cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/collapse/p/1794000/senate-committee-features-climate-disinformation-the-atlas-network-and-dr-karl-s-clash
In Monday's hearing, the lobby group Coal Australia defended sending almost $4 million to "Australians for Prosperity" last financial year, which is a third-party group that attacked Labor, Greens and teal independent candidates during the 2025 federal election campaign.
Stuart Bocking, a former 2GB talkback radio host turned Coal Australia chief executive, denied it was a form of "astroturfing", telling senators that it was often easier to pay third-party groups to run political campaigns on one's behalf these days, because it left lobby groups to focus on other things.
"We're not engaged in astroturfing," he said.
Uh huh
The Atlas Network, first formed in 1981, partners with more than 500 free-market think tanks around the world, with 10 of them in Australia and New Zealand.
The ABC recently published a large piece which explains the history of the Atlas Network and what it is.
Dr Walker said Australians had little idea of the extent of the coordinated effort to prevent attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to renewable forms of energy.
He explained how fossil fuel companies have funded certain think tanks globally for decades to push climate denial, anti-Indigenous rights and anti-renewable messages, a technique that has helped to obscure where ideas and money are coming from.
....
And finally, science communicator Karl Kruszelnicki (Dr Karl) appeared at the Senate committee on Monday.
In an attempt to establish common factual ground with One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, Dr Karl asked Roberts if he accepted that global temperatures were rising.
Their interaction illustrated how public discussions about the science of climate change get bogged down so easily:
Dr Karl: Do you agree that the climate records show that the last 10 years have been the hottest on record worldwide?
Senator Roberts: The last 10 years in Australia have been cooler than the 1880s and 1890s in Australia.
Dr Karl: Hang on … Worldwide. Do you agree that the last 10 years have been the hottest years on record worldwide?
Senator Roberts: No I don't
The fuck :)
Dr Karl: I feel like I'm talking to a school child who says seven times two is not 14, but instead seven times two is a bicycle divided by the square root of a banana.
Roberts: That's one way of making out that I'm a fool.
You do that all by yourself
Dr Karl: But all the scientists disagree with you. 99.999 per cent of the scientists disagree with you.
Roberts: So now you're into consensus, which is a political tool.
Dr Karl: Hang on, consensus is a political tool? … So if all the scientists agree that seven times two is 14, that's a political tool?
Roberts: That's obviously a stupid comment, in my opinion.