Green Scam: Business Creating Its Own Demand

Posted on Wednesday, 1st September 2010 by Ozboy

I commented on this issue recently on the DT blog in response to this article by Christopher Booker, but it’s a topic worthy of further attention. I’m sure most of you have heard of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a tax-and-regulate plan set up as part of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Under it, firms in the developing world who can demonstrate they have reduced emissions are rewarded with carbon credits, which they can on-sell to western polluters, or use themselves to expand their operations.

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Posted in AGW | 69 Comments

The Next Emperor?

Posted on Friday, 27th August 2010 by Ozboy

Even the Middle Kingdom is no match for one small sniffer dog when he’s in the mood!

LibertyGibbert’s grand master of mirth, Fenbeagle, this week aims his pencil at an oft-forgotten but oddly familiar chapter in Chinese history…

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Posted in AGW | 105 Comments

The Dragon’s Dissent Part II: Carbon Tax As A Trade Weapon

Posted on Monday, 23rd August 2010 by Ozboy

The publication of the Introduction to Low Carbon Plot by Gou Hongyang, on this forum twelve days ago caused reverberations around the world. In it, we saw how China dismissed the purported scientific consensus on Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW), regarding its driving force rather as political—a plot by Western governments and business to protect their own lifestyles at the expense of the developing world.

That was the why. Today, we examine the how. In his latest dispatch, LibertyGibbert’s resident China correspondent, Locusts, has translated into English for us from the same book, Chapter 1.4: Standing Before the Great Enemy. You can navigate to it from the Rare Scribbling menu at the top of this page, or just click here.

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Posted in AGW, China | 317 Comments

A Plague On Both Our Houses

Posted on Sunday, 22nd August 2010 by Ozboy

Federal Parliament: A pack of galahs

The Australian Federal election has been run and won. It’s just that, we don’t know by who.

Mr Rabbit and Julia the Red have both come up short of gaining the 76 seats needed to hold a majority in the House of Representatives. Both can form government only with the support of at least one hostile independent. Labor appear to have won 72 in their own right, while the first Green elected to the Lower House in a general election—Adam Bandt in the inner-city seat of Melbourne—and independent (and former Greens candidate) Andrew Wilkie in the Hobart-centred seat of Denison, would notionally side with a Gillard Government. The Liberal-National coalition are claiming victory in 73 seats; however, while the three sitting independent, but former National Party members—Bob Katter in Kennedy (outback north-west Queensland), Tony Windsor in New England (rural central-northern New South Wales) and Rob Oakshott in Lyne (mid-north NSW coast) have all been returned and would notionally give Abbott the 76 seats he needs, all three have in the past demonstrated hostility to the Coalition over a variety of issues. Abbott would need strict undertakings from all three regarding confidence (that is, that they would not support a no-confidence motion on the floor of the House, bringing down the government). Gillard, on the other hand would need two of these three naturally conservatives to side with her to form government—implausible, yet not impossible given the political leverage it would afford them.

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Posted in Australia | 150 Comments

Global Warming And The Hot Water Bottle

Posted on Thursday, 19th August 2010 by Ozboy

Our God-Emperor has taken ill. And to cheer him while he recuperates, why don’t you record your best wishes, offer suggestions, remedies or reading materials he might like?

I’ll start with one that’s sure to tickle his funny bone: A devastating critique of the IPCC by James Cook University PhD candidate John McLean. A worthy accompaniment to chicken soup and honey-and-lemon to take the mind off those aches and sneezes.

Hyperlinks at the ready!

Posted in AGW, Daily Telegraph Blog Disaster | 386 Comments

To Refuse To Choose

Posted on Wednesday, 18th August 2010 by Ozboy

On Saturday, Australians go to the polls in an election that will, in all likelihood, shape the way we in this country work, eat, travel and power our homes for decades to come. Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard is seeking a mandate to take Australia three steps closer to the authoritarian workers’ paradise she so fervently advocated as secretary of the Victorian Socialist Forum.

Having replaced the prime minister elected by the people, in a midnight back-room deal engineered by the NSW Labor Party machine, Julia the Red is essentially running a fear campaign on Work Choices, the centre-right Liberal-National coalition government’s industrial relations policy emphatically rejected by the electorate in 2007.

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Posted in Australia | 54 Comments

A Difficult Decision

Posted on Tuesday, 17th August 2010 by Ozboy

A note to all LibertyGibbert’s readers…

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Posted in Uncategorized | 37 Comments

The China Syndrome

Posted on Monday, 16th August 2010 by Ozboy

G’day Everyone,

I’m away today (doing research for a new article) but I’ll be leaving you in the very capable hands of some of LibertyGibbert’s finest talents…

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Posted in AGW, China | 82 Comments

Milanković And The Exploding Chook Shed

Posted on Saturday, 14th August 2010 by Ozboy

I thought I’d cover another science topic today, after this week’s fill of politics. Most of you have probably heard mention of Milanković Cycles (the spelling usually Anglicized to Milankovitch Cycles) in relation to the study of the earth’s climate. Today I’ll explain what they are, and why they’re relevant to the CAGW debate.

Those of you with training in the physical sciences will regard what follows as old hat, and are free to continue your darts match in the corner. Everyone else, grab a drink and gather round.

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Posted in AGW | 248 Comments

The Dragon’s Dissent

Posted on Wednesday, 11th August 2010 by Ozboy

As you’re probably aware, most warmists appear to believe it vitally important that the reputed consensus in the scientific community regarding CAGW remains inviolate. Any questioning of this consensus, any appearance of pockets of dissent anywhere in the world, is ruthlessly attacked—as we’ve seen so often in both the published literature, and the blogosphere.

This makes the Chinese government’s derailing of last year’s Copenhagen summit most intriguing. Given that scientists in that country do not have to tout for research grants the way they do in the West, and are thus (counter-intuitively in an otherwise totalitarian society) freer to give their masters frank and fearless advice, untainted by any political agenda, it begs the question: what do you suppose they told Premier Wen Jiabao (himself a qualified geologist) about Global Warming? And what is Mr. Wen’s own opinion?

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Posted in AGW, China | 294 Comments