Just a few other facts that don’t fit the above article.
Melbourne’s summer of 2008/9 is often being quoted as the hottest and driest on record. Someone forgot to check 1897/8 which was both a hotter and drier summer than 08/09 –
and all this was without the benefit of high levels of CO2.

Barry wrote at reply 49:-

“….- South Australia’s average temperature has warmed ~1C over the last century’.
30 year statistics show 1911-40 had an av max temp of 22.1 and min temp of 12.0.
The average temp for Kent Town (1977-2009) is av max temp 22.2 and av min temp 12.2.
Source:BoM

Hardly 1C degree of warming since then.
I hope he does better against Ian Plimer tonight in Adelaide.

Spot the recycled denial IV – Climate case built on thin foundation

Back in the recycle bin you go.

Fact: Heatwaves are caused by slow moving or stationery pressure cells directing a stream of warm air. In this instance it was a High off the northern coast of NSW that was pushing warm air into Victoria. (Check the Bureau of Met archive of synoptic charts for the High pressure cell in question.)

Fact: The recurrence of a strong monsoonal pattern over northern Australia had displaced warm air into the Broken Hill region and this was the air moved pushed south and south easterly into Victoria. The strong monsoon was due to a La Nina. (Check the Bureau of Met website for weather observations for far western NSW, NW Victoria and across to Moomba in South Australia. Also check further north, over the Qld border and you’ll find that temperatures were lower there than around Broken Hill.)

Hey Barry! Why didn’t you quote from the introduction of that BoM report? You must know the part you (conveniently?) omitted ….The presence of a slow-moving high pressure system in the Tasman Sea, combined with an intense tropical low off the northwest coast of Western Australia and an active monsoon trough, provided the ideal conditions for hot air of tropical origin to be directed over the southern parts of the continent.

Well Barry? Why didn’t you mention this? Didn’t suit your agenda? I could ask you to show more integrity in future but I suspect that would be to no avail.

Yeck! I wouldn’t go near that one as a benefit for global warming! lol

The move to change legislative language from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change” confirms Congress’s acknowledgement that the planet is now cooling and that the decline in solar activity is responsible for the “Global Cooling” we are now feeling.

Dubious? Google “IPCC Global Warming Potential (GWP)” to find the real story on CO2 as an atmospheric trace gas contributing to warming. Oh, by the way, what Prof. Mann’s infamous hockey stick diagram Bristlecone proxy data shows conclusively is that nothing has done more to “GREEN” the planet over the past few decades than moderate sun-driven warming together with elevated levels of CO2, regardless of the source. Increase atmospheric CO2, increase crop and forest production. That’s the bottom line. It’s no accident that commercial greenhouse operators invest heavily in CO2 generators to boost the productivity of their fixed growing facilities.

Let’s review the arguments.

Argument: Warming is bad.
Fact: History shows warming is good. Rome rose to power during the Roman Warm Period. The Medieval Warm Period enabled the Renaissance. The Modern Warm Period gave rise to the US super power.

Argument: CO2 causes warming.
Fact: IPCC technical reports give CO2 a GWP of unity (1); lower than most trace gases by several orders of magnitude, particularly water vapor.

Argument: People release CO2; therefore people are responsible for Global Warming.
Fact: A review of the carbon cycle shows very clearly humans are responsible for only 3 percent of the CO2 entering our biosphere. How high would fuel Cap&Trade Taxes have to go for you to reduce your carbon fuels usage by 1/3? 2/3? Think about it. The result is in the noise, that is 1 or 2 percent reduction in CO2 production IF everyone on the planet complies.

Simple Fact: World oil production has been on a plateau for 4 years. That production has now rolled off into permanent decline. Why put a crushing tax on it now? …and why avoid the subject leading up to the vote on this toxic legislation?

I do agree that temps have trended up over the past 150 years. However that didn’t stop extreme temps and weather happening in the cooler times.

“The commencement date of the stations varies, with the earliest records of temperature beginning in Melbourne in 1855. The mean length of record is approximately 20 years”

http://home.iprimus.com.au/foo7/fire1851.html (scroll down to Melbourne “Argus” newspaper report)

Perps The mercury thermometer was invented by Fahrenheit in 1724 and the Melbourne Met Office began official records in 1855 so the thermometer used in 1851 wpuld be reasonably accurate.