Is the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu growing, and not sinking, as Craig Kelly says?

Liberal MP and climate sceptic Craig Kelly made headlines in November when he was caught on tape mocking "lefties" for exaggerating the effects of climate change.

Coalition backbencher, Craig Kelly, says Pacific
island nations are growing rather than shrinking,

Speaking at a local party event, audio of which was leaked to the Guardian, Mr Kelly set out to debunk several justifications for climate change action, including the argument that Tuvalu, the Pacific island nation, was slipping beneath the sea.

Read the ABC News factcheck story - “Is the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu growing, and not sinking, as Craig Kelly says?”

Climate sceptic group IPA suggested as co-host of Australian visit by Trump's environment chief

An organiser of Scott Pruitt’s Australian
  visit suggested the Institute of Public
Affairs should be a co-host. 

The climate sceptic thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs was mooted as a co-host of an Australian visit by Donald Trump’s beleaguered Environment Protection Agency head, Scott Pruitt, which may have included discussion with local officials on whether environmental deals should be changed or cancelled.

Emails released to the US environment group the Sierra Club under freedom of information laws show that Matthew Freedman, a Washington consultant who describes himself as “a close personal friend” of the Australian environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, played a central role in organising Pruitt’s proposed August trip before it was cancelled when Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas gulf coast.

In the US, the emails are of interest as evidence that Pruitt relied on business figures and lobbyists to plan and justify his overseas travel. They were first published by the New York Times.

Read Adam Morton’s story from The Guardian - “Climate sceptic group IPA suggested as co-host of Australian visit by Trump's environment chief.”

Tony Abbott's climate change claims just don't stack up

Former prime minister and current backbencher Tony Abbott gave a speech at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a climate sceptic thinktank, on Monday night.

t
The real Tony Abbott emerges in an
incendiary climate change spech

It was an interesting lecture in that it claimed that climate change isn't real (the "so-called 'settled' science of climate change [is] absolute crap") and also is real but nothing to worry about as the results could be beneficial.

But how accurate were his arguments?

In the same speech, Mr Abbott declared that Australia needed to adopt "evidence-based policy rather than policy-based evidence", which seems like an excellent idea.

So let's take him at his word and look at the evidence for the claims he has made.

Read the ABC News opinion piece boy Tony P. Street - “Tony Abbott's climate change claims just don't stack up.”

People in the wrong place with the wrong values and ideals - 'I weep'

(I weep, metaphorically, when people who doubt and question climate science are elected and subsequently appointed to influential positions within government – here is another example of people desperately clinging to 20^th Century values and ideas being given the responsibility of influencing decisions of the 21^st Century that will have a legacy well into the 22^nd Century, and even longer. It is obvious that most people have serious trouble thinking beyond the lives of their grandchildren, and some are not able, even to consider life that far advanced – Robert McLean.)

Liberal member for Hughes Craig Kelly with Tony Abbott
during question time in 2015. Kelly has been appointed
chairman of the environment and energy committee.

The  Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been appointed chairman of the backbench environment and energy committee, with National party MP Kevin Hogan as secretary.

The committee will provide feedback on legislation and policies relating to the environment and energy, including to the minister, Josh Frydenberg

Kelly served on the committee during the last parliament and previously invited climate sceptics to “balance” a presentation given by top climate scientists.

He has been writing on the issue for a number of years, noting that the convicts found it hotter in the 1700s.

“But I wonder if any of these people actually knew that Sydney’s so-called ‘record hot day’ on Tuesday 8th Jan this year [2013], that had them screaming “Global Warming”, was actually COOLER than the weather experienced by the convicts of the First Fleet in Sydney way back in the summer of 1790/91?” Kelly wrote.

He wrote on his Facebook page during the election campaign: “And with freezing temperatures and even snow forecast for Melbourne’s outskirts and in parts of New South Wales, I hope many of the warmists haven’t sold their coats.”

Read The Guardian story - “Climate sceptic MP appointed chair of environment and energy committee.”