Join the dots and put price on carbon and we won't have floods or need to manage dams

It's easy being Green when it comes to finding simple solutions to complex problems.

It's easy being Green when it comes to finding simple solutions to complex problems

Adam Bandt on Sky News Agenda yesterday:

SCIENTISTS are telling us that climate change, unless we get it under control, is going to mean more extreme events more frequently and they'll be more severe when they're happening. And I know that a lot of people are starting to join the dots and look at all the extreme weather events we've had over the last couple of months and note that it's consistent with what the climate scientists are saying. And this is in line with what the future will be like unless we get it under control.

David Speers: But others have said it's all about management of the Wivenhoe Dam.

Bandt: Well, take that Brisbane River example. You had the river rising to levels close to what it was before and imagine what it would have been like if there weren't a dam. I think it bears out what the scientists are saying and it correlates with the predictions about climate change.

Hedley Thomas in The Australian January 21:

LEAKED emails from a Wivenhoe Dam engineering officer underline concerns that the Brisbane River flood was mostly caused by massive releases from the dam after it had held on to water too long. The emails were provided to The Australian by a source who said the data had convinced him the river flood of Brisbane could have been largely avoided if the dam's operators had taken action much earlier.

If we had a carbon price there'd be no more natural disasters? Senator Bob Brown September 28 2010:

BUSINESS certainty is a central reason for achieving a carbon price, but community certainty is no less important: certainty about how our grandchildren will find this country; certainty about the freedom to not be facing cyclones, hailstorms, droughts, bushfires, sea level rises.

Laurens Bouwer, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society August 23 2010:

Climate change is often seen as the culprit of increasing economic losses from weather disasters. The scientific literature however shows that there are other causes up to now. Anthropogenic climate change so far has not had a significant impact on losses from natural disasters.

Mr 3 Per cent. Ray Hadley on 2GB yesterday:

I WAS watching Sky News this morning and I heard [Trade Minister] Craig Emerson trying to convince us that the BER wasn't a waste of money and that there had been only 3 per cent of complaints.

Dennis Shanahan: This figure of 3 per cent complaints is misleading because what the Prime Minister has now conceded is that value for money is the point.

She mentioned in her opening remarks and in the opening few questions at her press conference "value for money" seven times. We now know that value for money is the priority, which is comforting after all this time.

Ray Hadley: If it hadn't have been for The Australian we wouldn't have known 90 per cent of what we now know about the BER.

Lies, damned lies and statistics. ABC1's Q&A on Monday:

CATHERINE Deveny: I know you didn't think you'd ever hear me say this, I'm with Tony Abbott. I'm against the flood levy. I think the revenue to be raised to rebuild Queensland should come from taking the tax exempt status off religion.

That is $30 billion right there and I think that's only fair seeing as though that God created the floods because Julia Gillard is an atheist and Bob Brown is a proud, gay, out man.

Gerard Henderson: The idea that you could save all this money by taking money off religious institutions, I don't know where that figure comes from. I didn't see it in the budget.

Deveny: I'll have it on my website first thing in the morning.

On Catherine Deveny's website yesterday:

STATISTICS can be easily massaged -- $30 billion is in theory possible -- but $500 million plus is more likely.

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