Do they have any journos there?

Unpublished letter to the Sydney Morning Herald

British climategate scientist Dr Phil Jones has revealed in an interview with the BBC that the world has not warmed since 1995; debate over Medieval Warm Period is not settled; the rates of warming from 1860-1880, 1910-1940 and 1975-1998 were statistically identical meaning the current rate of warming is not unprecedented; and the world has been cooling since January 2002 at a rate of -0.12C per decade. Will this make it past the SMH's climate alarmist news filters, or will SMH readers be forced to turn to Rupert Murdoch to find out about it? God knows hell will freeze over before our Auntie says anything.

Losing his religion

Unpublished letter to Editor of The Australian

Dear Editor,

The Prime Minister should be congratulated for his grand plan to create a "scientifically engaged" Australia by "catapulting science into classrooms, boardrooms and lounge rooms" (It's the science country, 9/2). But why stop there? How about catapulting the same critical thinking into the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples? What's he scared of...losing his religion?

Comment: A government supporting critical thinking...now that would be something!

So the PM wants un-sceptical scientists?

Unpublished letter to The Australian, sent 9/2/2010

Dear Editor,

It's great to see that the Rudd Government has outlined a grand plan to create a "scientifically engaged" Australia that will be "catapulting science into classrooms, boardrooms and lounge rooms" (It's the science country, 9/2). But given the Prime Minister's denouncement of scepticism, so critical to good science, in his speech to the Lowy Institute last year, (Rudd dares Turnbull on ETS, 7/11/2009) one wonders exactly what type of science will be catapulted?

"Buy Time"

Occasionally amidst the chaotic hyperbole of the climate change debate a lone voice of reason can be heard above the din. Yesterday it came from former ALP minister Gary Johns who condensed the politician's job in the face of scientific uncertainty on climate change to two simple words: "buy time" (Don't count your trees, forests aren't that green, The Australian 4/2).

In contrast our current Government and the Opposition leap blindly over the barricades, chasing phantoms yet to crystallise from the miasma. When these demons finally coalesce, sometime in the distant future, one only hopes that our leaders pre-emptively left home with the right tools for the job, and not with a bag full of uncircumscribed programmatic specificity.