[BITList] What were they thinking? What lies were they telling?
franka
franka at iinet.net.au
Sat Jun 11 03:38:15 BST 2011
It is one thing for the government to commission Cate Blanchett
and Michael Caton to do an ad standing in
front of an image of a huge power station belching black smoke
into the air
cid:CBA93781EDB5491DB51130EC99A8FF80 at Dell1
Unfortunately, the power station isn't even in Australia. It is
Battersea Power Station in London and it was decommissioned in 1983
cid:C0D5C4B1BCA04BF4A8EA03D1A7FCD5A8 at Dell1
Even more embarrassingly, any Pink Floyd fan would recognise the
image from the cover of the album Animals
cid:13398EAC9BC445728FCF0BF8AF6CA498 at Dell1
The question is:
What happened to the flying pig? It seems so appropriate somehow.
cid:13A35D5AFA954ECEB9FEE04F4512E32D at Dell1
Celebrity carbon ad spreads more lies
* Andrew Bolt
* From:Herald Sun <http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/>
* June 01, 201112:00AM
carbon
Cate Blanchett's ad about the proposed carbon tax is misleading,
argues Andrew Bolt./Source:/Herald Sun
*IF THE science on global warming is so good, why are we told
such lies?*
That is the true disgrace of those behind the ad that features
Cate Blanchett telling us to "say yes" to the Gillard
Government's carbon dioxide tax.
It's not that it stars a multi-millionaire actor blithely
instructing the little people to pay a tax that she wouldn't
even feel herself.
It's not that it stars a hypocrite telling us to cut our
emissions while she herself jets off to Cannes, New York and LA,
and helps to flog luxury Audi cars.
No, it's the lies that should shame Blanchett and the ad's other
star, Michael Caton, of Packed to the Rafters, who are not
responsible for them, but speak the lines put in their mouths.
It's the flagrant lies in this ad that should shame all the
green groups and unions which made the wretched thing -- and
that should warn the rest of us there is much less to this scare
than such shameless people claim.
How dare they? And where are the regulators? Does the
Advertising Standards Bureau exempt global warming alarmists
from its demand that "ads shall not be misleading or deceptive"?
The lies start with the very first shot of the ad, showing Caton
standing under black skies made filthy by a power station
billowing soot --labelled "carbon".
Says Caton: "What if we say yes to making big companies pay when
they pollute our skies? We'd be saying yes to less carbon
pollution."
Stop right there.
First, where in Australia are our skies black with "carbon"?
Answer: nowhere. The ad describes a problem we don't actually have.
Do our power stations -- the main target of the carbon dioxide
tax -- actually belch out black smoke like that?
No. Most coal-fired ones here emit little more than steam and
invisible gas. Drive past one and see for yourself.
So what power station are we shown in this ad?
The Battersea plant in Britain.
Does it vomit out black soot like that?
No, it was closed almost 30 years ago.
So will the Government's tax close the Battersea plant? Don't be
an idiot.
Well, will the tax at least remove that sooty carbon in our
skies Caton wants gone?
No, because the sign perched over Caton's head deceives, too.
The Government's "carbon" tax is not actually designed to remove
carbon, which is a solid, but carbon dioxide, which is a gas
that's invisible, as you can see when you breathe out.
And that is what makes Blanchett's big scene completely wrong.
She appears in the ad, trilling that the tax would be "finally
doing something about climate change", and demonstrating that
change by replacing the sooty skies with a clean, sun-filled one.
That imagery is another lie.
No, this tax has got nothing at all to do with giving us cleaner
and sunnier skies. Zero. Zip.
Pretending it will is a contemptible deceit -- and so are most
of the other claims put in the mouths of the unwitting actors in
this ad.
How about the actor who claims that by saying "yes" to the
Government's tax, we'll be saying "yes to new money for clean
energy that never runs out"?
One of the great problems with solar and wind power is that it
does indeed run out.
Solar power stops when the sun doesn't shine, and wind turbines
stop turning when the wind dies.
This is not some silly debating point. It's one of the hard
facts that makes solar and wind power so horribly expensive.
To switch to such unreliable power sources means we still need
backup power plants to take over when the renewables fail.
That's twice the infrastructure to guarantee the same power.
But back to the lying ad, which also shows a woman claiming we'd
be saying "yes to help for people struggling
with bills".
Actually, the reverse is true. The tax will instead make those
bills an even bigger struggle, because it will drive up the cost
of electricity and everything made with it.
Only half the money the tax raises will come back in
compensation for just some Australians, and no compensation will
be enough for those whose jobs will be killed off by the higher
cost of power.
Then there's the claim by another woman in the ad that we'd be
saying "yes to better health for our kids".
Pardon? Where's the proof for that emotive claim?
This seems a desperate attempt to suggest the Government's tax
will cut asthma-causing soot, rather than plant-stimulating
carbon dioxide.
And then there is the ad's ultimate fraud.
Just "say yes", it urges.
But where? When? To whom?
The ad suggests we do actually have a choice -- that the
Government may even put the question to a vote in an election.
But as we know, we'll get this tax without us ever having said
"yes".
Indeed, 146 of the 150 people in our House of Representatives
were elected at the last election on the specific promise that
they'd say "no" to it.
Yet here it is, to be imposed on us next year with no mandate.
All we get is this ad, telling us to say "yes" to something to
which our consent is in fact not sought and our objection is not
heeded.
Such arrogance, and this ad drips with it.
Fancy the ad's makers thinking we'd swallow falsehoods that
wouldn't fool a schoolgirl.
So how is it that such a deceitful and unscientific ad can not
only be shown on television, but is endorsed by politicians
demanding we "accept the science".
All that the rest of us can conclude is that if alarmists
responsible for the ad must tell such lies, then the truth can't
be so scary.
And that, at least, is true.
*Join Andrew weekdays at 8am on MTR 1377*
__
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