With the revelation that Tony Abbott made the decision to fund Bjorn Lomberg’s position at UWA, and academics protesting that it tarnishes their reputation, one might question Tony’s scientific credentials to make this judgement call.
Tony Abbott said
“The fact that we have had if anything cooling global temperatures over the last decade, not withstanding continued dramatic increases of carbon dioxide emissions, suggests the role of CO2 is not nearly as clear as the climate catastrophists suggest.”
29 July 2009
And
“The issue is not whether climate change happens (after all, grapes grew in Britain in Roman times; crops grew in Greenland in the middle ages; and the River Thames froze in winter during the 1600s) but how much of it is man-made and what can realistically be done to tackle it.”
27 July 2009
And
“The climate has changed over the eons and we know from history, at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now. […] Climate change happens all the time and it is not man that drives those climate changes back in history. It is an open question how much the climate changes today and what role man plays.”
2 February 2010
And
“I want to reduce emissions […] but I think we’ve also got to accept that carbon dioxide is an essential trace gas as well.”
8 May 2010
And
“Climate change is a relatively new political issue, but it’s been happening since the earth’s beginning. The extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been associated with climate change. [unverified]”
9 March 2011
And
“This is a government which is proposing to put at risk our manufacturing industry, to penalise struggling families, to make a tough situation worse for millions of households right around Australia. And for what? To make not a scrap of difference to the environment any time in the next 1000 years.”
29 March 2011
And, answering a question about how CO2 emissions are calculated: ”It’s actually pretty hard to do this because carbon dioxide is invisible and it’s weightless and you can’t smell it.”
In fact there is a whole page at Skeptical Science devoted to “Climate Misinformer: Tony Abbott” with links to scientific documents refuting his assertions.
He also earned us the Colossal Fossil Award for our obstruction of progress in international action on climate change.
And let’s not forget Tony’s failed attempt to forge an alliance of “like-minded” nations to oppose carbon pricing with leaders, other than a tentative Stephen Harper, sending the clear message you are on your own there buddy.
It is important to remember the real scientific bodies that have had funding cut by the Abbott government when assessing the merit of gifting $4 million to a Danish climate contrarian whose own government won’t fund him but who appears to be the current darling of the Coalition.
