Andrew L. Urban
The Viva Energy refinery in Geelong (16/4/2026) was not only a real gutpunch to our energy resources but also a symbolic bonfire of the vanities of our energy policies. Let me correct that: to the Labor government’s climate change and energy vanities. The Minister of the Vanities is Chris ‘Smug’ Bowen, to whom Mark Twain would have said: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Bowen is the heat shield for the government, absorbing the heated disgust many feel at the way climate change alarmism drives energy policy. In my 2022 book, Climate Alarm Reality Check (Wilkinson Publishing), I gathered the observations of independent climate scientists to allay fears of climate catastrophe.
It is dedicated to the panic stricken 12 year old school girl I saw sobbing on the TV news fearing the world will soon end because of ‘climate change’ – and all her fellow schoolchildren around Australia.
So, for the record (yet again), here are the basic facts that should have doused that bonfire in Bowen’s heart:
FACT 1 Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels does not drive global warming to any appreciable extent and has never been shown to do so. (Scientists continue to research the relationship between natural variability – eg ice age /no ice age – and anthropogenic drivers.)
FACT 2 Alarmists who believe otherwise should bear in mind that Australia’s contribution to atmospheric CO2 is a tad over 1% of the total (the total which is a tiny 0.03% of the atmosphere).
FACT 3 So even if Australia were able to defy reality and cut its CO2 emissions to 0, there would be no difference to the climate, as a former Chief Scientist admitted.
These three basic facts alone underline the inexcusable alarmism that burns up our cash, degrades our farmlands and limits our energy while increasing prices to the customer.
Let’s close with another quote from Mark Twain: “It’s easier for people to believe lies than to convince them that they’ve been lied to.”
