Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says history will prove the carbon tax to be a manageable economic reform

Mr Combet says Labor has lost a lot of "political skin" over the controversial policy, but the carbon tax is "the right thing to do".

He says the carbon tax will create an instant tariff that will encourage the country's largest polluters to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

"It is a pretty tough reform, there's no doubt about that, but that's because it is such an important issue," he said.

Mr Combet says senior Government ministers, including Trade Minister Craig Emerson, will be in Whyalla today to highlight that industrial towns are not shutting down.

The town attracted national attention last year when Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said it would be "wiped off the map" by the tax, a claim Mr Combet has ridiculed.

"I think Mr Emerson will be there with his tape measure making sure the sky hasn't fallen," he said.

Mr Abbott says the next federal election will be a referendum on the carbon tax.

But Mr Combet says the Opposition Leader's case against the carbon tax is a "complete sham".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-01/controverasial-carbon-tax-takes-effect/4102830

As one sieve through the idiotic arguments of the denialists who argue many stupid things including that there is never enough CO2 in the atmosphere because CO2 is a natural source of food for plants, one can fall down the trap of responding to that.

Let me do this anyway...

'Seriously though", in order to "capture" the yearly anthropomorphic extra CO2, we would  have to plant one thousand billion new trees that would grow to maturity within twelve months and roughly fertilise six thousand billion football field-sized algae blooms with three billion tonnes of ammonium nitrate... Sure, I exaggerate a bit here, but one cannot be too cautious... With that many new trees where would we live? Plants can only absorb so much CO2. 

Plant can only survive within a range of temperature. For example, when the temperature reached more that 45 degree Celsius in Sydney on the hottest ever recorded New Year's day, 2006, many plants suffered from heat stroke... I could see dark blotches growing on their leaves. Some plants died, not by lack of water or such, but by becoming too hot. When the "ambient" temperature is about 45 degrees Celsius, the surface temperature of sunlight-exposed leaves can go well-above 75 degrees Celsius. Note: one of the beaut adaptations of many big Australian Eucalyptus trees, are their small leaves with their "hanging down" position to prevent the leaves from being exposed to direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day, while humidity is very low. 

Seriously though, in the early 1990s, massive 1000 kilometres long algae blooms in some of the Australian rivers were a wake-up call — a call that we have quickly forgotten though... First there was far too much nutrients in the rivers from "effluents" (basically badly-treated human crap) coming into the water from little towns and super-phosphate from farms spread along the meandering... All that was needed was a hot dry day...

Algae blooms are like these really annoying antiseptic hand-wash lotions or bathroom products they keep advertising on the box — those that kill "99.9 per cent of germs"... Algae blooms, when feeding on the "effluents", release deadly toxins, extract CO2 and the oxygen dissolved in the water, basically killing 99.9 per cent of all life in the river. Heat and strong direct sunlight are also part of the process which is photosynthetically driven... Eventually, the algae bloom itself dies and falls to the bottom of the river which it coats with a slimy stuff that will turn into hydrocarbon grease within the next couple of million years... Or it rains and  the whole lot is washed down into the sunset...

Seriously though, that is why our esteemed leaders of the world travel thousands of miles, burning fossil fuel by the plane-loads to go to a conference — on how to stop the world using fossil fuel — and coming out of it with nil-result and a fossil fuel bill... One could say, why not do a virtual conference-call with less hot air, but then how could our leading personnel survive boring lectures without the hugging and kissing with some other important mortals, including the world leader himself, without the problem of time zones?...  

Let's be honest here. The debate is easy. 
On one side, science is boring as bat-shit... I mean the real science — not making stink bomb in a school lab — I mean the science that demands the analysis of zillion upon zillion pages of complex data with computers and formulas that look no more than incomprehensible deranged squiggles on a blackboard, the lot with a margin of error we estimate as being a ton of bricks. 

On the other side, the strong argument is to say: "global warming is crap." 

End of story. the emotional argument is won hands-down instantly and elegantly. We can go back to watching footy and porn. 

But the argument "global warming is crap" can only be held for so long by the denialists. They know this... The punch-line effect is immediate but the reality does not really fit the picture and like in all advertising campaigns we get bored with the repeats... The surface of the Earth is warming and serious denialists' scientific analysis has also come to this really annoying conclusion... 
Thus "global warming is crap" needs to be qualified and propped up by some serious fake science to "prove" the extra CO2 is not a culprit in the warming and, anyway, does not come from humans crapping into the atmosphere.  

Seriously though, this is where Lord Monckton of Brenchley comes in: "Global warming scientists are Nazis". No, Seriously though, the good lord collects a plethora of sexy curvy figures and impressive numbers plucked from thin air in the Blabosphere and mixes them with fast-casting plaster to give us, in one brilliant scientific statement: "global warming is crap". 
One cannot argue seriously, even scientists cannot argue here... Mostly because most of the reference material quoted by the good lord has not been recorded, except in the imagination of the good lord himself.... Scientists are exhaustive sticklers for references... By the time they discover the good lord facts and figures are total boloney with no scientific bases, Lord Monckton had won the emotional debate with his truckload of glittering rubbish... an a populist roll of the eye...

Seriously though, as the good lord becomes a self-damaged casualty, more serious scientists — with no intended knowledge of the dynamics of global warming — come in to bat for the denialists, with their own degrees and solid PhDs in whatever... For example Jo Nova has a PhD in microbiology, Ian Plimer has a PhD in geology and George Pell gets his information directly from god. Nothing wrong with their chosen studies but complete bullshit with their beliefs on climate change of course... Their interpretation of facts and manipulations of figures on the subject are parts of a superb conjuring art form that mere mortals can be bamboozled with... We need our bullshit detectors on high but most of us do not possess such sensitive device tuned to the complexities of the scientific debate...

There again, proper scientists go back to their slide rules, logarithms table and reference books to recheck everything including the depletion of the ozone layer — meanwhile the enormous seeds of doubt —aren't we all Thomases? — have delivered a new crop of denialists. Easy... 

But these pseudo-scientists would fall on their arse if they did not get support from prominent idiots with the gift of the gab and large doses of money... An Alan Jones for example, the more he says : "global warming is crap", the more money he collects... Isn't this fantastic? Jones is one of the promoters of the lord Monckton of Brenchley who "got his Nobel Prize" by being third cousin to a fictitious scientific paper... Gina Rinehart is another sponsor of the good lord... Other prominent idiots include our former Prime Minister, John Howard, who keeps promoting Ian Plimer's dicky "research"... The list of idiots is long and far too many of them, like good sociopath, hold position of power in the conservative ranks — especially communicative power... Take Uncle Rupe for example... If tomorrow someone managed to convince him that global warming was on, one could suggest that the denialists would be defeated in one swoop... But behold, even if he understood the proposition that global warming was real, one has to realise that every time Uncle Rupe preaches "global warming is crap" — via the editorials and chosen spruikers of his stable of misinformation channels — he makes more money... What would you do?

Seriously though, how come money seems to be the key here?
Well, our modern societies have built their comfort around burning carbon extensively as if there were limitless tomorrows... Simple isn't it? And selling comfort has been our prime call since we first exchanged three shells for a yam... If the deal could not be made, we'd beat the shit out of the guy and steal the shells (or the yam) anyway. That's what called market forces... Sure, since these early days, we've coated this basic trade with coats of complex sophistication — including banking.

Essentially our understanding of the mechanics of the universe and this planet stops with this simple remark: "is there a buck in it for me?"... If you say "global warming is crap", there is a big buck to be made from and for those who sell carbon which is a commodity that underpins 99.9 per cent of our created needs...  If you say "global warming is real", everyone is going to suffer from what has to be done to stop it... 

Thus for many of us, the choice is simple: "global warming is crap"... And on this level, one cannot fight this with science. 
Tony Abbott is an idiot...

 

Australia has introduced its highly controversial carbon tax, after years of bitter political wrangling.

The law forces the country's 500 worst-polluting firms to pay a AU$23 (£15; $24) levy for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce.

The government says the tax is needed to meet climate-change obligations of Australia - the highest emitter per-head in the developed world.

But the opposition calls it a "toxic tax", which will cost jobs.

The opposition also argues that the tax will raise the cost of living, promising to repeal the legislation if it wins the next election, due in 2013.

Environmentalists have broadly backed the scheme, but there have been large public protests against it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18662560

 

MEANWHILE:

Some three million people have been left without power after violent storms hit the region around the US capital, Washington DC.

The storms swept from the Midwest states to the region around Washington, packing winds of up to 80mph (130 km/h).

The power outages left many sweltering without air conditioning amid a record-breaking heatwave.

At least 12 deaths have been linked to the storm, officials say.

The storm is locally referred to as a "derecho" - a violent, straight-lined windstorm associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.

It left behind felled trees, streets littered with fallen branches and downed power lines.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18656648

 

 When the storm knocked out power for an Amazon data center in Northern Virginia that hosts some popular Web sites, services like Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest went down. Most of the sites were back online Saturday afternoon.

At airports in the Washington area, power failures forced some airline workers to enter data manually, causing delays. The emergency response was also hampered in some areas where the 911 system was not functioning correctly, including in Fairfax County, Va.

Officials with the National Weather Service described the Friday night storm as “a derecho” — a long line of ferocious thunderstorms that produce a large swath of damaging winds. The storm moved from the Ohio Valley east to the mid-Atlantic states at 60 miles an hour, producing winds in some places of up to 90 miles an hour, said Mr. Porter, the meteorologist.

The hottest weather in the mid-Atlantic is expected around the Washington area, where temperatures on Friday reached 104.

Thomas H. Graham, the president of Pepco, the utility that serves the area around Washington, said its workers were out inspecting the damage once the storm passed. But, in a statement, the company said for those without power — which included more than half of its 788,000 customers — “the power-restoration effort is expected to take several days.” Other power companies gave similar estimates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/us/storms-leave-2-million-without-powe...      

 

Colorado firefighters see things they never had before

By Adam Kilgore, Sunday, July 1, 8:58 AM

COLORADO SPRINGS — Tuesday afternoon, Colorado Springs Fire Department Capt. Mike Wittry waited for his assignment with his wife by his side, at Coronado High School, the staging area to fight the wildfire blazing through Waldo Canyon. They had been evacuated from their home on the other side of the mountain, in the Mountain Shadows subdivision. They sat alone and listened to the scanner. A panicked update crackled over the radio: “Mountain Shadows is burning.”

He took his wife’s hand, looked into her eyes and said, “We’ve got each other.”

And then Wittry, 55, went to work. A 30-year veteran, he joined the hundreds of firefighters who battled the most destructive wildfire in state history, which destroyed 347 homes and at its peak, forced the evacuation,of 32,000 people. The number has shrunk to 10,000. Two bodies were found in the ruins of one house. No firefighters have been killed in the 26-square-mile blaze, but it forced them to see things they never had before.

By Saturday afternoon, authorities had increased the Waldo Canyon Fire’s containment to 45 percent, but they worried about continued dry conditions, high temperatures and possible thunderstorms. The National Guard committed more than 150 soldiers to help Colorado Springs police return to normal work. President Obama came here Friday and hailed the firefighters as heroes.

Authorities had started to wrangle the blaze, but the effort to limit damage still raged. Behind Station 9 on Garden of the Gods Road, Wittry, who has wavy, gray hair, wire-rim glasses and a mustache, ran the staging area: the parking lot for Appliance Factory Outlet had been converted into a makeshift headquarters. He wore a blue T-shirt, thick, bright-yellow pants and black boots. He carried two cellphones. When one of them rang, he answered curtly, “Staging, Wittry.”

The wildfire charred but spared his home from destruction. Given the intensity of the fire, Wittry felt exhausted but fortunate. He has been too focused on salvaging other homes to worry much, yet, about his own. He has not been to his usual firehouse, Station 3, in days. He had difficulty describing the last week. He settled on, “controlled chaos — and I don’t know about the controlled part.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/colorado-firefighters-see-things-they-never-had-before/2012/06/30/gJQAVJLYEW_print.html

 

Meanwhile, Tony Abbott is an idiot...

 

Indian officials say more than two million people have been displaced by floods and landslides in the north-eastern state of Assam.

The mighty Brahmaputra river and many of its tributaries have breached their banks after monsoonal rains, washing away thousands of homes mostly made of bamboo and straw, as well as roads, bridges and power lines.

Officials say at least 77 people have been killed and 2,000 villages have been inundated.

It is the worst flooding in the region in a decade and has left more than two million people homeless.

The state government is providing makeshift housing to 500,000 people.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-03/deadly-floods-in-india-assam-brahmaputra-river/4106102

 

Note that this follows some mighty hot temperatures im India:

 

With summer comes the usual litany of complaints — heat, humidity, high electricity bills. But summer, especially summer in Mumbai, comes with a few benefits — bear with me here. Yes, it’s hot but it’s nowhere near as bad as say New Delhi or Ahmedabad, where the temperature can touch 47 degrees Celsius and counting. Or even as bad as Kolkata where the almost 100 per cent humidity is more effective at knocking you out than an elephant tranquiliser.

The high temperatures in Mumbai have been hovering around 33 to 34 degrees, which is not bad at all. The problem is that the minimum is about 27 degrees, which means there is not much difference between night and day. That is why, you might argue, god invented the sea breeze and air-conditioners. And deodorants.

http://www.mid-day.com/columnists/2012/may/090512-Hot-and-happening-Mumbai.htm

 

Meanwhile Tony Abbott is an idiot... See toon at top...

 

 

from Crikey …..

climate policy not so taxing

The average per capita income in South Africa is about US$7,000.*

In Thailand it's $4,400.

In Vietnam, $1,200.

In Australia, $46,000.

What do these countries have in common? They've all introduced, or plan to introduce, a carbon price or emissions trading scheme.

As outlined by Erwin Jackson in Crikey today, South Africa's move towards a carbon tax (it's due to start in July) has been a picnic compared with Australia's torturous experience, fraught with cheap shots, misrepresentations and rent-seeking. South Africa managed to get politicians, industry and experts to work together to draft a functional approach to restrain growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

Kind of a non-event, really; not "a major political issue in South Africa" Jackson found.

In the three months Australia has strained under a carbon tax, Whyalla has not been wiped off the map. Elsewhere in a warming world, the Arctic melts before our eyes and warm water bleaches the coral of the Great Barrier Reef.

So is the hysterical opposition to carbon pricing an unedifying spectacle which can be consigned to the vault of political history? Or will we see a resurgence as the election approaches?

If so, maybe the South Africans, and their $7,000 annual salaries, may have to show us how it's done.

* World Bank figures on per capita Gross National Income.

Yes John...

The article above shows some steps in the right direction... 

Yes, I talk with scientists — those who analyse the atmosphere in minute details... and basically these, those scientists who crunch the numbers say without a flinch: "we're doomed...". Well, not doooooomed in the sense of Armargeddon or Dante's inferno, but at this stage, the worse than the worst scenario of global warming is unfolding in front of our scientific eyes... But we, the average morons, can't see... If people like you and me were starting to notice global warming as a "warmer environment" we would be cooked within five years...

Science on the subject is still in its infancy though very precise in the tally crunching...

The latest "concensus" I have been advised of is that the 50 per cent reduction of CO2 enissions of what was agreed at the Kyoto Protocol in order to achieve a minimisation of a 2 Degrees Celsius increase by the end of this century, is now hovering near 80 per cent reduction of emissions...  No country has been able to curb 5 per cent of CO2 emissions... And that figure of 80 per cent is actually optimistic...

Of course the US should lead the way and hopefully after the next election something may filter down into the Yanks' thick skulls... but hope not if Romney gets in...

Meanwhile the Chinese are doing some industrialisation catch up but are caught up in the wirlwind of growth and carbon usage restraint... which of course affects the Australian economy... The latest saga about the Chinese trying to buy a wind farm in the US is but a small potato in the growing war of energy supply...

 

Now if my (and theirs) scientific estimates are correct, increase in global warming are soon to reach 0.07 degree Celsius average per annum, though this year (2012) should be around 0.3 increase and thus be THE warmest on record... (the statisticians are keeping this under wrap, waiting for the last data on December 31)). Of course if one tallies up all this, depending on the way the wind blows or/and if a comet hits the earth, accounting for El Nono and the sun's awakening, increase average PER DECADE is going to be between 1 and 2 degrees... 

The Vostok ice core record is clear. An increase from 180 to 300 ppms of CO2 is equivalent to an increase of ten degrees in atmospheric temperatures... But such changes in the Vostok ice record were happening over several thousand years... at present these changes are happening on a yearly basis... And we have reached 400 ppms of CO2 in the atmosphere... A simplistic mathematical linear calculation tells us that 400 ppms of CO2 gives us 18 degrees increase of temperature... No joke... There is some elasticity and lag in the process due to the melting of ice and as well some "albedo" factor and greater heat loss in the cosmos as heat goes up, thus the Lagrangian equations would reduce this increase to about 14 degrees Celsius nonetheless, by the end of the century... 

Scientists are HORRIFIED by what they see...  Anyone who knows science should be... 

I have the feeling that serious scientists are awaiting for a massive climatic event (possible) that will prove them right once and for all in front of politicians and those idiotic shock jocks, but the christians amongst these scientists pray to god this won't happen... knowing it will...

This massive events that I "predicted" (calculated) for 2032 has been brought forward by one the number crunching serious scientists I was talking to a couple of days ago: between 2015 and 2020 OR as soon as next year... Blimey...

He was not joking...

Gus Leonisky