I knew that some halfwit climate change denier would come out and say ‘it’s cold, therefore climate change is not happening’. The last time I can remember this happening, it was the monumentally idiotic Rowan Dean1. This time it was the ludicrously inept Senator Matt Canavan2.
On Twitter, Canavan posted a link to a headline ‘Sydney set for coldest day in 25 years while Orange blanketed in snow.’ and above this he simply had ‘climate change’2. Wild weather is what has been predicted to be more common by climate scientists; the people who actually know what they are talking about3. Such a statement from Canavan would be sensible if it came from someone with a modicum of intelligence. However, Canavan’s whole ethos is about supporting his brother’s coal company (which has now failed)4; he has even occasionally described himself as ‘Mr Coal’, and is a little too fond of posting pictures of himself in hi-vis clothing with a dirty face, as if he had actually been working. I suppose this is from the same PR firm as Scott Morrison’s cap wearing and beer drinking at the football. Canavan’s PR for coal has even extended to a tasteless sticker on his vehicle ‘Black Coal Matters’ as a way of killing two birds with one stone; denigrating the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and promoting his family interests at the same time4.
Canavan is either too obtuse to realise the difference between weather and climate or is being disingenuous in conflating the two. While it is easy to assume that he is simply being disingenuous like much of the rest of his government, I suspect that he is incapable of understanding the difference, much like Rowan Dean.
Sources
- https://blotreport.com/2021/01/24/youd-think-rowan-dean-would-learn-but-no/
- https://twitter.com/mattjcan/status/1402784839653199879
- https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/science-climate-change/5-how-are-extreme-events-changing
- https://reneweconomy.com.au/tasteless-matt-canavan-slammed-over-use-of-black-coal-matters-slogan-41285/
Canavan is a perfect exemplar of that conga line of appallingly slow-witted hicks with which the ILL-iberal Party has had to ally itself lest it regularly lose its thin hold on national government. Like Dopey-dill McCormack, Tofu-for-brains Joyce and the rest, Canavan jumps at any chance to display his pathetic thinking skills and total dearth of reading on any subject that demands consistent application to absorb it. Such as reliable scientific data on climate change. However, let’s make a wild hypothesis that Canavan actually does realise the big natural disasters hitting Australia recently, are at root due to global warming. Therefore, like Scummo, he is part of the huge deliberate warming denialism media machine supporting big oil, gas and coal. A plan to set voters against alternative energy and zero carbon targets. Canavan is among the people so self-centred, they don’t care about even their own children’s future.
Russell,
Precisely! They care bugger-all about anyone but themselves. Their children’s future is of no concern to them. One of the things that concerns me is that some of them are religious nutters and may be looking forward to the destruction of the ecosphere so they can be raptured.
I cannot understand how religious nutters who live their lives/lies as evil criminals, can actually believe that they will be welcomed by their god. It’s all just a means to an end. Power, money and control. The big rupture awaits them.
Warren,
I think they use religion solely as a justification for their disgraceful behaviour. To call them christians is laughable. Barnaby Joyce is supposedly a christian and apparently goes to church, but attempts tp pork anyone who cannot escape his clutches (so much for ‘thou shalt not commit adultery’). Scott Morrison is clearly a pathological liar (so much for ‘thou shalt not bear false witness’). So many of them are corrupt (so much for ‘thou shalt not steal’). They believe that praying regularly and attending church will absolve them of their disgraceful behaviour, with a nod and a wink from their pastor/priest, who like to see the money keep flowing. Back in the past bags of cash or gold used to change hands for ‘indulgences’, now the selling of indulgences is a little more sophisticated and is by way of government grants for ‘safe communities’ and other grant schemes, and the freedom to evade taxation. It is just as corrupt as it ever was.
Unsurprising for any-one familiar with Canavan. Old Country Party leaders would be rolling in their graves at the rubbish which now occupy senior positions in the National Party.
Jon,
Yep; the Country Party, as the Nationals once were, used to be ‘agrarian socialists’ and mostly represented those in agriculture, now all they do is represent big gas, big coal and big irrigators. Those on family farms can go to buggery.