by Obama
In 2010 a discussion broke out on my blog on an article called Wind Farms: Do they kill birds?. A poster called Marcus started putting up a whole load of highly offensive ad hominem. Example:
I tolerated his BS, and I and others replied to his nonsense. Then I told him to stick to the facts instead of posting personal attacks:
Anyway, Marcus would be a trivial irrelevance, not unlike a thousand other offensive, nasty pieces of work promoting the CAGW scam, were it not for one thing, which was pointed out privately to me some time ago. Even though that thing is embarrassing for the alarmists, I still didn’t bother with it until today, right now, when the climate “scientists” protest their rightful dismissal:
“Marcus” was posting from a CSIRO account during work time!
So does their worthy climate “science” include getting taxpayer dollars to libel skeptics on no basis whatsoever?
Absolutely shocking.
I have seen much MUCH worse from a Govn’t employee (Senior Judge), using Govn’t e-mail systems to send “naughty” e-mails to a private sector employee (Telecom New Zealand).
About a decade ago I worked in the wind sector in Scotland and knew those pushing the whole thing (largely for their own gain). Having read up on the subject I was aware that birds were being killed but I wanted to know the accurate figure so asked one. Their response: “birds are not killed”.
Now, having had a bird die from flying into one of our house windows, and seeing the regular death toll beside the roads, it was pretty damned obvious that birdmincers (as I now call them in “honour” of his remark) will kill birds. But as a then supporter of wind, I wanted to counter the opponents with real information. Instead I was being fed overt and clearly selfish lies.
OK, let’s be fair – all businessmen try to spin the best possible PR for their product whether selling birdmincers, oil or exocet missiles. What was different with wind, is not only were their lies more blatant, but they were supported endorsed and encouraged by immoral and repugnant “Green=gullibles” so that the wind’s lies are all that much worse.
And it’s because the wind business got such an easy ride and were able to tell such outrageous lies that I’m pretty certain that as the public, politicians and eventually the Greens and even finally the real idiots like the BBC & Guardian finally turn on this evil money-grabbing business scam, there will be far more shady dealings an dodgy data to be revealed than in most similar enterprises.
Our “Marcus” is a steel worker. Just making that clear to all 🙂
He also likes Snuggies, puppies, and driving Janice Moore crazy. 😛
Where’s Andrew Bolt when we need him ?
Probably looking for another broadcaster to work for. I think Channel 10 binned him ‘çoz of his sceptical views on climate change.
Chuckle-
http://www.aei.org/publication/the-green-alarm-clock/
Centrelink is waiting for us. That is the answer
I hope so then they will know what real work (Stress) and data recording (Job searches) is like, otherwise you don’t get your benefits. My last contract was and current contract is with a New South Wales state Govn’t agency. I can see almost all of them would struggle in the private sector. I, by chance, moved from private sector to Govn’t. And it’s a doddle! I have been in the current contract for 5 weeks and only today I have been granted access to the systems to actually do the job. The only Govn’t sector I could not work in would be hospitals and nursing.
After years of sitting, maybe they can retrain as stand-up comics
Big Food and Big Pharma have an enormous amount at stake Just like Climate Change.https://youtu.be/fvKdYUCUca8?t=55 :You couldn’t make this up unless you were smoking something: after revelations of ‘trial by ambush’ and secret reports comes the news that professors of bioethics, surgery and psychiatry exercising a statutory function for the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) may have shown dedication beyond the call of duty to ensure that Prof Tim Noakes was charged and that the hearing against him succeeds. The HPCSA went straight into total denial mode, even contradicting a written instruction by its own registrar in an apparent spin on a cat and mouse game of gross irregularities on the part of one of its committees involved in charging Noakes. Here’s what happened on the first day of the hearing that resumed in Cape Town on February 8 and that grows stranger by the day. – Marika Sboros
Lynne Gill 3 months ago Doesn’t this sound like Climate Change !
I’m only 30 minutes in and I want to call for any surviving pushers of these toxic “foodstuffs”, the industrialists, the tame medicos, the politicians who rolled over, and the lawyers who “fixed” things for this insane, and immoral crowd of terrorists, to be taken out and shot. They have murdered thousands upon thousands of people in the western world who followed suit. I am enraged. And now we have the iniquity of the TTIP which will give these powerful industrialist even more power to ruin our lives.
Climate scientists being sacked from Australia’s CSIRO ,our premier taxpayer-funded scientific research body, because they are now longer needed because “the Science is Settled “must represent one of the most outstanding examples of the “biter being bit” I can recall.Talk about an own goal.
Alarmist public commentators and warmist scientists in Australia such as David Karoly and Will Steffen ran or supported the stupid mantra “the science is settled ” in relation to argument over the size and causes of global warming.
Their clear intent was to close down debate and also to demonize those who questioned the orthodoxy line that man-made CO2 emissions were the principal cause of global warming -now transmuted into climate change- which they predicted would be “catastrophic”.
They have now reaped what they sowed-and aren’t they (eg Karol)y whingeing loudly at what they themselves have brought about.
I preferred Robert’s answer.
Imagine trying to build sea walls with solar powered excavators and dozers? Imagine a wind powered concrete plant? There’s no limit to the parade of useless ideas that would come from continued climate funding.
‘CSIRO Climate Update: “We don’t know what the heck is waiting for us”’
We know. The models have made that amply clear. But thanks for the confirmation.
Before you have any chance of knowing how the climate is changing, you need to know how the climate changes. To keep it simple for the stumble-bum scientist and the Guardian, If climate science methodology had infected physics we would still be predicting how the sun revolves around the earth instead of having an advanced understanding of orbital physics.
We need to figure out how climate changed in the past, what all the the drivers and factors were, before trying to predict climate change for the next millennial cycle of climate.
The climate is changing unpredictably. That is the nature of physically chaotic systems.
Millions of people and untold resources have already been used to try to predict the ways dice will roll, cards will fall, and lottery numbers pop up, but we still have casinos making money.
The wise ones among us accept the stochastic nature of the universe and adapt.
Well, I guess this really proves the point: money is behind it all.
Since the science is settled, there is no need for goobermints to employ ANY climate scientists ever again.
Fire all of them.
They’ve wasted enough money.
In this analogy, tha Aussie Cricket team is real science, the Lacrosse team is the GW boondoggle, and the last 3 decades of money tossed down a rat-hole of pre-determined outcome is more than enough.
“This decision cedes our place at the big table with the adults discussing what to do about climate change. From today we join the minnows on the little table on the veranda, waiting to be told what we will have to do by the grown-up countries that still have access to high-quality climate science.”
Am I missing something? Isn’t there still going to be 97% consensus even if Australian scientists are taken out of the loop? Hell, they don’t contribute they merely parrot anyway.
“This decision cedes our place at the big table with the adults discussing what to do about climate change.”
Err no chaps your expertise is mucking about with fancy thermometers not engineering and political economy and we don’t need to pay you to sit around discussing that.
Robert B,
I think that comment in particular demonstrates a very real, very bad/sad bigoted attitude among climate scialongts. Those at the top are “adults at the big table” and everyone else doesn’t even qualify as human! He called everyone else “minnows”, not even children! One group leads and dictates, the other waits and obeys.
These people don’t view “science” as a team sport where every player is important and necessary to complete a bigger picture of truth and knowledge. They view it as a heirarchy, a class system, and it reflects poorly, but I suspect accurately, on the state of the field today.
Which might indicate that the “adults” declared a “consensus” and the minnows were just expected to believe and follow along. Talk about a 1% vs 99% class war waiting to happen. Someone needs to lead the minnows in an uprising!
Couldn’t have put it better myself Larry the Lad-
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-11/csiro-boss-larry-marshall-defends-controversial-shake-up/7157650
“In fact it almost sounds more like religion than science to me.”
That sure is a catastrophic climate change for you fellers.