Climate change denier Nick Minchin appointed as top New York representative

Australia Appoints Climate Science Denier As Top New York Official, desmogblog, 13 Feb 14…..It’s a high profile diplomatic role and one that gives business leaders, thinkers and politicians the chance to see what drives the Australian Government of the day.

In April, Australia will have a new Consul-General taking up that seat on 42^nd Street….Seemingly in lock-step with the prevailing views of the conservative government in Australia, that man will be Nick Minchin — a rusted-on denier of the science of human-caused climate change and power broker in the country’s Liberal (that’s conservative) Party.

Minchin has claimed the “extreme Left” has used environmentalism as a way to try and “de-industrialise” the western world. He thinks human-caused climate change is a scare story.

Minchin’s appointment was announced by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who said the consulate role was “high profile” and that it could be used to “influence perceptions of Australia” in the city.

She said Minchin’s role would be to influence “key individuals and companies across a range of sectors particularly business and politics.”

Things could get a little awkward if talk at those business and political lunches turns to climate change — which it surely will in a city acutely aware of its susceptibility to climate change impacts.

n April 2012, Minchin ridiculed the notion that human-caused climate change was a risk, writing in a column that “despite the hype” the ice at the world’s poles was not melting and that “our cities aren’t being submerged.”

Six months later, New York was submerged by the storm surge from ex-cyclone Sandy.

In the wake of the storm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomodescribed climate change as a “new threat” which should force people to “look at the world differently.” Cuomo told journalist Rachel Maddow:

Most New Yorkers saw the storm as a sure sign of climate change. New Yorkers are also acutely aware of how exposed their low-lying Manhattan centre is to sea level rises and severe storm surges…….

In an interview with the ABC’s flagship Four Corners investigative journalism television show in 2009, Nick Minchin named Australian climate science deniers Bob Carter and Ian Plimer as two “scientists” he thought were credible on climate science.

Carter, who has only ever written one peer reviewed scientific paper on climate change (which was later debunked), is on the payroll of the notorious Heartland Institute free market “think tank.”

Plimer, who has never written a peer reviewed scientific paper on climate change, now spends much of his time as a director of several mining companies, including two controlled by one of the world’s richest women, Gina Rinehart. One company is oil and gas firm Sun Resources, where Plimer is chairman on a board that includes another former Howard Government Minister and Minchin contemporary, Alexander Downer.

Minchin told the ABC he did not accept that carbon dioxide was the main driver of climate change. He said:

I frankly strongly object to you know, politicians and others trying to terrify 12 year old girls that their planet’s about to melt, you know. I mean really it is appalling some of that sort of behaviour.

“For the extreme left it provides the opportunity to do what they’ve always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialise the western world. You know the collapse of communism was a disaster for the left, and the, and really they embraced environmentalism as their new religion…..

In a city where the fear of human-caused climate change is real, it seems appointing a climate science denier to a key diplomatic position is another “powerful indicator” of the Australian Government’s unedifying position.http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/02/13/australia-appoints-climate-science-denier-top-new-york-diplomat