This video says about itself:
Out of Balance – ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change
“Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change” shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens and what can be done about global warming. While the Earth’s climate is pushed further out of balance by increasing use of fossil fuels, ExxonMobil continues to assert undue influence around the world—making record profits while ignoring climate science for which there has been overwhelming consenus for over ten years.
“Out of Balance” does not just critique ExxonMobil, it also offers challenging, large-scale ideas for the global social changes that must take place if there’s any chance of having a livable planet for future generations.
A few years ago, the Israeli government appointed a climate science denialist to high office.
Now, the new Australian government has done something similar.
Now that this joke has happened, one should hope that the Australian government will follow the Israeli example, not just in appointing such a moonbat, but also in sacking him again then.
From Crooks and Liars in the USA:
Australia Appoints Climate Science Denier As Top New York Official
ONE block east of Grand Central station, in a skyscraper on 42nd St, is the office of Australia’s Consul General.
It’s a high profile diplomatic role and one that gives business leaders, thinkers and politicians the chance to see what drives the Australian Government of the day.
In April, Australia will have a new Consul-General taking up that seat on 42nd Street.
Seemingly in lock-step with the prevailing views of the conservative government in Australia, that man will be Nick Minchin — a rusted-on denier of the science of human-caused climate change and power broker in the country’s Liberal (that’s conservative) Party.
Minchin has claimed the “extreme Left” has used environmentalism as a way to try and “de-industrialise” the western world. He thinks human-caused climate change is a scare story.
Minchin’s appointment was announced by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who said the consulate role was “high profile” and that it could be used to “influence perceptions of Australia” in the city.
She said Minchin’s role would be to influence “key individuals and companies across a range of sectors particularly business and politics.”
Things could get a little awkward if talk at those business and political lunches turns to climate change — which it surely will in a city acutely aware of its susceptibility to climate change impacts.
In April 2012, Minchin ridiculed the notion that human-caused climate change was a risk, writing in a column that “despite the hype” the ice at the world’s poles was not melting and that “our cities aren’t being submerged.”
Six months later, New York was submerged by the storm surge from ex-cyclone Sandy.
In the wake of the storm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo described climate change as a “new threat” which should force people to “look at the world differently.” Cuomo told journalist Rachel Maddow:
This is climate change. And it’s not a political concept; it’s a practical concept. It’s not debatable and not ideological or philosophical; it is reality-based. Changing weather patterns create real, practical issues for the world. Let’s build an awareness, a consensus, and let’s educate and mobilize the body politic around it. When do politicians succeed in bringing change?
Most New Yorkers saw the storm as a sure sign of climate change. New Yorkers are also acutely aware of how exposed their low-lying Manhattan centre is to sea level rises and severe storm surges.
The new Consul General, a former government minister, might also have a job convincing the New York Times that climate change is just a scary story. The paper’s editorials repeatedly warn of the risks of climate change.
Most recently, the paper’s editorial board said there would be “devastating climate-change consequences” unless there were “aggressive moves” to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Minchin himself has fought hard for the opposite. When the Liberal Party was in opposition, Minchin played a key role in unseating leader Malcolm Turnbull and replacing him with Tony Abbott, now the country’s Prime Minsiter.
Turnbull wanted to support an emissions trading scheme, but Abbott — who once described the science of climate change as “absolute crap” — did not. Abbott, backed by Minchin, won, but has since claimed he accepts the science.
In an interview with the ABC’s flagship Four Corners investigative journalism television show in 2009, Nick Minchin named Australian climate science deniers Bob Carter and Ian Plimer as two “scientists” he thought were credible on climate science.
Carter, who has only ever written one peer reviewed scientific paper on climate change (which was later debunked), is on the payroll of the notorious Heartland Institute free market “think tank.”
Plimer, who has never written a peer reviewed scientific paper on climate change, now spends much of his time as a director of several mining companies, including two controlled by one of the world’s richest women, Gina Rinehart. One company is oil and gas firm Sun Resources, where Plimer is chairman on a board that includes another former Howard Government Minister and Minchin contemporary, Alexander Downer.
Minchin told the ABC he did not accept that carbon dioxide was the main driver of climate change. He said:
I frankly strongly object to you know, politicians and others trying to terrify 12 year old girls that their planet’s about to melt, you know. I mean really it is appalling some of that sort of behaviour.
“For the extreme left it provides the opportunity to do what they’ve always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialise the western world. You know the collapse of communism was a disaster for the left, and the, and really they embraced environmentalism as their new religion.
Minchin also appeared on a contrived ABC documentary on climate change in 2012.
The show — I Can Change Your Mind About Climate Change — took a climate science denier and a climate advocate around the world.
The two participants, Nick Minchin and Australian climate change campaigner Anna Rose, took each other to meet people they thought would help change their opponents’ mind.
In a segment not aired on the show, Minchin was taken to meet Naomi Oreskes, a science history professor at UC San Diego and co-author of the book Merchants of Doubt: How A Handful of scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.
This video says about itself:
Naomi Oreskes deconstructs Nick Minchin’s climate denial
23 April 2012
Naomi Oreskes explains with great clarity the driving force behind climate denial – aversion to the political and economic implications of climate change.
UPDATE: Some commenters are asking about evidence that humans are causing global warming. A summary is provided at http://sks.to/evidence and http://sks.to/agw with links to the many peer-reviewed papers that provide empirical evidence for human caused global warming.
Many thanks to the producers of I Can Change Your Mind about Climate for granting permission to repost this footage, which didn’t make the final cut of the documentary. More info about the film is available at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/changeyourmind/
The Crooks and Liars article continues:
Oreskes warned Minchin that he was basing his decision on “bad information” and said that while many conservatives feared regulating greenhouse gas emissions amounted to an unwelcome government intrusion, avoiding taking action actually made those fears far more likely to come true.
Minchin’s “expert” choices included Marc Morano, the communications director for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and former advisor to Republican Senator James Inhofe, who says global warming is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
CFACT has accepted at least $4 million from Donors Trust – a fund that spends cash on behalf of rich conservative millionaires while keeping their identities a secret. CFACT has also accepted cash from fossil fuel interests, including $500,000 from Exxon.
Morano told the recent United Nations climate talks in Warsaw that coal was the “moral choice” for the developing world.
A relative of the new Consul-General is the comedian Tim Minchin, one of Australia’s most famous exports.
When the younger Minchin accepted an honorary doctorate last year from the University of Western Australia, he had a few choice words to say about his senior cousin.
“The idea that many Australians – including our new PM and my distant cousin Nick Minchin – believe that the science of anthropogenic global is controversial, is a powerful indicator of the extent of our failure to communicate.”
In a city where the fear of human-caused climate change is real, it seems appointing a climate science denier to a key diplomatic position is another “powerful indicator” of the Australian Government’s unedifying position.
An international team of scientists has produced global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates have shifted. In research published in the journal Nature, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) revealed global maps showing how fast, and in which direction, local climates are shifting. This new study points to a simpler way of looking at climatic changes and their likely effects on biodiversity: here.
Related articles
Aussie scientist says PM ‘denies the detail’ of climate change in outback Australia (listen): here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Pingback: Kangaroo evolution and climate change in Australia | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Tony Abbott, has stated his concern for Australia, is open for business, the present government is for a business run country, it requires money constantly from overseas investors, I once put the question of how much wealth has been extracted from the beginning of occupancy of British colonization? to a lecturer on economics, naturally the question fell outside the normal politically correct questions, she replied their are no figures for this, the wealth generated here has been enormous, for in the main overseas finance, the climate of this country is the politicians who run the country is to gain personal wealth as a priority, the general population are more or less interested in hedonistic pursuits, I would venture to say the Australian psyche, is very defensive on any serious critique, in the country town here in Australia, is noted for prescription drugs and also illegal drugs, it is well known that regional towns drugs are a general problem, as you would know in the East End of London, alcohol was a normal outlet for suffering, here you would have to multiply the East End to the whole of Australia, I am referring to the inner world of the Australian, this is why Pilger and Assange, left Australia, long ago, Australia is notable for its virtue of lagging behind, of what is going on outside Australia, this is why intellectuals and artists flee from this culture, any one here who is or has exceptional ability , will be destroyed, this is the tall poppy syndrome at work, exceptions of those having the individual excellence, will be dealt with, and reveals guilt of the Australian person, who is subject to some extent trapped within its history of race identification, and on not becoming, authentic, those who embark on a pursuit of excellence, will be assailed by the hungry, and recreated as the mediocre.
LikeLike
Pingback: Australian Prime Minister hates national parks | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Rupert Murdoch quarrels with Australian Prime Minister Abbott | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Climate Change Denial – Jimmy Dore told his 80,000 YouTube subscribers that this exchange between Congressman Grayson and Congressman Rohrabacher at a Congressional hearing on “clean coal” on Wednesday is “the best comeback ever” on that subject. Listen:
Rep. Grayson: We’re talking about air pollution, in the form of carbon dioxide emissions. No company that produces energy in the United States has any incentive to limit its own air pollution, unless we create an incentive for it. . . . It’s dreaming to think that it’s going to happen through the “free market,” when the free market has every incentive to continue to pollute, as much as it wants.
Rep. Rohrabacher: It’s about CO2, it’s not about “air pollution.” . . . Pollution is something that endangers human life, endangers the health of human beings. . . . It’s all based on the [false] idea that CO2 is heating our planet. . . . There are hundreds of scientists who do not believe that the global warming theory based on CO2 heating our planet is correct. . . . I don’t accept the fact that CO2 in any way causes human health problems. . . . Trying to base our operations on the CO2 theory of global warming is in no way justified.
Rep. Grayson: If [Congressman Rohrabacher] thinks that carbon dioxide doesn’t cause any human health problems, I invite him to put a plastic bag over his head, tie it tightly around his neck, and see what happens next.
BOOM!
Who speaks for the trees? Alan Grayson does.
LikeLike
Pingback: British Conservative government represses climate change protesters | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Australian climate denialists condemn Pacific to drowning | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Australian bushfire survivors angry on government | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Australians demonstrate against pro-bushfire government | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Deep-sea coral discovery off Western Australia | Dear Kitty. Some blog