Two (sceptical) articles:
1. https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/censorship-threatens-truth-climate
2. THE EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Abrupt Climate Change
What scientific evidence do we have that abrupt climate change has happened before?
Fascinating articles, Slobodan. Thanks for that. I'm guessing that the reason the IPCC in its latest report has toned down the alarmism about the increasing severity of extreme weather events that have been predicted in the past to result from CO2 increases, is because so many very qualified scientists, who are also qualified in the relevant scientific disciplines, have strongly objected to such projections on the grounds they are not based on sound evidence.
In Australia we had a very severe drought from 2001 to 2009. In Queensland where I live, the dam levels became so low that the Queensland Government imposed water restrictions. No watering of the garden or washing of the car with a hose was allowed. The government even subsidised the installation of water tanks to collect rainfall from the roofs of urban dwellings. If you had a water tank installed, you could then safely water your garden without risk of prosecution, provided you had a notice on your gate, "Water Tank in Use".
When I had a house built on my property in 2009-10, I was dismayed at the new regulations that required me to have an electric pump attached to a water tank that would automatically start whenever the toilet was flushed, and also provide all the cold water to my washing machine.
7 years later I'm into my second pump which is also beginning to 'misbehave'. The cost of the pump and the replacements, added to the cost of the water tanks, is far greater than the value of the water saved in terms of the cost of the alternative town water supply, which I'm also connecterd to.
I'm now considering whether I should pay a plumber a thousand dollars or so to reconnect my toilet and washing machine to the town water supply. I would rather spend that thousand dollars on a Nikon D7200.
Such regulations that applied 7 years ago no longer apply because since that time there has been plentiful rain on the East Coast where I'm located.
The reason I'm relating this story is because of my perception of a vast bungling by the politicians in the Queensland government who were influenced by the advice of 'climate change alarmists' such as Tim Flannery.
Tim Flannery is a mammologist, paleontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist. He was also the Chief Commissioner of the Federal Government funded Climate Commission at the time. He was sacked in September 2013.
Tim Flannery's advice was that CO2-induced climate change would increase extreme weather events and that the then-current drought in Australia would be a more common and more prolonged event into the future.
Instead of approving the proposals to build additional dams in the area, in order to take advantage of the huge water supply that would occur during the next flood, and protect the homes of residents from a future predicted flood due to natural causes, based on the historical record, the Queensland Government decided to build a number of rather expensive desalination plants on the coast.
The desalination plants were used very briefly because soon after their construction the El Nina rains arrived. In the build-up to the wet weather period, dams that were built for flood mitigation purposes years ago, were filled up to near the limit, on the understanding that droughts were predicted to be the norm, by climate alarmists like Tim Flannery.
When the rains continued, there was no dam reserve to hold the water, which therefore had to be released, which caused billions of dollars worth of damage to property, and uncountable loss of dollars in respect to loss of life.
I suspect that the total cost of the flood damage, plus the cost of subsidised water tanks, plus the cost of the desalination plants, was more than the cost of building new dams during the drought, which would have prevented the subsequent flood damage.
This is an example of 'climate change alarmism' having negative social and economic impacts.
Australia is a land of droughts and floods, and this is still the case despite rises in CO2 levels. That we don't build more dams to store the excess water in times of flood, to prevent damage to property and life, and provide more water in times of drought, is amazingly stupid.