Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug has died -- 'saved more human lives than any other' -- was a climate skeptic | Climate Depot

Borlaug also declared himself skeptical of man-made climate fears in 2007. "I do believe we are in a period where, no question, the temperatures are going up. But is this a part of another one of those (natural) cycles that have brought on glaciers and caused melting of glaciers?" Borlaug asked, according to a September 21, 2007 article in Saint Paul Pioneer Press. The article reported that Borlaug is "not sure, and he doesn't think the science is, either." Borlaug added, "How much would we have to cut back to take the increasing carbon dioxide and methane production to a level so that it's not a driving force?" We don't even know how much."

[Fun with completely made-up numbers]: Protecting climate change refugees | Steve Trent | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Every year, climate change leaves more than 300,000 people dead, 325 million people seriously affected, and economic losses of $125bn. If anyone should be in any doubt as to the comparative costs of propping up failing economies, and of protecting millions of people from climate change, the UN has estimated that annual global spending to mitigate the worst effects of climate change amounts to about $0.5bn.

A clear majority of working journalists do tend to be of a centre-left disposition | Institute of Public Affairs Australia

Still, there is a strong groupthink mechanism at our taxpayer-funded broadcaster. Examples abound.

Take man-made climate change and emissions trading. The ABC has jettisoned all semblance of impartiality on the issue; its journalists, with rare exceptions, now campaign with a constant stream of scare stories. (Within two weeks recently, the otherwise excellent Lateline broadcast the doom-and-gloom scenarios of Bob Brown, Tim Flannery and Clive Hamilton, whereas in the past two years only one sceptic has been a studio guest - Ian Plimer, in May - and his scholarship was subjected to highly unbalanced, even contemptuous, scrutiny in a news segment just before he himself was interviewed.)