UPDATED: Rudd loses all grip on reality

Get his pasty slab of a face off my monitor

UPDATE: Marc Morano at Climate Depot has compiled a brilliant line-by-line demolition of Rudd’s climate nonsense. Read it all here.

Roger Pielke Jr. comments on Rudd’s chilling speech.

More coverage in The Australian:

• Rudd attacks climate change sceptics
• Rudd dares Turnbull on ETS
• PM’s strategy risks a backlash

In a speech at the Lowy Institute yesterday afternoon, Kevin Rudd appeared to lose it completely on climate change, launching into an astonishing tirade against “sceptics” and “deniers”. The facade has slipped away to reveal the mealy mouthed Rudd at his worst, hurling insults and abandoning any pretence of good faith negotiation on the ETS. The speech was packed to the gills with tired old clichés, as you would expect:

“It is time to be totally blunt about the agenda of the climate change sceptics in all their colours, some more sophisticated than others,” he said.

“It is to destroy the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme at home and it is to destroy agreed global action on climate change abroad. [Yes, and your problem with that is…? – Ed]

Nauseating Mawkishness Alert:

“And our children’s fate – our grandchildren’s fate – will lie entirely with them. It is time to remove any polite veneer from this debate; the stakes are that high. [I actually lost count of how many times he roped in the “children” – Ed]

“The clock is ticking for the planet [boring cliché – Ed], but the climate change sceptics simply do not care.”

“Climate change sceptics, the climate change deniers [Denier Alert – Ed], the opponents of climate change action are active in every country,” he said.

“They are a minority. They are however powerful and invariably they are driven by vested interests [and are] powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia.”

Actually, the “sceptics” care, but they care for something different – raising people out of poverty, the standard of living of Australians, cheap energy availability for all, not sacrificing all of that on the altar of Gaia. Unfortunately, Rudd’s speech is just a catalogue of typical responses to those who aren’t stupid enough to have swallowed the IPCC line whole, like Rudd and Penny Wong have. I’m amazed he didn’t say they were all paid for by “Big Oil”!

And to conclude, Rudd continues to rely solely on the politicised and biased IPCC as his only source of information, talking up the number in the consensus each time it’s mentioned:

And the most recent IPCC scientific conclusion in 2007 was that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and the “increase in global average temperatures since the mid 20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.”

This is the conclusion of 4,000 scientists appointed by governments from virtually every country in the world, and the term “very likely” is defined in the scientific conclusion of this report as being 90 per cent probable.

I guess that’s why the climate has cooled for nearly a decade, despite CO2 emissions rising faster than ever?

Climate madness.

Read it here.

Read the full text of the speech here (if you dare).