The federal environment minister has argued in court that coal from Australia’s largest coalmine would have no “substantial” impact on climate change and as a result he did not need to consider whether it would affect the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian Conservation Foundation challenged Greg Hunt’s approval of Adani’s Carmichael mine, alleging he failed to consider the impacts the burning of the coal from the mine would have on climate change and hence on the Great Barrier Reef.

Scientists have found the current mass bleaching event affecting 93% of the reef was made 175 times more likely by climate change and would become a biennial event within 20 years. After that point, the continued existence of the reef would be in doubt.

In federal court documents obtained by Guardian Australia, Hunt denied he failed to consider the impacts of coal on the reef.

In the outline of submissions filed on behalf of the minister, the Australian government solicitor explains that the minister did not think the burning of the coal “would be a substantial cause of climate change effects” and would have “no impact on matters of national environmental significance”.

The minister’s reasoning was that whether the burning of the coal would make climate change worse depended on whether it would increase the total amount of coal burned globally. But he notes there are a “raft of factors” that could affect how much coal was burned globally, including whether the coal from the mine displaced other coal and whether it was dealt with within various national emissions targets.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/06/greg-hunt-argues-theres-no-definite-link-between-coal-and-climate-change

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At this stage one has to look no further. The Liberals (CONservatives) of Australia are idiots — all hell bent into NOT UNDERSTANDING ANYTHING SCIENTIFIC. Idiots are leading the world, because a) we are idiots letting other idiots get away with it and b) science is too hard for idiots like us.

I hope you understand what I mean — a bit like talking turkey to the Christian evangelicals (true evangelicals — not the fake ones who vote for Trump) claiming that god is sending Trump (and Madam Clinton) as punishment for our sins. 

Here, if you like, the sin of humanity is to believe in "emission targets"... These mean nothing more than selling oranges for the price of apples and vice versa. The trick is to make people believe that if they buy apples it will reduce the price of oranges. Go away. Greg Hunt is a fiddler. A stickler for the decimal point when the whole column is collapsing regardless.  Unfortunately, Hunt is not the only spruiking idiot on the planet Oz. 

What we are facing is not a recognisable event, something scientists call a "non-analogue state". With precise observations, they say that even in the study of the record dating back 66 millions years, THEY HAVE NOT SEEN anything like it — SUCH A LARGE RELEASE OF CO2 in such a short time span. There is no equivalent, not even the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, PETM for short, 55.9 million years ago. During the PETM — a mild event in comparison to our present folly — the devastation destruction of animal life, plants and the degradation of lands were severe including the destruction of large coral reefs, AS WE ARE OBSERVING NOW, WORLDWIDE. 

Accounting for emissions transfers of apples with small reduction of oranges isn't going to do the trick. The Adanai mine is going to release its full content of CO2 once the coal is burned wherever that is in the world. NO accounting fiddle is going to prevent these emissions of yet MORE CO2 well beyond a "non-analogue flux" — here called a flux, because WE HAVE PASSED THE CONCEPT OF "STATE". 

I call it differently. As mentioned on this site, I have often referred to the time in the Cretaceous when sea levels were 75 metres above present, temperature were so warm that there was no ice at the poles and life started to resemble a putrefaction zombie factory.

Greg Hunt is a leading idiot amongst idiot.