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Science schmience. Why would anyone believe the world’s most eminent scientists about the growing threat of climate change, when you can simply check your IQ at the door and watch Sydney shock jock Alan Jones and “barrel girl” Peta Credlin do science on Sky News the way it was meant to be done… with visual aids available at all leading supermarkets.
Overnight, Jones used his Sky News program to weigh in on the “hoax” that is anthropogenic climate change by proving, once and for all, that it’s not real.
And all he needed was a big purple bowl – which cleverly matched the purple backdrop of the set – and a bag of rice to prove, scientifically, why Australian carbon emissions really don’t matter after all.
Credlin, who described herself as “the barrel girl” during the segment – to enthusiastic agreement from Jones – poured the bag of rice into a bowl, while inexplicably but quite dramatically poking her tongue out. Then Jones pulled a single grain out to demonstrate Australia’s contribution to carbon emissions… 1.3% of 3% of the total carbon emissions pumped into the atmosphere. Or something like that.
Unfortunately, the Sky News camera crew weren’t ready, and viewers had to wait an uncomfortably long time for a crucial zoom in on the single grain of rice. Even so, the evidence was there – only a vegan or maybe a scientist would deny that it was a genuinely stunning piece of science communication.
Jones ended the segment by describing his own masterful work as “staggering”. “And who’s swallowing this stuff?” he asked. “I mean this is the hoax!”
The clip doesn’t disclose what set Jones off on his rant – like he needed a reason – but it’s likely this article in The Daily Caller, a magazine set up by conservative US think tank and rabid Trump booster, The Heritage Foundation.
The story more or less argues what Jones does on Sky – that Australia’s contribution to carbon emissions is too small to even matter (even though per capita we’re the second worst offending country on earth). It was written a decade ago (the same year Tony Abbott described climate change as “crap”) by a scientist… no wait, sorry, not a scientist… an economist… when climate denial was more ‘in vogue’.
Obviously, there’s any amount of credible literature available online to debunk the rantings of climate change cranks, but this is a good start. From the magazine Scientific American, it looks at the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from a major volcanic eruption, compared to annual emissions by humans (one of the more stubborn myths, namely that one eruption releases more carbon dioxide than all of humankind since we crawled out of the primordial soup).
It’s rumoured in next week’s show Jones is planning to prove why vaccinations are unsafe using only a soiled handkerchief, a bubble-maker and a gimp mask.
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