Wong: ETS failure will be Turnbull's fault

Penny Wong is heaping blame on to the Opposition for the alleged future loss of national treasures such as the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef. Yet no-one appears to have picked up the very obvious point that even if the Opposition supported the ETS fully, and it was implemented fully, and CO2 was the primary driver of temperature on earth, it would make no difference whatsoever to the fate of those treasures.

"It is now up to one politician to determine whether Australia's carbon emissions will continue to rise or whether we will start to reduce emissions for the first time ever," Senator Wong said.

"In 10 days from now, he must decide whether he wants to finish what he claims to have started."
…
What Mr Turnbull called design principles were nothing but a "string of wilted fig leaves", Senator Wong said, adding there was no reference to reality.

"It is simply an attempt by Mr Turnbull to look to the public as though he is engaged, while at the same time telling his party room he is holding the line."

It was "a disappointing low" for or someone who once led the way on emissions trading.

Wong is a fine one to talk about having "no reference to reality", given that she continues to refuse to answer Steve Fielding's three basic questions on the science (or lack of it) behind the push for an ETS, which have now been answered by astrophysicist Professor Willie Soon and climatologist Professor David R. Legates:

The brief answers to Senator Fielding’s questions are -

1. Yes, temperatures did fall after 1998 while carbon dioxide rose;
2. Yes, late 20th century warming was indeed not unusual in either its rate of change or magnitude; and
3. Yes, all IPCC models did project warming through a ten year period when instead cooling occurred.

…
Taken together, the correct answers to Senator Fielding’s questions indicate that the hypothesis of dangerous global warming caused by human carbon dioxide emissions is invalid. It follows that costly emissions trading legislation is at best pointless. Doubtless this is why it has been so hard to elicit clear statements on the matter from Minister Wong and her supporters. (h/t Andrew Bolt)

Read it here.

P.S. I actually laughed out loud when I read this headline on ABC:

Govt seizes on ANU climate change report

The Federal Government says a study backs its warning World Heritage-listed sites including the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and the Sydney Opera House are threatened by climate change. (source)

The study was, er, commissioned by the government itself from the ANU, and the head of the climate change department there is none other than Will Steffen… Wong's alarmist advisor, who for some reason couldn't answer the three questions set out above.