Headlines Friday 8th August

The Olympics begin in Beijing!
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And yummy carbon dioxide for desert
Andrew Bolt
Two new studies now say - surprise! - the deserts may in fact be gobbling up half our emissions:

The two sets of findings suggest that deserts are unsung players in the global carbon cycle.
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Taxing green credibility
Andrew Bolt
Rod Liddle on the green taxes con:

A little under a year ago an organisation called the TaxPayers’ Alliance commissioned a study which revealed that British taxpayers paid out ten billion pounds per year more than was the environmental cost of our carbon footprint — or, as they put it, every British family was overpaying four hundred pounds per year in green taxes. By ‘green’ taxes the organisation meant fuel levies, vehicle excise duty, landfill tax and the EU emissions programme. Now, OK, it’s a fair cop — I suppose you would not expect an organisation called the TaxPayers’ Alliance to commission a study which concluded that we should all pay more in tax of one kind or another. But still, I have not seen those figures convincingly rebutted anywhere.
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Churches kneel before the Baal of global warming
Andrew Bolt
Such unanimity from religious leaders, not one of them a climate scientist, is in itself suspicious and a sign that faith, not reason, is at work:

DOZENS of religious leaders have signed an open letter to the federal government calling for fast, decisive action on climate change. The letter, signed in Sydney today, says Australia has a “moral obligation’’ to make deep cuts to greenhouse emissions because it has been a relatively large polluter. Jewish and Islamic groups were among the 37 groups who signed the letter, along with Hindu and Buddhist leaders.
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Carpenter tries on a Fraser
Andrew Bolt
With the Liberals caught mid-swap with their leaders (and viewers caught in front of the TVs at Games time), Labor pounces:

WEST Australians will go to the polls on September 6, with Premier Alan Carpenter to visit Governor Ken Michael today.
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Bear facts demanded
Andrew Bolt
Another green myth is being fought in court:

The state of Alaska has sued the US government, arguing that listing polar bears as a threatened species will hurt Alaskan oil and gas exploration, fisheries and tourism…

Alaska’s suit contends that the US Fish and Wildlife Service—part of the Interior Department and the agency that helped make the polar bear decision—failed to consider that polar bears have survived through previous warming periods… Alaska maintains that the polar bear population has doubled to as many as 25,000 over the last 40 years...
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Like it says the world keeps warming
Andrew Bolt
Last month’s news:

THE price of petrol could soar to a crippling $8 a litre over the coming decade, according to CSIRO-sponsored research to be released today.

This month’s:

MELBURNIANS are experiencing the lowest petrol prices in three months, with more further cuts predicted in the next two to four weeks.
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The eldest rules
Andrew Bolt
Miranda Devine says birth order matters:

After all, everyone knows the oldest is born to rule, as numerous studies show. Winston Churchill, George Bush and Bill Clinton were first-borns, as was Saddam Hussein.
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Idea offered: Let’s make sure kids can read
Andrew Bolt
Astonishing:
MOST students can complete 13 years of school without having to demonstrate basic literacy and numeracy skills, says a leading educational assessment expert. The chief executive officer for the Australian Council for Educational Research, Geoff Masters, says minimum standards of reading, writing and maths should be met by all students before they are awarded an HSC or equivalent qualification.
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No wonder the giants love Grocery Choice
Andrew Bolt
Competition tsar Graeme Samuel defends the Rudd Government’s Grocery Choice website from claims that it’s utterly useless:

You can see that in 52 of 61 regions, Coles is cheaper, and that the independent outlets are uncompetitive across most of the regions. If I was an executive at one of those retailers, I would be thinking, ‘How long can we survive with a reputation as the most expensive outlet?’ I would consider changing my pricing practices.
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Beijing posters too brutal for Amnesty
Amnesty International has distanced itself from a series of controversial posters that use an Olympic theme to protest human rights violations in China. - I bet the issue is tougher on victims. -ed.
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Beijing rights protests won't have an impact: Rudd
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd believes it's important for world leaders to keep pressing China on human rights but doesn't expect it to have a significant impact. -don't get between Rudd and a totalitarian state. - ed.
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WHAT ABOUT IT?
Tim Blair
“What about freedom of speech?” asks New Zealand-based academic Bob Lloyd:
Should not the detractors of climate change get equal media space with those suggesting mitigation?

To show how irresponsible this suggestion is we can pose the alternate question: would the media be happy to allow equal space to groups in the community promoting crime and violence?
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ALL THE WAY WITH THE CFA
Tim Blair
Carbon taxers get the “Sod off, swampy” treatment in Canada:
A Liberal party proposal to impose a carbon tax as a way to combat carbon emissions and global warming received a rough ride when three MPs took the idea to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture last week.
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LAME CANDIDATES COMPARED
Tim Blair
Victor Davis Hanson adds up McCain’s McNegatives:
Republican President Bush still has less than a 30 percent approval rating. Headlines blare that unemployment and inflation are up—even if we aren’t, technically, in a recession. Gas is around $4 a gallon. Housing prices have nosedived. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has been indicted—another in a line of congressional Republicans caught in financial or sexual scandal.

Meanwhile, the GOP’s presumptive candidate, John McCain, is 71 years old. The Republican base thinks he’s lackluster and too liberal.
Yet ...
Everyone is puzzled why the Democratic candidate isn’t at least 10 points ahead. It seems the more Americans get used to Barack Obama, the less they want him as president ...
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WARM MUFFLERS
Tim Blair
Here’s an innovative means of raising global warming awareness:
Celebrities from the Carnatic music fraternity, film industry and students from city schools and colleges would gather around Gandhi statue on the Marina Beach on August 8 at 8 a.m.

In a campaign titled ‘Power of silence’, they would, together, observe complete silence from 08.00.08 a.m. to 08.08.08 a.m.
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AUTHORITY RESPECTED
Tim Blair
Michael Ruse reviews the latest earth-is-doomed tome from a leading doomer duo:
No one has more authority to write on these matters than the husband-and-wife team of Stanford biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich.
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UNKNOWN STORY REFERENCED
Tim Blair
Simon Scowl continues his pursuit of silkypony babydaddy John Edwards: “It must suck for the big-time news guys to keep getting scooped by their own networks’ late-night clowns.”
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PIES HUNG OUT TO DRY
Tim Blair
My former school principal, with whom I disagree on almost everything, makes sense:
Collingwood has suspended two players for the rest of the season. Why? To protect the Collingwood “brand”, whatever that means. To demonise young people for doing things that a huge percentage of the young population would do and for which they would not be stigmatised ...
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DEBATE NOT OVER
Tim Blair
Dr. Martin Hertzberg is a lifelong liberal Democrat, but he is also a scientist.

UPDATE. Physicist Roger Cohen is newly denialised:
I was well convinced, as were most technically trained people, that the IPCC’s case for Anthropogenic Global Warming is very tight. However, upon taking the time to get into the details of the science, I was appalled at how flimsy the case really is.
UPDATE. Another denialist sciencer:
Self-proclaimed global warming skeptic Roy Spencer, a former NASA scientist, drew applause Wednesday at the conservative Young America’s Foundation conference when he said the hype around the “green” movement is nearing the level of “a state-supported religion.”
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MORE THAN ONE CRAZY GREY LADY
Tim Blair
Canada’s Globe and Mail reports:
For years, her existence was known only through her cries of pain and the occasional glimpses of her ... She became known as the Grey Lady ... a ghostly figure who was said to have lost her mind.
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RESOURCES CONSUMED
Tim Blair
Al Gore has a new boat—the Bio-Solar One, so named because it doesn’t have solar panels and doesn’t run on any kind of bio fuel. Still, it’s “reportedly so efficient it only needs to be filled up with fuel once a year.” Once a year? Earth activist Piers Akerman will later this month board a vessel that uses no fuel at all. Way to kill the planet, Al.
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AMAZING BRAIN
Tim Blair
“Let me tell you,” writes Catherine Deveny, “it’s exhausting having my brain.” Deveny’s tiring brain sometimes suggests that she relocate to where stupid people dwell:
I can’t tell you how often I seriously wish I were living in some outer suburb content with signed and framed football jumpers on the wall, no bookshelves and a coffee table covered in remote controls, happy to read romance novels over my Cup-a-Soup. At least I’d have some peace. In the immortal words of Radiohead: “No alarms and no surprises.”