Late morning extra … climate science denialism runs amok at the lizard Oz ...

Last night the pond nodded off after a quick check of the herpetarium, with American triumphalism top of the page and all well in the world … except for this ominous note to the side of the Donald …

The boofhead was on the move, and the pond braced itself for what it knew would follow in the morn … and sure enough …trees died, and the onion muncher was top of the digital edition, and climate denialist Lloydie was joining in, and so was the reptile editorialist, and the braying rent the earth ...

  

Where to start?

Well probably the pond should start with the lesser member of the Kelly gang, one Joe, because you see, the whole point of this sort of crusader exercise isn't just to run the onion muncher, it's to amplify and celebrate the onion muncher message, dressed up in the guise of "news" reporting …

Go to it, lesser Kelly gang member …

Now here the pond should pause at the get go, and note a remarkable irony …

There's more at the Graudian, here … but now it's back to climate denialism central, for some more "news" reporting by the lesser member of the Kelly gang ...

Meanwhile on another planet ...

She says it’s time to see the climate change-driven transition under way in the energy market as opportunity, rather than something to resist. “I think farm representation and farmers generally have come quite a long way in their attitude to climate, and climate change and climate variability and dealing with all of these things, and accepting some of the facts behind the science.” “We have turned quite a corner ourselves, and our approach now to this is quite different than it was in those days [when Labor pursued emissions trading], when the [previous NFF] leaders chose that path.” 
She is supportive of the efforts of the agriculture minister, David Littleproud – a next-generation Queensland National – to reset the resting disposition for the Nationals on climate change and energy. Littleproud is happy to acknowledge that climate change is happening and he characterises the shift to renewables as “exciting”.

Back to climate denialism central, and the lesser Kelly gang member ...

Well enough of the "news" reporting … it's time now to head off to the onion muncher himself …naturally perched at the top of the digital opinion page …

The pond doesn't recall when it became passé to refuse to spell passé the way the perfidious French insist on spelling the word (the pond's irritating auto-correct keeps on insisting on it and refusing to allow passe) but perhaps it's an obscure protest against Paris, France, those bloody superior frogs and all the rest that's embedded in the onion muncher's dinosaur mindset ...

Meanwhile, on another planet ...

She says politicians “need to stop picking winners. This is not about coal versus renewables ... it’s a bit like a farm, we are probably going to need a bit of everything. Surely, let the market decide is the best way rather than one politician thinking what’s going to be the technology of the future”. Simson notes that Australian farmers love markets. They are entirely comfortable with competition. So the same rules should apply to the energy market. “For us it is very important that the policy be technology neutral, and let the market decide.” She says politicians also need to understand that voters have had enough of the internal intrigues and the brinkmanship. “People are really frustrated at the moment with the politics, whether it is internal politics and infighting within the parties, or whether it is party against party. People are wanting now to have outcomes. People are facing skyrocketing energy prices. Some of my members are facing bills triple what they were a few years ago.”

Of course the onion muncher has just embraced full Trumpism because that's what a desperate sniping, wrecking, undermining dinosaur climate denialist with another agenda must do …

Yesterday in joking and in passing the pond noted that the onion muncher was a terrorist … but really, is it a joke? Note how he trots out all the usual denialist lines, in a way designed not just to terrorise Malware but to terrorise the planet ...

And so to Lloydie … though this is where the pond scrapes the very bottom of the denialist barrel …

It should go without saying - it's almost a core truth - that the pond has a profound contempt for good old Lloydie … and this little outing shows exactly why ...

Note how Lloydie, with an apparently straight face, manages to both note that the onion muncher's summation of climate science will produce howls of derision, but then offers as his scientific defence, "but Abbott's views are widely shared."

So sharing a view is now a sufficient reason to hold it? Does that mean Lloydie has signed up for Scientology?

And then Lloydie proceeds to parrot the undiluted crap that came from the onion muncher's keyboard.

The pond doesn't know how Lloydie manages to get himself up of a morning and look at himself in a mirror and feel no sense of shame.

Perhaps that's why he's got the hipster beard … he only has to look in the mirror every so often to do a trim, and that helps him manage the shame.

"It is political mischief but not beyond the pale."

And that's why the pond will never offer a cent to the reptiles, always beyond the pail and the  pale …

And so to the lizard editorialist ...

Just as Lloydie makes a fine parrot, so does the reptile editorialist ...

It's strange days, isn't it? Here's the pond suddenly involved in bemoaning tariffs and encouraging free trade and worrying about debt … and there's the Donald wanting to ruin international trade and bankrupt his country … and the pond wouldn't mind that so much, except that he might well produce a world recession within the year ...

And here's the reptiles encouraging the agrarian socialists to embark on a a bout of five year state planning worthy of the best Stalinists …

And yet, somewhere on an entirely different planet ...

So while there are still questions to answer about the detail of the policy framework, the Neg must be approached as opportunity. Simson says affordability, reliability, technology neutrality is fundamental, and the farm sector needs a tailored solution where emissions reduction can be built into the core of the business. “We think there are a lot of opportunities for small-scale energy generation and it’s already happening”. “We would particularly like to take advantage of some of the heat generation that some of our intensive industries are using. For example, the pork industry has been amazing at capturing methane and then using that as energy generation – all the manure, the slurry going into the pits, having the methane captured and then driving a lot of the technology.” “Things like that on farm are amazing opportunities.” She says farms are often at the end of the power grid and are not well served by the status quo. She says the Neg framework could allow farmers to band together, and small communities to band together, to build their own energy infrastructure.

Amazing opportunities?

The only opportunity anyone gets at the lizard Oz is the chance to go full hog climate denialist … and the methane let into the air is something shocking to smell ...

Well anyone who made it to the end of that bout of climate denialism possibly feels like a cartoon, and what better way than celebrate Malware's dedication to free speech, with more papal pleasures here …