Children are having nightmares about their carbon footprint. What a pretty pass modern man has brought himself to! Frightening children with scary stories about hell fire is the way our ancestors drilled society into conformity. It might have been hoped that the age of science would bring all that to an end, but now we have entered the post-scientific age, in which a new class of high priest returns to the traditional methods of enforcement.

In order to establish the essential fear-provoking scenario they have nominated in the role of original sin one particular element, one atom out of the whole gamut.

It is a choice that is bizarre to the rational mind, yet one that conforms to the long established principles of the founding of authoritarian religions. Why is it bizarre? If you are of a mind to seek out magic and miracles, look no further than the sixth member of the periodic table of elements. Carbon is the source of all of our food, the founding fire of civilisation, provides much of our energy and is the key element in the cycle of life.

If it is in your nature to give thanks for anything, spare a thought for the much maligned atom that is your primal ancestor and the provider of everything that you are, that you have and that keeps you alive.

For the full article by John Brignell see: http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/Carbon.htm

If it achieves nothing else the Carbon Tax will create a career path for second hand car salesmen and failed politicians. You can now pay your money, do a two day course and become accredited in Carbon Accounting. The course is available via University or private suppliers.

I have always suspected Mining Engineers and Metallurgists got their certificates from a Kellogg Wheaties packet but we Accountants always had more stringent requirements. Whilst there were some issues on the fringes of our profession , who can forget the bottom of the harbour schemes? At least those guys had the decency to call themselves Tax Agents not Accountants.

This carbon accounting is a black art, no self respecting accountant would become involved in measuring the emissions from a bovine animal, calculating the carbon content and then coming up with a dollar value payable as a tax .

This course should be called Carbon Engineering or better still Carbon Gymnastics and taught in the Arts Faculty.

Rod Bates
Ardross WA

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that Australia and New Zealand were in danger of becoming the green peasants of the Pacific.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the only way the two countries could achieve their unrealistic emissions targets was by exporting their industries, reducing their population or creating chronic recession.

In a detailed submission to the New Zealand Government, the Carbon Sense Coalition concludes that their emissions targets are not feasible, not sustainable and not justified.

The submission, entitled “Clean, Green and Barefoot in the Snow” can be found at: http://carbon-sense.com/2011/02/28/barefoot-in-the-snow/

“The submission analyses the maths of the proposal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 50% of 1990 levels by 2050.
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“Please consider the environment before building a wind farm.”

Mike Hulme
Den Brook Judicial Review Group, United Kingdom.

“The atmosphere is very complex. Our models are having trouble doing any forecasts beyond about 7 days.”

Gordon Banks, Senior Forecaster, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, on ABC Radio, 4.05 am 4th Jan 2011

“Give me a faster computer and I will give you the wrong result sooner”.

Malcolm G. Ross
Annandale • VA • USA

The New Zealand government is proposing to nominate a reduction target for emissions of certain natural gases produced by human activities.

With no mathematics, science, logic or economics to support their target, they propose to nominate that 2050 emissions will be just 50% of 1990 levels.

This submission looks at a few key aspects of this proposal and concludes that it is not feasible, not sustainable and not justified.

The full submission: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/barefoot-in-the-snow.pdf [PDF, 905 KB]

No warming for 13 years, so why are we still listening to the Alarmists.

Lower troposphere temperature from satellites, updated to January 2011.

Global monthly average lower troposphere temperature (thin line) since 1979 according to University of Alabama at Huntsville, USA. The thick line is the simple running 37 month average.

For many more graphs see: http://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you_January_2011.pdf [PDF, 1.3 MB]

Here is the most reliable weather station in the world (Serpent River, Ontario). Beats all the computerised climate models.

Wind power is very dilute, and thus a large area of land is required to gather significant energy. Wind energy needs a wide network of roads, transmission lines and turbines which degrades any area containing wind farms. It has a huge land footprint.

The operating characteristics of turbine and generator mean that only a small part of wind energy can be captured.

Wind power is also intermittent, unreliable and hard to predict. Therefore large backup or storage systems are required. This adds to the capital and operating costs and increases the instability of the network.

Wind farms are uniformly hated by neighbours and will not be willingly accepted without heavy compensation payments. Their noise, flicker, fire risk and disturbing effect on domestic and wild animals are well documented.

The wind is free but wind power is far from it. Its cost is far above all conventional methods of generating electricity. Either taxpayers or consumers will pay this bill.

Wind farms are promoted as a way to decarbonise energy generation. This is supposed to reduce global warming. There is no evidence that there is any need or benefit in chasing this rainbow.

There is no justification for continuing the complex network of subsidies, mandates and tax breaks that currently underpin construction of wind farms in Australia. If wind power is sustainable it will be developed without these financial crutches.

Full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/why-wind-wont-work.pdf [PDF, 1.5 MB]

“Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming. Similar losses have been experienced in eastern Australia, and although the science is less certain it is probable that global warming is behind these losses too. But by far the most dangerous trend is the decline in the flow of Australian rivers: it has fallen by around 70 per cent in recent decades, so dams no longer fill even when it does rain. Growing evidence suggests that hotter soils, caused directly by global warming, have increased evaporation and transpiration and that the change is permanent. I believe the first thing Australians need to do is to stop worrying about ‘the drought’ – which is transient – and start talking about the new climate”.

Tim Flannery

New Scientist, 16 June 2007 Print Edition.
Editorial: Australia – not such a lucky country.
Source: CFACT, 29 Jan 2011.