After years of dithering here in Australia, we have finally chosen a government that ‘will act on climate change’. So said Penny Wong as she welcomed the new prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, to the stage last night. I would argue it is mass delusion to suggest that we can change the climate – but the political desire for ‘climate action’ has been gathering for perhaps four decades and last night it was realized.
It has always been about politics. Beginning back in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher wanted to close-down the coal mines because of her increasing impatience with Arthur Scargill, then president of the National Union of Mineworkers. That was when the first absurd links were drawn between coal mining and the possibility of a climate catastrophe. She saw local advantage that was leveraged into geopolitical advantage through the Kyoto Protocol.
Postal votes have not yet been tallied in this 2022 election, but it would appear the big winners are the Teal Independents backed by billionaire climate activists Simon Homes à Court – I understand there may be 10 of these Teal Independents in the new parliament, representing Australia’s most tertiary educated and privileged who live in inner-city Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
These are all women. I would argue unaware of the extent to which their election will favour the fortunes of already rich white men so heavily invested in so-called renewables and carbon trading they can’t afford for it to fail. These men don’t actually produce very much, rather they mostly make their money out of corporations’ dependent on government-funded schemes, mandates and subsidies including for particular types of electricity-generating energies. For example, I know a fellow who campaigned for Allegra Spender, the daughter of fashion designer Carla Zampatti, one of the so-called Teal Independents. Spender appears to have won the inner-city Sydney-seat of Wentworth. This Wentworth resident and Spender-supporter made his money out of selling insurance, then bought property in regional New South Wales that now has a windfarm that pays him $250,000 every year in rent. He has sold all the cattle that once populated the farm because they emitted carbon. He didn’t build the wind farm, and he doesn’t sell the wind, he just gets paid for owing the land.
Previous Australian governments have included enthusiastic climate alarmists, but the difference with this new Labor government that will likely govern with the support of Homes à Court’s climate activists, is that there is theoretically no brake on them rushing to close-down all the productive industries that generate carbon emissions like cows and coal. Except, I’m not actually sure anyone will be able to make as much money out of wind farming, and trading carbon, if there is no coal to underpin it all – to leverage off.
At least two of the very high-profile Liberals beaten by the Teal Independents – Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong and Tim Wilson in Goldstein – profess to wanting to act on climate change and implement a ‘net zero’ emissions target. Indeed, there was little real difference in what Zoe Daniel (Teal Independent) versus Tim Wilson (Liberal) in Goldstein, and Josh Frydenberg (Liberal) versus Monique Ryan (Teal Independent) in Kooyong claimed to support during this last election campaign. But the Teals won perhaps because there was that much more conviction in their rhetoric.
I’ve had the opportunity over the last decade to discuss climate change with both Frydenberg and Wilson. Both are aware of the extent to which the climate emergency narrative – that well and truly underpins the election of the new Albanese government – is based on junk science, yet both have been keen to dismiss my evidence and run with the zeitgeist. It was the easy thing to do – it made political sense to them. It made political sense to Margaret Thatcher and now it underpins the wealth of so many, but is it actually sustainable going forward? What ultimately will everything be leveraged off? At what point does the house of cards topple, or will it just be the wind turbines?
Australia has well and truly caught the net zero bus.
It will be interesting to see how the new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, makes it work, given he now has a clear mandate to achieve ‘net zero’ and start closing down particular industries.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
“Caught the bus”, as in “What does a dog do if it actually “catches” a bus?”
Something about “being smashed into the pavement” springs to mind.
Xi smiles, inscrutably.
Aloha Jennifer. As you know, they are all bozos on that bus. Too many bozos here as well of course.
Unfortunately, people with money and power seldom learn anything beyond their tunnel vision until either they have shot themselves in both feet or else they have been thrown out of power.
“When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” ~ Seneca the Younger. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (a.k.a. Seneca the Younger, 4 BC–65 AD) This includes politicians, bureaucrats, media, academics everywhere, men and women, who believe they are building a brave new world without a map based on reality. They are lost before they have left port.
It really is a sad event in Australia’s political history with financial downside for Australia and it’s citizens. You could argue the citizens deserve what they get.
You could argue the Liberals deserve what they got.
However, many of us didn’t vote for the ensuring carnage but have to deal with the consequences.
Probably 40 years in the making but certainly 20 years of this BS permeating through all levels of the education system has come home to roost with all those “educated” now at the polling booths casting their ignorant vote.
The long march is nearly complete.
WEF meeting coming up will almost signal the chequered flag.
Jennifer , you need to widen your horizon a bit further than the GBR and take in what is happening in the Antarctic as a result of the lowering of the pH of the seawater.
When those imbeciles eventually get to learn that any number times zero still equals zero will the ever get to know that net zero means exactly that: ZERO, anything; no power, no jobs, no food, no people, no …………………………..
I just hope He hasn’t lost my exit ticket before it really gets to ‘net zero’ as my psyche has started to deteriorate already and I don’t see much point hanging around to see if those imbeciles realize their fateful (fatal) mistake.
David Tanner
The book I edited (Climate Change: The Facts 2020) has a whole section on Antarctica … so many chapters. Haven’t you read it?
There is this recent post with comment by Arthur, https://jennifermarohasy.com/2021/11/if-the-south-pole-melted-a-note-from-arthur/
So, you think we really do have catastrophic human-caused climate change in the Antarctic?
Just filing this here unsolicited spam, and of course the wetter years are always cooler, but these idiots have absolutely no idea:
DOCTORS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT BELIEVE CLIMATE WAS DECIDER FOR VOTERS IN AUSTRALIA
National Chair of Doctors for the Environment, John Van Der Kallen said climate change is now a deciding issue for Australian voters from all sides of politics.
“I think we see this in the results last night,” Dr Van Der Kallen said.
Doctors have been extremely concerned about the health of all Australians in a hotter and potentially wetter nation, especially since the fires of 2019/2020 and the floods this year in Queensland and New South Wales.
“Climate change is the greatest threat to health this century and we are already seeing the health impacts of this firsthand on the front line in GPs’ rooms and in hospital emergency departments,” he said.
“We welcome the incoming government’s commitment to increased emissions cuts this decade which will reduce the health impacts for all Australian’s and the health of our nation.
“The science tells us that we need even greater cuts this decade to keep our climate safe, and we hope that the new government will be ambitious, as this is clearly the message from the Australian people.
“There was definitely a political moment in a shift from what happened in the 2019 election, and two major events defined this change – floods in Qld and NSW and the bushfires in the summer of 2020.
“In terms of mental health, we are still seeing the fallout from these two events from people living in those communities. Moves towards carbon neutral industries will future proof our energy needs and ensure the health of all Australians as we move forward.”
Dr John Van Der Kallen can be contacted for comment on 0431 535 742.
To speak to other doctors across Australia, please contact Dylan Quinnell on 0450 668 350 or Sally Spalding on 0401 184 986
Jennifer, You have nailed it. Following the money re the climate catastrophe will tell the real story as you have identified.
More spam to file:
Jo Dodds, President Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, said:
“In Cobargo, in Tathra, in Mogo, in Mallacoota, in Winmalee, in Narrabri, in Kangaroo Island, in every state and territory ordinary Australians have made climate the top issue at this historic election. Voters raised their voices in the cities, the suburbs and in the regional areas where we are already seeing the changes – floods that are metres higher than ever before, fires that are beyond anything seen before, smoke, mould, plagues of leeches and potholes. We have paid too high a price already as floods and fires destroyed our homes, our communities, our hopes. We need certainty, we need a safer future built on renewables and support for communities being impacted so terribly by these events.
“Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action congratulates the winners in all seats. In particular we thank Kristy McBain in Eden-Monaro and Susan Templeman in Macquarie, for standing strongly on climate. We hope they continue to champion our safety in this new term of parliament. We also want to congratulate Andrew Constance in Gilmore, a seat which still hangs in the balance. Mr Constance, a Liberal candidate, has been a fierce advocate for his community in the aftermath of the Black Summer fires, calling for urgent action on climate.
“Survivors stand ready to work with the new government and ALL politicians who are ready to build a safer future.”
Dr Jeannet Kessels, Chair of Veterinarians for Climate Action expressed relief and confidence:
“The election result is clear. Australians have voted for no further delay on climate action. We can now expect a national climate plan that delivers results in this decade, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030.
“With Government resources directed to building a zero-emissions economy in all sectors including energy, transport, industry and agriculture, Australia will become a climate leader.
“Animal health has a critical position in our future, whether the diversity of native wildlife, the livestock that contribute to our food security or our much-loved pets.
“Vets for Climate Action will continue to engage with politicians at all levels of government and in all parties – we know that bipartisan support for strong climate policies is essential to protect Australia’s animals and ensure a safe future for our families.”
For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact Dylan Quinnell on 0450 668 350
More spam. And why aren’t they asking for the closure of coal-fired power stations? It seems now they have caught the bus they are back peddling.
Australia’s climate champions have conquered: now it’s time for Labor to step up
AUSTRALIANS who care deeply about climate change have spoken loud and clear this election, with a clarion call for the incoming Labor Government to step up to the biggest challenge and opportunity that our country faces.
CEO of the Climate Council, Amanda McKenzie, said climate concerned voters in the cities, suburbs and regions of Australia had unleashed their fury and frustration at almost a decade of climate inaction at a federal level.
“Over almost nine years’ in office, the Liberal-National Government’s approach to climate action ranged from inadequate to non-existent. Australians are paying a heavy price for that, and they have made their feelings known.
“Mr Morrison’s time as Prime Minister was bookended by two climate-fuelled disasters – first fires, then floods – that brought home to many of us exactly what is at stake.
“Currently, we’re on a course to climate catastrophe. That requires a sharp correction. Australians deserve a federal government that recognises the scale of the challenge before us, and the pace of action that’s required. We can not afford to waste a single more day.
“Australia now has an opportunity to repair its damaged reputation on climate on the world stage. We expect our incoming Prime Minister will demonstrate that we are ready to show decisive leadership on climate, starting at next week’s Quad meeting in Japan.”
Candidates who were championing strong climate action performed well across the country, including (but not limited to):
Victoria: Independent Helen Haines in Indi; Independent Monique Ryan in Kooyong; and Independent Zoe Daniel in Goldstein.
Queensland: Greens members Elizabeth Watson-Brown in Ryan and Max Chandler-Mather in Griffith.
New South Wales: Independent Kylea Tink in North Sydney; Independent Sophie Scamps in Mackellar; Independent Zali Steggall in Warringah; LNP’s Andrew Constance in Gilmore and ALP’s Kristy McBain in Eden-Monaro.
Australian Capital Territory: Independent David Pocock for the Senate.
In many other electorates, there were swings toward candidates and parties with credible climate policies and away from those without them. For example, strong swings towards Greens candidates in the QLD electorates of Brisbane and Dickson and independent candidates in SA’s Boothby, NSW’s Cowper and VIC’s Nicholls.
Ms McKenzie added it was in Australia’s economic and security interests to prioritise climate action, which could deliver widespread benefits to communities all over the country.
“Australians have been very clear on what they want: decisive climate action this decade. We are one of the sunniest and windiest countries on earth – the opportunities and advantages we have are off the charts. But only if we grasp them, and fast. Forget half-arsed efforts or platitudes. It’s time for Australia to step up, and get on with it.
“All Australians will be watching to make sure this is done. The Climate Council will be with them every step of the way, keeping this new Labor Government accountable for delivering climate action now.”
The Climate Council is calling on the incoming Federal Government to:
1. Turn Australia into a climate leader
2. Prepare Australia for worsening extreme weather
3. Improve existing energy policies
4. End government support for fossil fuel expansion
5. Strengthen transparency and accountability
Read the full detail in the Climate Council’s Climate Policies for a Sensible Government policy briefing.
Read the Climate Council’s detailed assessment of the Labor Party’s climate policies.
For interviews please contact Jane Gardner on 0438 130 905.
Thanks Jen, for again pointing out what a mad, mad world we live in, now made worse and controlled by these idiots.
I wonder what it will take to get us back on an even keel?
Spangled Drongo
I think everything has flipped. I don’t think there is any going back now. That ‘Teal Grouping’ could have a majority in their own right next time around. They have money behind them, and the zeitgeist.
With the eco-nazis, it is ALWAYS doctrinaire solutions in search of “problems”.
Global cooling, Global warming, Klimate change, global weirding: The “solution” is MORE totalitarianism, ALWAYS! And ALWAYS, somewhere in the “terms and “conditions”, is the DEMAND for “population reduction”.
We had plenty of that in the last century, but these psychos seem to think Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc, (unsurprisingly, ALL “socialists”) were outright pikers.
Hi Jennifer,
thanks for the post.
I felt so sad last night when i saw the result. my stomach just turned in knots and hasnt stopped since,
I saw some stats this morning that said Australian voters put climate change at the bottom of lists of the their most important concerns. In fact less than 10%.
And then i heard from some moron TV presenters that this was the Climate Change vote that has been coming (????). are they that stupid that less than 10% is the reason that people voted the Morrison govt out. Give me strength…
Then i see the stats on voting,
Guess what, The Libs had the majority of Australian votes, well over 30% and labor had well under than 30% (and they govern ???, OMG we have gone completely mad).
Homes a court has a big influence here and now has the Teals under his power to do whatever he wants. and Labor will just pander to whatever they ask for.
He has done something quite illegal in putting a party together, funding it and not registering it, and will get huge beneifts form his influence, I thought that was corruption for registered parties to do that. Oh yeah his party is not registered, funny about that.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck then it is a Homes a court duck/party, and part of his Climate 200 organisation.
there needs to be an inquiry into this !
Anyway, i worked all day and half the night (14 hrs to be exact, in the cold) on a polling booth for my local Lib candidate and she won hands-down over the labor idiot she was running against (twice now).
Thank God we still have sensible people in my electorate, and many other Lib electorates who didn’t bend and weaken at the knees to the dumb general public sheep-think.
God bless us and save us all for what is to come.
I hope people see in the next 3 years that they had their sheep wool brains pulled right over their eyes. AND vote Libs back in after just 1 term of Labor.
Good luck everyone ! and stay sane.
regards, ed
One of the main problems with climate catastrophism promoted by the organisations that you quote here is that the media never question their outrageous claims. These people are never called out by journalists/editors, who just regurgitate their press statements verbatim without comment. Even the alarmist IPCC has admitted that events like bushfires, floods, storms and other weather events cannot be attributed to rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere. So why are these organisation leaders allowed to promote these outright lies unchallenged?
Keep up the good work, Jennifer. I always enjoy reading your blog, particularly the continuing BOM temperature fraud saga.
I’ve done enough work on the monsoon to find that it has not changed since 1813. The monsoon is global and it tracks the solar cycle and weakens at solar maxima peak. If the monsoon has not changed, climate has not changed. The weather, however, has changed. In the northern hemisphere, the jet streams are ricocheting off the Greenland ice cap and the standing waves create drought and wild fires in the lee and heavy rains with floods in the front. In the southern hemisphere the jet streams probably are blocked by the Andes in a similar way causing Queensland and New South Wales floods of recent years.
If the new solar cycle 25 is as weak as cycle 24 the extreme weather will likely continue but if Cycle 25 is strong, extreme weather will abate. Everything rides on the strength of the solar cycle because the sun controls the contraction and expansion of the atmosphere.
David Tanner,
What is the pH, (I assume you mean the ocean) and over what time frame has it altered ?
Cheers,
Real action on climate is predatory economic reform. Why can’t we have an open debate on these billionaire renewable investors? In the meantime let’s hope nature keeps being kind to the sceptics.
Nature is niether kind nor unkind,
it just is, as it wants to be, for hundreds of millions of years.
and Weather is not Climate. WE, cannot change the weather or the climate.
Climate change is what allowed us Humans and Animals and Vegetation and Biological species to be what we all are today.
Without climate change we would not ever have existed. We would still be single cell ameba (if that).
We can however, change the amount of air pollution and other pollution that we put into the environment and I would like to see this as a replacement for climate change hysteria.
This is real and fixable. I believe a lot of the argument has been lost in translation and hysteria to benefit those who are pulling the strings, Climate believers are just the puppets at the bottom of the food ($money$) chain.
Also BTW, CO2 is not a pollutant. It is the building blocks of life and CO2 rise follows warming, not the other way around.
No argument about rise in CO2 and a very very very small rise in Global Mean Average Temp. Which by the means absolutely nothing.
The scale on the Temp anomaly graphs are so blown out to the tiniest fraction of a degree its looks like a joke to anyone who understands stats and graphs.
Put into perspective and scaled to the actual temperature, it represents a tiny weeny blip on the graph.
Sometimes facts, can get in the way of a good story, and even more so, gets in the way of billionaires profits.
Thank you climate change !
The new Labour government in Australia must immediately impose windfall taxes on the people/ businesses which own the wind-turbines or directly benefit from them on their land. As a Labour Government taxing un-earned income should come as automatically as wrecking the economy. Car ownership in the large cities of Australia can also be banned in support of the new administration’s green credentials although this might conflict with the politician’s genuine personal green credentials.
>”I think everything has flipped. I don’t think there is any going back now. That ‘Teal Grouping’ could have a majority in their own right next time around. They have money behind them, and the zeitgeist.” [Jennifer M, above]
Agreed.
There are far too many variables for confident prediction, but Beijing has offered a bribe to Port Moresby (as well as the Solomons) and Australia has voted in the appeasers. Beijing would dearly love to aquire our mineral deposits, mines and farms.
For anyone still in a muddles as to what went down last Saturday, here’s why:
Teal stands for Tertiary Educated Ativistic Lunatics
If Frydenberg and Wilson both know that Climate Change is a lie and yet run with the Zeitgeist then they are very dishonest, rotten maybe and have sold out to chase their own personal gain – whatever that is.
What do the Libs see in Wilson and Frydenberg as well for that matter.
Jen, I think the US mid terms in November will give us a good indication as to whether rationality can prevail.
Hi Jennifer – Just linked the following to a comment on the WUWT version of this post. Thought it might be relevant here for your readership also: https://www.beefcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Australia-is-already-a-net-zero-CO2-emitter-thanks-to-our-forests-and-rangelands-2.pdf .
Just filing this lunacy here, lead story in today’s ‘Sydney Morning Herald’
“Labor seeks climate consensus, investigates asylum seeker boat
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong landed in Tokyo overnight for a meeting with Quad alliance partners Japan, India and the US. Here’s what they, and other members of the new Labor government, will be focusing on in the coming days. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Climate: After a Quad summit this morning with the leaders of all four nations, Albanese will hold separate talks with US President Joe Biden. He will seek consensus on the two countries’ climate change goals, including co-operation on clean energy and support for global climate talks to be held in Australia. The US and Japan signed a climate pact yesterday, aligning their emissions-reduction targets for 2030 and 2050.
Climate scientists and activists around the world have welcomed Labor’s victory, with Professor Tim Flannery declaring: “climate action is the true winner of this election”. But it has also sown further division in the Coalition – moderate Liberals are calling for more ambitious climate policies while the Nationals are warning they could break from the alliance and ditch their commitment to net zero emissions.
The climate change debate, done and dusted, has long been a diversion, along with Covid-19 and almost everything else that the msm serves up and a multitude of influencers, promoters and mindbenders cultivate and keep on the boil until there is need for another wheeze to keep up the diversions. The people in power in the West have been traitors for 40 and more years. Whitlam the windbag was an early sign of things to come. Later we had the silver bodgie. The people get the governance they deserve, for sure. It so happens, I never voted in a political election- not counting union elections. I’ve had my say since the mid-eighties in the media, for democracy’s sake.
But the traitors? They do it for the money, for a lark, for fun or just for the hell of it. Scomo was perhaps the ultimate in that regard. He is only being used. What the new independents have in mind, such as this billionaire who is a blemish on his surname, one has to wonder if they are not seriously deluded. The only game worth watching-too late to worry about- is China. I could see that coming in the 1980s. Ever since, the Oz electorate has voted for either tweedledumb or dumber. As the lady from Canning puts it, what have we coming to us, as a consequence of our, collective, failings? Our very collective due, that’s what. It won’t be pretty.
The parasitic class has used climate fear, covid fear, faux racism, all to enrich the ultra wealthy and empower a government system that despises liberty.
Great commentary Jennifer;
This new government is frightening in their intent/ ability to cause so much harm to our country’s economy.
I think that we should challenge them to fix the floods and the fires, and all other catastrophes immediately by shutting down coal fired power tomorrow, if it’s gonna work do it now !!
While their at it stop all coal exports, iron ore exports, and end all co2 emitting farming.
Do it now, like tomorrow. See how long you last in goverment then . .
Some people quote dodgy old temperature records and say there is no global warming.
The Earth’s melting ice proves that there is an alarming amount of global warming.
It is very difficult to melt ice, the energy required to melt a kg of ice is the same as that needed to heat a litre of water from 0C to 80C.
The average decline in Earth’s ice per year in cubic km is
A 315 km3 decline in Arctic Sea Ice per year (from 17,000 km3 in Sep 1979 to only 4,000 km3 in Sep 2020)
A 280 km3 decline in Greenland’s ice cap each year
A 245 km3 decline in Mountain Glacier’s every year
A 150 km3 decline in the Antarctica’s ice cap each year
This is mainly caused by the CO2 from burning fossil fuels, we need to phase them out ASAP. For more information Google PIOMAS and the GRACE satellites.