Five charts that show Tony Abbott is the one who has lost sight of the science

Tony Abbott's speech to the Global Warming Policy Foundation provides a mix of partial truths that are designed to create a plausible whole.

As one leading climate change scientist noted in private on Tuesday, "most statements have the classic element of truth but once confronted by the balance of evidence the statements are true but irrelevant, or true to a point and then misleading - classic sceptics' stuff”.

Still, there are enough clangers to suggest Abbott either can't read a chart or is tapping some data source that has somehow escaped the attention of the many global climate monitoring bodies from NASA to the UK Met Office or Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.

Here are some of Abbott's standout claims, and the charts that counter them.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Peter Hannam - “Five charts that show Tony Abbott is the one who has lost sight of the science.”