Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Sydney Morning Herald claims that Exxon Mobil contributed to the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Since Exxon is headquartered in Texas, SMH seems to think the suffering of Texans affected by the storm is self-inflicted.
Houston, you have a problem, and some of it of your own making
Peter Hannam
Yes, Houston, you do have a problem, and – as insensitive as it seems to bring it up just now – some of it is your own making.
Let’s be clear upfront. I unreservedly wish that all of your millions of citizens get safely through Tropical Storm Harvey, and the biblical-scale deluge and floods that are forecast to swamp your city in coming days.
But, as the self-styled “world capital of the oil and gas industry”, there’s a connection between rising global greenhouse gas levels and the extreme weather now being inflicted that some of your residents have understood for decades and had a hand in.
…
In fact, as an important research paper by Harvard University researchers Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes released last week showed, the largest of them – ExxonMobil – deliberately told the public a story at odds with their own research.
By stoking doubts about the climate change consequences of burning fossils, the behemoth misled voters for four decades, successfully stymieing demands for action in the US and abroad, including in Australia.
Although ExxonMobil is headquartered in another Texan city, Dallas, it bases many operations in Houston. The company has picked Houston to host a sprawling new campus north of the city that will reportedly house 8000 employees.
…
When the clean-up eventually begins in Houston and other regions battered and drenched in this week’s tempest, questions about what protection will be needed for the next big storm will no doubt surface.
Given its unusual dependence on fossil-fuel industries, though, it will be interesting to watch if Houston queries – tactfully and delicately – its own contribution to the catastrophe.
This desperate chain of maybes is like the magical thinking of the dark ages. Can anyone imagine such mush being written in a mainstream newspaper a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago?
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What a crock! Could they have made more misrepresentations in a single article? Sadly, this a quite representative of the mainstream interpretation of what climate change (global warming) implies.
Peter Hannam at the SMH, resident alarmist. When posts are allowed, anything that is contrary to the “consensus” of “climate change” is blocked. His articles are easily picked to bits. And he has been very active lately at the SMH.
Just watch those crazy “OR-Strains” theywill make this guy the next PM
People who block all contrary comments are telegraphing that they have no belief in what they are saying and know their argument is not at all persuasive.
SMH: Yellow journalism at its finest.
Hand your objective journalism card in and start your career in fantastical fiction writing…
Sadly, this is indicative of the level of knowledge which the typical journalism major takes with them when they leave campus (after four years (+?) and an asinine amount of money paid for little more than a thorough brain-washing.)
How absurd:
“But, as the self-styled “world capital of the oil and gas industry”, there’s a connection between rising global greenhouse gas levels and the extreme weather now being inflicted that some of your residents have understood for decades and had a hand in.”
Does this clown not realize that the last Category 3 or higher hurricane to strike the US coastline last occurred in 2005, 12 years ago? ‘Extreme weather’? Really? It seems that increased CO2 is actually decreasing the size and intensity of hurricane activity.
Fred,
Peter Hannan and SMH are prime cheerleaders for all the Luvvie Narratives with Klymit Kaos at the Top Of The Pops.
How many howlers can you get into one article? As far as SMH is concerned the answer is as many as possible. These biggies.
1..Those seeking to discourage debate about Harvey’s climate boost will argue there hasn’t been a major (category three or stronger) hurricane crossing the continental US coast in almost 12 years. Scientists and climate models, though, argue a warming planet won’t necessarily equate to more frequent and more intense tropical cyclones in all basins every year. Decadal patterns are what you need to watch.
Note the number of qualifiers to this statement and then consider that in every second claim over the last decade Alarmists have stated that extreme weather is on the rise. Extreme weather is a mantra to their cause. Alarmists love big weather events like these as it is a marketing device and allows them to imply the notion that with Solar and Wind we shall control the Hurricanes. Frequency and Intensity
2.
Andrew King, a climate extremes research fellow at the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, said the complexity of cyclones makes it difficult to attribute climate change to events such as Hurricane Harvey.
“These are hard to simulate, extreme cyclones, on the grid scale of climate models,” he says.
Immediately after noting this inability to link Climate Change to this extreme weather event Hannan ramps up the alarm with references to warming atmosphere and sea level rise and quotes…of all people… Mickey Mann.
He sees this as his job to link these things. Ramping down concern is not the role of the Activist Journo in an Activist Rag.
3.
…Given its unusual dependence on fossil-fuel industries, though, it will be interesting to watch if Houston queries – tactfully and delicately – its own contribution to the catastrophe…
If they thought they could have got away with it the headline would actually read…
Oil City Gets What It Deserved!
It is not possible to fully explain to WUWT overseas readers just how much The Australian postmodern left media, university and inner city cafe set are besotted by this Klymit Kaos Narrative.
This low grade and rotten natured article goes some way to explain that situation.
Australia has its own trails that come from the UNEP Geneva Environment Network (GEN) as well.
UNEP Geneva Environment Network (GEN)
International Environment House, Geneva, Switzerland
Network > Members > Members link > Members websites
Page bottom organizations list:
Think Eat Save
Greening The Blue
Climate Neutral Network
http://www.environmenthouse.ch
GEN Historical Background 1961-2007
Includes:
1983 Bruntdland Commission est.
1988 IPCC est.
1992 Rio Earth Summit
1999 GEN est.
More at:
http://www.environmenthouse.ch/?q=en/history-international-environmental-geneva
In addition:
US oil companies make about five cents off a single gallon of gasoline, on the other hand US Big Government taxes on a single gallon is around seventy-one cents for some states & rising, the tax is now $1.00 for CA.
IOW, greedy governments make fourteen to twenty times what oil companies make and it is the oil companies who make & deliver the vital product to the marketplace.
It’s Big Government, not Big Oil.
This is all about seizing cash.
UN / UNEP, 16 August, 2017
Regional Office North America: Includes Canada and the U.S.
Regional Director, North America
Barbara Hendrie appointed new Director, North America
Short biography at:
http://www.unep.org/northamerica/news/2017/un-environment-appoints-new-regional-director-north-america-barbara-hendrie
RB: Nor is it possible to fully explain why the US press is similarly besotted (great word!). I should not be surprised, yet I’m often amazed at how the press here is blind to the ho@x. If memory serves, Al Gore and others used Katrina to support this meme, “see AGW out your window” and such. They turned to the IPCC for proof that AGW caused more severe weather, expecting confirmation. Again by my memory, the 2009 IPCC report said there’s no evidence of it, no sign that CO2 warming was affecting storms, disappointing Griffs everywhere. They recovered nicely, realizing they could just say nothing until after a big storm, then trot it out again. Some of the activists were bolder, like Mr. Holdren and his boss, who insisted on blaming AGW for the CA drought that will never end (until it ended). RB, I am not aware of a single instance where a news article or network piece has brought up the IPCC debunking of this meme. The activist trots it out and the reporter reports it. I’ve said for many years that if your organization wants to promote an upcoming event (like a bake sale), put “eco” in your group title and put out a press release saying it’s to stop Global Warming. The paper will run it.
UNEP FI / UNEP Finance Initiative, North America
North America includes Canada and the U.S.
Includes specific UNEP FI goals.
Click on: Financial institutions based in North America which are UNEP FI Signatories.
http://www.unepfi.org/regions/north-america
UNEP FI is included in the UNEP GEN.
Direct Link to:
UNEP FI North America members:
http://www.unepfi.org/members/north-america
It is called “inverse correlation,” and you hit the nail on the head!!!
Fake News. What a trite but accurate description. Trump is correct in calling out Fake News.
Not fake news to the faithful, unfortunately.
What’s the difference between fake news and lies ?
Regarding the SMH and articles from Hannam about climate change, that must be a trick question?
We should probably start calling it Holy Dogma, since that’s how they treat it.
“What’s the difference between fake news and lies ?”
Some people call it a spade, some call it a hand-operated soil-excavating apparatus.
“What’s the difference between fake news and lies ?”
Not much. There are the deliberate liars who create the false narrative and put it out in the public arena, and then there are the True Believers who Echo the narrative far and wide. I assume True Believers are more dupes than liars, but they can be a combination of both.
Yes, Trump is right to call out the Fakes News for what it is. Trump *should* point out when the MSM lies because the People can’t govern themselves properly based on the lies and distortions of the MSM, so Trump has to provide the counterpoint.
Those of the Left claim Trump is attacking journalism and the First Amendment by pointing out the Fake News, but Trump is really helping legitimate journalism by calling out the liars in the profession.
Trump himself says there are good journalists, but there are also a lot of partisan political liars masquerading as legitimate jounalists. Trump says we should listen to the legitimate journalists and reject the lies of the illegitimate journalists. Sounds logical to me.
I see where the UN wants to criticize Trump for his calling the MSM Fake News, claiming Trump is undermining democracy, when in fact it is the liars in the MSM who are undermining our governance.
The UN is just another leftwing/socialist organization that depends on the MSM to promote their leftist/socialist ideas, so naturally they are not going to like it when Trump calls the UN’s MSM helpers a bunch of liars.
Keep calling them out, President Trump. If they lie, they should be called liars. Your supporters LOVE it when you call the MSM liars. They have been waiting SO long for a Republican to come along and actually call it like it is, and finally we have one.
I see where Nancy Pelosi actually condemned Antifa and their unacceptable violence yesterday and she did it before Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell or any other Republicans other than Trump.
Which just goes to show how cowardly many of our Repubican representatives and Senators really are. They are scared to death of getting out in front of an issue that might cause the MSM to go after them, even when it concerns a domestic terrorist group like Antifa.
Then Nancy Pelosi comes out and condemns Antifa violence and shames Ryan and McConnell into doing the same. Another pathetic performance on the part of Republicans. Scared to death of what the MSM might say about them. So scared they are paralyzed into inaction. These are our leaders.
I think a lot of RINO’s need replacing in the next election by some solid conservative Republicans. 2018 is just around the corner. And the GOP has 12 days to show they can get something done. What a fiasco.
Barbara, the difference between calling something ‘fake new’ and ‘lies’ is a matter of politeness – otherwise no difference.
Barbara August 30, 2017 at 6:27 pm
What’s the difference between fake news and lies ?
Lies are lies but fake news is generally ignorance and personal bias.
I would say that fake news can be described as lies that have been window dressed to appear in a format or location that make the lies appear to be legitimate news. The liberals invented the term for made up stories that appeared in fringe online publications that looked like news organizations. Trump uses the term applied to any news organization that publishes lies or tries to pass off opinion as hard news. That interpretation fits with almost everything these days, since journalism has died. The bias is dripping through almost every piece of “news” that you read. There are no qualifiers, and conclusions are slipped into the most innocuous places, very subtly changing the entire meaning of the piece. Even educated people cannot parse out what is bias and what is fact unless they dissect the information line by line. my kids are getting a good education when they are told to evaluate the bias of the source, and by the way, every source has some kind of bias. Read broadly, read all sides, and then draw your conclusions. That is why this website is so valuable. It serves as a double check on the garbage that is out there. Even the comments are thoughtful and informative.
Sick & deranged!
The collective amnesia that members of the MSM have with regard to the debt we all owe fossil fuels for our current well-being is actually unbelievable. But that’s not news on this site, obviously!
People like this fellow are promoting a global agenda and this is also an opportunity to bash the U.S.
Dear Peter Hannam & SMH, How developed were the Texan oil fields 117 years ago, when Galveston was leveled by a Cat 4 hurricane in what is still the US’s worst natural disaster in history?
https://climatism.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/climate-ambulance-chaser-peter-hannam-blames-houstons-residents-for-harvey/
Now, now, play fair. Inconvenient facts like this (and others) and not allowed.
Of course this is the same Naomi Oreskes who a few years ago assembled a conference of activists, politicians and AGs to come up with a strategy to use against fossil fuel suppliers and settled on the notion that they should imitate the successful “they knew” campaign that took down tobacco companies.
So now she publishes a “research paper” that reaches the same conclusion she advocated.
I would assume Harvard would normally frown on “research” intended to “prove” a conclusion the researcher reached ahead of time?
If this is a recent paper, was she unaware that this has been a political issue for several years, that state AGs were discredited, and the notion that EXXON “knew” was just plain silly!?!
Correction in italics.
And… block quoting here puts the whole thing in italics. Sigh, what can I say, WordPress…
Correction is substitute “used to” for “would normally.”
And rising CO2 caused the 1935 flood as well?
More to the point ware any precautions made to minimise the floods.. After all these things do happen at regular intervals, so could the effects such as flooding being minimised, or was it a case that after 12 years they had let such safeguards run down ? Michael.
The precautions will be looked at – but you do realize that this is the heaviest rainfall event in the continental US since records have been kept. It’s hard to prepare for something bigger than anyone has imagined possible.
And, Houston is not New Orleans.
And to help those affected, the “Gov flood of money ” has run dry, the last President spent it all on solar panels
You can’t plan for such extreme weather. Why people even think it can be done is beyond me. One can plan for some of the worst scenarios, but there’s always going to be that record-breaking event that comes out of nowhere. We simply do not understand weather and climate well enough to predict such events.
eorge Tetley: I knew the flood insurance was dead broke and had been borrowing from the Treasury for years but that bit about Obmama spending the money on solar panels? Is that documented or snark?
Take no notice of anything reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. It used to be a great newspaper but is now a fish’n’chip wrapper somewhat to the left of the Grauniad, and possibly the ABC. It no longer reports the news, now it pedals left-wing propaganda on every page including the crossword and the sports section.
You know Jane Fonda learned what people really thought of her once at a book signing.
A veteran spat upon her.
She was much more respectful in her public comments after that.
Naomi and other climate fraudsters might benefit from an unvarnished bit of climate feedback as well.
Jane Fonda’s activities directly led to my combat wounds in Vietnam. Spitting on her was the least the veteran could do.
Concur. What she did was absolutely unforgiveable. Thank you for your courageous service Sir, and I’m not even an American. I am however a veteran.
Jane Fonda did publicly apologize for her actions.
I appreciate her apology, if sincere. I don’t appreciate what she did.
The Left doesn’t have a clue about war, or much of anything else. Jane Fonda is a perfect example of a clueless Leftist. She feels and reacts, she doesn’t think.
She was trying to sell a book. She never apologized prior to that.
That is funny!
These people are known as “de-growthers” No more GDP growth…
No capitalism, no Individual liberty, no Private property rights…
Agenda 21. There was some nutty professor from Vancouver being interviewed on Calgary radio station a couple of weeks ago, who enumerated your very points,with a couple other scary ones added to that, as to what they plan to do.
“They knew” about global warming. Or, at least, a handful of Exxon employees thought it was a real thing, and sent some internal memos on it.
Out of a few tens of thousands of employees.
No, I don’t think that’s correct at all. They were aware of the possibility that it might be a real thing. They were simply doing what smart business people do: hedging their bets.
Yes. At that point in time, science with the words “maybe”, “could” etc was considered very tentative. Exxon said the evidence was not yet in. They didn’t say climate change was not real nor that oil and gas might not contribute to it.
““They knew” about global warming.”
How can they know something that hasn’t been proven to exist even to this very day? The “something” being human-caused global warming. There is no evidence that humans are adding net heat to the atmosphere, so it is impossible for Exxon to have known it existed decades ago.
The Left twists themselves and logic into knots trying to create these false narratives. A judge would throw this case out of court.
Peter Hannam appears to be a Climate Scientologist. What a loon.
Again, more ludicrous garbage from seriously deranged idiots. 👎🏻
Well Eric, 100 years ago the SMH was probably full of articles explaining why young men should go and die in the mud of flanders for a king of a foreign country. 50 years ago the paper was again full of articles explaining why young men should go off and die in the jungles of Vietnam for no adequately explained reasons. In comparison this article seems like a significant improvement.
Germinio, do you understand the concept of equivalencies? Your postings seem to indicate you don’t understand proportionality. Infanticide is the same as opposing your politics.
And 80 years ago they probably full of articles explaining why young men should go and die fighting against your ilk in Germany and Japan.
I think the man and woman in the street can subconsciously reject many End-of-the-World stories even if they cannot articulate their reasons.
This is because people like Naomi Oreskes and Michael Mann so often paint the portrait of a fossil-fueled super villain like Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies. The evil one is always a genius who can accurately predict much of the future in a way us lesser mortals cannot. Yet he is too dumb to use his super-knowledge to easily make a bigger fortune by betting on the stock market or the Kentucky Derby. I think ‘ordinary’ people can spot at least some of these self-contradictions in the “Exxon knew” story. The global warming disaster narrative then loses any ring of truth it may once have had because “something just doesn’t add up”.
What does continue to add up, is the fame and fortune, and volume, of the people shouting loudly about an evil genius and his corporation destroying us all as it takes over the world.
Eric Worrall unreservedly wishes Houston “that all of your millions of citizens get safely through the biblical-scale deluge and floods that are forecast to swamp your city in coming days.”
So in the coming days, Texas will experience not just 4 days of non-stop rain, but rather 40 days and 40 nights of non-stop rain, reaching a height of 15 cubits above the ground – whatever a cubit is?
That was the idiot in Sydney, not Eric. A cubit is “the length of a forearm” – so it varied somewhat. But about 18 inches or 44 centimeters.
Call it 22-23 feet. Which was actually rather low for a typical flood even on the lower Nile, which is what the writers of Genesis would have been most familiar with. (At Cairo, a “normal” year would see 25 feet. Aswan in the Upper Nile would have 45 feet in a typical year.)
My bad – sorry Eric. I should have written: “Peter Hannam unreservedly wishes…”
Hummmm, do vegatarians have a role in this too? They produce more methane, no?
Predictable. Kind of like when the Imams blamed the tsunami deaths in Phuket, Thailand, on their “decadence”. While ignoring the fact that the earthquake epicenter was in Banda Aceh, the strictest Muslim state in Indonesia.
Actually, Banda Aceh became much, much stricter after, and possibly as a consequence of, the horrific destruction there. I think it was fairly secular before the tsunami.
Get a load of the author Peter Hannam smiling ‘with the self-satisfied smugness of a man whose vanity is tickled’ in what’s probably not only the ugliest BMW but the ugliest car ever built.
http://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-36mDshx2U2dAuMR3XyjpW6R/a2fa03a4-443f-4d14-adba-d0ebbf4d381e.jpg/r0_3_1200_678_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
What BMW is that?
I think it is the BMW i3 all-electric model.
Peter Hannam claims to recharge his car from only renewable energy sources, he must not use it very often or go very far or fast in it.
I like to know how he can separate electrons from different generating sources that supply energy to his connection point to the grid. It’s as if the electrons he consumes are “marked” as being generated by solar/wind etc. I don’t know any, grid connected, technology that can do that yet.
I think the new quantum entanglement computer will be able to do that, and I am sure plans are under way to build one into every mandatory smart meter that the Party decrees we must have installed…
TinfoilHat of Tottenham
Haven’t seen the Ford Edsel then?
http://www.wou.edu/~kwilley/Pictures%20for%20PP/edsel.jpg
Clearly you’ve forgotten about the El Camino.
My vote for ugliest cars is Kia and Scion toaster cars. They are proof positive that prediction of future trends is impossible. In the 70’s aerodynamic models, with tapered fronts, were the “car of the future”. The future has toaster cars, not aerodynamic ones.
Latest circulations for the main 2 Sydney daily print newspapers (Monday to Friday editions) comparing them to the circulations last year. A dying newspaper in Sydney. Once a well read conservative newspaper, it is now a left wing rag of fake news. Most Sydney-siders read The Tele.
Print January -June 2017 Same period last year Change
DAILY TELEGRAPH (M-F) 221,641 239,018 -7.8%
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (M-F) 88,634 98,472 -11.1%
https://mumbrella.com.au/abcs-sunday-telegraph-falls-below-400000-as-weekend-newspapers-decline-466270
I came within 4 inches of having my home flooded here in the Houston area before I got a miracle and the rain stopped. I and my family are fine and our home is great. Here is what I have to say about irresponsible , irrational, and just plain stupid articles like this. …….. I can’t say what’s on my mind. And I won’t. I made a promise. Just help the people in desperate need and ignore the noise. It distracts from a great need. There has been a huge physical and emotional drain on the people in this area. It will get much worse before it gets better. Ignore the noise, keep people in your hearts and mind.
Congrats on making it through ok!
I live SW Houston off Brays bayou.
We only got water in our garage.
Many of my neighbors are homeless.
Got to boat down a beautiful street and help save people stuck on a roof.
If I ever hear some sanctimonious evil ignorant twit spout the non-factual hatred if Griff or the slimeball author of the essay being discussed here, I will have a physical response.
The climate fanatics are subhuman haters at their core, not to mention ignorant of facts.
Well done to you both. Stay safe.
Great for you hunter. The fact the you live off brays bayou and only got water in your garage is amazing. It’s time for the fortunate to be there for the victims.
“hunter August 31, 2017 at 4:49 am
…or the slimeball author of the essay being discussed here…”
Hannam is a particularly vile environment editor at the SMH IMO. He’s been at it for years and now most of his articles don’t allow comments. He currently has several articles posted at the SMH this week all pointing to “fossil fuel bad, renewable good”, but this article is particularly vile. You should all drop him an e-mail and thank him for his enlightened, and smug, opinion.
“Can anyone imagine such mush being written in a mainstream newspaper a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago?”
Yep … absolutely! You get the right issue (like a war, or particular hobbyhorse of the rag in question) and newspapers of all stripes and vintages can (and have) come up with rubbish like this. The reader must remain sceptical.