Viv Forbes at WUWT takes a shot at Glencore and Tony Abbott

Viv Forbes is lashing out again. This time he's not lashing out at environmentalists so much as Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott and a rival global mining company Glencore. Glencore merged with Xstrata a while back and bought it out in May last year.

Although WUWT doesn't declare the fact, Viv Forbes is a director of another mining company, Stanmore Coal. Both Glencore and Stanmore have operations in Queensland.

That's just by way of background. What Viv Forbes is complaining about is that:

• Australia's car manufacturing industry is no longer - for which Tony Abbott has been blamed, though Viv Forbes doesn't go so far as to mention his name;
• Glencore is sticking with the decision of Xstrata to shut down the copper smelting operations at Mt Isa and its refining operations in Townsville. Viv doesn't approve of Glencore's decision;
• Exploration companies aren't looking for oil in enough places in Australia, or so Viv says.

Viv has somehow linked these three items to the second World War and what he calls "foolish green energy policies and the suicidal war on carbon fuels". He might even be yearning for another war, it's hard to tell. I expect what he's really saying is that governments should bail out car manufacturers and grant huge subsidies to prop up foreign-owned mining operations in Australia.

The links he's made in his article are tenuous at best. But what the heck, anything to have a go at nasty governments (even if they are of your own choosing) and environmental sustainability. Who needs a Tony Abbott or a planet after all, when you've got coal to sell?

You can read his rant here, if you're interested.  (You can also see here and here and here for previous silliness, or type his name in the search bar above)

From the WUWT comments

There have been rather a lot of comments - 151 when I archived. Not because Viv's silly article was coherent or made sense. I doubt it was because he was taking a shot at Tony Abbott's government and the tenth largest Fortune 500 company and the world's fourth largest mining company. No. It was because WUWT has slumped again and the Viv's article was sitting there at the top of WUWT for quite a few hours.  

Ian W is suitably outraged, though he's probably not sure what it is that outrages him, and says:

December 6, 2014 at 6:50 am
There will come a time when the actions of the anti-industry greens will be seen for what they are – sedition. Their claim that they are saving the planet has no scientific merit, they are Malthusians destroying civilization.

Ian's comment prompted a number of comments about Malthus, attacking and defending him.

Leonard Lane wrote a very insightful comment along the lines of "I don't understand what you're saying but it's brilliant"

December 6, 2014 at 10:22 am
Spot on! +1

Mike Bromley the Kurd wrote something about walruses, which don't live in Australia - thought we might have some in zoos.

December 6, 2014 at 6:52 am
The weakening promulgated by fat bureaucratic walruses in the seats of power. 

C.M. Carmichael  urged people to take up cannibalism, writing:

December 6, 2014 at 7:01 am
Get a good Vegan cookbook, when the food riots start, catch, clean and cook the Vegans, they are free range, lean, grain fed and pesticide free. Best of all they are weak and easy to catch, you can use compost for bait. 

David S wants Australia to become a banana republic, or a dirty coal republic or something, or he'll relocate to Beijing or Somalia or somewhere:

December 6, 2014 at 7:14 am
As an Aussie I am pleased we have a conservative government. However I would hate to waste the opportunity to lead the world on climate change. Let’s not pretend that global warming exists,and that direct action is doing something about it. Let’s follow the Chinese and promise that we will continue to increase emitting CO2 for the next 16 years. The greenies said that agreement showed that the Chinese are serious about doing something on climate change . I think we should be just as serious.
I think the government should admit its sceptical and run a TV campaign promoting that there has been a pause, that none of the models are right and that spending billions of dollars to change it won’t make any difference.
I think a series of debates should also be held . The ABC could hold them .it might be illuminating for their audience to actually find out that the science isn’t settled. This could be a role model for how the charter against bias is managed.
If we get another Labor / Greens government in 2 years time I will have to emigrate overseas as our country will become a banana republic . 

J. Philip Peterson seems to agree that Somalia could be an option and wrote:

December 6, 2014 at 7:26 am
Was going to say – sounds like the good old USA…

Patrick bols must have upside down vision when he looks at a temperature chart, because he thinks that global warming isn't happening. He also thinks that climate science is a hoax.

December 6, 2014 at 8:10 am
Anyone not with their heads in the sand must have noticed by now that earth is not warming and that the expensive models build by pseudo scientists are all wrong. A sacred principle in science is that any hypothesis should be open to be proven wrong. IPCC folks have been proven absolutely wrong.
It is therefore unfortunate that serious debate and research on our climate has become impossible. The bunch of pseudo scientists operating the IPCC have destroyed the raw data on which their manipulated conclusions are based.
The only solution is to start real scientific research from scratch. Set up protocols that reasonable people can agree upon and then execute those protocols in an open society atmosphere (Karl Popper)
Meanwhile, it does not make sense to take any action because we may be barking up the wrong tree and take actions that will truly harm the planet and humanity.

Data source: NASA

MikeUK says there is still hope that earth will be destroyed by plunderers who don't care about survival and sustainability:

December 6, 2014 at 10:36 am
Some optimism is in order for Australia, when you consider that it went from nothing to a great country in a mere 150 years. A big backlash against Green Dogma is coming, which in Europe will be triggered by major power outages.
Another reason for optimism is that Greenery exists largely within a bubble that most people are unaware of. Yes they control most of the media, but who pays any attention to that?

Gamecock complains that Australians can't have guns without permits, to shoot all the Chinese and Indians who are heading our way:

December 6, 2014 at 1:36 pm
And Australia has disarmed the populace. So when China and India get around to fighting over Australia, the Australians can just watch.

lyn roberts is fearful that within a fortnight, we'll be living like people did in the heady days of gold rush and squattocracy:

December 6, 2014 at 3:09 pm
Why are we so reliant on China, MONEY MONEY & MONEY. I fear we are close to the possibility of a dictator in China, who will change their world outlook, cut us western devils off and we will be back in the 1800’s in a couple of weeks. Would we be able to cope NO, result riots to no gain in the long term except deaths as a result of. Then a possibility of an foreign invasion when we are down and vulnerable.. I wonder if this has occurred to any of the elite of our western governments. Too much focus on football, basketball, horseracing, and I will include global warming in that group, we are being distracted while Rome is burning. 

Gerard wants to be ruled by Ike's military-industrial complex (and doesn't like caffè latte):

December 6, 2014 at 5:53 pm
Finally someone has nailed the lunacy of the de-industrialisation of my country. During WWII we made tanks ships, fighter planes, field guns, rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, tyres, lathes, milling machines as well as the thousands of other bits and pieces that a nation needs to defend itself.
In recent years hundreds of manufacturing plants have closed or are closing- Timken bearings, ACL engine parts and pistons, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Holden and Ford engine and car plants, Borg Warner, Sunshine Harvesters, Chamberlain tractors………I could type for hours.
All the while the Greenies sip cafe lattes, tap on their Chinese made IPads and talk about their latest trip to Nepal without acknowledging it was courtesy of JetA1 fossil fuel.