HOW NATURAL IS THE RECENT CENTENNIAL WARMING?

It is widely accepted that global surface air temperatures have increased in the
past 100 years, with a pronounced rise in the last 50 years. However, the question
is not yet answered which forcings cause the actual global temperature change.

A recent paper published in the International Journal of Modern Physics provides data from the study of 2249 surface temperature records.

"CARBON TAX NOT DEFENSIBLE" SAYS LOMBORG

Professor Bjorn Lomborg does believe in man-made climate change and does believe that fossil fuels should be taxed, but says Australia's tax on carbon dioxide is not defensible.

He argues in this article in The Australian that the cost of the 'cure' is worse than the alleged problem.

MIXED MESSAGES ON CLIMATE VULNERABILITY

Richard Black, environment correspondent for the BBC finds a lot of unknowns in the new draft document from the IPCC on extreme weather events.

"And for the future, the draft gives even less succour to those seeking here a new mandate for urgent action on greenhouse gas emissions, declaring: "Uncertainty in the sign of projected changes in climate extremes over the coming two to three decades is relatively large because climate change signals are expected to be relatively small compared to natural climate variability".

THE CRUMBLING EDIFICE OF THE IPCC

The Global Warming Policy Foundation in the U.K. published an article by Australian Environment Foundation executive director Max Rheese on the latest revelations about the IPCC flawed process and unmistakeable ties to climate activist organisations.

"This has the appearance of a circular, incestuous process that saw IPCC chapters written while the necessary referenced papers were published after the fact in peer-reviewed journals under the influence of IPCC authors.

Large numbers of contributors to the report, like Bill Hare, were directly linked to organisations such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature; five out of ten contributors to one chapter have a formal, documented link to WWF, 28 out of 44 chapters of the report included at least one individual affiliated with WWF."

WIND COSTS: STILL NOT VIABLE

Kent Hawkins at the energy blog site Master Resources looks at an area of debate that rarely gets discussed in the Australian mainstream media - the costs of wind energy.

"There has not been much published on wind costs, except, generally speaking to give the impression that they are reasonable and manageable. Unfortunately, at the level of wind implementation being contemplated, particularly in the Western world, the costs are an unsupportable amount of national wealth."

He also outlines the dubious claims regarding CO2 reduction.

If wind energy costs more, does little to reduce emissions, makes people sick and is erratic and unreliable -why would you bother?  Unless of course you were an energy company with a mandated right to supply and endless taxpayer and electricity consumer subsidies - then why not?

GOVT WILL FALL SHORT ON CARBON TAX REVENUE

Alan Kohler writing at the Business Spectator website says the government forecasts for revenue are too high.

"This will mean the government’s revenue from the carbon tax will fall well short of the forecasts in the budget, exacerbated by the state government schemes to lower carbon emissions."

To maintain compensation for households at the promised level will more than likely mean budget deficits.  More financial pain for no environmental gain.