Brisbane Times - hysterical alarmist opinion piece

This is what we can expect as global temperatures level off and fall, ever increasing hysteria from the warmists desperately trying to stop the wheels falling off their cash-cow bandwagon. The Brisbane Times (from the Fairfax - Age, SMH - stable) excels itself in scaremongering claptrap in an editorial piece entitled "Economy won't matter if earth dies":

The science of climate change now tells us that if global temperatures are allowed to rise by 3 degrees — which is compatible with widespread adoption by developed countries of the Rudd Government 2020 emission targets — irreversible changes will be set in place that will drive the global temperature increase to 6 degrees above the pre-industrial level.

If this is allowed to happen, it will have catastrophic consequences for the environment and human civilisation.

Even managing to contain global warming to 2 degrees would involve risks for the planet that would be unacceptable to most individuals if the same odds of death applied to air travel or engineering projects.

Already the consequences of global warming are apparent. Extreme weather events are becoming commonplace. The lower Murray and the Great Barrier Reef are crippled almost beyond repair.

If the Rudd formula is applied generally, science tells us the consequences of global warming above 3 degrees include in Australia the deaths of the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray-Darling-Goulburn Basin and Kakadu National Park.

Internationally, the costs include loss of Arctic summer sea ice. Without ice to reflect the sun, the temperature rise will cause the irreversible loss of the Greenland and Himalayan ice sheets, which would translate into an eventual seven-metre rise in sea levels. Under threat are the 200 million people living on flood plains; 22 of the 50 largest cities, which are at risk from tidal surges; and the billion people in an ark from Pakistan to China whose lives depend on the six great rivers of Asia to keep flowing during the dry season.

Just count up how many misrepresentation and outright falsehoods there are in those few paragraphs. The trouble is that most people reading it will treat it as gospel. Disgraceful journalism, Kenneth Davidson.

Read it here.