Australia: Greens leader blames coal miners for Queensland floods

Contrary to popular belief, Australia also has its fair share of loony tree-huggers. Ours is in the form of the Greens leader Bob Brown. This raving nutcase politician (and he's apparently the sanest out of the Greens) couldn't wait for the Queensland flood waters to subside before he went on his rant about how the coal mining companies are responsible for the devastating floods that have hit the country - the same coal miners who have contributed over $2.7million towards the flood fund - yes, those hateful people just don't care! Back in December a boat loaded with "asylum" seekers was smashed against the rocks as they attempted to land at Christmas Island, with over 50 feared dead. The conservative blogger, Andrew Bolt, correctly blamed the government for luring these people to their deaths by making the Aussie refugee processing process a joke easier. Old Mad-Bob Brown (yes, unfortunately there is another Mad-Bob around) called for Mr Bolt to be fired immediately as it was "too soon" to talk about the tragedy and look to blame others. Lo and behold, Queensland hasn't even found all their dead and the waters have barely subsided and this goof-ball is frothing at the mouth, spewing his hatred and saying how the coal mining industry is to blame for causing global warming , errr.....climate change , errr..... global climate disruption (have I left any out?) which in turn led to these floods. Ummm, Mr Brown - Queensland has experienced flooding before but don't let that stand in the way of a good lie yarn. Luckily we have some sane commentators in Australia who can call him out with FACTS (those pesky little things that progressives hate). See below from another conservative Australian blogger, Tim Blair, who gives Bob Brown some facts to try and deny in his next press release. Thank goodness for Blair and Bolt - they help me stay sane.

Guess which one is Bobbles Brown (you get 2 guesses)

A huckster pounces:

Greens leader Bob Brown says the coal mining industry should foot the bill for the Queensland floods because it helped cause them …

“It’s the single biggest cause - burning coal - for climate change and it must take its major share of responsibility for the weather events we are seeing unfolding now,” he told reporters in Hobart on Sunday.

Fine, Bob. Let’s do it this way. First, we’ve got to work out how much carbon dioxide is being emitted worldwide. This should help:

The human component of carbon dioxide that is injected into the air each year is very small, on the order of 3%. Half the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by human activity each year is immediately absorbed into nature. Carbon dioxide is 8% of the greenhouse effect; water in the air is 90% of the greenhouse effect. By volume, carbon dioxide is currently at about 390 parts per million in the atmosphere, increasing at about 2 parts per million annually. In other words, carbon dioxide is increasing at a rate of .5% per year. Since human activity adds 3% of the carbon dioxide that gets into the air each year, the human component of the increase in carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year is 3% of .5%, or just .015%.

Australia’s annual contribution to global carbon output is just 1.5 per cent, which works out to .000225 per cent of the overall human component. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that the coal industry generates an entire third of Australia’s amount – a mighty .000075 per cent of the carbon emitted globally which ends up hanging around in the atmosphere.

On current estimates, the floods may result in damage worth $13 billion. The total bill owed by the Australian coal industry (and this assumes that the floods are entirely due to carbon-driven climate change): $9749.99.

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