Dutch EV expert debunks Murdoch-pedalled myth about electric car emissions

Dutch electric vehicle expert Auke Hoekstra has cut through the latest claims of renowned climate denialist Bjorn Lomborg, published this weekend by The Australian, on the emissions from electric vehicles.

The Lomborg article, as Hoekstra puts it, has one clear message: “electric vehicles are an expensive and meaningless way to combat climate change and only useful for virtue signalling by people with too much money.”

As it happens, this is a view trotted out by the Murdoch press on an at-least annual basis.

But Hoekstra – an EV, energy and smart grid researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the same university from which the 2019 winners of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class hail – is not having any of it.

He took to social media channel Twitter on Sunday (Australian time) to debunk the latest claims.

Read the story from The Driven by Bridie Schmidt - “Dutch EV expert debunks Murdoch-pedalled myth about electric car emissions.”

Climate scientists critiquing media climate reports

A group of loosely organized climate scientists now have a website through which they can evaluate the scientific accuracy of media news and opinion columns addressing climate change science.

Take as an example the recent U.S. Global Change Research Program update on how continued climate change is expected to affect human health.

Two days after release of that report on April 4, Danish political scientist and author Bjorn Lomborg wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: “An Overheated Climate Alarm.”

The USGCRP report, Lomborg wrote, “reads as a political sledgehammer that hypes the bad and skips over the good. It also ignores inconvenient evidence – like the fact that cold kills many more people than heat.”

Read the Yale Climate Connections story - “Scientists Critiquing Media Climate Reports.”

Bjorn Lomborg's bid for an Australian home ends abruptly

B

jorn Lomborg’s bid to find an Australian home has come to an abrupt end. The Turnbull government has withdrawn the promised A$4 million in funding that the former Abbott government committed to Lomborg’s proposed Australia Consensus Centre after Lomborg was unable to find an Australian university to host him.

Writing in The Australian two weeks ago, in a second defence of his proposed centre this year, Lomborg took issue with my previous article in The Conversation. In it, I pointed to an NTEU document introduced at a Flinders University Council meeting in August that alleged 14 out of 42 Australian universities had rejected hosting the controversial climate change inactivist. The most distinctive feature of Lomborg’s opinion piece is that he did not deny the fact that so many Australian universities had rejected his centre.

Read the piece by Senior Lecturer, Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, David Holmes, on The Conversation - “Farewell to Lomborg – what did the episode teach us?”

Bjorn Lomberg loses government favour and support

T

Bjorn Lomberg.

he federal government has dropped its offer to spend $4 million on a research centre to be headed by climate change "contrarian" Bjorn Lomborg.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said his predecessor Christopher Pyne made the decision in the last week of his tenure, which would have been when Malcolm Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party. It came to light that the idea for government funding of the centre had originated from Abbott's office, with Pyne tasked with finding a University to host the centre in return for $4 million in government funding.

Read the story by Tristan Edis on The Climate Spectator - “Government dumps Bjorn Lomborg centre initiative”.

There is consensus on climate change - 'do nothing'

M

ichael Brown argues in today’s Melbourne Age that two climate contrarians making headlines have the same goal in mind: do nothing.

The Associate Professor, an astronomer at Monash University's School of Physics and Astronomy, says, “Two climate contrarians have made headlines, and they bring two very different styles to the climate debate.

Michael Brown: there is
 consensus- "do nothing".

“The Prime Minister's business adviser, Maurice Newman, is an old-school climate crank. While scientists from many nations have measured warming across the globe, and found it is caused by carbon dioxide, Newman sincerely believes "weather bureaus appear to have homogenised data to suit narratives." Newman rejects the work of hundreds of scientists, and instead embraces conspiracy theories.

“Danish professor Bjorn Lomborg​ was to head an "Australian Consensus Centre" at the University of Western Australia, kickstarted with $4 million of federal government funding. However, UWA has withdrawn its offer to host the centre, as it has been incredibly divisive and controversial within UWA and beyond,” Brown writes.

Read the story here - “Climate inaction, the one point of consensus”.

Disgraced WA premier and Bjorn Lomborg compared

U

niversity of Western Australia academic Ray Wills has compared the appointment of "sceptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg to head up a new development think tank to putting disgraced former premier Brian Burke in charge of economic policy.

Bjorn Lomborg.

And at least one academic has publicly called on university vice-chancellor Paul Johnson to reconsider Dr Lomborg's appointment in a crunch meeting with staff on Friday, according to Academic Staff Association president Raymond da Silva Rosa.

Adjunct Professor Wills, who has been a spokesman for the university on climate change issues for the past seven years, said there was a lot of disquiet among the university ranks about the centre.

"The appointment tarnishes the reputation of the university," he told Fairfax Media.

Read more here: “Academic likens Lomborg appointment to putting Brian Burke in charge of economy”.

Academics see Abbott-backed Lomborg move as polluting their reputations

C

reation of Tony Abbott-backed Lomborg 'consensus centre' has tarnished our reputations, say academics.

On the day Fairfax Media revealed that the idea for the centre - which comes as a result of a $4 million grant from the federal government - originated in the Prime Minister's Office, academics stated their concern that the new centre has tarnished their reputations.

In a letter to David Harrison, University of Western Australia's head of corporate and government affairs, obtained by Fairfax Media, the head of the School of Animal Biology Sarah Dunlop said one international research fellow is already set to transfer their fellowship to another institution in protest.

Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald - “Creation of Tony Abbott-backed Lomborg 'consensus centre' has tarnished our reputations, say academics”.

A 'captain's call' or a considered Science Minister's decision

G

raham Parton, who had worked and lived, during the week at least, in Tatura, but now lives at Stanley in his purpose built home, had this short note in today’s “Letters” section in today’s Melbourne Age.



Graham Parton.

 

"I wonder if the $4 million for Bjorn Lomborg to spread climate misinformation was another "captain's call", or the carefully considered decision of our Science Minister."

 

Graham Parton, Stanley

Discredited Bjorn Lomborg criticised in Science Blog

B

jorn Lomborg has argued that we should not concern ourselves too much will global warming, rather concentrate on and apply our efforts other social matters.

The Danish director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen has been in the public eye since writing his controversial and best-selling 2001 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist.

And now the largely discredited political scientist, whose philosophies and values fit with those of the Australian Government has been handed $4m to set up the “Australian Consensus Centre” at the University of Western Australia’s business school.

Writing on the Science Blog, Greg Laden, is rather forthright about what Lomborg says, simply declaring him as”wrong”.

In his post - “Bjorn Lomborg Is Wrong About Bangladesh And Sea Level Rise” – Laden says, “Lomborg seems to not know much about sea level rise. He once noted that sea level rise had stopped, or even decreased, by referring to a single year’s worth of data.”

Climate contrarian given $4m - 'makes my shoulders droop'

-      Robert McLean

N

ews such as this makes my shoulders droop.

Climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg has been given $4m by the Abbot government to establish his “consensus centre” at an Australian university.

This contradictory move comes at a time when Abbott and coalition cohorts are struggling to impose deep spending cuts on the higher education sector.

The scientific and morally discredited Lomborg is to chair of body which will set up the “Australia Consensus Centre”, modelled on the Copenhagen Consensus Center methodology, at a new centre in the University of WesternAustralia’s business school.

A spokesman said the “Australia Consensus Centre” was a proposal put forward by the “university and Dr Lomborg’s organisation”.

A story in The Guardian - “Abbott government gives $4m to help climate contrarian set up Australian centre” – said, “Sources have told Guardian Australia the establishment of the centre had come as a surprise even to senior staff in the business school, who were unaware that the centre was being established until shortly before it was announced this month.”

Meanwhile, Climate Council chief, Tim Flannery, wrote to the council’s supporters saying:

“The Australian Government today announced they would contribute $4m for Danish climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg to establish a new “consensus centre” at the University of Western Australia.

In the face of deep cuts to the CSIRO and other scientific research organisations, it's an insult to Australia’s scientific community.

As the Climate Commission, we were abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013 on the basis that our $1.5 million annual operating costs were too expensive. We relaunched as the Climate Council after thousands of Australians chipped in to the nation’s biggest crowd-funding campaign - remember this video?

It seems extraordinary that the Climate Commission, which was composed of Australia’s best climate scientists, economists and energy experts, was abolished on the basis of a lack of funding and yet here we are three years later and the money has become available to import a politically-motivated think tank to work in the same space.

This is why the work of the Climate Council is so important - to counter this continuing ideological attempt at deceiving the Australian public.

Please consider chipping in a few dollars a week to help us stay independent and continue to fight the rising tide of misinformation.

Mr Lomborg’s views have no credibility in the scientific community. His message hasn’t varied at all in the last decade and he still believes we shouldn't take any steps to mitigate climate change. When someone is unwilling to adapt their view on the basis of new science or information, it's usually a sign those views are politically motivated.

But with your support we will continue to fight back and reach millions of Australians with information that is based on the best science available. “

'Follow the money' a tested adage illustrated

“Follow the money” has long been that advice when attempting to determine where someone stands in relation to climate change.

Climate science contrarian, Bjorn Lomborg, has often troubled many committed climate activists because of his conflicting views about climate change and now Desmog Blog reveals his source of cash.

The story: “Exclusive: Bjorn Lomborg Think Tank Funder Revealed As Billionaire Republican 'Vulture Capitalist' Paul Singer” takes readers on a journey down the “money trail”.

Follow the money and you will probably find a fraud

Bjorn Lomborg.

“Follow the money” is the standard advice when attempting to determine why an individual or group objects to the idea of human-induced climate change.

Bjorn Lomborg appears, at first blush to be a friend of climate change advocates, but on closer examination, it becomes obvious he is not and leans, noticeably toward arguing the changes the world is experiencing are natural.

 

Even though surrounded by intrigue, Lomborg travels the world selling his point of view and so DESMOGBLOG.com decided to consider his backing an reports on that in a story headed: “The Millions Behind Bjorn Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus Center US Think Tank".