Coal, not candles, should be the symbol of Earth Hour.

It was coal that produced clean electric power which cleared the smog produced by dirty combustion and open fires in big cities like London and Pittsburgh. Much of the third world still suffers choking fumes and smog because they do not have clean electric power and burn wood, cardboard, unwashed coal and cow dung for home heat.

It was coal that saved the forests being felled to fuel the first steam engines and produce charcoal for the first iron smelters.

It was coal that powered the light bulbs and saved the whales being slaughtered for whale oil lamps.

It was coal that produced the steel that replaced shingles on the roof, timber props in the mines, wooden fence posts on the farms and the bark on the old bark hut.

In Australia today, coal provides at least 75% of our lighting, cooking, heating, refrigeration, rail transport and steel. Without it, we would be back in the dark days of candles, wood stoves, chip heaters, open fires, smoky cities, hills bare of trees and streets knee deep in horse manure.

Coal is fossil sunshine as clean as the green plants it came from, and often less damaging to the environment than its green energy alternatives.

Earth Hour candles are green tokenism for rich status-seekers and nostalgic dreamers.

We should spend Earth Hour saluting the real people who produce the coal on which most people on earth depend.

The Real Agenda of Earth Hour

“We must make this place an insecure and inhospitable place for Capitalists and their projects – we must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers, and return to the wilderness millions and tens of millions of acres of presently settled land.” – Dave Foreman, “Earth First”

For those who would like to read more:

Clearing the smog of Beijing with “Coal by Wire”: http://carbon-sense.com/2008/08/04/clearing-the-smog/

Return to the caves: http://carbon-sense.com/2010/05/06/earth-day-blackout-night/

Hail to Electricity: http://carbon-sense.com/2010/04/01/hail-to-electricity/

The Road to more Blackout nights: http://carbon-sense.com/2010/03/26/earth-hour-2010/

Earth Hour – a Dissent: http://carbon-sense.com/2011/03/25/mckitrick-earth-hour/

There is more in the PDF version of this post: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/earth-hour.pdf [PDF, 82 KB]

The Australian government’s plan to sell their un-saleable carbon tax has hit a snag – their pollsters have discovered that the word ”carbon” provokes anger in the electorate. This is no surprise. Most decent people hate liars and the carbon tax campaign has been mired in lies from the start.

There are five big carbon lies.

Read on for more, including:

• Farming Carbon Credits
• The New Brisbane Line?
• The Big Unravelling Starts, in Germany
• Global Warming is not the Threat – Ice is the Killer
• Renewable Electricity for Australia – the Cost
• Practical Weather Prediction
• How we are Winning the Climate Wars
• Carbon Sense will keep up the fight

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/carbon-lies.pdf [PDF, 230 KB]

The Climate Scare/Green Energy Bubble will be the defining feature of our age. Never before have so many people wasted so much money and time on climate fables, alarmist handouts and energy toys.

Already it has spread further, distracted more people and wasted more community resources than the South Sea Bubble, the Tulip Mania or Y2K. Future generations will read in wonder how sensible people like Germans, British, Spanish, Danes, Californians, Australians and Kiwis lost their ability for critical thinking.

The guilty parties will never admit their foolishness, and the vested interests will fight to keep their privileges, so we will have to fight every inch of the way. They will have to be removed.

But reality and public opinion are on our side. We just need to keep illustrating and lampooning the cost of this foolishness. And keep Tony Abbott to his promise to AXE THE CARBON TAX.

Please help us by passing this on.

More:

• Coal Powered Cars
• Solar Bubble Bursts
• Wasteful Wind Power
• Can Green Energy be Saved?
• The Real History of Global Warming
• Karma Neutral
• How to Vote
• The Last Word

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/green-toys.pdf [PDF, 163 KB]

Some at the big end of town are worried that Mr Abbott may keep his solemn promise to repeal the carbon tax. No doubt they and their smart lawyers fear losing the clever green schemes that rely on ripping off tax payers, consumers and other businesses.

Australia’s wealth and jobs have always rested on three legs – mining and farming, making and processing things, and rich foreigners; in short, resources, manufacturing, and money from tourists and investors.

The Gillard carbon tax will white-ant all three legs.

Mining and farming rely on draglines, dozers, scrapers, trains, trucks, bulk carriers, tractors, generators, pumps and machines of all kinds. All need cheap reliable energy. Their energy comes from diesel fuel or coal powered electricity. A tax on carbon will sap their energy and reduce their ability to generate jobs and national wealth.

Our processing and manufacturing industries rely on cheap electricity produced from our marvellous deposits of coal and natural gas. Greens have demonised these national assets and their carbon tax will undermine all Australian industries. Investors always look ahead. Already the threat of a carbon tax has reduced the asset value of every base load power station in Australia. Already one of the biggest, running on Victorian brown coal, is reporting financial stress and may close. We cannot run steel works, refineries or big cities on sunbeams and sea breezes.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/national/carbon-tax-puts-heat-on-loy-yang-20111219-1p2kf.html

Australia is remote from most of the world, and tourists must travel vast distances to get here. They need planes, trains, ships, buses and cars, all powered by carbon energy from petrol, diesel or gas. The carbon tax will strike at the heart of this industry. Harassed by the carbon footprint harpies, tourists may choose to stay home and go camping in their own backyards.

Finally, Australia is leading the world with the most onerous and widely applied carbon tax. This is already deterring the foreign investors who for generations have risked their savings to create businesses and jobs in Australia. Even now, the threat of a carbon tax is increasing capital shortage and debt stress in Australia.

There is no good news in the carbon tax story – no climate benefits, no real jobs and more costs for consumers. And it is white-anting the three legs supporting the Australian economy. Unlike the big end of town, thinking Australians are worried that Mr Abbott may renege on his solemn promise to repeal the carbon tax.

That would really leave Australia powerless and legless in the global storms.

More:

• Saving the Suckers of the South Pacific
• First Successful Low Emissions Economy
• Wind Energy Lights Up
• SWindle Power
• Climatism failed in 2011, but the big battles are ahead in 2012
• Europe’s Green Lobby Fighting For Survival
• White Christmas 2012
• Global Temperatures? – Flat for 13 Years
• Have you checked your Carbon Footprint?
• What Really Happened in Durban?
• The Last Word for 2011

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/legless-in-storms.pdf [PDF, 546 KB]

The first climate scare was man-made “global warming”.

But the warming refused to appear as fast as the models predicted, so it became “climate change”.

But people were not stupid and soon were saying “but climate always changes”.

So now the climate scare industry is focussing on “extreme weather events”, and naturally they still claim these are caused by man-made carbon dioxide.

Timed beautifully for the meeting of the climatists in Durban, the UN IPCC has outdone themselves in forecasting extreme weather events – “weather on steroids”. Determined to scare up a consensus in Durban, this weather scare is sprinkled with warnings of “diluvian rains”, and droughts, cyclones, heat-waves of such magnitude or frequency that “settlement in some areas could be wiped out” and “some areas will become increasingly marginal as places to live” and “it is possible that many residents will have to relocate.”

Source (With thanks to CCNet):
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/un-scientists-forecast-more-severe-droughts-cyclones-and-floods-
20111113-1ndu0.html

Maybe they should be reminded that extreme weather events have been occurring as far back as earth history has been recorded. Here is a listing of “extreme events” over 1900 years, prepared by James Marusek:

Check them out here: http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Weather.pdf

Here is another list of droughts, fires, floods and disappearing or growing ice. It starts with a record of sea floods that drowned 100,000 people in Holland in 1481.

See: http://www.c3headlines.com/bad-stuff-happens.html

Maybe “extreme weather events” are “normal” here on earth and man has very little to do with most of them. Someone needs to tell the pampered pontificators of the IPCC: “Bad Stuff Happens – get used to it, make appropriate preparations – you are not going to stop it.”

More:

• A comment on extreme weather from the Soviet era
• Back to the Dark Ages
• The March of the Triffids
• Exposing the Global Warming Lies
• Wind Energy Ghosts
• The Scientific Scandal of our Generation
• How to Get Expelled from School
• The Turd in the Swimming Pool
• Feedback from a Supporter
• The Road Ahead

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bad-stuff-happens.pdf [PDF, 76 KB]

The passage of the carbon tax bills today is no reason for celebration. It is a step back towards the dark ages.

Just a few generations ago, humans lived in a “green” world. There was no coal, oil or gas providing light, heat, transport and traction power.

In this green utopia, wood provided heat for cooking fires and forests were felled for charcoal for primitive metallurgy; farmers used wooden ploughs and harvested grain with sickles and flails; the nights were lit using candles and whale oil; rich people used wind and water power to grind cereals; horses and bullocks moved coaches, wagons and troops; there was no refrigeration and salt was the only preservative for meat.

Towns were tiny as the whole family was needed to work the farm. For most people, the daylight hours were filled with heavy labour to produce, preserve and transport food. There was no surplus to support opera, bureaucracy or academia.

Humanity was relieved from this life of unrelenting toil by carbon energy – steam engines and electricity, machines, tractors, cars, ships and planes.

Today the pagan green religion celebrates the first step in their long campaign to destroy industrial society and reduce population.

They should be careful what they wish for.

For example, just a few more bitter winters in Britain will see their wind powered lights going out.

A British observer once said of the Whitlam government: “Any fool can bugger up Britain, but it takes real genius to bugger up Australia”.

The Gillard-Green Government is showing the sort of genius needed to dim the lights in the lucky country.

More:

• UN IPCC – Serious Science or Green Activism?
• Repeal the Carbon Tax? Yes We Can.
• The New Global Warming Crisis
• Green Insanity in Britain
• Green Agenda Unravels

See: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/back-to-the-dark-ages.pdf [PDF, 148 KB]

The carbon policies of the Australian government will destroy regional industry.

Most regional industry relies on adding value to the products of primary industries – smelters, refineries, processing plants, cement plants, sawmills, flour mills, abattoirs and rail and port infrastructure. These facilities require cheap reliable electricity, which will never be supplied by green energy toys.

Recently Xstrata announced plans to cease smelting and refining copper in Queensland. Then Blue Scope Steel decided to reduce production and shed workers. Now Rio has signalled the sale of its aluminium processing empire. Next we can expect that a large coal fired electricity generator will be unable to repay its debts. Cement plants will be squeezed and rail and port costs will increase.

All of these projects are denigrated in their own country because they have one thing in common – they rely heavily on carbon fuels such as coal and gas and thus are all threatened by the toxic carbon tax. None of these activities will cease because of our carbon tax. They will either pay foreign spivs for “carbon credits” or the business will transfer to other countries who will welcome our trashed industries.

Not one of these operations will survive if forced to use costly and unreliable wind or solar power.

The 74 green lemmings in Parliament have given us “certainty” – the certainty of capital flight and job losses.

Are we prepared for the new green future where jobless Australians survive from backyard vegie gardens, poaching kangaroos and wild pigs from carbon credit forests and cooking with biomass on a wood stove? Of course we will enjoy pirate movies downloaded at the speed of light using the NBN (as long as the sun is shining or the wind blows).

More:

• The Carbon Dioxide Tax Game
• Speaking of elections, Ontario Wind Turbines Slice Liberal Politicians
• Carbon Dioxide and the Politics of the Carbon Tax
• Julia Gillard explains carbon dioxide to students
• Reduce Australian CO2 emissions and provide low cost power by… building new coal plants!

See http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/reaping-green-dividends.pdf [PDF, 213 KB]

It is not possible to achieve the government’s planned cuts to the production of carbon dioxide without significant shrinkage of our main industries.

There are only two ways to achieve their unrealistic emission reduction targets.

The destructive but honest way is to allow the shrinking targets and rising taxes to force closures or relocation for our backbone industries.

The dishonest way is to pay billions of dollars to overseas carbon shysters who, in return for our bribes, “promise” to make the reductions on our behalf. This will achieve nothing except pauperisation of Australians.

The tax apologists will claim – ‘but the tax only applies to the top 500 polluters’. Every company hit with the carbon tax must pass it on to all those who use their products. Soon every industry and consumer will feel the costs, even if they do not understand the sneaky mechanism.

People who think the cuts can occur painlessly have not looked at the hard facts of our industries.

It’s not possible to make steel without generating carbon dioxide. No carbon tax can change that.

It’s not possible to make cement or brew beer without generating carbon dioxide.

It’s not possible to generate electricity using brown coal, black coal, diesel or gas without generating carbon dioxide.

It’s is not possible to run a car, truck, train, tractor, ship or plane on oil, gas, diesel or petrol without generating carbon dioxide. Even electric cars, trains and elevators get their energy mainly from coal or gas. As for wind power, 70% of its “capacity” will be delivered by the backup gas facilities, all producing carbon dioxide.

Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs cannot live without generating carbon dioxide. (Even humans must exhale occasionally.)

The Australian government plans to reduce the production of harmless carbon dioxide by 5% (or maybe 25%) by 2050, despite increasing population.

Which industry will be first to cop the carbon chop? They should start by blocking all emissions from Parliament House.

Or is the carbon tax just about grabbing a new source of government revenue?

More, together with:

• How to Solve the Global Warming Crisis – Stop Breathin’
• The Greening of Australia
• Climate Change Reconsidered
• Anti-Carbon Tax Rally, Perth
• Will a Carbon Tax stop our Natural Disasters?

in the PDF: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/copping-carbon-chop.pdf [PDF, 110 KB]

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on Australia’s elected representatives to insist that the Gillard/Green tax on carbon dioxide should have a Sunset Clause which is triggered by global cooling.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that when natural climate change makes fools of the global warming alarmists, Australia should not be saddled forever with the world’s biggest carbon dioxide tax.

“This whole tax extravaganza is based on the foolish theory that man’s production of life-sustaining carbon dioxide will cause dangerous global warming and we need a C-Tax to stop it.

“However no one has produced evidence that carbon dioxide has caused any significant warming. What’s more, carbon dioxide production is rising strongly but world temperature has been stable for the last 13 years. Right now sea surface temperatures are falling sharply.

“Climate” is generally defined as an average of 30 years of weather. Therefore the C-Tax should be scrapped immediately the global temperature falls below the 30 year average temperature, indicating the start of global cooling.

“As the sun has gone quiet, and Queensland has just had its coldest autumn for at least 60 years, this looks likely to happen soon.”

Viv Forbes
Rosewood Qld Australia
forbes@carbon-sense.com

Viv Forbes is Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.

For people interested in checking into whether there is any basis for the above statements see:

For more info on global temperatures (no warming for 13 years) and falling sea surface temperatures see:
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-paper-shows-unprecedented-decrease.html

To see how the global temperature in May 2011 is the same as it was 30 years ago, in 1981:
http://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you_May_2011.pdf [PDF, 1.4 MB]

And new evidence from NASA satellite data shows that climate models are wildly in error: http://blogs.forbes.com/jamestaylor/2011/07/27/new-nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-in-global-warming-alarmism/

Queensland autumn 2011 the coldest for at least 60 years:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/season/qld/summary.shtml

The ominously quiet sun:
http://climateresearchnews.com/2009/04/quiet-sun-who-saw-it-coming/

More:

• German Energy Fantasyland
• The Convoys of No Confidence
• No C-Tax – Return to Sender

in the PDF version here: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/sunset-for-c-tax.pdf [PDF, 30 KB]

Pretend you were determined to embark on a crash program to increase the price of electricity in order to deter consumers and businesses from using it. Here is a five point plan for achieving that sort of destruction:

First, pay millions in compensation to force closure of reliable coal fired power stations producing cheap electricity.

Second, spend millions more in subsidies to bribe promoters to erect forests of imported wind turbines that produce no electricity for 75% of the time. Then pay again to have them switched off when the wind is too strong or if they produce more power than the network needs at that time.

Third, spend more millions to build a spider web of roads and transmission lines to connect every single turbine to the national grid. These costly facilities are only used for 25% of the time.

Fourth, spend yet more millions to build new gas fired backup generators to keep the lights on when the wind stops. Then pay again to switch off the gas any time the wind happens to blow at the right speed for the turbines.

Finally, force any remaining coal or gas power stations to buy carbon ration permits from merchant banks.

Climate will still change no matter how many wind temples we build to the Global Warming god.

When we have pauperised ourselves by wasting our savings to inflict unreliable high cost electricity on our industries and our people, we will have no resources left to cope with the inevitable natural disasters that will still occur.

This five point plan is what passes for rational energy policy from the Green/Labor Coalition now in control of the Australian Parliament.

More:

• Plain Talk on the Carbon Tax
• Taking the Wind out of Wind Energy
• The Global Warming Tipping Point?
• The Conveys of No Confidence
• “Stick with the Science – it is all Peer Reviewed.”
• Lord Monckton wins Press Club debate

See here: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/five-point-plan.pdf [PDF, 49 KB]