Andrew Bolt's Blog, page 1898
January 20, 2011
Frogs bounce back to contradict the warmists
How could this consensus, underpinned by peer-reviewed science, be wrong?
National Geographic News, January 2006:
Global warming may cause widespread amphibian extinctions by triggering lethal epidemics, a new study reports.
J. Alan Pounds and colleagues suggest that many harlequin frog species (Atelopus) across Central and South America have disappeared due to deadly infectious diseases spurred by changing water and air temperatures.
"Disease is the bullet killing frogs, but climate change is pulling the trigger," said Pounds, lead study author and resident scientist at Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.
"Global warming is wreaking havoc on amphibians and will cause staggering losses of biodiversity if we don't do something fast."…
Climate scientists have long warned that global warming could spur deadly disease epidemics. The study suggests that such a scenario may already be unfolding in the amphibian world.
If so, humans and other species should consider themselves duly warned.
Washington Post, January 2006:Rising temperatures are responsible for pushing dozens of frog species over the brink of extinction in the past three decades, according to findings being reported today by a team of Latin American and U.S. scientists.
The study, published in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that climate change has already helped wipe out a slew of species and could spur more extinctions and the spread of diseases worldwide.
The US National Science Foundation, January 2006:
Results of a new study provide the first clear proof that global warming is causing outbreaks of an infectious disease that is wiping out entire frog populations and driving many species to extinction.
The Australian, October 2008:
Frogs are "the canary in the coalmine", Dr Goodall told The Australian yesterday.
"When you see frogs disappear at this rate, then you realise there's something very wrong with the ecosystem where they live."
Of about 6000 amphibian species worldwide, it is estimated close to 2000 are now threatened with extinction. Dr Goodall, who spends at least 300 days a year travelling to promote environmental issues, blames climate change, pollution and a disease spreading throughout the world for the decline in frog populations. "It's armageddon for frogs," she said.
Frogs Australia Network:
Oops. Either global warming has stopped or it was never a real factor. From New Scientist:
FROGS across Australia and the US may be recovering from a fungal disease that has devastated populations around the world."It's happening across a number of species," says Michael Mahony at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, who completed a 20-year study of frogs along the Great Dividing Range in Australia for the Earthwatch Institute. Between 1990 and 1998 the populations of several frog species crashed due to chytridiomycosis infection (chytrid) caused by the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, but Mahony's surveys suggest that the frogs are re-establishing.
Barred river frogs (Mixophyes esiteratus) disappeared, he says, but now up to 30 of the animals have returned to streams across Australia's Central Coast. The tusked-frog (Adelotus) and several tree frog species (Litoria) have also returned there. Ross Alford at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, says tree frogs are also repopulating other areas of the state after their numbers nosedived. Some have even reached pre-infection levels.
In the US there are also signs of recovery. Roland Knapp at Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory at the University of California says mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosas) - once "driven virtually to extinction" - are returning.
Peter Westmore has the story, and more damning quotes.
(Thanks to reader John.)
Consider the Murray saved already
The Gillard Government plans to stop the Murray from running dry in this period of climate change by taking irrigation water from farmers. But its public consultations have been disrupted by an unforseen change in the climate:
The committee, which is focusing on the socio-economic impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's ''Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan'', heard from a number of organisations and individuals during yesterday's hearing at Mildura…
The Swan Hill hearing was postponed ''due to flooding in Victoria'' ...
I'd say that flooding should postpone more than a single hearing of that committee.
(Thanks to readers Bob and Ida.)
I wonder how many times Al Gore's been stung
It's like taking candy from a baby, since no one is more dedicated to conferences in nice places than is the modern global warming scientist, and to hell with the gases it takes to fly there:
Consider it a carbon tax.
(Thanks to reader Nathan.)
These rains are driving warmists crazy
There's so much to choose from, but Tim Blair manages to select what he claims is the most stupid thing ever written by the Sydney Morning Herald's Elizabeth Farrelly. Naturally, it involves global warming. and contains a plea to embrace a "near certainty" which is "unknowable".
By the way, there's now only seven years to go before we know whether Farrelly was right to warn that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream dead by 2018. So far it's not looking good. For Farrelly, I mean.
Guess what the Government's warmist will say about the floods?
AAP reports:
A report on the flood disaster and climate change will be undertaken by an expert on the federal government's multi-party committee which is investigating ways to price carbon. Professor Will Steffen, a member of the climate change committee set up by the Gillard government in September last year, told AAP he was working on a report covering the floods.
EUReferendum suspects the fix is in:
This is the man who already believes that "climate change" made the floods worse. Just the man to do a nice, impartial report.
(Thanks to reader Observer of Wodonga. No comments during break)
January 19, 2011
And the next minute, they were up to their necks
A brilliant before-and-after display of photographs that shows the scale of the floods.
(Thanks to reader John. No comments during break.)
Wonderful spokesman for his new faith
Odd, how Islam seems to attract converts of a troubled and angry disposition - and just the kind of people to make everyone else even more suspicious of its role in a secular and tolerant society:
ISLAMIC preacher Ibrahim Siddiq-Conlon points heavenwards to emphasise his message for the governments of Australia—there is no God but Allah and only his laws should be obeyed.
"My attack is on the Prime Minister of Australia," he said yesterday. "I hate the parliament in Canberra. I want to go straight for the jugular vein and advise the parliament that they have no right to legislate. They should immediately step down and let the Muslims take over."
An Australian-born convert to Islam, Siddiq-Conlon is the self-anointed leader of a group called Sharia4Australia, which is pushing for the introduction of sharia courts as a first step towards achieving Islamic law.
"One day Australia will live under sharia; it's inevitable," he said. "If they (Australians) don't accept it, that's not our problem. We hope, and our objective is to have a peaceful transition, but when you look at history that has never been the case. There's always been a fight. It is inevitable that one day there will be a struggle for Islam in Australia."
The guy clearly is someone with an ego that's outsized in comparison to his real worth, and is getting off on the attention. But it would be good if such loudmouths were promptly disowned by Muslim leaders. But for the moment:
Siddiq-Conlon will join a debate tonight at the Parramatta Town Hall in Sydney on the merits of sharia versus democracy. The event was organised by self-styled debate promoter Zaky Mallah, who was acquitted of terrorism charges in 2005 but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a commonwealth officer after his passport was cancelled.
(Thanks to reader Fay.)
MTR today, January 20
- how should we pay for the flood damage? I'd rather the Gillard Government switched its spending from wasteful areas and white elephants such as the NBN, or even delayed a return to Budget surpluses. But I'm betting on a rise in taxes or a levy instead, since there is one promise the Gillard Government dare not break - to return the Budget to surplus by 2012-13.
- should we really bail out people who didn't take out insurance on their properties? Isn't this punishing those who did?
- Tourism Australia has a triumph with the Oprah special. MD Andrew McEvoy says the show is better than he'd hoped, but worries that the floods may hamper our ability to profit from it.
- Oprah mangles poor Julia Gillard's name.
- Shouldn't even a racist and Jewish conspiracy believer be entitled to a gun licence?
And more, including the price of ginger. Listen here, and join us tomorrow at 8am.
The donations that Bob Brown would destroy
Greens leader Bob Brown, the warming alarmist who wants to stop coal mining and slash oil use to "save" the planet, should ask himself which industries would then step in to provide the jobs and money to make good that loss. To clarify his thinking, here's some of the big donors to Queensland's disaster relief appeal:
BHP Billiton $1,000,000
ConocoPhillips $1,000,000
XSTRATA Queensland $1,000,000
ExxonMobil Australia $250,000
Rio Tinto $700,000
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) $250,000
Macarthur Coal $250,000
BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance $100,000
Joy Mining and P&H MinePro $100,000
Minerals and Metals Group Australia $80,000
Sumisho Coal Australia $50,000
(Thanks to reader Craig.)
Even a racist and conspiracist has rights
The man is a loon and his views are disgusting, But does being anti anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist mean you should lose your rights to, say, a gun:
A man declared a white supremacist by police and ruled a possible risk to public safety by a psychiatrist has been granted the right to possess a handgun.
Darryl Potts, who believes there is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy other races, had his AB firearms and probationary pistol licences revoked by police after he expressed "white supremacy views" to officers during an incident involving domestic violence. But, in a landmark case, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal has ruled that, even though Mr Potts might hold extreme and offensive views, that does not mean he is mentally impaired and he is legally entitled to a firearm licence.
The decision was at odds with the opinion of police, the Firearms Registry and a psychiatrist's clinical assessment that Mr Potts had the potential "to put public safety at risk".
Mr Potts, an elevator technician at Federal Parliament, pursued the case because he believed having a revoked firearm licence could affect his security clearance to work in government buildings.
There was some alleged "domestic" incident two years ago that worries me, but I tend to agree with the reasoning of ADT member Peter Molony:
Mr Potts is an intelligent, manipulative and calculating man. The fact that he holds political and religious views and opinions that are offensive is not, in my opinion, sufficient to find that the public interest requires that he no longer hold a firearms licence… To do so would be to embark on a slippery slope ... to totalitarianism.
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