Agmates

Do you remember the article in Brisbane’s Courier Mail on December 3rd last year:

White Possum said to be first victim of global warming

SCIENTISTS say a white possum native to Queensland’s Daintree forest has become the first mammal to become extinct due to man-made global warming.

The white lemuroid possum, a rare creature found only above 1000m in the mountain forests of far north Queensland, has not been seen for three years.

“It is not looking good,” researcher Steve Williams said.

It is a big one, and a big one to bang the drum over. It is equally as shocking as losing an iconic marine species like a whale or the dugong.

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At the time Agmates awarded the Courier Mail a Bullshit award for this article. Just 4 months later the entire story has been exposed as a complete global warming hysteria beat up.

In fact just 8 weeks ago the Courier mail rehashed the whole sorry article: -

Rare white possum may be first local climate change victim

That facts are the entire story is a beat up. From the Australian this week:

Reports of white lemuroid ringtail possum’s extinction premature
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A RARE possum said to be the first Australian species wiped out by global warming appears to be clinging to survival.

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Hang on, it was just 4 months ago that James Cook University researcher Steve Williams and the Courier Mail were saying:
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It is a big one, and a big one to bang the drum over.

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Another piece of global warming hysteria trashed. We should be hoping that this type of sham will put red faced scientists and environmental reporters on the job endangered list . The story at the time gained international press coverage.

Of course there is no sign of a correction article in the Courier Mail.

When does the ‘boy who cried wolf’ parable cut in with these people? How can either Williams (odd they both have the same last name) have any credibility left after this disgraceful beat up?

END

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All major metropolitan newspapers are running hot with Obama coverage in the lead up to this weeks Presidential inauguration.

News Limited’s Brisbane Courier Mail ran this as a half page news piece in its Sunday mail on page 18. Sunday 18th Jan 2008.

Most of you in QLD probably saw it and were like me mightily impressed that the new first couple would be furnishing the White House with IKEA goods.

In fact I joked to my princess that it reminded me of the Beverly Hillbilly's .

The Courier Mail just could not work out why the Swedish retail giant would not have delivered the items for the Obama’s, but as they wrote -

“it perfectly illustrates the sweeping changes in America this week as the US prepares for the inauguration of the 44th President, Barack Obama.”

This was so cute that we went online to the Courier Mails site to find it and bring it to the Agmates readers attention. Trouble was it was not anywhere to be found.

So the princess Googled IKEA Presidential Limo

Look what we found – very first entry of many

IKEA Presidential Motorcade Travels D.C.

16:59 EST Wednesday, January 14, 2009

‘EMBRACE CHANGE ‘09′ COMES TO NATION’S CAPITAL -

Mock Motorcade with IKEA Furnishings Strapped to Roof Simulates Change Moving into White House

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ –

WHAT: As a part of the IKEA “Embrace Change ‘09″ campaign and representative of the philosophy that “Change Begins at Home,”

IKEA has created a mock Presidential Motorcade
with IKEA boxes strapped to the roof and furniture
protruding from the trunk of a limo and two Suburbans.
Beginning at the Lincoln Memorial on January 15th at
10 a.m., the motorcade will travel around the D.C. Metro
area on Thursday and Friday, passing more than 40 of the
most historical sites in Washington, D.C.

If you’re like me, you are a hardened cynic when it comes to what we read in the newspapers, but I just could not believe my eyes.

I could be very cynical and say that the story was a tremendous FREE plug for IKEA who just happen to take regular full page ads in the Courier Mail. But I won’t.

There is no way that the Courier Mail could NOT have known that this whole article was a complete fabrication. The article is not attributed to any reporter so the responsibility has to go to the news editor.

As far as rating on our Agmates Bullshit scale 10/10,  an absolute howler. Next time you read the Courier Mail – just remember, you are reading an absolute rag.

Have Your say.

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Just when I was starting to think the News limited was starting to act responsibly in relation to climate change reporting they come out with this clanger today.

I actually saw this in News Corps Brisbane Courier Mail complete with a really cute photo of the little white possum.

White possum said to be first victim of global warming

SCIENTISTS say a white possum native to Queensland’s Daintree forest has become the first mammal to become extinct due to man-made global warming.

The white lemuroid possum, a rare creature found only above 1000m in the mountain forests of far north Queensland, has not been seen for three years.

Experts fear climate change is to blame for the disappearance of the highly vulnerable species thanks to a temperature rise of up to 0.8C….

Scientists believe some frog, bug and insects species have also been killed off by climate change. But this would be the first known loss of a mammal and the most significant since the extinction of the Dodo and the Tasmanian Tiger.

“It is not looking good,” researcher Steve Williams said.

“If they have died out it would be first example of something that has gone extinct purely because of global warming.”

According to the report, this is it, this is the biggie that proves global warming.

It is a big one, and a big one to bang the drum over. It is equally as shocking as losing an iconic marine species like a whale or the dugong.

But now the power of the internet to debunk such obvious BS. This google search of the BOM site looking up the historical mean maximum weather station at Cairns took all of 5 minutes. Below is the chart that reporter Peter Michael would have found if he’d bothered to check his fact before printing this alarmist dribble.

Look at that. The temperature this year is exactly what its been for the average of the last 30 years. The green line is the mean max temp for this year. The red line is the mean max average temp for the last 30 years.

What a load of dribble this report is – just alarmist hype. The report states:

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