Sometimes it just takes a hug to make us realise that Australia is not a bad and dangerous place to live

Snapshot found on Twitter in December 2015

Global warming and climate change are very real - unless you are staunchly sticking your head in the sand

That perennial verbal battle over the existence of climate change continued in The Daily Examiner letters section right up to the end of last year.

These views were published on 14, 17 and 23 December 2015 and, as usual Perring and Ibbotson didn't let little things like science and historical fact get in the way:

Ted's a believer

TED Strong is that fanatical, one-eyed believer in the IPCC version of anthropological causes for climate change who hails from up river and John Ibbotson is the more liberal-minded sceptic from the lower river with an open view on the science pertaining to IPCC modelling and its overall veracity.

Ted Strong would well know that the IPCC "bible" has been rewritten many times to cover up some of the more elaborate porkies put forward by many of the elite scientists.

I notice Ted Strong uses the words "almost and probably" when stating "almost every mainstream climate scientist on the planet" and, when addressing the matter of whether scientists can tell the difference between steam, smoke and CO2, he says, "I think they probably can".

That is typical, never a definite statement, always it's almost, probably, perhaps, maybe, could occur, may happen, appears to be, and so on.

Will there ever be a climate change disciple who will stand up on his hind legs and say the words, "I swear on my life that I am absolutely certain beyond all doubt that what the IPCC predicts is going to happen, will happen".

Move over Tim Flannery!

Fred Perring

Halfway Creek

Denying reality

At last, after decades of procrastination, and despite the urging of Clarence Valley 'experts' who assure us climate change is a 'con', the Paris climate deal has been signed and delivered, giving us hope for a cleaner, more sustainable future.

Yet still the anti-climate change rubbish continues to be published on your letters to the editor page.

For example Fred Perring's letter (DE 14/12) harangues Ted Strong for his pro-climate change beliefs, describing him as a "fanatical one-eyed believer".

Coming from Fred, that gave many of us a good laugh, because anyone who has read Fred's on-going diatribes would have to put that comment in the "pot calling the kettle black" category.

Never have I encountered anyone as one-eyed and unwilling to accept a contrary opinion than Fred, with the possible exception of John Ibbotson, who Fred describes as a "more liberal-minded sceptic".

For several decades, thousands of climatologists, and scientists have contributed to the enormous body of evidence that now exists, warning us of the realities of climate change.

In Paris, the United Nations, the political leaders of more than 200 countries, and the leaders of the world's major religions, joined in accepting that scientific evidence, and have vowed to work together to clean up our collective act.

With that overwhelming endorsement of the science, we have to marvel at the egos of those who, with no relevant qualifications whatsoever, continue writing letters, not

only denying the reality of climate change, but ridiculing anyone asking that action be taken to reduce atmospheric pollution.

John Edwards

South Grafton

Who is denying reality?

Thank you John Edwards (17/12) for the compliment. Top of the class. Wow!

As Einstein once remarked that "No matter how great my theory is, if one person can demonstrate that it is wrong then it's back to square one."

Taking six of the AGW-green theories and see how they've stood up in practice:

The sea levels are going to rise 12 or 25 or 100m. So far they've risen about 0.25m in the last 150 years.

In Oz it's never going to rain again so we must build desalination plants. Oops. Lots of rain and floods and the dams are over flowing.

Get your kids to play in the snow because in 10 years there won't be any. Really!

The oceanic islands are going to be swamped resulting in 20,000,000 eco refugees. So far it has been found that most are stable or increasing in size, and number of accepted eco-refugees stands at zero.

That there will be worldwide famine because of all this CO2. Plants love CO2 and the world's food production continues to grow.

Temperature: The AGW folk rely on 100 computer models, based on green theory and CO2.

When compared to the actual satellite temperatures (which are hard to fiddle) 99% of the models can't get within two standard deviations of the actuals. In other words they're crap.

I could go on with more but you get the idea.

John, it would be appreciated if you could respond with some of the great AGW theories from years ago, which have actually been proven to be scientifically correct in practice. I won't hold my breath.

And John you obviously don't understand the difference between science, politics, religion and the power of money, which drives this AGW shemozzle.

John Ibbotson

 Gulmarrad

Dear Prime Minister Turnbull, You need to do a lot better in 2016 and beyond....

In 1990 Australia’s national greenhouse gas emissions were estimated at 547.7 Mt CO2-e for that year. That represents 32.1 tonnes of CO2-e emitted for every person in a population of 17.06 million spread across approximately 7.69 million km².

Australia’s annual emissions for the 2014-15 financial year were est. 549.3 Mt CO2-e. Up 0.8 per cent on the year before.That’s 18.75 tonnes of CO2-e emitted for every person in a population of 23.7 million. [Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population Size And Growth & Greenhouse Gases, Dept. of the Environment, Quarterly Update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: June 2015, australia.gov.au]

Therefore, national greenhouse gas emissions data showed an estimated rise of 1.6 Mt CO2-e when comparing 1990 & 2015 and, the reason the per capita count fell appears to have been influenced by the fact that the national total is now divided among more residents across the country.

Basically, federal and state governments have spent the last 25 years bringing the nation’s emissions level back to somewhere near 1990 levels, when the reality of climate change impacts strongly suggests that Australia should have driven the emissions level well below that figure by now.

After all, in 2012 the European Union (EU), with land mass of approx. 4.42 million km² and a population then estimated at 503 million inhabitants, managed to reduce its total annual greenhouse gas emissions by est. 19.2 % (EU28 countries) and 15.1% (EU15 countries) when compared with its 1990 levels. This represented a combined total difference of 1,731 Mt CO2-e from those 1990 levels [Europa.eu,2015 & Annual European Union greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2012 and inventory report 2014].

The Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government went to UN COP21 in 2015 and, in front of world leaders, merely offering to keep Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions at between 26-28% below the 2005 level of 584.2 Mt CO2-e by 2030 is dangerously deluded behaviour [Dept. of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2015, Australia’s 2030 Emission Reduction Target, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Greenhouse Gases].

Essentially the Australian Government told the entire world it was not prepared to do anything more than window dressing in the face of a growing global crisis.

If you don't act quickly and decisively on climate change, it will be to your enduring shame Malcolm Bligh Turnbull.

Note: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) emissions totals are excluded from the national total due to relatively high levels of uncertainty at this stage of the data collection cycle.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's cost cutting is causing problems in Iraq?

On 31 December 2015 The Australian reported on Unity Resources Group, originally registered in Australia by co-founders former special forces commander Gordon Conroy and former army reservists Martin Simich but now apparently incorporated in Dubai, and what appears to be the flow-on effect of cost-cutting by the Dept. of Foreign Affairs:

The Australian has confirmed that up to 40 Australian protection specialists will be flown out of Iraq tomorrow after accusing their employer, Dubai-based Unity Resources Group, of risking lives by scrimping on arms and protective equipment, bypassing detailed security checks and providing inferior medical support and insurance cover.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has recently awarded URG a new five-year contract, worth nearly $51 million, to provide personal protection for embassy staff from Friday until the end of 2020. Tender documents show the new contract is barely half the $101m URG was paid to provide security for the five years from January 1, 2011 to today.

It is understood the majority of personnel who will leave refused to sign the new work contracts in protest, while at least three others who signalled they would be prepared to sign on again, but were known by management to have complained about conditions, have been told their positions will be filled.

Staffers who remain on the ground in Baghdad are becoming increasingly anxious and do not believe that URG will be able to follow the security protocols required by the DFAT contract in the short time remaining.

Sources claim the limited time to recruit the new protection specialists does not leave enough time to conduct proper background checks, including medical and psychological screening.

They also fear the new recruits will lack sufficient training in the protection of a diplomatic post in areas such as weapons handling and close personal protection.

"January 1st will bring in a swath of inexperience and risk at a time when Baghdad is going through chaotic and unpredictable change," one senior protection officer said. "URG HQ and local project managers' rushed intent of getting bums on seats at any cost to have the numbers for January 1 will result in deadly consequences. They will not have the right people to deliver the high-quality protection the Australian embassy staff in Baghdad rely on." URG, which was founded by former Australian special forces commander Gordon Conroy, declined to respond to detailed questions from The Australian.

DFAT responded to detailed questions by saying its longstanding practice was not to comment on security arrangements at its overseas missions. Sources in the department disputed the claim that URG was short 40 workers but would not comment on the concerns raised by URG staff.

"The Australian government places the highest priority on the safety of all its personnel, especially those in high-threat locations such as Kabul and Baghdad," a DFAT official said.

This quasi-military company has a somewhat chequered past, with the United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries in 2008 corresponding with the Australian Government over some of the company's actions and whose private military personnel allegedly shot and killed 72 year-old Australian resident Professor Kays Juma and Armenian civilians Mary Awanis and Genevia Antranick, as well as seriously wounding an unidentified man , in Iraq in 2006-2007. Additionally, this company was accused of ignoring risk factors which led to the 2008 killing of U.S. aid worker Stephen Vance in Peshawar, Pakistan.