Another "hottest year"

Once again we have an example of how to lie with statistics. It appears to be true that ON AVERAGE, 2016 was unusually warm.  But my favourite graph below shows that the warm months were all at the beginning of the year during the El Nino weather phenomenon.  By the end of the year and the end of El Nino, temperatures had slumped, with December 2016 COOLER than December 2015 -- with an anomaly of 81 compared to 111 -- According to the NASA raw data here



And how sad for Australia's BOM, that they could only report that the year was only 4th hottest for Australia,  Australia is a rather large lump of real-estate so the warming we are looking at is not exactly global is it?

Two amusing things to note below: 

1). The high temperatures reported are nowhere in the article attributed to "climate change". The BOM know that what was at work was El Nino and not CO2 and have become too embarrassed to lie outright about it. 

2).  The BOM carefully define the record they are dealing with as:  "the 137-year history of modern accurate and standardised meteorological observation".  The point of that, of course is to avoid confronting the careful and validated 1790 observations of Watkin Tench, which show that Sydney has had near-unbearable hot temperatures long before the modern era


It's official: 2016 set another record for being the world's hottest. Three international agencies have confirmed today that last year was the hottest on record.

NASA reported that 2016 was 0.99 degrees Celsius hotter than the 20th-century average, while the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called it at 0.94 degrees Celsius. NOAA also calculated that global land temperatures were 1.43 degrees Celsius higher. The UK Met Office, using its own data, also reported that 2016 is one of the two hottest years on record.

The figures vary slightly, depending on the baseline reference period used.

Heat records don't linger for long any more. 2016 surpassed the 2015 record, which surpassed the 2014 record. Three record hot years in a row sets yet another record in the 137-year history of modern accurate and standardised meteorological observation.

For Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology described 2016 as a "year of extreme events" and the fourth hottest at 0.87 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average. The warming trend is clear.
BOM's key 2016 climate facts and events

Australia is already on average 8 degrees Celsius hotter than the average global land temperature, so further warming means our heat risk is far greater than for other industrialised countries.

This dangerous warming trend sends a dire warning, as average warming delivers many more extreme heat events, as we're currently seeing in Queensland and New South Wales. These are the killers.

As Australia lurches from heatwave to heatwave, the message is clear: extreme heat is the new norm – so Australia needs to get "heat smart".

Rising extremes

In Australia the number of days per year over 35 degrees Celsius has increased and extreme temperatures have increased on average at 7 per cent per decade.

Very warm monthly maximum temperatures used to occur around 2 per cent of the time during the period 1951–1980. During 2001–2015, these happened more than 11 per cent of the time.

This trajectory of increased temperature extremes raises questions of how much heat can humans tolerate and still go about their daily business of commuting, managing domestic chores, working and keeping fit.

SOURCE





Helen Szoke shows her colours



From Wikipedia:  "In 2004 Szoke joined the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, holding roles as Chief Conciliator and Chief Executive, before being appointed in 2009 as Commissioner and Chairperson of the Board. Following a change of state government, these roles were separated, and Szoke continued as Commissioner". 

Her determinations always seemed perverse, although carefully put.  We see from the excerpts below from an article by her just why.  She is a totally one-eyed far-Leftist, not an impartial public servant.  You will, for instance, not see her telling anybody that Life is getting much, much better for the world's poor, however you want to measure it – whether it's in terms of average incomes, life expectancy, child mortality, disease, poverty, or women's rights


As the world’s political and business leaders come together in Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum, Oxfam has released a new report revealing the shocking scale of the global inequality crisis.

The globe’s richest eight men have a staggering net wealth of $621bn – coexisting in a world of extreme poverty where one in 10 people are surviving on less than US$2 a day, and where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night.

While public attention will inevitably turn to the identity of the super-rich individuals, this is a distraction from the true crisis at hand: the current economic system is broken. It is one that serves the interests of multinational corporations and the super-rich, leaving the rest of us behind. The new statistics show that the global inequality crisis is more extreme than we had feared.

While there have been inroads in eradicating poverty, the stark truth is that the rich are becoming richer and dwarf the gains made by everyone else, leaving the poorest unable to lift themselves into better lives.

Oanh in Vietnam is just one of the billions of individual human faces of this great divide. She needs kidney dialysis three times a week. While Oanh’s dialysis is covered by insurance, the need for her to pay for medicine leaves her US$100 short every month.

Oxfam’s analysis shows that in Australia today, the richest 1% of the population own more wealth than the poorest 70% of our citizens combined.

Turning to the absolute extreme, the two wealthiest billionaires in Australia – between them worth US$16.1bn – have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 20% of the country. That is, they have more wealth than 4.8 million of the poorest people in this country. Meanwhile, the people in the bottom half of the Australian population have just over 6% of national wealth between them.

But there are ways to bridge the divide and fix the broken system that is breeding discontent, destabilising political institutions, fracturing societies and risking further economic instability.

The inequality crisis is being fuelled around the world by immoral and unethical practices of big business – the use of tax havens to avoid paying a fair share of tax, which could be used for essential public services; the failure to pay workers a living wage and the expenditure of billions to lobby governments for rules in favour of the super-rich.

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Consider deporting child criminals: Dutton

The age criminal migrants can be deported could be lowered to 16, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

A federal migration committee is looking at the issue of youth crime gangs, including the potential for children to be deported if they commit crimes in Australia.

"Whether for example the bar can be lowered from 18, to 17 to 16, or whatever the case may be," Mr Dutton told 3AW on Thursday. "But we don't deport children (under the current laws)."

Four adult migrants have had their visas cancelled after they were convicted of crimes in Victoria, and Mr Dutton said more were being investigated.

"Biting the hand the feeds them is not the way we want to run the migration program," he said. "If they cherish the life they lead in Australia, they need to start respecting Australians, they need to abide by the law and respect Australian values."

Mr Dutton also says questions should be asked of anyone who has resided in Australia for a number of years, is able-bodied and of working age, but "hasn't worked a day since they've been here".

Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville says the visa cancellations send a strong message to others breaking the law, from all backgrounds.

"We have always said that there are laws in place to deport criminals who are not Australian citizens," she said in a statement.

"We are dealing with some very serious violent offenders in our community, and using these laws to deport them is entirely appropriate."

A Victoria Police statement says a number of offenders have been referred for deportation.

"The referral of children under 18 years of age will only occur in exceptional circumstances, however Victoria Police has made some referrals in respect to that age group for consideration," the statement said.

SOURCE






Malcolm Turnbull did NOT get an invite to Donald Trump's inauguration - but One Nation's leader Pauline Hanson did

Donald Trump has left Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull off his guest list for his presidential inauguration but has invited Pauline Hanson.

Almost a year ago, Mr Turnbull spoke by phone with Democrat Hillary Clinton and the U.S. president-elect's Republican rival Marco Rubio during a visit to Washington, without reaching out to Mr Trump.

It appears Mr Trump has returned the favour by instead giving an invitation to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson for his January 20 swearing-in.

The Queensland senator will be represented by her New South Wales colleague Brian Burston, as Mr Trump takes to oath of office to become the 45th President of the United States.

'Because of work commitments I'll not be attending Donald Trump's inauguration,' Senator Hanson tweeted on Monday.  'My duties to the people of Queensland and Australia come first.'

Senator Hanson celebrated Mr Trump's election victory in November by drinking champagne outside Parliament House with fellow Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts and American Trump supporters.

Like Mr Trump, Senator Hanson has also called for a ban on Muslim migration.

Mr Turnbull, who criticised Mr Trump's 2005 comments about grabbing women 'by the p****', has confirmed Australia's Ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, will instead attend the inauguration.

'The PM is not invited nor is going,' a spokesman confirmed to Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

SOURCE






Some examples of fake news at the ABC

* The Australian, December 23 last year:

Resources Minister Matt Canavan has accused the ABC of running “fake news” as part of a campaign against the Adani coalmine, in a blistering attack on the national broadcaster for abandoning regional Australia. Following reports on the ABC that Adani companies use tax havens and are under investigation in India over fraud allegations, Senator Canavan said the reports lacked “credibility” and suggested activists were directing the broadcaster’s coverage.

* One way to avoid fake news is to be wary of your partner organisations. The Australian, January 12, 2015:

The ABC has defended using Qatari-based news service Al Jazeera for its coverage of the Paris terror attacks, after leaked emails revealed the network had denounced the satirical magazine at the centre of the violence. Labor MP Michael Danby said yesterday the “scandalous” emails should prompt the ABC to reconsider its use of the news service.

* And ensure your presenters play a straight bat. The Australian, November 14 last year:

At least a dozen of the ABC’s high-profile radio and television presenters, including Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, PM host Mark Colvin and journalist Annabel Crabb, expressed their disdain for the “nightmare” of a Trump presidency and asked if there was an “off switch” for his campaign.

* Of course, it always pays to check your facts. The Australian, February 1, 2014:

The Australian can reveal after two days of witness interviews that allegations aired by the ABC that the Australian navy tortured and deliberately burned the hands of asylum-seekers cannot be corroborated.

* Yep, fake news sure can be a problem sometimes. The Australian, October 19 last year:

The ABC has endured excoriating criticism of its flagship current ­affairs program, Four Corners, after Monday’s episode about refugee children on Nauru was found to include old photographs of facilities no longer in use, and random footage of brawling adults, previously published on YouTube by a user known only as “NoRulz”.

* Ex-ABC Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 5 last year:

But much of the ABC’s factual output is not, strictly speaking, “journalism” … It’s also undeniable, as the likes of (Andrew) Bolt and (Gerard) Henderson have complained for years, that the ABC’s capital city radio presenters come across, overwhelmingly, as leaning more to the left than the right … The leftiness of ABC radio output is doubly problematic when it comes to Radio National.

* Finally, is the end point of Trumpism … the crown? The Sydney Morning Herald letters page co-editor Julie Lewis with a novel defence of constitutional monarchy, yesterday:

What is needed is an explicit and authentic agenda to restore the faith of the people in their parliament, preferably bipartisan, but if not, the party leader that pledged him or herself to it would reap the electoral benefits. And in the meantime, let’s keep the Windsors. They might make for dull television and a political system yet to reach its full promise, but I’ll take that over Trumpist excitement any day.

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Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here