Carbon Lies

The Australian government's plan to sell their un-saleable carbon tax has hit a snag – their pollsters have discovered that the word ''carbon'' provokes anger in the electorate.

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This is no surprise. Most decent people hate liars and the carbon tax campaign has been mired in lies from the start. The first big lie was from Penny Wong who described carbon dioxide as a "pollutant". But people soon learned that this colourless, non-toxic, natural atmospheric gas is the essential source of food for all life on earth. The second big lie was graphic – government propaganda pictured a "dirty" coal power station belching black pollution. Three lies in one here – the power station pictured is closed, it is in England, and all carbon dioxide it ever released was invisible. Their next mistake was to use paid academics to spread scare forecasts of searing heat and never ending drought, all caused by the demon carbon dioxide. The reality has been no global warming for twelve years, heavy snows in the Northern Hemisphere and heavy rains in Australia. The fourth big lie was from the leader of the government, Julia Gillard: "There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead". No amount of weasel words from government propagandists and apologists will erase our memory of these four big lies about carbon. Their negative image problem is profound: Whenever the Australian people hear “Carbon” they think “Lies.”

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