Apologies For "Climate Scare"
Prominent Environmental Activist Michael Shellenberger Speaks Out
Thomas D. Williams
Breitbart News
Well-known climate activist Michael Shellenberger has issued a public apology for the unfounded panic caused by environmentalists over the fabricated horrors of global warming.
Writing for Forbes Monday, Mr. Shellenberger — a Time magazine Hero of the Environment and winner of the 2008 Green Book Award — said that on behalf of environmentalists everywhere, “I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years.”
“Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem,” Shellenberger declares. As an Expert Reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public,” he states.
Mr. Shellenberger proceeds to deny 12 climate myths that have been drummed into the modern psyche, but which have no basis in scientific fact. “Humans are not causing a ‘sixth mass extinction,’” he begins, the Amazon “is not ‘the lungs of the world,’ and climate change “is not making natural disasters worse.”
Moreover, he continues, a few key facts help put global warming and its supposed effects into perspective. “Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003,” he states, and the amount of land we currently use for meat “has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska.”
Showing posts with label Australian Bush Fires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Bush Fires. Show all posts
Monday, 6 July 2020
Saturday, 25 January 2020
Utopian Greenism Is Destroying the Planet
Don’t Blame Climate Change For Raging Wildfires
Blame Bad Management
Despite common sense, the historic record, and scientific evidence, leftist environmentalists would fight and protest for a utopia we will never see, all while the world burns.
Krystina Skurk
The Federalist
California and Australia share a common enemy: overzealous environmental regulation. In both places, the unintended consequences of a radical environmentalist agenda has been massive wildfires.
California suffered from two horrible fire seasons in the last three years, one of which burned down an entire town. Australia has been battling fires for months. More than 135 fires are still burning currently. So far, the fires have scorched 12 million acres, killed 25 people, caused 240,000 Australians to evacuate their homes, burned alive an estimated half a billion animals, and caused $3.4 billion worth of damage.
The big question isn’t necessarily how these wildfires started. In both cases, most of the fires were likely man-made, whether through downed electrical lines in California or arsonists in Australia. The real question, however, is what factors have contributed to making these fires into “mega catastrophes,” or fires that cause over a billion dollars of damage?
Many on the left will name climate change as the bogeyman. For example, a recent opinion article in The New York Times reads, “Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide.” Yet more evidence points to failed environmental policies.
This isn’t to say weather or climate doesn’t create dangerous fire conditions. Droughts create drier conditions, and hot air worsens wildfires, but there is even contention over the supposition that Australia is hotter and drier now than in the past. One researcher argues that, with a few exceptions, most of Australia has become wetter since 1910.
Blame Bad Management
Despite common sense, the historic record, and scientific evidence, leftist environmentalists would fight and protest for a utopia we will never see, all while the world burns.
Krystina Skurk
The Federalist
California and Australia share a common enemy: overzealous environmental regulation. In both places, the unintended consequences of a radical environmentalist agenda has been massive wildfires.
California suffered from two horrible fire seasons in the last three years, one of which burned down an entire town. Australia has been battling fires for months. More than 135 fires are still burning currently. So far, the fires have scorched 12 million acres, killed 25 people, caused 240,000 Australians to evacuate their homes, burned alive an estimated half a billion animals, and caused $3.4 billion worth of damage.
The big question isn’t necessarily how these wildfires started. In both cases, most of the fires were likely man-made, whether through downed electrical lines in California or arsonists in Australia. The real question, however, is what factors have contributed to making these fires into “mega catastrophes,” or fires that cause over a billion dollars of damage?
Many on the left will name climate change as the bogeyman. For example, a recent opinion article in The New York Times reads, “Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide.” Yet more evidence points to failed environmental policies.
This isn’t to say weather or climate doesn’t create dangerous fire conditions. Droughts create drier conditions, and hot air worsens wildfires, but there is even contention over the supposition that Australia is hotter and drier now than in the past. One researcher argues that, with a few exceptions, most of Australia has become wetter since 1910.
Friday, 17 January 2020
A Fresh Breath of Reasonableness
Aussie Mining Magnate Blames Arson for Deadly Bushfires
Donates $70 Million to Recovery
Simon Kent
Breitbart
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest rejected the assertion climate change is behind Australia’s bushfire crisis, instead pointing to arsonists Thursday as the biggest factor as he dipped into his own pocket to donate millions to recovery efforts.
“I think there’s a multitude of reasons why the fire extent has been so devastating. I think a warming planet would be part of that — [but] the biggest part of that is arsonists,” he said in the Western Australia state capital, Perth.
Forrest made the comments during an announcement of $70 million in aid to the bushfire recovery effort through his family’s philanthropic Minderoo Foundation.
Forrest’s pledge dwarfs the personal contributions from a host of celebrities such as reality TV star Kylie Jenner and actor Chris Hemsworth who have donated $1 million each. The Fortescue Metals chairman said he wanted to avoid politicising the issue of the fire recovery, but told reporters arson was the single major cause of Australia’s bushfire crisis not anthropogenic climate change.
Donates $70 Million to Recovery
Simon Kent
Breitbart
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest rejected the assertion climate change is behind Australia’s bushfire crisis, instead pointing to arsonists Thursday as the biggest factor as he dipped into his own pocket to donate millions to recovery efforts.
“I think there’s a multitude of reasons why the fire extent has been so devastating. I think a warming planet would be part of that — [but] the biggest part of that is arsonists,” he said in the Western Australia state capital, Perth.
Forrest made the comments during an announcement of $70 million in aid to the bushfire recovery effort through his family’s philanthropic Minderoo Foundation.
Forrest’s pledge dwarfs the personal contributions from a host of celebrities such as reality TV star Kylie Jenner and actor Chris Hemsworth who have donated $1 million each. The Fortescue Metals chairman said he wanted to avoid politicising the issue of the fire recovery, but told reporters arson was the single major cause of Australia’s bushfire crisis not anthropogenic climate change.
Tuesday, 14 January 2020
The Real Cause of Many Australian Bushfires
Nearly 200 People Arrested Across Australia
Yet media & celebrities continue to blame “climate change.”
Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Authorities in Australia have arrested close to 200 people for deliberately starting the bushfires that have devastated the country, yet the media and celebrities continue to blame “climate change” for the disaster. The fires have caused at least 18 deaths, destroyed thousands of homes, millions of hectares of land and killed hundreds of millions of animals.
A total of 183 people have been arrested by police in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania for lighting bushfires over the last few months, figures obtained by news agency AAP show. In New South Wales, 24 people were arrested for arson, risking prison sentences of up to 25 years.
In Queensland, police concluded that 103 of the fires had been deliberately lit, with 98 people, 67 of them juveniles, having been identified as the culprits.
“The link between arsonists and the deadly fires that devastate Australia every summer is well known and well documented, with the rate of deliberately lit fires escalating rapidly during the school holiday period,” reports Breitbart’s Simon Kent.
Around 85 per cent of bushfires are caused by humans either deliberately or accidentally starting them, according to Dr Paul Read, co-director of the National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson.
Deliberately or Negligently Starting Bushfires
Yet media & celebrities continue to blame “climate change.”
Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Authorities in Australia have arrested close to 200 people for deliberately starting the bushfires that have devastated the country, yet the media and celebrities continue to blame “climate change” for the disaster. The fires have caused at least 18 deaths, destroyed thousands of homes, millions of hectares of land and killed hundreds of millions of animals.
A total of 183 people have been arrested by police in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania for lighting bushfires over the last few months, figures obtained by news agency AAP show. In New South Wales, 24 people were arrested for arson, risking prison sentences of up to 25 years.
In Queensland, police concluded that 103 of the fires had been deliberately lit, with 98 people, 67 of them juveniles, having been identified as the culprits.
“The link between arsonists and the deadly fires that devastate Australia every summer is well known and well documented, with the rate of deliberately lit fires escalating rapidly during the school holiday period,” reports Breitbart’s Simon Kent.
Around 85 per cent of bushfires are caused by humans either deliberately or accidentally starting them, according to Dr Paul Read, co-director of the National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson.
It's Worth Serious Consideration
‘It's miraculous’
Owners say cultural burning saved their property
By Ella Archibald-Binge and Rhett Wyman
Sydney Morning Herald
Phil Sheppard watched with trepidation as a giant blaze approached his beloved Hunter Valley property outside Laguna, near Cessnock. The 66-year-old had poured his heart and soul into Ngurrumpaa - an isolated 160-acre bushland property with a main house and several huts, offering cultural camps for tourists and Indigenous youth.
The fire came within metres of the main house on Leanne King and Phil Sheppard's property in the Hunter Valley. Three weeks ago, he and other owners were forced to evacuate, helplessly watching online as the Gospers Mountain fire converged with the Little L Complex fire and appeared to engulf the property. To his amazement, when he returned two days later, traversing the long gravel driveway on foot after fallen trees blocked vehicle access, most structures remained perfectly intact.
“I came around the bend and could see my hut still standing, I just couldn't believe it,” he said. “It burnt right around the house ... it was as if somebody had been here watching it and putting it out, but there wasn't, there was nobody here at all.” Another hut, outside the cultural burn area, was completely destroyed.
Owners say the property was saved by the traditional Indigenous technique of cultural burning conducted on their land three years ago.
Owners say cultural burning saved their property
By Ella Archibald-Binge and Rhett Wyman
Sydney Morning Herald
Phil Sheppard watched with trepidation as a giant blaze approached his beloved Hunter Valley property outside Laguna, near Cessnock. The 66-year-old had poured his heart and soul into Ngurrumpaa - an isolated 160-acre bushland property with a main house and several huts, offering cultural camps for tourists and Indigenous youth.
The fire came within metres of the main house on Leanne King and Phil Sheppard's property in the Hunter Valley. Three weeks ago, he and other owners were forced to evacuate, helplessly watching online as the Gospers Mountain fire converged with the Little L Complex fire and appeared to engulf the property. To his amazement, when he returned two days later, traversing the long gravel driveway on foot after fallen trees blocked vehicle access, most structures remained perfectly intact.
“I came around the bend and could see my hut still standing, I just couldn't believe it,” he said. “It burnt right around the house ... it was as if somebody had been here watching it and putting it out, but there wasn't, there was nobody here at all.” Another hut, outside the cultural burn area, was completely destroyed.
Owners say the property was saved by the traditional Indigenous technique of cultural burning conducted on their land three years ago.
Thursday, 9 January 2020
Condemned to Repeat Evil
Greenist Folly
Those Who Will Not Learn From Mistakes Are Condemned to Repeat Them
The following article appeared back in early 2009. Columnist Miranda Devine argued that the terrible bush fires of the 2008/9 season were exacerbated significantly by nay-saying Greenists. It is as relevant today in Australia, as it was ten years ago.
But, such is the stranglehold of greenists and greenism in Australia nothing has been done. The result? More innocent people have died in the recent Australian firestorm catastrophes than need or ought to be the case. Greenism is a most deadly religion.
Green ideas must take blame for deaths
By Miranda Devine
Sydney Morning Herald
It wasn't climate change which killed as many as 300 people in Victoria last weekend. It wasn't arsonists. It was the unstoppable intensity of a bushfire, turbo-charged by huge quantities of ground fuel which had been allowed to accumulate over years of drought. It was the power of green ideology over government to oppose attempts to reduce fuel hazards before a megafire erupts, and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation to protect themselves.
So many people need not have died so horribly. The warnings have been there for a decade. If politicians are intent on whipping up a lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.
Those Who Will Not Learn From Mistakes Are Condemned to Repeat Them
The following article appeared back in early 2009. Columnist Miranda Devine argued that the terrible bush fires of the 2008/9 season were exacerbated significantly by nay-saying Greenists. It is as relevant today in Australia, as it was ten years ago.
But, such is the stranglehold of greenists and greenism in Australia nothing has been done. The result? More innocent people have died in the recent Australian firestorm catastrophes than need or ought to be the case. Greenism is a most deadly religion.
Green ideas must take blame for deaths
By Miranda Devine
Sydney Morning Herald
It wasn't climate change which killed as many as 300 people in Victoria last weekend. It wasn't arsonists. It was the unstoppable intensity of a bushfire, turbo-charged by huge quantities of ground fuel which had been allowed to accumulate over years of drought. It was the power of green ideology over government to oppose attempts to reduce fuel hazards before a megafire erupts, and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation to protect themselves.
So many people need not have died so horribly. The warnings have been there for a decade. If politicians are intent on whipping up a lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies.
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
Greenists Propagating a Grand Deceit
Enivoronmentalists Have Exacerbated Australian Fires
James Delingpole
Breitbart London
Australia is on fire, at least 17 people have been killed, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and an estimated half-billion animals — both livestock and wildlife — have been burned alive. The area burned in the bush fires so far is considerably bigger than the area burned either in last year’s Amazon rainforest fires or the fires in California. But let us not allow the heartbreak and the emotion to distract us from the truth about this natural disaster: it has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘climate change’.
First, let’s look at rainfall. All the data and graphs that follows are from the Australian BOM:
As we can see, rainfall in NSW over the last three months is well below average, but no worse than several previous years on record.
The same applies to temperature.
James Delingpole
Breitbart London
Australia is on fire, at least 17 people have been killed, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and an estimated half-billion animals — both livestock and wildlife — have been burned alive. The area burned in the bush fires so far is considerably bigger than the area burned either in last year’s Amazon rainforest fires or the fires in California. But let us not allow the heartbreak and the emotion to distract us from the truth about this natural disaster: it has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘climate change’.
First, let’s look at rainfall. All the data and graphs that follows are from the Australian BOM:
As we can see, rainfall in NSW over the last three months is well below average, but no worse than several previous years on record.
The same applies to temperature.
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