NEW ZEALAND DUMPS ITS CARBON TAX!

A first for a Kyoto signatory

The Government's decision to ditch the proposed carbon tax has been backed by the business community, but slammed by the Greens who called it a "capitulation" to vested interests. Climate Change Minister David Parker announced today that the tax, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and due to come into effect in April 2007, would not go ahead. Officials are being asked to look at other options. It had been claimed that the tax would harm businesses and cost households between $4 and $10 a week.

Business leaders said today's decision was sensible. Simon Arnold, president of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce, said: "For some time we have been arguing that this was poor policy. "It would have increased the cost of energy and transport but would not achieve its stated aims of reducing carbon emissions." The Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) also threw its weight behind the move, calling it a pre-Christmas "fillip" to business confidence. Alasdair Thompson, EMA's chief executive, added: "The carbon tax represented a huge hurdle detracting from New Zealand as a profitable place to invest." He called for a "150 per cent write off" of research and development costs on technology aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

The Green Party, however, said the ditching of the tax amounted to a cave-in to the "anti-Kyoto lobby", referring to opponents of the United Nations' Kyoto protocol on climate change. "They are putting the corporate pursuit of short-term profits ahead of the planet's and our grandchildren's future," said co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. She feared a further three-year delay in action being taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

New Zealand First had been campaigning against the tax and an greement to see it scrapped formed part of the confidence and supply agreement which led to its leader Winston Peters becoming Foreign Minister. Mr Peters said: "The government's decision is a victory for the thousands of New Zealanders who were not well placed to carry the burden of another tax, particularly those on low and fixed incomes."

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"HOTTEST YEAR" CLAIM IN AUSTRALIA TOO -- AND JUST AS FLAWED

Below is an article from the Australian press followed by a letter that Australian climate scientist Warwick Hughes sent to the author of the arrticle. As always, the global warmers rely on temperature records contaminated by urban heat island effects

"Nation bakes in hottest year

Australians have sweltered through the hottest year on record, as the global temperature continues a warming trend begun in the 19th century. According to the World Meteorological Organisation's statement on the status of the global climate - released yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland - about 97 per cent of Australia experienced above average temperatures this year. In April, temperatures across the continent were 2.6C above average. "It was as if summer didn't stop," said climatologist Michael Coughlan of the Bureau of Meteorology's National Climate Centre in Melbourne. "It was not until we got into June that things turned around and we got some good rain across central Australia."

Planet-wide, June and October were the hottest months ever recorded. The heat coincided with continuing long-term drought in parts of the Greater Horn of Africa. Drought also affected much of western Europe during July, August and September, and from January to May almost half of Australia received rainfall in the lowest 10 per cent of recorded totals. The heat and drought came in a year also marked by record hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean, exceptionally heavy rain, snow and flooding in the US's southwest, and the wettest year ever in Canada.

Geneva-based WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud said 2005 was set to be the second-warmest year on record, behind 1996. "It could well be that this ranking could be modified but we are very confident that it will end up in the four warmest years," he claimed. As of yesterday, the 2005 global temperature had risen an average 0.48C over the 1961-90 annual average surface temperature, the benchmark for climate change measurements.

Since the start of the 20th century, the global average surface temperature has risen between 0.6C and 0.7C. And the 1990s have emerged as the warmest decade since 1861, when reliable temperature recording began. Although 1996 has a slight edge on 2005, Dr Coughlan said it was like a horse race that was too close to call. That was because 1996 was "souped up" by extra heat from that year's El Nino, while 2005 ran on its own merits. "It's the Makybe Diva of climatology," Dr Coughlan said.

According to Australian National University climate change expert Will Steffen, this year's record temperatures are in stark contrast to temperatures over the millennia. "The last time the Earth was this warm was about 5000 to 6000 years ago, and the planet has been on a very slow cooling trend since then, until the very recent surge in temperature," Professor Steffen said. He added that observational data, circumstantial evidence and climate theory suggested that the rising temperatures were a result of increased atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, generated by burning fossil fuels for energy. "It's a no-brainer if you're a scientist that if you put more of these (gases) in the atmosphere you're going to warm the surface," said Professor Steffen, predicting global warming would soar unless greenhouse emissions were cut. "The future is notoriously hard to predict," he said. "But, climatically speaking, we are probably in for a rather wild ride.""

Source

Warwick Hughes comments:

Your "Nation bakes in hottest year" article on page 7 of Dec 17-18, in "The Weekend Australian" and on news.com.au has serious misprints where you refer to 1996 being the all time hottest year as in, "..Michel Jarraud said 2005 was set to be the second-warmest year on record, behind 1996." and; "Although 1996 has a slight edge on 2005, Dr Coughlan said it was like a horse race that was too close to call. That was because 1996 was "souped up" by extra heat from that year's El Nino, while 2005 ran on its own merits. "It's the Makybe Diva of climatology," Dr Coughlan said.

All these references to 1996 are wrong and should be 1998. Surely you have written enough on climate issues that you should have known that 1998 was a standout hot year due to the El Nino.

To a more substantive issue now:

It is ironic that Dr Coughlan is speaking up now but it was a different story in 1990 when Dr Coughlan and two other BoM co-authors wrote up a study of Australian city temperature data (Coughlan et al, 1990, "Trends in Australian Temperature Records". Paper at http://www.warwickhughes.com/climate/bom.htm) pointing out the magnitude of urban heat island (UHI) component in Australian city data and concluded as follows:

"Estimates of the trends in the annual average daily mean temperature also indicated warming at most of the non-urban sites except Brisbane Airport. The strongest warming over the periods examined was 0.26 C decade~1 Mean temperatures at Brisbane Airport cooled by approximately 0.03 C decade 1. Trends in urban-rural differences were all positive. These estimates are greater than those of the trends this century, reported by Jones et al. (1989), in annual mean Southern Hemisphere air temperature, over both land and sea, and sea surface temperature, which have all shown rises of approximately 0.06 C decade 1."

The Jones et al 1986 compilations of global warming trends used all the Australian capital cities data where Dr Coughlan and his co-authors established strong UHI contamination yet failed in the early 1990's to stand up for their taxpayer funded findings and put in a journal "Comment" on the obviously flawed Jones et al global trends -- Trends that are now in 2005 still badly affected by the UHI warming but are now touted by Dr Coughlan. One might say that if 2005 has to be related to a race horse as Dr Coughlan. does, then indeed "Fine Cotton" [A famous Australian horse-racing fraud] is alive and well.



Lastly, take a look at the coloured BoM map of contoured trends. Over 90% of the orange area of highest warming are from regions of Australia largely devoid of people and I would suggest devoid of meaningful long term temperature data too. Note how the orange contour skips around Alice Springs, Giles and the longer term data in SA. What a disgraceful example of BoM propaganda, a "dodgy brothers" of a map. What utter balderdash for The Australian to publish. Let's hope your future articles pay more attention to justifiable science




HYBRID CARS DANGEROUS FOR EMERGENCY WORKERS

Hybrid electric cars are growing in popularity, with some 200,000 already on the road in the United States. The number is expected to grow to two million in the next five years. Consumers are attracted to them because of fuel economy and environmental benefits, but they present hazards for emergency responders. EMT's are trained to focus on their patients, but hybrid gas/electric cars are creating a new challenge: high voltage. Paramedic Dave Long says, "These cars are incredibly quiet, so we have to assume that the vehicle is always on and powered up." Long is leading the charge to train EMT's on how to rescue victims from hybrids without risking electrocution. "So we're dealing with anywhere from a 144 to over 500 volts. So we have to be very careful during rescue and extrication we don't cut into the high voltage orange cables."

Long fears the sheer silence of the hybrid engine could catch emergency workers off guard. "Because we can not hear the electric motor. And if we were walking in front during a rescue or emergency or trying to help someone out in the car, the car could roll forward and we would not hear it." Long's goal is to get responders up to speed on how to turn off the hybrids before the rescue begins, and how to locate the master disconnect switches for various models.

Recognizing a hybrid isn't always easy. The Ford Escape, for example, looks identical to its gas-powered counterpart. The same is true for the Toyota Highlander, so labeling is critical. At training seminars around the nation, EMT's are learning to look for those bright orange power cables. "We know it's an electric vehicle because I see these high voltage orange cables actually coming out of the vehicle." The demand for hybrid safety training will only rise considering the dealers can barely keep the cars on the lots these days.

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM ISN'T GETTING CRAZIER - IT'S THE THEORISTS

Email from Oliver Manuel (oess@umr.edu) to Benny Peiser

Contrary to recent reports, the solar system is not getting crazier. New observations simply confirm how crazy astronomers and planetary scientists have been to cling to the idea that a cloud of hydrogen and helium formed the Sun and its planetary system - after four decades of experimental measurements that falsified this story. Many of the experimental findings are summarized in this paper: "Isotopes tell Sun's origin and operation."




The false promises of solar energy : "Ever since the Carter Administration the US government has spent billions on solar energy research, development, and demonstrations. Thousands of demonstrations have been constructed across the United States. Whether it's the Solar One Power Tower in the California desert or the Luz project there also, or the hundreds across the US, I am not aware of any successes. The exceptions might be for water heating (not electricity) in the southern latitudes. Most have been dismal engineering failures. Before spending billions more, this nation would do well to revisit these past projects to learn what went wrong."

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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