Deadly Bloggers begins a 52 week blogging challenge

 

Deadlybloggers.blogspot.com.au has issued a challenge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander  bloggers – 52 subjects in 52 weeks.

 

Good one, Ebs! Look forward to reading each week.

 

Remembering the deeply weird side of Mr. Rabbitt - Part Four

 

In September 2005 while attending a Liberal Party fundraiser for Barry O’Farrell in the Speaker’s dining room of the New South Wales Parliament, Mr. Rabbitt referred to the former NSW Opposition Leader who just twelve hours before had attempted to take his own life…….

 

If we did that, we would be as dead as the former Liberal leader’s political prospects.

 

When this remark became known, then Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott told The Sydney Morning Herald; "From time to time all of us say things that are more or less crass and in the great scheme of my mind ... I think my comments ... are fairly low on the Richter scale. If I was resigning every time I upset someone, I would have lasted about a week."

Just another day at the office for Metgasco Limited - protestors, police, media & anti-CSG mayors at the front door

Click on montage to enlarge

 

Metgasco Limited’s Messrs. Heath, Gill, Henderson and Koroknay must be wondering how their plan to drill an estimated 1,000 coal seam gas production wells across the NSW Northern Rivers region became an expensive, grinding chore instead of a carefree amble to the bank wheeling a barrow full of cash.

Large institutional investors/shareholders like Citicorp (through its subsidiary Citicorp Nominees Pty Ltd) and JPMorgan Chase (though the100% owned subsidiary JPMorgan Nominees Australia Ltd) must be wondering also, along with the West Australian LNGL Group an industry shareholder through CSG Nominees Pty Ltd.

 

With no social license granted by local communities for CSG exploration and mining, a day at the office for these Metgasco directors and senior staff means being greeted with uncertainty over if or when they can access identified drilling sites each morning.

 

Today Lismore,Tweed and Byron mayors Jenny Dowell, Barry Longland and Simon Richardson will be swelling the crowd outside the Glenugie exploration well site and protestors will again be at the entrance to the Doubtful Creek site.

 

*Photo montage created from Glenugie and Doubtful Creek photographs found at Google Images

The Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin reminds Truss and Hogan that they are talking hypocritical nonsense

 

 

Federal Nationals should speak the truth about the Pacific Highway upgrade

 

“Quite frankly, I am fed up with Mr Truss flitting in and flitting out of our electorate, making glib promises which are not budgeted for, and for misleading statements about funding responsibility.

 

“It is galling to have to be involved in such negative debate, when so many positive things are taking place.

 

“If he wants to say we are funding it, say it and leave it at that.  He and Mr Hogan need to stop throwing dirt, especially when they have no credible ground to stand on.

 

“I stand on my record of hard work and securing major road infrastructure – the Ballina and Alstonville bypasses – the Glenugie part of the Pacific Highway upgrade, work underway on the Pacific Highway at Tabbimobile (Devil’s Pulpit) and my continued push for more highway projects like these to come online as the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade and planning works gather pace.

 

“Mr Truss’s record as Federal transport minister in the Coalition government was woeful; they spent just $1.3 billion on the Pacific Highway over 12 years compared with Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor’s investment of $4.1 billion over six years. 

 

“It doesn’t matter how many times he stands beside the highway and says there is some mythical 80:20 funding split, it doesn’t make it true. It has always been a 50:50 funding agreement.  When Mr Truss admits to this, then I shall treat him seriously. Until then, I shall ignore his nonsense.

 

“When Mr Truss was Federal transport minister, he wanted a 50:50 split:  In case he has forgotten, some of his quotes are as follows:

 

“… We required it and the NSW Labor government agreed to matching funding. The Pacific Highway will receive … an extra $160 million in 2005/06, with matching funds to be provided by the NSW Government, to accelerate the duplication works.” – Truss media statement May 9, 2006.

 

“Finally the State (Labor) government has agreed to match the Australian Government spending on the Pacific Highway and we will now work to increase the momentum of construction … with the objective of completing a continuous four-lane road to Tweed Heads by 2016.” – Truss media statement September 29, 2005.

 

“Mr Truss and Mr Hogan may have missed the news, but State Member for Ballina Don Page and I put out a joint media release last Friday announcing that soft soil treatment work was underway at Pimlico near Ballina to help lay the groundwork for the continuing upgrade of the highway.

 

“There is Federal Government money on the table and I shall secure our share for us, as planning work proceeds,” Ms Saffin concluded.  

 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013.

  

Smoke and mirrors didn't give Abbott the bounce he was probably expecting

 

The Essential Report for 14 January does not appear to show Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott receiving any bounce in this poll from his much publicized time on the containment line of one NSW bushfire this month.

 

Abbott only fared marginally better in the first Newspoll survey for this year - his satisfaction rating rose one point to 29 per cent while his dissatisfaction rating fell one point to 58 per cent for a net satisfaction rating of minus 29. An almost insignificant change since early December 2012.

'Climate results validate sceptics' screams The Australian

 

In the midst of searing temperatures and bushfire smoke on 12 January 2013 The Australian newspaper screamed this headline; Climate results validate sceptics in what appeared to be a perverse joke running counter to good journalism.

 

The article was accompanied by a graph which purports to confirm a slowing down of global warming and/or what many people have been saying for some time. Global warming effectively stopped 17 years ago and, if the new forecast is accurate, that "pause" will be extended to 20 years:

 

 

Unwillingly to hunt the Internet at the time, I waited for a welcome break in the weather to look for the truth I was fairly certain the dregs of the Murdoch media had ignored in its effort to support Nick Minchin et al in their climate change denialism.

 

Here is the UK Met Office explanation:

 

8 January 2013 - There has been media coverage today about our experimental decadal global temperature prediction, which is routinely updated in December each year.

 

The latest decadal prediction suggests that global temperatures over the next five years are likely to be a little lower than predicted from the previous prediction issued in December 2011.

However, both versions are consistent in predicting that we will continue to see near-record levels of global temperatures in the next few years. [my bolding]

This means temperatures will remain well above the long-term average and we will continue to see temperatures like those which resulted in 2000-2009 being the warmest decade in the instrumental record dating back to 1850.

Decadal predictions are specifically designed to predict fluctuations in the climate system through knowledge of the current climate state and multi-year variability of the oceans.

Small year to year fluctuations such as those that we are seeing in the shorter term five year predictions are expected due to natural variability in the climate system, and have no sustained impact on the long term warming.

In this case, changes in ocean surface temperatures in some parts of the world over the past year are understood to have made a key contribution to the difference between the 2011 and 2012 forecasts, but other factors will also have played a role.

Century-scale projections are less sensitive to natural variability and updates to the 2012 decadal forecast do not necessarily tell us anything about projections of climate change for the coming century.

The 2012 prediction is the first to use the Met Office's latest experimental decadal prediction system, based on HadGEM3. This includes a comprehensive set of improvements based on the latest scientific understanding.

HadGEM3 has been thoroughly tested and has more accurately reproduced temperature variations over the past few decades, suggesting it shows greater skill than was available from previous decadal forecast systems.

The Met Office routinely shares its research and this is often placed on our website, encouraging openness and transparency with our scientific colleagues and the public alike.

More information about decadal forecasts can be found on our website.

Contact information

Met Office Press Office: +44 (0)1392 886655

E-mail: Press Office

Met Office Customer Centre: 0870 900 0100

If you're outside the UK: +44 1392 885680