Y2K Was The Hoax Of The 20th Century, Climate Change Is The Hoax Of The 21st Century

People Wising Up To The Climate Change Circus, Despite Relentless
Scaremongering

Seeing Through The Hoax Of The Century:

November 4 2009

QUOTE: Despite the headline grabbing rhetoric about climate change calamity,
recent polls reveal that more and more people appear to be challenging the
orthodoxy.

QUOTE: we are wising up to modern day millenarianism where end-of-the-world
cults - those who have the most to gain from their fear mongering - preach
calamity.

QUOTE: It was [Y2K] as James Taranto wrote in The Wall Street Journal, the
hoax of the century.

INCREASINGLY, the road to Copenhagen resembles a suburban street on
Halloween with the number of climate change freak shows and stunts reaching
a nadir in recent weeks.

Nicholas Stern says we should turn vegetarian in order to combat climate
change.

If you must eat meat, eat kangaroos, says Ross Garnaut, because marsupials
emit negligible amounts of methane.

And that champagne you drank on Melbourne Cup day? Scientists scolded us
with a report that a 750ml bottle of bubbly could produce 100 million
bubbles, releasing five litres of CO2.

Yet far from rallying people to the cause of immediate action on climate
change, every new cri de coeur may be turning people away.

Could it be that those derided as the great unwashed are beginning to ask
more questions than their smart political leaders or the bastions of
intellectual curiosity in the media?

Late last month, activists gathered at Sydney Opera House to listen to
Sydney mayor Clover Moore announce that "the time for talk is past".

"Already we know that this building, our Opera House, for decades a symbol
of optimism and the human spirit, is under threat from global warming," she
says.

The Opera House under threat?

That would be from rising sea levels, right?

Just like the small island nation of Maldives where, last month, the
president conducted a cabinet meeting underwater to remind the world that
his country would be rendered uninhabitable by rising sea levels. Kitted out
in full scuba-diving outfits, Mohamed Nasheed and his ministers sat at a
table underwater off the coast of the capital of Male.

As planned, the president's stunt made headlines across the globe.

Send us money - and lots of it - is his message.

The media love stunts.

They are so easy to report.

Sadly, the media is not inquisitive enough to report those who question the
circus acts of climate change.

A week after the Maldives underwater show, Nils-Axel Morner - a leading
world authority on sea levels - wrote an open letter to the president
telling him that his stunt was "not founded in observational facts and true
scientific judgments".

Morner is a former professor who headed the department of paleogeophysics
and geodynamics at Stockholm University and past president (1999-2003) of
the International Union for Quaternary Research commission on sea level
changes and coastal evolution. INQUA was founded in 1928 by scientists who
aimed to improve the understanding of environmental change during the
glacial ages through interdisciplinary research.

In other words, the Swedish professor has gravitas when it comes to sea
levels.

Alas his letter did not make headlines. That is a shame.

Morner says there is "no rational basis" for the hysterical claims that the
people of Maldives - or the rest of the world - are threatened by rising sea
levels. And he sets out some facts.

Fact number 1:

During the past 2000 years, sea levels have fluctuated with 5 peaks reaching
0.6m to 1.2m above present sea level.

Fact number 2:

From 1790 to 1970 sea levels were about 20cm higher than today.

Fact number 3:

In the 1970s, the sea level fell by about 20cm to its present level.

Fact number 4:

Sea levels have remained constant for the past 30 years "implying that there
are no traces of any alarming ongoing sea level rise".

Fact number 5 (and I am paraphrasing here): The notion presented by the
President of the Maldives that his country will be flooded is bunkum.

Yet, last week a federal parliamentary report told Australians to make plans
to evacuate if we live on the coast.

Warning that the "time to act is now", the bipartisan report said the
711,000 addresses within 3km of the Australian coast - and less than 6m
above sea level - face threats from rising sea levels. The report called for
an inquiry by the Productivity Commission to examine the need for bans on
homes within these areas.

Viewers of the 7pm News on ABC1 were told by a Richard Branson lookalike -
complete with longish wavy grey hair, beard and crisp white shirt - that the
township of Byron Bay would be completely flooded by rising sea levels.

His expertise?

He is a resident of Byron Bay!

Despite the headline grabbing rhetoric about climate change calamity, recent
polls reveal that more and more people appear to be challenging the
orthodoxy.

The most recent Lowy Institute poll found that while 48 per cent of
Australian believe that global warming is a serious and pressing problem,
the numbers are down 12 points since 2008 and 20 points down since 2006.
"This is also the first year that it has not had majority support," said the
Lowy Institute.

A poll by Ipso Reid in Canada in September found that global warming has
dropped down the list of people's concerns. Indeed, a full 41 per cent now
say the threat has been overblown.

In the US, Associated Press reported on a poll last month that found 57 per
cent of people believe there is clear evidence that the world is heating up,
down 20 points from three years ago. These are some trend lines worth
watching.

Perhaps we are wising up to modern day millenarianism where end-of-the-world
cults - those who have the most to gain from their fear mongering - preach
calamity.

Remember Y2K?

The cult back then comprised computer experts.

They predicted disaster.

Planes would fall from the skies.

People would be caught in halting elevators.

Chaos would descend on anything that relied on a computer, from financial
markets to utilities. Governments duly prepared for disaster with the BBC
reporting that global preparations for the millennium bug were estimated to
have cost more than $US300 billion.

All for nought.

Nothing happened.

It was, as James Taranto wrote in The Wall Street Journal, the hoax of the
century.

Maurice Newman, who was chairman of the federal government's Y2K committee
told The Australian last week that "in pressing the urgency for compliance,
the committee members relied heavily on confirmatory bias. Most of this came
from so-called experts who had much to gain from creating a sense of alarm.
The consequence of widespread inaction was claimed to result in chaos and
systemic failure. As there was no alternative authoritative voice, this
became perceived wisdom and was certainly believed by the committee. As such
the Y2K phenomenon took on a life of its own."

Deja vu?

Preparing for the deluge of rising sea levels, we were treated to footage
last week from parliamentary question time starring Julia Gillard and her
gumboots.

Appropriately she was followed on ABC1 by Bananas in Pyjamas.

Could man-made climate change turn out to be the greatest hoax of the
present century?

Certainly, ordinary people are beginning to ask questions.

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/s
eeing_through_hoax_of_the_century

Warmest Regards

Bon z0

"It is a remarkable fact that despite the worldwide expenditure of perhaps
US$50 billion since 1990, and the efforts of tens of thousands of scientists
worldwide, no human climate signal has yet been detected that is distinct
from natural variation."

Bob Carter, Research Professor of Geology, James Cook University, Townsville

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