Jobs and junkets are on the line. Abbott could axe Flannery and the climate commission

No wonder Flannery and co. are playing double or nothing. While headlines have shouted for years that vested interests of the fossil fuel players dominate this debate, few journalists point out that the renewables industry, carbon trading markets, and the climate-scary-science-campaign have an all-or-nothing interest in propagating alarm.

As I keep saying, those in private business who provide real goods to real voluntary customers will suffer from a carbon tax, but they still have a market. For them it’s a “dent” in profits. We’ll still be buying coal, oil and gas for decades to come. In contrast, those who make a living from government funds could lose everything in an instant. Their wealth and status depends on a forced payment and a decision from one Minister. It is far more ephemeral and subject to whim. The state-dependents are far more desperate. The stakes are higher.

Gillard calls the “climate commission” an independent body, which is only true in the same sense that any parasite can be described as “independent” of the host while being completely dependent on it.

This shows just how independent and apolitical the Climate Commission reality is:

The Australian “Abbott says Tim Flannery’s job could be in danger ”

Tony Abbott said he didn’t see the point of paying Professor Tim Flannery about $180,000 a year for views which he considers already public knowledge. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Andrew Bolt: More spin

Latest weather forecasts

TONY Abbott has signalled he could sack chief climate commissioner Tim Flannery if he is elected as prime minister in September.The Opposition Leader, who has vowed to dismantle the Climate Change Department and merge it with the Environment Department in government, said he did not see the point of paying Professor Flannery about $180,000 a year for his views which Mr Abbott considers already public knowledge.

Bravo Abbott. Without a logical position and empirical evidence, the Climate Commission is an advertising-scheme for a bad ALP policy.

I’m sure Flannery sincerely believes he helps, but does the net benefit to the nation exceed the cost? How are those predictions panning out — Anyone want an unused desal. plant?

Speaking of Desalination, Flannery sat on the sustainability advisory board of Siemens in 2011, which helps make desal plants (like Perth’s). It also makes wind farms. He is also the Panasonic professor, and a few years ago they held a whopping 40% of the market for rechargeable electric car batteries, and were moving into electric car making. For Panasonic, spending $690,000 on Flannery’s research was much cheaper and more effective than buying prime time advertising to tell Australians how much they need electric cars. After all, the ABC don’t even sell ads, but Flannery speaks unchallenged there.

In the end, vested interests are everywhere. Only evidence from our atmosphere tells us which side is right. I’m still asking for that Mystery Paper. Flannery can’t find it.

If he stuck to arguing the evidence and providing a service to the Australian people instead of to government gatekeepers, he wouldn’t have so much to fear. Half of Australia pays his salary, but they aren’t convinced humans can change the weather. How does Flannery serve them? He calls them names.

Flannery 2011:

… compared climate change deniers to flat Earth believers and said the level of debate on the issue in Australia showed “a lot of heat, but not much light”.

A hypocrite on so many levels.

Flannery recognizes the power of the fossil fuel lobby (see below), but not the “government grants and junkets lobby”. If people are going to reason-by-vested-interests (which is unscientific) then let them at least be honest about the vested interests on all sides. What is magically pure about government money? Since when was $1 from oil more influential than a $1 from a whimsical government program?

Professor Flannery 2007 … said vested interests were hampering the biofuel push. “The fossil fuel lobby is quite strong, they are a strong lobby group that wants to protect their patch and we see it with coal and petroleum,” he said.

Tim Flannery (2005) recognizes corporate money can corrupt, but never recognizes that coerced government money can corrupt too:

With the election of George Bush, the fossil fuel lobby became even more powerful, and it has been able to corrupt processes within the federal bureaucracy and the soliciting of scientific advice.

What he and the Climate Commission provides is one-sided, illogical, and unscientific.

The real cost of employing hypocrites and illogical people is far more than their salary.

Abbott will score flak for his suggestion from the rent-seekers and religious. The Coalition needs support from all the taxpayers who want tax dollars used wisely.

Other posts on Tim Flannery

h/t James, and snafu in comments too.

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