ABC FACT-CHECKING UNIT & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia's BBC)
The Australian taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia's equivalent of the UK BBC) has an appalling record of untruth involving censorship, self-censorship, lying by commission and lying by omission but in an act of surely extraordinary hubris and denial has set up an ABC Fact-checking Unit to publicly expose untruths in the media (the anti-science, spin-driven Gillard Labor Government allocating $10 million more for ABC News including funding for this purpose; see Gideon Polya,“100 reasons why Australians must reject Gillard Labor”, Countercurrents, 24 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya240613.htm ).
This alternative "ABC Fact-checking Unit" website has been created by a humanitarian Australian scientist Dr Gideon Polya - at his own expense in the public interest - to help the million dollar ABC Fact -checking Unit do its job by exposing and documenting false assertions by Australian public figures, Australian media, by the taxpayer-funded ABC, and by other Australian taxpayer-funded media such as the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and the universities-backed, academic-based web magazine The Conversation.
Lying is communicating untruths by various means, and is accomplished by the ABC and other Western Mainstream media by means such as (1) censorship (blocking or removing the comments of others) , (2) self-censorship (active non-reportage for whatever political reason), (3) lying by commission (reporting untruth) and (4) lying by omission (deliberate non-reportage of the truth).
Of course the ABC is not alone in such lying which is de rigeur for Mainstream media in the Western Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money buys politicians, parties, polices, public perception of reality, votes and political power.
Thus for details of media-derived censorship by the global Murdoch media empire, Australian Fairfax media, the Australian ABC, the UK BBC, and the Australian universities-backed web magazine The Conversation in Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and subverted Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy Australia and elsewhere in the West see “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ ; “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ ; “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ , "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat , “ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia's BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit , “Censorship by Crikey (Australia)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-crikey and “Censorship by SBS (Australia)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-sbs-australia .
One supposes that the ABC Fact-checking Unit will confine itself to "untruths by commission", thereby violating its brief by not exposing other major areas of falsehood and thereby deceiving the public. The "untruths by commission" to which the ABC will confine itself will include the following:
(1) Statements that are quantitatively incorrect or arguable (e.g the ABC has reported that the Iraq War was associated with "the deaths of more than 4,400 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis" ("Iraqis voice happiness over US troop withdrawal", ABC News, 23 October 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-22/iraqis-voice-happiness-over-us-troop-withdrawal/3595412 ) whereas it is estimated from the data of top medical epidemiologists and UN demographers that Iraqi deaths from violence (1.5 million) and from violently-imposed deprivation (1.2 million) total 2.7 million for the period 2003-2011) (Just Foreign Policy, "Iraq Deaths": http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq and "Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ )
(2) Statements that are qualitatively incorrect, including false statements that could nevertheless be regarded as "rhetorical" (e.g. (a) the frequent assertion that “Israel is a democracy” is utterly false because democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel determines that of 12 million Palestinians only 6.7%, the adults of 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis, are able to vote for the government ruling all of Palestine and 50% of Palestinians are forbidden to even step foot in their own country (see “Palestinian Genocide”:
https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ) and a search of the entire ABC site for the term “mad monk” yields 104 results (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?form=simple&num_ranks=20&collection=abcall_meta&query=%22mad%20monk%22&start_rank=101 ) whereas it is clear that Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott to whom this rhetorical abuse refers is neither a monk nor mad.
I am writing a book with the provisional titles of "ABC Censorship" and "Censorship by the ABC" and my research in this area informs the following instances of censorship by the ABC, lack of reportage by the ABC or of incorrect statements reported by the ABC. Extensive use is made of ABC search devices for "ABC News" (that reveals massive ABC censorship) and "the entire ABC site" (that reveals huge ABC censorship that has been partly circumvented by the ABC audience posting comments on ABC websites, although the members of the ABC audience are also subject to appalling censorship in this regard e.g. see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ). My repeated complaints about sidelining, blocking , censoring and egregious defamation applied to anti-racist Jewish opinion by the ABC and by the universities-backed, academic-based and ABC-linked web magazine The Conversation (see “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ) have been ignored and such complaints sent to ACMA and the ABC Complaints have been dismissed.
Lying by commission and lying by omission are entrenched in the ABC and the other Mainstream media of look-the-other-way Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy Australia. Lying by omission is vastly more serious than incorrect reportage or lying by commission because at least the latter abuses can be subject to public discussion and refutation. Thus "holocaust ignoring" is far, far more serious than repugnant "holocaust denial" because the latter at least admits the possibility of public argument.
The items of incorrect reportage by the ABC are listed alphabetically below by topic or surname. For convenience the items are presented in 2 categories (A) Incorrect reportage and (B) Lying by omission (some items occur in both).
(A) INCORRECT REPORTAGE.
"ABC Fact-checking Unit" assertions.
1. Debt.
Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter worth an estimated $49 billion in 2011-12 (see “Australian Coal Association”: http://www.australiancoal.com.au/ . However if about half of Australia’s coal is used domestically then the value of Australian coal is about $100 billion annually.
For every $1 received for coal by the coal industry our children, grandchildren and further generations will have to spend $2 to $3 at present prices converting the consequent CO2 back to biochar to save the Planet (see section B10, Gideon Polya, “Expert witness testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation”, Countercuirrents, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm ).
Assuming an average annual value of Australian coal at $100 billion/year for the period 2007-2013, the consequent “coal-derived CO2 back to biochar debt” in current dollars run up under Labor for future generations will be $100 billion/year x 6 years x 2 = $1,200 billion to $100 billion/year x 6 years x 3 = $1,800 billion.
The ABC fact-checking unit examined the following claim by Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey that “ We left the country with net assets of $70 billion, where if we were elected on 7th September, we inherit debt going to $400 billion”.
John Barron (ABC fact-checking unit presenter): “Let's look at that claim. Did the Coalition leave the country with net assets of $70 billion? Well, not quite, according to the 2007 Budget, the Coalition left net assets of $31 billion, not $70. In the same sentence, Mr Hockey highlighted the level of debt racked up under Labor… That $400 billion figure Mr Hockey's talking about there is a gross debt figure that Treasury predicts Australia will reach in 2017. Now, many economists think that net debt is a better measure than gross debt. Governments talk about net while oppositions like talking about gross debt because, well, it's bigger. So Mr Hockey's $400 billion gross debt figure is much more dramatic. Our net debt is currently around $184 billion and projected to peak at almost $220 billion in 2017. Mr Hockey was being rather selective in focusing on inheriting gross debt and a projection at that” (see “Fact-checking Australia’s debt”, Lateline, 19 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3829226.htm ).
However the net debt built up under Labor of $31 billion + $184 billion = $215 billion is about 10 times smaller than the upper estimate of the “coal-derived CO2 back to biochar debt” of $1,800 billion. It gets worse – this latter estimate is based on the cost of generating biochar in the US mid-West but the UK-based cost is 4 times greater (see Gideon Polya, “Forest biomass-derived Biochar can profitably reduce global warming and bushfire risk”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/forest-biomass-derived-biochar-can-profitably-reduce-global-warming-and-bushfire-risk ; Simon Shackley, Jim Hammond, John Gaunt and Rodrigo Ibarrollo, “The feasibility and costs of biochar deployment in the UK ”, Carbon Management, 2(3), 335-356 (2011): http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/sshackle/CostsBiochar.pdf ; and Gideon Polya, “Gigantic cost of requisite climate change action threatens massive intergenerational inequity and intergenerational injustice”, Countercurrents, 1 August 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010813.htm ).
Now, that’s a fact check – for more see “ABC Fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia’s BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit .
ABC-spruiked The Conversation incorrect assertions. The Conversation is a taxpayer-funded, universities-backed, academic-based web magazine that, like the ABC, has an appalling record of censorship and blocking of credentialled informed academic opinion (see “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ). The endlessly censoring and blocking The Conversation, like the endlessly censoring and blocking ABC, has a Fact-checking Unit (see: http://theconversation.com/topics/election-factcheck ) but this does not prevent The Conversation lying by omission on a huge scale and publishing dangerously incorrect assertions
(a) Incorrect, unsubstantiated assertions about alleged Syrian Government use of poison gas. The ABC-spruiked, taxpayer-funded The Conversation trots out the same American line as yet unverified by UN inspectors and as yet not established to the satisfaction of the salivatingly warmongering British House of Commons. : “What good is a no-fly zone when government troops are using mortars and rockets to deliver the nerve gas?” (see “”, The Conversation, 30 August 2013: http://theconversation.com/the-price-of-gas-tomahawks-and-wild-weasels-over-syria-17525 ). The endlessly censoring and blocking The Conversation, like the endlessly censoring and blocking ABC, has a Fact-checking Unit (see: http://theconversation.com/topics/election-factcheck ) but there is so far no mention of this presently incorrect assertion about Syrian Government use of WMD.
(b) Egregiously false defamation applied to anti-racist Jewish opinion critical of human rights abuses by Apartheid Israel. Like the ABC, The Conversation continues to publish such false defamation
applied to anti-racist Jewish opinion critical of human rights abuses by Apartheid Israel.
Agee, Philip. Philip Agee was a former CIA agent who in his book "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" famously revealed CIA involvement in subversion, corruption, torture and terrorism in Latin America.The ABC deliberately, actively deleted one of only 2 mentions of Philip Agee on the "entire ABC site" (both by Dr Gideon Polya). Deliberate removal of this comment that had been successfully posted on the ABC Late Night Live website goes further than the examples in section (b) of lying by omission by the ABC - this is deliberate suppression of the truth by the ABC (there is similarly no mention of Philip Agee in the major city newspapers of Australia).
According to Wikipedia (see “Philip Agee”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee ) “Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (July 19, 1935 – January 7, 2008) was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer, best known as author of the 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, detailing his experiences in the CIA. Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices. A co-founder of CovertAction Quarterly, he died in Cuba in January 2008.” He was refused entry to France and Australia 9as revealed in 2014) and expelled from the UK. He has been “disappeared” by Australian mainstream media including the ABC (see Gideon Polya, “US-beholden Australian Government banned & Australian Media censored US whistleblower Philip Agee”, Countercurrents, 2 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya020114.htm .
A Search of ABC News and a Search of the “entire ABC site” for “Philip Agee” yields zero (0) results . However while a search for the misspelt “Phillip Agee” (with 2 ls) yields zero (0) results from ABC News, a “search of the entire ABC site” for the misspelt “Phillip Agee” yields 2 results, both comments on ABC program websites by Dr Gideon Polya and of which one has been subsequently sneakily completely censored out by the ABC as recorded by the website “Censorship by the ABC Late Night Live” [6]:
(1). In response to a 16 March 2013 ABC Radio National Saturday Extra segment entitled “Pope Francis and the Dirty War” [7] my following comment was published on the Saturday Extra website [8]: “Dr Gideon Polya :18 Mar 2013 3:14:02pm. Read William Blum's "Rogue State" for US-backed state terrorism and death squads in Latin America, including Argentina. Catholic US spy Phillip Agee's "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" describes how the US subverted Latin American unions, governments and oppositions (whence comes an Australian version?) and was complicit in the large-scale arrest, torture and disappearing of scores of thousands of Latin Americans from El Salvador to Argentina. Indeed Agee describes how US-led terrorist groups would bomb Catholic churches in Ecuador knowing that socialists would be blamed by media and the people. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity - the new Holy Father must be praised for his concern for the poor but he and his cardinal colleagues have some explaining to do over the position of the Catholic Church in relation to horrendous, murderous US-backed crimes against worker priests, other decent Catholic clergy and other progressive people serving the poor in Latin America.”
(2). In response to an attack on outstanding Australian journalist John Pilger in a comment thread on the ABC Radio National Late Night Live website re the 3 October 2012 segment “Crisis in democracy” , the ABC initially published the following comment but then sneakily completely censored it out as containing things it evidently does not want Australians to read, know about or think about [6, 9]: “DrGideonPolya : 07 Oct 2012 9:43:43am. Kerr [the US “asset” Governor General who sacked Australian Labor PM Whitlam] was a CIA "asset" and the US strongly disapproved of the Whitlam Government over Vietnam, Pine Gap and in general for not being traitorous US lackeys. For a detailed summary of US subversion in Australia in 1975 and in other countries around the world see William Blum's best-selling book "Rogue State". Phillip Agee's book "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" is mainly an eye-witness participant account of CIA subversion in Latin America and in Ecuador in particular, but it is glaringly obvious from the book to followers of Australian politics who the corresponding Australian "assets" are. Unfortunately the endlessly lying and deceiving American Establishment did not keep its 1977 promise to Gough Whitlam. Thus the US Ambassador Schieffer ("Sheep for brains" in Mark Latham's book "The Latham Diaries") publicly intervened in the 2004 elections, vetoing Latham's electoral bid over his policy to get out of Iraq (substantially US-owned Australian MSM have continued the US-initiated vilification of Latham). WikiLeaks has revealed US antipathy to Rudd who was eventually sacked (for being too pro-Australian) in the Mining Corporation-backed, US-approved, and pro-Zionist-led 2010 Coup. WikiLeaks has further revealed US "assets" within the Labor Government who would secretly report to the Zionist-headed US embassy.”
Thus there is only 1 mention of outstanding US whistleblower Philip Agee in the “entire ABC site” and that is 1 surviving comment about (misspelt) “Phillip Agee” on an ABC website by Dr Gideon Polya.
However the ABC is not alone in “disappearing” Philip Agee. Thus searches of leading Australian newspapers for “Philip Agee” also yield zero (0) reportage, these comprehensively Philip Agee-censoring Australian newspapers including The Age (Fairfax media Melbourne), The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax media, Sydney), The Canberra Times (Fairfax media, Canberra), The West Australian (Kerry Stokes, Perth), the Murdoch News Limited newspapers The Australian (national), The Courier Mail (Brisbane), The Mercury (Hobart), The Advertiser (Adelaide), The Herald Sun (Melbourne), Perth Now (Perth), NT News (Darwin) and the Murdoch News.com (on-line).
Fortunately for literate and curious Australians, the Australian National Library in Canberra has a copy of Philip Agee’s “Inside the Company. CIA Diary:, as also does, for example, the Borchardt Library at La Trobe University, Melbourne.
While the Australian ABC resolutely refuses to mention Philip Agee, a search of the American ABC for “Philip Agee” yields 13 articles and a search of the iconic UK BBC for “Philip Agee” yields 3 reports that variously mention his book, his expulsion from the UK and his eventual death in Cuba. In contrast, a Google Search for “Philip Agee” yields 110,000 results.
"Anti-semite" , "anti-semitic", "anti-semitic Jew", "racist", "self-hating Jew" . "Anti-semite" , "anti-semitic Jew", "racist", "self-hating Jew" are egregiously false defamations applied by pro-Zionists to anti-racist Jews critical of the horrendous crimes of democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. Such epithets have been published or canvassed by the ABC Late Night Live and also published on the ABC-linked, taxpayer-funded, universities-backed, academic-based web magazine The Conversation. False defamation of anti-racist Jews is egregious and intolerable anti-Jewish anti-semitism. Similar defamation has been applied to anti-racist non-Jewish Australians. Indeed an interviewee on ABC Saturday Extra falsely referred to a leading Coalition MP as an anti-Semite simply on the basis that he had once stood on the same platform at a public meeting as a conservative activist also labelled as an "anti-semite" by anti-Arab anti-Semitic pro-Zionists.
Anti-racist Jews are obliged to object to racism, anti-Arab ant-semitism, genocide, ethnic cleansing and other gross human rights abuse of Apartheid Israel and accordingly many anti-racist Jews support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the nuclear terrorist, democracy-by-genocide, Apartheid rogue state. However the ABC continues to publish incorrect assertions conflating criticism of Israeli human rights abuses with “anti-semitism”. This falsehood is particularly obnoxious and offensive when applied to anti-racist Jews, of whom many support BDS. Knowing, deliberate, false defamation of anti-racist Jews (as opposed to such assertions made through ignorance) could be seen as anti-Jewish anti-Semitism (see “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ , “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ and “Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ . Thus, for example, this Report: “In Parliament yesterday, the Liberal member for Caulfield, David Southwick, said Labor MP Martin Foley had links to the group, Boycotts, Divestment and Sanction (BDS), through union membership. The group stages pro-Palestinian protests at companies linked to the state of Israel and urges a boycott of Israeli-linked products. Mr Foley says the suggestion he supports the group in any way is highly offensive. "I seek his withdrawal of these comments where he has sought to associate [me} with this racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel boycott movement," he said. "I sought to raise this matter with the member through private discussion in the chamber and to dissuade him from his continued efforts to seek to align members of the opposition, Labor Victoria, to the BDS movement. He indicated he would not.” (see Alison Savage, “Labor MP demands apology over BDS claims”, ABC News, 30 August 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-30/labor-mp-demands-apology-over-bds-claims/4232744 ). (see also "“Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”).
"Bandera... famous Ukrainian fighter". This was the incorrect description of description of Ukrainian WW2 Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera - a traitor, Nazi collaborator, anti-Jewish anti-Semite and mass murderer of Poles and Jews (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera ) - by an ABC journalist Matt Brown (the ABC's Middle East correspondent) on ABC AM (Wednesday 5 March 2014) and on ABC News..
Matt Brown: “And that's not their only concern. They say Russian troops knocked on the doors of some of their homes on the weekend, telling their wives they are "the whores of Bandera," a reference to a famous Ukrainian fighter, which is obviously a double-barrelled insult in the eyes of the Russians”.(ABC News, “Russian forces fire warning shots at Crimea’s Belbek airbase”, 5 March 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-05/russian-forces-fire-warning-shots-at-crimeas/5299282 ; "Russian forces fre warning shits at Crimea’s Belbek air base”, AM, 5 March 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s3956933.htm ).
There is a quite different perspective on the Ukrainian tragedy from the informed, anti-racist Jewish intellectual perspective that is contrary to the dominant US-UK-EU propaganda version. In WW2, 3 million Ukrainians, including about 1 million Ukrainian Jews, were killed by the German Nazis and their Ukrainian Nazi supporters led by Bandera. Now the same anti-Semitic, right-wing neo-Nazi Ukrainians, backed by the US, UK, New Nazi Germany, New Vichy France, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel and US lackey Australia, led the revolution helped kick out the democratically-elected, anti-Nazi, pro-Russia President of the Ukraine
According to Jewish Canadian scholar Professor Michel Chossudovsky (an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal and Editor of the globalresearch.ca website.) “Under the title “In Kiev, an Israeli army vet led a street-fighting unit”, the Jewish News Agency JTA confirms that soldiers from the IDF [Apartheid Israeli Defence Force] were involved in the EuroMaidan protest movement under the direct command of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party. The Svoboda Party follows in the footsteps of World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera…Neither the Tel Aviv government nor the Israeli media have expressed concern regarding the fact that the EuroMaidan protests were led by Neo-Nazis. With the formation of a new government composed of NeoNazis, the Jewish community in Kiev is threatened” (see Michel Chossudovsky, “Ukraine: Israeli Special Forces unit under neo-Nazi command involved in Maidan riots”, Global Research, 3 March 2014: http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-israeli-special-forces-unit-under-neo-nazi-command-involved-in-maidan-riots/5371725 ).
Professor Chossudovsky has further written about the threat to the surviving Ukrainian Jewish community from the Western-backed neo-Nazis now running post-Coup Ukraine: “The US and the EU are supporting the formation of a coalition government integrated by Neo-Nazis which are directly involved in the repression of the Ukrainian Jewish community. There are about 200,000 Jews living in Ukraine, most of them in Kiev. This community is described as “one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in the world, with dozens of active Jewish organizations and institutions”. A significant part of this community is made up of family members of holocaust survivors” (see Michel Chossudovsky, “Ukraine and the “politics of anti-Semitism”: the West upholds neo-Nazi repression of Ukraine’s Jewish community”, Global research, 26 February 214: http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-politics-of-anti-semitism-west-upholds-neo-nazi-repression-of-ukraines-jewish-community/5370790 ).
Contrary to the US propaganda fed to Australians by the Mainstream media including the cowardly ABC presstitutes, Professor Chossudovsky has a quite different take: ““There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.”
Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls. After signing a void agreement on “crisis settlement” on Friday, the situation in Ukraine has rapidly got out of control of its signatories and “witnesses”. No provisions of this document were fulfilled. The legitimate authorities fled (or tried to flee) the country, the governmental buildings in Kiev are taken by the revolutionary mob. The radicals are dictating the new rules to façade opposition “leaders” who desperately try to bridle the Maidan. What happened to Ukraine on February 21, 2014 is essentially a criminal coup committed by the radical armed anarchists and Ukrainian Nazis who have been enjoying a comprehensive financial, military, diplomatic and even religious support and instigation from the Western power groups for the last two decades. Many of Ukraine’s cities are now falling into the chaos of lootings, unprovoked violence, lynch law and political repressions” (Michel Chossudovsky, “Ukraine: neo-Nazi criminal state looming”, Global Research, 24 February 2014: http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-neo-nazi-criminal-state-looming/5370436 ).
Yet the pro-Zionist, US lackey Coalition Australian Government slavishly backs the US line, just as it backs utterly repugnant Zionist anti-Jewish anti-Semitism (see Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Australia: false defamation of anti-racist Jews who support BDS”, Bellaciao, 4 March 2014: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article23052 ).
The BBC reports: “Ukraine is "at a crossroads", writes Yevgeny Shestakov in Russia's official Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the stakes couldn't be higher: “It is a choice not between Russia and Europe, West or East. Ukraine is choosing between National Socialism of the Ukrainian type and civilised values, between the ideology of [the nationalist] UNA-UNSO and [1940s War II-era Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan] Bandera with their pathological anti-Semitism, hatred towards Russians, desire to build a country only for Ukrainians, and universal human value”” (see: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-25951975 ) .
The BBC further reports: “When the president fled Kiev, the opposition moved in to fill the power vacuum. But earlier that week, in a bid to calm the crisis, both sides had agreed a deal to restore the 2004 constitution and reduce the president's powers. That deal was signed by Mr Yanukovych and opposition leaders as well as by three EU foreign ministers - but fast-moving events soon rendered it out of date. It was not signed by the Russian official present. What about the role of 'radical extremists'? Moscow has regularly complained that the protests in Kiev's Independence Square were hijacked by the far right, who have since gone on to take power in a new government that includes "undisguised Nazis". Two groups, Right Sector and Svoboda (Freedom), are frequently mentioned and there are regular references to wartime nationalist Stepan Bandera, seen as a hero to some but accused by others of being a Nazi collaborator linked to massacres of Jews and Poles. The far right was a minority element in the protests that attracted a wide cross-section of support from Kiev and other cities. They were, however, often involved in the most violent confrontations and nationalist symbols were frequently visible in the square. Far right armed with bats patrol Kiev. The nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party has four posts in the government. Oleksandr Sych is deputy prime minister and Oleh Makhnitsky becomes acting chief prosecutor. It also runs the agriculture and ecology portfolios but its leader, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, is not in the government” (see BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26415508 ).
The BBC again: “Bandera - elevated to the status of Hero of Ukraine by ex-president Viktor Yushchenko - is a hugely divisive figure. In the east, as in Russia, he is remembered chiefly for a temporary alliance with the Nazis, though he fought both Nazis and Soviets and was held in a Nazi concentration camp. Jews and Poles also accuse Bandera of condoning massacres” (see BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26321963 ).
See also "Stepan Bandera" - "Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists in the 1940s” (ABC Radio National Drive, 4 March 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/us-suspends-military-co-operation-with-russia-over-ukraine-incu/5298596 ). Fact: (a) Stepan Bandera was a neo-Nazi, collaborated with the German Nazis against the Soviet Union and was thus complicit in the Ukrainian Holocaust (3 million killed including 0.8 million Jews) and the German Nazi killing of 27 million Soviet citizens including about 2 million Jews; (b) Stepan Bandera led the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; and (c) this is like saying “Adolf Hitler, the leader of the German nationalists in the 1940s” (see “Stepan Bandera”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera ) .
“Budget back into black”. The ABC has failed to report the nonsense of this Coalition proposal arising from the reality that the Coalition’s policy of unlimited fossil fuel exports means that, for exam[ple, under3 years of Coalition rule coal exports will be associated with a huge carbon debt of about $300 billion to $450 billion in today’s Australian dollars. Tony Abbott clearly re-iterated the Coalition agenda 1 week after the 7 September 2013 Coalition victory in the Australian Federal elections: “The challenges are considerable: we must stop the boats, we must scrap the carbon tax, we must build the roads and we must get the budget back into the black”(Tony Abbott quoted in David Crowe, “Let’s prove we can do it: Abbott”, The Australian, 14 September 2014: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/lets-prove-we-can-do-it-abbott/story-fn9qr68y-1226718868881# ). However PM Tony Abbott is already locked into well-deserved failure on each of these 4 key goals (for details see Gideon Polya, “New Abbott Coalition Australian Government. 4 policy failures already”, MWC News: http://mwcnews.org/focus/analysis/31479-abbott-coalition.html ) .
“Budget back into black” refers to the enormous debt run up in the 6 years of the successive Rudd, Gillard and thence Rudd Labor Governments. Thus when the first Rudd Labor Government defeated the Howard Coalition Government and came to power in November 2007, Australia’s net assets were worth plus $31 billion but this declined to a current net debt of about minus $184 billion (see John Barron, “Fact checking Australia’s debt”, ABC TV, Lateline, 19 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3829226.htm ). Labor has “excused” this debt blowout as due to economy- and jobs-saving emergency action taken during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), arguing that Australia’s net debt as a percentage of GDP is much lower than for other OECD countries.
However it is better to be in the black than in debt although going into debt can certainly be justified if it brings financial benefits e.g. borrowing to build wind farms that would largely eliminate GHG pollution and future energy costs. Thus, for example, ignoring cost-increasing energy storage and transmission grid costs and cost-decreasing economies of scale for a 2- to 10-fold size increase, here are 2 similar cost estimates for installation of wind power for 80% of Australia’s projected 325,000 GWh of annual electrical energy by 2020: (1) 90,000 MW capacity, 260,000 GWh/year, $200 billion/10 years (10-fold scale-up from GL Garrad Hassan estimates) and (2) 96,000 MW, 260,000 GWh/year, $144 billion (2-fold scale up from BZE estimates ) (see Section H, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course and “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ ) .
The Coalition and Labor have exactly the same climate criminal, climate change inaction policies of a derisory “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” coupled with unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports that will see Australia exceed by a factor of three (3) the whole world’s terminal GHG pollution budget. Currently, apart from re-afforestation, a major way of returning atmospheric CO2 back to a science-recommended 300 ppm CO2 from the current disastrous 400 ppm CO2 is through producing biochar (carbon, charcoal, C) through anaerobic pyrolysis of cellulosic biomass waste in renewable energy-driven microwave furnaces at 400-700C (with existing agricultural and forestry waste this could achieve about 9 Gt biochar carbon per year, roughly the same as the annual industrial carbon output; see Gideon Polya, “Forest biomass-derived Biochar can profitably reduce global warming and bushfire risk”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/forest-biomass-derived-biochar-can-profitably-reduce-global-warming-and-bushfire-risk ).
However for every $1 received for coal by the coal industry our children, grandchildren and further generations will have to spend $2 to $3 at present prices converting the consequent CO2 back to biochar to save the Planet (see Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness Testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation”, Countercurrent, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm ). Coal exports are Australia's second-largest source of export income after iron ore exports and are worth about AUS$50 billion per year. One can accordingly estimate that in the next 3 years the climate criminal policies of the Coalition Government re coal exports alone will run up a debt for future generations of about $300 billion to $450 billion in today’s Australian dollars.
“Build the roads”. The ABC has failed to report the nonsense of this Coalition proposal arising from the reality that rail transport is enormously more energy efficient than road transport. . Tony Abbott clearly re-iterated the Coalition agenda 1 week after the 7 September 2013 Coalition victory in the Australian Federal elections: “The challenges are considerable: we must stop the boats, we must scrap the carbon tax, we must build the roads and we must get the budget back into the black”(Tony Abbott quoted in David Crowe, “Let’s prove we can do it: Abbott”, The Australian, 14 September 2014: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/lets-prove-we-can-do-it-abbott/story-fn9qr68y-1226718868881# ). However PM Tony Abbott is already locked into well-deserved failure on each of these 4 key goals (for details see Gideon Polya, “New Abbott Coalition Australian Government. 4 policy failures already”, MWC News: http://mwcnews.org/focus/analysis/31479-abbott-coalition.html ) .
“Build the roads” refers to a Coalition policy of expanding huge urban and inter-urban highways and private transport in Australia rather than expanding railways and public transport. However from a science-based perspective, the world is facing a worsening climate emergency demanding urgent action. Thus according to the German climate advisory body WBGU and the Australian Climate Commission, the world has only about16 years before it exceeds the terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution budget of 600 Gt (billion tonnes) CO2 that must not be exceeded if we are to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise (Australian Climate Commission, “The critical decade 2013: a summary of climate change science, risks and responses”, 2013, p7: http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Critical-Decade-2013-Summary_lowres.pdf ). Using recently revised data, it is estimated that the world has only 5 years left before a terminal GHG pollution budget of 600 Gt CO2-e is exceeded (Gideon Polya, " Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act", MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html ).
Urgently required, science-indicated Climate Emergency actions include (1) change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying, (2) urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists, and (3) rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as fossil fuel burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils and storage coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth. Rail transport is much more energy efficient than road transport. Thus a tram carrying 100 passengers can be 20 times more efficient than a 4-wheel drive carrying 5 passengers in using the same energy per kilometer (see Beyond Zero Emissions: http://bze.org.au/ ).
It is a no-brainer for science-informed people that governments should be investing public money into energy-efficient railways and public transport and not into energy-inefficient road transport and private transport. However the neoliberal and climate change denialist Coalition when in government has been fundamentally corrupt like all neoliberal governments in diverting huge sums of public money into the hands of private capitalists and against the public interest. Indeed several days before the Federal Election the Coalition revealed an extraordinary climate change denialist position in releasing its resources and energy policy (see “The Coalition’s Policy for Resources and Energy”: http://www.nationals.org.au/Portals/0/00_Election_00/Coalition%202013%20Election%20Policy%20%E2%80%93%20Energy%20and%20Resources%20%E2%80%93%20Final.pdf ) that (a) made zero (0) mention of man-made climate change from fossil fuel burning and (b) made zero(0) mention of renewable energy except to propose a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) investigation into the climate change denialist furphy of alleged deleterious effects of wind farms, this ignoring the reality that the NHMRC has already found that there is “no published scientific evidence to positively link wind turbines with adverse health effects” (see the NHMRC Report “Wind farms and human health”: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/your-health/wind-farms-and-human-health ). In contrast, an estimated 10,000 Australians die each year due to pollutants from carbon burning (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
"Censorship". Media censorship of informed, credentialled, science-based views is egregiously incorrect reportage - yet the ABC has an appalling record of such censorship (for details see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ). Of course the ABC is not alone in such lying which is de rigeur for Mainstream media in the Western Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money buys politicians, parties, polices, public perception of reality, votes and political power. Thus for details of media-derived censorship by the global Murdoch media empire, Australian Fairfax media, the Australian ABC, the UK BBC, and the Australian universities-backed web magazine The Conversation in Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and subverted Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy Australia and elsewhere in the West see “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ ; “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ ; “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat .
The taxpayer-funded ABC and the ABC-linked, taxpayer -funded, universities-backed web magazine The Conversation have both reached the bottom of the barrel in their sidelining, censorship, blocking and egregiously false defamation in relation to expert, credentialled, informed anti-racist Jewish opinion.
"Censorship by ABC-linked and ABC-promoted The Conversation". Active CENSORSHIP of informed, credentialled and expert opinion by the ABC is a major category of incorrect reportage. The taxpayer-funded, universities-funded, ABC-linked, academic-based and daily ABC-promoted web magazine The Conversation has an appalling record of CENSORSHIP and BLOCKING. Thus, for example, a 5-decade career academic scientist I have been sidelined, censored, egregiously defamed and finally comprehensively BLOCKED by The Conversation. Thus after repeatedly censoring my comments, The Conversation BLOCKED me from posting comments as registered under my name "Dr Gideon Polya" and thence successively BLOCKED me from posting comments via Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In. My experiment to publicly document via the “Censorship by The Conversation” website what The Conversation does not want its readers to read, know about or think about has now effectively ended - however I have commenced phase 2 by publicly recording incorrect reportage by the taxpayer-funded The Conversation (see “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ). .
"Censorship by ABC Radio National Late Night Live". Active CENSORSHIP of informed, credentialled and expert opinion by the ABC is a major category of incorrect reportage by the endlessly censoring ABC. The ABC actively CENSORS and DELETES my comments to this website while continuing to publish defamatory abuse directed at me. The ABC appears to have applied a rather sneaky approach to CENSORSHIP and BLOCKING of reader comments on this website for the ostensibly "progressive" Radio National Late Night Live program hosted by a long-standing employee of the reactionary, pro-war, pro-Zionist, climate change denialist media empire of US citizen Rupert Murdoch, presumably because it does not want its audience to read about, know about or think about all kinds of things - an Orwellian position in brutal opposition to scholarly, academic and scientific inquiry. Thus, for example, I am a 5-decade career scientist eager to make informed comments in the public interest but I am now evidently BLOCKED from posting comments under "Dr Gideon Polya", "GMPolya" or "DrGideonPolya" (see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ).
"Censorship by ABC Radio National Ockham's Razor". Active CENSORSHIP of informed, credentialled and expert opinion by the ABC is a major category of incorrect reportage by the endlessly censoring ABC. The ABC appears to have applied a rather sneaky approach to CENSORSHIP and BLOCKING of reader comments on this website for a science-based radio National program, presumably because it does not want its audience to read about, know about or think about all kinds of things - an Orwellian position in brutal opposition to scholarly, academic and scientific inquiry. Thus, for example, I am a 5-decade career scientist eager to make informed comments in the public interest but I am now evidently BLOCKED from posting comments under "Dr Gideon Polya" or "GMPolya" but have been able to post a comments (August 2013) under "GideonPolya" but as of 17 November 2013 this too has been BLOCKED BY THE ABC ("Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat).
"Censorship by ABC Radio National Saturday Extra. Active CENSORSHIP of informed, credentialled and expert opinion by the ABC is a major category of incorrect reportage by the endlessly censoring ABC. The ABC appears to have applied a rather sneaky approach to CENSORSHIP and BLOCKING of reader comments on this quite good Radio National program, presumably because it does not want its audience to read about, know about or think about all kinds of things - an Orwellian position in brutal opposition to scholarly, academic and scientific inquiry. Thus, for example, I am a 5-decade career scientist eager to make informed comments in the public interest but I am now evidently BLOCKED from posting comments under "Dr Gideon Polya" or "GMPolya" but have been able to post comments under "GideonPolya" ( 2013) (see "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ). However on 16November 2013 the ABC started BLOCKING my posts under "GideonPolya" on the Saturday Extra , this happening shortly after I sent a letter on on 13 November 2013 to many sections of the ABC re egregious ABC malreportage to the effect that "gas is cleaner than coal" (see "Gas is cleaner than coal" [false assertion] below).
“Cholesterol-lowering statins are ineffective” [dangerous advice] e.g. “Over 40 million people worldwide take drugs to lower their cholesterol. But now there's evidence that the majority of them won't benefit” (Catalyst, “Heart of the matter.Part 2. Cholesterol drug war”, 31 October 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3881441.htm and see also Part 1: Dietary villains: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3876219.htm .
However medical experts have decried this as dangerous advice e.g. Dr Lyn Roberts ( national chief executive of the Heart Foundation of Australia): “For someone dedicated to reducing death and suffering from cardiovascular disease, the repercussions from the ABC science show Catalyst on statins have been alarming. Last month, Catalyst became a vehicle for the noisy few who dispute the link between cholesterol and heart disease and claim that statins are ineffective. I call these claims dangerous because, as a result of the program, patients have been left confused and concerned about their medication, and there is now data to show how many people have stopped their statins without consulting their GPs. There should be no doubt there is strong evidence that: High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke, right up there with high blood pressure, smoking, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity and other risk factors; Replacing saturated fat with ''good'' unsaturated fat, in particular polyunsaturated fat, reduces the risk of heart disease; Statins are very effective at reducing the risk of having a heart attack, particularly for people who have heart disease. As reported by Fairfax Media, a survey of 150 GPs by MSD has found about two out of five patients have stopped taking their medication and, most frightening, more than half of these are considered a high risk.” (see Lyn Roberts, “Heart disease and cholesterol: Catalyst claims on statins dangerous”, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 2013: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/heart-disease-and-cholesterol-catalysts-claims-on-statins-dangerous-20131114-2xjmg.html . Even the ABC’s own TV program “Media Watch” was compelled to strongly dispute the balance and correctness of these Catalyst programs. Thus Paul Barry: “The Heart of the Matter - a two part documentary on ABC's science show Catalyst caused a storm of outrage from medical experts. Media Watch looks at the journalism… I’m afraid to say that’s [ignoring evidence contrary to you beliefs] what you do in bad journalism too. And that’s what these two episodes of Catalyst appear to be. And that’s a shame because the causes and treatment of heart disease are an important subject for debate. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars are at stake; and the ABC should be free to challenge established medical wisdom. But it needs to do it much much better than this.” (Paul Barry, Media Watch, 11 November 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3888657.htm ).
"Cleaner Energy". The ABC News reported, without correction, the incorrect claim by Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy that “"Gas is cleaner than coal, we are looking at local power generation, we see no fundamental reason why we should change, because we need to communicate more with people and make sure the information gets out there." (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ; Drew T. Shindell , Greg Faluvegi, Dorothy M. Koch , Gavin A. Schmidt , Nadine Unger and Susanne E. Bauer , “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”, Science, 30 October 2009: Vol. 326 no. 5953 pp. 716-718: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716 and Shindell et al (2009), Fig.2: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716.figures-only ).
"Climate change action" and related incorrect assertions. The extraordinary Australian refusal to face up to the reality of the worsening Climate Emergency is illustrated by a recent debate between leading Australian climate economist Professor Ross Garnaut (who advocated action by a Carbon Tax and an Emission Trading Scheme as implemented by the previous Labor Government) and Independent MP Clive Palmer (a mining billionaire who has just been given the green light for a massive new coal mine and a rail-linked port dangerously impinging on Australia's iconic, World Heritage-listed but critically endangered Great Barrier Reef). Non-scientist ABC journalist Tony Jones (who evidently accepts the Garnaut and Labor position ) compered this debate on climate change action between non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut and non-scientist mining billionaire Clive Palmer (“Live from Perth : Ross Garnaut and Clive Palmer”, ABC TV, Lateline, 3 April 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2014/s3978099.htm ). It should be noted that the Coalition Australian Government led by PM Tony Abbott hopes to shortly dismantle Labor's Carbon Tax and ETS with the help of Clive Palmer. The following 2 key exchanges in the debate illustrate the extraordinary ignorance of those overwhelmingly non-scientists permitted effective free speech to the exclusion of scientists in the public discussion about climate change action.
EXCHANGE #1. "ROSS GARNAUT: Yes, the world's been taking substantial action… [advocacy of Carbon Price by an EU-style Emissions Trading Scheme]… Well, for thousands of years, for thousands of years there was a balance between natural emissions and natural absorption of emissions. The big increase in human emissions from burning fossil fuel since the Industrial Revolution and chopping down trees has changed that balance. So it's the human-induced changes that create the climate change problem. It's why there's been nearly a degree of warming in the last half century.
CLIVE PALMER: It's just not true."
EXCHANGE #2. "CLIVE PALMER: Well we should show leadership. The fact of the matter is we want to reduce carbon. 100 per cent of the carbon, 97 per cent of its from nature. If we reduce it by 20 per cent from industry, that's about 0.6 per cent of the 100 per cent overall because industry's only three per cent, so why don't we try to get a 0.6 per cent reduction of carbon from all sources of carbon? In New Zealand , they've got a fart tax because sheep give out the most methane. They've introduced things like that ...
TONY JONES: Yeah, that's not - well that's not carbon, that's methane."
Crtitiques (for detailed documentation see Gideon Polya, "Terracidal climate change inaction", Countercurrents, 6 April 2014:
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060414.htm ).
Non-scientist Professor Ross Garnaut was WRONG in stating that “the world's been taking substantial action”. As summarized in the latest IPCC AR5 Report Summary for Policy Makers, the atmospheric CO2 is higher than it has been for 1 million years and it is increasing at a rate of about 2.5 ppm CO2 per year that is over 2 times that in1960 when measurements by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commenced at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA [13, 14]. Further, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports and projects correspondingly remorselessly increasing global energy-related CO2 pollution [15]. The Australian Climate Commission has estimated that (relative to 2014) the World has only 14 years left before it exceeds the Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget of 600 Gt CO2 that must not be exceeded if we are to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise [8]. However a more stringent analysis realistically considering the GWP of methane and the huge impact of livestock on man-made GHG pollution indicates that the World has only 4 years left (relative to 2014) at current rates of pollution before its Terminal Carbon Budget is exceeded [9].
Non-scientist Professor Ross Garnaut was WRONG in supporting a disastrous EU-style Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for Australia and the utility of the present Labor-installed Carbon Tax and ETS arrangements (Carbon Price $23 per tonne CO2-e but falling to a derisory $6 per tonne CO2-e in 2015 as compared to an expert UK assessment that a Carbon Price of $150 per tonne CO2-e is needed for effective climate action). Thus the ETS approach is empirically ineffective, is accordingly counterproductive and is inherently fraudulent in that it involves, for example, the Australian Government selling licences for corporations to pollute the one common atmosphere and ocean of all countries in the world. Many climate scientists, climate activists and climate economists favor a transparent and substantial Carbon Tax and slam the ETS approach [16-19]. Thus D r Chris Hope (Judge Business School, 90-Nobel-Laureate University of Cambridge) (2011): “If the best current scientific and economic evidence is to be believed, and climate change could be a real and serious problem, the appropriate response is to institute today a climate change tax equal to the mean estimate of the damage caused by a tonne of CO2. emissions. The raw calculations from the default PASGE09 model suggest that tax should be about $100 per tonne of CO2 in the EU. But correcting for the limited time horizon of the model, and bringing the calculations forward to 2102, in year 2012 dollars, brings the suggested tax up to about $150 per tonne of CO2” [19].
Non-scientist Clive Palmer was utterly WRONG in rejecting “human-induced climate change” by saying “It's just not true”. The expert IPCC AR5 report, Summary for Policy Makers, based on the work of thousands of expert research scientists, has summarized the observed changes so far: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased… Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding the climate system” [14].
Non-scientist Clive Palmer was utterly WRONG in his pronouncement that “[of] 100 per cent of the carbon, 97 per cent of its from nature”, stating: “[of] 100 per cent of the carbon, 97 per cent of its from nature . If we reduce it by 20 per cent from industry, that's about 0.6 per cent of the 100 per cent overall because industry's only three per cent, so why don't we try to get a 0.6 per cent reduction of carbon from all sources of carbon”. The reality qualitatively familiar to high school science students is that annually photosynthesis converts about 170 Gt C (624 Gt CO2) to carbohydrate (120 GtC terrestrially and 50 GtC in the ocean): nCO2 + nH2O -> (CH2O)n + nO2 . However of this all but about 4 GtC is re-oxidized back to CO2 by plants and plant-eating aerobic organisms deriving requisite energy from this catabolic process : (CH2O)n + nO2 -> nCO2 + nH2O [1] (anaerobic organism make things worse by generating methane, CH4, which is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account [1, 20, 21]),. Non-scientist Clive Palmer evidently does not understand the basic high school biological chemistry that nearly all the carbohydrate generated by photosynthesis on Planet Earth is subsequently re-oxidized to provide energy for the survival, repair and replication of photosynthetic organisms and of all ultimately photosynthate-consuming organisms.
Non-scientist Clive Palmer was utterly WRONG in his pronouncement that “[of the 100 per cent overall… industry's only three per cent]”. World Bank analysts have re-assessed annual man-made (anthropogenic) GHG pollution taking livestock into account as 17.4 GtC (64 Gt CO 2 -e or CO2-equivalent ), this being 50% bigger than the FAO estimate of 11.4 GtC (42 Gt CO 2 -e). Man's annual GHG contribution is thus about 17.4 GtC out of a annual biological GHG pollution total of 17.4 + 170 - 4 = 183.4 GtC or 9.5% (over 3 times greater than Clive Palmer's estimate of 3%) [22].
Non-scientist Clive Palmer was nevertheless qualitatively CORRECT in suggesting “why don't we try to get a … reduction of carbon from all sources of carbon”. Eliminating all aspects of livestock production from land clearing to eructation (belching) by methane-generating animals could, according to World Bank analysts, save 32 GtC , nearly 2 times the present annual anthropogenic GHG pollution [22]. Conversion of forestry waste and agricultural straw waste to biochar (carbon, charcoal ) through anaerobic pyrolysis at 400-700C and then putting it into fire-proof holes in the ground (like old coal mines) could save 12 GtC annually but this would be associated with a minimum cost of the order of $200 per tonne C. Thus the cost of conversion of cellulosic waste to biochar in the US mid-West is about US$49-US$74 per tonne CO2 (US$210-US$303 per tonne CO2 in the UK ) i.e. $180-272 per tonne C (US-based) or $771-1,112 per tonne C (UK-based) [23, 24]. The current price of Australian thermal coal is about $90 per tonne or $90 per t C x (12t C/ 44 t CO2) = $24 per tonne of CO2 released on eventual combustion [24]. Thus at the cheapest US-based rate, for every $1 coal miners like Clive Palmer get for coal, future generations will have to pay $2-3 to clean up the atmosphere. Ergo, future generations would like us to keep coal (and oil and gas) in the ground [4, 24].
Non-scientist compere Tony Jones was utterly WRONG in absurdly stating “That's not carbon, that's methane”. The carbon compound methane (CH4) is a major, naturally-occurring greenhouse gas and derives from anaerobic degradation of biological material e.g. in swamps, waste dumps, and livestock digestion : (CH2O)n + 4H (derived from reduced coenzymes) -> nCH4 + nH2O or, overall: 2(CH2O)n -> nCH4 + n CO2. Global warming is already releasing CH4 from thawing H2O-CH4 clathrates in the tundra and in shallow parts of the Arctic Ocean . CH4 is the major constituent of natural gas and fugitive CH4 emissions occur from coal mines, coal seam gas (CSG) extraction, conventional natural gas extraction, from coal seam and shale fracking and from systemic gas reticulation leakage. It is estimated that 50 Gt CH4 will be released from the Arctic Ocean sea bed in coming decades [25]. From a global warming and greenhouse gas pollution perspective, methane is not just a carbon compound but the worst such naturally-occurring compound in terms of Global Warming Potential, (GWP). The GWP of CH4 on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts considered is 105 times that of CO2 [1, 21, 22]. The German WBGU (2009) and the Australian Climate Commission (2013) have estimated that no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 can be emitted between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise [1, 3, 8]. The 50 Gt (billion tonnes) CH4 expected to be released from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf in coming decades is thus equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes CO2-equivalent/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-e or about nine (9) times more than the world's Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget. We are doomed unless we can stop this Arctic CH4 release [3]. In the public arguments in Australia and elsewhere about what an effective Carbon Price should be, the Carbon Price is expressed in terms of dollars per tonne CO2-equivalent (CO2-e), noting that CO2-e expresses total greenhouse gases (mainly CO2 and CH4) as CO2 equivalents.
"Climate change [is] simply not true". The ABC contineus ot report ignroant assertions by non-scientists that man-made climate chnage is not happening. This is illustrated by a recent debate between leading Australian climate economist Professor Ross Garnaut (who advocated action by a Carbon Tax and an Emission Trading Scheme as implemented by the previous Labor Government) and Independent MP Clive Palmer (a mining billionaire who has just been given the green light for a massive new coal mine and a rail-linked port dangerously impinging on Australia's iconic, World Heritage-listed but critically endangered Great Barrier Reef). Non-scientist ABC journalist Tony Jones (who evidently accepts the Garnaut and Labor position ) compered this debate on climate change action between non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut and non-scientist mining billionaire Clive Palmer (“Live from Perth : Ross Garnaut and Clive Palmer”, ABC TV, Lateline, 3 April 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2014/s3978099.htm ). It should be noted that the Coalition Australian Government led by PM Tony Abbott hopes to shortly dismantle Labor's Carbon Tax and ETS with the help of Clive Palmer. The following key exchange in the debate illustrates the extraordinary ignorance of those overwhelmingly non-scientists permitted effective free speech to the exclusion of scientists in the public discussion about climate change action.
EXCHANGE. "ROSS GARNAUT: Yes, the world's been taking substantial action… [advocacy of Carbon Price by an EU-style Emissions Trading Scheme]… Well, for thousands of years, for thousands of years there was a balance between natural emissions and natural absorption of emissions. The big increase in human emissions from burning fossil fuel since the Industrial Revolution and chopping down trees has changed that balance. So it's the human-induced changes that create the climate change problem. It's why there's been nearly a degree of warming in the last half century.
CLIVE PALMER: It's just not true."
Crtitique (for detailed documentation see Gideon Polya, "Terracidal climate change inaction", Countercurrents, 6 April 2014:
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060414.htm ).
Non-scientist Clive Palmer was utterly WRONG in rejecting “human-induced climate change” by saying “It's just not true”. The expert IPCC AR5 report, Summary for Policy Makers, based on the work of thousands of expert research scientists, has summarized the observed changes so far: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased… Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding the climate system” [14].
"CO2" versus "CO2-e".
"The amount of CO2 (strictly CO2 )" refers to the amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide whereas "The amount of CO2-e" refers to the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (e.g. CO2, CH4, N2O etc, each gas having a different Global Warming Potential or GWP relative to that of CO2) ) expressed as the equivalent amount of CO2. Thus, for example, ABC incorrectly reported that “[PM Rudd] promised a tougher target if the world agrees to a 450 ppm CO2 deal for 2050” (see “Rudd overhauls emissions plan and delays 12 months”, ABC News, 4 May 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-04/rudd-overhauls-emissions-plan-and-delays-12-months/1672684 ). In actual fact it appears that PM Rudd meant “450 ppm CO2-e” and according to Friends of the Earth (FOE) (see Friends of the Earth, Media release, 18 December 2009: http://www.cana.net.au/sites/default/files/FrioendsoftheEarth_181209.pdf ): “Rudd must take responsibility for the failure of the Copenhagen talks ..While over 100 countries called for a target of 1.5 degree [C] and cuts to below 350 ppm CO2-e, Australia continued to push for two degrees and a 450 ppm CO2-e target while offering cuts that would not even fulfil them.Thus paleoclimate and earth scientist Dr Andrew Glikson (ANU) has stated (2010): “Recent paleoclimate studies, using multiple proxies (soil carbonate δ13C, alkenones, boron/calcium, stomata leaf pores), indicate that the current CO2 level of 388ppm and CO2-equivalent level of 460ppm (which includes the methane factor), commit warming above pre-industrial levels to 3 to 4 degrees C in the tropics and 10 degrees C in polar regions, tracking towards an ice-free Earth” (see Andrew Glikson, “Cabon dioside, mass extinction fo species and climate change”, Online Opinion, 1 March 2010: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10104&page=2 ).
"Critical of Israel's actions is indeed to be anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic". The ABC Late Night Live had a program initially offensively entitled on its website “Holocaust denial and anti-Israelism” and thence (after protest?) renamed “Holocaust denial and the Eichmann trial” but with the line “She [Professor Deborah Lipstadt] continues to campaign against Holocaust denial, and what she now perceives as the new anti-Israelism.” (see “Holocaust denial and the Eichmann trial”, ABC Late Night Live, 12 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/deborah-lipstadt---the-new-anti-israelism/4876122 ). The LNL websites continues to published the utterly false and defamatory view that “To be critical of Israel's actions is indeed to be anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic” and like views e.g. “By the grace of G-d. The Land of Israel belongs to The Jewish People. Anyone who denies that is an anti-semite… A gentile who takes even half of a grain of The Land of Israel is guilty of robbery”
These assertions are false and defamatory to anti-racist Jews and indeed to all decent, anti-racist folk. The ABC insists on publishing these false, obnoxious, highly offensive and defamatory views while CENSORING comments defending anti-racist Jews from such egregiously false defamation. Thus I attempted to post the following comment under my name “GideonPolya” (posting comments under “Dr Gideon Polya” and other versions of my name are BLOCKED by the ABC) but it was CENSORED out completely by the pro-Zionist, anti-racist Jew-defaming, Jew-baiting, Jew-defaming ABC: “The title of this interview “Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”, was a highly offending, linkage (that was not even discussed in the program!) – a large body of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars and writers, informed by “never again to anyone” arising from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and the WW2 European Holocaust of which it was a part (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed) are opposed to the horrendous, continuing crime of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, racist Zionist-run rogue state of Apartheid Israel (Google “Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Palestinian Genocide” and Boycott Apartheid Israel”.
Evidently BLOCKED from posting by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic ABC I attempted top post the following comment under the name “Spinoza” (after the great Jewish Dutch philosopher founder of the European Enlightenment) but this too was CENSORED completely by the Jew-baiting ABC that has hit upon the sick and false stratagem of simultaneously falsely defaming anti-racist Jews and then BLOCKING and CENSORING any attempt by anti-racsit Jews to defend their reputation. This is what the Jew-baiting ABC evidently does not want its audience to read, know about or think about: “Well said, Deborah Lipstadt [another person who posted criticism of the false abuse, to whit linking “holocaust denial “ and anti-Israelism: as being a “Bridge too far”]. To accuse those critical of Apartheid Israeli actions as anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic is false and defamatory and when such false accusation is made against the numerous , outstanding anti-racist Jewish scholars and writers critical of Apartheid Israeli crimes, the false accusation becomes repugnant anti-Jewish anti-Semitism (for the humane views of outstanding anti-racist Jews and non-Jews opposed to obscene Israeli Apartheid Google “Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Boycott Apartheid Israel” and “Palestinian Genocide”).
The entrenched. traditional racism of racist White Australia against non-Europeans, indigenous people and Jews did not die with the passage of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act by the all-too-transient, reformist, Whitlam Labor Government (1972-1975) before it was removed in a CIA-backed Coup (see William Blum’s best-selling book “Rogue State”). . The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia’s equivalent of the BBC) repeatedly shows its hand as anti-Arab anti-Semitic (by supporting and lying about the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims associated now with over 20 million Muslim refugees and since 1990 with 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation) and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (by endlessly and falsely defaming anti-racist Jewish humanitarians, most notably by falsely associating all Jews with Apartheid Israel and hence with its horrendous crimes against humanity ).
Decent Australians must insist that the anti-Arab anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic taxpayer-funded ABC be cleaned up or sold off.
Indeed decent, anti-racist people around the world should insist on arraignment, trial and punishment of all ABC and Australian Mainstream media journalists around the world for complicity in anti-Arab anti-Semitic holocaust ignoring and holocaust denying (in the interests of free speech the only punishment of the guilty should be the ignominy of public exposure of their racist lying).
The following is a list of outstanding anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars, writers and citizens from around the world whose views critical of Israeli human rights abuses have been CENSORED by the anti- anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic and Jew-baiting but still taxpayer-funded ABC and the taxpayer-funded Australian universities-backed web magazine the Conversation (for details of this extraordinary and offensive censorship of humane opinion see “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by , “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ):
Professor Peter Singer, Miriam Margolyes, Professor Eva Cox, Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Sara Dowse, Professor GJ Lindell, Susan Varga, Antony Loewenstein, Professor David SG Goodman, Professor John Docker, Jean McClean, Dr Peter Slezak, Dr Tony Balint, Dr Ron Witton, Dr Ned Curthoys, Dr Rick Kuhn, Dr. Tamas Pataki, Russell Bancroft, Alice Beauchamp, Toni Beauchamp, Wendy Crew, Bronwyn Dahlstrom, Nicole Erlich, Marshall Harris, David Hermolin, Sylvie Leber, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Stefan Moore, Martin Munz, Dr Gideon Polya, Vivienne Porzsolt, Joe Rich, Margot Salom, Rene Tsukasov, and Nic Witton (anti-racist Jewish Australians);
Helen Bamber OBE, Prof Zygmunt Bauman, Sir Geoffrey Bindman, Rex Bloomstein, Sir Anthony Caro, Prof Stan Cohen, Jenny Diski, Moris Farhi MBE, Bella Freud, Stephen Fry, Prof Eric Hobsbawm, Dr Julian Huppert MP, Prof Mary Kaldor, Nicolas Kent, Beeban Kidron, Baroness Oona King, Prof Francesca Klug OBE, Mike Leigh, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Mike Marqusee, Dr Jonathan Miller, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Sophie Okonedo OBE, Prof Susie Orbach, Prof Jacqueline Rose FBA, Mike Rosen, Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, Alexei Sayle, Prof Lynne Segal, Will Self, Sir Antony Sher, Prof Avi Shlaim FBA, Gillian Slovo, Sir Tom Stoppard, Dame Janet Suzman and Zoë Wanamaker CBE (eminent anti-racist Jewish Britons);
Uri Avnery, John Berger, William Blum, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Jeff Halper, Naomi Klein, Stephen Lendman, Ilan Pappe, Harold Pinter, Adi Ophir, Tanya Reinhart, and Howard Zinn (more famous anti-racist Jews); and
Tariq Ali , Rev. Allan Boesak, Professor Francis Boyle, Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison, Jonathan Cook, Ed Corrigan, Brian Eno, PM Tayyip Erdogan, Sophie Fiennes, Eduardo Galeano, George Galloway MP, Mahatma Gandhi, Allan Hart, Julia Irwin MP, Sonja Karkar, Conor Kelly, Terry Lane, Martin Linton MP, Mairead Maguire, Gabran Majdalany, Nelson Mandela. Cardinal Renato Martino, Cynthia McKinney, Vanessa Redgrave, Senator Lee Rhiannon, Arundhati Roy, Rabee Sahyoun, Jose Saramago, Ahdad Soueif, Elia Suleiman, Baroness Jennifer Tonge, Rev Desmond Tutu, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, David Ward MP and Dr Vacy Vlazna (variously famous anti-racist non-Jewish writers and leaders) (for details and more see “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ and “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ).
"Dollars ($) per tonne" - "$ per tonne carbon", "$ per tonne CO2" or "$ per tonne CO2-e"?. In over 40 years of teaching university science students I have continually stressed the importance of “units”. I suspect that unfortunately most non-scientist journalists, MPs, academics and other public commentators would not correctly answer the question “What is the current carbon price?”. Thus ABC News in incorrectly reporting the Rudd Government’s likely election-winning mid-2014 shift from a “Carbon Tax” to an ETS, stated: “The Federal Government wants to move from a fixed carbon price of $24.15 a tonne to a floating price of about $6 by July 2014” (see “PM Kevin Rudd reveals $3.8 billion price tag on decision to “terminate” carbon tax”, ABC News, 16 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/38-billion-to-terminate-carbon-tax-says-kevin-rudd/4822556 ). This statement as such is meaningless – it is like stating “I bought this apple for 10” (10 what? 10 cents? 10 dollars?). This is not trivial e.g. consider the statement “I will sell you my car for 10,000 (10,000 cents, dollars, US dollars, apples?).
CO2-e (CO2-equivalent) in appropriate mass units is a measure of greenhouse gases (including CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases) in terms of the equivalent mass of CO2 with the same global warming potential. Carbon has a an atomic weight of 12 and carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) have molecular weights of about 44 and 16, respectively (noting that the parameters atomic weight and molecular weight are dimensionless because they are the ratio of masses). Thus, for example, carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually mean a Real Carbon Price of about A$151 per tonne CO2-e or (A$151 / tonne CO2) x (44 t CO2 /12 t carbon) = A$554 per tonne carbon (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ). For related analyses see the Alternative Fact-checking website "ABC Fact-checking Unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC Australia's BBC)": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit and for detailed notes for a climate change mini-course I gave to final year university students see “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ).
The answer to the question I posed originally is that the Carbon Price is about A$24 per tonne CO2-e. The answer to the question I posed originally is that the Carbon Price is about A$24 per tonne CO2-e.. Searches of "ABC News" for the terms "per tonne CO2-e" (correct), "per tonne CO2" (incorrect) and "per tonne carbon" (incorrect) yield zero (0), 2 and 2 reports, respectively.
“Economic refugees” (offensive and incorrect assertion). Australian Foreign Minister, unelected Senator Bob Carr, has stated of asylum seekers coining by boat to Australia: “"What we've seen from the spike this year from Iran is that people are coming to Australia from majority religious and ethnic groups in their country, so persecution cannot easily be assumed… “[there have] been some boats where 100 per cent of them have been people who are fleeing countries where... their motivation is altogether economic." PM Mr Rudd subsequently stated: "[A] whole bunch of people who seek to come to this country are economic migrants". However, Professor Gillian Triggs (president of the Australian Human Rights Commission) stated: “When we were assessing asylum seeker claims up until August 13 last year, approximately 90 per cent of claims for refugee status were found to be valid. They were assessed by the Australian processes genuinely to be refugees. Now that suggests that at least until the moment when the Government stopped assessing claims, the genuineness of the overwhelming majority of them was very clear on the evidence. So I think that Senator Carr is making an assumption for which there's no evidence" (ABC News, “Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs sys no evidence asylum seekers are “economic migrants”, 2 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-02/human-rights-commission-economic-migrants/4792924 ). Bob Carr has made further such statements e.g. “People are coming here, not now as a result of persecution, but because they’re economic refugees who have paid money to people smugglers” and “There’ve been some boats where 100% of them have been people who are fleeing countries where they’re the majority ethnic and religious group, and their motivations is altogether economic,” statements that have been refuted by the FactCheck of The Conversation (see Sara Davies and Melissa Phillips, “FactCheck: are asylum seekers really economic migrants?”, The Conversation, 2 July 2013: http://theconversation.com/factcheck-are-asylum-seekers-really-economic-migrants-15601 )as is cleaner than coal” (incorrect assertion). Gas burning produces less of toxic pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO ), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) than coal burning and vastly less radioactivity and heavy metals than coal burning (see Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation””, Countercurrents, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm ). Further, burning 1 tonne CH4, the major constituent of natural gas, yields 2.75 tonnes CO2 whereas burning carbon, C, the major constituent of coal, yields 3.67 tonnes CO2. CO2 emissions (in pounds per Btu of energy input) are 117,000 for gas, 164,000 for oil and 208,000 for coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy and Natural gas.org, “Natural gas and the environment”: http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional gas to coal seam gas (CSG)-derived and fracking-derived gas) and methane (CH4) .has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning for power can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ). Indeed the ABC quotes Professor Hultman, from the school of public policy at the University of Maryland, saying that using the "most extreme assumptions", coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame (see Wendy Carlisle, “CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change”, ABC News, 10 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808 and Wendy Carlisle, “The missing emissions”, Background Briefing, 9 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2012-12-09/4409500#transcript ) . However,
(1) the ABC quotes Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Toby Hutcheon incorrectly stating that “Gas is cleaner than coal” (see “China gas deal to add $14 b to Queensland economy”, ABC News, 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-03-25/china-gas-deal-to-add-14b-to-queensland-economy/379178 );
(2) the ABC quotes Coal Seam Gas (CSG) promoter Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy, stating incorrectly that “"Gas is cleaner than coal” (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 );
(3) ABC Darwin incorrectly asserts that “gas is cleaner than coal” (ABC Darwin, “Why solar doesn’t pay in Australia’s sunniest territory”, 3 March 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/03/03/3154514.htm );
(4) the ABC “Behind the News” has Catherine Ellis incorrectly stating “Another idea is to use more natural gas and less coal because gas is cleaner” (ABC Behind the News< “Fossil fuels”, 29 May 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/v3/stories/s1933653.htm );
(5) the ABC quotes Darren Stevenson incorrectly stating that “We think that it’s climate friendly in the sense that the emissions from this [gas] are half from a coal power station” and the Narrator incorrectly stating “the gas is cleaner” (ABC, “Coal Gas”, Catalyst, 22 October 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2721216.htm );
(6) the ABC Late Night Live states “At the weekend the gas industry began a campaign to get itself exempted from the carbon tax on the basis that gas is cleaner than coal” (“Senator Christine Milne on the carbon tax”, AVC Late Night Live, 11 April 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/senator-christine-milne-on-the-carbon-tax/3007906 ;
(7) the ABC Q&A program broadcasts the PM Julia Gillard incorrectly stating “The Federal Government doesn’t go around building power stations but what we will do is send the price signal which means we move from dirtier generation to cleaner generation. Gas is cleaner generation, absolutely” (see ABC TV Q&A, “Julia Gillard joins Q&A”, 11 July 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3263582.htm );
(8) the ABC censored out science -informed comments about gas NOT being “cleaner” by a 5-decade career scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, who subsequently posted the following comment that survived the ABC censor(s): “My carefully researched and documented comment about deficient and incorrect reportage about climate change was CENSORED by the ABC, possibly for mentioning (1) climate change denialism of the Murdoch media in particular in Western Murdochracies (see John Pilger), Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies (see Professor Brian Ellis' "Social Humanism") in which Big Money buys politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality and votes, and (2) misleading advertising by Shell on SBS TV asserting that burning gas is cleaner greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (depending upon the gas leakage rate it can be far dirtier) and that Brazilian biofuel derives from renewable resources (ethanol from sugar cane actually carries a huge carbon debt). I hope that the cessation of these ads was due to my detailed letter of complaint sent to MPs, SBS and other media (Google "Doha climate change inaction", "Are we doomed" and "2011 climate change course")” (see ABC Late Night Live”, Climate, science and denial”, 27 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/climate2c-science-and-denial/4415652 ).
(9) non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut is regularly used by the ABC as an expert on climate change, including his incorrect assertions about gas being cleaner reported thus by the ABC: “Professor Garnaut says initially polluting but trade-exposed businesses which face overseas competition should be compensated - such as the steel or aluminium industries. But he conceded the high-polluting electricity generators of the La Trobe Valley would be hit hard by the tax - but should seize other opportunities and move to gas-fired generation. "Those regions happen to be very good regions for building the lower emissions generation capacity," he said. "As the relative importance of coal declines, the relative importance of gas will rise."If you're going to put in a new gas-fired power station somewhere that has all the infrastructure of the La Trobe Valley is a very good place for that."(see ABC News, “Garnaut backs $20-$30 carbon price” , 17 March 20011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-17/garnaut-backs-20-30-carbon-price/2653950 .
(10) The ABC TV program “The Shitsville Express” had a segment on 17 July 2013 on coal seam gas in which it was repeatedly and incorrectly asserted without any refutation that “gas is cleaner” than coal (see: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/shitsvilleexpress.htm?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_TV-Marketing-Shitsville%20Express|JoeHildebrand_AdWords_:shitsville%20express_e_g_32033308759_&gclid=CLfOz8fkt7gCFasopgod12cASA ).
ETS incorrect assertions. 1. The ABC reportage implies that having an ETS is synonymous with “tackling climate change”. Thus for example, the ABC TV News broadcast a speech by PM Kevin Rudd in which he quotes and agrees with the assertion by Tony Abbott that “You can’t have a climate change policy without an emissions trading scheme” (see “PM Kevin Rudd reveals a $3.8 billion price tag on decision to “terminate: carbon tax”, ABC News, video : 16 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/38-billion-to-terminate-carbon-tax-says-kevin-rudd/4822556 ). This is clearly incorrect in the sense that, for example, you could rapidly install 100% renewable energy without resorting to a “market mechanism”. Further, the ETS approach has proved to be empirically unsuccessful, accordingly counterproductive and indeed fraudulent because it involves, for example, the Australian Government selling licences to pollute the one common atmosphere if all countries on earth (see “Top science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed and NOT Cap-and-Trade Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)”, 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading ). Thus, for example, Professor James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies; adjunct professor, 96-Nobel-Laureate Columbia; University, New York, USA): “The honest approach, the effective approach, for solving the global warming problem would be a tax with 100% dividend [giving all receipts to the public]. The public is not stupid. They will understand that the hooks and eyes of a less comprehensive more dissembling approach will be put there for some reason other than saving the future for their children. One of the biggest advantages of the Tax and Dividend approach is its simplicity, which would allow it to be introduced quickly. The Kyoto-like Cap & Trade is notoriously slow to negotiate and implement, as well as being ineffective in the end. A related point is that an effective international accord could be implemented with only a few of the major economies. Import duties on countries not imposing a comparable tax would surely bring broad rapid compliance”. Indeed former Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull who lost the leadership by 1 vote over his support for an ETS has now conceded that the ETS approach is unfortunately more appealing in theory than in practice (see Malcolm Turnbull interviewed by Ellen Fanning , “Malcolm Turnbull on the Observer effect”, video, 19 July 2013).
2. In slashing the Carbon Price 4-fold and announcing rapid transit to an ETS PM Kevin Rudd quoted and endorsed the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott stating “You can’t have a climate change policy without an emissions trading scheme” (see “PM Kevin Rudd reveals $3.8 billion price tag on decision to “terminate” carbon tax””, ABC News, 16 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/38-billion-to-terminate-carbon-tax-says-kevin-rudd/4822556 ). At the same press conference the Minister for Climate Change Mark Butler asserted “Across the world people recognize that the most efficient an effective way to drive down carbon pollution is through an emissions trading scheme”. Unfortunately numerous climate scientists and climate economists think otherwise (see see “Top science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed and NOT Cap-and-Trade Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)”, 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading ) and in particular Dr Chris Hope (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK) favours a realistic Carbon Price of circa $150 per tonne CO2, slams the ETS approach in that there is no conclusive evidence that the EU ETS has worked, and slams the Australian Coalition Direct Action plan as no good in the sense that it subsidizes polluters (i.e. pays them to pollute less) . Thus Dr Chris Hope () questioned by ABC’s Emma Alberici about the Carbon Tax, emissions trading scheme (ETS) and “Direct Action” options: “EMMA ALBERICI: But specifically on the reason it was initially conceived, has the EU system actually worked, eight years after it was launched? Has it managed to reduce carbon emissions in the European region? CHRIS HOPE: It's very hard to say because it's very hard to work out what the emissions would've been without the emissions trading scheme, because as you know, we've been through in Europe quite a severe recession as a result of the financial crisis of 2007 onwards and so it's very hard to see what the emissions would've been. But I think most people would say that it has been nowhere near as successful at reducing emissions as we would've hoped it would be and as a sensible carbon tax at a sensible level of maybe $100 per tonne of carbon dioxide would be. EMMA ALBERICI: And we're running out of time, but I also wanted to ask you because our Opposition conservative Coalition favours a direct action plan involving the buying of emissions reductions through a series of government grants. Is that a system you're familiar with anywhere else in the world and does it work? CHRIS HOPE: It's a system effectively of giving subsidies to people not to emit pollution. It's a very bad system. The last thing you want to be doing is subsidising people who are doing bad things. What you want to do is use the polluter-pays principle, make sure that anybody who is emitting pollution pays for the damage that that pollution is causing. And the best estimate that we have for the damage that's being caused by carbon dioxide emissions is about $100 worth of damage for every tonne of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere. That's the carbon price you should be setting and it should be set ideally as a carbon tax which is charged on every tonne of emissions and increases over time. (see Dr Chris Hope interviewed by Emma Alberici, “Climate economist warns of impact climate change" , Lateline, 29 July 2103: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3813766.htm ). Dr Chris Hope (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) (2011): “If the best current scientific and economic evidence is to be believed, and climate change could be a real and serious problem, the appropriate response is to institute today a climate change tax equal to the mean estimate of the damage caused by a tonne of CO2. emissions. The raw calculations from the default PASGE09 model suggest that tax should be about $100 per tonne of CO2 in the EU. But correcting for the limited time horizon of the model, and bringing the calculations forward to 2102, in year 2012 dollars, brings the suggested tax up to about $150 per tonne of CO2.” (Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/research/working_papers/2011/wp1109.pdf .
. “Gas is cleaner than coal”, "Gas burning cleaner than coal burning", "Gas being quite a bit cleaner" (incorrect assertions). On 11 November 2013, ABC's Tony Jones on ABC TV "Q&A": "David, one of the fundamental reasons for a carbon price, carbon tax, was to actually make it competitive for gas-fired power stations to work compared to coal fired power stations. In other words to price in the pollution from a coal fired power station, gas being quite a bit cleaner. So can you make that work in another way with a direct action policy? " (ABC TV "Q&A", "Open for business", 11 November 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3873461.htm ). This is incorrect. Methane (CH4), a major constituent of natural gas, leaks and has a global warming potential 105 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. At 2.6% leakage the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect of the leaked CH4 is the same as the GHG effect from burning the remaining 97.4% of the CH4 to yield CO2. Depending upon the systemic leakage (2-8% in the US) gas burning can be much dirtier than coal burning.
Gas burning produces less of toxic pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO ), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) than coal burning and vastly less radioactivity and heavy metals than coal burning (see Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation””, Countercurrents, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm ). Further, burning 1 tonne CH4, the major constituent of natural gas, yields 2.75 tonnes CO2 whereas burning carbon, C, the major constituent of coal, yields 3.67 tonnes CO2. CO2 emissions (in pounds per Btu of energy input) are 117,000 for gas, 164,000 for oil and 208,000 for coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy and Natural gas.org, “Natural gas and the environment”: http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional gas to coal seam gas (CSG)-derived and fracking-derived gas) and methane (CH4) .has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning for power can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ). Indeed the ABC quotes Professor Hultman, from the school of public policy at the University of Maryland, saying that using the "most extreme assumptions", coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame (see Wendy Carlisle, “CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change”, ABC News, 10 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808 and Wendy Carlisle, “The missing emissions”, Background Briefing, 9 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2012-12-09/4409500#transcript ).
Here are some further instances of the ABC reporting the egregious falsehood that "gas is cleaner than coal", a proposition of enormous economic signficance for high polluting gas-exploiting Australia. . .
(1) the ABC quotes Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Toby Hutcheon incorrectly stating that “Gas is cleaner than coal” (see “China gas deal to add $14 b to Queensland economy”, ABC News, 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-03-25/china-gas-deal-to-add-14b-to-queensland-economy/379178 );
(2) the ABC quotes Coal Seam Gas (CSG) promoter Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy, stating incorrectly that “"Gas is cleaner than coal” (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 );
(3) ABC Darwin incorrectly asserts that “gas is cleaner than coal” (ABC Darwin, “Why solar doesn’t pay in Australia’s sunniest territory”, 3 March 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/03/03/3154514.htm );
(4) the ABC “Behind the News” has Catherine Ellis incorrectly stating “Another idea is to use more natural gas and less coal because gas is cleaner” (ABC Behind the News< “Fossil fuels”, 29 May 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/v3/stories/s1933653.htm );
(5) the ABC quotes Darren Stevenson incorrectly stating that “We think that it’s climate friendly in the sense that the emissions from this [gas] are half from a coal power station” and the Narrator incorrectly stating “the gas is cleaner” (ABC, “Coal Gas”, Catalyst, 22 October 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2721216.htm );
(6) the ABC Late Night Live states “At the weekend the gas industry began a campaign to get itself exempted from the carbon tax on the basis that gas is cleaner than coal” (“Senator Christine Milne on the carbon tax”, AVC Late Night Live, 11 April 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/senator-christine-milne-on-the-carbon-tax/3007906 ;
(7) the ABC Q&A program broadcasts the PM Julia Gillard incorrectly stating “The Federal Government doesn’t go around building power stations but what we will do is send the price signal which means we move from dirtier generation to cleaner generation. Gas is cleaner generation, absolutely” (see ABC TV Q&A, “Julia Gillard joins Q&A”, 11 July 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3263582.htm );
(8) the ABC censored out science -informed comments about gas NOT being “cleaner” by a 5-decade career scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, who subsequently posted the following comment that survived the ABC censor(s): “My carefully researched and documented comment about deficient and incorrect reportage about climate change was CENSORED by the ABC, possibly for mentioning (1) climate change denialism of the Murdoch media in particular in Western Murdochracies (see John Pilger), Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies (see Professor Brian Ellis' "Social Humanism") in which Big Money buys politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality and votes, and (2) misleading advertising by Shell on SBS TV asserting that burning gas is cleaner greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (depending upon the gas leakage rate it can be far dirtier) and that Brazilian biofuel derives from renewable resources (ethanol from sugar cane actually carries a huge carbon debt). I hope that the cessation of these ads was due to my detailed letter of complaint sent to MPs, SBS and other media (Google "Doha climate change inaction", "Are we doomed" and "2011 climate change course")” (see ABC Late Night Live”, Climate, science and denial”, 27 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/climate2c-science-and-denial/4415652 ).
(9) non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut is regularly used by the ABC as an expert on climate change, including his incorrect assertions about gas being cleaner reported thus by the ABC: “Professor Garnaut says initially polluting but trade-exposed businesses which face overseas competition should be compensated - such as the steel or aluminium industries. But he conceded the high-polluting electricity generators of the La Trobe Valley would be hit hard by the tax - but should seize other opportunities and move to gas-fired generation. "Those regions happen to be very good regions for building the lower emissions generation capacity," he said. "As the relative importance of coal declines, the relative importance of gas will rise."If you're going to put in a new gas-fired power station somewhere that has all the infrastructure of the La Trobe Valley is a very good place for that."(see ABC News, “Garnaut backs $20-$30 carbon price” , 17 March 20011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-17/garnaut-backs-20-30-carbon-price/2653950 .
(10) The ABC TV program “The Shitsville Express” had a segment on 17 July 2013 on coal seam gas in which it was repeatedly and incorrectly asserted without any refutation that “gas is cleaner” than coal (see: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/shitsvilleexpress.htm?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_TV-Marketing-Shitsville%20Express|JoeHildebrand_AdWords_:shitsville%20express_e_g_32033308759_&gclid=CLfOz8fkt7gCFasopgod12cASA ).
NB.The following letter was sent on 13 November 2013 to Mainstream media, MPs and many sections of the ABC (it was ignored by the ABC except insofar that shortly afterwards the ABC BLOCKED my posting of science-based opinions on the Saturday Extra website under "GideonPolya"):
Dear Sir/Madam The following letter has been sent to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the incorrect and misleading advertising claim by fossil fuel corporation Chevron on SBS TV that “Natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is”. Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya (contact details).
ACCC [address]
Dear Sir/Madam,
On Thursday 7 November 2013, SBS TV carried an advertisement from fossil fuel corporation Chevron that incorrectly and misleadingly stated “Natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is”. BP, Shell, the Australian Government and the ABC have made similar incorrect and misleading claims.
Methane (CH4), a major constituent of natural gas, leaks and has a global warming potential 105 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. At 2.6% leakage the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect of the leaked CH4 is the same as the GHG effect from burning the remaining 97.4% of the CH4 to yield CO2. Depending upon the systemic leakage (2-8% in the US), gas burning can be much dirtier GHG-wise overall than coal burning.
One can further take issue with the misleading use of the term “conventional”. Thus Scotland, rich in tidal, wave and offshore wind energy, plans to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2020 at which time renewable energy will be “conventional” for energy smart Scotland if not for seriously mislead Australia.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya [contact details].
Gideon Polya, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .
Drew T. Shindell et al , “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”, Science, 30 October 2009: Vol. 326 no. 5953 pp. 716-718: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716 and Drew T. Shindell et al (2009), Fig.2: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5953/716.figures-only .
Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”, Climatic Change, 2011: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/news/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf .
"Gas is not clean energy": https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/home .
“100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/home .
Gideon Polya, “Australia 's Huge Coal, Gas & Iron Ore Exports Threaten Planet”, Countercurrents, 15 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150512.htm .
Gideon Polya, “Why we must divest from fossil fuel corporations to help save the Biosphere and Humanity”, Countercurrents, 9 October 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya091013.htm .
“Divest from fossil fuels”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/divest-from-fossil-fuels .
Gideon Polya, ““Expert witness testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation”, Countercurrents, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm .
"Germany has an electoral system... like Israel". On 21 September 2013 Saturday Extra re “German elections” (presented this day by Dr Norman Swan in the absence of Geraldine Doogue) : http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/german-elections/4965998 . My following comment posted under “GideonPolya” was PUBLISHED: "I was astonished to hear the presenter say that in some respects Germany had an electoral system "like Israel". The reality is utterly otherwise and this incorrect reportage has been added to the website "ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia's BBC)" (Google this title and scroll down to section (A) Incorrect Reportage and thence to "Germany has an electoral system... like Israel") . German is a democracy with one-man-one-vote whereas democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel ensures that of 12 million Palestinians only about 7% (the adults of 1.7 million Palestinian Israelis) are permitted to vote for the government ruling of the former Mandated Palestine plus a largely ethnically cleansed part of Syria, 6 million Palestinians are forbidden to even step foot in their own country and 4.3 million Occupied Palestinians are highly abusively confined with zero human rights in either West Bank ghettos (Bantustans) or in what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp (for details Google "Palestinian Genocide" and "Boycott Apartheid Israel"). ".
“Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”. “Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”. was the title of an interview of Deborah Lipstadt by longtime ABC and Murdoch media employee Phillip Adams broadcast by ABC Late Night Live (“Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”., ABC Late Night Live, 12 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/deborah-lipstadt---the-new-anti-israelism/4876122 ). I posted the following comment on the website under my name “GideonPolya” (other versions of my name are BLOCKED by the ABC, which like the ABC-linked and ABC-promoted, taxpayer-funded web magazine The Conversation, subjects me to extraordinary censorship, blocking and defamation; see: “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ , . "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat , “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ).
No doubt protests from decent Australians led to a sneaky alteration of the title today to "Holocaust denial and the Eichmann trial" but the false and repugnant linkage is still made in the intro: "She [Lipstadt] continues to campaign against Holocaust denial, and what she now perceives as the new anti-Israelism." (see more at: http://newmatilda.com/2013/08/12/defending-right-dissent ).
The ABC insists on publishing these false, obnoxious, highly offensive and defamatory views while Censoring comments defending anti-racist Jews from such egregiously false defamation. Thus I attempted to post the following comment under my name “GideonPolya” (posting comments under “Dr Gideon Polya” and other versions of my name are variously Blocked by the ABC on the Late Night Live website and on other ABC websites) but it was CENSORED out completely by the pro-Zionist, anti-racist-Jew-defaming, Jew-baiting, Jew-defaming ABC - CENSORED COMMENT:: “The title of this interview “Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism”, was a highly offending, linkage (that was not even discussed in the program!) – a large body of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars and writers, informed by “never again to anyone” arising from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and the WW2 European Holocaust of which it was a part (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed) are opposed to the horrendous, continuing crime of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, racist Zionist-run rogue state of Apartheid Israel (Google “Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Palestinian Genocide” and “Boycott Apartheid Israel”)”. END CENSORED COMMENT.
Evidently Blocked from posting by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic ABC, I attempted to post the following comment under the name “Spinoza” (after the great Jewish Dutch philosopher founder of the European Enlightenment) but this too was CENSORED completely by the Jew-baiting ABC that has hit upon the sick and false stratagem of simultaneously falsely defaming anti-racist Jews and then Blocking and Censoring any attempt by anti-racist Jews to defend their reputation. This is what the Jew-baiting ABC evidently does not want its audience to read, know about or think about - CENSORED COMMENT: “Well said, Deborah Lipstadt [another person who posted criticism of the false abuse, to whit linking “holocaust denial “ and “anti-Israelism” as being a “Bridge too far”]. To accuse those critical of Apartheid Israeli actions as anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic is false and defamatory and when such false accusation is made against the numerous , outstanding anti-racist Jewish scholars and writers critical of Apartheid Israeli crimes, the false accusation becomes repugnant anti-Jewish anti-Semitism (for the humane views of outstanding anti-racist Jews and non-Jews opposed to obscene Israeli Apartheid Google “Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”, “Boycott Apartheid Israel” and “Palestinian Genocide”)." END CENSORED COMMENT.
So far my comments have been COMPLETELY CENSORED out, this being consistent with the appalling record of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and -subverted ABC of censoring things that it feels its Masters won’t want the ABC audience to see, hear, read, know about or think about.
However the ABC continues to publish comments here that are false and defamatory of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish Australians, to whit: “To be critical of Israel's actions is indeed to be anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic” and “By the grace of G-d The Land of Israel belongs to The Jewish People. Anyone who denies that is an anti-semite… A gentile who takes even half of a grain of The Land of Israel is guilty of robbery, and violates The Laws of Noah which are incumbent on all Mankind; for gentiles have no connection to The Land of Israel whatsoever.”
For your convenience the links to the quoted sites are: “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ , “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ , “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and “Boycott Apartheid Israel”. https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ , and “ABC Fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit
Criticisms of the ABC broadcast.
1. The title “Holocaust denial and the new anti-Israelism” is a highly offending linkage off repugnant “holocaust denial” and the repugnance o fall decent people in the word for horrendous crimes of Apartheid Israel (indeed this was not even explored in the program!).
2. The continual reference to ”the Holocaust” as a synonym for the WW2 Jewish Holocaust is incorrect and an appalling ignoring of all other holocaust and genocide atrocities e.g. (dates and deaths from violence or violently -imposed deprivation in parentheses) the WW2 European Holocaust (30 million, 1939-1945), WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million, 1942-1945), WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million, 1937-1945), Palestinian Holocaust, Palestinian Genocide (2 million, 1936-), Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million, 1990-), Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide (5.5 million, 2001-), Somali Holocaust and Somali Genocide (2.2 million, 1992-) , Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide (12 million, 1990-) (Google “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
3. I disagree with Professor Deborah Lipstadt’s statement in the interview that ” I’m against laws outlawing holocaust denial” – people should be held to account for false witness and particularly for holocaust denial but in the interests of free speech and unfettered scholarship the only punishment should be the ignominy of public exposure.
4. Lipstadt reveals she was an adviser to Madeline Albright who notoriously stated that the 0.5 million Iraq infant deaths by 1995 were “worth it” (Iraqi under-5 infant deaths since 1990 now total 2 million, evidence of an immense war crime in gross contravention of the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration off Human Rights and the Rights if the Child by the war criminal, racist Zionist-perverted US Alliance).
5. Phillip Adams: “the Jewish legal system, the Israeli system” – this defames anti-racist Jews because there is a huge body of anti-racist Jews who reject the horrendous human rights violations underpinned by the genocidally racist Apartheid Israel legal system.
6. Lipstadt re genocidal war criminal Apartheid Israel hanging genocidal war criminal Adolph Eichmann: “the only person in the history if Israel who has ever had a death sentence carried out” ignores the 2 million Palestinians killed in the Palestinian Genocide and the 12 million Muslims killed in the racist Zionist-backed US War on Muslims.
7. Repeated quotation by Lipstadt of outstanding anti-racist Jewish scholar Hannah Arendt who became a trenchant critic of racist Zionism. Thus Hannah Arendt, in a Letter with Albert Einstein and other scholars decrying Nazi-style Irgun Zionists like Menachaem Begin to the New York Times, 1948: “TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES: Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine…The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal. In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.” (see Letter by Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein and many other signatories to the New York Times, 4 December 1948, “New Palestine Party. Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed”,. a letter to The New York Times, published in the "Books" section (Page 12) of the New York Times, Saturday December 4, 1948: http://www.archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948 ).
8. Phillip Adams: “the Holocaust is now part of the Australian school curriculum”: “the WW2 Jewish Holocaust is in the national School curriculum but not the WW2 European Holocaust (30 million, 1939-1945), WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million, 1942-1945), WW2 Chinese Holocaust (35 million, 1937-1945), Palestinian Holocaust, Palestinian Genocide (2 million, 1936-), Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million, 1990-), Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide (5.5 million, 2001-), Somali Holocaust and Somali Genocide (2.2 million, 1992-) , Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide (12 million, 1990-) (Google “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ), atrocities that were not mentioned in the interview. .
9. Further to point #8, genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial and holocaust denial because the latter at least admit the possibility of public discussion.
10. Lipstadt wants a 2-state solution but ethnic cleaning of 90% of the land of Palestine means that this is now impossible. Israel as a Jewish State (Jewish Israelis are already fewer than 50% of the population of Palestine) means it must continue as a race-based Apartheid state, a situation that decent people throughout the world find utterly repugnant.
11. Lipstadt incorrectly claims that Eichmann was the only person to have been kidnapped by the Israelis - she forgets about Jewish Christian Israeli Benjamin Vanunu (kidnapped in Rome and thence highly abusively and indefinitely imprisoned), 6 Australian kidnapped on successive Gaza Flotillas, scores (hundreds?) of other people kidnapped on Gaza Flotillas, and of course millions of Occupied Palestinians kidnapped in 1967 (now circa 4.3 million Occupied Palestinians highly abusively held under Apartheid Israeli guns).
FINKEL. 2015-11-2 Open Letter to ABC re Major corrections required after Emma Alberici interview with Chief Scientist appointee Dr Alan Finkel.
Major ABC corrections are required after the Emma Alberici interview with Dr Alan Finkel (Emma Alberici “Interview: Dr Alan Finkel, newly-appointed Chief Scientist”, ABC Lateline, 27 October 2015: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4340246.htm ).
Emma Alberici asked exactly the right questions – indeed repeatedly so - but comments by PM Turnbull and Dr Alan Finkel reported in the program transcript require public correction by the ABC.
1. PM Turnbull re Finkel: “Now, Alan Finkel is remarkably qualified for this… He has been a very successful businessman, entrepreneur. He has applied the knowledge that he learned at university. He's applied that knowledge to do extremely well. He's been very successful”.
Reality: The Sydney Morning Herald: “Better Place [for which Alan Finkel was chief technology officer] aimed to supply battery-switching services to what was expected to be a mass roll-out of electric vehicles. It filed for bankruptcy in Israel in 2013 after burning through $US850 million (then worth about $885 million) in private funds” (Jane Lee and Peter Hannam, “Meet Alan Finkel, the man tipped to become Australia’s next Chief Scientist”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 2015: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/meet-alan-finkel-the-man-tipped-to-become-australias-next-chief-scientist-20151026-gkijp4.html ).
2. Dr Finkel re how quickly to zero emissions: “Very slowly. I think we should be aspiring to do it but it would take a long time. And yet, in the 20 or 30 years that we've been investing through subsidies and massively building out our capacity, worldwide solar and wind only contribute about four per cent of our electricity supply. And our electricity supply is only a fraction of our total energy use. It's an accelerating thing. We're building solar and wind at an ever increasing rate, but it will take decades to get to the volume that we need. In the energy industry: scale. It's all about scale. The requirements are just massive… we could see huge changes in the 20- to 30-year timeframe”.
Reality: Expert opinion indicates that it is now very unlikely that we will avoid a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise (for alphabetically-organized compendia of such opinions see “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed and "Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming ). Beyond Zero Emissions engineers detailed a plan for 100% renewable energy for Australia by 2020, top electrical engineer Professor Peter Seligman had a related expert approach, and numerous towns, cities, states, countries and corporations committed to 100% renewable energy by 2020 (for details see “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course , “Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ and “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .
A “20- to 30-year timeframe” means increasing CO2 above the present disastrous 400 ppm CO2 whereas numerous climate scientists and biologists demand a return to 300 ppm CO2 ASAP for a safe planet for all peoples and all species (see 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org and “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ), noting that 7 million people die from air pollution each year, this including 10,000 Australians and 75,000 people killed by pollutants from burning exported Australian coal (see “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths ).
3. Dr Finkel re “Direct Action is best”: “Direct Action can be as effective as many other things. The biggest difference between Direct Action and, say, a carbon tax or a carbon price is where the money comes from. Does it come from general revenue or is it a tithe on the activity? And that is a decision that economists and governments have to make. But on a per dollar basis, Direct Action can be very effective” .
Reality: The Coalition’s Direct Action Policy absurdly rewards polluters for polluting less (cf paying rapists to rape less etc), involves setting a Carbon Price of circa $0 /t CO2-e rather than the damage-related US$200/t CO2-e demanded by top climate economist Dr Chris Hope of 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University, and as climate change inaction is intergenerational theft by generating an enormous Carbon Debt to be inescapably paid by future generations (see Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp1109.pdf ).
Assuming a damage-related Carbon Price in USD of $200 per tonne CO2-e as estimated by Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University, the World has a Carbon Debt of $360 trillion that is increasing at $13 trillion per year. Australia has a Carbon Debt of $7.5 trillion that is increasing at $400 billion per year and at $40,000 per head per year for under-30 year old Australians (see “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ , “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice and “Science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed NOT Carbon Trading”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading/ ).
4. Dr Finkel re nuclear power: “ I think that there's no doubt that, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear is fantastic. It's right up there with solar and wind as a near-zero emissions technology”.
Reality: In a carbon economy the overall nuclear cycle from mining the uranium ore and building the power station to disposal of waste and decommissioning the power plant involves massive CO2 pollution and indeed a modern conventional nuclear power station based on use of low grade uranium ores can be as dirty greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise as a modern combined cycle gas-fired power station. Thus Dr Mark Diesendorf (theoretical physicist and energy analyst , Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales) : “The CO2 emissions from the nuclear fuel cycle are only small when high-grade uranium ore is used. But there are very limited reserves of high-grade uranium in the world and most are in Australia and Canada. As these are used up over the next several decades, low-grade uranium ore (comprising 0.01 per cent or less yellowcake) will have to be used. This means that to obtain 1kg of yellowcake, at least 10 tonnes of ore will have to be mined and milled, using fossil fuels and emitting substantial quantities of CO2. These emissions are comparable with those from a combined cycle gas-fired power station” ( Mark Diesendorf, “Nuclear power: not green, clean or cheap”, On-line opinion, 16 June 2006: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4581 ) .
In this matter Emma Alberici has done her job brilliantly as an informed and incisive interviewer and I have done my job in responding as a 5-decade career scientist and responsible Australian citizen. What is the ABC going to do about this?
Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya (300.org; [contact details]).
PS. This is just the tip of the Mainstream –ignored iceberg in look-the-other-way Australia - see Gideon Polya, “Coalition Climate Crimes & 200 Reasons Why Australia Must Dump Pro-coal, Pro-war Coalition PM Malcolm Turnbull”, Countercurrents, 1 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya011115.htm .
“Illegal arrivals” (egregiously incorrect Coalition description of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat). Thus, for example, this exchange between Naomi Woodley (ABC( and Tony Abbott (Coalition Opposition leader) : “NAOMI WOODLEY: After repeatedly pursuing Mr Shorten, the Opposition abruptly changed tack - to the Prime Minister's pledge in 2010 to deliver strong management of Australia's borders. TONY ABBOTT: After 42,000 illegal arrivals on over 700 boats, does she believe that she has delivered on that commitment?” (see Naomi Woodley, “Asbestos claims dominate question tome”, ABC News, 3 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-03/asbestos-claims-dominate-question-time/4730514 ). Professor Jane McAdam (scientia professor of law at the University of New South Wales) states: “For these reasons, the Refugee Convention prohibits countries from imposing penalties on asylum seekers who enter without a passport or visa. Indeed, in some cases arrival without documentation may in fact help to demonstrate that a refugee claim is compelling and credible. Article 31 is one of the most fundamental elements of the Refugee Convention precisely because it underscores the right of people in distress to seek protection – even if their actions constitute a breach of a country's domestic immigration laws. Indeed, even the two international treaties on human trafficking and smuggling both make clear that being a victim of trafficking or smuggling must not negatively affect a person's right to claim asylum and receive protection. The opposition's use of the term "illegal" is designed to tarnish people's perceptions about the legitimacy of asylum seekers' claims. It is language that dehumanises and criminalises. Invoking it is either ignorant or deliberately mischievous, since the act of seeking asylum is not a crime, but the right of every individual” (Jane McAdam, “Use of term “illegal’ is ignorant or mischievous”, Sydney Morning Herald National Times, 23 April 2013: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/use-of-term-illegal-is-ignorant-or-mischievous-20130423-2ibqv.html . Searches of the ABC News and of the "entire ABC site" for the term “illegal arrivals” yield 61 and 165 results, respectively (see also Muslim refugees and Refugees).
"Israel is a democracy" (an egregiously false assertion). The frequent assertion by the ABC and SBS that “Israel is a democracy” is utterly false because democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel determines that (a) of about 12 million Palestinians only 6.7%, the adults of 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis, are able to vote for the government ruling all of Palestine i.e. ruling 5.8 million Indigenous Palestinians (including 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis liviing under Apartheid laws and and 4.2 million Occupied Palestinians with zero human rights) , 0.4 million non-Indigenous, non- Jewish Israelis, and a minority of 5.8 million Jewish Israelis (ranging from atheists to anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews) and (b) 50% of about 12 million Palestinians are forbidden to even step foot in their own country (see “Palestinian Genocide” https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
Indeed one notes that the Aung San Suu Kyi's National Democracy League has only 42/664 = 6.3% of the seats in the 2 Houses of the Myanmar Parliament despite overwhelming popular support confirmed in the recent by-elections in which Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won 40 of the 45 seats contested(see Gideon Polya, “Comparing Burma and Apartheid Israel”, MWC News, 4 April 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/18002-burma-israel.html ).
However the ABC has repeatedly broadcast this false claim that "Israel is a democracy"as documented below.
(1) the ABC reports this false claim by Apartheid Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asserting that “Israel is a democracy and does not threaten anyone. The only thing we have tried to do is to live without threats of terror, but we've never threatened anyone with annihilation. And can you say this in the same level while Iran is aspiring to have nuclear weapons, like America, like France, like Israel and Russia” (David Haraker, “”Israeli PM admits to nuclear weapons”, ABC AM, 12 December 2006: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1809421.htm );
(2) the ABC quotes this false claim by Jewish Israeli atheist Yoram Kaniuk saying “Politically Israel is a democracy but I think that my case now will make a crack and it will open because people are waiting to separate the Jewish religion from the Jewish people” (Anne Barker, “Israeli court separates church from state”, The World Today, 11 October 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3336673.htm );
(3) the ABC quotes this false claim by former PM John Howard (responsible for the illegal, war criminal Australian invasion of Iraq that led to 2.5 million Iraqi deaths) stating: “I do take issue with you in comparing the regime in Iraq with the Government of Israel. Israel is a democracy. Whatever may be said about Israel, Israel has elections, Israel has courts, Israel has a vigorous free press” (see Catherine McGrath, “Parliamentary debate on Iraq heats up”, ABC PM, 18 September 2002: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s679726.htm ;
(4) the ABC quotes this false claim by Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, on the Fox News Network: “Israel is a democracy. Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself - not to be investigated by any international board. I don't think the United States would want an international enquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan for example” (see Brendan Trembath, “Israel rejects call for international inquiry”, ABC The World Today, 7 June 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2920270.htm ):
(5) the ABC quotes this false claim by Yuval Rabin (son of assassinated Apartheid Israel PM Yitzhak Rabin) saying “Israel is a democracy and people have to be voted in or elected based on their own abilities and merits, and not in any way leverage my father's memory to their benefit” (see .Eleanor Hall, “Rabin’s promise of peace remembered, ten year on”, ABC The World Today, 22 November 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1514203.htm );
(6) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right wing Murdoch Empire journalist Greg Sheridan: “Israel is a struggling democracy which makes mistakes, including moral mistakes, and deserves to be called on them but no country in the world is subject to this attack at the root of its legitimacy that it should not exist. I spent a lot of time in the Middle East, a lot of time in Muslim countries. There is no country in the Middle East which better observes human rights of all its citizens than Israel” (see ABC TV, Q&A, “Protests and Palestine”, 17 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3585292.htm );
(7) the ABC quotes this false claim by the war–criminal Apartheid Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: “Israel is a democracy. Israel doesn't threaten any country with anything” (David Hardaker, “Israeli nuclear whistleblower demands freedom”, ABC AM, 13 December 2006: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1810380.htm );
(8) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right wing US President, war criminal and mass murderer George W Bush in a speech to the traitorous, genocidally racist American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) : "Unfolding violence in the Gaza strip is troubling… The US is strongly committed and I am strongly committed to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state. Israel is a democracy and a friend and have every right to defend itself from terror” (see ABC News, “Israelis sweep through Gaza camp”, 19 May 2004: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-05-19/israelis-sweep-through-gaza-camp/1977984 );
(9) the ABC quotes this false claim by an egregiously lying spokesman for the Apartheid Israeli Foreign Ministry (noting that an anagram for ISRAEL is e-LIARS) saying that Apartheid Israel is "a democracy in which human rights is at the very heart of the body politique” (ABC News, “UN envoy accuses Israel of stifling human rights”, 12 October 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-12/un-envoy-accuses-israel-of-stifling-human-rights/2122726 );
(10) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right-wing, pro-Zionist propagandist Daniel Pipes in the following exchange: “HANIFA DEEN: I don't see Israel as a model of democracy for what's happened recently. No, I do not see that at all. But I think that through a whole process of education, through a whole spontaneous process of social media, people moving backwards and forwards before their countries, people just got fed up with issues, domestic issues, unemployment, rising costs et cetera, and, yes, looking around and saying "It can improve. We can do better," and that is the hope and optimism that they've brought with them. But I really don't believe that Israel was the ideal model or a model of democracy for those countries. DANIEL PIPES: Among the liberals it certainly is. Among the people in Tahrir Square, the model of Israel: economic growth, creativity, musical achievement, military prowess, this is a very powerful model. HANIFA DEEN: It sounds like bit of a fairytale to me” (ABC TV Q&A, “Israel, Islam and insurgents”, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3294021.htm ); and
(11) the ABC quotes this incorrect claim by Australian Zionist Ted Lapkin (Director of Policy Analysis at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council and media consultant for the Jewish National Fund of Australia) : “Israel is a democracy, it provides democratic rights to all its citizens” (see “Apartheid Israel?”, ABC Religion Report, 8 June 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/apartheid-israel/3442902#transcript ).
“Jewish state”. This is an egregiously false, racist and highly offensive phrase that is routinely used by Mainstream media including the ABC and the SBS. Searches of the ABC News and the “entire ABC site” for the phrase “Jewish state” yield 657 and 1,031 results, respectively. In the geographical entity ruled by Apartheid Israel (formerly Mandated Palestine plus the largely ethnically cleansed Syrian Golan Heights) there are currently about 6.0 million Jewish Israelis, 1.7 million Palestinian Israelis, 0.2 million non-Jewish non-Arab Israelis (see “Israel”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel ), 2.6 million West Bank Occupied Palestinians (see “West Bank”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank ) and 1.7 million Gaza Strip Occupied Palestinians (see “Gaza Strip”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip ) i.e. the Jewish population of 6 million is 6.0 million x 100/12.2 million = 49.2% of the population while the Palestinian population is also 6.0 million x 100/12.2 million = 49.2% of the population. If we include the roughly 6 million Palestinians forbidden by genocidally racist, Zionist-run Apartheid Israel to even step foot in their own country, the Jewish population is 6.0 x100/18.2 million = 33% of the population and the Indigenous Palestinian population is 12.0 x100/18.2 million = 66% of the population. Of course back in 1880 before the genocidal racist Zionist colonization of Palestine there were about 0.5 million Arab Palestinians and only about 25,000 Jews of whom about 50% were immigrants (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
“Keep Australia safe” from “terrorists” is a repeated boast of successive Australia Governments to justify invading and occupying other countries. Thus this ABC report “LEIGH SALES: The spectre of global cyber wars, the rise of China, and the outbreak of Islamist terror have been invoked by the Prime Minister today in a landmark speech on security strategy.Julia Gillard has pledged to keep Australia safe”, Unfortunately the reality is otherwise. Thus it has been estimated that the long-term accrual cost to Australia of the US War on Terror is $125 billion (Gideon Polya, “Endless War on Terror. Huge cost for Australia & America”, MWC News, 14 October 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22149-endless-war-on-terror.html ) yet 66,000 Australians die preventably each year (9,000 being Indigenous Australians) linked to the obscene fiscal perversion of mass killing of Muslims abroad rather than keeping Australians alive at home (see Gideon Polya, “Why PM Julia Gillard must go: 66,000 preventable Australian deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 21 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210212.htm ).
“Keeping Australia safe” from “terrorists” is a repeated claim of successive Australia Governments to justify invading and occupying other countries. Thus this White House statement reported by the ABC after the defeat of warmonger Howard in the November 2007 elections “Mr Howard served the people of Australia well by pursuing policies that led to strong economic growth and a commitment to keeping Australians safe by fighting extremists and their ideology around the world," the White House said.” (ABC News, “International leaders congratulate Rudd, laud Howard”, 25 November 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-11-25/international-leaders-congratulate-rudd-laud-howard/967704 ). The reality is otherwise. This it has been estimated that the long-term accrual cost to Australia of the US War on Terror is $125 billion (Gideon Polya, “Endless War on Terror. Huge cost for Australia & America”, MWC News, 14 October 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22149-endless-war-on-terror.html ) yet 66,000 Australians die preventably each year (9,000 being Indigenous Australians) linked to the obscene fiscal perversion of mass killing of Muslims abroad rather than keeping Australians alive at home (see Gideon Polya, “Why PM Julia Gillard must go: 66,000 preventable Australian deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 21 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210212.htm ).
“Less means more”. The neocon-perverted ABC reaches its pinnacle of uncorrected false reportage with this sort of Orwellian swill. Several examples below:
(1). “Tackling climate change”, a repeated boast of the pro-coal, pro-gas Gillard and Rudd Labor Governments, involves decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and not increasing it. However modeling reported in the Treasury Report “Strong Growth, Low Pollution” revealed that under Labor’s Carbon Tax-ETS Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution would rise from 578 Mt CO2-e in 2010 to 679 Mt CO2-e in 2020 (Table 5.1, p86) , this meaning that Australia could only meet its “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” by purchasing circa 100 Mt CO2-e of Carbon Credits overseas (e.g. from Africa or South East Asia) . Indeed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott raised this crucial matter in Question Time in Parliament (see Gideon Polya, “Australian ABC Lies About Key Climate Emergency Issues”, Countercurrents, 5 September 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050911.htm _.
However a search of “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for the phrase “Strong Growth Low Pollution” yields only 1 and 2 results, respectively. The ABC News result simply quotes and links to the Treasury report (see: http://cache.treasury.gov.au/treasury/carbonpricemodelling/content/report/downloads/Modelling_Report_Consolidated.pdf ) and simply states “Treasury modelling suggests abatement from outside Australia will be the biggest source of emission reductions under the Federal Government's carbon pricing plan. Source: Treasury estimates (2011); graph reproduced from the Treasury document Strong Growth, Low Pollution “( “Carbon pricing: Where will emissions be cut?” ABC News, 13 July 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-13/2793190 ). Of the 2 results, from a search of the “entire ABC site” was the same ABC News item “Carbon pricing: Where will emissions be cut?” ABC News, 13 July 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-13/2793190 , and th other was a comment by Dr Gideon Polya on an item of Saturday Extra, to whit: “Missing from this otherwise excellent program was any mention of (1) water and house heating, (2) carbon burning-related deaths, economies of scale, fossil fuel subsidies and the "true" price of coal-based power, and (3) the appalling ineffectiveness of the Carbon Tax-ETS scheme…3. It was estimated by Treasury's 2011 "Strong Growth, Low Pollution" report that Australia's Domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution under the Carbon Tax-ETS will INCREASE from 578 Mt CO2-e in 2010 to 621 Mt CO2-e in 2020 under the grossly deceptive pro-coal, pro-gas Labor Carbon Tax-ETS scheme. Treasury, ABARE and US EIA data indicate that Australia's Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution in Mt CO2-e (millions of tonnes of CO2-equivalent) will be 2,571 in 2020 as compared to 1,708 in 2010 and 1,182 in 2000. "Tackling climate change" for a "clean energy future" surely means DECREASING GHG pollution. Australia is being grossly deceived” (“Energy price increases and energy choices”, Saturday Extra, 16 June 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/energy-price-increases-and-consumer-choices/4073746 ).
The Australian ABC (the taxpayer-funded Australian equivalent of the taxpayer-funded UK BBC) reported the following key question made by Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party-National Party Coalition opposition in the Federal Parliament House of Representatives Question Time. The report of this crucial question was buried in an ABC report about the current Australian union-funds-for prostitutes scandal entitled “PM stands by MP as Opposition ramps up pressure on Thomson”, ABC Radio National, PM, 17 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3295729.htm . Quote: “TONY ABBOTT: Under the carbon tax Australia 's emissions will rise from 578 million tonnes now, to 621 million tonnes in 2020. (Rumbling objections amongst the MPs) And I ask- and I ask- and I ask the Prime Minister, what is the point of a carbon tax if it doesn't get Australia 's own domestic emissions down?” End quote. Yet a search of “the entire ABC site” for “621 million” reveals only ONE (1) item reporting this crucial question, specifically that quoted above.
(2) The ABC News reported without comment as follows on PM Kevin Rudd’s climate change position in the Rudd-Abbott debate (11 August 2013): “Mr Rudd defended the Government's decision to scrap the carbon tax and move to an emissions trading scheme [ETS] earlier than planned in a bid to prevent changes to the climate: “Climate change is central to Australia's future. I spoke before about the need for a new way to embrace the challenges of the future. Let me tell you climate change is there front and centre and we will be doing a disservice to our kids and our grandkids if we do not act. We therefore have no alternative but to act collaboratively with the rest of the world. I've announced the abolition of the carbon tax. That would bring down the price from $26 a tonne to $6 a tonne. That's a fact, people just need to be aware of that” (ABC News, “Federal election: Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott make their case in the first leaders’ debate”, ABC News, 11 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-11/leaders-debate-the-key-issues/4879086 ).
This is an egregious case of “less means more”. Thus The Australian Carbon Price based on fossil fuel subsidies and carbon burning-related deaths is about $150 per tonne CO2-e - a risk avoidance-based estimate of $7.6 million for the value of a statistical life, Australian annual subsidies of $11 billion for fossil fuel burning, 9,600 annual Australian carbon pollution-related deaths and Australia’s annual Domestic GHG pollution (2009) of 552 million tonnes CO2-e yields a Carbon Price of $7.6 million x 9,600 annual deaths = $73 billion + $11 billion = $84 billion / 552 million tonnes CO2-e = $152/tonne CO2-e ( = $562 /tonne C) (Gideon Polya, “Australian carbon burning-related deaths and carbon burning subsidies => minimum Carbon Price of A$562 per tonne carbon (C) or A$152 per tonne CO2-e ”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning and. Section E, “2011 Climate Change Course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ). Dr Chris Hope (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK) has estimated that a Carbon Price of $150 per tonne CO2-e is required for effective climate change action (Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/research/working_papers/2011/wp1109.pdf ).
"Less things" versus "Fewer things", "Less people" versus "Fewer people". There is a maddening abuse of "less " and "fewer" by the ABC. One can correctly say "Fewer people drink beer" [i.e. a smaller NUMBER of people drink beer] and "People drink less beer" [i.e. people drink a smaller AMOUNT of beer] but it is incorrect to say " Less people drink beer" and "People drink fewer beer". Thus a search of "ABC News" and the entire ABC site" for "less people" yields 281 and 910 results, respectively. A search of "ABC News" and "the entire ABC site" for the usage "fewer people" yields 439 results and 1,452 results, respectively, noting however that in many instances the incorrect usage is by ABC listeners posting comments and in many cases there may be correct as well as incorrect usage e.g. "Electoral gerrymanders mean rural seats where there are less people [incorrect] can be won with far fewer votes [correct[ than those in the urban centres which are pro-opposition (see “Malaysians go to the polls”, ABC News, 5 May 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-05/malaysians-go-to-the-polls/4670082 ).
"Mad monk", "misogynist"re Tony Abbott. Tony Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition. A search of the entire ABC site for the term “mad monk” yields 104 results (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?form=simple&num_ranks=20&collection=abcall_meta&query=%22mad%20monk%22&start_rank=101 ) whereas it is clear that Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott to whom this rhetorical abuse refers is neither a monk nor mad. A search of the entire ABC sites for the phrase “Abbot is a misogynist ” yields 15 results (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?query=%22Abbott%20is%20a%20misogynist%22%20&sort=&collection=abcall_meta&form=simple&start_rank=11 ) whereas it is clear that Tony Abbott is not a misogynist.
"Methane ... that's not carbon". This extraordinary anmd incorrect assertion was made by ABC compere Tony Jones in a recent debate between leading Australian climate economist Professor Ross Garnaut (who advocated action by a Carbon Tax and an Emission Trading Scheme as implemented by the previous Labor Government) and Independent MP Clive Palmer (a mining billionaire who has just been given the green light for a massive new coal mine and a rail-linked port dangerously impinging on Australia's iconic, World Heritage-listed but critically endangered Great Barrier Reef). Non-scientist ABC journalist Tony Jones (who evidently accepts the Garnaut and Labor position ) compered this debate on climate change action between non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut and non-scientist mining billionaire Clive Palmer (“Live from Perth : Ross Garnaut and Clive Palmer”, ABC TV, Lateline, 3 April 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2014/s3978099.htm ). .
EXCHANGE . "CLIVE PALMER: Well we should show leadership. The fact of the matter is we want to reduce carbon. 100 per cent of the carbon, 97 per cent of its from nature. If we reduce it by 20 per cent from industry, that's about 0.6 per cent of the 100 per cent overall because industry's only three per cent, so why don't we try to get a 0.6 per cent reduction of carbon from all sources of carbon? In New Zealand , they've got a fart tax because sheep give out the most methane. They've introduced things like that ...
TONY JONES: Yeah, that's not - well that's not carbon, that's methane."
Crtitique (for detailed documentation see Gideon Polya, "Terracidal climate change inaction", Countercurrents, 6 April 2014:
Non-scientist compere Tony Jones was utterly WRONG in absurdly stating “That's not carbon, that's methane”. The carbon compound methane (CH4) is a major, naturally-occurring greenhouse gas and derives from anaerobic degradation of biological material e.g. in swamps, waste dumps, and livestock digestion : (CH2O)n + 4H (derived from reduced coenzymes) -> nCH4 + nH2O or, overall: 2(CH2O)n -> nCH4 + n CO2. Global warming is already releasing CH4 from thawing H2O-CH4 clathrates in the tundra and in shallow parts of the Arctic Ocean . CH4 is the major constituent of natural gas and fugitive CH4 emissions occur from coal mines, coal seam gas (CSG) extraction, conventional natural gas extraction, from coal seam and shale fracking and from systemic gas reticulation leakage. It is estimated that 50 Gt CH4 will be released from the Arctic Ocean sea bed in coming decades [25]. From a global warming and greenhouse gas pollution perspective, methane is not just a carbon compound but the worst such naturally-occurring compound in terms of Global Warming Potential, (GWP). The GWP of CH4 on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts considered is 105 times that of CO2 [1, 21, 22]. The German WBGU (2009) and the Australian Climate Commission (2013) have estimated that no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 can be emitted between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise [1, 3, 8]. The 50 Gt (billion tonnes) CH4 expected to be released from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf in coming decades is thus equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes CO2-equivalent/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-e or about nine (9) times more than the world's Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget. We are doomed unless we can stop this Arctic CH4 release [3]. In the public arguments in Australia and elsewhere about what an effective Carbon Price should be, the Carbon Price is expressed in terms of dollars per tonne CO2-equivalent (CO2-e), noting that CO2-e expresses total greenhouse gases (mainly CO2 and CH4) as CO2 equivalents.
“Murdoch owns 70 percent of Australian newspapers”: This is a common but imprecise assertion by the ABC coming in various forms e.g. “The Murdoch press - which owns almost 70 per cent of Australia's capital city newspaper market” (see “Murdoch press a threat to democracy:Cameron”, ABC News, 3 November 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-03/cameron-launches-attack-on-news-ltd/3616902 ); “News Ltd owning 70 per cent of Australia's newspapers” (see “Conroy defends media inquiry”, ABC News, 15 September 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-15/conroy-defends-media-enquiry/2900142 ); “Murdoch .. the man who owns 70 per cent of Australia's newspapers” (see “Murdoch blasts ABC’s global “didgeridoos” plan”, ABC News, 9 November 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-11-09/murdoch-blasts-abcs-global-didgeridoos-plan/1134900 ).
In reality, according to the Fact-checking of The Conversation (a taxpayer-funded, universities-backed, academic-based web magazine albeit with an appalling record of censorship and malreportage ) : “In a rebuttal of Kevin Rudd’s claim, Sally Jackson from The Australian observed that News Corp Australia accounts for 33% of the newspaper titles that have sales audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation… News Corp Australia titles account for 59% of the sales of all daily newspapers, with sales of 17.3 million papers a week … as academic Matthew Ricketson pointed out in The Conversation’s media panel blog, it owns 14 of our 21 metro daily and Sunday newspapers [i.e 67% or about 70]) … the claim that Rupert Murdoch or News Corp Australia own 70% of Australian newspapers is factually incorrect… The most recent IBIS World Industry Report on Newspaper Publishing in Australia (July 2013) finds that News Australia has a 42.3% marketshare, with the company’s daily and Sunday newspapers accounting for approximately two-thirds of all daily (including Sunday) newspapers sold in Australia ” (see “FactCheck: does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in Australia?”, The Conversation, 8 August 2013: http://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-murdoch-own-70-of-newspapers-in-australia-16812 .
True to its appalling malreportage tradition, The Conversation on its own data is correct in precise detail but incorrect in science-based essence – the Murdoch empire “owns 14 of our 21 metro daily and Sunday newspapers” i.e. 66.7% of the urban newspapers that count politically or when “rounded up” about 70%. I was unable to comment about this on The Conversation because I have been successively blocked from signing in as “Dr Gideon Polya” or via Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In (see “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ). I am informing people around the world about instiitutions linked to academic censorship by The Conversation e.g. see Gideon Polya, “Academic censorship: why you should NOT study at the University of Melbourne”, Bellaciao, 5 November 2012: http://http.bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article22283.
"Osama bin Laden killed in 2011". The ABC continues to report this US story that is contradicted by the expert testimony of the late Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto (ABC presstitutes know more about Pakistan affairs than Benazir Bhutto?) and by top US journalist Seymour Hersh who says of the official US story "" it’s one big lie, not one word of it is true" (ABC presstitutes have greater credibility than Seymour Hersh?).
On 2 November 2007 Benazir Bhutto was interviewed by Sir David Frost at Al Jazeera shortly before her murder on 27 December 2007. In this interview she said: "And he had also dealings with Omar Sheik, the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden." The same interview was published on the BBC website, but that key sentence was removed. Here is the transcript of this key passage: “Frost: In terms of the three people you mentioned - were they members of or associated with the government? Bhutto: Yes well one of them is a very key figure in security, a former military officer. He's someone who has had dealings with ?? Mohammed, one of the band groups and Mohammed Assar, who was in an Indian jail for decapitating three British tourists and three American tourists. And he had also dealings with Omar Sheik, the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden” (see “BBC censors interview with Benazir Bhutto: … “the man who murdered Osama bin Laden” (2 versions)”: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3468310105875718252 ; also “BBC censors Bhutto Frost interview (Bin Laden murdered)”, YouTube, 31 December 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGAOH_E3aQQ .
The BBC censorship of the Benazir Bhutto interview was reported by other people, notably by Len Hart of The Existentialist Cowboy (2007): “When a news organization as venerable as the BBC censors the reportage of a story as important as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto --a highly visible critic of Bush/British policy with regard to the "War on Terrorism" --it is fair to ask: who is the BBC protecting? Are they covering up a motive for her murder? Are they protecting the regimes that engineered her assassination?” (see Len Hart, “BBC censors Benazir Bhuttos’s reports that Osama bin Laden had been murdered”, The Existentialist Cowboy, 30 December 2007: http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/bbc-censored-benazir-bhuttos-reports.html ).
Pravda (Moscow) reported the Frost –Bhutto interview thus (2008): “Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack at the end of 2007 stated in November that the Osama bin Laden, the head of the international terrorist network al-Qaida, had been killed. Bhutto claimed that she even knew the man who had killed the prime suspect of 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA. According to Bhutto’s words, Bin Laden was killed by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh – one of those convicted of kidnapping and killing U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. Bhutto released that statement on November 2, 2007 in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV channel. Bhutto spoke in English in the program titled Frost Over the World. However, no one paid any attention to her words. Speaking about the enemies, who did not wish to see her back in Pakistan, she said: “Omar Sheikh is the man who murdered Osama bin Laden” (see “Benazir Bhutto named Osama bin Laden’s killer before her death”, Pravda, 15 January 2008: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/15-01-2008/103426-benazir_bhutto_osama-0/ ).
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is a British-born and British-educated spy with links to jihadists, Pakistani ISI, British MI6 and the US CIA. He is in prison in Pakistan over the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl. According to Wikipedia: “Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in his book “In the Line of Fire”, stated that Sheikh was originally recruited by British intelligence agency, MI6, while studying at the London School of Economics. He alleges Omar Sheikh was sent to the Balkans by MI6 to engage in jihadi operations. Musharraf later went on to state, "At some point, he probably became a rogue or double agent"” (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Omar_Saeed_Sheikh ).
The BBC and indeed Western media in general have censored out the statement by Benazir Bhutto about “Omar Sheik, the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden”. We are all told the "US official story" that Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the 9-11 atrocity, was killed in Pakistan on 2 May 2012 by US forces operating under orders from Barack Obama and his body (conveniently) disposed of at sea (see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden ).
Numerous science engineering, aviation, architecture, military and intelligence experts assert that the US Government was involved in the 9-11 atrocity, with some experts suggesting Apartheid Israeli involvement as well (for numerous such expert opinions see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/).
POSTSCRIPT: Top US journalist Seymour Hersh says of the alleged killing of Osama bin Laden in 2012 by US Navy Seals: " it’s one big lie, not one word of it is true'
Seymour Hersh according to Wikipedia: “Seymour (Sy) Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. He has also won two National Magazine Awards and is a "five-time Polk winner and recipient of the 2004 George Orwell Award. He first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US military's mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh ).
Seymour Hersh on press complicity in the post-9-11 overthrow of democratically accountable American government (2011) : “And so, I did know people in that process, and I couldn't write much about it. How to describe the Bush-Cheney years would be... I was telling a group of faculty people earlier -- and the book I'm doing isn't published, I don't want to talk too much about it -- but just to give you an idea of how differently they thought... As many dark thoughts as you may have about what America did after 9/11, whatever the justification was... I would argue that, what I'm really writing about is, about how eight or nine neoconservative whackos, if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over. And it's not only that. It's not only that the neocons took it over, it's how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced. And all of us, I guess, in the sense of payback and rage and fear, tremendous amount of fear in America, and we all sort of signed on to what we call now the global GWOT, the global war on terror which, for this government, [inaudible] still exists.” [1].
Pourdastan.
Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan ( commander of ground forces in the Iranian army has repeatedly stated that the US did 9-11 as an excuse for invasion of the Muslim world by US forces.
However a Search of the BBC on 11 September 2015 for “pourdastan” yielded zero (0) results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=%22pourdastan%22 and a search of the ABC (Australia’s equivalent of the BBC) for “pourdastan” similarly yielded zero (0) results: http://search.abc.net.au/s/search.html?query=%22pourdastan%22&collection=abcall_meta&form=simple .
The cowardly, craven, unethical, Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-subverted BBC (and ABC) evidently think that this extremely significant opinion should not be seen, read or thought about by its audience.
Below are samples of how other media have reported General Pourdastan’s recently reiterated opinion:
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reporting Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan (commander of ground forces in the Iranian army) in a television interview on Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on April 19, 2015: “Ahmad Reza Pourdestan: These wars [in the Middle East] and these threats stem from a comprehensive American strategy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialize, namely, the union between Sunnis and Shiites. The basis of this force was the blessed Islamic Revolution in Iran. This force is Islam, or the Islamic world. In order to prevent this force from materializing, the Americans did many things. The first thing they did was to plan and carry out the events of 9/11, in order to justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it” ( “Iranian General Ahmad Reza Pourdestan Discusses Possible Terror Attacks in Saudi Cities, Adds: U.S. behind 9/11”, The Middle East Media Research Institute, 19 April 2015: http://www.memri.org/clip_transcript/en/4881.htm ).
Nick Gass on “Politico” reporting Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan (commander of ground forces in the Iranian army) in a television interview on Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on April 19, 2015: “These wars and these threats stem from a comprehensive American strategy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialize, namely the union between Sunnis and Shiites. “The basis of this force was the blessed Islamic Revolution in Iran. This force is Islam, or the Islamic world. In order to prevent this force from materializing, the Americans did many things. “The first thing they did was to plan and carry out the events of 9/11, in order to justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it,”(Nick Gass, “Top Iranian general: US was behind 9/11 attacks”, Politico, 27 April 2015: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/iranian-general-us-behind-9-11-117385 ).
“Islam Times” reporting Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan (commander of ground forces in the Iranian army) in a television interview on Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on April 19, 2015: “These wars and these threats stem from a comprehensive American strategy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialize, namely the union between Sunnis and Shiites. The basis of this force was the blessed Islamic Revolution in Iran. This force is Islam, or the Islamic world. In order to prevent this force from materializing, the Americans did many things. The first thing they did was to plan and carry out the events of 9/11, in order to justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it” (“Top Iranian general: America was behind 9-11 attacks”, Islam Times, 29 April 2015: http://www.islamtimes.org/en/doc/news/457260 ).
American Free Press reporting Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan ( commander of ground forces in the Iranian army) in a television interview on Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on April 19, 2015: “[US Middle East wars arise] from a comprehensive American strategy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialize, namely the union between Sunnis and Shiites. This force is Islam, or the Islamic world. In order to prevent this force from materializing, the Americans did many things. . . . The first thing they did was to plan and carry out the events of 9-11, in order to justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it” (see Ronald L. Ray, “Iranian general insists US did 9-11”, American Free Press, 16 May 2015: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=24511 ).
The Independent (UK) reporting Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan ( commander of ground forces in the Iranian army) in a television interview on Iran’s Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, on April 19, 2015: "These wars in the middle [east] and these threats stem from a comprehensive American strategy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Americans felt that a new force was beginning to materialise, namely the union between Sunnis and Shias. The basis of this force was the blessed Islamic Revolution in Iran, this force is Islam, or the Islamic world. The first thing they did was to plan and carry out the events of 9/11, in order to justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it" (see Kashmira Gander, “9-11: Iranian general accuses US of organizing September 11 terror attacks”, The Independent, 27 April 2015: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/911-iranian-general-accuses-us-of-organising-september-11-terror-attacks-10206942.html ).
Seymour Hersh on the US Navy Seals raid in 2012 that allegedly killed Osama bin Laden (2013): “Nothing’s been done about that story, it’s one big lie, not one word of it is true.” [2, 3].
Seymour Hersh on US journalism (2013): “Do you think Obama’s been judged by any rational standards? Has Guantanamo closed? Is a war over? Is anyone paying any attention to Iraq? Is he seriously talking about going into Syria? We are not doing so well in the 80 wars we are in right now, what the hell does he want to go into another one for. What’s going on [with journalists]?... Too much of it seems to me is looking for prizes. It’s journalism looking for the Pulitzer Prize. It’s a packaged journalism, so you pick a target like – I don’t mean to diminish because anyone who does it works hard – but are railway crossings safe and stuff like that, that’s a serious issue but there are other issues too. Like killing people, how does [Obama] get away with the drone programme, why aren’t we doing more? How does he justify it? What’s the intelligence? Why don’t we find out how good or bad this policy is? Why do newspapers constantly cite the two or three groups that monitor drone killings. Why don’t we do our own work?” [3]
[1]. Seymour Hersh, “Transcript: “The Obama/Bush foreign policies: why can’t America change?””, Foreign Policy, 22 January 2011: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/22/transcript_the_obamabush_foreign_policies_why_cant_america_change?page=0,0 .
[2]. Lisa O’Carroll, “Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the “pathetic” American media”, Guardian, 27 September 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media
[3]. Lisa O’Carroll, “Seymour Hersh on the death of Osama bin Laden: “It’s one big lie, not a word of it is true’””, Guardian, 27 September 2013 via The Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/27/seymour-hersh-on-death-of-osama-bin-laden-its-one-big-lie-not-one-word-of-it-is-true/ .
"Renewable ethanol". Huge wealth disparities have meant that our democracies have become anti-science Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money determines “truth” and “reality”. No better example is the use of the term “renewable ethanol” by fossil fuel corporations and Mainstream media despite the reality from a science-based perspective that “renewable ethanol” is a blatant lie because no matter the source of the biological feedstock for bio-ethanol production, the CO2 generated and energy used from producing bio-ethanol are always greater than the CO2 generated and the energy obtained from burning the bio-ethanol. (see Gideon Polya , “Exposing the greenwash falsehood of “renewable ethanol””, Countercurrents, 19 April 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190414.htm ). The Australian ABC is Australia 's equivalent of the UK BBC and claims to be “ Australia 's most trusted, independent source of news . Our network of more than 500 journalists at home and abroad provide unrivalled coverage”. However a search of the “entire ABC site “ for the term “renewable ethanol” yields the following 2 items that both make false and misleading claims about “renewable ethanol” as a renewable energy source.
(i). According to the ABC: “The use of E10 blended fuels is reported in the emissions table (see page 115), however the renewable ethanol content of the fuel is not reported separately. The ABC does not directly source energy from other renewable energy sources” ( ABC “Environmental Responsibility”, Annual Report, 2013, Part 4, Corporate Responsibility: http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ABC-Annual-Report-2013-Part-4.pdf . ).
(ii). According to the ABC “Where possible, the ABC uses E10 fuel which contains renewable ethanol. The total E10 fuel used annually is reported in the GHG emissions tables, however the renewable energy component of this fuel is not reported” ( ABC , “Environment”, 2013 Sustainability Reporting – Additional Details”: http://about.abc.net.au/how-the-abc-is-run/what-guides-us/corporate-responsibility/2013-sustainability-reporting-additional-details/ ).
“Renewable ethanol” is a lie and indeed a dangerous lie because (1) it is associated with huge net CO2 pollution and the CO2 pollution from carbon burning-based bio-ethanol production exceeds the CO2 from combustion of bio-ethanol; (2) the energy required for bio-ethanol production exceeds the energy from bio-ethanol combustion; (3) biofuel production generates a huge Carbon Debt from destruction of the balanced Carbon Cycle in swathes of wild nature; (4) the food-for-fuel obscenity implicit in legislatively mandated bio-ethanol elevates food prices, deprivation and avoidable mortality from deprivation (Biofuel Genocide) in a world in which 18 million people already die avoidably each year from imposed deprivation, and (5) bio-ethanol and biofuel in general (e.g. bio-diesel) threaten ecosystems, biodiversity and hence the Biosphere of which Humanity is a part (Terracide) ( see Gideon Polya , “Exposing the greenwash falsehood of “renewable ethanol””, Countercurrents, 19 April 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190414.htm ). .
[Rudd] promised a tougher target if the world agrees to a 450 ppm CO2 deal for 2050”. The ABC incorrectly reported that “[PM Rudd] promised a tougher target if the world agrees to a 450 ppm CO2 deal for 2050” (see “Rudd overhauls emissions plan and delays 12 months”, ABC News, 4 May 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-04/rudd-overhauls-emissions-plan-and-delays-12-months/1672684 ). In actual fact it appears that PM Rudd meant “450 ppm CO2-e” and according to Friends of the Earth (FOE) (see Friends of the Earth, Media release, 18 December 2009: http://www.cana.net.au/sites/default/files/FrioendsoftheEarth_181209.pdf ): “Rudd must take responsibility for the failure of the Copenhagen talks ..While over 100 countries called for a target of 1.5 degree [C] and cuts to below 350 ppm CO2-e, Australia continued to push for two degrees and a 450 ppm CO2-e target while offering cuts that would not even fulfil them.” Further, paleoclimate and earth scientist Dr Andrew Glikson (ANU) has stated (2010): “Recent paleoclimate studies, using multiple proxies (soil carbonate δ13C, alkenones, boron/calcium, stomata leaf pores), indicate that the current CO2 level of 388ppm and CO2-equivalent level of 460ppm (which includes the methane factor), commit warming above pre-industrial levels to 3 to 4 degrees C in the tropics and 10 degrees C in polar regions, tracking towards an ice-free Earth” (see Andrew Glikson, “Cabonn diocide, mass extinction fo species and climate change”, Online Opinion, 1 March 2010: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10104&page=2 ) i.e. the world has already exceeded 450 ppm CO2-e.
Note the expert opinion if Professor John E.N. "Charlie" Veron, “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?”, powerpoint lecture, joint event of the Royal Society with the Zoological Society of London and introduced by Sir David Attenborough FRS, 6 July 2009: “450 ppm [CO2] will bring on the demise of the GBR [Great Barrier Reef] …320-350 [ppm CO2 needed]” and
“CO2 in Summary.
320 ppm: occasional [coral] bleaching
345 ppm: sporadic mass bleaching
387 ppm: inevitable long-term decline
450 ppm: rapid decline, reefs cease to be biodiverse
600 ppm: acidification affecting all biota
800 ppm: mid-Eocene extinction conditions
1000 ppm: reefs only geological structures. Sixth Mass Extinction.” (see Professor John E.N. "Charlie" Veron, “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?”, joint event of the Royal Society with the Zoological Society of London and introduced by Sir David Attenborough FRS, 06 July 2009, powerpoint lecture, 61 minutes: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=3093# ; Coral Reef Crisis Meeting, 6th July 2009, with powerpoint lecture by Dr John "Charlie" Veron as introduced by Sir David Attenborough, Coral Reef Research: http://www.coralreefresearch.org/html/crr_rs.htm ).
“Scrap the carbon tax”. The ABC has failed to report the nonsense of this Coalition proposal arising from the fact that the Coalition already in effect has an implicit Carbon tax of its own. Tony Abbott clearly re-iterated the Coalition agenda 1 week after the 7 September 2013 Coalition victory in the Australian Federal elections: “The challenges are considerable: we must stop the boats, we must scrap the carbon tax, we must build the roads and we must get the budget back into the black”(Tony Abbott quoted in David Crowe, “Let’s prove we can do it: Abbott”, The Australian, 14 September 2014: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/lets-prove-we-can-do-it-abbott/story-fn9qr68y-1226718868881# ). However PM Tony Abbott is already locked into well-deserved failure on each of these 4 key goals (for details see Gideon Polya, “New Abbott Coalition Australian Government. 4 policy failures already”, MWC News: http://mwcnews.org/focus/analysis/31479-abbott-coalition.html ) .
“Scrap the carbon tax” refers to the Coalition policy of repealing Labor legislation for a Carbon Tax transmuting into an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2015. However while the Coalition dominates the House of Representatives it is presently in a minority in the Senate. Further, as outlined below, the Coalition is effectively proposing a Carbon Tax of its own (through its Direct Action policy) that is arguably 5 times bigger than Labor’s after PM Kevin Rudd slashed the 2014 price from $25 per tonne CO2-e (CO2-equivalent) to a derisory $6 per tonne CO2-e.
Australian Government greenhouse gas (GHG) experts indicate that Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution was 565 Mt CO2-e in 2000, noting that Australia’s Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution in 2000 was (in Mt CO2-e) 565 (Domestic) + 505 (coal exports) + 17 (LNG exports) + 105 (iron ore exports) = 1,192 Mt CO2-e (“2011 Climate change course”, section G: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ). The Coalition and Labor both promise unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports plus “5% off 2000 GHG by 2020” i.e. 0.95 x 565 Mt CO2-e = 537 CO2-e in 2020.
The Australian Government GHG experts predict Australian Domestic GHG pollution of 637 Mt CO2-e in 2020 (Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, “Australia’s emissions projections 2012”: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/sites/climatechange/files/files/climate-change/projections/aep-factsheet.pdf ). Thus the GHG savings promised by both Labor and the Coalition for the year 2020 = 637 – 537 = 100 Mt CO2-e. The cost committed to by the Coalition’s Direct Action plan for achieving this goal in 2020 (ignoring subsequent years) is no more than $3.2 billion = $3,200 million over the period 2013-2017. The maximum Carbon Price implicit in the Coalition’s Direct Action plan of subsidizing polluters not to pollute is accordingly $3,200 million/100 Mt CO2-e = $32 per tonne CO2-e.
In contrast, Gillard Labor’s policy involved a Carbon Tax of $23 per tonne CO2-e on industrial polluters and domestic consumers, with 90% of the receipts being returned as “compensation” for increased electricity and gas prices in an absurd “futile cycle”. However as a political ploy just before the 2013 Federal elections, Labor slashed the 2014 Carbon Price from about $25 per tonne CO2-e to a derisory $6 per tonne CO2-e before going to the floating price of an a Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) linked to that in Europe where the Carbon Price is a mere $6 per tonne CO2-e. Interestingly, Rudd Labor’s effective abolition of its Carbon Tax was estimated to cost the Government budget about $3.8 billion over the next few years, similar to the maximum cost of the Coalition’s Direct Action plan (Emma Griffiths and Monique Ross, “Greg Hunt rejects “silly” Climate Institute report on direct action policy”, ABC News, 15 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-15/climate-institute-coalition-carbon-policy/4888106 ).
Now whether it is spending taxpayers’ money bribing companies not to pollute (Coalition Direct Action policy) or taxing companies for polluting with the cost after compensation being passed on to the taxpayers through price rises (Labor policy), the taxpayer ultimately pays. Either way, whether it is the Coalition’s maximum $32 per tonne CO2-e Carbon Tax or the Labor’s proposed derisory $6 per tonne CO2-e Carbon Tax, the higher the Carbon Tax the greater the disincentive to pollute. Indeed Dr Chris Hope (leading climate economist, Judge Business School, 89-Nobel-Laureate University of Cambridge) (2011): “If the best current scientific and economic evidence is to be believed, and climate change could be a real and serious problem, the appropriate response is to institute today a climate change tax equal to the mean estimate of the damage caused by a tonne of CO2-e emissions. The raw calculations from the default PASGE09 model suggest that tax should be about $100 per tonne of CO2 in the EU. But correcting for the limited time horizon of the model, and bringing the calculations forward to 2102, in year 2012 dollars, brings the suggested tax up to about $150 per tonne of CO2” (Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/research/working_papers/2011/wp1109.pdf ). Dr Chris Hope has further excoriated the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan as “a system effectively of giving subsidies to people not to emit pollution. It's a very bad system. The last thing you want to be doing is subsidising people who are doing bad things” (Dr Chris Hope interviewed by Emma Alberici, “Climate economist warns of impact climate change", Lateline, 29 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3813766.htm ).
“Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists in the 1940s” (ABC Radio National Drive, 4 March 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/us-suspends-military-co-operation-with-russia-over-ukraine-incu/5298596 ). Fact: (a) Stepan Bandera was a neo-Nazi, collaborated with the German Nazis against the Soviet Union and was thus complicit in the Ukrainian Holocaust (3 million killed including 0.8 million Jews) and the German Nazi killing of 27 million Soviet citizens including about 2 million Jews; (b) Stepan Bandera led the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; and (c) this is like saying “Adolf Hitler, the leader of the German nationalists in the 1940s” (see “Stepan Bandera”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera ) .
"Stop the boats”. The ABC has failed to properly report the clear nonsense of this key Coalition plan to illegally turn asylum seeker boats around in International waters and violate the human rights of frefugees. Tony Abbott clearly re-iterated the Coalition agenda 1 week after the 7 September 2013 Coalition victory in the Australian Federal elections: “The challenges are considerable: we must stop the boats, we must scrap the carbon tax, we must build the roads and we must get the budget back into the black”(Tony Abbott quoted in David Crowe, “Let’s prove we can do it: Abbott”, The Australian, 14 September 2014: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/lets-prove-we-can-do-it-abbott/story-fn9qr68y-1226718868881# ). However PM Tony Abbott is already locked into well-deserved failure on each of these 4 key goals (for details see Gideon Polya, “New Abbott Coalition Australian Government. 4 policy failures already”, MWC News: http://mwcnews.org/focus/analysis/31479-abbott-coalition.html ) .
“Stop the boats” is a 3-word conservative slogan for maltreatment of desperate Tamil refugees fleeing the ongoing Tamil Genocide in Australia-supported Sri Lanka and Muslim refugees fleeing Western-imposed war, sanctions and persecution in the Muslim world and trying to find safe haven by attempting to reach Australia by boat. The Coalition policies of military-led “turning back the boats when safe to do so” in International waters (illegal in International law) and actually buying boats in Indonesia to prevent their use to transport refugees are against the clearly and repeatedly stated position of the Government of Indonesia which has serious concerns about violation of its sovereignty (note: the Indonesian population is 247 million, the Australian population is 23 million).
The Coalition has responded to continued boat arrivals since the election by imposing a news blackout on refugee (asylum seeker) arrivals and subsequent abusive maltreatment in contravention of International Law. In the race to the bottom of the barrel, the Coalition supported Labor’s policy of excluding all new arrivals by boat from ever living in Australia and shunting all boat arrivals off to concentration camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. However the Coalition went further and has stated that existing refugees on temporary visas in Australia and condemned to dire poverty by exclusion from employment, will also be excluded from ever permanently living in Australia.
UNHCR regional representative Richard Towle has stated that Australia is breaching the UN Refugee Convention of which it is a signatory (a view supported by Australian law experts): "We're concerned that the net effect of the measures is that for all intents and purposes Australia ceases to be an asylum country under the convention for anybody coming to the country other than by air” (Richard Towle quoted in “United Nations refugee agency warns Australia its asylum policy may breach international law”, ABC News, 26 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-26/unhcr-australia-png-refugees-asylum/4845628 ).
“Tackling climate change” (an egregiously false Labor assertion). The utterly false assertion that they are “tackling climate change” has been a mantra of the Gillard Australian Labor Government. Searching for the phrase “tackling climate change” on “ABC News” and on “the entire ABC site” yields 212 and 580 results, respectively. The key context is given in these quotes “”[Coalition Opposition Leader Tony Abbott]: “ So ladies and gentlemen, soon enough the Australian people will pass their judgment on this bad tax based on a lie. The next election will be a referendum on the carbon tax; it will be a referendum on prime ministers who tell lies, and when I say during the campaign there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead Australians can be 100 per cent certain that I am telling the truth”... [Labor PM Julia Gillard]: “Well, I've explained the circumstances of the last election campaign, and when I said those words about a carbon tax I meant every one [i.e. “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”]. But our nation's been involved in a debate now for many long years about putting a price on carbon and tackling climate change and we have got this done. Yes, with a fixed price, a carbon tax, if you like, for the first three years and then an emissions trading scheme to follow. The kind of emissions trading scheme that prime minister Howard stood for and Mr Abbott stool alongside him advocating in the 2007 election… We believe in putting a price on carbon, in tackling climate change, in protecting our environment, in strengthening our economy. As a Labor Party, as a Labor Government we haven't done all of this for no reason. We've done it because we believe it's pivotal to Australia's future. So of course we will seek to protect it.” (see Barrie Cassidy, “Australia is ready for a carbon tax: Gillard”, ABC News, 1 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-01/australia-is-ready-for-carbon-tax-gillard/4102966 ). Some realities about the Australian failure to “Tackle climate change”:
1. The Carbon Tax is a fraud that instead of taxing fossil fuel producers taxes domestic and business fossil fuel users in a futile cycle that returns 90% of receipts back to users, massively subsidizes coal burning for power and makes fugitive gas emissions (e.g. from CSG, fracking, conventional sources) essentially tax free (see Gideon Polya, "Australia’s Carbon Tax Scandal", MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23026-gideonpolya-carbon-tax.html ).
2. The ETS approach is a cynical con - it has been empirically unsuccessful, is accordingly counterproductive and is egregiously fraudulent in that the Australian Government will sell licences to pollute the one common atmosphere of all countries in the world (Google "2011 climate change course": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ).
3. The Lib-Labs (the Liberal-Laborals, the Coalition and Labor) have essentially the same climate change inaction policies of a derisory "5% off 2000 greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 2020" coupled with unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports that will see Australia exceed by a factor of THREE (3) the whole world's terminal GHG pollution budget that must not be exceeded if we are to avoid catastrophic 2C temperature rise. The world will exceed this terminal budget in 5 years’ time (Gideon Polya, "Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act", MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html ) or with more conservative assumptions within 15 years (Australian Climate Commission, “The Critical Decade 2013”: http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/the-critical-decade-2013/ ).
4. The Australian Treasury modeling showed that under the Carbon Tax-ETS Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution would rise from 578 Mt in 2010 to 621 Mt in 2020 and that meeting the “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” would require purchase of about 100 Mt CO2-e carbon credits overseas (see Australian Treasury, “Strong Growth, Low Pollution. Modelling a carbon price”, 2011: http://cache.treasury.gov.au/treasury/carbonpricemodelling/content/report/downloads/Modelling_Report_Consolidated.pdf ).
5. Under the Carbon Tax-ETS Australia’s Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution will rise from 1,708 Mt in 2010 to 2,571 Mt CO2-e in 2020 (see section G, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ). “Tackling climate change” means REDUCING GHG pollution not INCREASING GHG pollution.
6. The 2013 Rudd Labor Government has now decided scrap the Carbon Tax (currently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) and move rapidly to a Cap-and-Trade ETS in mid-2014 but the EU carbon price under the EU ETS is only about $6 per tonne CO2-e (i.e. Australia can avoid “tackling climate change” at home by buying cheap EU credits abroad; the “Cap” of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” is derisory) . It is estimated that a Carbon Price of about $80 per tonne CO2-e is needed to move away from coal burning. Carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually means a real Carbon Price of about $150 per tonne CO2-e (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
7. What we need are 100% renewables ASAP coupled with cessation of deforestation and GHG pollution from all sources ASAP and massive re-afforestation and biochar production to reduce atmospheric CO2 from the current dangerous 400 ppm to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 as recommended by top climate scientists and biologists (see "300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ).
8. ABC Breakfast had an item about an oil and gas industry advertising blitz, about which it stated : “The oil and gas industry and the manufacturing sector are going head-to-head in a multimillion dollar advertising blitz. Oil and gas are 'warning' that high costs in the industry could jeopardise the gas boom, while the manufacturing sector are demanding the multinational energy companies provide 'reliable and affordable' gas for domestic use”. However the item included an utterly industry false claim that using gas was a way of tackling climate change (see ABC Breakfast, “Oil and gas industry launch ad blitz”, 29 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/oil-and-gas-industry-launch-ad-blitz/4849410 ). In reality, according to science in order to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise the world must cease fossil fuel burning within 16 years (p7, Australian Climate Commission, “The critical decade 2013: a summary of climate change science, risks and responses”, 2013: http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Critical-Decade-2013-Summary_lowres.pdf ) or 5 years (Dr Gideon Polya, "Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act", MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html ).
"Tens of thousands of Iraqis [died]". The ABC has reported that the Iraq War was associated with "the deaths of more than 4,400 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis" (see "Iraqis voice happiness over US troop withdrawal", ABC News, 23 October 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-22/iraqis-voice-happiness-over-us-troop-withdrawal/3595412 ) and that “ The withdrawal ends a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead" (see “US military marks end of its Iraq war”, ABC News, 16 December 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/us-military-marks-end-of-its-war-in-iraq/3733982) whereas it is estimated from the data of top medical epidemiologists and UN demographers that Iraqi deaths from violence (1.5 million) and from violently-imposed deprivation (1.2 million) total 2.7 million for the period 2003-2011) (see Just Foreign Policy, "Iraq Deaths": http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq and "Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ). Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The ABC resolutely declines to report the horrendous human cost of the Gulf War and Sanctions (0.2 million violent deaths and 1.7 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation, 1990-2003), the Iraq War (1.5 million violent deaths and 1.2 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation, 2003-2011) and the total carnage in what must be described as the Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (1.7 million violent deaths and 2.9 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation in the period 1990-2011). Searches of the ABC News for the terms "Iraqi Holocaust" and " Iraqi Genocide" yield zero (0) results. Searches of the"entire ABC site" for the terms "Iraqi Holocaust" and " Iraqi Genocide" yield 29 results and 52 results, respectively, all due to postings by Dr Gideon Polya on ABC websites.
“Terminate the carbon tax " (arguably incorrect assertion). PM Kevin Rudd in announcing an earlier shift from a circa $24 per tone CO2-e to a Cap-and-Trade Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from July 2014 stated: “The Government has decided to terminate the carbon tax to help cost of living pressures for families and to reduce costs for small business." (see “PM Kevin Rudd reveals $3.8 billion price tag on decision to “terminate” carbon tax”, ABC News, 16 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/38-billion-to-terminate-carbon-tax-says-kevin-rudd/4822556 . Ignoring semantic quibbles about the difference between a Carbon Price/Carbon Tax via a Carbon Tax (presently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) or an EU-based ETS (presently about $6 per tonne CO2-e), this is operationally incorrect. Presently the Government charges polluters $24 per tone CO2-e under the Carbon Tax but from July 2014 will charge polluters about $6 per tonne CO2-e via licences to pollute. The 2013 Rudd Labor Government has now decided scrap the Carbon Tax (currently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) and move rapidly to a Cap-and-Trade ETS in mid-2014 but the EU carbon price under the EU ETS is only about $6 per tonne CO2-e (i.e. Australia can avoid “tackling climate change” at home by buying cheap EU credits abroad; the “Cap” of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” is derisory) . It is estimated that a Carbon Price of about $70 per tonne CO2-e is needed to make wind power cheaper than fossil fuel burning and Beyond Zero Emisions states that “for baseload technologies such as concentrating solar thermal, the game changer we need to replace coal and gas, you would need in excess of $200/tonne [CO2-e] for initial plants” (see Simon Butler, “Carbon price plan heads in wrong direction”, Green Left Weekly, 13 March 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46968 ). Carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually means a real Carbon Price of about $150 per tonne CO2-e (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
“Terrorism”, “terrorist threat”, “threat of terrorism”. These are the most extraordinary lies of the ABC and other Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and subverted Mainstream media. Thus Muslim-origin non-state terrorists have killed about 2,000 Western civilians in the last half century (excluded from this estimate are about 2,000 genocidal Zionist invaders killed in Palestine and the roughly 3,000 mostly Americans killed on 9-11, an atrocity almost certainly carried out by the US Government and with likely Apartheid Israeli involvement; see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ ). In stark contrast, since 1990 about 12 million Muslims have been killed through violence or violently-imposed deprivation, the breakdown including 4.6 million Iraqis, 5.5 million Afghans, 2.2 million Somalis, 0.1 million Libyans, 0.1 million Syrians (40,000 being minority Alawites), and 0.1 million Palestinians, with about half the victims of US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism and Apartheid Israeli state terrorism being Muslim children (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ and Gideon Polya “Hey, hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today? Answer: 1,000”, Bellaciao, 1 May 2013: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18750 ).
This Western state terrorism carnage is so great that in the terms of genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention one can properly talk of an Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Somali Genocide, Libyan Genocide, Syrian Genocide, Alawite Genocide and Palestinian Genocide. Searches of the “ABC News” for the terms “Iraqi Genocide”, “Afghan Genocide”, “Somali Genocide”, “Libyan Genocide”, “Syrian Genocide”, “Alawite Genocide” and “Palestinian Genocide” yield zero (0) results. In contrast, searches of the “ABC News” for the “Bosnian Genocide” (0.2 million killed), “Armenian Genocide’ (1.5 million Armenians killed by the Turks in WW1) and the “Rwandan Genocide” (about 1 million Tutsis and Hutus killed) yield 1, 9 and 42 results, respectively, this consonant with the finding by Professor Edward S. Herman and David Peterson in their book “The Politics of Genocide” (foreword by Noam Chomsky; Monthly Review Press, New York , 2010) that Western mainstream media and politicians maintain that the German Nazis aside, only non-Europeans and Serbs commit genocide and that this crime cannot be attributed to any of the good guys, the members o f the US Alliance (see Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “The Politics Of Genocide” by Edward Herman and David Peterson”, Countercurrents, 5 December 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya051211.htm ).
The long-term, accrual cost of the War on Terror has been about $6 trillion to the US, about $200 billion to Canada and $125 billion to Australia. Also unreported by the ABC is that 1 million Americans, 0.1 million Canadians, and 66,000 Australians die preventably each year and that about 12 million Americans, 1.2 million Canadians and 0.8 million Australians have die preventably since the 9-11 atrocity in 2001, this carnage being linked to the Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters committing huge sums to killing ( million Muslims abroad (half f them children) rather than keeping Americans, Canadians and Australians alive at home (see Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist, pro-war, pro-opium, war criminal Canadian Government
defames Iran & cuts diplomatic links”, Countercurrents, 10 September 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100912.htm ; Gideon Polya, “Endless War on Terror. Huge cost for Australia & America:, Countercurrents, 14 October2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22149-endless-war-on-terror.html ; Gideon Polya, “Why PM Julia Gillard must go: 66,000 preventable Australian deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 21 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210212.htm ; Gideon Polya, “One million Americans die preventably annually in USA”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya180212.htm ).
"The Conversation" (a universities-backed and ABC-linked web magazine that belies its name through egregious censorship) . The ABC Radio National Program “Breakfast” gives “The Conversation” a plug every weekday by using highly-regarded Michelle Grattan (Chief Political Correspondent with The Conversation and Professorial Fellow at Canberra University) as RN Breakfast's political correspondent. However “The Conversation” belies its name through the obscene reality that the universities-backed, academic-based, taxpayer-funded web magazine egregiously censors informed reader comments i.e. it rejects informed conversation. The Conversation is a very welcome initiative in Australian media. It invites and publishes articles by academic scholars and other experts and invites reader comments. The reader comments are typically non-anonymous and often from professional people with relevant expertise.
Australia is a Murdochracy (Big Money buys public perception and hence votes) and a Lobbyocracy (Big Money buys public perceptions, politicians, parties, polices and votes). Accordingly The Conversation is very welcome in enabling expert opinions in a country woefully served by the grossly deficient reportage and censorship of oligopoly Mainstream media (see "Boycott Murdoch Media": https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ and “Censorship by The Age”: http://agecensors.blogspot.com/https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age and http://agecensors.blogspot.com/ ) and a woefully deficient , taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC; Australia's equivalent of the UK taxpayer-funded BBC; see “ABC Censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/home ). Unfortunately I have already encountered many instances of censorship by The Conversation of comments posted by me. It is likely that this abuse goes much further than censorship of just one widely published, 5-decade career Australian scientist. I have a resolute mantra “Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity”. I would be complicit in such censorship if I remained silent. Accordingly I have created a website “Censorship by The Conversation” (see: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ) to systematically record such censorship in the interests of free speech, Australia, Humanity and indeed of The Conversation itself.
The censorship by The Conversation became so regular that it was more convenient for me and more useful as a historical record in the public interest to simply record what comments I have posted and then indicate Comments censored IN BOLD i.e. what the Conversation has censored out, presumably for containing things it does not want its readers to see, know about or think about. However The Conversation has gone further than this - it has now also BLOCKED me from logging-in and participating in "The Conversation" by my original registration as "Dr Gideon Polya" (in 2012) and thence successively from logging in via Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In (in July 2013). There are thus no further comments that I can post on The Conversation to be censored and hence this experiment in determining what The Conversation does not want its readers to read, know about or think about seems to have come to an end. All that I can do is to continue informing all those associated with The Conversation, MPs, media, fellow academics, the Australian public and and people overseas about this egregious censorship that is utterly anathema to academics.
Censorship is utterly anathema to serious academics and students. There are some 250,000 overseas students currently at Australian universities in an industry worth $16 billion annually - why would such students waste their money attending universities connected to this egregious censorship by the Australian universities-backed web magazine The Conversation? The University of Melbourne has been repeatedly apprised of censorship by The Conversation but continues to back The Conversation - I have taken steps to document around the world censorship and linkage to censorship by the University of Melbourne (see Gideon Polya, “Academic censorship: why you should NOT study at the University of Melbourne”, Bellaciao, 5 November 2012: http://http.bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article22283 ).
There is another disturbing element to this - The Conversation is clearly involved in censoring facts about the horrendous human consequences of US imperialism, Israeli Apartheid, US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism, Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist -promoted US War on Muslims (12 million Muslim deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation since 1990; see "Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ), corporate lying, corporatist media lying and climate criminal corporate and government policies (see "Climate Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ and “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed ).
It is unacceptable that a taxpayer-funded medium such as The Conversation censors informed scholarly opinion about serious matters - this is unacceptable behaviour that is against the national interest while benefiting national and international war criminals and climate criminals. The Conversation compounds this inept and societally dangerous behaviour by intolerable sidelining, censoring , blocking and defamation in relation to anti-racist Jewish opinion in particular. If Mainstream media (MSM) censoring out the horrendous human consequences of the US War on Muslims can be seen as de facto anti-Arab anti-Semitism, then MSM sidelining, censoring , blocking and defamation in relation to anti-racist Jewish opinion can appear as equally repugnant anti-Jewish anti-Semitism (see "ABC Fact-checking Unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC Australia's BBC)": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit and "ABC censorship & malreportage": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-censorship ).
“The Holocaust”. Like other Western Mainstream media, the ABC incorrectly uses the term “the Holocaust” to refer to the Jewish Holocaust or Shoah ( 5-6 million Jews killed with an estimated 1in 6 dying from deprivation; see Professor Martin Gilbert, “Atlas of the Holocaust”, and “Jewish History Atlas”) that in actuality was part of a WW2 Europe Holocaust in which 30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies were killed). Indeed the term “holocaust” was first applied to a WW2 atrocity by N.G. Jog in referring to the Australia-complicit Bengal Famine as a holocaust his 1944 book “Churchill’s Blind-Spot: India”. By withholding grain from its huge wheat stores from starving India, Australia was complicit in the 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust in which the British deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death (see Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html ; Gideon Polya, “Australia’s ABC censors” ; “Bengal Famine”, BBC, 2008: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (1989), “Hunger and Public Action” (Clarendon, Oxford); Greenough, P.R. (1982), “Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: the Famine of 1943-1944” (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York); Greenough, P.R. (1988), “Famine” in Embree, A.T. (1985) (editor), “Encyclopaedia of Asian History” (Collier Macmillan, London) pp457-459; Jog, N.G. (1944), “Churchill’s Blind-Spot: India” (New Book Company, Bombay) [in this book the Bengali Holocaust was the first WW2 atrocity to be described as a “holocaust”]; Keneally, Tom (2010), “Three Famines” (Knopf, Sydney); Mason, Colin (2000), “A Short History of Asia. Stone Age to 2000AD” (Macmillan, London); Muckerjee, Madhusree (2010), “Churchill's Secret War. The British Empire and the ravaging of India during World War II”, (Basic Books, New York); Ó Gráda, Cormac (2009), Famine. A Short History” (Princeton University Press, New Jersey); Polya, Gideon (1998, 2008), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne), now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ ; Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007, now also available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; Gideon Polya, “Bengali Famine”, ABC Radio national, Ockham’s Razor, 27 February1999: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/bengali-famine/3556698 ; Gideon Polya, “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007) and on Ockham’s Razor, 28 August 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002 ); and Gideon Polya, “Gideon Polya” in “Jane Austen Antipodean Views”, edited by Susannah Fullerton & Anne Harbers.( Wellington Lane Press Pty Ltd., 2001); Gideon Polya, “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, London & New York, 2003). Just as the Bengali Holocaust is forgotten in the West, so too are the 35 million Chinese who died under Japanese Occupation in 1937-1945, a WW2 Chinese Holocaust.
Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/spring_2005/spring_2005_lesson2_convention.asp ). Searches of the “ABC News” for the following “holocaust” and “genocide” terms yield the following results which are given in parentheses together with estimated deaths from violence and violently-imposed deprivation: “Holocaust” (557; this term capitalized is incorrectly used by the ABC to refer to the Jewish Holocaust and non-capitalized to refer to huge deaths ) , “the Holocaust” (297; 5-6 million dead in the Jewish Holocaust; the ABC ignores the 30 million dead in the WW2 Holocaust); “Jewish Holocaust” (21; 5-6 million); “Jewish Genocide” (1; 5-6 million, 1941-1945); “Shoah” (1; 5-6 million, 1941-1945); “Armenian Holocaust” (0; 1.5 million, 1915-1923); “Armenian Genocide” (9; 1.5 million, 1915-1923); “Aboriginal Holocaust” (0; 2 million since 1788); “Aboriginal Genocide”(4; 2 million since 1788); “Rwandan Holocaust” (), “Rwandan Genocide” (46; 0.5-1 million, 1994); “Cambodian Holocaust” (0; 1.5 million, 1976-1979); “Cambodian Genocide” (2; 1.5 million, 1976-1979); “Timor Holocaust” (1); “Timor Genocide” (1; 0.2 million, 1975-1999); “Bengali Holocaust” (0; 6-7 million, 1942-1945); “Bengali Genocide” (0; 6-7 million, 1942-1945); “Bengal Famine” (0; 6-7 million, 1942-1945); “Ukrainian Holocaust” (0; 7 million, 1930-1933); “Ukrainian Genocide” ((0; 7 million, 1930-1933); “Ukrainian Famine” (0; 7 million, 1930-1933); “Holodomor” (1; 7 million Ukrainians starved to death, 1930-1933); “Palestinian Holocaust” (0; 2 million since 1936); “Palestinian Genocide” (0; 2 million since 1936); “Iraqi Holocaust” (0; 4.6 million since 1990); “Iraqi Genocide” (0; 4.6 million since 1990); “Afghan Holocaust” (0; 5.5 million since 1990); “Afghan Genocide” (0; 5.5 million since 1990); “Somali Holocaust” (0; 2.2 million since 1992); “Somali Genocide” (0; 2.2 million since 1992); “Libyan Holocaust” (0; 0.1 million since 2011); “Libyan Genocide” (0; 0.1 million since 2011); “Syrian Holocaust” (0; 0.1 million since 2011); “Syrian Genocide” (0; 0.1 million since 2011); “Indian Holocaust” (0; 1,800 million, 1757-1947); “Indian Genocide” (0; 1,800 million, 1757-1947); “Rohingya Genocide” (0; tens of thousands over recent decades); “Tamil Genocide” (0; 0.1 million since 1980s); “Bosnian Genocide” (1; 0.2 million, 1992-1995); “Muslim Holocaust (0; 12 million since 1990, 600 million since 1950); “Muslim Genocide (0; 12 million since 1990, 600 million since 1950); “Global avoidable mortality holocaust” (0; 1,300 million avoidable deaths from deprivation since 1950); Climate Genocide (0; currently 5 million deaths from climate change (0.5 million) and carbon burning (4.5 million) per year; 10 billion estimated to die this century due to unaddressed climate change (see “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ and “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed ).
Although comprehensively censored by the ABC, Australia has been variously associated with over 20 genocidal atrocities, some of them ongoing. For a detailed summary of Australia’s; secret genocide history that is not reported by the ABC see Gideon Polya, “Australia’s secret genocide history”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/australia-s-secret-genocide-history .
As documented above, the ABC has an appalling record of lying about the WW2 Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed), genocide ignoring, holocaust ignoring, genocide denial and holocaust denial. It msut be noted that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial and repugnant holocaust denial because at the latter, while repugnant, at least permit public debate.
TURNBULL. 2015-11-2 Open Letter to ABC re Major corrections required after Emma Alberici interview with Chief Scientist appointee Dr Alan Finkel.
Major ABC corrections are required after the Emma Alberici interview with Dr Alan Finkel (Emma Alberici “Interview: Dr Alan Finkel, newly-appointed Chief Scientist”, ABC Lateline, 27 October 2015: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4340246.htm ).
Emma Alberici asked exactly the right questions – indeed repeatedly so - but comments by PM Turnbull and Dr Alan Finkel reported in the program transcript require public correction by the ABC.
1. PM Turnbull re Finkel: “Now, Alan Finkel is remarkably qualified for this… He has been a very successful businessman, entrepreneur. He has applied the knowledge that he learned at university. He's applied that knowledge to do extremely well. He's been very successful”.
Reality: The Sydney Morning Herald: “Better Place [for which Alan Finkel was chief technology officer] aimed to supply battery-switching services to what was expected to be a mass roll-out of electric vehicles. It filed for bankruptcy in Israel in 2013 after burning through $US850 million (then worth about $885 million) in private funds” (Jane Lee and Peter Hannam, “Meet Alan Finkel, the man tipped to become Australia’s next Chief Scientist”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 2015: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/meet-alan-finkel-the-man-tipped-to-become-australias-next-chief-scientist-20151026-gkijp4.html ).
2. Dr Finkel re how quickly to zero emissions: “Very slowly. I think we should be aspiring to do it but it would take a long time. And yet, in the 20 or 30 years that we've been investing through subsidies and massively building out our capacity, worldwide solar and wind only contribute about four per cent of our electricity supply. And our electricity supply is only a fraction of our total energy use. It's an accelerating thing. We're building solar and wind at an ever increasing rate, but it will take decades to get to the volume that we need. In the energy industry: scale. It's all about scale. The requirements are just massive… we could see huge changes in the 20- to 30-year timeframe”.
Reality: Expert opinion indicates that it is now very unlikely that we will avoid a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise (for alphabetically-organized compendia of such opinions see “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed and "Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming ). Beyond Zero Emissions engineers detailed a plan for 100% renewable energy for Australia by 2020, top electrical engineer Professor Peter Seligman had a related expert approach, and numerous towns, cities, states, countries and corporations committed to 100% renewable energy by 2020 (for details see “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course , “Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ and “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .
A “20- to 30-year timeframe” means increasing CO2 above the present disastrous 400 ppm CO2 whereas numerous climate scientists and biologists demand a return to 300 ppm CO2 ASAP for a safe planet for all peoples and all species (see 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org and “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ), noting that 7 million people die from air pollution each year, this including 10,000 Australians and 75,000 people killed by pollutants from burning exported Australian coal (see “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths ).
3. Dr Finkel re “Direct Action is best”: “Direct Action can be as effective as many other things. The biggest difference between Direct Action and, say, a carbon tax or a carbon price is where the money comes from. Does it come from general revenue or is it a tithe on the activity? And that is a decision that economists and governments have to make. But on a per dollar basis, Direct Action can be very effective” .
Reality: The Coalition’s Direct Action Policy absurdly rewards polluters for polluting less (cf paying rapists to rape less etc), involves setting a Carbon Price of circa $0 /t CO2-e rather than the damage-related US$200/t CO2-e demanded by top climate economist Dr Chris Hope of 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University, and as climate change inaction is intergenerational theft by generating an enormous Carbon Debt to be inescapably paid by future generations (see Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp1109.pdf ).
Assuming a damage-related Carbon Price in USD of $200 per tonne CO2-e as estimated by Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University, the World has a Carbon Debt of $360 trillion that is increasing at $13 trillion per year. Australia has a Carbon Debt of $7.5 trillion that is increasing at $400 billion per year and at $40,000 per head per year for under-30 year old Australians (see “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ , “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice and “Science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed NOT Carbon Trading”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading/ ).
4. Dr Finkel re nuclear power: “ I think that there's no doubt that, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear is fantastic. It's right up there with solar and wind as a near-zero emissions technology”.
Reality: In a carbon economy the overall nuclear cycle from mining the uranium ore and building the power station to disposal of waste and decommissioning the power plant involves massive CO2 pollution and indeed a modern conventional nuclear power station based on use of low grade uranium ores can be as dirty greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise as a modern combined cycle gas-fired power station. Thus Dr Mark Diesendorf (theoretical physicist and energy analyst , Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales) : “The CO2 emissions from the nuclear fuel cycle are only small when high-grade uranium ore is used. But there are very limited reserves of high-grade uranium in the world and most are in Australia and Canada. As these are used up over the next several decades, low-grade uranium ore (comprising 0.01 per cent or less yellowcake) will have to be used. This means that to obtain 1kg of yellowcake, at least 10 tonnes of ore will have to be mined and milled, using fossil fuels and emitting substantial quantities of CO2. These emissions are comparable with those from a combined cycle gas-fired power station” ( Mark Diesendorf, “Nuclear power: not green, clean or cheap”, On-line opinion, 16 June 2006: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4581 ) .
In this matter Emma Alberici has done her job brilliantly as an informed and incisive interviewer and I have done my job in responding as a 5-decade career scientist and responsible Australian citizen. What is the ABC going to do about this?
Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya (300.org; [contact details]).
PS. This is just the tip of the Mainstream –ignored iceberg in look-the-other-way Australia - see Gideon Polya, “Coalition Climate Crimes & 200 Reasons Why Australia Must Dump Pro-coal, Pro-war Coalition PM Malcolm Turnbull”, Countercurrents, 1 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya011115.htm .
“Use by Assad Government of chemical weapons on their own people”. ABC Saturday Extra (24 August 2013): “An update on the situation in Syria and Egypt. There's been worldwide condemnation over the use by the Assad Government of chemical weapons on their own people and in Egypt the situation remains tense following weeks of protest and violence in the wake of the removal of the government of Mohammed Morsi” but on the same page in describing a picture of 2 children it states “Image: Children who survived what activists say was a nerve-gas attack from Syrian military forces rest inside a Damascus mosque on August 21, 2013 (Reuters: Mohamed Abdullah)” (see “Syria and Egypt update”, Saturday Extra, 24 August 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/syria-update/4908788 ) .
Basically we don’t know whether gas was used and if so by whom.
William Engdahl ( award-winning geopolitical analyst and strategic risk consultant whose internationally best-selling books have been translated into thirteen foreign languages): “The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the “red line” for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility… Al Arabiya, the origin of the story, is not a neutral in the Syrian conflict. It was set up in 2002 by the Saudi Royal Family in Dubai. It is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster, Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC). Saudi Arabia is a major financial backer of the attempt to topple Syria’s government. That is a matter of record. So on first glance Saudi-owned media reporting such an inflammatory anti-Assad allegation might be taken with a dose of salt… Finally, the region reported to be the site of the poison gas attack by Assad forces, Eastern Ghouta, was re-secured from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra jihadist terrorists, by Government troops in May as part of a major series of rollback victories against the insurgent forces and is not currently a scene of any major resistance to Assad forces. Pending confirmation by genuinely independent judges of the latest allegations of Al Arabiya, we are well-advised to leave the reports in the category of war propaganda, in league with others such as the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. That incident, we might recall, was faked by the Pentagon to railroad Congress into giving President Lyndon B. Johnson authority to “assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by communist aggression." The resolution became Johnson's legal justification for deploying US forces and the onset of open war against North Vietnam.” (see William Engdahl, “Syria gas attack story has whiff of Saudi war propaganda”, RT, 21 August 2013: http://rt.com/op-edge/syria-gas-attack-chemical-propaganda-796/ ).
The evil of Mainstream media support for the Iraq War is established by the 2.5 million Iraqi dead from violence or war-imposed deprivation since the illegal, war criminal US Alliance invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 12 million Muslim deaths since 1990 due to violence or war-imposed deprivation in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist-promoted US War on Muslims (see "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ). The Mainstream media and BBC role in selling the false arguments for war is being repeated today in relation to SYRIA as explained below.
UK journalist Louise Boyle published s report entitled “U.S. backed plan to launch chemical attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime” inn the UK Daily Mail’s Mail On-line on 29 January 2013. The report was “pulled” by the Mail but survives in archived form (see: Louise Boyle, “U.S. backed plan to launch chemical attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime”, Mail On-line, 29 January 2013: http://web.archive.org/web/20130129213824/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270219/U-S-planned-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-Syria-blame-Assad.html ). However this report in the Daily Mail evidently incorrectly implicating a UK company in Qatari “war excuse” gassing plans was withdrawn by the Daily Mail and according to Global Research: “It is our understanding that the Daily Mail report was removed following a libel suit launched by Britam Defense and Intelligence against the Daily Mail” (see “Britain’s Daily Mail: US backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria”, Global Research, 26 August 2013: http://www.globalresearch.ca/britains-daily-mail-u-s-backed-plan-to-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-on-syria/5346912 ). Non-involvement of this British company does not mean non-involvement of Qatar, the Saudis and the US in the recent atrocity. Thus Russia, Iran, the UK House of Commons and many others remain unconvinced by the US claims that the Syrian Government was responsible (e.g. see “Saudi Prince Bandar behind chemical attack in Syria: report”, Teheran Times, 31 August 2013: http://www.tehrantimes.com/middle-east/110424-saudi-prince-bandar-behind-chemical-attack-in-syria-report , “Evidence indicates that Syrian Government did not launch chemical weapon attack against its own people”, Global Research, 24 August 2013: http://www.globalresearch.ca/evidence-indicates-that-syrian-government-did-not-launch-a-chemical-weapon-attack-against-its-people/5346804 , Stephen Gowans, “Accusations continue, but still no evidence of a Syrian military gas attack” in Global Research, 24 August 2013: http://www.globalresearch.ca/accusations-continue-but-still-no-evidence-of-a-syrian-military-gas-attack/5346851 , “Syria: Putin rubbishes chemical attack claims”, Guardian, 31 August 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/31/syria-un-weapons-inspectors-leave , “Syrian envoy alleges rebel gas attack, demands U.N. investigate”, Reuters, 28 August 2013: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-syria-crisis-un-investigation-idUSBRE97R18F20130828 ).
Just like the "Gulf of Tonkin incident", the "Iraqi WMD" and the "9-11" lies (see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ ), the serial war criminal US Government is still lying and doing "false flag operations" for war. Thus the US Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism revealed that the Bush Administration told 935 lies about Iraq between 9-11 and the illegal; and war criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003 (see “Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war”, CNN Politics: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/ ). 12 million Muslims have died since 1990 due to violence or war-imposed deprivation in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist-promoted War on Muslims (see "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ). The Zionist-dominated US Government is not just killing Muslims - an estimated 1.3 million Americans die preventably each year linked to the fiscal perversion of committing circa $10 trillion to Apartheid Israel and killing Muslims abroad rather than keeping Americans alive at home (see Gideon Polya, “One million Americans die preventably annually in USA:, Countercurrents, 18 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya180212.htm and Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, millions of untimely American deaths and $40 trillion cost of Israel to Americans”, Countercurrents, 27 August 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270813.htm ).
A search of the endlessly lying and censoring BBC, its endlessly lying and censoring Australian equivalent the ABC (both “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site”) and the endlessly lying by commission and omission, ABC-spruiked, taxpayer-funded, Australian universities-backed website The Conversation revealed ZERO (0) reportage of this matter as established by searches of the BBC in the relevant period for the terms “Louise Boyle:”, “Mail On-line” and “plan to launch chemical”.
Mainstream media, BBC and ABC censorship of the likelihood that the gassing attack in Damascus was a US-backed false flag operation to go to war on a lie (as in Iraq in 2003) is being reported widely (see Newsvine: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2013/08/29/20250282-us-planned-to-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-on-syria-and-blame-it-on-assad , “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ ; “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ ; “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home ; “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ; “Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age ; “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ).
(B) LYING BY OMISSION.
“300 ppm CO2”. Searches for “300 ppm CO2” on “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” yield zero (0) and 20 results, respectively, the latter all being comments made to ABC websites by informed listeners with all but one (David Arthur) by Dr Gideon Polya. Numerous climate scientists and informed activists argue for a rapid return of atmospheric CO2 to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 from the present circa 400 ppm CO2 (see “300.org - return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ). Thus, for example Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research., Germany (2008): “"It is a compromise between ambition and feasibility. A rise of 2oC could avoid some of the big environmental disasters, but it is still only a compromise…It is a very sweeping argument, but nobody can say for sure that 330ppm is safe. Perhaps it will not matter whether we have 270ppm or 320ppm, but operating well outside the [historic] realm of carbon dioxide concentrations is risky as long as we have not fully understood the relevant feedback mechanisms" [280 ppm is the pre-industrial atmospheric CO2 concentration]( Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber quoted by David Adam, “Roll back time to safeguard climate, expert warns”, Guardian, 15 September 2008 : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/15/climatechange.carbonemissions ).
Likewise Dr James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; member of the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences; 2007 Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science; Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York, USA)) with 8 UK, French and US climate change scientist co-authors (2008): “Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2 [carbon dioxide; atmospheric CO2 280 ppm pre-industrial], including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 450 +/- 100 ppm [parts per million], a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt policy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects” (see J. Hansen et al, “Target atmospheric CO2 – where should humanity aim?” : http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126 ) and thence Dr James Hansen et al. (2008): “Stabilization of Arctic sea ice cover requires, to first approximation, restoration of planetary energy balance. Climate models driven by known forcings yield a present planetary energy imbalance of +0.5-1 W/m2. Observed heat increase in the upper 700 m of the ocean confirms the planetary energy imbalance, but observations of the entire ocean are needed for quantification. CO2 amount must be reduced to 325-355 ppm to increase outgoing flux 0.5-1 W/m2, if other forcings are unchanged. A further imbalance reduction, and thus CO2 ~300-325 ppm, may be needed to restore sea ice to its area of 25 years ago” (see Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, P. Kharecha, D. Beerling, R. Berner, V. Masson-Delmotte, M. Pagani, M. Raymo, D.L. Royer, and J.C. Zachos, 2008: Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Open Atmos. Sci. J., 2, 217-231: http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/2008/Hansen_etal.html (abstract) and http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2008/2008_Hansen_etal.pdf ). These pronouncements by top climate scientists led to the formation of”300.org” that argues for a return of atmospheric carbon dioxide to about 300 ppm CO2 for a safe planet for all peoples and all species (see “300.org”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org ).
“350 ppm CO2” Searches for “350 ppm CO2” on “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” yield zero (0) and 6 results, respectively, the latter all being comments made to ABC websites by informed listeners (notably one David Arthur). Dr James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; member of the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences; 2007 Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science; Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York, USA)) with 8 UK, French and US climate change scientist co-authors stated (2008): If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects” (see J. Hansen et al, “Target atmospheric CO2 – where should humanity aim?” : http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126 ) and thence Dr James Hansen et al. (2008): “Stabilization of Arctic sea ice cover requires, to first approximation, restoration of planetary energy balance. Climate models driven by known forcings yield a present planetary energy imbalance of +0.5-1 W/m2. Observed heat increase in the upper 700 m of the ocean confirms the planetary energy imbalance, but observations of the entire ocean are needed for quantification. CO2 amount must be reduced to 325-355 ppm to increase outgoing flux 0.5-1 W/m2, if other forcings are unchanged. A further imbalance reduction, and thus CO2 ~300-325 ppm, may be needed to restore sea ice to its area of 25 years ago” (see Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, P. Kharecha, D. Beerling, R. Berner, V. Masson-Delmotte, M. Pagani, M. Raymo, D.L. Royer, and J.C. Zachos, 2008: Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Open Atmos. Sci. J., 2, 217-231: http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/2008/Hansen_etal.html (abstract) and http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2008/2008_Hansen_etal.pdf ). These pronouncements by top climate scientists led to the formation by US journalist Bill Mc Kibben of”350.org” that argues for a return of atmospheric carbon dioxide to no more than 350 ppm CO2 for a safe planet for all peoples and all species (see “350.org”: http://350.org/ ).
“400 ppm CO2”. Searches for “300 ppm CO2” on “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” yield zero (0) results in both cases. Yet in 2013 atmospheric CO2 reached 400 ppm CO2 at the US Mauna Loa Observatory (see: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html ). The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Mauna Loa Observatory publishes graphs showing recent monthly mean carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii over the last 50 years (see “Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide”: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/ ). The last four complete years of the Mauna Loa CO2 record plus the current year are shown, as are data from 1960 onwards. Data are reported as a dry air mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided by the number of all molecules in air, including CO2 itself, after water vapor has been removed. The mole fraction is expressed as parts per million (ppm). Example: 0.000400 is expressed as 400 ppm. CO2 concentration was a minimum of about 310 ppm in 1960 but reached a maximum value of 397 ppm in 2012 and is increasing at an ever-increasing rate, about 2 ppm per year in 2012 as compared to 1 ppm per year in 1960.
“450 ppm CO2”. Searches for “450 ppm CO2” on “ABC News” yielded 2 results, one being informed listener comment and the other an incorrect ABC report, to what: “[PM Rudd] promised a tougher target if the world agrees to a 450 ppm CO2 deal for 2050” (see “Rudd overhauls emissions plan and delays 12 months”, ABC News, 4 May 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-04/rudd-overhauls-emissions-plan-and-delays-12-months/1672684 ). In actual fact it appears that PM Rudd meant “450 ppm CO2-e” and according to Friends of the Earth (FOE) (see Friends of the Earth, Media release, 18 December 2009: http://www.cana.net.au/sites/default/files/FrioendsoftheEarth_181209.pdf ): “Rudd must take responsibility for the failure of the Copenhagen talks ..While over 100 countries called for a target of 1.5 degree [C] and cuts to below 350 ppm CO2-e, Australia continued to push for two degrees and a 450 ppm CO2-e target while offering cuts that would not even fulfil them.” Further, paleoclimate and earth scientist Dr Andrew Glikson (ANU) has stated (2010): “Recent paleoclimate studies, using multiple proxies (soil carbonate δ13C, alkenones, boron/calcium, stomata leaf pores), indicate that the current CO2 level of 388ppm and CO2-equivalent level of 460ppm (which includes the methane factor), commit warming above pre-industrial levels to 3 to 4 degrees C in the tropics and 10 degrees C in polar regions, tracking towards an ice-free Earth” (see Andrew Glikson, “Cabon dioside, mass extinction fo species and climate change”, Online Opinion, 1 March 2010: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10104&page=2 ) i.e. the world has already exceeded 450 ppm CO2-e.
Note the expert opinion if Professor John E.N. "Charlie" Veron, “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?”, powerpoint lecture, joint event of the Royal Society with the Zoological Society of London and introduced by Sir David Attenborough FRS, 6 July 2009: “450 ppm [CO2] will bring on the demise of the GBR [Great Barrier Reef] …320-350 [ppm CO2 needed]” and
“CO2 in Summary.
320 ppm: occasional [coral] bleaching
345 ppm: sporadic mass bleaching
387 ppm: inevitable long-term decline
450 ppm: rapid decline, reefs cease to be biodiverse
600 ppm: acidification affecting all biota
800 ppm: mid-Eocene extinction conditions
1000 ppm: reefs only geological structures. Sixth Mass Extinction.” (see Professor John E.N. "Charlie" Veron, “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?”, joint event of the Royal Society with the Zoological Society of London and introduced by Sir David Attenborough FRS, 06 July 2009, powerpoint lecture, 61 minutes: http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=3093# ; Coral Reef Crisis Meeting, 6th July 2009, with powerpoint lecture by Dr John "Charlie" Veron as introduced by Sir David Attenborough, Coral Reef Research: http://www.coralreefresearch.org/html/crr_rs.htm ).
9/11, 9-11, September 11. The ABC, like all other Western mainstream media, uncritically accepts the “official version” of 9-11 perpetration by “Muslim men in caves” presented by the endlessly lying Bush Administration that, according to the US Center for Public Integrity, told 935 lies between 9-11 and the illegal invasion of Iraq (see “Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war”, CNN, 24 January 2008: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/ ). Thus numerous science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military, and intelligence experts say that the US Government was responsible for the 9-11 atrocity, with some suggesting Israeli involvement (see “Experts: US did 9-11”). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for the names of key experts rejecting the lying Bush “official version” shows that the ABC has zero (0) reportage of these important, expert opinions (e.g. see Elias Akleh, Johnathan Azaziah, Christopher Bollyn, Robert Bowman, Francesco Cossiga, Jeff Dahlstrom, Daniele Ganser, Niels Harrit, Alan Hart, Jim Hoffmann, Leonid Ivashov, Steven Jones, Stephen Lendman, Dr Mahathir, Thierry Meyssan, Mohsen Pakaein, Steve Pieczenik, Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, Alan Sabrowsky, Albert Stahel, Albert Stubblebine, Andreas von Bülow) i.e. the Neocon American and Zionist Imperalist-perverted and subverted Mainstream does not want its audience to know about or think about these expert opinions. A notable exception is that the ABC reported Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, identifying US complicity in 9-11 in a speech to the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 2010 (see Iranian UN Mission: http://gadebate.un.org/Portals/1/statements/634208557381562500IR_en.pdf andhttp://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/mahmoud-ahmadinejads-speech-at-the-united-nations-transcript-sept-23-2010-2/ ): “In identifying those responsible for the attack, there were three viewpoints. 1- That a very powerful and complex terrorist group, able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security, carried out the attack. This is the main viewpoint advocated by American statesmen. 2- That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view. 3- It was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation. Apparently, this viewpoint has fewer proponents.” The ABC extensively reported this expert viewpoint, presumably with confidence that the extensive demonization of Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would mean that his opinion would not be taken seriously and would accordingly back up the “official version” (see “America organized 9-11 attacks: Ahmadinejad”, Lateline, 24 September 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s3021756.htm ).
ABC Fact-checking Unit. One supposes that the ABC Fact-checking Unit will confine itself to "untruths by commission", thereby violating its brief by not exposing other major areas of falsehood (censorship, self-censorship, and lying by omission ) and thereby deceiving the public (see this site, "ABC Fact-checking Unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC Australia's BBC)":https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit and
"ABC censorship & malreportage": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-censorship ).
Aboriginal Ethnocide. Searches of “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for the term “Aboriginal ethnocide” yield zero (0) and 2 results, respectively, the latter results being comments to ABC websites by Dr Gideon Polya. The continuing Aboriginal Ethnocide involves only 50 of an original 250 Aboriginal languages surviving and an appalling Educational Apartheid that means that 80% of Northern Territory Aboriginal children fail to meet basic literacy and numeracy levels (see “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ and scroll down to HUGHES in “Educational Apartheid”: https://sites.google.com/site/educationalapartheid/ and https://sites.google.com/site/educationalapartheid/hughes ).
Afghan Genocide, Afghan Holocaust, Afghan War. Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The ABC resolutely declines to report the horrendous human cost of the Afghan War , specifically 4.2 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation (from UN Population Division data): 1.3 million violent deaths (based on Iraq war violent deaths); 3 million under-5 infant deaths, 90% avoidable and due to horrendous US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War; 3-4 million refugees (for details and documentation see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ). Searches of the ABC News for the terms "Afghan Holocaust" and "Afghan Genocide" yield zero (0) results. Searches of the "entire ABC site" for the terms "Afghan Holocaust" and "Afghan Genocide" yield 30 results and 53 results, respectively, all due to postings by Dr Gideon Polya on ABC websites. One notes that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than utterly repugnant genocide denial, and holocaust denial because the latter at least admit the possibility of public discussion (see also Muslim Genocide, Muslim Holocaust).
Agee, Philip. Philip Agee was a former CIA agent who in his book "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" famously revealed CIA involvement in subversion, corruption, torture and terrorism in Latin America.
According to Wikipedia (see “Philip Agee”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee ) “Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (July 19, 1935 – January 7, 2008) was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer, best known as author of the 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, detailing his experiences in the CIA. Agee joined the CIA in 1957, and over the following decade had postings in Washington, D.C., Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. After resigning from the Agency in 1968, he became a leading opponent of CIA practices. A co-founder of CovertAction Quarterly, he died in Cuba in January 2008.” He was refused entry to France and Australia 9as revealed in 2014) and expelled from the UK. He has been “disappeared” by Australian mainstream media including the ABC (see Gideon Polya, “US-beholden Australian Government banned & Australian Media censored US whistleblower Philip Agee”, Countercurrents, 2 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya020114.htm .
A Search of ABC News and a Search of the “entire ABC site” for “Philip Agee” yields zero (0) results . However while a search for the misspelt “Phillip Agee” (with 2 ls) yields zero (0) results from ABC News, a “search of the entire ABC site” for the misspelt “Phillip Agee” yields 2 results, both comments on ABC program websites by Dr Gideon Polya and of which one has been subsequently sneakily completely censored out by the ABC as recorded by the website “Censorship by the ABC Late Night Live” [6]:
(1). In response to a 16 March 2013 ABC Radio National Saturday Extra segment entitled “Pope Francis and the Dirty War” [7] my following comment was published on the Saturday Extra website [8]: “Dr Gideon Polya :18 Mar 2013 3:14:02pm. Read William Blum's "Rogue State" for US-backed state terrorism and death squads in Latin America, including Argentina. Catholic US spy Phillip Agee's "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" describes how the US subverted Latin American unions, governments and oppositions (whence comes an Australian version?) and was complicit in the large-scale arrest, torture and disappearing of scores of thousands of Latin Americans from El Salvador to Argentina. Indeed Agee describes how US-led terrorist groups would bomb Catholic churches in Ecuador knowing that socialists would be blamed by media and the people. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity - the new Holy Father must be praised for his concern for the poor but he and his cardinal colleagues have some explaining to do over the position of the Catholic Church in relation to horrendous, murderous US-backed crimes against worker priests, other decent Catholic clergy and other progressive people serving the poor in Latin America.”
(2). In response to an attack on outstanding Australian journalist John Pilger in a comment thread on the ABC Radio National Late Night Live website re the 3 October 2012 segment “Crisis in democracy” , the ABC initially published the following comment but then sneakily completely censored it out as containing things it evidently does not want Australians to read, know about or think about [6, 9]: “DrGideonPolya : 07 Oct 2012 9:43:43am. Kerr [the US “asset” Governor General who sacked Australian Labor PM Whitlam] was a CIA "asset" and the US strongly disapproved of the Whitlam Government over Vietnam, Pine Gap and in general for not being traitorous US lackeys. For a detailed summary of US subversion in Australia in 1975 and in other countries around the world see William Blum's best-selling book "Rogue State". Phillip Agee's book "Inside the Company. CIA Diary" is mainly an eye-witness participant account of CIA subversion in Latin America and in Ecuador in particular, but it is glaringly obvious from the book to followers of Australian politics who the corresponding Australian "assets" are. Unfortunately the endlessly lying and deceiving American Establishment did not keep its 1977 promise to Gough Whitlam. Thus the US Ambassador Schieffer ("Sheep for brains" in Mark Latham's book "The Latham Diaries") publicly intervened in the 2004 elections, vetoing Latham's electoral bid over his policy to get out of Iraq (substantially US-owned Australian MSM have continued the US-initiated vilification of Latham). WikiLeaks has revealed US antipathy to Rudd who was eventually sacked (for being too pro-Australian) in the Mining Corporation-backed, US-approved, and pro-Zionist-led 2010 Coup. WikiLeaks has further revealed US "assets" within the Labor Government who would secretly report to the Zionist-headed US embassy.”
Thus there is only 1 mention of outstanding US whistleblower Philip Agee in the “entire ABC site” and that is 1 surviving comment about (misspelt) “Phillip Agee” on an ABC website by Dr Gideon Polya.
However the ABC is not alone in “disappearing” Philip Agee. Thus searches of leading Australian newspapers for “Philip Agee” also yield zero (0) reportage, these comprehensively Philip Agee-censoring Australian newspapers including The Age (Fairfax media Melbourne), The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax media, Sydney), The Canberra Times (Fairfax media, Canberra), The West Australian (Kerry Stokes, Perth), the Murdoch News Limited newspapers The Australian (national), The Courier Mail (Brisbane), The Mercury (Hobart), The Advertiser (Adelaide), The Herald Sun (Melbourne), Perth Now (Perth), NT News (Darwin) and the Murdoch News.com (on-line).
Fortunately for literate and curious Australians, the Australian National Library in Canberra has a copy of Philip Agee’s “Inside the Company. CIA Diary:, as also does, for example, the Borchardt Library at La Trobe University, Melbourne.
While the Australian ABC resolutely refuses to mention Philip Agee, a search of the American ABC for “Philip Agee” yields 13 articles and a search of the iconic UK BBC for “Philip Agee” yields 3 reports that variously mention his book, his expulsion from the UK and his eventual death in Cuba. In contrast, a Google Search for “Philip Agee” yields 110,000 results.
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Akleh, Elias. Dr Elias Akleh (an Arab writer of Palestinian descent, born in the town of Beit-Jala, who currently he lives in the US) has stated: (2010): “The terrorist attack of 9/11 had been used to launch WWIII called “Global war on terror”. The American administration had enlisted world political bodies such as UN, EU, and NATO to wage wars in different kinds of shapes and intensity against other countries; Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Iran… Scientific studies and many investigations done by 911 truth groups have discredited the investigation of the 911 Commission. There are a lot of evidences indicating that 911 was a false flag terrorist attack planned by the power elite and executed with the cooperation of Israeli Mossad operatives (the dancing Israelis documenting the attack)” (see Elias Akleh, “The Power Elite, and Al-Qaeda”, MWC News, 15 September 2010: http://mwcnews.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5249&Itemid=126 ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Elias Akleh” yield zero (0) results.
Anti-Arab anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is damage by word or deed to ethnically and/or culturally Semitic people (Arabs, Muslims and Jews) and occurs in 2 equally repugnant forms, anti-Arab anti-Semitism (against 300 million ethnically and culturally Semitic Arabs or 1,500 million mostly culturally Arab Semitic Muslims and 15 million mostly culturally Jewish Semitic Jews). The ABC like most Western mainstream media has an appalling record of entrenched anti-Arab anti-Semitism through (a) vilification of strictly observant Muslims by routine use of the terms “fundamentalist Muslims”, “Islamic extremists”, “Islamic radicals”, “Islamic militants”, “radical Islamists”, “militant Islamists” and explicit, implicit or dog-whistling conflation of Muslims in general with Muslim-origin non-state terrorism that has killed 2,000 Westerners in the last half century (this ignoring the deaths of 2,000 Zionist colonizers and the 3,000 would died on 9-11, almost certainly at the hand of people within the US Government; see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ ) , and (b) remorselessly ignoring in a process of continuing genocide ignoring, holocaust ignoring, genocide denial and holocaust denial the horrendous human cost of the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims that has involved 12 million Muslim deaths (half of children) from violence or from violently-imposed deprivation since 1990 , the breakdown including 4.6 million Iraqis, 5.5 million Afghans, 2.2 million Somalis, 0.1 million Palestinians, 0.1 million Libyans, and 0.1 million Syrians, with Muslim refugees totalling over 20 million, these including 5-6 million Iraqis, 3-4 million Afghans, 2 million Somalis, 1 million Libyans, 7 million Palestinians, 1 million Myanmar Rohingyas and 1.7 million Syrian refugees who fled to neighbouring countries (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ). The ABC and other Australian mainstream media endlessly report on largely Muslim asylum seekers trying to reach Australian by boat but largely ignore the horrendous devastation of the source countries by US Alliance sanctions, war, occupation, and genocide (also see Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide, Afghanistan, Afghan War, Iraq, Iraqi Genocide, Iraqi Holocaust, Iraq War )..
Anti-Jewish anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is damage by word or deed to ethnically and/or culturally Semitic people (Arabs, Muslims and Jews) and occurs in 2 equally repugnant forms, anti-Arab anti-Semitism (against 300 million ethnically and culturally Semitic Arabs or 1,500 million mostly culturally Arab Semitic Muslims and 15 million mostly culturally Jewish Semitic Jews). The ABC indulges in anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through (a) conflating all Jews and hence decent, anti0racsit Jews, with the horrendous crimes of democracy-by –genocide Apartheid Israel (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ) and (b) variously sidelining , blocking, censoring and defaming anti-racist Jewish opinion (see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ). Thus below are the names of outstanding anti-racist Jewish Australians whose quoted views in support of Palestinian human rights in an Open Letter on Apartheid Israel’s racist Law of Return (see Antony Lowenstwein, “Prominent Australian Jews including Peter Singer, reject the Israeli right of return”, 3 March 2010: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/03/03/prominent-australian-jews-including-peter-singer-reject-the-israeli-right-of-return/ ) were censored out by the pro-Zionist ABC and by the ABC-linked, pro-Zionist, academic web magazine The Conversation (“Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by , “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ) : Professor Peter Singer, Miriam Margolyes, Professor Eva Cox, Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Sara Dowse, Professor GJ Lindell, Susan Varga, Antony Loewenstein, Professor David SG Goodman, Professor John Docker, Jean McClean, Dr Peter Slezak, Dr Tony Balint, Dr Ron Witton, Dr Ned Curthoys, Dr Rick Kuhn, Dr. Tamas Pataki, Russell Bancroft, Alice Beauchamp, Toni Beauchamp, Wendy Crew, Bronwyn Dahlstrom, Nicole Erlich, Marshall Harris, David Hermolin, Sylvie Leber, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Stefan Moore, Martin Munz, Vivienne Porzsolt, Joe Rich, Margot Salom, Rene Tsukasov, and Nic Witton. Searches of “ABC News” for the phrase “Law of Return” yield zero (0) reports of this important letter signed by numerous anti-racist Jewish Australians.
Anti-racist Jewish Australians. For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”. The ABC indulges in anti-Jewish anti-Semitism against anti-racist Jews (including some of the most outstanding Jewish Australian scholars) through (a) conflating all Jews and hence decent, anti0racsit Jews, with the horrendous crimes of democracy-by –genocide Apartheid Israel (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ) and (b) variously sidelining , blocking, censoring and defaming anti-racist Jewish opinion (see ). Thus below are examples of outstanding anti-racist Jewish Australians whose quoted views in support of Palestinian human rights in an Open Letter on Apartheid Israel’s racist Law of Return (see Antony Lowenstein, “Prominent Australian Jews including Peter Singer, reject the Israeli right of return”, 3 March 2010: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/03/03/prominent-australian-jews-including-peter-singer-reject-the-israeli-right-of-return/ ) were censored out by the pro-Zionist ABC and by the ABC-linked, pro-Zionist, academic web magazine The Conversation (“Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home , “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ and "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ) : Professor Peter Singer, Miriam Margolyes, Professor Eva Cox, Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Sara Dowse, Professor GJ Lindell, Susan Varga, Antony Loewenstein, Professor David SG Goodman, Professor John Docker, Jean McClean, Dr Peter Slezak, Dr Tony Balint, Dr Ron Witton, Dr Ned Curthoys, Dr Rick Kuhn, Dr. Tamas Pataki, Russell Bancroft, Alice Beauchamp, Toni Beauchamp, Wendy Crew, Bronwyn Dahlstrom, Nicole Erlich, Marshall Harris, David Hermolin, Sylvie Leber, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Stefan Moore, Martin Munz, Vivienne Porzsolt, Joe Rich, Margot Salom, Rene Tsukasov, and Nic Witton. Searches of “ABC News” for the phrase “Law of Return” yield zero (0) reports of this important letter signed by numerous anti-racist Jewish Australians.
Anti-racist Jews and non-Jews. For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”. However the ABC and the similarly taxpayer-funded and ABC-linked, universities-backed, academic-based web magazine The Conversation) have an appalling records of sidelining, blocking, censorship and egregious defamation applied to anti-racist Jewish opinion (for details see
“Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ , "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat and “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ). Below are examples of outstanding anti-racist Jewish (and non-Jewish) writers and leaders whose quoted views in support of Palestinian human rights have been censored out by the pro-Zionist ABC and by the ABC-linked, pro-Zionist, academic web magazine The Conversation.
Professor Peter Singer, Miriam Margolyes, Professor Eva Cox, Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Sara Dowse, Professor GJ Lindell, Susan Varga, Antony Loewenstein, Professor David SG Goodman, Professor John Docker, Jean McClean, Dr Peter Slezak, Dr Tony Balint, Dr Ron Witton, Dr Ned Curthoys, Dr Rick Kuhn, Dr. Tamas Pataki, Russell Bancroft, Alice Beauchamp, Toni Beauchamp, Wendy Crew, Bronwyn Dahlstrom, Nicole Erlich, Marshall Harris, David Hermolin, Sylvie Leber, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Stefan Moore, Martin Munz, Dr Gideon Polya, Vivienne Porzsolt, Joe Rich, Margot Salom, Rene Tsukasov, and Nic Witton (anti-racist Jewish Australians);
Helen Bamber OBE, Prof Zygmunt Bauman, Sir Geoffrey Bindman, Rex Bloomstein, Sir Anthony Caro, Prof Stan Cohen, Jenny Diski, Moris Farhi MBE, Bella Freud, Stephen Fry, Prof Eric Hobsbawm, Dr Julian Huppert MP, Prof Mary Kaldor, Nicolas Kent, Beeban Kidron, Baroness Oona King, Prof Francesca Klug OBE, Mike Leigh, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Mike Marqusee, Dr Jonathan Miller, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Sophie Okonedo OBE, Prof Susie Orbach, Prof Jacqueline Rose FBA, Mike Rosen, Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, Alexei Sayle, Prof Lynne Segal, Will Self, Sir Antony Sher, Prof Avi Shlaim FBA, Gillian Slovo, Sir Tom Stoppard, Dame Janet Suzman and Zoë Wanamaker CBE (eminent anti-racist Jewish Britons);
Uri Avnery, John Berger, William Blum, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Jeff Halper, Naomi Klein, Stephen Lendman, Ilan Pappe, Harold Pinter, Adi Ophir, Tanya Reinhart, and Howard Zinn (more famous anti-racist Jews); and
Tariq Ali , Rev. Allan Boesak, Professor Francis Boyle, Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Kathleen Christison, Bill Christison, Jonathan Cook, Ed Corrigan, Brian Eno, PM Tayyip Erdogan, Sophie Fiennes, Eduardo Galeano, George Galloway MP, Mahatma Gandhi, Allan Hart, Julia Irwin MP, Sonja Karkar, Conor Kelly, Terry Lane, Martin Linton MP, Mairead Maguire, Gabran Majdalany, Nelson Mandela. Cardinal Renato Martino, Cynthia McKinney, Vanessa Redgrave, Senator Lee Rhiannon, Arundhati Roy, Rabee Sahyoun, Jose Saramago, Ahdad Soueif, Elia Suleiman, Baroness Jennifer Tonge, Rev Desmond Tutu, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, David Ward MP and Dr Vacy Vlazna (variously famous anti-racist non-Jewish writers and leaders) (for details and more see “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ and “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ).
Apartheid Israel. A search of the ABC News for the phrase “Apartheid Israel” yields only 1 result, a comment by an ABC listener : “Luke Weyland:21 Sep 2011 3:21:46am “I was in the ALP from 1979 to 84 when it opposed apartheid south africa, supported refugee rights, land rights, free tertiary education, Now it supports Apartheid Israel, racist NTIntervention, wants to send refugees anywhere, charges students to TAFE and Uni, and supports the ABCC. I now belong to Socialist Alliance.” (see Marius Benson, Politics without principle”, The Drum, 20 September 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-20/benson-politics-without-principles/2908206 ). A search of “the entire ABC site” for the phrase “Apartheid Israel” yields 74 results, of which all but 5 are comments to ABC websites by Dr Gideon Polya., specifically “Apartheid Israel?”, The Religion Report, 8 June 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/apartheid-israel/3442902 ; http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/2005-06-08/3442900 ; Anna Baltzer interviewed by Mark Colvin, “Activist outlines possibility for 5 new Palestinian Plan”, ABC Radio National. PM, 25 October 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3047744.htm ; Dr Uri Davis, interviewed by Phillip Adams, “Israel’s Apartheid”, :Late Night Live, : http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/israels-apartheid/3451430 ; “Israel and Apartheid South Africa”, Late Night Live, 22 June 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/israel-and-apartheid-south-africa/3033918 ; a comment by an ABC listener Luke Weyland in Marius Benson, Politics without principle”, The Drum, 20 September 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-20/benson-politics-without-principles/2908206 ). Major figures in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, most notably Sidumo Dlamini,Winnie Mandela, Professor John Dugard, Ronnie Kastils and Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have unequivocally condemned Israeli Apartheid and support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel (as successfully employed against Apartheid in South Africa) (see Gideon Polya, “Hypocrisy of pro-Apartheid Israel Obama visiting post-Apartheid South Africa”, Countercurrents, 3 July 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya030713.htm ).
Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, Israeli state terrorism. Since 1936 Palestinian deaths from violence (0.1 million) or violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million) have totaled 2.0 million. There are now 7 million Palestinian refugees arising from those who have fled genocidal Apartheid Israeli state terrorism in 1948 and thence in 1967. The genocidally racist Israelis exert control over Occupied Palestinians using heavily armed troops on the ground in the West Bank and by army, naval and air force rocketing and bombing in what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp. Apartheid Israeli invasion and occupation of all its neighbours has meant budgetary perversion in these countries to deal with its US-backed threat. The 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation and 1950-2005 post-1950 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) are presented here for Apartheid Israel, for each country variously occupied (* indicates other occupiers) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by Apartheid Israel: Apartheid Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] - Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan* [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories* [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% (see Chapter 3, Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html . A A search of the “ABC News” for “Israeli state terrorism” yields zero (0) results, despite the horrendous reality that Israeli state terrorists have repeatedly forged Australian passports on a huge scale, subverted Australian MPs and journalists on a huge scale, and subjected Australian citizens to theft, tasering, shooting, kidnapping, piracy, imprisonment and bombing (the Israelis bombed 25,0000 Australian citizens in Lebanon in 2006 while the Zionist-perverted Lib-Lab MPs expressed support for the democracy-by-genocide Apartheid rogue state). Indeed the 24 June 2010 Coup against PM Kevin Rudd as a US-approved, foreign mining company-backed , pro-Zionist-led Coup (see (see Antony Loewenstein, "Does the Zionist lobby have blood on its hands in Australia ?": http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/07/02/does-the-zionist-lobby-have-blood-on-its-hands-in-australia/ , Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist-led Coup ousts Australian PM Rudd”, MWC News, 29 June 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/3488-pro-zionist-led-coup.html , Middle east reality Check, “I’ve been to Israel too”: http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/ive-been-to-israel-too.html , and “50 ways racist Zionists (RZs) and israleu syae yterroism (IST) threaten Aistral an YOURcontry too:, Belacioam, 14 March 2010: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19618 ).
"Australian sustainable energy - by the numbers". Professor Peter Seligman (a top electrical engineer, a major player in the development of the bionic ear - one of Australia’s foremost biotechnology successes - and an adjunct professor at the University of Melbourne) has written a book entitled "Australian sustainable energy - by the numbers" (available for free download and perusal from the web: http://www.sustainablemelbourne.com/research/australian-sustainable-energy-by-the-numbers-by-peter-seligman-free-pdf-book/ ), an extremely important book that sets out how Australia could install 100% renewable energy within 2 decades for about $250 billion, the main items including wind energy, solar energy, hydrological energy storage for 24/7 baseload operation and an expanded AC and DC HV transmission system. However searches of “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Australian sustainable energy - by the numbers" yield zero (0) and 6 results, respectively, the latter all involving comments to ABC websites by informed listeners and of these 5 are by Dr Gideon Polya. Similarly, a search of “ABC News” for “Peter Seligman” yields zero (0) results. One is staggered that the ABC for whatever reasons evidently does not want its audience to read, know about or think about this book that is crucial for informed discussion about Australia’s energy and economic future.
Azaziah, Jonathan. Jonathan Azaziah (an Iraqi, Moroccan-Hebrew, Russian, poet, activist and writer from Brooklyn, New York currently residing in Florida whose articles, poems and music predominantly deal with international Zionism and the effects that it has on the world’s oppressed people): “A controlled demolition brought down the Twin Towers and the Solomon Brothers Building a.k.a. Building 7, not hijackers; not jetliners. The 9/11 Commission, headed by Zionist Phillip Zelikow, and the report (read: degenerate script of inconsistency and falsehood) it delivered, were/are epic, epic frauds” (see Jonathan Azaziah, “The 9/11 delusion: Israel’s false flag, jingoism and inhumanity”, Intifada Palestine, 21 September 2011: http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/09/the-911-delusion-israel%E2%80%99s-false-flag-jingoism-and-inhumanity/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Jonathan Azaziah” yield zero (0) results.
Bengal Famine, Bengali Famine, Bengali Genocide, Bengali Holocaust, Indian Genocide, Indian Holocaust. By withholding supplies from its huge wheat stores, Australia helped Britain deliberately starve 6-7 million Indians in the World War 2 Bengal Famine (Bengali Genocide, Bengali Holocaust, Indian Holocaust, Indian Genocide). Today, Australia as a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution is disproportionately contributing to a worsening climate genocide that is set to kill 2 billion Indians , 0.5 billion Bengalis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis this century if man-made climate change is not seriously addressed (see Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html ; “Listen to: The Bengal Famine”, The Open University & BBC: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now also available for free perusal on the web:: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ; “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” for the phrases “Bengal Famine”, “Bengali Famine”, “Bengali Genocide”, “Bengali Holocaust”, “Indian Genocide”, and “Indian Holocaust” yield zero (0) results.
Searches of “the entire ABC site” for the following phrases yield the following results (given in parentheses) “Bengal Famine” (21), “Bengali Famine” (2), “Bengali Genocide” (0), “Bengali Holocaust” (28), “Indian Genocide” (2), and “Indian Holocaust” (3), all of these being due to posts to ABC websites by Dr Gideon Polya except for the following 5 “Bengal Famine” results: (1) Dr Vandana Shiva, “Colonization and independence”, ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/specials/shiva/pg04.htm ; (2) “Nobel Prize for economics”, Lateline, 14 May 2001: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s296690.htm (awarded to Professor Amartya Sen, an expert on the WW2 Bengal Famine); (3) Gideon Polya, “Bengali Famine”, Ockham’s Razor, 21 February 1999: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/bengali-famine/3556698#transcript (radio broadcast); (4) “Foreign aid: are our aid dollars working”, Australia Talks, 31 May 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/australiatalks/foreign-aid-are-our-aid-dollars-working/2950424 (comment posted by Mulga Mumblebrain); (5) “Tiny terrorists: fear of fungi”, Background Briefing, 29 September 2002: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/tiny-terrorists-fear-of-fungi/3521406#transcript (the passage “Simon Whitby:.”And I think if you look back historically at the role of fungal plant pathogens in crop losses, then you only have to look to the role of late blight of potatoes, which is caused by a fungal plant pathogen which was responsible for the Irish potato famine in 1845-6, and I think the consequences of that famine are quite well known. In addition to that, we have another example of brown spot of rice being one of the major contributive factors in the Bengal famine of 1943” is incorrect – the rice blight was a minor contributor and Professor Amarty Sen in the BBC account referred to above states that it was rice price and not rice deficit : “What had happened is that there was a considerable expansion of demand for food because of the war boom. And with the same supply they were having rising prices. So it wasn’t connected with food deficit at all”). One notes that while “holocaust” means deaths of a huge number of people, “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see also Indian Genocide, Indian Holocaust )
Bollyn, Christopher. Christopher Bollyn (a US writer who has written extensively about US and Israeli involvement in the 9-11 atrocity): “U.S. investigators and the controlled media have ignored a preponderance of evidence pointing to Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, being involved in the terror attacks of 9-11” (see Christopher Bolleyn, "The Israeli connection to 9-11": http://www.bollyn.com/public/Israeli_Connection_to_9-11.pdf and Christopher Bollyn’s book, “Solving 9-11- the deception that changed the world” ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Christopher Bollyn” yield zero (0) results and 1 result, respectively, the latter being a reader comment on an ABC website (see “9/11 decade: a loss of confidence”, Saturday Extra, 4 June 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/911-decade-a-loss-of-confidence/2954014 ).
Bowman, Robert. Lt. Col. Robert Bowman ( U.S. Air Force, doctoral degrees in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, served as the Head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering and Assistant Dean at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, flew over 100 combat missions in Viet Nam as a fighter pilot): “There’s a second group of facts having to do with the cover up. Taken together these things prove that high levels of our government don’t want us to know what happened and who’s responsible. Who gained from 9/11? Who covered up crucial information about 9/11? And who put out the patently false stories about 9/11 in the first place? When you take those three things together, I think the case is pretty clear that it’s highly placed individuals in the administration with all roads passing through Dick Cheney…. [re failure of NORAD to intercept the four hijacked planes on 9/11} Col. Bowman I'm an old interceptor pilot. I know the drill. I've done it. I know how long it takes. I know the rules. Critics of the government story on 9/11 have said: “Well, they knew about this, and they did nothing”. That's not true. If our government had done nothing that day and let normal procedure be followed, those planes, wherever they were, would have been intercepted, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive” (Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, quoted in “USA military officers challenge official account of September 11”, Axis of Logic, 29 May 2008 (ex Pakistan Daily) : http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_26828.shtml ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Robert Bowman” yielded zero (0) results for Lt. Col. Robert Bowman.
Carbon Price, Carbon Tax. In the US proponents of a Carbon Tax want a tax on fossil fuels at the mine gate with all revenues being passed directly to citizens (see James Hansen, “It's Possible To Avert The Climate Crisis”, Countercurrents, 29 November 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/hansen291109.htm ) . The fraudulent Australian Labor Government Carbon Tax was imposed instead on industrial and domestic fossil fuel consumers at the rate of circa $23 per tonne CO2-e, this realizing about $10 billion of which 90% is returned to consumers in what in metabolic biochemistry is called a futile cycle. Fossil fuel producers are only taxed on transport costs and fugitive emissions (escape of methane and other similar gases). However fossil fuel burning (including that for transport) is subsidized in Australia to the tune of $12 billion per year. Further, the Labor Government understates gas leakage as 0.12% (rather than the science-based estimates of 3-.3%-7.9% of gas produced) and under-estimates the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4, the bulk of natural gas) as 21 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) (whereas it is actually 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and considering aerosol impacts). This leads to an immense Carbon Tax Scandal in which a pro-gas Labor Government understates the Carbon Tax obligations of the corporate gas producers by a factor of 137-329, collecting an estimated mere $21 million annually rather than the science-indicated Carbon Tax obligation of about $3-7 billion each year from leakage of natural gas (fugitive emissions) (see Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Carbon Tax Scandal”, MWC News, 23 November 2013: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23026-gideonpolya-carbon-tax.html ). The 2013 Rudd Labor Government has now decided scrap the Carbon Tax (currently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) and move rapidly to a Cap-and-Trade ETS in mid-2014 but the EU carbon price under the EU ETS is only about $6 per tonne CO2-e (i.e. Australia can avoid “tackling climate change” at home by buying cheap EU credits abroad; the “Cap” of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” is derisory) . It is estimated that a Carbon Price of about $80 per tonne CO2-e is needed to move away from coal burning to wind power. Carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually means a real Carbon Price of about $150 per tonne CO2-e (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
Climate Change. The ABC recognizes the reality of man-made climate change but seriously under-estimates its seriousness. the ABC report that Australia already exceeded its fair share of this terminal greenhouse gas pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes CO2-e in 2011 (see Section G, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ). The ABC has failed to report that World Bank analysts have recently re-assessed global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by considering the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4) as 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20 year time frame (21 times worse on a 100 year time frame). They found that man's GHG pollution was 50% bigger than hitherto thought (from 41.8 Gt CO2-e to 63.8 Gt CO2-e) and that livestock contribute over 51% of the bigger number (this too is an underestimate because NASA scientists have recently found that the GWP of CH4 is 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account)(see section "2011 climate change course": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course and see Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf ) (see also Climate Commission, Global Warming, Terminal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Budget, WBGU) .
Climate Commission. The ABC has reported the findings of the expert Australian Climate Commission and in particular their finding that 80% of fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground (e.g. see “Climate Commission report says that 80 per cent of fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground”, ABC News, 26 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-17/fossil-fuel-reserves-must-stay-in-ground-report/4757448 ). However the ABC has resolutely not reported the German WBGU’s estimation that no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 can be emitted between now and zero emission sin 2050 if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise. Nor will the ABC report that Australia already exceeded its fair share of this terminal greenhouse gas pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes CO2-e in 2011 (see Section G, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ) . The ABC has reported that the Climate Commission has stated that “The report says global carbon dioxide emissions cannot exceed 600 billion tonnes between now and 2050 if the climate is to stay within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels” (see “Government says coal industry vital despite Climate Commission’s warning against fossil fuels”, ABC News, 17 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-17/ministers-warn-against-winding-down-coal-industry-despite-dire-/4760414 ). (see also Global Warming, Terminal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Budget, WBGU).
Coal Seam Gas (CSG). The ABC News reported, without correction, the incorrect claim by CSG advocate Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy that “"Gas is cleaner than coal, we are looking at local power generation, we see no fundamental reason why we should change, because we need to communicate more with people and make sure the information gets out there." (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ).
"Coalition’s policy for resources and energy”. Just before the 7 September 2013 Federal Election the Coalition produced a policy document dated September 2013 and entitled “The Coalition’s Policy for Resources and Energy” (see: http://www.nationals.org.au/Portals/0/00_Election_00/Coalition%202013%20Election%20Policy%20%E2%80%93%20Energy%20and%20Resources%20%E2%80%93%20Final.pdf ) . This document is extraordinary for making absolutely no mention of “climate change” that derives heavily from fossil fuel burning. Yet a “search of the entire ABC site” for the phrase “policy for resources and energy” reveals only one (1) instance in which this key document is mentioned, specifically the following posted reader comment by Dr Gideon Polya to an ABC Saturday Extra segment entitled “Election 2013: National issues”: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/election-special3a-national-panel-discussion/4934974 : “The most shocking event of the Election Campaign came at the end - "The Coalition's Policy for Resources and Energy" issued in September 2013 made absolutely zero (0) mention of man-made climate change from fossil fuel burning. The new Abbott Coalition Government will be thrown out at the next election unless it recognizes and seriously and urgently tackles man-made climate change from fossil fuel burning, noting that Australia is a world leader in annual per capita Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (Google "2011 climate change course" and see section G; Google "climate genocide").”
Cossiga, Francesco. Professor Francesco Cossiga ( 63rd prime minister and 8th president of Italy, professor of law at the University of Sassari, Sardinia, intelligence intimate, a lifetime senator, like all the former Presidents of the Italian Republic, since 1992. His current title is President Emeritus of the Italian Republic): in a famous interview with leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera re US CIA and Israeli Mossad involvement in 9/11 (2007): "As I’ve been told, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow [interview appeared on 30 November 2007] the most important chain of newspapers of our country should give the proof, with an exceptional scoop, that the video (which in reality is an audio tape, NdR) in which appears Osama, leader of “the great and powerful movement of islamic revenge Al Quaeda” - God bless him! - and in which are formulated threats to our ex president Berlusconi, is nothing more than a fake realized inside Mediaset studios [the huge television group owned by Berlusconi] in Milan and sent to arabic television station Al Jazeera. The trap was organized to create solidarity for Berlusconi, who is having lot of problems related to the tangle between RAI and Mediaset. From circles around Palazzo Chigi, nerve centre of direction of Italian intelligence, it is noted that the non-authenticity of the video is testified from the fact that Osama bin Laden in it 'confessed' that Al Qaeda was the author of the attack of the 11 September on the Twin Towers in New York, while all of the democratic circles of America and of Europe, in the front lines being those of the Italian centre-left, now know well that the disastrous attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan." (see Francesco Cossiga, quoted in :”Francesco Cossiga”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Cossiga ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Francesco Cossiga” yielded zero (0) and 1 result, respectively, the latter being a comment by Dr Gideon Polya (see “Waking Italy up”, Saturday Extra, 25 May 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/waking-italy-up/4706076 ).
Dahlstrom, Jeff. Lt. Jeff Dahlstrom (former U.S. Air Force pilot ): “The US government and the news media, once again, were lying to the world about the real terrorists and the public murder of 2,972 innocents on 9/11. The ‘Patriot Act’ was actually written prior to 9/11 with the intention of destroying the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. It was passed by Congress, based upon the government's myth of 9/11, which was in reality a staged hoax. 9/11 was scripted and executed by rogue elements of the military, FAA, intelligence, and private contractors working for the US government. In addition to severely curtailing fundamental rights of Americans, the 9/11 crime was then used by this administration, the one I originally voted for and supported, to justify waging two preemptive wars (and most likely a third war), killing over 4,500 American soldiers, and killing over one million innocent Afghan and Iraqi people. It was all premeditated. Treason, a false flag military operation, and betrayal of the trust of the American people were committed on 9/11 by the highest levels of the US government and not one person responsible for the crimes, or the cover-up, has been held accountable for the last six years" (Lt. Jeff Dahlstrom, quoted in “USA military officers challenge official account of September 11”, Axis of Logic, 29 May 2008 (ex Pakistan Daily) : http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_26828.shtml ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Jeff Dahlstrom” yielded zero (0) results.
Dollars ($) per tonne - $ per tonne carbon, $ per tonne CO2 or $ per tonne CO2-e?. In over 40 years of teaching university science students I have continually stressed the importance of “units”. I suspect that unfortunately most non-scientist journalists, MPs, academics and other public commentators would not correctly answer the question “What is the current carbon price?”. Thus ABC News in incorrectly reporting the Rudd Government’s likely election-winning mid-2014 shift from a “Carbon Tax” to an ETS, stated: “The Federal Government wants to move from a fixed carbon price of $24.15 a tonne to a floating price of about $6 by July 2014” (see “PM Kevin Rudd reveals $3.8 billion price tag on decision to “terminate” carbon tax”, ABC News, 16 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/38-billion-to-terminate-carbon-tax-says-kevin-rudd/4822556 ). This statement as such is meaningless – it is like stating “I bought this apple for 10” (10 what? 10 cents? 10 dollars?). This is not trivial e.g. consider the statement “I will sell you my car for 10,000 (10,000 cents, dollars, US dollars, apples?).
CO2-e (CO2-equivalent) in appropriate mass units is a measure of greenhouse gases (including CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases) in terms of the equivalent mass of CO2 with the same global warming potential. Carbon has a an atomic weight of 12 and carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) have molecular weights of about 44 and 16, respectively (noting that the parameters atomic weight and molecular weight are dimensionless because they are the ratio of masses). Thus, for example, carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually mean a Real Carbon Price of about A$151 per tonne CO2-e or (A$151 / tonne CO2) x (44 t CO2 /12 t carbon) = A$554 per tonne carbon (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ). For related analyses see the Alternative Fact-checking website "ABC Fact-checking Unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC Australia's BBC)": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit and for detailed notes for a climate change mini-course I gave to final year university students see “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ).
The answer to the question I posed originally is that the Carbon Price is about A$24 per tonne CO2-e.
Educational Apartheid. The moral failure of greed-based neoliberalism in wealthy Australia has also been exposed by Australia 's Educational Apartheid system that means that the children of the wealthy go to well-resourced, taxpayer-subsidized private schools but most Australian children attend poorly resourced State schools run by the various State Governments. Australia 's Educational Apartheid system means that 46% of Australians are functionally illiterate and 53% are functionally innumerate (see section 3.1 in Josh Fear, “Choice overload. Australians coping with financial decisions”. The Australia Institute, Discussion paper 99: http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP99.pdf and "Educational Apartheid": https://sites.google.com/site/educationalapartheid/ ); that 80% of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory fail to meet basic literacy and numeracy standards; that the majority of Australian children who attend State-run schools (as opposed to taxpayer-subsidized private schools) are disproportionately excluded from a good education, university, good universities and top professional courses such as medicine and law; and that the minority of children attending obscenely taxpayer-subsidized private religious schools are subject to gross intellectual child abuse through the foisting of egregious falsehood on children e.g. gender discrimination, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, sexual guilt, racism, jingoism, creationism, intelligent design, other religious clap-trap (virgin birth etc) and the right to invade, devastate and ethnically cleanse other countries (see Gideon Polya, “37 ways of tackling Australian Educational Apartheid and social Inequity”, Countercurrents, 22 May 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya220513.htm ). A search of “ABC News” and of “the entire ABC sites” for the term “Educational Apartheid” (a term used throughout the world to describe gross inequities in educational opportunity for children; see "Educational Apartheid": https://sites.google.com/site/educationalapartheid/ ) yields zero (0) and 20 results, respectively, but of the latter all but 2 are comments made by Dr Gideon Polya to ABC websites and of the 2 exceptions, one refers to an article in the The Australian newspaper entitled ““Educational Apartheid” failing kids” ( The Australian, 5 April 2008) describing how "Indigenous children in remote communities in the Northern Territory are being condemned to failure by a system of educational apartheid that offers a second-rate curriculum in make-believe schools" (see: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2274376.htm ) and the other relates to a an ABC listener comment on disability reform (see Senator Mitch Fifield, “2011: a big year for disability reform”, ABC Ramp Up, 12 January 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2011/01/12/3111057.htm ).
"Education Revolution" (an egregiously false Labor slogan). While the accurate and widely-used term “Educational Apartheid” is completely absent from ABC usage (see Educational Apartheid), a search of “ABC News” and of “the entire ABC sites” for the egregiously dishonest Labor political slogan “Education Revolution” for details of the horrendous state of education in Australia see Educational Apartheid) yields 20 and over 5,000 results, respectively. In this appalling example, the ABC is comprehensively hiding the Awful Truth while hugely promoting a huge lie.
Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) (Cap-and-Trade Carbon Pricing). 1. The ETS approach involves setting a Cap on carbon pollution and then trading permits to pollute up to that cap. The ABC has a dominant but incorrect position that an ETS is a market-based system for pricing carbon and “tackling climate change” (see Tackling climate change). Thus re the Cap, the ABC has reported that the Climate Commission has stated that “The report says global carbon dioxide emissions cannot exceed 600 billion tonnes between now and 2050 if the climate is to stay within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels” (see “Government says coal industry vital despite Climate Commission’s warning against fossil fuels”, ABC News, 17 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-17/ministers-warn-against-winding-down-coal-industry-despite-dire-/4760414 ) but has totally ignored the radical implications of this, specifically cessation of global - including Australian - GHG pollution within 5-15 years, and has ignored same earlier assessment by the WBGU that advises the German Government on climate change (see WBGU). Further, the ABC resolutely ignores expert climate economist and climate scientist opinion that condemns the ETS approach as being (a) empirically unsuccessfully (as with the EU ETS), (b) accordingly counterproductive and (c) inherently fraudulent in that it involves the Australian government selling licences to pollute the one common atmosphere of all countries on earth (see “Top science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed and NOT Cap-and-Trade Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)”, 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading ). Thus, for example, Professor James Hansen (top US climate scientist; Head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies; adjunct professor, 96-Nobel-Laureate Columbia; University, New York, USA): “The honest approach, the effective approach, for solving the global warming problem would be a tax with 100% dividend [giving all receipts to the public]. The public is not stupid. They will understand that the hooks and eyes of a less comprehensive more dissembling approach will be put there for some reason other than saving the future for their children. One of the biggest advantages of the Tax and Dividend approach is its simplicity, which would allow it to be introduced quickly. The Kyoto-like Cap & Trade is notoriously slow to negotiate and implement, as well as being ineffective in the end. A related point is that an effective international accord could be implemented with only a few of the major economies. Import duties on countries not imposing a comparable tax would surely bring broad rapid compliance.”
2. The 2013 Rudd Labor Government has now decided scrap the Carbon Tax (currently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) and move rapidly to a Cap-and-Trade ETS in mid-2014 but the EU carbon price under the empirically unsuccessful EU ETS is only about $6 per tonne CO2-e (i.e. Australia can avoid “tackling climate change” at home by buying cheap EU credits abroad; the “Cap” of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” is derisory) . It is estimated that a Carbon Price of about $80 per tonne CO2-e is needed to move away from coal burning. Carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually means a real Carbon Price of about $150 per tonne CO2-e (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
3. Tony Abbott (Leader of the Opposition) stated (rhetorically?) "This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It's a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one. Ever since Copenhagen, it's been absolutely obvious that the world is not moving towards taxes - whether they're fixed taxes or floating taxes. The world is moving towards the kind of direct action measures to improve the environment which the Coalition has long championed." (see Lexi Metherell, Samantha Hawley and staff, “Tony Abbott says ETS a “market in an invisible substance”; Labor denies scrapping carbon price will leave $6bn budget black hole”, ABC News, 15 July 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-15/abbott-dismisses-ets-as-market-in-an-invisible-substance/4820564 ). Some correct non-scientist responses: (1) Professor Richard Dennis ( Australian National University economist): ''The notion that something now has to be visible to be valuable or harmful is an entirely new concept in Australian politics and one that will concern and confuse many. If Tony Abbott is concerned about people paying for invisible things, then anyone who owns intellectual property should be very concerned, likewise people in the futures and financial derivatives market''; (2) Martijn Wilder (a climate change lawyer at global law firm Baker & McKenzie): ''You might not be able to see carbon dioxide but that doesn't mean you shouldn't regulate it. An emissions trading scheme is a market for trading permits to pollute. It's no different to trading water licences. An ETS is something that is what the Howard government proposed and what is in existence to differing degrees in Europe, China, California and Korea. [The Coalition scheme] Direct Action is a similar tool” (see “Abbott hit by backlash”, The Age, 16 July 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-hit-by-backlash-20130715-2q0dw.html ). A reasonable critique would be that Tony Abbott's "invisible substance" phrase was simply rhetorical (there are many ostensibly "invisible" things that we regulate) and that the ETS approach has been empirically unsuccessful (i.e. has involved "non-delivery").
French state terrorism. The French have been involved in variously invading, colonizing and devastating other countries for over 1,000 years, indeed since the forcible conversion of the Saxons to Christianity by Charlemagne in the 8 th century. The French have been invoked in genocidal invasion and colonization of other lands including what is now the US, Canada, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, West Africa, North Africa, China, India, South East Asia and the Pacific. Indeed the extent of French sate terrorism was only limited by the extent of UK state terrorism. France has been variously complicit in deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation that total 38 million for post-1950 US Asian wars, 12 million for the post-1990, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims and 9 million for the post-2001 Zionist-promoted US War on Terror (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ). Since 1990 alone France has been involved in the occupation and/or invasion of Afghanistan, Libya, Haiti, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Cote D’Ivoire.
The 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation and 1950-2005 post-1950 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) are presented here for France, for each country variously occupied by France since 1945 (* indicates other major occupiers) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by France: France [3.275m/60.711m = 5.4%] - Algeria [7.167m/32.877m =21.8%], Benin [3.267m/7.103m = 46.0%], Burkina Faso [6.810m/13.798m = 49.4%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Central African Republic [2.274m/3.962m =57.4%], Chad [5.085m/9.117m = 55.8%], Comoros [0.204m/0.812m =25.1%], Congo (Brazzaville) [1.085m/3.921m = 27.7%], Côte d’Ivoire [6.953m/17.165m = 40.5%], Djibouti [0.265m/0.721m = 36.8%], Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], French Guiana [0.010m/0.187m = 5.3%], French Polynesia [0.018m/0.252m = 7.1%], Gabon [0.504m/1.375m = 36.7%], Guadeloupe [0.025m/0.446m = 5.6%], Guinea [5.185m/8.788m = 59.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Madagascar [7.098m/18.409m = 38.6%], Mali [6.808m/13.829m = 49.2%], Martinique [0.022m/0.397m = 5.5%], Mauritania [1.294m/3.069m = 42.2%], Mauritius [0.064m/1.244m = 5.18], Morocco* [8.202m/31.564m = 26.0%], New Caledonia [0.017m/0.237m = 7.2%], Niger [6.558m/12.873m = 50.9%], Réunion [0.047m/0.777m = 6.0%], Senegal [4.457m/9.393m = 47.5%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], Togo [1.950m/5.129m = 38.0%], Tunisia [1.582m/10.042m =15.8%], Vanuatu* [0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], total = 142.291m/430.678m = 33.0% (see Chapter 3, Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ).
A search of the “ABC News” for “French state terrorism” yields zero (0) results, despite the French engaging in violent state terrorism against Australia’s sister country cousins New Zealand and the French developing their own version of the US ECHELON system for spying on everyone on earth, including Australia.
Fossil fuels, fossil fuel burning. The ABC reports the bipartisan policy of “5% off 2000 greenhouse gas pollution by 2020” coupled with unlimited coal and gas exports – however, as described below, this is disastrous and Lib-Lab claims that they are ‘”Tackling climate change” are utterly false.
The Australian Climate Commission in the Key Findings part of its report “The Critical Decade 2013. Climate change science, risks and responses” (see: http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Critical-Decade-2013_KeyFindings.pdf ) has stated: “Most nations of the world, including Australia, have agreed that the risks of changing climate beyond 2oC are unacceptably high. The temperature rise is already approaching 1oC above pre-industrial, nearly halfway top the 2oC limit… 5. Most of the available fossil fuels cannot be burned if we are to stabilise the climate this century. The burning of fossil fuel represents the most significant contributor to climate change. From today until 2050 we can emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to have a good chance of staying within the 2oC limit. Based on estimates of the International Energy Agency, emissions from using all the world’s fossil fuel reserves would be about 5 times this budget. Burning all fossil fuel reserves would lead to unprecedented changes in climate so severe that they will challenge the existence of society as we know it today. It is clear that most fossil fuels must be left in the ground and cannot be burned. Storing carbon in soils and vegetation is part of the solution but cannot substitute for reducing fossil fuel emissions” [p2]. This statement means that we can burn no more than 80% of fossil fuels.
Australia's “economic demonstrated resources” of iron ore total 24 billion tonnes, this corresponding after industrial steel making to 16.7 billion tonnes CO2 or 2.8% of the world's terminal GHG pollution budget, noting that Australia has only 0.3% of the World's population. Exploitation of Australia's presently discovered conventional and unconventional gas resources would generate 61.5 billion tonnes of CO2-e or about 10% of the world's terminal GHG pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes CO2, noting that Australia's “fair share” is only 2.0 billion tonnes CO2-e. However, CO2 from combustion of Australia's huge coal resource potential of 1 trillion tonnes of coal would be an estimated 692.7 Gt CO2 (from brown coal) plus 1,073.9 Gt CO2 (from black coal) for a total of 1,766.6 Gt CO2 i.e. 1,766.6 billion tonnes CO2 or 294.4% (2.9 times) the world's terminal pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes of CO2 (see Gideon Polya, “Australia's huge coal, gas & iron ore exports threaten planet”, Countercurrents, 15 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150512.htm and Gideon Polya, “The Mining Lobby and Mainstream Media censorship in Lobbyocracy Australia”, Countercurrents, 25 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya250512.htm ). Taking Australia’s huge Domestic as well as Exported GHG pollution into account (in 2010 in Mt CO2-e, 578 (Domestic) + 803 (coal exports) + 34 (LNG exports) + 293 (iron ore exports) = 1,708: see section G, “2011 Climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ) this means that Australia is set to exceed the whole world’s terminal budget by a factor of 3.
The Australian Climate Commission estimates that “Under a business as usual model, with emissions growing at 2.6% per annum, we are on track to have completely used up the allowable global emissions budget within the next 16 years, that is, by 2028” (The Australian Climate Commission, “The Critical Decade 2013: a summary of climate change science, risks and responses”: http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/The-Critical-Decade-2013-Summary_lowres.pdf , p7).
However in 2009 World Bank analysts used an estimate of a GWP of 72 for CH4 on a 20 year time frame to re-assess the contribution of livestock to man-made GHG pollution as over 32.564 Gt CO2-e/year of which 5.047 GT CO2-e/year is due to undercounted methane. This re-assessment lifts the annual GHG pollution from 41.744 Gt CO2-e to 63.803 Gt CO2-e. Assuming that live-stock-related GHG pollution increases in direct proportion ion to energy-related CO2 emissions, one can estimate that the world will reach 551.738 Gt CO2-e in 2017 and 624.363 Gt CO2-e in 2018 i.e. the World has 5.8 years at present rates before it exceeds the terminal CO2-e budget. However one can re-assess the World Bank re-assessment by consider that CH4 has a GWP relative to CO2 of 105. This re-assessment indicates that the World will reach 573.167 Gt CO2-e in 2017 and 648.547 Gt CO2-e in 2018 i.e. the World has 5.3 years at present rates before it exceeds the terminal CO2-e budget. of 600 Gt CO2-e (see Gideon Polya, “Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act”, MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html ) .
For further details see “ABC Fact-checking Unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia's BBC)” : https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit ). For whatever reason this site has (temporarily?) DISAPPEARED from coverage by a Google Search but is reproduced here under the title "ABC censorship & malreportage": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-censorship .
Fracking. The ABC reports fracking for gas in Australia but does not report the serious greenhouse gas (GHG) consequences. In the US the leakage of gas from fracking is up to 7.9% (see Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”, Climatic Change, 2011: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/news/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf ). However on a 20 year time frame and considering aerosol impacts, the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4) is 105 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) and at an annual leakage of 3.3% (the estimated US average) burning gas fro power is actually dirtier GHG-wise than burning coal (see (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ).
Fugitive Emissions. The ABC has uncritically reported the Carbon Tax as a major step forward in “tackling climate change”. However the endlessly dishonest Labor Government understates gas leakage as 0.12% (rather than the science-based estimates of 3-.3%-7.9% of gas produced) and under-estimates the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4, the bulk of natural gas) as 21 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) (whereas it is actually 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and considering aerosol impacts). This leads to an immense Carbon Tax Scandal in which a pro-gas Labor Government understates the Carbon Tax obligations of the corporate gas producers by a factor of 137-329, collecting a mere $21 million annually rather than the science-indicated Carbon Tax obligation of about $3-7 billion each year from leakage of natural gas (fugitive emissions) (see Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Carbon Tax Scandal”, MWC News, 23 November 2013: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23026-gideonpolya-carbon-tax.html ). Austrtalia’s Carbon Tax scandal remains un-reported by the ABC.
“Gas is cleaner than coal” (incorrect assertion). Gas burning produces less of toxic pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO ), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) than coal burning and vastly less radioactivity and heavy metals than coal burning (see Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness testimony to stop gas-fired power plant installation””, Countercurrents, 14 June 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm ). Further, burning 1 tonne CH4, the major constituent of natural gas, yields 2.75 tonnes CO2 whereas burning carbon, C, the major constituent of coal, yields 3.67 tonnes CO2. CO2 emissions (in pounds per Btu of energy input) are 117,000 for gas, 164,000 for oil and 208,000 for coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy and Natural gas.org, “Natural gas and the environment”: http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional gas to coal seam gas (CSG)-derived and fracking-derived gas) and methane (CH4) .has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning for power can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ). Indeed the ABC quotes Professor Hultman, from the school of public policy at the University of Maryland, saying that using the "most extreme assumptions", coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame (see Wendy Carlisle, “CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change”, ABC News, 10 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808 and Wendy Carlisle, “The missing emissions”, Background Briefing, 9 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2012-12-09/4409500#transcript ) . However,
(1) the ABC quotes Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Toby Hutcheon incorrectly stating that “Gas is cleaner than coal” (see “China gas deal to add $14 b to Queensland economy”, ABC News, 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-03-25/china-gas-deal-to-add-14b-to-queensland-economy/379178 );
(2) the ABC quotes Coal Seam Gas (CSG) promoter Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy, stating incorrectly that “"Gas is cleaner than coal” (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 );
(3) ABC Darwin incorrectly asserts that “gas is cleaner than coal” (ABC Darwin, “Why solar doesn’t pay in Australia’s sunniest territory”, 3 March 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/03/03/3154514.htm );
(4) the ABC “Behind the News” has Catherine Ellis incorrectly stating “Another idea is to use more natural gas and less coal because gas is cleaner” (ABC Behind the News< “Fossil fuels”, 29 May 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/v3/stories/s1933653.htm );
(5) the ABC quotes Darren Stevenson incorrectly stating that “We think that it’s climate friendly in the sense that the emissions from this [gas] are half from a coal power station” and the Narrator incorrectly stating “the gas is cleaner” (ABC, “Coal Gas”, Catalyst, 22 October 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2721216.htm );
(6) the ABC Late Night Live states “At the weekend the gas industry began a campaign to get itself exempted from the carbon tax on the basis that gas is cleaner than coal” (“Senator Christine Milne on the carbon tax”, AVC Late Night Live, 11 April 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/senator-christine-milne-on-the-carbon-tax/3007906 ;
(7) the ABC Q&A program broadcasts the PM Julia Gillard incorrectly stating “The Federal Government doesn’t go around building power stations but what we will do is send the price signal which means we move from dirtier generation to cleaner generation. Gas is cleaner generation, absolutely” (see ABC TV Q&A, “Julia Gillard joins Q&A”, 11 July 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3263582.htm );
(8) the ABC censored out science -informed comments about gas NOT being “cleaner” by a 5-decade career scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, who subsequently posted the following comment that survived the ABC censor(s): “My carefully researched and documented comment about deficient and incorrect reportage about climate change was CENSORED by the ABC, possibly for mentioning (1) climate change denialism of the Murdoch media in particular in Western Murdochracies (see John Pilger), Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies (see Professor Brian Ellis' "Social Humanism") in which Big Money buys politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality and votes, and (2) misleading advertising by Shell on SBS TV asserting that burning gas is cleaner greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (depending upon the gas leakage rate it can be far dirtier) and that Brazilian biofuel derives from renewable resources (ethanol from sugar cane actually carries a huge carbon debt). I hope that the cessation of these ads was due to my detailed letter of complaint sent to MPs, SBS and other media (Google "Doha climate change inaction", "Are we doomed" and "2011 climate change course")” (see ABC Late Night Live”, Climate, science and denial”, 27 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/climate2c-science-and-denial/4415652 ).
(9) non-scientist economist Professor Ross Garnaut is regularly used by the ABC as an expert on climate change, including his incorrect assertions about gas being cleaner reported thus by the ABC: “Professor Garnaut says initially polluting but trade-exposed businesses which face overseas competition should be compensated - such as the steel or aluminium industries. But he conceded the high-polluting electricity generators of the La Trobe Valley would be hit hard by the tax - but should seize other opportunities and move to gas-fired generation. "Those regions happen to be very good regions for building the lower emissions generation capacity," he said. "As the relative importance of coal declines, the relative importance of gas will rise."If you're going to put in a new gas-fired power station somewhere that has all the infrastructure of the La Trobe Valley is a very good place for that."(see ABC News, “Garnaut backs $20-$30 carbon price” , 17 March 20011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-17/garnaut-backs-20-30-carbon-price/2653950 .
(10) The ABC TV program “The Shitsville Express” had a segment on 17 July 2013 on coal seam gas in which it was repeatedly and incorrectly asserted without any refutation that “gas is cleaner” than coal (see: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/shitsvilleexpress.htm?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_TV-Marketing-Shitsville%20Express|JoeHildebrand_AdWords_:shitsville%20express_e_g_32033308759_&gclid=CLfOz8fkt7gCFasopgod12cASA ).
Ganser, Daniele. Professors Daniele Ganser and Albert A. Stahel of the Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), reported in the largest Swiss newspaper, "Blick", have seriously questioned the "official Bush version" of what happened on 9/11 (2006): “Je mehr wir forschen, desto mehr zweifeln wir” [the more we research the more we doubt"]” (Daniele Ganser and Albert A. Stahel quoted in Blick, 15 September 2006: http://www.blick.ch/news/ausland/9-11/artikel45057 ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Daniele Ganser” yielded zero (0) results.
Gas. The ABC News reported, without correction, the incorrect claim by Tom Fontaine, the managing director of Ormil Energy that “"Gas is cleaner than coal, we are looking at local power generation, we see no fundamental reason why we should change, because we need to communicate more with people and make sure the information gets out there." (see ”CSG boss unfazed by critics”, ABC News, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/csg-boss-unfazed-by-critics/2850254 ). However methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ) . Indeed the ABC has reported Professor Nathan Hultman, (School of Public Policy, University of Maryland), warning that using the "most extreme assumptions", coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame and that “The reason you would be worried about methane in particular over a 20-year time horizon is if you are thinking we are on the verge of a kind of tipping point in climate change right now. If you really think right now we are very close to melting the ice caps or pushing the climate from a moderately steady state into a kind of bad outcome where you've got runaway climate change" (see “CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change”, ABC News, 10 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808 ).
Genocide denial. Searches of the ABC News and “the entire ABC site” for the term “genocide denial” yield zero (3) and 8 results, respectively. Of the 3 ABC News items , 2 are about the French criminalization of denial of the Armenian Genocide (1.5 million Armenians killed) and 1 is about the prosecution of a Rwandan editor for denying the Rwandan genocide. Of the 8 “entire ABC suite” items, latter, 1 refers to prosecution of a Rwandan editor for denial of the Rwandan genocide. However another ignores the problem of “genocide ignoring” – thus “ MARK COLVIN: From Armenia to Cambodia to Rwanda, the 20th century was the century of genocides. The 21st began with Darfur. Last year, Colonel Gaddafi threatened what could have become a genocide if he hadn't been prevented from taking Benghazi. And some claim that what's happening in Syria at the moment looks set to become a genocide. Can the world get any better at preventing these mass slaughters, perhaps by predicting when and how they're likely happen?” (ABC PM, “Forecasting genocides before they can happen”, 30 April 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3492262.htm?). 6 items are about the Armenian Genocide, including prosecution in France over denial of this atrocity. Only 1 refers to ignoring and denial of current genocidal atrocities and is a detailed comment made by me to the ABC Late Night Love website: “The classic book on the subject is "The Highland Clearances" by John Prebble. According to independent accounts from Victoria and Canada my earliest known Scots ancestor was a Guighan MacDonald who fled to Ireland after participating in the Battle of Culloden (1746) and under threat of hanging (the MacDonalds having been proscribed by the Sassanachs), returning thereafter as Donald McGuigan. My forebears were subsequently cleared, fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Our homes, 2 crofters cottages, still exist north of the Mull of Kintyre, 1 roofless and the other being used for sheep (the latest owner kindly permitted access). My Jewish forebears fled Prussian-occupied Poland to Austria-Hungary at about the same time (circa 1800) and were then mostly exterminated by the Nazis in the 1940s with the survivors fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Understand therefore why the genocidal crimes in the Muslim world today by the US Alliance-backed Zionists of Apartheid Israel and the Zionist-backed US Alliance (including Apartheid Australia) are so utterly abhorrent to decent anti-racist Jews and indeed to all anti-racists, to whit (refugees and deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in parentheses) the Palestinian Genocide (7 million refugees, 2 million deaths since 1936), the Iraqi Genocide (5-6 million refugees, 4.6 million deaths since 1900), the Afghan Genocide (3-4 million refugees, 5.6 million deaths since 2001), the Somali Genocide (2 million refugees, 2.2 million deaths since 1992)and the Libyan Genocide (1.3 million refugees, 0.1 million deaths since 2011). The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Australian Lib-Labs (Liberal-Laborals, like their other neo-fascist, warmongering Western counterparts, are beating the drum for similar devastation of Syria and Iran. Decent Australians will vote 1 Green and put Labor last till it gives up commitment to NAZI genocide” (The Scottish Highland Clearances”, late Night Live, 16 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-highland-clearances/4129166 ).
Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/spring_2005/spring_2005_lesson2_convention.asp ). The ABC resolutely ignores the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide and Afghan Genocide, noting that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial ands holocaust denial because at least the Katter admit the possibility of public discussion ( see “Afghan Genocide”, “Iraqi Genocide”, “Muslim Genocide”, “Palestinian Genocide”, and “Somali Genocide”).
Genocide ignoring. Searches of the ABC News and “the entire ABC site” for the term “genocide ignoring” yield zero (0) and 4 results, respectively. Of the latter, all are comments about genocide and about genocide ignoring by Mainstream media. Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/spring_2005/spring_2005_lesson2_convention.asp ). The ABC resolutely ignores the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide and Afghan Genocide, noting that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial ands holocaust denial because at least the Katter admit the possibility of public discussion. Here is a further of mine about horrendous genocidal atrocities ignored by Western media including the ABC My Jewish forebears fled Prussian-occupied Poland to Austria-Hungary at about the same time (circa 1800) and were then mostly exterminated by the Nazis in the 1940s with the survivors fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Understand therefore why the genocidal crimes in the Muslim world today by the US Alliance-backed Zionists of Apartheid Israel and the Zionist-backed US Alliance (including Apartheid Australia) are so utterly abhorrent to decent anti-racist Jews and indeed to all anti-racists, to whit (refugees and deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in parentheses) the Palestinian Genocide (7 million refugees, 2 million deaths since 1936), the Iraqi Genocide (5-6 million refugees, 4.6 million deaths since 1900), the Afghan Genocide (3-4 million refugees, 5.6 million deaths since 2001), the Somali Genocide (2 million refugees, 2.2 million deaths since 1992)and the Libyan Genocide (1.3 million refugees, 0.1 million deaths since 2011). The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Australian Lib-Labs (Liberal-Laborals, like their other neo-fascist, warmongering Western counterparts, are beating the drum for similar devastation of Syria and Iran. Decent Australians will vote 1 Green and put Labor last till it gives up commitment to NAZI genocide” (The Scottish Highland Clearances”, late Night Live, 16 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-highland-clearances/4129166 ) ( see “Afghan Genocide”, “Iraqi Genocide”, “Muslim Genocide”, “Palestinian Genocide”, and “Somali Genocide”).
Global Warming. The ABC has failed to report that World Bank analysts have recently re-assessed global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by considering the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4) as 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20 year time frame (21 times worse on a 100 year time frame). They found that man's GHG pollution was 50% bigger than hitherto thought (from 41.8 Gt CO2-e to 63.8 Gt CO2-e) and that livestock contribute over 51% of the bigger number (this too is an underestimate because NASA scientists have recently found that the GWP of CH4 is 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account)(see section "2011 climate change course": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course and see Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf ).
Global Warming Potential (GWP). A search of “the entire ABC site” and “ABC News” for the phrase “global warming potential ” yields 47 results and 2 results , respectively. None of this reportage except for 2 comments posted by Dr Gideon Polya on ABC websites (see: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/being-independent/4514872 and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/shale-gas/4401002 ) mention the reality that methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (of 3 ABC reports actually mentioning CH4 only 1 quotes a GWP for CH4 but this is a vastly lower estimate of 22 (see: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/09/28/3023670.htm ). For whatever reason the ABC has resolutely failed to mention this crucial matter (indeed the ABC censored a comment by me on the worsening climate crisis: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/a-global-forecast-for-the-next-forty-years/4185624 ) . In short, the Australian Federal Government supports massive conventional natural gas and Coal Seam Gas (CSG) developments and has introduced a Carbon Tax to penalize fugitive emissions (gas leakage). However the endlessly dishonest Labor Government understates gas leakage as 0.12% (rather than the science-based estimates of 3-.3%-7.9% of gas produced) and under-estimates the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4, the bulk of natural gas) as 21 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) (whereas it is actually 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and considering aerosol impacts). This leads to an immense Carbon Tax Scandal in which a pro-gas Labor Government understates the Carbon Tax obligations of the corporate gas producers by a factor of 137-329, collecting a mere $21 million annually rather than the science-indicated Carbon Tax obligation of about $3-7 billion each year from leakage of natural gas (fugitive emissions) (see Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Carbon Tax Scandal”, MWC News, 23 November 2013: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23026-gideonpolya-carbon-tax.html ).
“God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” and its author William Gerhardie. William Gerhardie's brilliant anti-war book “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” (William Gerhardie, “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” (Hodder & Stoughton, 1981; The Hogarth Press, 1990, with editing and an Introduction by Michael Holroyd and Robert Skidelsky) should be a must-read for all people around the world as we mark in 2014 the centenary of the start of World War 1, the “war to end all wars” that was inexorably succeeded by the 5-fold greater carnage of World War 2 and thence the prospect of annihilation of nearly all of humanity in a nuclear World War 3 or through climate genocide from climate change inaction.
However a search of the BBC for "God's Fifth Column" fails to elicit any mention of this most important book of this major British writer and a search for "William Gerhardie" merely elicits reference to a BBC program about "neglected British classics" that refers to William Gerhardie's 1925 novel "The Polyglots".
Searches of the ABC (Australia's taxpayer-funded equivalent of the UK BBC) for "William Gerhardie" or "God's Fifth Column" yield ZERO (0) results, an outcome that is hardly surprising in view of the ABC's appalling record of censorship that serves the interests of the war criminal, climate criminal One Percenter Establishment in Australia and the rest of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-perverted US Alliance (see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ; "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ; “ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC ( Australia 's BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit ).
William Gerhardie (original spelling Gerhardi; 1895-1977) was British but lived as a child in Russia where his father was in the cotton trade. He volunteered in WW1 and was sent to Russia with military intelligence. An Oxford University graduate, William Gerhardie, became an acclaimed novelist in the 1920s with his novels “ Futility” (1922), “The Polyglots” (1925), “Doom” (1928) and “Resurrection” (1934), and other works. He published an autobiography, “Memoirs of a polyglot: The autobiography of William Gerhardie” (1931) and co-authored “The Casanova Fable: A Satirical Revaluation” with Hugh Kingsmill (1934). He subsequently became reclusive, living impoverished in London where he worked on his non-fiction masterwork “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” that was discovered among his papers and thence published posthumously in 1981 by Hodder & Stoughton (page references below are to the 1990 Hogarth Press edition) .
William Gerhardie's “God's Fifth Column” provides a rich account of the ideas, manners, mentality and motivation of 2 sets of people in the run up to WW1 and thence to WW2 – on the one hand, the wonderful humanitarian writers such as Anton Chekhov, Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw. D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Marcel Proust, Herman Hesse, and Walt Whitman, and on the other, the English, French, German, Austrian, Italian and Russian kings, emperors, generals, statesmen, diplomats and other Establishment figures, male and female, who inexorably led the world to disaster and of whom the best that could be said in hindsight was that they had good table manners. The term “fifth column” derived from Fascist Nationalist Franco colleague General Mola boasting that in addition to his 4 columns advancing on Republican-held Madrid he had supporters inside the city, described by the Republican defenders as a “fifth column” (page 61). To Gerhardi, “God's Fifth Column” are those elements that wittingly or unwittingly sabotage defective human social constructs.
William Gerhardie in “God's Fifth Column”:was particularly scathing of journalists and their role in national propaganda that leads to war: "The Aristotelian exploitation of reason for purposes of power can be traced in advertising, in politics, and particularly in journalism, which is a debased Aristotelian form of using human failings and weaknesses to extract power by deliberately exploiting these failings and weaknesses. Literature is an intuitive communication of the Platonic Idea of truth and beauty hiding behind the shadow of its material form. If journalism and modern advertising are debased forms of literature, propaganda is debased journalism. But journalism as exploitation of suspense, trading as it does on human restlessness, is equally despicable whether it takes the form of detective fiction, films, plays or magazine stores. Art, communicating the eternal reality of the Platonic Idea which invests objects and persons alike with the breath of life, is constitutive, not conceptual, and as such it is independent of artificial stimulants. The criterion of a genuine work of literature is that you can open it at any page to savour each passage for itself, without the narcotic of induced excitement in the shape of knowing what has come before and speculating on what is to happen next, commonly called "a plot". If a book is worth reading at all it is worth reading more than once... This, then, is the exploitation of the Word for profit - the generic term of this remunerative if thoroughly un-Platonic pursuit being "journalism"... After this to the final deception - national propaganda - is not not far to sink. Propaganda is indeed is the last refuge of journalism" (page 274).
For a detailed review see Gideon Polya, “ Book Review: “God's Fifth Column” by William Gerhardie”, Countercurrents, 6 May 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060514.htm. .
Greenhouse Gas (GHG). The ABC has reported on greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) but in the context of an Australian gas boom has resolutely failed to report that gas burning for power can be dirtier than coal burning depending upon the degree of gas leakage. Thus methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ) .
Harrit, Niels. Professor Niels Harrit (Chemistry Department, 9-Nobel-Laureate University of Copenhqgen) and colleagues in a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal re discovery of unexploded nanothermite in all World Trade Center (WTC) dust samples studied (2009): “We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately 100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separation of components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminum are intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic… having observed unignited thermitic material in the WTC residue, we suggest that other energetic materials suitable for cutter charges or explosives should also be looked for in the WTC dust. NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology] has admitted that they have not yet looked for such residues… Based on these observations, we conclude that the red layer of the red/gray chips we have discovered in the WTC dust is active, unreacted thermitic material, incorporating nanotechnolgy, and is a highly energetic pyrotechnic or explosive material Niels H. Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth, Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, Bradley R. Larsen, “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe, The Open Chemical Physics Journals, vol.2, pp.7-31 (25), 2009: http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Niels Harrit” yielded zero (0) and 7 results, respectively, the latter being posts to ABC websites by its audience (including Dr Gideon Polya). .
Hart, Alan. Alan Hart (former ITN and BBC Panorama correspondent who covered wars and conflicts around the world, a specialist on the Middle East and the author of “Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews”) speaking the on the Kevin Barrett Show about explosive demolition of the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11, US involvement and possible Israeli involvement in 9-11 (2009): ““My guess is that at an early point they [Mossad] said to the bad guys in the CIA – hey this operation’s running what do we do, and the zionists and the neo-cons said let’s use it … The twin towers were brought down by a controlled ground explosion, not the planes” (Alan Hart, interviewed on the Kevin Barrett Show, 9/11Truth, Norcal, 16 July 2010: http://norcaltruth.org/2010/05/26/alan-hart-breaks-silence-about-911-on-kevin-barrett-show/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Alan Hart” yielded zero (0) results for the UK writer.
Hoffmann, Jim. Jim Hoffmann (a top US software engineer who has extensively analyzed the 3 World Trade Center (WTC) building demolitions): “Backers of the official account of 9/11, including NIST officials, have dismissed evidence that aluminothermics were used to destroy the World Trade Center skyscrapers, claiming that thermite's slow reaction rate makes it an unsuitable tool for demolishing buildings. Despite repeated requests by scientists and researchers to address the potential role of advanced aluminothermic composites with high explosive power, officials have refused to acknowledge such materials… The implications of the discovery of unspent aluminothermic explosives and matching residues in World Trade Center dust are staggering. There is no conceivable reason for there to have been tons of high explosives in the Towers except to demolish them, and demolition is blatantly incompatible with the official 9/11 narrative that the skyscrapers collapsed as a result of the jetliner impacts and fires. The discovery of active thermitic materials adds to a vast body of evidence that the total destruction of the Towers were controlled demolitions, and to the subset of that evidence indicating the use of aluminothermic materials to implement those demolitions… As is obvious from a review of the literature on energetic materials, thermite-based pyrotechnics can be engineered to have explosive power similar to conventional high-explosives while providing greater energy density and much greater stability. Thus, aluminothermic cutter charges similar to the shaped charges used in commercial demolitions are entirely feasible” (Jim Hoffmann, “Explosives Found in World Trade Center Dust. Scientists Discover Both Residues And Unignited Fragments Of Nano-Engineered Thermitic Pyrotechnics In Debris From the Twin Towers”, 9-11 Research, 9 December 2009: http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/thermite/explosive_residues.html ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Jim Hoffmann” yielded zero (0) and 1 result, respectively, the latter being a listener comment. on an ABC website.
Holocaust denial. Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/spring_2005/spring_2005_lesson2_convention.asp ). Genocide presupposes holocaust (death of a large number f people) and hence genocide denial also involves holocaust denial. The ABC resolutely ignores the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide and Afghan Genocide and hence the associated holocausts, noting that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial and holocaust denial because at least the latter admit the possibility of public discussion ( see “Afghan Genocide”, “Iraqi Genocide”, “Muslim Genocide”, “Palestinian Genocide”, and “Somali Genocide”).
Searches of the ABC News and “the entire ABC site” for the term “holocaust denial” yield 20 and 107 results, respectively. Of the 20 ABC News items, 16 are about denial of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed with 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) which was part of the WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed by the Nazis) and remainder are about denial of Khmer Rouge atrocities, climate change deaths, social media hate and social media deficiencies. The comprehensive mainstream media and ABC ignoring of the totality of 30 million victims of the WW2 European Holocaust is egregious, systemic holocaust ignoring that amounts to holocaust denial.
Horrendous holocaust atrocities that the ABC ignores to the point of holocaust denial are summarized in the following comment posted by Dr Gideon Polya on the ABC Late Night Love website: “The classic book on the subject is "The Highland Clearances" by John Prebble. According to independent accounts from Victoria and Canada my earliest known Scots ancestor was a Guighan MacDonald who fled to Ireland after participating in the Battle of Culloden (1746) and under threat of hanging (the MacDonalds having been proscribed by the Sassanachs), returning thereafter as Donald McGuigan. My forebears were subsequently cleared, fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Our homes, 2 crofters cottages, still exist north of the Mull of Kintyre, 1 roofless and the other being used for sheep (the latest owner kindly permitted access). My Jewish forebears fled Prussian-occupied Poland to Austria-Hungary at about the same time (circa 1800) and were then mostly exterminated by the Nazis in the 1940s with the survivors fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Understand therefore why the genocidal crimes in the Muslim world today by the US Alliance-backed Zionists of Apartheid Israel and the Zionist-backed US Alliance (including Apartheid Australia) are so utterly abhorrent to decent anti-racist Jews and indeed to all anti-racists, to whit (refugees and deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in parentheses) the Palestinian Genocide (7 million refugees, 2 million deaths since 1936), the Iraqi Genocide (5-6 million refugees, 4.6 million deaths since 1900), the Afghan Genocide (3-4 million refugees, 5.6 million deaths since 2001), the Somali Genocide (2 million refugees, 2.2 million deaths since 1992)and the Libyan Genocide (1.3 million refugees, 0.1 million deaths since 2011). The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Australian Lib-Labs (Liberal-Laborals, like their other neo-fascist, warmongering Western counterparts, are beating the drum for similar devastation of Syria and Iran. Decent Australians will vote 1 Green and put Labor last till it gives up commitment to NAZI genocide” (The Scottish Highland Clearances”, late Night Live, 16 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-highland-clearances/4129166 ).
Holocaust ignoring. Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see: http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/spring_2005/spring_2005_lesson2_convention.asp ). Genocide presupposes holocaust (death of a large number f people) and hence genocide denial also involves holocaust denial. The ABC resolutely ignores the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Somali Genocide and Afghan Genocide and hence the associated holocausts, noting that genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant genocide denial and holocaust denial because at least the latter admit the possibility of public discussion ( see “Afghan Genocide”, “Iraqi Genocide”, “Muslim Genocide”, “Palestinian Genocide”, and “Somali Genocide”).
Searches of the ABC News and “the entire ABC site” for the term “holocaust ignoring” yield zero (0) and 10 results, respectively. Of the latter, 9 are comments by Dr Gideon Polya to ABC websites and the remaining item is a a radio broadcast by Dr Gideon Polya about the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British with Australian complicity (see Gideon Polya, :Bengali Famine”, ABC Radio National, Ockham’s Razor, 21 February 1999: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/bengali-famine/3556698 ). Indeed the WW2 Bengali Holocaust was the first WW2 atrocity to be described as a :holocaust” (by N.G Jog in his 19944 book “Churchill’s’ Blind-Spot: India” ; see Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html ; various scholars including Gideon Polya and other scholars “Listen to: The Bengal Famine”, The Open University & BBC: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now also available for free perusal on the web:: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ; “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ).
Other horrendous holocaust atrocities that the ABC ignores to the point of holocaust denial are summarized in the following comment posted by Dr Gideon Polya on the ABC Late Night Love website: “The classic book on the subject is "The Highland Clearances" by John Prebble. According to independent accounts from Victoria and Canada my earliest known Scots ancestor was a Guighan MacDonald who fled to Ireland after participating in the Battle of Culloden (1746) and under threat of hanging (the MacDonalds having been proscribed by the Sassanachs), returning thereafter as Donald McGuigan. My forebears were subsequently cleared, fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Our homes, 2 crofters cottages, still exist north of the Mull of Kintyre, 1 roofless and the other being used for sheep (the latest owner kindly permitted access). My Jewish forebears fled Prussian-occupied Poland to Austria-Hungary at about the same time (circa 1800) and were then mostly exterminated by the Nazis in the 1940s with the survivors fleeing to Australia, Canada and America. Understand therefore why the genocidal crimes in the Muslim world today by the US Alliance-backed Zionists of Apartheid Israel and the Zionist-backed US Alliance (including Apartheid Australia) are so utterly abhorrent to decent anti-racist Jews and indeed to all anti-racists, to whit (refugees and deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in parentheses) the Palestinian Genocide (7 million refugees, 2 million deaths since 1936), the Iraqi Genocide (5-6 million refugees, 4.6 million deaths since 1900), the Afghan Genocide (3-4 million refugees, 5.6 million deaths since 2001), the Somali Genocide (2 million refugees, 2.2 million deaths since 1992)and the Libyan Genocide (1.3 million refugees, 0.1 million deaths since 2011). The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Australian Lib-Labs (Liberal-Laborals, like their other neo-fascist, warmongering Western counterparts, are beating the drum for similar devastation of Syria and Iran. Decent Australians will vote 1 Green and put Labor last till it gives up commitment to NAZI genocide” (The Scottish Highland Clearances”, late Night Live, 16 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-highland-clearances/4129166 ).
Indian Genocide, Indian Holocaust. By withholding supplies from its huge wheat stores, Australia helped Britain deliberately starve 6-7 million Indians in the World War 2 Bengal Famine (Bengali Genocide, Bengali Holocaust, Indian Holocaust, Indian Genocide). It is estimated that 1.8 billion Indians died avoidably from imposed deprivation due to the British Raj (1757-1947). Today, Australia as a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution is disproportionately contributing to a worsening climate genocide that is set to kill 2 billion Indians , 0.5 billion Bengalis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis this century if man-made climate change is not seriously addressed. (see Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html ; “Listen to: The Bengal Famine”, The Open University & BBC: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now also available for free perusal on the web:: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ; “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for the phrases “Indian Genocide”, and “Indian Holocaust” yield zero (0) results. However 1 result found was part of a comment posted by Dr Gideon Polya: to “London 2012 Opening Ceremony”, Saturday Extra, 28 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/olympics/4156584 , specifically “Over 2 centuries of an Indian Holocaust in which 1.8 billion Indians died avoidably from imposed deprivation, 10 million were butchered in reprisals in the decade after the 1857 Rebellion, massive famines from the 1769-1770 Bengal Famine (10 million killed) to the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death with Australian complicity).” One notes that while “holocaust” means deaths of a huge number of people, “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" (see also Bengal Famine, Bengali Famine, Bengali Genocide, Bengali Holocaust) .
Iraq, Iraqi Genocide, Iraqi Holocaust, Iraq War. The ABC has reported that the Iraq War was associated with "the deaths of more than 4,400 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis" (see "Iraqis voice happiness over US troop withdrawal", ABC News, 23 October 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-22/iraqis-voice-happiness-over-us-troop-withdrawal/3595412 ) and that “ The withdrawal ends a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead" (see “US military marks end of its Iraq war”, ABC News, 16 December 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/us-military-marks-end-of-its-war-in-iraq/3733982 ) whereas it is estimated from the data of top medical epidemiologists and UN demographers that Iraqi deaths from violence (1.5 million) and from violently-imposed deprivation (1.2 million) total 2.7 million for the period 2003-2011) (see Just Foreign Policy, "Iraq Deaths": http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq and "Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ). Holocaust means deaths of a huge number of people. Genocide is defined by Article 2 of the the UN Genocide Convention as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The ABC resolutely declines to report the horrendous human cost of the Gulf War and Sanctions (0.2 million violent deaths and 1.7 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation, 1990-2003), the Iraq War (1.5 million violent deaths and 1.2 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation, 2003-2011) and the total carnage in what must be described as the Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (1.7 million violent deaths and 2.9 million deaths from violently-imposed deprivation in the period 1990-2011). Searches of the ABC News for the terms "Iraqi Holocaust" and " Iraqi Genocide" yield zero (0) results. Searches of the"entire ABC site" for the terms "Iraqi Holocaust" and " Iraqi Genocide" yield 29 results and 52 results, respectively, all due to postings by Dr Gideon Polya on ABC websites.
"Israeli child abuse". There is horrendous, large-scale physical, emotional, sexual and intellectual child abuse variously inflicted by racist Zionists, by Apartheid Israel and by pro-Zionist US Alliance allies of the Apartheid rogue state on 3 million exiled Palestinian children, 2.1 million Occupied Palestinian children, 0.8 million Palestinian Israeli children, 2.1 million Jewish Israeli children, 5 million Jewish children in general, 750 million Muslim children, 2.5 billion Third World children and indeed potentially all the 3 billion children of the world (see Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Pro-Zionist, Zionist And Apartheid Israeli Child Abuse Exposed”, Countercurrents, 21 April 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210414.htm ). However a search of the ABC for the term “Israeli child abuse” fails to elicit details of this horrendous reality – it yields zero (0) results. The following is the Awful Truth of horrendous Zionist, pro-Zionist and Apartheid Israeli child abuse that the BBC utterly ignores.
1. Apartheid Israel violates the Right to Life of Palestinian children.
The most fundamental human Right is the Right to Life [1] but the racist Zionists have denied this Right to the approximately 2 million Palestinians (half of them children) who have died from violence (0.1 million) or from imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since 1936. By comparison one notes that the German Nazis killed 1.5 million Jewish children in WW2 through violence or imposed deprivation. In contrast, Israeli deaths at the hands of Palestinians since 1920 have totalled about 3,700 [2].
The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has compiled the following details of violent Israeli and Palestinian child deaths in the period 1987-2012 in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza: (a) total fatalities in the First Intifada, minors under the age of 17 (Dec. 9, 1987-Sept. 28, 2000): Israelis – 18; Palestinians – 281 (by Israel security forces) and 23 (by Israeli civilians); (b) total Casualties: (Sept. 29, 2000-Sept. 30, 2012): Israelis – 129; Palestinians – 1,337; (c) fatalities since the outbreak of the second intifada and until operation "Cast Lead" (Sept. 29, 2000-Dec. 26, 2008): Israelis – 123; Palestinians – 954; (d) fatalities during operation "Cast Lead" (Dec. 27, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009): Israelis – 0; Palestinians – 345; (e) fatalities after operation "Cast Lead": (Jan. 19, 2009-Oct. 31, 2012): Israelis – 6; Palestinians – 38 i.e. a total of 2,978 or about 3,000 and about 120 on average per year [3].
UNICEF reveals that 3,000 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old infants die each year as compared to 1,000 for Apartheid Israel . The under-5 year old infant mortality in deaths per 1,000 live births is 22.4 (for Occupied Palestinians in the Gaza Concentration Camp), and 14.9 (for Occupied Palestinians in the West Bank) [4] as compared to 6 for Apartheid Israel [5].
Palestinian children are not just killed by Israeli shells, bombs, bullets and beatings but mostly die avoidably from racist Zionist-imposed deprivation. It is estimated that about 300,000 Occupied Palestinians in total and about 200,000 Palestinian under-5 year old infants died avoidably from deprivation under Israeli guns since 1967 in an ongoing Palestinian Genocide [2, 6, 7].
Avoidable mortality (avoidable death, excess mortality, excess death) is the diffeence between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics. For impoverished Third World countries avoidable deaths are about 1.4 times under-5 infant deaths [8]. Accordingly, annual avoidable Occupied Palestinian deaths total about 3,000 x 1 .4 = 4,200 of which about half (2,100) are of children. Thus the racist Zionists violently kill about 120 Occupied Palestinian children each year and passively murder another 2,100 Occupied Palestinian children annually through imposed deprivation. This means that on average the Apartheid Israeli authorities violently kill a Palestinian child every three days but on average also deliberately passively murder about 6 Palestinian children each day through imposed deprivation as surely as if they beat, bombed, shot or gassed them as did their genocidally racist Nazi German role models.
Genocidally racist Apartheid Israel grossly violates Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states: “ 1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life. 2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child” [1].
2. Apartheid Israel deprives Occupied Palestinians (half of them children) of all human rights set out in the 30 Articles of the Universal Charter of Human Rights.
A recent detailed analysis shows that nearly 47 years after the 1967 Israeli conquest of all of Palestine, the Western-backed, invasion-, occupation- , theft- , genocide-, lying- and race-based Apartheid State of Israel still comprehensively violates all the basic human rights of the Indigenous Occupied Palestinian People as set out in the 30 Articles of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights [9, 10]. Apartheid Israel also comprehensively violates the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” in denying not just the Right to Life on a massive, genocidal, mass paedocidal and mass infanticidal scale but in denial of essentially all other rights of the child to Occupied Palestinian children [1].
3. Highly abusive, traumatizing and deadly mass confinement and deprivation of Occupied Palestinian children.
Of the 1.8 million Occupied Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp over half (52.5%, 0.9 million) are children who are highly abusively confined without human rights and without charge or trial and for the asserted crime of being Indigenous Palestinians living in a tiny part of the country inhabited continuously by their forebears for thousands of years to the very dawn of agrarian civilization. Of the 2.5 million Occupied Palestinians in the West Bank about half (47.3%, 1.2 million) are highly abusively confined without human rights to ever-dwindling Bantustans under violent Israeli military rule and forbidden access by Israeli Apartheid to “Jewish” roads and “Jewish” land [11]. While the West Bank Bantustans are policed by war criminal Israeli military with guns, the Gaza Concentration Camp is policed by Israeli naval shelling, Israeli military shelling and gunfire and Israeli air force rockets, phosphorus bombs and high explosive bombs.
UNICEF provides a dire summary of the conditions of Occupied Palestinians [4]: Rank in Human Development Index (2007): 106/177; GNI per capita (US$, 2008): 1,230; Percentage of people living below the national poverty line (2007): 55.7 % (Gaza), 23.6 % (West Bank); Unemployment (2008): 19.8% (West Bank), [about 80% (Gaza)]; Number of Palestinian children killed as a result of conflict (September 2000 - January 2009): 1,475; Percentage of stunting: 10%; Percentage of anaemia: 50%; Percentage of households not connected to water networks (2008): 10%; Percentage of Primary School net enrolment (2008, SOWC 2010): 73%.
Jewish British Labor MP David Miliband (the son of anti-racist, pro-human rights Jewish British parents) visited Gaza and commented (2011): “The statistics say that 80% of the population are on UN food aid. The youth unemployment rate is 65%. The website of the United Nations office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs has a comprehensive database where you can see how many trucks, containing different kinds of supplies, have been allowed in by the Israeli authorities. … But although life is real, it is traumatic and limited. We saw buildings – not just the former Hamas headquarters – still reduced to rubble. There are houses riddled with bullet holes. The electricity supply cuts out for up to eight hours a day. There are not enough schools or teachers, so there are classes of 50 or 60 and the school day is restricted to a few hours to allow for two or even three shifts. … The consequences of war are everywhere, nowhere more so than for those caught in the crossfire…Save the Children, obviously, is most concerned about the 53% of the Gaza population under 18. The statistics say 10% of children are "stunted" – so undernourished before the age of two that they never grow to their full potential” [12].
Apartheid Israel thus grossly violates Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states: “ 1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members” [1].
4. Highly abusive and traumatizing imprisonment and torture of West Bank Palestinian children.
The Committee on the Rights of Children (a body of independent legal experts charged by the UN with the task of monitoring the protection of children's rights in signatory states) has condemned Israeli torture and other maltreatment of Palestinian children (2014) : “The Committee expresses its deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police, and about the State party's failure to end these practices in spite of repeated concerns expressed by treaty bodies… [Palestinian children are] systematically subject to physical and verbal violence, humiliation, painful restraints, hooding of the head and face in a sack, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, restricted access to toilet, food and water. These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pretrial detention” [13].
The Australian ABC TV Four Corners program recently broadcast profoundly disturbing revelations of how the Israeli military arrest, imprison and torture Palestinian children to obtain information about Occupied Palestinian family members and community members (2014): “ The Israeli army is both respected and feared as a fighting force. But now the country's military is facing a backlash at home and abroad for its treatment of children in the West Bank , occupied territory. Coming up, a joint investigation by Four Corners and The Australian newspaper reveals evidence that shows the army is targeting Palestinian boys for arrest and detention. Reporter John Lyons travels to the West Bank to hear the story of children who claim they have been taken into custody, ruthlessly questioned and then allegedly forced to sign confessions before being taken to court for sentencing…” [14].
Apartheid Israel thus also grossly violates Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states: “ States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age; (b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; (c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances; (d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action” [1].
5. Horrendous physical, emotional and sexual abuse of Jewish Israeli and Arab Israeli children.
Yarden Skop writing in the progressive Jewish Israeli newspaper Haaretz (2013): “ A study on child abuse of more than 10,000 children — the first of its kind to be conducted in Israel — found that close to half of them reported that they had been physically, emotionally or sexually abused. The study, which was conducted from September 2011 to September 2013 by the Center for the Study of Society at the University of Haifa , was headed by Prof. Zvi Eisikovits and Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel. Until now statistics on child abuse in Israel have been based solely on cases reported to the authorities and on information received from the authorities themselves. The University of Haifa study collected first-hand accounts from Jewish and Arab children aged 12 (sixth grade), 14 (eighth grade) and 16 (tenth grade). The total size of the sample was 8,239 Jewish children and 2,274 Arab children. The study found that almost half of the children (48.5 percent) reported that they had suffered one or more kinds of abuse. Twenty-eight percent reported emotional abuse, 18 percent reported sexual abuse, 15 percent reported emotional neglect, 14 percent reported physical neglect, 14 percent reported physical harm and nine percent reported that they had been exposed to violence within the family. More than two-thirds of the Arab children (67.7 percent) reported that they had suffered one or more kinds of abuse. This means that two of every three Arab children suffer some sort of violence” [15].
Danielle Ziri writing about this new report on Israeli child abuse in the conservative Jewish Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post (2013): “ In the Jewish sector, almost half of the children surveyed – 48.5 percent – reported that they had experienced one or more types of abuse. In addition, the report showed that there is a very significant gap between the number of child victims of abuse known to the authorities and the number of children who indicated directly that they had been abused. In 2012, social workers reported 48,992 children and youth on suspicion of child abuse and neglect, which constituted 1.9% of all children in Israel , compared to the 48.5% of children who reported being affected by abuse in this study… It was also found that the rate of abuse is higher with the age of the child: among 12-year-olds, 42.9% reported that they had endured some kind of violence, while 48.9% of 14-year-olds and 58% of 16-year-olds reported so. In terms of physical abuse, 14.1% of children in the Jewish sector and 27.6% in the Arab sector reported that they had been kicked, hit or physically hurt…According to the results, 17.6% of children in the Jewish sector and 22.3% of children in the Arab sector had been victims of sexual abuse. About 8.3% of Jewish children and 11.8% of Arab children had suffered serious sexual harm. Of the children who had been sexually abused, 46.5% in the Jewish sector and 49% in the Arab sector indicated that the abuse occurred more than once, and most of them also mentioned that it had continued over the past year. Moreover, the vast majority indicated that their abuser was a man and over one third of the children abused said it had happened within their family” [16] .
6. Horrendous intellectual child abuse applied to Israeli children.
The state of Israel is a nuclear terrorist, serial war criminal, genocidally racist, racism- and genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid state. Racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel is a democracy-by-genocide - of about 12 million Palestinians only 7%, the adults of 1.7 million Palestinian Israelis (21% of the Israeli population) can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine plus part of Lebanon and a largely ethnically cleansed part of Syria, albeit as third class citizens; 1.8 million Occupied Palestinians are highly abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp with minimal human rights; 2.5 million Occupied Palestinians live with minimal human rights under highly abusive military rule in West Bank Bantustans; about 6 million Palestinians are forbidden to even live in Palestine; there are 5.9 million Jewish Israelis and 0.3 million non-Jewish and non-Arab Israelis [2, 11]. About 50% of Occupied Palestinians are children (49.3% overall, 52.5% in the Gaza Concentration Camp, 47.3% in the West Bank ) [11] and about 36% of Israelis are children.
Outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) [17] enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers. However Israeli children are taught otherwise and are subject to horrendous intellectual child abuse in being raised to accept the rightness of invading and colonizing the country of another people and in the process subjecting the Indigenous inhabitants (50% children) to war, occupation, robbing, deprivation, imprisoning, torture, killing, exiling, trauma, and ethnic cleansing (genocide). Yet anti-racist Jewish humanitarians argue otherwise – for example, Moshe Menuhin (1893-1983, a prominent anti-Zionist, father of famous violinist, universalist and anti-Zionist Yehudi Menuhin and the author of "The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time", "Jewish Critics of Zionism", and of the family history "The Menuhin Saga") put it succinctly thus: “Jews should be Jews - not Nazis.” [18].
The impact of this horrendous Israeli intellectual child abuse is revealed by American physician and evolutionary anthropologist Dr John Hartung as reported by Professor Richard Dawkins in his book “The God Delusion” (pp 253-257) [19] who reported the findings of Israeli psychologist George Tamarin: “Tamarin presented to more than a thousand Israeli school children, aged between eight and fourteen , the account of the battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua [which states] Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword … Tamarin then asked the children a simple moral question: “Do you think Joshua and the Israelites acted rightly or not? They had to choose between A (total approval), B (partial approval) and C (total disapproval). The results were polarized: 66 per cent gave total approval, and 26 per cent total disapproval, with rather fewer (8 per cent) in the middle with total approval … Tamarin ran a fascinating control group in his experiment. A different group of 168 Israeli children were given the same text from the book of Joshua, but with Joshua's name replaced by “General Lin” and “ Israel ” replaced by “a Chinese kingdom 3,000 years ago”. Now the experiment gave opposite results. Only 7 per cent approved of General Lin's behaviour, and 75 per cent disapproved… It was religion that made the difference between children condemning genocide and condoning it” [19].
7. Horrendous impact of Apartheid Israel on the world's children.
Apartheid Israel has been a major recipient of US aid that would otherwise have gone to alleviate poverty and prevent avoidable mortality – and especially avoidable mortality of children - around the world. The horrendous long term, committed accrual financial cost of Apartheid Israel to Americans has now reached a gigantic $40 trillion in today's dollars. However the human cost involves the preventable deaths of millions of Americans – passive mass murder of Americans in an American Holocaust inflicted by the fiscal perversion of traitorous Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) One Percenters committing $8-10 trillion to ethnic cleansing and active and passive mass murder of Muslims abroad in support of Apartheid Israel instead of keeping Americans alive at home. The long term, committed accrual cost of Zionist-subverted American Government support for Apartheid Israel in circa 2008 dollars totals about $40 trillion, the breakdown being (1) $3 trillion (1948-2003), (2) $4-6 trillion (Zionist-promoted Iraq and Afghan Wars), (3) $0.7 trillion (Value of a Statistical Life- or VSL-based cost of 88,000 US veteran suicides since September 2001) and (4) about $30 trillion (one quarter of the VSL-based cost of 15.6 million preventable American deaths since September 2001). This is an under-estimate because it does not consider the millions of preventable American deaths before 9-11 and linked to Zionist subversion and perversion of America [20, 21].
This racist Zionist perversion of the USA (now aka USrael or the United States of Israel) has come at a huge cost to the world's children. Thus it is estimated that the 1950-2005 avoidable deaths globally totaled 1.3 billion of which 1.2 billion were in the Developing World and 0.6 billion in the Muslim World, with about half being children [8]. These estimates are consonant with estimates of 1950-2005 under-5 year old infant deaths totaling 0.88 billion for the world, 0.85 billion for the Developing World and 0.4 billion for the Muslim World [8] , this representing a Muslim Genocide and Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed) and the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which pro-Zionist Churchill with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death for strategic reasons [8, 22-25]. In 2003 global avoidable deaths from deprivation totaled about 16 million and under-5 year old infant deaths totaled about 10 million [8]. However currently annual avoidable deaths from deprivation total about 18 million (half of them children) and annual under-5 year old infant deaths total about 7 million, with this Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust carnage occurring on Spaceship Earth with the racist Zionist perverted and subverted US in charge of the flight deck.
However Apartheid Israel has a more direct involvement in this global carnage through its role as a dirty tricks US surrogate, keeping the Muslim world suppressed and through dirty involvements in atrocities like the Guatemalan Indian Genocide and the Sri Lankan Tamil Genocide [8]. While non-nuclear weapons and anti-nuclear weapons Iran has not invaded any other country for centuries, it is subject to Zionist-promoted sanctions that are connected to 100,000 avoidable Iranian deaths from deprivation each year (half being children). In contrast, Apartheid Israel has militarily attacked 12 other countries (the list, including attacks on national ships and aircraft, is as follows: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Uganda, USA, and Turkey), noting that such attacks result in diversion of national resources from keeping children alive to national defence).
Thus the 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries actually occupied by Apartheid Israel total 24 million (half being children), the breakdown being as follows (with the data expressed as 1950-2005 avoidable deaths/2005 population, both in millions, m) : Apartheid Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] - Egypt [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% [8]. This carnage is similar in magnitude to that achieved by Nazi Germany in its WW2 invasion of the Soviet Union . These 24 million avoidable deaths in countries variously occupied by Apartheid Israel are indicative of 17 million under-5 year old infants in these racist Zionist (RZ)-violated countries in the period 1950-2005 [8].
Numerous science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts conclude that the US was responsible for the 9-11 atrocity (3,000 killed) with some concluding that Apartheid Israel must have been involved [26]. The resulting Zionist-promoted US War on Terror has, so far, been associated with 10 million Muslim deaths from violence or from violently-imposed deprivation. The post-1990, Zionist-promoted War on Muslims has been associated with 12 million such deaths, a Muslim Genocide and a Muslim Holocaust 2 times greater in deaths than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million deaths) [2, 27-29].
8. Horrendous impact of Apartheid Israel on children of its pro-Zionist friends, the US and Australia .
US is the richest country on earth but an estimated 1.3 million Americans die preventable deaths each year due to gross fiscal perversion whereby trillions of dollars are spent on the military, wars and killing people abroad rather than on keeping Americans alive at home [20, 21]. The traitorous Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) Establishment One Percenters responsible for this passive mass murder of 1.3 million Americans each year should be exposed and sidelined by the long-suffering 99% of ordinary Americans. For those who love ordinary Americans and have been inspired by great American humanitarians, there are some truly shocking statistics. Thus, for example, about 90,000 US veterans of Zionist-promoted wars (in which they mostly participated barely out of their teenage years) have suicided since 9-11 and an estimated 280,000 under-5 year old American infants have died since 9-11 linked to the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) Establishment's fiscal perversion of spending trillions of dollars on killing Muslim children abroad rather than keeping American children alive at home. The horrendous long term, committed, accrual financial cost of Apartheid Israel to Americans has now reached a gigantic $40 trillion in today's dollars, this being directly linked to 21,000 under-5 year old American infant deaths each year [20, 21] .
PC racist White Australia is Apartheid Israel 's best friend after the US and makes a major financial and diplomatic contributions in support of the Apartheid rogue state. A succession of Australian political leaders have had their names attached to forests in Apartheid Israel on ethnically cleansed Palestinian land. However the long term, committed, accrual cost of the Zionist-promoted War on Terror to Australia has been $125 billion with this fiscal perversion being linked to 66,000 preventable Australian deaths annually or 0.9 million preventable deaths since 9-11 out of a population of 23 million [30, 31]. Some 2,000 Indigenous Australians die preventably each year in a continuing Aboriginal Genocide and the Indigenous under-1 year old infant mortality is 2 times that for White Australia. Zionist narcissism, bullying and mendacity has contributed to an appalling “look the other way” Australian culture which means that the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide is ignored [32], as is horrendous child abuse in Australia [33, 34].
The former pro-Zionist Gillard Labor Government instituted a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that is unfortunately confined to investigating horrendous institutional child sexual abuse (up to 40,000 cases over the last 40 years by Catholic Church personnel). However both the Coalition and Labor continue to ignore the awful reality that 34% of Australian women and 16% of Australian men – 4.4 million Australians in all - have been subject to child sexual abuse i.e. the Coalition and Labor major parties have ignored huge non-institutional child sexual abuse [33, 34] . In contrast to its declared inability to quantitate the extent of child abuse in Indigenous communities, the “Little Children are Sacred” Report (pp234-236) [35 ] refers to studies in America indicating that 25% of females and 10% of males experience childhood sexual abuse in the US [36] and in Australia indicating that 34% of females and 16% of males today experienced child sexual abuse [37].
It is not surprising that pro-war, pro-Zionist, human rights abusing countries like the US and Australia that turn a bind eye to horrendous child sexual abuse within their societies would likewise ignore the horrendous Israeli child abuse outlined above.
9. Horrendous impact of Apartheid Israel on rational public discussion, children and the looming Climate Genocide.
The Zionist Lobbies have had an appalling impact on democracy and rational public discussion in the Western democracies. Both anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish critics of Apartheid Israeli human rights abuses are routinely falsely defamed as “anti-Semites” by the racist Zionists and their fellow travellers. Thus, for example, PC racist (politically correct racist) Apartheid Australia has reached a new low in its world-leading support for Apartheid Israel and by permitting, without public challenge, the egregiously false defamation of anti-racist Jews critical of human rights abuses by the racist, democracy-by-genocide, Zionist rogue state [38]. Australia and other Western countries ignore the huge threat to their institutions posed by the free hand given to the traitorous Zionist Lobby [39].
Mainstream politicians, whether Democrat or Republican in the US , Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Labour in the UK , or Coalition or Labor in Australia , are overwhelmingly silent over Apartheid Israeli crimes whether through racist conviction or fear of the Zionist Lobby. The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-perverted and subverted Western democracies have become Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money purchases people, politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality and political power. Thus, for example, the Australian PM Kevin Rudd was removed in a US-approved, Mining Corporation-backed and pro-Zionist-led Coup on 24 June 2010 having incurred the hatred of the Zionist Lobby by mildly protesting Israeli forging of Australian passports and violently kidnapping Australians in international waters [40].
The Orwellian irrationality introduced into Western public life by the theft, bullying and mendacity of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) Establishment One Percenters has devastating impact on preventable deaths in these societies e.g. 1.3 million avoidable deaths from deprivation annually in the US [20, 21, 30] and 66,000 such deaths annually in Australia [30, 31]. This mendacious Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy culture subverts urgently required rational societal responses to the 3 apocalyptic threats facing humanity, namely nuclear weapons, poverty and man-made climate change. Notwithstanding pious political rhetoric, terracidal climate change inaction is the reality in the Western democracies [41]. The consequences of climate change inaction are dire [41-44] - top climate scientists have warned that as few as 0.5 billion will survive. Noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN Population Division), these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including roughly twice the present population of particular mainly non-European groups, and specifically 6 billion under-5 year old infants [42] – mass paedocide, mass infanticide and near-terminal homicidal child abuse thanks to the egregious theft, bullying and mendacity of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) Establishment One Percenters .
[1]. “ Convention on the Rights of the Child”: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx .
[2]. “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[3]. “Children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict .
[4]. UNICEF, “State of Palestine”: http://www.unicef.org/oPt/overview.html .
[5]. UNICEF, “ Israel ”: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/israel.html .
[6]. William Cook (editor) “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”; for review see Gideon Polya, “Review “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, Countercurrents, 17 June 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm .
[7]. Gideon Polya, “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in William Cook (editor) “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”.
[8]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[9]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “ Apartheid Israel excludes Occupied Palestinians from all provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ”, Countercurrents, 20 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya200512.htm .
[11]. “Demographics of the Palestinian Territories ”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territories .
[12]. David Miliband. “ Gaza represents the ultimate failure of politics”, Guardian, 11 October 2011: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/11/david-miliband-gaza-politics-save-the-children .
[13]. Phoebe Greenwood, “ Israel furious at UN report detailing torture of Palestinian children”, The Telegraph, 21 June 2013: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10135157/Israel-furious-at-UN-report-detailing-torture-of-Palestinian-children.html?fb .
[14]. John Lyons, Janine Cohen and Sylvie Le Clezio , “Stone cold justice”, ABC TV Four Corners, 24 February 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/02/10/3939266.htm .
[15]. Yarden Skop, “Nearly half of Israel 's children suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse, study finds”, Haaretz, 13 November 2013: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.557668 .
[16]. Danielle Ziri, “Child abuse more prevalent than ever, report shows”, The Jerusalem Post, 11 December 2013: http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Child-abuse-more-prevalent-than-ever-report-shows-331434 .
[17]. Jared Diamond, "Collapse”.
[18]. Moshe Menuhin quoted by Grace Halsell in “Like father, like son: a tribute to Moshe and Yehudi Menuhin”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), July 1996: http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0796/9607018.htm .
[19]. Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion”.
[20]. Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, millions of untimely American deaths and $40 trillion cost of Israel to Americans”, Countercurrents , 27 August, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270813.htm .
[21]. Gideon Polya, “ One million Americans die preventably annually in USA ”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya180212.htm .
[22]. Madhusree Mukerjee, “Churchill's Secret War. The British Empire and the ravaging of India during World War II”.
[23]. “Bengal Famine”, BBC, 10 January 2009: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .
[25]. Gideon Polya, “ Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html .
[26]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[27]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[28]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[29]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[30]. Gideon Polya, “Endless War on Terror. Huge cost for Australia & America ”, MWC News, 14 October 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22149-endless-war-on-terror.html .
[31]. Gideon Polya, "Why PM Julia Gillard Must Go: 66,000 Preventable Australian Deaths Annually", Countercurrents: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210212.htm .
[32]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[33]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous child abuse by pro-war, pro-Zionist, climate criminal Australian Coalition Governments”, Countercurrents, 4 December 2013 : http://www.countercurrents.org/polya041213. h t m .
[34]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Australian child sexual abuse”, MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22859-gideonpolya-sexual-abuse.html .
[35]. “Little Children are Sacred” Report: http://web.archive.org/web/20070703014641/http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf .
[36]. Finkelhor, D. (1994), Current information on the scope and nature of child sexual abuse”, Future of Children, 4(2), pp31-53).
[37]. Dunne, M.P., Purdie, D.M., Cook, M.D., Boyle, F.M. & Najman, J.M.(2003), Is child sexual abuse declining? Evidence from a population-based survey of men and women in Australia , Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 27 (2), pp141-152).
[38]. Gideon Polya, “Open Letter To Australian Human Rights Commission Condemns Pro-Zionist Anti-Jewish Anti-Semitism In Apartheid Australia ”, Countercurrents, 4 March, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya040314.htm .
[39]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Zionism and Israeli State Terrorism threats to Australia and Humanity”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/racist-zionism-and-israeli .
[40]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist-led Coup ousts Australian PM Rudd”, MWC News, 29 June 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/3488-pro-zionist-led-coup.html .
[41]. Gideon Polya, “Terracidal Climate Change Inaction”, Countercurrents, 6 April 2014 : http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060414.ht m .
[42].. “Climate genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .
[43].. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .
[44]. “Climate justice & intergenerational equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .
"Israel is a democracy" (an egregiously false assertion). The frequent assertion by the ABC and SBS that “Israel is a democracy” is utterly false because democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel determines that (a) of about 12 million Palestinians only 6.7%, the adults of 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis, are able to vote for the government ruling all of Palestine i.e. ruling 5.8 million Indigenous Palestinians (including 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis liviing under Apartheid laws and and 4.2 million Occupied Palestinians with zero human rights) , 0.4 million non-Indigenous, non- Jewish Israelis, and a minority of 5.8 million Jewish Israelis (ranging from atheists to anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews) and (b) 50% of about 12 million Palestinians are forbidden to even step foot in their own country (see “Palestinian Genocide” https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
Indeed one notes that the Aung San Suu Kyi's National Democracy League has only 42/664 = 6.3% of the seats in the 2 Houses of the Myanmar Parliament despite overwhelming popular support confirmed in the recent by-elections in which Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won 40 of the 45 seats contested(see Gideon Polya, “Comparing Burma and Apartheid Israel”, MWC News, 4 April 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/18002-burma-israel.html ).
However the ABC has repeatedly broadcast this false claim that "Israel is a democracy"as documented below.
(1) the ABC reports this false claim by Apartheid Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asserting that “Israel is a democracy and does not threaten anyone. The only thing we have tried to do is to live without threats of terror, but we've never threatened anyone with annihilation. And can you say this in the same level while Iran is aspiring to have nuclear weapons, like America, like France, like Israel and Russia” (David Haraker, “”Israeli PM admits to nuclear weapons”, ABC AM, 12 December 2006: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1809421.htm );
(2) the ABC quotes this false claim by Jewish Israeli atheist Yoram Kaniuk saying “Politically Israel is a democracy but I think that my case now will make a crack and it will open because people are waiting to separate the Jewish religion from the Jewish people” (Anne Barker, “Israeli court separates church from state”, The World Today, 11 October 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3336673.htm );
(3) the ABC quotes this false claim by former PM John Howard (responsible for the illegal, war criminal Australian invasion of Iraq that led to 2.5 million Iraqi deaths) stating: “I do take issue with you in comparing the regime in Iraq with the Government of Israel. Israel is a democracy. Whatever may be said about Israel, Israel has elections, Israel has courts, Israel has a vigorous free press” (see Catherine McGrath, “Parliamentary debate on Iraq heats up”, ABC PM, 18 September 2002: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s679726.htm ;
(4) the ABC quotes this false claim by Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, on the Fox News Network: “Israel is a democracy. Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself - not to be investigated by any international board. I don't think the United States would want an international enquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan for example” (see Brendan Trembath, “Israel rejects call for international inquiry”, ABC The World Today, 7 June 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2920270.htm ):
(5) the ABC quotes this false claim by Yuval Rabin (son of assassinated Apartheid Israel PM Yitzhak Rabin) saying “Israel is a democracy and people have to be voted in or elected based on their own abilities and merits, and not in any way leverage my father's memory to their benefit” (see .Eleanor Hall, “Rabin’s promise of peace remembered, ten year on”, ABC The World Today, 22 November 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1514203.htm );
(6) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right wing Murdoch Empire journalist Greg Sheridan: “Israel is a struggling democracy which makes mistakes, including moral mistakes, and deserves to be called on them but no country in the world is subject to this attack at the root of its legitimacy that it should not exist. I spent a lot of time in the Middle East, a lot of time in Muslim countries. There is no country in the Middle East which better observes human rights of all its citizens than Israel” (see ABC TV, Q&A, “Protests and Palestine”, 17 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3585292.htm );
(7) the ABC quotes this false claim by the war–criminal Apartheid Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: “Israel is a democracy. Israel doesn't threaten any country with anything” (David Hardaker, “Israeli nuclear whistleblower demands freedom”, ABC AM, 13 December 2006: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1810380.htm );
(8) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right wing US President, war criminal and mass murderer George W Bush in a speech to the traitorous, genocidally racist American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) : "Unfolding violence in the Gaza strip is troubling… The US is strongly committed and I am strongly committed to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state. Israel is a democracy and a friend and have every right to defend itself from terror” (see ABC News, “Israelis sweep through Gaza camp”, 19 May 2004: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-05-19/israelis-sweep-through-gaza-camp/1977984 );
(9) the ABC quotes this false claim by an egregiously lying spokesman for the Apartheid Israeli Foreign Ministry (noting that an anagram for ISRAEL is e-LIARS) saying that Apartheid Israel is "a democracy in which human rights is at the very heart of the body politique” (ABC News, “UN envoy accuses Israel of stifling human rights”, 12 October 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2005-10-12/un-envoy-accuses-israel-of-stifling-human-rights/2122726 );
(10) the ABC quotes this false claim by extreme right-wing, pro-Zionist propagandist Daniel Pipes in the following exchange: “HANIFA DEEN: I don't see Israel as a model of democracy for what's happened recently. No, I do not see that at all. But I think that through a whole process of education, through a whole spontaneous process of social media, people moving backwards and forwards before their countries, people just got fed up with issues, domestic issues, unemployment, rising costs et cetera, and, yes, looking around and saying "It can improve. We can do better," and that is the hope and optimism that they've brought with them. But I really don't believe that Israel was the ideal model or a model of democracy for those countries. DANIEL PIPES: Among the liberals it certainly is. Among the people in Tahrir Square, the model of Israel: economic growth, creativity, musical achievement, military prowess, this is a very powerful model. HANIFA DEEN: It sounds like bit of a fairytale to me” (ABC TV Q&A, “Israel, Islam and insurgents”, 22 August 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3294021.htm ); and
(11) the ABC quotes this incorrect claim by Australian Zionist Ted Lapkin (Director of Policy Analysis at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council and media consultant for the Jewish National Fund of Australia) : “Israel is a democracy, it provides democratic rights to all its citizens” (see “Apartheid Israel?”, ABC Religion Report, 8 June 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionreport/apartheid-israel/3442902#transcript ).
Israeli state terrorism. Since 1936 Palestinian deaths from violence (0.1 million) or violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million) have totaled 2.0 million. There are now 7 million Palestinian refugees arising from those who have fled genocidal Apartheid Israeli state terrorism in 1948 and thence in 1967. The genocidally racist Israelis exert control over Occupied Palestinians using heavily armed troops on the ground in the West Bank and by army, naval and air force rocketing and bombing in what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp. Apartheid Israeli invasion and occupation of all its neighbours has meant budgetary perversion in these countries to deal with its US-backed threat. The 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation and 1950-2005 post-1950 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) are presented here for Apartheid Israel, for each country variously occupied (* indicates other occupiers) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by Apartheid Israel: Apartheid Israel [0.095m/6.685m =1.4%] - Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Jordan* [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Lebanon [0.535m/3.761m = 14.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories* [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], total = 23.858m/106.854 = 22.3% (see Chapter 3, Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html . A A search of the “ABC News” for “Israeli state terrorism” yields zero (0) results, despite the horrendous reality that Israeli state terrorists have repeatedly forged Australian passports on a huge scale, subverted Australian MPs and journalists on a huge scale, and subjected Australian citizens to theft, tasering, shooting, kidnapping, piracy, imprisonment and bombing (the Israelis bombed 25,0000 Australian citizens in Lebanon in 2006 while the Zionist-perverted Lib-Lab MPs expressed support for the democracy-by-genocide Apartheid rogue state). Indeed the 24 June 2010 Coup against PM Kevin Rudd as a US-approved, foreign mining company-backed , pro-Zionist-led Coup (see (see Antony Loewenstein, "Does the Zionist lobby have blood on its hands in Australia ?": http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/07/02/does-the-zionist-lobby-have-blood-on-its-hands-in-australia/ , Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist-led Coup ousts Australian PM Rudd”, MWC News, 29 June 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/3488-pro-zionist-led-coup.html , Middle East Reality Check, “I’ve been to Israel too”: http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/ive-been-to-israel-too.html , and “50 ways racist Zionists (RZs) and Israeli state terrorism (IST) threaten Australia and YOUR country too:, Belacioam, 14 March 2010: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19618 ) (see Apartheid Israeli state terrorism).
Ivashov, Leonid. General Leonid Ivashov (vice-president of the Russian Academy on geopolitical affairs, chief of the department for General affairs in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense, secretary of the Council of defense ministers of the Community of independent states (CIS), chief of the Military cooperation department at the Russian federation’s Ministry of defense and Joint chief of staff of the Russian armies): “Terrorism is the weapon used in a new type of war. At the same time, international terrorism, in complicity with the media, becomes the manager of global processes. It is precisely the symbiosis between media and terror, which allows modifying international politics and the exiting reality. In this context, if we analyze what happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States, we can arrive at the following conclusions: 1. The organizers of those attacks were the political and business circles interested in destabilizing the world order and who had the means necessary to finance the operation. The political conception of this action matured there where tensions emerged in the administration of financial and other types of resources. We have to look for the reasons of the attacks in the coincidence of interests of the big capital at global and transnational levels, in the circles that were not satisfied with the rhythm of the globalization process or its direction. Unlike traditional wars, whose conception is determined by generals and politicians, the oligarchs and politicians submitted to the former were the ones who did it this time. 2. Only secret services and their current chiefs – or those retired but still having influence inside the state organizations – have the ability to plan, organize and conduct an operation of such magnitude. Generally, secret services create, finance and control extremist organizations. Without the support of secret services, these organizations cannot exist – let alone carry out operations of such magnitude inside countries so well protected. Planning and carrying out an operation on this scale is extremely complex. 3. Osama bin Laden and “Al Qaeda” cannot be the organizers nor the performers of the September 11 attacks. They do not have the necessary organization, resources or leaders. Thus, a team of professionals had to be created and the Arab kamikazes are just extras to mask the operation. The September 11 operation modified the course of events in the world in the direction chosen by transnational mafias and international oligarchs; that is, those who hope to control the planet’s natural resources, the world information network and the financial flows. This operation also favored the US economic and political elite that also seeks world dominance”(General Leonid Ivashov, “International terrorism does not exist: September 11 attacks were the result of a set-up”, Global Research, 23 January 2006: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=1789 ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Leonid Ivashov” yielded zero (0) and 3 results, respectively, the latter not being about 9-11.
Jones, Steven. Dr Steven E. Jones (American physicist who worked on muon-catalyzed fusion, studied the collapse of the World Trade Center, Brigham Young University) on explosive demolition of the WTC: “On the basis of photographic and video evidence as well as related data and analyses, I provide thirteen reasons for ejecting the official hypothesis, according to which fore an impact damage caused the collapsed of the Twin Towers and of WTC7, in favor of the controlled demolition hypothesis…I believe this is a straightforward hypothesis, much more probable actually than the official hypothesis. It deserves thorough scientific scrutiny, beyond that which I have been able to outline in this treatise. Conclusion. I have drawn attention to glaring inadequacies in the “final” reports funded by the US Government. I have also presented multiple evidences for an alternative hypothesis. In particular, the official theory lacks repeatability in that no actual model or buildings (before or since 9-11-01) have been observed to completely collapse due to the proposed fire-based mechanisms. On the other hand, hundreds of buildings have been completely and symmetrically demolished through the use of pre-positioned explosives. And high-temperature chemical reactions can account for the observed large pools of molten metal, under both the Towers and WTC7, and the sulfidation of structural steel. The controlled demolition hypothesis cannot be dismissed as “junk science” because it better satisfies tests of repeatability and parsimony” (Dr Steven E. Jones, “Why indeed did the World Trade Center Buildings completely collapse?”, Journal of 9/11 Studies, September 2006, volume 3, 1- 48). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for “Leonid Ivashov” yielded zero (0) and 1 results, respectively, relating to 9-11, the latter being a comment from an ABC listener.
Lendman, Stephen. Stephen Lendman ( outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American analyst, writer and a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization) on controlled demolition of the WTC on 9-11 on the eve of the 10th anniversary (2011): “ A personal note. I was in a doctor's waiting room with others watching events on television. When the South Tower collapsed, everyone audibly gasped, unaware as I was how or why, let alone what lay next. When the North Tower collapsed 30 minutes later, unsettling thoughts crystallized enough to make me sense much more was involved than met the eye or what news reports claimed. It was almost anti-climactic when WTC 7 collapsed at 5:21PM. Notably, BBC's Jane Standley reported the event at 4:54PM New York time, 27 minutes in advance. Later she claimed she didn't "remember minute-by-minute what she saw," or perhaps (like BBC's management) doesn't want to explain how she could report an event before it happened without advance knowledge. Earlier in the afternoon, I smelled a rat and wrote my brother, saying: "They're drinking champagne in the White House tonight," precise words I'll never forgot. Yet they failed to imagine the horror-filled decade to come. Back then, the whole world watched the horrific spectacle, including planes hitting the towers, both bursting into flames, desperate people jumping out of windows to avoid incineration, and then collapse at near free-fall speed, later proved (but unreported) by controlled demolitions… As on previous anniversaries, they'll cover everything except what Americans most need to know - the truth” (Stephen Lendman, “Media manipulation of 9/11 truth”, MWC News, 6 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13247-911-truth.html ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Stephen Lendman" yielded zero (0) and 4 results, respectively, the latter being comments posted to ABC websites by Dr Gideon Polya.
Mahathir Mohamad. Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad (fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, 1981 – 2003), Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister) saying that 9-11 was not the work of Muslims (2011): “For some Americans, the deaths of nearly 3,000 people was not the scariest thing about 9/11. It was realizing who carried out the attack: yes, the American Government…The planning [for the 9/11 attacks] must have taken a considerable length of time. The candidates had to learn to fly in tiny aircrafts…. Planning to hijack four aircraft simultaneously would require great precision in timing and logistics. One aircraft maybe. But four simultaneously!! I don't think extremists from Saudi Arabia can carry out this highly sophisticated operation with such success…They [WTC buildings] came down nicely upon themselves without toppling against the other buildings close by. It looks more like planned demolition of buildings than collapse consequent upon being hit by aircraft. A third building also collapsed in the same fashion; although it was not hit by any aircraft. What is the explanation for this untouched building, which collapsed upon itself and did not damage other buildings nearby?... “[At the Pentagon] there was no debris of any kind, no broken parts of the aircraft, no black box, and no human bodies flung into the surroundings. Is it possible for an aircraft to vaporize totally after a crash?... Again [in Pennsylvania] no sign of any debris. No big crater. Did it vaporize into nothingness? Did the innocent passengers also vaporize?”(Dr Mahathir Mohamad quoted in “9/11 was not work of Muslim groups: Mahathir Mohamad” , Teheran Times, 14 September 2011: http://www.tehrantimes.com/world/2407-911-was-not-a-handi-work-of-muslim-groups-mahathir-mohamad/ ). I have found no ABC reports of this important pronouncement.
Methane. Methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (appallingly not reported by the ABC but for details see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ) . Indeed the ABC has reported Professor Nathan Hultman, (School of Public Policy, University of Maryland), warning that using the "most extreme assumptions", coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame and that “The reason you would be worried about methane in particular over a 20-year time horizon is if you are thinking we are on the verge of a kind of tipping point in climate change right now. If you really think right now we are very close to melting the ice caps or pushing the climate from a moderately steady state into a kind of bad outcome where you've got runaway climate change" (see “CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change”, ABC News, 10 December 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808 ).
Methanogenic, Methanogenic Livestock. Methane (CH4) is a major greenhouse gas (GHG) and its rising atmospheric levels add to the GHG threat to the planet. Major sources of CH4 are generation by anaerobic bacteria in waste landfill, rice paddies and swamps as well as leakage from CH4-water clathrates in the warming Tundra and the Arctic Ocean seabed. A search of ABC News for “methanogenic” yields zero (0) results although a search of “the entire ABC” yields 9 results about biological methanogenesis (1 being an ABC website a comment by Dr Gideon Polya). Science indicates the need to urgently terminate the methanogenic, environmentally destructive cattle industry. World Bank analysts have recently re-assessed global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by considering the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of methane (CH4)as 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20 year time frame (21 times worse on a 100 year time frame). They found that man's GHG pollution was 50% bigger than hitherto thought (from 41.8 Gt CO2-e to 63.8 Gt CO2-e) and that livestock contribute over 51% of the bigger number (this too is an underestimate because NASA scientists have recently found that the GWP of CH4 is 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account)(see section "2011 climate change course": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course and see Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf ).
Meyssan, Thierry. Thierry Meyssan ( French researcher and the author of a book about 9-11 entitled “9-11: The Big Lie” (“L'Effroyable imposture”) in “9-11: The Big Lie”: “After the two World Trade Center towers collapsed in a way that no one predicted, complete official investigations into the incident as to how it happened were not conducted, but the official account confirmed the idea of two jets, as well as the identity of the accused, without substantiating their existence or their involvement in the incident. Immediately, there was an emphasis on demolishing the damaged buildings and collecting the debris, and whatever was left in this place was placed under the control of the F.B.I and was declared as part of national defense secrets. The rapidity with which the debris was collected raised suspicion with the fire officials of the Fire Department of New York, because they didn’t find Washington officials convincing, and they were certain that the fuel of the two jets wasn’t sufficient to melt the iron skeleton of the two towers in such a short time. And practically and chemically, it is impossible, unless the two towers were made of cardboard. For this reason, officials of the fire department requested an inquiry in order to clarify the facts as to whether an explosion occurred at the bottom of the two towers or not. However, F.B.I authorities didn’t agree with this suggestion. There is another mystery here, since it is only through explosives that high rise buildings can be demolished, while in this case there isn’t any other evidence or picture to show what happened at the bottom of the two towers.” Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Thierry Meyssan" yielded zero (0) and 1 result, respectively, the latter referring to his book claiming US responsibility for 9-11.
Muslim refugees. Searches of the ABC News and of the "entire ABC site" for the term “Muslim refugees” yield 11 and 41 results, respectively. However none of the ABC News reports inform the ABC audience of the overall magnitude of the problem. Thus ther are now some 45 million refugees in the world and this includes over 20 million Muslim refugees, the breakdown being 7 million Palestinians, 5-6 million Iraqis, 3-4 million Afghans, 2 million Somalis, 2 million Syrians, 1 million Libyans, and 1 million Myanmar Rohingyas. US-backed war in NW Pakistan generated 2 million Pashtun refugees. PM Kevin Rudd notoriously described “people smugglers” - people trying to find safe haven for desperate refugees - as “the absolute scum of the earth” who “should rot in hell” (see “Rudd wants people smugglers to “rot in hell”", ABC News, 17 April 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-17/rudd-wants-people-smugglers-to-rot-in-hell/1653814 ). This raises the matter of how one should describe the genocidally racist Zionists, genocidal Myanmar racists and US Alliance war criminals who generated over 20 million Muslim refugees in the first place (also see Refugees, War on Muslims, US War on Muslims, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims ).
Natural Gas. The ABC could hardly fail to report that Australia, the US and other countries are undergoing a “gas rush” and “gas boom” involving exploitation of convention and non-conventional natural gas but has failed to report the huge danger from leakage of methane. . Methane (CH4) is about 85% of natural gas which leaks (2-8% in the US depending upon the source, from conventional to fracking-derived) and methane (CH4) .has a GWP 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account (see (see Section F, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ), this meaning that depending upon the leakage, gas burning can be dirtier greenhouse gas (GHG)-wise than burning coal (see “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy ). The ABC has failed to report this matter that critically relates to survival of Humanity and the Biosphere (see Methane, Methanogenic, Methanogenic Livestock).
"9-11 American Empire Intellectuals Speak Out". “9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out”, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, Olive Branch Press, 2006 (see: http://www.amazon.com/11-American-Empire-Intellectuals-Speak/dp/1566566592 ) has eminent contributors including Richard Falk, Daniele Ganser, David Ray Griffin, Steven E. Jones, Karin Kwiatkowski, John McMurtry, Peter Phillips, Morgan Reynolds, Kevin Ryan, Peter Dale Scott, Ola Tunander. According to the book description: “Coming from different intellectual disciplines as well as from different parts of the world, these authors are united in the conviction that the official story about 9/11 is a huge deception manufactured to extend imperial control at home and abroad”. Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for " 9 11 American Empire Intellectuals Speak Out". yielded zero (0) results
Non-state terrorism. Searches of the “ABC News” for the terms “Non-state terrorism”, “Israeli state terrorism”, “French state terrorism”, “UK state terrorism “, “US state terrorism” and "Muslim-origin non state terrorism” yield zero (0) results whereas searches of the “ABC News” for the following Muslim-related terms yield many results (given in parentheses): terms “Islamic terrorism” (42), “Islamist terrorism” (14), “Jihadi terrorism” (15), “Jihadist terrorism” (1) and “Muslim terrorism” (11). Interestingly, while a search of the “ABC News” for Christian terrorism”, yields zero (0) results, searches of the “ABC News” for “Zionist terrorism”, “Jewish terrorism” and “state terrorism” yield 1, 3 and 43 results, respectively, with the 43 “state terrorism results including items relating to Muslims, Israelis, Myanmar Buddhists, Indonesians, Bahrainis, Americans, Pakistanis but none are explicitly about UK state terrorism or French state terrorism. Thus Muslim-origin non-state terrorists have killed about 2,000 Western civilians in the last half century (excluded from this estimate are about 2,000 genocidal Zionist invaders killed in Palestine and the roughly 3,000 mostly Americans killed on 9-11, an atrocity almost certainly carried out by the US Government and with likely Apartheid Israeli involvement; see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ ). In stark contrast, since 1990 about 12 million Muslims have been killed through violence or violently-imposed deprivation, the breakdown including 4.6 million Iraqis, 5.5 million Afghans, 2.2 million Somalis, 0.1 million Libyans, 0.1 million Syrians (40,000 being minority Alawites), and 0.1 million Palestinians, with about half the victims of US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism and Apartheid Israeli state terrorism being Muslim children (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ and Gideon Polya “Hey, hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today? Answer: 1,000”, Bellaciao, 1 May 2013: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18750 ).
Opiate drug-related deaths. It is estimated that over 1 million people have died opiate drug-related deaths since 2001 linked to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007, the breakdown being 200,000 Americans, 18,000 British,10,000 Canadians, 8,000 Germans and 4,000 Australians (for details and documentation see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ). Searches of the ABC News and of the "entire ABC site" for the term “Opiate drug-related deaths” yield zero (0) and 14 results, respectively, the latter being all comments made by Dr Gideon Polya to ABC websites. This is another instance of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and subverted ABC lies by omission against the Australian national interest but in the interests of US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism, European state terrorism and Apartheid Israel state terrorism.
Pakaein, Mohsen. Mohsen Pakaein (Head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s General Directorate for Afghanistan’s Affairs) on how American neoconservatives did 9-11 (2011): “September 11 – who was behind the events? In order to find out the reasons why the U.S. neoconservatives have succeeded in carrying out their plans and in moving toward their ambitious goals, it is necessary to understand the causes and motivations behind the events of 9/11… The events of 9/11 set the needed stage for carrying out the radical ideas of the American neoconservatives. In declaring war and bringing out its gigantic military machine, America referred to article five of the NATO Washington Treaty for the first time in fifty years and prepared itself to attack targets all over the world. This measure taken by America marked a new phase in international policy and order. The first stage of this interaction was the attack on Afghanistan… Overall, there is substantial evidence which indicates that 9/11 was perpetrated by American neoconservatives in order to create the opportunity to achieve their goals, such as strengthening militarism, attacking countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and enlisting other countries to join them in fighting terrorism. This suggests the will and determination of the neoconservatives to consolidate American power across the globe at whatever cost.”(Mohsen Pakaein, “Substantial evidence indicates US neoconservatives perpetrated 9-11 in pursuit of their own goals”, Voltairenet, 9 September 2011: http://www.voltairenet.org/Substantial-evidence-indicates-US ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Mohsen Pakaein" yielded zero (0) results.
Pieczenik, Steve. Steve Pieczenik (American psychiatrist, former United States Department of State official, author, and publisher) on the US Government having been involved in the 9-11 atrocity: “It was called a stand down, a false flag operation in order to mobilize the American public under false pretenses….it was told to me even by the general on the staff of Wolfowitz – I will go in front of a federal committee and swear on perjury who the name was of the individual so that we can break it open... [he was] furious [and] knew it had happened”...I taught stand down and false flag operations at the national war college, I’ve taught it with all my operatives so I knew exactly what was done to the American public... [I am happy to testify in court] so that we can unravel this thing legally, not with the stupid 9/11 Commission that was absurd”(Paul Joseph Watson, “top US Government insider: Bin Laden died in 2001, 9-11 a false flag”, Prison Planet, 4 May 2011: http://www.prisonplanet.com/top-us-government-insider-bin-laden-died-in-2001-911-a-false-flag.html ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Steve Pieczenik" yielded zero (0) results.
"Policy for resources and energy”. Just before the 7 September 2013 Federal Election the Coalition produced a policy document dated September 2013 and entitled “The Coalition’s Policy for Resources and Energy” (see: http://www.nationals.org.au/Portals/0/00_Election_00/Coalition%202013%20Election%20Policy%20%E2%80%93%20Energy%20and%20Resources%20%E2%80%93%20Final.pdf ) . This document is extraordinary for making absolutely no mention of “climate change” that derives heavily from fossil fuel burning. Yet a “search of the entire ABC site” reveals only one (1) instance in which this key document is mentioned, specifically the following posted reader comment by Dr Gideon Polya to an ABC Saturday Extra segment entitled “Election 2013: National issues”:http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/election-special3a-national-panel-discussion/4934974 : “The most shocking event of the Election Campaign came at the end - "The Coalition's Policy for Resources and Energy" issued in September 2013 made absolutely zero (0) mention of man-made climate change from fossil fuel burning. The new Abbott Coalition Government will be thrown out at the next election unless it recognizes and seriously and urgently tackles man-made climate change from fossil fuel burning, noting that Australia is a world leader in annual per capita Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution (Google "2011 climate change course" and see section G; Google "climate genocide").”
Pourdastan, Ahmad-Reza. Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan (Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Forces) on US responsibility for the 9-11 atrocity (2013): “The US, looking for a pretext to invade the Middle East, masterminded the 9/11 incident and pointed an accusing finger at Muslim countries... To achieve that goal [to control the world's energy resources], they launched preemptive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, and Iran was their next target, but wise policies adopted by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei along with the unity of the Iranian nation prevented them from achieving their objective”(Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan quoted in “US planned 9/11 attacks to invade Middle East: Iran cmdr”, PressYV, 19 Janauary 2013: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/19/284446/us-planned-911-attacks-to-invade-me/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan" yielded zero (0) results.
Refugees. None of the ABC News reports inform the ABC audience of the overall magnitude of the problem and in particular of over 20 million Muslim refugees, this including 7 million Palestinians, 5-6 million Iraqis, 3-4 million Afghans, 2 million Somalis, 2 million Syrians, 1 million Libyans, and 1 million Myanmar Rohingyas. US-backed war in NW Pakistan generated 2 million Pashtun refugees. PM Kevin Rudd notoriously described “people smugglers” - people trying to find safe haven for desperate refugees - as “the absolute scum of the earth” who “should rot in hell” (see “Rudd wants people smugglers to “rot in hell”, ABC News, 17 April 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-17/rudd-wants-people-smugglers-to-rot-in-hell/1653814 ). This raises the matter of how one should describe the genocidally racist Zionists, genocidal Myanmar racists and US Alliance war criminals who generated over 20 million Muslim refugees in the first place. ABC reportage of the nature and generation of over 20 million Muslim refugees is woeful. The public discussion in Australia largely ignores those who created the refugees and is mostly concerned with how to stop refugees coming by boat to Australia (also see “Economic refugees”, Muslim refugees, Tamil refugees, War on Muslims, US War on Muslims, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims ).
A rational discussion of the refugee issue would involve Source, Transit and Destination countries but a xenophobic Australia is obsessed with refugees coming to Australia by boat that is summarized by the incorrect assertions that asylum seeker arrivals by boat are “illegal” and an “invasion”. Rational discussion would eb about stopping war, sanctions, human rights abuse and genocide largely imposed on the Source countries by Western state terrorism (US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, French state terrorism, Qartari state terrorism, Saudi state terrorism and indeed Australian state terrorism). Not mentioned by Mainstream media and the ABC is Australia’s massive involvement as a UK lackey and thence US lackey in the generation of tens of millions of Asian refugees over the last century as summarized below (with deaths from violence or from violently-imposed deprivation in parentheses).
1. Armenian Genocide (1.5 million deaths, and ultimately millions of refugees world-wide). Australians were involved in the 25 April 1915 invasion of Turkey after months of shelling and the WW2 Armenian Genocide (1.5 million killed, ultimately millions of refugees throughout the world) commenced on the evening of 24 April 1915 (see Gideon Poya, “Armenian Genocide & Australian Anzac Day”, MWC News, 25 April 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/18456-armenian-australian.html ).
2. Palestinian Genocide (2 million deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation since 1936; 7 million refugees). Australian forces helped conquer Palestine for Britain and were involved in the first atrocity of the Palestinian Genocide (the 10 December 1918 Surafend Massacre of about 100 Palestinians; see “Surafend Affair”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surafend_affair ). The pro-Zionist Gillard Labor Governemtn and the genocidally racist Apartheid Israeli Government jointly issued commemorative stamps to celebrate the Australian Light Horse Beersheba victory over the Turks (see Dr Vacy Vlazna, “Israel’s crimes get stamp of approval Left Weekly, 29 June 2013: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54404 ). Australia is the strongest supporter of Apartheid Israel after the US, UK and Canada and has made contributions toward the Palestinian Genocide tax-deductible.
3. Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million killed, 1942-1945) , Indian Holocaust and Indian Genocide (1,800 avoidable deaths , 1757-1947; 1.5 million killed 18 million refugees during 1947 Partition; 50 million internal refugees due to post-1947 “development” ). Australia was complicit in the 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust in which the British deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death (see Gideon Polya, “Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html ; Gideon Polya, “Australia’s ABC censors Bengali Famine” , MWC News, 9 December 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/15391-bengali-famine.html ; “Bengal Famine”, BBC, 2008: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). The Bengali Holocaust involved large-scale military and civilian sexual abuse of starving Indian women and girls that would have involved Australian military. Australi’s history from 1788 is intmatleu connected with that if British India, Britain’s Auschwitz.
4. Korean Genocide (5 million deaths, millions displaced). Australia was involved in the Korean War (1950-1953) in which 30% of the North Korea population was killed by US bombing (see Professor Michel Chossudovsky, “Know the facts: North Korea lost close to 30^% of its population as a result of US bombing in the1950s”, Global Research, 27 November 2010: http://www.globalresearch.ca/know-the-facts-north-korea-lost-close-to-30-of-its-population-as-a-result-of-us-bombings-in-the-1950s/22131 ).
5. Indo-China Holocaust involving Laotian Genocide (1.2 million deaths, 1955-1075), Cambodian Genocide (3.8 million deaths, 1969-1979, including1.5 million by Khmer Rouge) , Vietnamese Genocide (15 million deaths, 1955-1975) and millions displaced. Australia took in some 0.1 million Indo-China refugees it has helped to generate.
6. Timor Genocide (0.2 million killed out of 0.6 million population, 1975-1999; numerous refugees). Australia approved US-backed Indonesian invasion and occupation.
7. Iraqi Genocide (4.6 million deaths, 1990-2011, 2.0 million under-5 infant deaths, 5-6 million refugees generated). US lackey Australia participated in the Sanctions War, the Guklf War and the Iraq war (1990-2011) (see “Iraqi Holocaust Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ).
8. Afghan Genocide (5.5 million deaths, 3.0 million under-5 infant deaths, 3-4 million refugees, 2001-present). US lackey Australia participated in the genocidal Afghan War. An estimated 1.1 million people have died wordlwide linked to the US Alliance restoration of the Taliban -destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007, this carnage including 200,000 Americans, 18,000 British, 10,000 Canadians, 8,000 Germans and 4,000 Australians (see “Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ).
9. Pakistani Genocide (2 million Pashtun refugees were generated by US drone strikes and US-backed military campaigns in NW Pakistan. Australia hosts the Pine Gap Joint US-Australia spying facility at Pine Gap crucial for directing US drones (see Philip Dorling, “Pine Gap drives US drone kills”, The Age, 21 July 2013: http://www.theage.com.au/national/pine-gap-drives-us-drone-kills-20130720-2qbsa.html ).
10. Tamil Genocide (0.1 million deaths, hundreds of thousands in concentration camps). Australia has cooperated with the genocidal Sri Lankan military who achieved their final victory with Israeli aircraft and bombs. Australia has dishonestly asserted that Sri Lankan refugees are “economic refugees and returns refugees fleeing the Tamil Genocide to likely imprisonnment, torture, rape and murder (see Professor Francis Boyle, “The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka”: http://www.amazon.com/The-Tamil-Genocide-Lanka-International/dp/0932863701 ).
11. Iranian Genocide (100,000 Iranians die avoidably each year under US-backed, Australia-supported Sanctions). War criminal, climate criminal, pro-Zionist Australia sits on the UN Security Council and chairs the UN Sanctions Committee.
12. Rohingya Genocide (tens of thousands killed, 1.2 million refugees including Internally Displaced Persons and 0.8 million stateless people within Myanmar). However Australia has lifted sanctions on Myanmar despite overwhelming non-democracy and the ongoing Rohingya Genocide while applying deadly sanctions against remote, peaceful, non-nuclear weapons Iran (see UNHCR: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4877d6.html ).
13. Aboriginal Genocide (2 million deaths since 1788 through violence, disease and deprivation). Aboriginal Ethnocide proceeds apace and Aborigines are being forced away from traditional lands by remorselessly racist government policy.
Sabrosky, Alan. Dr Alan Sabrosky ( Jewish American patriot, PhD from the University of Michigan, a US Marine Corps veteran, a Vietnam veteran, a graduate of the US Army War College and a Director of Studies at the US Army War College for 5 and a half years) on the PNAC Pearl Harbor strategy, the explosive demolition if the WTC and the need for assistance (US, Israeli) on the ground (2009): “The attacks on September 11, 2001 have been a defining moment for America. The political and psychological impact on Americans of a concerted and visible attack in America was enormous -- indeed, it is an interesting "coincidence" that the attacks occurred on the one day of the year whose mention reinforces a public sense here of danger and emergency: 9-1-1. A significant development in the 1990s was the formation of the neo-conservative think tank known as PNAC (Project for a New American Century), whose members prepared position papers for the Israeli government and for a future US Administration sharing their views. That happened in 2000 with the election of George W. Bush, and a contemporary writer summarized the tip of the neo-conservative iceberg in his first Administration this way: The "outsiders" from PNAC were now powerful "insiders," placed in important positions from which they could exert maximum pressure on US policy…PNAC had a lock on military policy-creation in the Bush Administration. Especially significant in terms of subsequent events was the acknowledgement in one of PNAC's own documents that their program for America (and Israel) would not readily be accepted by the American people. What this meant, PNAC opined in 2000, was that "the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor… First, the striking aircraft alone simply could not have brought down either of the two buildings in the manner in which they fell, much less a third building which was not hit by a plane…This means the attackers had assistance on the ground, and it had to have been active before the attacks occurred: preparing buildings for controlled demolition is not something done haphazardly in the midst of chaos. Second, only two intelligence agencies had the expertise, assets, access and political protection to execute 9/11 in the air and on the ground: our CIA and Israel's Mossad. Only one had the incentive, using the “who benefits” principle: Mossad. And that incentive dovetailed perfectly with the neo-con’s agenda and explicitly expressed need for a catalytic event to mobilize the American public for their wars, using American military power to destroy Israel’s enemies” (Dr Alan Sabrosky, “Treason, betrayal and deceit: 9/11 and beyond”, Information Clearing House, 10 September 2009: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23460.htm ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Alan Sabrosky" yielded zero (0) results.
Seligman, Peter. Professor Peter Seligman (a top electrical engineer, a major player in the development of the bionic ear - one of Australia’s foremost biotechnology successes - and an adjunct professor at the University of Melbourne) has written a book entitled "Australian sustainable energy - by the numbers" (available for free download and perusal from the web: http://www.sustainablemelbourne.com/research/australian-sustainable-energy-by-the-numbers-by-peter-seligman-free-pdf-book/ ), an extremely important book that sets out how Australia could install 100% renewable energy within 2 decades for about $250 billion, the main items including wind energy, solar energy, hydrological energy storage for 24/7 baseload operation and an expanded AC and DC HV transmission system. However searches of “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Australian sustainable energy - by the numbers" yield zero (0) and 6 results, respectively, the latter all involving comments to ABC websites by informed listeners and of these 5 are by Dr Gideon Polya. Similarly, a search of “ABC News” for “Peter Seligman” yields zero (0) results. One is staggered that the ABC for whatever reasons evidently does not want its audience to read, know about or think about this book that is crucial for informed discussion about Australia’s energy and economic future.
September 11, 9/11, 9-11. The ABC, like all other Western mainstream media, uncritically accepts the “official version” of 9-11 perpetration by “Muslim men in caves” presented by the endlessly lying Bush Administration that, according to the US Center for Public Integrity, told 935 lies between 9-11 and the illegal invasion of Iraq (see “Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war”, CNN, 24 January 2008: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/ ). Thus numerous science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military, and intelligence experts say that the US Government was responsible for the 9-11 atrocity, with some suggesting Israeli involvement (see “Experts: US did 9-11”). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for the names of key experts rejecting the lying Bush “official version” shows that the ABC has zero (0) reportage of these important, expert opinions (e.g. see Elias Akleh, Johnathan Azaziah, Christopher Bollyn, Robert Bowman, Francesco Cossiga, Jeff Dahlstrom, Daniele Ganser, Niels Harrit, Alan Hart, Jim Hoffmann, Leonid Ivashov, Steven Jones, Stephen Lendman, Dr Mahathir, Thierry Meyssan, Mohsen Pakaein, Steve Pieczenik, Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, Alan Sabrowsky, Albert Stahel, Albert Stubblebine, Andreas von Bülow) i.e. the Neocon American and Zionist Imperalist-perverted and subverted Mainstream does not want its audience to know about or think about these expert opinions. A notable exception is that the ABC reported Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, identifying US complicity in 9-11 in a speech to the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 2010 (see Iranian UN Mission: http://gadebate.un.org/Portals/1/statements/634208557381562500IR_en.pdf andhttp://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/mahmoud-ahmadinejads-speech-at-the-united-nations-transcript-sept-23-2010-2/ ): “In identifying those responsible for the attack, there were three viewpoints. 1- That a very powerful and complex terrorist group, able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security, carried out the attack. This is the main viewpoint advocated by American statesmen. 2- That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view. 3- It was carried out by a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation. Apparently, this viewpoint has fewer proponents.” The ABC extensively reported this expert viewpoint, presumably with confidence that the extensive demonization of Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would mean that his opinion would not be taken seriously and would accordingly back up the “official version” (see “America organized 9-11 attacks: Ahmadinejad”, Lateline, 24 September 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s3021756.htm ).
Stubblebine, Albert. Major General Albert N. Stubblebine ( graduate of the U.S. Military Academy West Point, distinguished 32 year career in the U.S. Army, retired as the Commanding General of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, INSCOM) on explosive demolition of the WTC buildings in the 9-11 atrocity and subsequent Government and Mainstream media lying (2009): “You look at the buildings falling, they didn’t fall down because of an airplane hit them, they fell down because explosives went off inside. Demolition. Look at Building 7 for God sakes … I do not believe the free press is free anymore… The press is saying what they have been told to say about this. Now do I have proof about this? No. But I believe that all the stories that were told about 9/11 were false… What is it they do not want the public to know?”( “Major General Albert Stubblebine: Towers fell down because of explosives”, World for 9-11 Truth, 29 June 2009: http://world911truth.org/major-general-albert-stubblebine-towers-fell-down-because-of-explosives/ ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Albert Stubblebine" yielded zero (0) results in relation to 9-11.
“Tackling climate change” (an egregiously false Labor assertion). The utterly false assertion that they are “tackling climate change” has been a mantra of the Gillard Australian Labor Government. Searching for the phrase “tackling climate change” on “ABC News” and on “the entire ABC site” yields 212 and 580 results, respectively. The key context is given in these quotes “”[Coalition Opposition Leader Tony Abbott]: “ So ladies and gentlemen, soon enough the Australian people will pass their judgment on this bad tax based on a lie. The next election will be a referendum on the carbon tax; it will be a referendum on prime ministers who tell lies, and when I say during the campaign there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead Australians can be 100 per cent certain that I am telling the truth”... [Labor PM Julia Gillard]: “Well, I've explained the circumstances of the last election campaign, and when I said those words about a carbon tax I meant every one [i.e. “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”]. But our nation's been involved in a debate now for many long years about putting a price on carbon and tackling climate change and we have got this done. Yes, with a fixed price, a carbon tax, if you like, for the first three years and then an emissions trading scheme to follow. The kind of emissions trading scheme that prime minister Howard stood for and Mr Abbott stool alongside him advocating in the 2007 election… We believe in putting a price on carbon, in tackling climate change, in protecting our environment, in strengthening our economy. As a Labor Party, as a Labor Government we haven't done all of this for no reason. We've done it because we believe it's pivotal to Australia's future. So of course we will seek to protect it.” (see Barrie Cassidy, “Australia is ready for a carbon tax: Gillard”, ABC News, 1 July 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-01/australia-is-ready-for-carbon-tax-gillard/4102966 ). Some realities about the Australian failure to “Tackle climate change”:
1. The Carbon Tax is a fraud that instead of taxing fossil fuel producers taxes domestic and business fossil fuel users in a futile cycle that returns 90% of receipts back to users, massively subsidizes coal burning for power and makes fugitive gas emissions (e.g. from CSG, fracking, conventional sources) essentially tax free (see Gideon Polya, "Australia’s Carbon Tax Scandal", MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23026-gideonpolya-carbon-tax.html ).
2. The ETS approach is a cynical con - it has been empirically unsuccessful, is accordingly counterproductive and is egregiously fraudulent in that the Australian Government will sell licences to pollute the one common atmosphere of all countries in the world (Google "2011 climate change course": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ).
3. The Lib-Labs (the Liberal-Laborals, the Coalition and Labor) have essentially the same climate change inaction policies of a derisory "5% off 2000 greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 2020" coupled with unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports that will see Australia exceed by a factor of THREE (3) the whole world's terminal GHG pollution budget that must not be exceeded if we are to avoid catastrophic 2C temperature rise. The world will exceed this terminal budget in 5 years’ time (Gideon Polya, "Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act", MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html ) or with more conservative assumptions within 16 years (Australian Climate Commission, “The Critical Decade 2013”: http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/the-critical-decade-2013/ ).
4. The Australian Treasury modeling showed that under the Carbon Tax-ETS Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution would rise from 578 Mt in 2010 to 621 Mt in 2020 and that meeting the “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” would require purchase of about 100 Mt CO2-e carbon credits overseas (see Australian Treasury, “Strong Growth, Low Pollution. Modelling a carbon price”, 2011: http://cache.treasury.gov.au/treasury/carbonpricemodelling/content/report/downloads/Modelling_Report_Consolidated.pdf ).
5. Under the Carbon Tax-ETS Australia’s Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution will rise from 1,708 Mt in 2010 to 2,571 Mt CO2-e in 2020 (see section G, “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ). “Tackling climate change” means REDUCING GHG pollution not INCREASING GHG pollution.
6. The 2013 Rudd Labor Government has now decided scrap the Carbon Tax (currently about $24 per tonne CO2-e) and move rapidly to a Cap-and-Trade ETS in mid-2014 but the EU carbon price under the EU ETS is only about $6 per tonne CO2-e (i.e. Australia can avoid “tackling climate change” at home by buying cheap EU credits abroad; the “Cap” of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” is derisory) . It is estimated that a Carbon Price of about $80 per tonne CO2-e is needed to move away from coal burning. Carbon burning subsidies and an estimated 10,000 Australian carbon burning-related deaths annually means a real Carbon Price of about $150 per tonne CO2-e (see “Australian carbon burning-related deaths”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning ).
7. What we need are 100% renewables ASAP coupled with cessation of deforestation and GHG pollution from all sources ASAP and massive re-afforestation and biochar production to reduce atmospheric CO2 from the current dangerous 400 ppm to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 as recommended by top climate scientists and biologists (see "300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ).
Terminal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Budget. The ABC has reported that the Climate Commission has stated that “The report says global carbon dioxide emissions cannot exceed 600 billion tonnes between now and 2050 if the climate is to stay within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels” (see “Government says coal industry vital despite Climate Commission’s warning against fossil fuels”, ABC News, 17 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-17/ministers-warn-against-winding-down-coal-industry-despite-dire-/4760414 ) but has totally ignored the radical implications of this (cessation of global - including Australian - GHG pollution within 5-16 years) and has ignored same earlier assessment by the WBGU that advises the German Government on climate change (see WBGU).
“Terrorism”, “terrorist threat”, “threat of terrorism”. These are the most extraordinary lies of the ABC and other Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist-perverted and subverted Mainstream media. Thus Muslim-origin non-state terrorists have killed about 2,000 Western civilians in the last half century (excluded from this estimate are about 2,000 genocidal Zionist invaders killed in Palestine and the roughly 3,000 mostly Americans killed on 9-11, an atrocity almost certainly carried out by the US Government and with likely Apartheid Israeli involvement; see “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ ). In stark contrast, since 1990 about 12 million Muslims have been killed through violence or violently-imposed deprivation, the breakdown including 4.6 million Iraqis, 5.5 million Afghans, 2.2 million Somalis, 0.1 million Libyans, 0.1 million Syrians (40,000 being minority Alawites), and 0.1 million Palestinians, with about half the victims of US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism and Apartheid Israeli state terrorism being Muslim children (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ and Gideon Polya “Hey, hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today? Answer: 1,000”, Bellaciao, 1 May 2013: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18750 ).
This Western state terrorism carnage is so great that in the terms of genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention one can properly talk of an Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Somali Genocide, Libyan Genocide, Syrian Genocide, Alawite Genocide and Palestinian Genocide. Searches of the “ABC News” for the terms “Iraqi Genocide”, “Afghan Genocide”, “Somali Genocide”, “Libyan Genocide”, “Syrian Genocide”, “Alawite Genocide” and “Palestinian Genocide” yield zero (0) results. In contrast, searches of the “ABC News” for the “Bosnian Genocide” (0.2 million killed), “Armenian Genocide’ (1.5 million Armenians killed by the Turks in WW1) and the “Rwandan Genocide” (about 1 million Tutsis and Hutus killed) yield 1, 9 and 42 results, respectively, this consonant with the finding by Professor Edward S. Herman and David Peterson in their book “The Politics of Genocide” (foreword by Noam Chomsky; Monthly Review Press, New York , 2010) that Western mainstream media and politicians maintain that the German Nazis aside, only non-Europeans and Serbs commit genocide and that this crime cannot be attributed to any of the good guys, the members o f the US Alliance (see Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “The Politics Of Genocide” by Edward Herman and David Peterson”, Countercurrents, 5 December 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya051211.htm ).
The long-term, accrual cost of the War on Terror has been about $6 trillion to the US, about $200 billion to Canada and $125 billion to Australia. Also unreported by the ABC is that 1 million Americans, 0.1 million Canadians, and 66,000 Australians die preventably each year and that about 12 million Americans, 1.2 million Canadians and 0.8 million Australians have die preventably since the 9-11 atrocity in 2001, this carnage being linked to the Neocon American- and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters committing huge sums to killing ( million Muslims abroad (half f them children) rather than keeping Americans, Canadians and Australians alive at home (see Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist, pro-war, pro-opium, war criminal Canadian Government
defames Iran & cuts diplomatic links”, Countercurrents, 10 September 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100912.htm ; Gideon Polya, “Endless War on Terror. Huge cost for Australia & America:, Countercurrents, 14 October2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/22149-endless-war-on-terror.html ; Gideon Polya, “Why PM Julia Gillard must go: 66,000 preventable Australian deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 21 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210212.htm ; Gideon Polya, “One million Americans die preventably annually in USA”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya180212.htm ).
UK state terrorism. The English have been variously invading, colonizing and devastating other countries for 1,000 years, during which time they were involved in genocide on 5 continents, notably in the US, Canada, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, South Africa, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, the India subcontinent (1.8 billion avoidable Indian deaths from deprivation, 1757-1957; 10 million butchered in 1857-1867 reprisals for the Indian Rebellion; 6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death in the 1943-1945 Bengali Holocaust; see Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ad Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ ) and since 1990 alone have been involved in the occupations and/or invasions of the following countries (deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation in parentheses): Iraq (4.5 million), Afghanistan (5.5 million), Libya ( 0.1 million), Syria (0.1 million), Mali (thousands?). The UK has been variously complicit in deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation that total 38 million for post-1950 US Asian wars, 12 million for the post-1990, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims and 9 million for the post-2001 Zionist-promoted US War on Terror (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
The 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation and 1950-2005 post-1950 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) are presented here for the UK, for each country variously occupied by the UK since 1945 (* indicates other major occupiers) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by the UK: UK [4.411m/59.598m = 7.4%] - Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%], Bahamas [0.007m/0.321m = 2.3%], Bahrain [0.054m/0.754m = 7.2%], Bangladesh* [51.196m/152.593m = 33.6%], Barbados [0.015m/0.272m = 5.5%], Belize [0.014m/0.266m = 5.3%], Bhutan [0.908m/2.392m = 38.0%], Botswana [0.443m/1.801m = 24.6%], Brunei [0.020m/0.374m = 5.3%], Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Cyprus [0.054m/0.813m = 6.6%]; Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Eritrea* [1.757m/4.456m = 39.4%], Ethiopia [36.133m/74.189m = 48.7%], Fiji [0.054m/0.854m = 6.3%], Gambia [0.606m/1.499m = 47.6%], Ghana [6.089m/21.833m = 27.9%], Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%], Guyana [0.086m/0.768m = 11.2%], Hong Kong [0.125m/7.182m = 1.7%], India [351.900m/1096.917m = 32.1%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%], Israel [0.095m/6.685 = 1.4%], Jamaica [0.245m/2.701m =9.1%], Jordan* [0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Kenya [10.015m/32.849m = 30.5%], Korea* [7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Kuwait* [0.089m/2.671m = 3.3%], Lesotho [0.951m/1.797m =52.9%], Libya [0.785m/5.768m =13.6%], Malawi [6.976m/12.572m = 55.5%], Malaysia [2.344m/25.325m = 9.3%], Maldives [0.015m/0.338m = 4.4%], Malta [0.019m/0.397m = 4.8%], Myanmar [20.174m/50.696 = 39.8%], Nepal [10.650m/26.289m = 40.5%], Nigeria [49.737m/130.236m =38.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories [0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Oman [0.359m/3.020m =11.9%], Pakistan [49.700m/161.151m = 30.8%], Qatar [0.029m/0.628m = 4.6%], Saint Lucia [0.012m/0.152m = 7.9%], Saint Vincent & Grenadines [0.018m/0.121m =14.9%], Sierra Leone [4.548m/5.340m = 85.2%], Singapore [0.113m/4.372m = 2.6%], Solomon Islands* [0.050m/0.504m = 48.5%], Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m =51.8%], Sri Lanka [0.951m/19.366m = 4.9%], Sudan [13.471m/35.040m = 38.4%], Swaziland [0.471m/1.087m = 43.3%], Tanzania [14.682m/38.365m =38.3%], Tonga [0.020m/0.106m = 18.9%], Trinidad & Tobago [0.052m/1.311m = 4.0%], Uganda [11.121m/27.623m = 40.3%], United Arab Emirates [0.087m/3.106m =2.8%], Vanuatu [0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Yemen [6.798m/21.480m = 31.6%], Zambia [5.463m/11.043m = 49.5%], Zimbabwe [4.653m/12.963m =35.9%], total = 727.448m/2247.711m = 32.4% (see Chapter 3, Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ).
A search of the “ABC News” for “UK state terrorism” yields zero (0) results, despite the horrendous reality that Australia has been a victim of UK state terrorism since 1778. Thus perhaps only 20% of an original 500 Aboriginal tribes and 250 Aboriginal languages survive (albeit on Third World circumstances) in the ongoing Aboriginal Ethnocide and Aboriginal Genocide (see “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ ). The UK Establishment was involved in the dismissal of NSW state premier Jack Lang in 1932. The UK involved Australia in the carnage of Gallipoli and WW1 in general and was active in getting Japan (and thence the US) into WW2, this constituting a huge threat to Australia (see Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ ). The UK Establishment is closely linked to the democracy-violating Corporatist culture of Murdochracy, Lobbycracy and Corporatocracy Australia The UK has been active in involving Australia in US wars since 1945 and has been actively involved with the US in comprehensive electronic spying on all Australians.
US state terrorism. The 4th of July is Independence Day for the United States of America and commemorates the 4 July 1776 Declaration of Independence for America, the key passage of which is “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ” Unfortunately American racism has grossly violated the proposition that “all men are created equal” and the worst form of racism involves invasion of other countries. The US has invaded about 70 countries since its inception and has invaded a total of about 50 countries since 1945 ( see Gideon Polya, “The US has invaded 70 nations since 1776 –
make 4 July Independence from America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm ; Dr Zoltan Grossman, “From Wounded Knee to Libya : a century of U.S. military interventions”, http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html ; Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ; William Blum, “ Rogue State ”). Deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation total 38 million for post-1950 US Asian wars, 12 million for the post-1990, Zionist-promoted US war on Muslims and 9 million for the post-2001 Zionist-promoted US War on Terror (see “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ). The World needs to declare a transition from the 4th of July as Independence for America Day to the 4th of July as Independence from America Day.
The 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation and 1950-2005 post-1950 excess mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) are presented here for the US, for each country variously occupied by the US since 1945 (* indicates other major occupiers) and as a total for all the countries subject to occupation by the US: US [8.455m/300.038m = 2.8%] - Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Dominican Republic [0.806m/8.998m = 9.0%], Federated States of Micronesia [0.016m/0.111m = 14.4%], Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%], Guam [0.005m/0.168m = 3.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%], Korea* [7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Panama [0.172m/3.235m = 5.3%], Philippines [9.080m/82.809m = 11.0%], Puerto Rico [0.039m/3.915m = 1.0%], Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m = 51.8%], US Virgin Islands [0.003m/0.113m = 2.4%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], total = 82.193m/357.651m = 23.0% (see Chapter 3, Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ).
A search of the “ABC News” for “US state terrorism” yields zero (0) results, despite the horrendous reality that Australian democracy has been a victim of US subversion in the US-backed 1975 Coup against Labor under Gough Whitlam, the 2004 US veto of Labor under Mark Latham and the US-approved, foreign mining company-backed , pro-Zionist-led 24 June 2010 Coup against PM Kevin Rudd (see Antony Loewenstein, "Does the Zionist lobby have blood on its hands in Australia ?": http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/07/02/does-the-zionist-lobby-have-blood-on-its-hands-in-australia/ , Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist-led Coup ousts Australian PM Rudd”, MWC News, 29 June 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/3488-pro-zionist-led-coup.html ; William Blum, “ Rogue State ”). As variously revealed by Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Wikileaks and Edwards Snowden, the US has been involved in extensive subversion of Australia, suborning Australian MPs and officials as US “assets” and in comprehensive electronic spying on all Australians.
von Bülow, Andreas. Andreas von Bülow (served as state-secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Defence (1976-1980), as German Minister for Research and Technology (1980-1982) and for 25 years overall as an SPD member of the German parliament (1969-1994), in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he served on the parliamentary committee on intelligence services ("Parlamentarischer Kontrollausschuss")) on US intelligence and US Government involvement in the 9/11 atrocity (2002): “Planning the attacks was a master deed, in technical and organizational terms. To hijack four big airliners within a few minutes and fly them into targets within a single hour and doing so on complicated flight routes! That is unthinkable, without backing from the secret apparatuses of state and industry… If what I say is right, the whole US government should end up behind bars…They have hidden behind a veil of secrecy and destroyed the evidence - that they invented the story of 19 Muslims working within Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa'eda - in order to hide the truth of their own covert operation” (Andreas von Bulow, Tagesspiegel, 13. Jan. 2002; quoted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_von_B%C3%BClow ). Searches of the “ABC News” and “the entire ABC site” for "Andreas von Bülow" yielded zero (0) results.
War on Muslims, US War on Muslims, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims. Searches of the “ABC News” and of the "entire ABC site" for the term “War on Muslims” yield zero (3) and 46 results, respectively. However the only items reporting the over 20 million Muslims refugees and 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation since 1990 are posts by Dr Gideon Polya on ABC websites (also see Refugees, War on Muslims, US War on Muslims, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims ).
WBGU. A search of “ABC News” and of the “entire ABC site” for “WBGU” (the acronym for the eminent and world-famous German body that advises the German Government on climate change) yields zero (0) results and 27 results, respectively (see: http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?form=simple&num_ranks=20&collection=abcall_meta&query=%22wbgu%22&start_rank=21 ). Of these 27 items, all except one were comments posted by me on ABC websites (op which several were censored out). The one exception was a panel discussion about coral on Earth Beat, a vitally important ABC program that has been deleted by the ABC (see “Coral in hot water”, Earth Beat, 28 February 2004: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earthbeat/corals-in-hot-water/3640724#transcript ). However the ABC has reported that the Climate Commission finding that “Global carbon dioxide emissions cannot exceed 600 billion tonnes between now and 2050 if the climate is to stay within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels”, this being the position also advanced by the WBGU (see “Government says coal industry vital despite Climate Commission’s warning against fossil fuels”, ABC News, 17 June 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-17/ministers-warn-against-winding-down-coal-industry-despite-dire-/4760414 ). (see also Climate Commission, Global Warming, Terminal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Budget).
William Gerhardie and his anti-war book “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” . William Gerhardie's brilliant anti-war book “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” (William Gerhardie, “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” (Hodder & Stoughton, 1981; The Hogarth Press, 1990, with editing and an Introduction by Michael Holroyd and Robert Skidelsky) should be a must-read for all people around the world as we mark in 2014 the centenary of the start of World War 1, the “war to end all wars” that was inexorably succeeded by the 5-fold greater carnage of World War 2 and thence the prospect of annihilation of nearly all of humanity in a nuclear World War 3 or through climate genocide from climate change inaction.
However a search of the BBC for "God's Fifth Column" fails to elicit any mention of this most important book of this major British writer and a search for "William Gerhardie" merely elicits reference to a BBC program about "neglected British classics" that refers to William Gerhardie's 1925 novel "The Polyglots".
Searches of the ABC (Australia's taxpayer-funded equivalent of the UK BBC) for "William Gerhardie" or "God's Fifth Column" yield ZERO (0) results, an outcome that is hardly surprising in view of the ABC's appalling record of censorship that serves the interests of the war criminal, climate criminal One Percenter Establishment in Australia and the rest of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-perverted US Alliance (see “Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ ; "Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat ; “ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC ( Australia 's BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit ).
William Gerhardie (original spelling Gerhardi; 1895-1977) was British but lived as a child in Russia where his father was in the cotton trade. He volunteered in WW1 and was sent to Russia with military intelligence. An Oxford University graduate, William Gerhardie, became an acclaimed novelist in the 1920s with his novels “ Futility” (1922), “The Polyglots” (1925), “Doom” (1928) and “Resurrection” (1934), and other works. He published an autobiography, “Memoirs of a polyglot: The autobiography of William Gerhardie” (1931) and co-authored “The Casanova Fable: A Satirical Revaluation” with Hugh Kingsmill (1934). He subsequently became reclusive, living impoverished in London where he worked on his non-fiction masterwork “God's Fifth Column. A biography of the Age 1890-1940” that was discovered among his papers and thence published posthumously in 1981 by Hodder & Stoughton (page references below are to the 1990 Hogarth Press edition) .
William Gerhardie's “God's Fifth Column” provides a rich account of the ideas, manners, mentality and motivation of 2 sets of people in the run up to WW1 and thence to WW2 – on the one hand, the wonderful humanitarian writers such as Anton Chekhov, Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw. D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Marcel Proust, Herman Hesse, and Walt Whitman, and on the other, the English, French, German, Austrian, Italian and Russian kings, emperors, generals, statesmen, diplomats and other Establishment figures, male and female, who inexorably led the world to disaster and of whom the best that could be said in hindsight was that they had good table manners. The term “fifth column” derived from Fascist Nationalist Franco colleague General Mola boasting that in addition to his 4 columns advancing on Republican-held Madrid he had supporters inside the city, described by the Republican defenders as a “fifth column” (page 61). To Gerhardi, “God's Fifth Column” are those elements that wittingly or unwittingly sabotage defective human social constructs.
William Gerhardie in “God's Fifth Column”:was particularly scathing of journalists and their role in national propaganda that leads to war: "The Aristotelian exploitation of reason for purposes of power can be traced in advertising, in politics, and particularly in journalism, which is a debased Aristotelian form of using human failings and weaknesses to extract power by deliberately exploiting these failings and weaknesses. Literature is an intuitive communication of the Platonic Idea of truth and beauty hiding behind the shadow of its material form. If journalism and modern advertising are debased forms of literature, propaganda is debased journalism. But journalism as exploitation of suspense, trading as it does on human restlessness, is equally despicable whether it takes the form of detective fiction, films, plays or magazine stores. Art, communicating the eternal reality of the Platonic Idea which invests objects and persons alike with the breath of life, is constitutive, not conceptual, and as such it is independent of artificial stimulants. The criterion of a genuine work of literature is that you can open it at any page to savour each passage for itself, without the narcotic of induced excitement in the shape of knowing what has come before and speculating on what is to happen next, commonly called "a plot". If a book is worth reading at all it is worth reading more than once... This, then, is the exploitation of the Word for profit - the generic term of this remunerative if thoroughly un-Platonic pursuit being "journalism"... After this to the final deception - national propaganda - is not not far to sink. Propaganda is indeed is the last refuge of journalism" (page 274).
For a detailed review see Gideon Polya, “ Book Review: “God's Fifth Column” by William Gerhardie”, Countercurrents, 6 May 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060514.htm. .
War is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. It is very powerful to quote expert opinion. Thus eminent physicist Stephen Hawking on the key existential threats facing Humanity (2018): “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” (Stephen Hawking, “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, John Murray, 2018, Chapter 7). Most of the following websites alphabetically list expert opinions in 4 inter-connected key areas, namely “Reverse climate change”, “Stop lying and censorship”, “End war and genocide”, and “Free Palestine”, Everyone is invited to make use of this substantial resource and to feel free to disseminate this list to everyone they can.
REVERSE CLIMATE CHANGE
“1% on 1%: one percent annual wealth tax on One Percenters”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/1-on-1 .
“2 degrees C”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2-degrees-c .
“100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .
“300 ppm CO2 ASAP: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-ppm-co2-asap .
“2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .
“300.org”: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .
“300.org climate crisis glossary”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/300-org-climate-crisis
“300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .
“Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .
“Banyule Climate Action Now”: https://sites.google.com/site/banyuleclimateactionnow/ .
“Biofuel Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/ .
“Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .
“Climate crisis articles”: https://sites.google.com/site/climatecrisisarticles/home .
“Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .
“Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .
"Climate Revolution Now": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-revolution .
“Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ .
“Divest from fossil fuels”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/divest-from-fossil-fuels .
“Eco-socialism, green socialism”: https://sites.google.com/site/ecosocialismgreensocialism/
“Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/ .
“Methane bomb threat”: https://sites.google.com/site/methanebombthreat/ .
“Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .
“Older people and climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/olderpeopleandclimatechange/home .
“Science and economics experts: carbon tax needed and not carbon trading”, 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading .
“Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
“Stop climate crime”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-climate-crime .
"Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming .
“Yarra Valley Climate Action Group”: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/Home .
STOP LYING & CENSORSHIP
“ABC censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/abc-censorship .
“ABC fact-checking unit & incorrect reportage by the ABC (Australia’s BBC)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/abc-fact-checking-unit .
“Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/ .
“Censorship by ABC Late Night Live”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/ .
"Censorship by ABC Saturday Extra": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/censorship-by-abc-sat .
“Censorship by the ABC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbytheabc/ .
“Censorship by Crikey (Australia)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-crikey .
“Censorship by SBS (Australia)”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-sbs-australia .
“Censorship by The Age”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-age .
“Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ .
“Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by .
"Censorship by The Guardian Australia": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home/censorship-by-the-guardian-a .
"Censorship by The Guardian UK": https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by-the-guardian-uk .
“Educational apartheid”: https://sites.google.com/site/educationalapartheid/ .
“Experts: US did 9/11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
“Expose holocaust denial & ignoring”: https://sites.google.com/site/exposeholocaustdenialignoring/Home .
“Exposing Australia”: https://sites.google.com/site/exposingaustralia/home .
“Free university education” : https://sites.google.com/site/freeuniversityeducation/home
“Lying by omission”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/lying-by-omission .
“Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .
“Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .
“Questions Q&A won’t ask”: https://sites.google.com/site/questionsqawontask/home .
“Subversion of Australia”: https://sites.google.com/site/subversionofaustralia/home .
END WAR AND GENOCIDE
“Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
“Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
“Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
“Afghanistan Genocide essays”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanistangenocideessays/ .
“Art for peace, planet, mother & child”: https://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ .
“Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .
“Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home .
“Gideon Polya writing”: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ .
“Iraq Genocide essays”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqgenocideessays/ .
“Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
“Poetry reviews by Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/poetryreviewsbygideonpolya/ .
“Report genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/reportgenocide/ .
"State crime and non-state terrorism": https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/ .
“Stop state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .
FREE PALESTINE
Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .
“Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.
“Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration .
“Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .
“Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .
“One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution .
“Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
“Palestinian Genocide essays”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/ .
"Zionist quotes re racism and Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/zionist-quotes .
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