Andrew Bolt's Blog, page 1903
January 15, 2011
And he doesn't mention Palin once
Jared Loughner's college releases this video he made of a walkthrough of his "genocide school", during which he rants about bad grammar, the loss of his freedom of speech and the "bad place" he's at.
The school realised from this he was so disturbed and potentially dangerous that it suspended him. It took the collective wisdom of the Leftist media to decide his real problem - the one that had him shooting congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and murdering six others - was that he'd listened to too much Sarah Palin and Right-wing radio.
It's difficult to imagine how much more vile, malicious and wilfully ignorant some in the media could be.
UPDATE
Yep, sounds like a Right-wing Palin supporter, as angry as the Tea Party about government waste and Obama's health care plan:
THE suspect in the mass shooting in Arizona posed for photos with a gun, dressed only in a bright red G-string, and had the film developed on the eve of the rampage that killed six people and gravely injured Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, authorities say.
(No comments on holiday break.)
The drought that warmists said might "never break" just did
The warmists who once claimed the drought was caused by global warming are now claiming they predicted these floods.
Which reminds me. What is one of the leading warming catastrophists, David Jones, now saying? Let's check:
As the floodwaters recede, there are lingering questions about whether the worst has in fact passed.
David Jones, the manager of climate monitoring and prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology, says perhaps not. He says eastern Australia remains in the middle of a very strong La Nina system that will continue until at least the autumn. And, while La Nina events usually last for 12 months, they can last a lot longer. "A strong La Nina can last for a number of years as happened in 1998, 1999 and 2000."
We may have heavy rain for years yet? Hmm. But how does that prediction square with this warming alarmism from Jones of three years ago, eagerly reported by the Sydney Morning Herald:
This drought may never break
Richard Macey
January 4, 2008
IT MAY be time to stop describing south-eastern Australia as gripped by drought and instead accept the extreme dry as permanent, one of the nation's most senior weather experts warned yesterday.
"Perhaps we should call it our new climate," said the Bureau of Meteorology's head of climate analysis, David Jones.
He was speaking after the release of statistics showing that last year was the hottest on record in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT…
"There is absolutely no debate that Australia is warming," said Dr Jones. "It is very easy to see … it is happening before our eyes."
The only uncertainty now was whether the changing pattern was "85 per cent, 95 per cent or 100 per cent the result of the enhanced greenhouse effect".
"There is a debate in the climate community, after … close to 12 years of drought, whether this is something permanent. Certainly, in terms of temperature, that seems to be our reality, and that there is no turning back..."
(Thanks to reader Mark. No comments during holiday.)
Israel's fires caused by a warmist, not warming
Israel's terrible fires last month were blamed by Greenpeace on ... you guessed it: Greenpeace wishes to emphasize that this fire is a direct expression of the effects of climate change and global warming which threaten us all. Climate change is already here and it is taking a heavy human toll!
Israel must take this warning sign seriously and take immediate measures in order to eradicate the effects of climate change. Israel must cancel its plans to construct another coal plant, reduce use of fossil fuels, and realize that we are dealing with an international struggle.
Oops. Trouble is the fires weren't caused by global warming but a green activist:
The cause of this particular fire was, sadly enough, the good intentions of a participant in the Rainbow Festival that was being held at the site. For ecological reasons, she burned toilet paper she had used so as not to leave it in nature, and in normal circumstances, that would have been the thing to do. However, due to the strong winds and the unseasonable hot air, the dry grasses caught on fire immediately, and the fire spread in four different directions simultaneously.
(Via the excellent hauntingthelibrary. Thanks to reader Greg. No comments during holiday.)
Should the Wivenhoe have been bigger?
One thing needing investigation is whether the Wivenhoe dam was left too full to properly protect Brisbane from flooding. (See various posts below.)
Another is this:
There are some signs that Brisbane's flood defences may improve in future. In 2007 a report examining the Wivenhoe dam's storage capacity was conducted by the Queensland government and Seqwater. It concluded that neither the Wivenhoe dam nor the Somerset dam, which feeds into the Wivenhoe, satisfies the ANCOLD - Australian National Committee on Large Dams - guidelines on flood capacity.
The report recommended various methods for increasing the storage capacity by 200 to 600 gigalitres at costs ranging from A$5 million to more than A$200 million (the sums are about the same in US dollars) . However, Seqwater is too busy this week to respond to questions on whether the recommendations have been implemented, according to The Australian.
(Thanks to reader JF Beck.)
January 14, 2011
Save the planet! Don't breathe
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Melbourne's Scienceworks museum does its best to make children seem like planet-killing oxygen thieves.
(Thanks to reader Stewart. No comments during holiday break.)
Does it depend on who's paying?
Tim Flannery on ABC1's Eating the Future, September 1998:
MUCH of Australia is rangelands, unsuitable for growing crops, but ideal for meat production. Kangaroos and emus are the only large land animals that are perfectly adapted to this country. Both have the potential to be harvested sustainably and profitably over vast areas of the continent—and they taste good too. . . . We can either continue to eat at our country's expense or we can find ways to feed ourselves that's in tune with its nature.
Don't have a cow. Flannery quoted on the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia website:
UNFORTUNATELY for our environment this attitude prevailed throughout our settlement—the land was wrong and had to be changed into how a good European farm should be, the animals should be removed and replaced with good European animals. Along the way we have caused huge damage to our fragile grazing lands. It's only in recent times that the concept of utilising this land with the animals that belong here has emerged. Doing so has the potential to deliver enormous environmental benefits.
Evolution of the menu. Story in The Land on November 18, 2009:
ENVIRONMENTAL scientist Tim Flannery believes large animals like cattle and sheep are essential to restoring the health of the planet and reducing greenhouse gas levels. . . . The forum at which Flannery was speaking last week was organised by Meat and Livestock Australia in a move to get on to the front foot in the increasingly noisy debate about whether people should become vegetarians to save the planet.
The future is at steak. Flannery in The Brisbane Times, August 9, 2010:
IT is argued by those who oppose meat-eating that cattle produce methane, and therefore a better strategy would be to destock the rangelands altogether. But is it really desirable to abandon use of the world's rangelands at a time of perilous food security? Furthermore, if the rangelands were to be destocked and left unmanaged, it is likely that fire would burn the vegetation, which would lead to more carbon entering the atmosphere and huge increases in nitrous oxide. I believe . . . livestock represent a potent weapon in the fight to stabilise our climate.
Let it beef. AAP story on August 10, 2010:
FLANNERY on Tuesday addressed a forum hosted by Meat and Livestock Australia on the future of grazing in a changing climate and amid rising concerns over greenhouse gas emissions. He said large herbivores such as cattle had replaced huge marsupials that roamed Australia more than 40,000 years ago and had restored balance to the ecology.
We've already noted Flannery's habit of spruiking a form of green power that he's actually invested in - and often without declaring his vested interest. And, yes, this is the man who has claimed that money is corrupting the global warming debate.
UPDATE
Speaking of Flannery's investment in Geodnyamics, the geothermal power company given $90 million by the Rudd Government to develop a technology that Flannery claimed was a doddle:
There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia's economy for the best part of a century. They are not being fully exploited yet but the technology to extract that energy and turn it into electricity is relatively straightforward.
Huntley's Recommendation, distributed by Etrade, begs to differ:
GDY is an emerging geothermal power company focused on its 70% owned hot fractured rock (HFR) project in the Cooper Basin of South Australia… GDY aims to extract heat for large scale, zero emission, base-load electricity from 4km deep hot granites....
Our recommendation at this stage is Avoid. We justify this based on: the poor financial track record; poor adherence to internally set timelines; the early stage of technological development; the lack of clarity regarding commercialisation; and a lack of suitable valuation methodology. We expect losses to continue for the foreseeable future and the share price to be volatile…
GDY is more science experiment than business. It makes no profits; its technology is yet to prove economically viable. Net losses grew from $300,000 in FY02 to $15m in FY10. No dividends have been paid or are expected for the foreseeable future. Future revenue and profits are highly uncertain… Administration expenses rose by 54% a year since FY04, director's fees by 30% a year....
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) or Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) technology is a newer alternative approach being pursued by GDY. It involves the artificial circulation of liquids within high temperature 'dry' rock. There are no EGS projects globally which generate electricity on a commercial scale. Investors should be cognisant that the technology must first be proven before commercial electricity production is viable. GDY's Cooper Basin project faces additional challenges from its remote location. High infrastructure costs may prohibit commercialisation. The Federal Government aims to increase renewable energy generation to 20% of total production by 2020. Other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are far more progressed than EGS....
The original timeline released at IPO in 2001 forecast commercial electricity production by 2006. It is now expected by 2019!
(Thanks to reader Panky.)
Not a great import to this country
I'm not convinced our immigration and refugee programs have properly considered issues of integration. From today's papers…
Item one:
A GROUP of young males trapped a 21-year-old woman in her laundry before raping her while her children slept nearby, a court has heard.
The seven males, aged between 14 and 21 and who came to Australia as refugees from Sudan or Afghanistan, yesterday applied for bail in the Bendigo Magistrates' and Children's courts.
Police told the hearings Mohammad Zaoli, 21, Aru Gar, 19, Mohammed El Nour, 18, and Akoak Manon, 18, and three youths aged 17, 16 and 14 came to Bendigo from Shepparton to go nightclubbing last Saturday.
SENIOR police met with Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim yesterday amid fears the attempted murder of his oldest brother Sam could spark a full-scale bikie war....
The meeting was held as detectives revealed former bikie boss Sam Ibrahim, a life member of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang, would have known his attackers…
Police will flood Kings Cross this weekend, with the riot squad, officers from Strike Force Raptor - which has been targeting the bikies - and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad swelling local police ranks in the wake of the shooting....
(John Ibrahim's) second youngest brother Fadi, 36, still bears the scars of the attempted assassination by a balaclava-wearing gunman after five bullets slammed into his black Lamborghini in June 2009.
In December last year, the Ryde home of one of the Ibrahim sisters, Armani Haddad, was targeted in a drive-by attack - with 25 bullets peppering the house…
With his behemoth of a bodyguard Semi Ngata, better known as "Tongan Sam", glued to his side wherever he goes, John Ibrahim declined police assistance last year after reports a price had been placed on his head, supposedly by members of the Comanchero bikie gang.
(No comments during break.)
But never too soon for the Left to blame the Right
When asked by journalists about this issue, (Prime Minister Julia) Gillard responded that the focus should be on the immediate recovery effort from the floods: "Well, thank you for that question, and what I would say in answer to it is right now it's time to focus on this immediate crisis in so many parts of our nation and helping families and communities through, so that's where my focus is..."
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has dismissed the role of dams in mitigating extreme weather events.... The senator went on to say that having this debate now is "ineffective, inappropriate, and highly insensitive".
Dear Editor,…
Andrew Bolt's call, while bodies were still in the ocean, for Julia Gillard's resignation ... lacked human decency. He should resign.
Senator Bob Brown
But it's not too soon after the tragedy for the Left to push its dodgy claim that global warming caused the Queensland floods:
The Queensland floods are another reminder of what climate science has been telling us for 25 years, like the recent long-running drought, the 2009 heatwaves and the dreadful Victorian bushfires. As well as a general warming, increasing sea levels and altered rainfall patterns, climate modellers confidently predicted more frequent extreme events: floods, droughts, heatwaves and severe bushfires.
The New York Times wastes no time in finding the Palin angle to the attempted assassination of Democrat Representative Gabrielle Giffords, shot through the head by a lone gunman:
During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin's map.
Others were even more gleeful. DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Tweeted, "Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin." Jane Fonda likewise insists Palin "holds responsibility" - "as does the violence-provoking rhetoric of the Tea Party".
Perhaps the best exemplar of this hypocrisy is the ABC's The Drum. It's editor, Jonathan Green, claimed to be appalled by the rush to a (correct) judgement on the Left over the deaths of boat people at Christmas Island:
Rushing to judgement in the face of tragedy…
Waiting until just after 3.30 this afternoon before fronting the media and addressing today's asylum seeker tragedy made Opposition spokesman Scott Morrison look the model of restraint. "A day of sadness as worst fears realised," he said.
The blogosphere was not so circumspect....None of this shook the confidence of the Herald Sun's Andrew Bolt, who at 12.45 told his readers that the Prime Minister and her Government had "Blood on their hands"....
"There wasn't a lot you could do but count heads," said an eye witness at Christmas Island, that or, at vast remove, rush to judgment and scramble for a political edge.
But Green did not hestitate to rush out this (wickedly false) judgement by the Left's Bob Ellis on the Right over the shooting Gabrielle Giffords:
Palin, who may be guilty of 'encouraging a terrorist act' is politically finished I would think now, and Donald Trump the automatic Republican front-runner, closely followed by his hair. And Fox News, which has done its fair share of enflaming domestic terrorists with its Tea Party war cries and yodellings, may lose some sponsorship and a lot of audience, fast… If Obama wanted to also, he could rescind Rupert Murdoch's US passport for using his media clout and world-wide microphone to advocate violent solutions to small political differences…
Gaby Giffords will seem, and seem with good reason, one of the Democrats' better angels, and the first martyred saint of the Health Care Wars of this century.
Judge Bligh by what she did to prevent this
How a leader appears in a crisis is indeed important, if for no other reason than the effect on morale. By that measure, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has performed very, very well.
But Gavin Atkins is right to say that real judgment on her must take in what her Government did to prevent or mitigrate this disaster:
Bligh was praised both for demonstrating Queenslanders' strength in adversity, and later for her emotion when she broke down at a press conference.
All of this, to me, is bizarre. Are we so shallow that the television performances of politicians during a disaster should cause their promotion or demotion? I thought Karl Stefanovic also did well on television during the floods, but does anyone really want to wake up with Karl as prime minister?
About those issues we as yet know too little, and once the emergency is over we must see what there is to learn to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.
But here's one lesson already, as I've mentioned before:
As for Gillard, documents relating to the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam, vetoed by Peter Garrett in 2009, reveal it would have reduced flood levels in Gympie by about 4m. Garrett vetoed the dam over concern for lungfish, turtles and cod.
While this would not have been built in time for the present floods, you would have to question the sincerity of the Gillard government when it comes to flood control in Queensland.
Expert claims Wivenhoe was too full to protect Brisbane
More evidence that Wivenhoe - the dam protecting Brisbane from flooding - was kept too full:
As the clean-up in Brisbane began, hydrologist Aron Gingis, formerly of Monash University, criticised the policy of keeping Wivenhoe at maximum capacity, not including the dam's capacity for flood mitigation, in the lead-up to the deluge. He said it meant that the dam's buffer to absorb a huge inflow of water from extreme rainfall had been severely compromised.
The Queensland government-owned dam's operator, Seqwater, did not respond to written questions last night.
Ahead of this week's flooding, the massive volume of water in Wivenhoe rose to 190 per cent of its notional capacity, meaning nine-tenths of its capacity to absorb flooding had been soaked up.
At 200 per cent, authorities would have been faced with an uncontrolled release of water into the Brisbane River. Mr Gingis said Seqwater had "no right prior to the start of the wet season, when the forecasts were all pointing strongly to exceptional rainfall, to keep so much water in the dam"."I tried to warn them about the coming disaster and to urge them before it was too late that they had to release much more water to give themselves more storage room for a big one.
"There is no doubt in my professional opinion that most of the flooding in Brisbane should have been avoided."
Mr Gingis said the dam's levels should have been taken down much more in the months before the extreme rainfall, and that this would have meant its operators would not have been forced to release huge volumes of water that made a significant contribution to the flood in the Brisbane River.
Ms Bligh confirmed yesterday that dam operators came "very close" to losing control of the massive Wivenhoe Dam at the peak of the flood crisis in Brisbane.
Asked late yesterday if she believed the strategy followed by the dam's operators in releasing water had been conducted appropriately, the Premier neither endorsed nor commended the strategy, saying it was a question for technical experts to examine.
This must be the subject of an open inquiry once the emergency has passed. I would be interested to know not just if this allegation is true - that the dam was kept too full - but also to what extent the dam operators relied on assumptions that Queensland rains were declining.
We already know that this assumption, made by global warmists, persuaded the Labor Government to build a desalination plant that has since been mothballed.
How close to an even greater disaster Brisbane came:
It is believed the Wivenhoe Dam came within 90cm of blowing "a fuse plug", which would have crumbled an emergency spill wall and released a wave of water with devastating consequences for Brisbane.
(No comments during break.)
UPDATE
That said, the sheer volume of water that fell is astonishing:
It's estimated that up to 7.5 billion tonnes of water - 15 Sydney Harbours, if that can be imagined - crashed on to southeast Queensland during this week's superstorm.
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