Abbott needs to be more pro-science and cut funding to models that don’t work

Look out, Australia might trim a tiny slice from the Tithe to the Gods of Weather (protest coming)

The Australian budget is in dire straits after the Rudd-Gillard years of promised surpluses but exploding arithmetic. The Commission of Audit is here to test public reaction to all the possible ways of paying off the Labor debt. Somehow, it missed the biggest cherry waiting to be plucked. We could save billions if the the Abbott Government become more rigorously scientific. Abbott should cut funding to any scientists who are using models that don’t work, and only fund ones that do.

“Abbott should cut funding to any scientists who are using models that don’t work, and only fund ones that do.”

I expect the Greens will join me in declaring that if the Abbott government cared about the environment it would immediately launch a royal commission, a real audit, or an independent investigation into the effect of carbon dioxide. Only the best science for the planet, right? All funding to environmental programs dependent on unverified research should be frozen until the audit is finished. Easy eh? Let me be PM for a day. :- )

But apparently the sacred carbon cow must not be touched. With billions of carbon-cherries on offer, a tiny reduction in the National Carbon Tithe was suggested:

The Australian Climate Change Science Program’s four-year funding of $31.6 million, mostly to the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, duplicates work by those and other agencies and “should be returned to the budget or allocated to priority areas”, the commission said in its report.

Only $31 million? Is that it?

The total CSIRO budget is $1.2b billion and BOMs is $300m. The Emissions Reduction Fund was budgeted to cost $2.55 billion over four years. There is lots of room here to lighten the burden on struggling tax payers.

We know this $31 million that might be cut is not needed for predicting the climate, because it’s used for models that can’t do that:

But scientists, including Michael Raupach, formerly of the CSIRO and now at the Australian National University, said the program supported a “great deal of critical scientific work” that helps refine climate models which are also used for weather forecasting.

Obviously their income does not depend on keeping the fear alive. Oh wait…

Despite the increasing heatwaves, rising sea levels and ocean acidification – which scientists link to rising greenhouse gas levels – the Abbott government has downplayed the risks from climate change, said Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler.

Oh No! 35 not-very-good scientists might lose their jobs?

One scientist said the $4 million or so provided to the CSIRO by the ACCSP per year was the reason the institution “was still in the game”. Another said 30 to 35 climate scientists would lose their jobs directly if the program ceased and probably a similar number indirectly.

Somewhere, 35 real scientists are missing out on funding

Note the scientific precision in this statement below:

“Climate change has not gone away,” said Dr Raupach. “The best scientific assessments indicate that Australia could be subject to warming over the 21st century that could range from less than two to more than five degrees.”

So we spend millions in order for a scientist to tell us that Australia will warm by a number between zero and infinity? How strong is the influence of the Carbon Tabernacles? Even a government that says it believes the IPCC, and is spending billions in tithing to the scare campaign is not doing enough. This is how the meme lives on, the acolytes simply talk nonsense with a straight face: “This is a government that has shown a disdain for scientific research,” Mr Butler said. “From the Prime Minister down, it has regularly denigrated the work of scientists here in Australia and internationally around the area of climate change.” Regularly denigrated the work of scientists? How can a nation have a sensible conversation if the opposition spokesman puts out irrational and self-evidently untrue statements? Is there any journo asking Butler to provide quotes for regular denigration of scientists here in Australia and internationally? Anyone? I’m sure the ABC fact check unit will get right onto it. Read more and weep at the opportunity missed: The Age/ Sydney Morning Herald

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