Agenda 21 and how the science of climate change was influenced by a talking snake

I am really looking forward to 2013. Especially since I learnt that Lord Monckton, that well-known climate change denier, will be heading down under to remind us Aussies that there is no such thing as Global Warming. Lord Monckton, that wall of the West, the redoubt of reason, the sentinel of science, the fortress of freedom, and the defender of democracy, will be here in person.

His three month speaking tour of Australia and NZ is entitled “Carbon tax, climate scam, Agenda 21: can democracy survive all three? Lord Monckton does due diligence”.
This is serious stuff. Our very way of life is clearly under threat in a way never imagined before. Never mind about wars, plagues and natural disasters- Agenda 21 (a cunningly disguised form of communism) is the real threat to civilization.

For those of you unfamiliar with Agenda 21, it was an item during the Copenhagen meeting on climate change. Those of right wing bent believe that a treaty was going to be signed, rubber stamped by left wing loonies, that was designed to transfer all the wealth of the west to poor third world countries, and in doing so, create a world government run by bureaucrats. All those communists who crashed through the Berlin wall joined the environment movement, took over Greenpeace, and plotted to impose a communist world government on the world.

Yes, times are tough. We groan under the weight of carbon taxes and climate scams.
But things will be OK, because Lord Monckton is doing due diligence for us. What is this “due diligence” I hear you ask?

Definition of DUE DILIGENCE
1: the care that a reasonable person exercises to avoid harm to other persons or their property
2: research and analysis of a company or organization done in preparation for a business transaction (as a corporate merger or purchase of securities)

As I assume that the good peer will not be preparing a business transaction, I am guessing he is here to exercise care in regard to persons and property. How this is precisely to happen is anyone’s guess. Perhaps by telling us we have all imagined the soaring temperatures of the last week – remember the earth has not warmed in 16 years. Those record temperatures are a but a blip in the weather. He has clearly not seen our weather charts.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/temperatures-off-the-charts-as-australia-turns-deep-purple-20130108-2ce33.html

The deep purple in the middle of this red weather chart represents 129.2° F or 54 °C. Our Australian bureau of meteorology was forced to find new colours for its heat index because the country is under a dome of heat. “The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit, told The Sydney Morning Herald. The previous record high was 50.7°C (123°F), recorded in 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport. We have now had seven consecutive days above 39°C. That’s a record too.

Australia’s vile heat wave has set homes and property burning from bushfires, but I doubt if Lord Monckton’s due diligence will be of much help.

The good peer is apparently untroubled by such annoying facts as fires and tumbling records. Well, it is summer, isn’t it? As self-proclaimed head and intellectual leader of the global warming denial movement, he has set sights on different things. He is now expanding his influence from aging National Party members and Alan Jones’ listeners to the conservative Christian Church here in Australia.

Lord Monckton is being sponsored by his good friend Pastor Daniel Nalliah, leader of Catch the Fire ministry and president of the nearly formed political party Rise Up Australia. Pastor Daniel has some particularly interesting views on matters of science, the climate, abortion and multiculturalism.
Apparently Lord Monckton will be the man to give the keynote speech at the official launch of his Rise Up Australia political party.

So why Lord Monckton? According to deSmogBlog (http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/11510), he and Pastor Danny are old friends. In January 2012, Nalliah and his Christian evangelical Catch the Fire ministry hosted Lord Monckton for a lecture as part of his nationwide speaking tour that year – one which was prefaced by a scandal surrounding Monckton’s use of Nazi swastikas.

Quite apart from these somewhat alarming Fascist tendencies, Pastor Danny is what is euphemistically called a ‘young earther’. These ‘young earthers’ are Christians that believe the earth is no more than 6,000 years old. In old terms, they are biblical literalists, creationists and fundamentalists that think Genesis is a factual scientific account, complete with that well-established scientific fact, the talking snake. Further, such people are very keen on sin. Sin is responsible for most of our ills (well, the ones you can’t blame on the talking snake and womankind generally). Sin is punished swiftly by God in this world view, thus Pastor Danny also interpreted the 2009 Victorian bushfires as God's punishment for Victoria's abortion laws. (here he is at odds with another fundamentalist who spammed the Uniting Church, and who blamed the fires on the Uniting Church’s acceptance of homosexuality). Pastor Danny is also Islamophobic, with at least half of his website dedicated to denigrating Moslems. To describe him as a fundamentalist is probably an understatement.

His views on climate change aren’t any better. The rising trend in global temperatures, identified by climate scientists to be caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and other human activities, is neither here nor there. Pastor Danny believes God is in charge of climate…therefore we cannot change the climate. His website states that climate change science is “a quasi-religious hypothesis unproven by objective scientific facts.” Beautifully simple, and explains why the planet hasn’t warmed in 16 years. God didn’t want it to, of course.

All of this stuff is terribly scientific. Is this the bar and the rigorous testing that Monckton and his ilk would have us measure climate science with? Young earths of 6,000 years old, talking snakes and a God that capriciously punishes people by burning them and their property? No due diligence there, Lord Monckton. No scientific rigor either. Are these two serial pests seriously thinking this ‘science’ is convincing? And that we should extrapolate this rigorous scientific belief to their skeptical climate science claims? Surely they are kidding us!

I can’t wait to see if Prof. Ian Plimer, one time geologist, climate skeptic (we won’t talk about his interests in the coal industry) and absolute atheist (he took creationists to court and wrote a book called ‘Telling Lies for God: Reason vs Creationism’ for goodness sake), turns up to fete Monckton on his tour. Will he be invited to the launch of Pastor Danny's new political party?

Will our friends the National Party, chockers with climate skeptics, see a 6,000 year old young earth and intelligent design as perfectly reasonable scientific hypotheses, and a perfectly reasonable measure of whether climate science is reputable?

Will the Opposition leader, well known for his skeptical views on climate change and his less than skeptical views on limiting abortion, line up to shake the hand of them both?

Both Lord Monckton and Pastor Danny should thank the lord there's no need to mention any factual and demonstrable science when they are discussing climate science to all those skeptics out there.

The rest of us should probably pray, and hope someone is listening.