Over recent weeks, Broken Left Leg has highlighted some massive beat ups and biased reporting in the Geelong Advertiser.
Well folks, the worst paper in Australia (TM) is at it again. On Saturday, their editorial (titled "Curbing the hot air about hot air) declared that, due to recent developments, "the whole global warming debate is effectively back to the drawing board."
And what exactly are these recent developments? The Geelong Advertiser's editorial essentially rehashed Alan Wood's terrible opinion piece which was written three weeks ago.
Wood quoted an academic named Wegman who chairs the US National Academy of Sciences committee on applied and Theoretical Statistics. The Advertiser said the information came from the US National Academy of Sciences committee itself. Damn it, the Geelong Addy has such trouble with basic attribution.
The Addy certainly didn't go into too much detail about Wegman's study, largely because it didn't actually test the figures of a global warming paper it was critiquing. Wegman's paper was hardly earth shattering or conclusive, but "US National Academy of Sciences committee on applied and Theoretical Statistics" certainly sounds authoritative doesn't it?
The Addy then went on to highlight the work of David Henderson, Ian Castles and the Institute of Public Affairs.
They conveniently forget to tell their readers that the IPA is largely funded by resource companies. And they certainly were not going to mention Henderson and Castles membership of the Lavoisier Group, and that organisations subsequent links to right wing think tanks funded by the oil industry.
The Advertiser also neglected to mention that Henderson and Castles haven't produced any substantial papers since 2003, and critics of their 2003 paper claim Henderson and Castle's alternative economic modeling does not make "a substantial difference to projections of (CO2) emissions".
John Quiggin has demolished the opinion piece by Alan Wood (and subsequently the Geelong Advertiser editorial) on his blog.
So what exactly happened to justify this editorial? Not much really. A hack (maybe this environment hating redneck) at the Addy has got their hands on a thoroughly discredited three week old opinion piece, poo-pooed renewable energy targets, and called for "steady heads to prevail in the greenhouse debate".
No doubt those steady heads have nice financial links to the resource sector.
With poor attribution, massive omissions, and quoting highly dubious research papers, the Addy really does have contempt for their readers.
And now for some action.
Please write to the Addy's editor on yoursay@geelongadvertiser.com.au voicing your concerns about their pitiful research or their absurd rhetoric regarding global warming.