If Scotty-from-Marketing was fair dinkum about reducing emissions, he would drop the spin
It’s all over the news. Morrison is finally thinking about maybe allowing the word emissions to be said.
Not that he is going to increase our target or not rely on accounting tricks to meet it, or anything reckless like that. When asked for specific policies, the answer seems to be “technology”.
Only Labor puts jobs and growth at risk, like with their “uncosted, ineffective” 50% renewable energy target for 2030.
As bobbing head Kate Carnell told us, “A 50 per cent RET will put jobs and growth at risk,’’ further stating that modelling showed the existing RET pushed up electricity prices, costing the economy up to $28 billion and a net loss of 5000 jobs.
Yet today, The Australian is reporting that the government “is set to release a draft technology roadmap later this year, [which] lays out an investment blueprint and includes more than 100 new technologies and hopes for at least 50 per cent of energy sources to be renewable by 2030.”
A bit like their turnaround on electric vehicles.
Michaelia Cash screeched her valiant defence of tradies’ utes before the election, but when the government produced their glossy brochure, Climate Solutions Package, we find that they are claiming emissions reduction of “up to 10 million tonnes by 2030” for their as yet to be determined “electric vehicles strategy”.
They make these announcements but they have no plan, as bemoaned by Energy Security Board chairwoman Kerry Schott, who said the lack of national leadership to coordinate the sector is putting electricity security and reliability at risk, adding that the National Energy Guarantee – the plan that cost Turnbull his job – would be a good option.
Aside from the continual flip-flopping and lack of a coherent direction, Morrison’s spinning of the numbers shows this is all still a PR exercise for him rather than any genuine acceptance of the urgency of the problem we are facing.
The Coalition talking points advise all government politicians to parrot-like repeat the phrase “Emissions today are 50 million tonnes less on average each year under our government than under the previous government.”
What he neglects to add is that was thanks to the large drop in emissions under the Labor government.
The talking points also insist that the government will “meet and beat” its Kyoto targets.
Just to show what bullshit that is, on page 8 of the government’s recently released “Australia’s emissions projections 2019”, Table 3 shows that emissions in 2000 were 536 Mt CO2-e and are projected to be 534 in 2020 – that is less than a 0.4% reduction, a far cry from our commitment to reduce emissions by 5% from 2000 levels.
The report also states that “Emissions are projected to decline to 511 Mt CO2 -e in 2030 which is 16 per cent below 2005 levels.” That too is a long way from the 26-28% reduction we promised to make.
Would it be too much to ask that we drop the “talking points” crap and actually tell the truth about the current situation so we can make a plan that actually reduces emissions without having to resort to accounting dodges and PR spin designed to make it look like you give a shit?
Enough of the lies!
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John Boyd
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Vikingduk
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Ken
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guest
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wam
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John Boyd
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johno
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ajogrady
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Matters Not
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wam
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johno
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New England Cocky
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LambsFry Simplex.
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Return to home pageOn performance so far, it ‘would be too much to ask’.
Enough of the lies, you say, you must realise these scum suckers are only getting started. It’s all in the announcement, that’s all that matters, puts the braindead back to sleep, gives the corrupt media a new round of talking points, we can all rest easy, sooty, the liar from the shire, him and his messianic fcking smirk, is on the job.
Totally unrelated, if you’re not donated out,
http://www.beethecure.com.au/emergency-fundraiser/
Promoted by Simon Mulvaney to help Apiarists survive.
Nothing will happen due to innate conservatism, our media and large parts of the LNP/Labor will ensure that, and are probably being prepared already by lobbyists and related stakeholders; go slow to maintain inertia and the status quo.
Australia’s glaring issue is that both sides of politics, media and stakeholders are conservative, ageing, co-dependent, too similar culturally (mostly pale male Anglo Irish) and place more importance on being civil to each other for mutual benefit (not losing their jobs and landing plumb posts later) than supporting positive change for society.
…and anyway as Barnaby said it’s all caused by “a higher order” plus ScoMo’s church will come to the rescue.
Climate change policy should be more than simply a greenhouse gas emissions issue, even though that it is a key component. Climate change will impact on our whole community, pretty well every aspect of it , so don’t we need a whole of govt. approach. Shouldn’t we be asking all Ministers to scope how it will impact on their area of responsibility and, furthermore, come up with options for doing something about it. Indeed, a whole senior department dedicated solely to climate change issues would be useful start. Planning ! It’s probably too much to ask given the track record the current crop on dunces. Climate change is a huge issue with huge implications, some of which we are now so starkly seeing.
Perhaps if we all prayed for rain a miracle down pour would occur over SE Australia, quenching all the current bushfires and stopping the gigantic CO2 emissions from those fires. Now clap in time to the music and say your Hail Marys and Hallelujahs between choruses.
In The Australian today, in an article by Jennifer Oriel about “poor me and the bushfires”, we are told:
“The green-left media is drumming up conspiracy theories that blame conservatives for the weather, the fires, dry earth, scorching wind, death, destruction and doomsday scenario of hypothetical dystopia.”
She goes on to say: “[We must] concentrate on the question of what caused the fires and how to mitigate risks in the future.”
She should pay more attention to the Climate Change sceptic Judith Curry, who before the Natural Resources Committee Hearing on Climate Change in the US last year said:
“If we are to believe the climate models, any change in the extreme weather would not be evident until late in the C21st. And the greatest impact will be felt in the C22nd and beyond.”
So, no “doomsday scenario of hypothetical dystopia” to worry about yet, according to Curry.
But no sceptics are really worried about Climate Change because it is all “poppycock” or “crap”. We can just withstand it and survive, according to some. Or we will develop silver bullet technologies of the Morrison 100 technologies kind.
For Oriel the solution is hazard reduction in the forests. For experts in the field there are problems with such a simple notion with the causing of further drying out of the earth. And then there is the problem of volume and windows of opportunity.
A recent article here in AIMN showed a graph after the 2009 Victorian Commission of the rapid rise of the area of land burnt in wildfires in Victoria over the previous century. Put that against graphs of volumes of fossil fuels burnt and the volume of CO2 emitted and we get some idea about causes and what the mitigation might involve.
This is past ridiculous,if Morrison spun any faster, he’d vanish up his own arse.The skids need to be put under these bastards right now and there are yawning opportunities to shoot them down,so where the f#ck is Albanese and his invisible gang?Are they an opposition or a pale imitation?This bullshit has gone on far too long.
A bit shilly shally, a bit of secret smirky, a bit of it’s not the right time for this conversation buys time for aloha to holiday trouble.
If the fire builds up then god will kick in with a sceptic melting answer to anthropogenic climate change.
But his until that last clutch, Smirko’s arseholeship is shining through at every onterview and how good is that???
Arthur…’Shouldn’t we be asking all Ministers to scope how it will impact on their area of responsibility..?.’ That is what a competent government with a competent public service would do, but neither entity appears up to the task, with the general destruction of the APS by successive LNP governments. I was a fairly senior officer of the APS for 20+ years, and saw it happening.
It may be fair to say the last few years of minimal climate policy in and by Australia would not have made much difference and I could accept that there is no cause for blaming… if I could believe Morrison’s government was genuinely committed to making Australia a part of fixing the problem.
I would trust them more if I did not believe they would be (behind closed doors) pleased if those international agreements irrevocably break down. Or if they entered into negotiations seeking stronger actions, not weaker. Or if they were alarmed rather than pleased at new coal plants in India and China. Or showed real commitment to reducing international and domestic use of fossil fuels. Or did not have the protection and advancement of coal and gas export industries as their highest priority response to the growing, legitimate concern about climate change.
That Australia is susceptible to drought, fire and flood makes 3C (at best) or more than 5C (with all that Gallilee Basin coal) uttterly terrifying. The next time we get the confluence of Indian Dipole, Southern Annular Mode and el Nino then conditions for drought, heat and fire will be worse because of global warming. Note that what we have now is minus the el Nino contribution.
That any of our “leaders” should think that because we’ve had droughts fires and floods means there is no cause for concern is so backwards in logic and reason that I can only believe they truly are climate science deniers who throw IPCC reports in the bin without reading. Which makes their claims of being fully on board with climate science and emissions reductions look like outright BS.
Climate science deniers… or to be fair, they may know better but they just don’t care. Which is, from my point of view, even worse.
The Coalition in charge of climate action is like the blind leading the blind. We really are the frogs in the pan as the ocean keeps heating up big time..
Compared to the 1981-2010 average, they calculated that the 2019 average ocean temperature had increased by 0.075 degrees Celsius.
While that may not sound like much, the amount of energy the ocean has absorbed to warm by that much is about 228 sextillion joules — the equivalent of around 3.6 billion Hiroshima bomb explosions.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-01-14/climate-change-ocean-warming-2019/11863056
Why in the midst of an unparalleled bush fire disaster does Scotty from marketing have the Attorney General seeking to challenge the heritage of the author of Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe. If this is the most pressing legal matter that the AG is contemplating then he and Scotty both should be behind bars for criminal negligence.
Re:
While that’s a good idea, the Prime Minister could go further and demand that each and every Cabinet Submission include a sub-heading as to the possible and probable climate effects this proposal would have if adopted. Scoping, while useful as a consciousness raising exercise, tends to be a one-off activity that diminishes or is even forgotten over time while having a mandated section in all Cabinet Submissions ensures a constant reminder not only to the department crafting the proposal but also to all other departments which provide briefing notes for their particular Minister.
Presumably, there’s a Cabinet Handbook which might need to be amended but that should not be major problem. Should rank up there with financial implications, social impacts, etc. (But probably won’t.)
ajogrady,
The challenge of the heritage of Bruce Pascoe is to denigrate Pascoe’s claims for the Indigenous people of Australia actually existing despite colonial claims of Terra Nullius and the colonist attempt at genocide against Indigenous people in bloody conflicts.
The editor of Quadrant magazine is Keith Windschuttle, who claims bloody deaths of Indigenous people were rare.
Bruce Pascoe and other writers, including Bill Gammage (Biggest Estate on Earth) and Billy Griffiths (Deep Time Dreaming) and many others examine Aboriginal culture.
The point about these writers is that they describe how the First Nation people, over tens of thousands of years, tended to the land and its changing climate – in contrast to the way Australia has been so badly treated as merely resources for profit by incoming European colonists.
One of the things used by Indigenous people was firestick burning in a patchwork pattern, which right wing media claims as the solution as a distraction from Anthropic Global Warming and the burning of fossil fuels.
Windschutle’s misleading claims about frontier wars have been roundly debunked by Robert Manne.
Pascoe’s ancestry is irrelevant.
-be asking all Ministers to scope how it will impact on their area of responsibility
Oh do you mean do some modelling, some risk assessment, some management.
Don’t be silly that means they would actually have to do some actually work !
The LNP will simply continue to pocket bribes from the coal and oil lobbies. Morrison has promised that. That will kill any possibility of a renewable energy policy.
We might as well go away and contemplate a future of dying after the shitshower of lying. Australians will not generally change, not much or quickly or fundamentally. It’s a B B Q, the roast dinner, the maccas and kfc garbage for gutzers, it’s big vehicles pushed along, distances, overuse, more land clearing (if possible) more environmental stupidity, more plastic, more commercial corporate shitheadedness, more instinctive denial because we have our way of life, our routines and patterns and attitudes…The conservatives in the country party have stuffed this nation for over a century of brainless imported filthy approaches to land use and abuse. We are drying up and out, have lost cover, have lost the best of what little soil we had, have brought in pests, plagues, poxes and pestilences. Now, enough Queensland country party type idiots have assured the re election of a determined hyper idiot, a superstitious shitbrained shyster who cannot even lie well enough to sell tourism. His only position on a minor staff of any university would be to clean shithouses and he isn’t trustworthy enough for even that. As for the others under him, they make cockroaches seem like sweet geniuses and capable operators (which they are) . So what do we do? Where do we go? How do we start? Education? Media boycotts? Corporate filth elimination? Revision of travel and transport and excesses? Changed diets? Sobriety? Silence?
The biggest problem is that scottyfrommarketing is just not fairdinkum at all and anything he says is just pure unadulterated spin.
I equate LNP policies to empty boxes, perhaps they should be called box policies. They are large and grand, with very fancy titles, but totally empty on the inside. Nothing ever comes out of an empty box but it can sure look good.
It is all labor’s fault…
no, really, it is…
labor put forward well thought out procedures for climate action, energy efficiency, new technologies and a plan to place Australia back at the front of investment in alternate power sources
so what can the COALition and Smirky do?
anything they attempt would be too close to Labor policy – stuff murdoch has railed against for 7 years
even our voting sheeple would cavil at that level of hypocrisy – wouldn’t they?
Phil Pryor,
What can we do? One thing is to keep asking the tough questions – and ask them of everybody. There are people who do not know what is going on. No idea. Asleep.
One thing I think of doing is to stand in a public place and tear Murdoch publications into tiny pieces and drop them into a large tub labeled “COMPOST”. And it happening around Oz.
Trouble is, Dutton’s black-boot troopers would be onto us all in a flash for threatening security – and heresy.
The Abbott Turnbull Morrison IPA led LNP Government is truly a pestilence upon Australia.
Please dont hold your breath waiting for a LNP change on MO, coz you will die.
That much is assured.
Dear guest, I would prefer to write something else, or remain silent or offer positive suggestions, but just then, that was the way it appeared. I like to be seen as wrong if better ideas come or good plans emerge. Over a century of carelessness and…
In the year to September 2013, when the Coalition took over, GHG emissions excluding LULUCF were 542.1 Mt CO2 -e.
In the year to June 2019, GHG emissions excluding LULUCF were 551.3 Mt CO2 -e.
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/e18788bd-2a8a-49d1-b797-307a9763c93f/files/quartlery-update-september-2013_1.pdf
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/8d47dec2-cd70-4a67-a7ab-85d67f3d53be/files/nggi-quarterly-update-jun-2019.pdf
The amount of CO2 released by the fires won’t be counted, the rationale being that fires are temporary events and the trees/grasslands will grow back. That is highly debatable in this case and will take a very long time if even possible. If the solution offered is more land clearing, then emissions will soar again.
I have to agree with others, nothing will happen. Scot from the mob has already started his spin hoping to get traction on another straw man. This time its mitigation and being prepared, what ever that means. The truth is , he is a LIAR. Lying by omission is a lie. Trying to duck and weave, ignoring at all costs the fact we need to do much more. I hope he chokes on the lump of coal, i actually think it would be good for the country if he just died. He has no care for us. He is only interested in maintaining his political position.
I can’t remember her name but an American author once observed that “it’s hard to see where the Australian Coal Industry ends and where the Australian Government begins”. I think that’s a fair observation.
My choice for the tweet of the day was from a Morrison parody – “Jenny and I had a terrific game of Scrabble last night.
Jen was in front by a fair margin at the end but I used some carryover points from a game we played in 2014 and pipped her at the post.” That’s what he’s doing with our emissions.
Looking at the picture heading the story, it appears as if all his supporters have put their teeth back in just for the pic.
I wonder if they represent the epitome of ‘Seneca the Younger’s’ common people?
Pete Petrass – box policies, that’s way better than claytons policies, (for younger readers, the policies you have when you don’t have any policies).
I love it, it’s so apt a description.
Hi Kaye Lee … I am busy writing my book … but that does not mean that I miss your articles. I love the way that you nub the issues of the matters. Regards Keith
“The chief of staff of new prime minister Scott Morisson is John Kunkel, the former deputy CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia, the same group that thoughtfully provided a lacquered lump of coal for the then Treasurer to wave around parliament in February last year in the middle of a drought.
Kunkel served as deputy CEO of the Minerals Council for 6 years and four months before spending two years as head of government affairs (a political lobbying position) for the country’s biggest coal producers, Rio Tinto.
Kunkel’s previous work includes with former consultancy Concept Economics, headed by two of the most ferocious opponents of climate action and renewable energy schemes, Henry Ergas and Brian Fisher, who was on Tony Abbott’s panel reviewing the renewable energy target.
Fisher, who now runs BAEconomics, last year presented a report to the Minerals Council about the level of subsidies to renewable energy in Australia.
Although vastly inflating the actual number and level of subsidies, that assessment has now become a standard “alternative fact” constantly referred to by the Murdoch media, the Coalition, and even at times by the ABC.
By a curious coincidence, that report for the Minerals Council was posted on the BAEconomics website (February 8) on the very same day that Morrison waved around and then coddled the lump of coal delivered to him by the Minerals Council.”
And it doesn’t stop there….
guest re:
We do the same as we always do – in the vain hope that by doing what we’ve always done will somehow get a different result. As Einstein is reported to have said (but didn’t)
We have the (technological) means to do things differently but what we lack is the imagination to think outside the box and then the political will to action that better way.
Generally agreed that the first step in solving any problem is the definition of same. Or to put it another way, clarification should come before action. Seems to me that the collective ‘we’ can see what’s wrong and/or bad but that’s where things tend to end. You know – at the first step.
Yes, in theory, we can right the ship of State at the next election but more often than not it’s the distraction that’s voted on. Not anything of long-term substance.
Time for different structural arrangements to reflect the expression and operationalisation of the citizens’ will. Until then – carry on howling at the moon.
Spot on kaye, there are so many dangerous men that could be exposed maybe albo should kunkel stupid sam and karl baby???
ps
mn:a drivel slogan the whole point of repetition is indoctrination eventually the result is the one you seek.
the libs do ‘nothing’ but do it so beautifully that it is easily repeated. .
Phil Pryor,
Sounds like you have given up. Talking to my neighbour, he told me he saw the number of “arsonists” arrested. Said he was surprised. Looked it up on line and found out the truth. The lies are being debunked. There is only tissue paper between the Coalition and success for Labor, if Albo has the guts. (Tissue paper – or some piss-coloured pages from Palmer in the Murdoch trash rag)
Algae, beer and climate change. Scotty, what could all this mean. Its those pesky scientists trying to figure stuff out Scotty. One of Scotty’s dilemmas is when to believe the science.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-15/growing-algae-to-brew-greener-beer/11720484?section=environment
@Pete Petrass: Your “box policies” policies remind me of Howard’s “Headland statements”.
Now a synonym for “headland” is “bluff” and “bluff” is what you do when you say one thing with no intention of doing it, rather more likely doing the opposite. Strange that none of the MSM picked up on this word tweaking in their commentaries. (Perhaps they all went to private schools where academic excellence is of secondary importance to consumer displays).
Well that didn’t last long…..
The prime minister says he is focused on “practical” measures to address the effects of climate change in Australia rather than bolstering emission reduction targets.
“I have set out what I think we need to do in terms of the future and that has been very much ensuring that we continue to meet and beat the emission reduction targets that we have set,” he said.
“I think more significantly that resilience and adaptation need an even greater focus.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/14/scott-morrison-to-focus-on-resilience-and-adaption-to-address-climate-change
So suck it up Australia….Scottyfrommarketing is sticking with the lies.
Morosames campaign, bluff bluster and bullshit, with the support of murdochs molls and photo ops.
“Practical measures”?
To shift costs onto those least responsible.
Interesting article today by John Kerin:
Labor should move to make itself the party of the masses (perhaps via on-line Branches) as a step towards making our democracy more participatory. Just imagine what would be happening now if the punters had access to a structural mechanism that aided and abetted an expression of feelings and then facilitated appropriate action(s).
As Kerin concludes – It is no longer 1891! Might come as a massive shock to some.
Thank you, MN.
I see you have been following through on what Labor needs to do. More than once you have advocated some mechanism ‘towards making our democracy more participatory’ (14 Jan, 10.03), (14 Jan, 10.48), (15Jan, 10.42), perhaps ‘via on-line Branches’.
John Kerin says: “What is needed is an organisation of salary earners, the dispossessed and the many other people who still vote Labor on intellectual grounds, based on the principles of democracy, reform and progressive government.” Which I thought we had.
He goes on to say we have “abundant research and analysis” to guide us.
You say we do not have “the imagination to think outside the box, then the political will to action that better way” (14Jan, 10.03) – which is about as nebulous as John Kerin’s “solutions”.
I liked wam’s comment: ‘the libs do “nothing” but do it so beautifully that it is easily repeated.’ (14Jan, 11.12)
The revealed after-math Labor Party analysis blamed Bill Shorten’s campaign, his supposed unpopularity, and the stated policies of Labor – and a few other things.
Shorten campaigned widely, listened widely and spoke clearly when questioned. He was grilled extensively in a Royal Commission earlier and nothing was found against him, despite claims “There are questions to be answered” which were never asked.
Polls are one way of finding out what the populace is thinking. For weeks and months Labor topped the polls. Shorten might not have been the most popular in a one on one contest, but his personal polling did not stop Labor’s dominance over time.
Suddenly, with renewed right-wing campaigning expanding in the last weeks, plus “financialisation” (Kerin’s word) from Palmer in his trawling for preferences, the ‘quiet Australians’ apparently came out of the closet in May after 6 months of no Coalition exposure (“Oh the daggy dad is so like us!”) and Morrison, so unprepared, became the PM! How good was that?
It is demonstrable that it was not so good.
In South Australia, Labor went to the last State elections knowing the Electoral Commission had created 4 new seats of Liberal persuasion by rearranging boundaries, enough to give the election to the Liberals.
Any one for politics in Oz?
guest re your response. Just to be clear – there’s two broad issues in play. First, there’s the ALP and its organisational structure (broadly defined) which is (in my view) no longer fit for purpose in a rapidly changing, technological world. Branches (when it’s all said and done) are there for labour pools to be utilised on election days and getting the numbers for Conferences and the like. They are NOT there for serious policy development. Nor are they there for deciding what policies an election might be fought on. In short, serious political decisions are not made at the (existing) Branch level. The ALP itself does not operate as a participatory democracy.
Second, there’s the representative democracy which is also well past its time. There’s so much we can do on ‘on-line’ on a day-to-day basis whether it be the buying and selling of shares, real estate, and other commercial activities that should also be applicable to governing. We don’t necessarily need a representative when there’s so much we could do for ourselves. And do it much better. Quicker, cheaper etc. Take the issue of marriage equality as an illustrative example. For years and years, our representatives couldn’t or didn’t make a decision. When it was finally put to the people (even clumsily) a decisive decision was made rather quickly.
Of course there’s much more that could be said. But this is a blog after all. So nebulous it must be. And for a whole range of reasons as well.
What we need to establish are some broad Principles for reform. – High levels of generality with low levels of specificity to begin a debate. (Bet any response will be at the latter.)
Thank you, MN.
But it does not help me very much. I am just a voter and I express opinions every now and then. I am not a Branch member, so I do not turn up every three years to hand out how to vote cards. I have no influence in unions.
But I cannot imagine myself sitting over the computer ready to vote or provide input online to every policy plan on offer – in the same way I might occasionally buy a pair of shoes online.
And someone will be ready to take all the votes – could I make some suggestions as well – and it would all be collated into some decision by someone. Like a postal referendum.
So we ascertain the ‘group-think’ on everything?
I know people who go to meetings and they talk about things political. Are they a rarity? Then there are those who chatter in bars. Or around BBQs.
No one has bothered to round up the cats?