ONCE again the Greens have shamelessly exploited a tragedy, this time Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
These enemies of reason claim this "record" typhoon is evidence of global warming and "Typhoon Tony" - the Prime Minister - will cause more.
But once again almost everything they say about this disaster is false or misleading
Of course, that isn't unusual for the Greens, a party that promises a new Dark Ages in which faith again trumps facts.
Last month Greens leader Christine Milne and her deputy, Adam Bandt, linked the NSW fires to global warming with the same reckless disregard for the truth.
In just one interview on the ABC's Insiders, Milne made seven false or misleading claims.
Here are some: the fires occurred where there was a "long-term drying trend", this trend was linked to global warming, we'd just had our "hottest winter", the "scale of the fires" was significant and Cyclone Yasi was also evidence of warming.
In fact, those fires were not bigger, earlier or deadlier. NSW has had more rainfall over the century, not less, and even Tim Flannery's alarmist Climate Commission admitted Yasi was "not the result of climate change".
Oh, and the planet's atmosphere has not had any statistically significant warming for 15 years.
Rational people would be embarrassed to be proved so wrong, but these are Greens. So this week they were at it again, only worse.
Here is Milne: "In our region Typhoon Haiyan and 10,000 people, if not more, dead in the Philippines from a storm with such intensity there is now debate whether it is the strongest typhoon ever."
She continued, verballing former Climate Commissioner Will Steffen: "Professor Steffen ... is out saying that it is the warming of the oceans off the eastern Philippines that has led to the intensity of the typhoon."
Here is Bandt, attacking Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "He can be expected to be referred to as Typhoon Tony ...
"This is what we are in store for unless we get global warming under control ..."
And here is Senator Richard Di Natale: "You've got record storms in the Philippines and now you've got record stupidity from Tony Abbott, who's basically going to unwind some of the world's most ambitious and important climate change legislation."
But, again, almost everything these Greens said about the typhoon was false or misleading
Was this massive typhoon the strongest ever?
No. The Philippine Met Agency says Haiyan had wind gusts at landfall of 275kmh - the same it recorded with Typhoon Sening in 1970, but less than the 320kmh of Typhoon Reming in 2006.
The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated higher wind speeds but from satellite monitoring, which is valid only for typhoons over water, not land, where friction slows the winds.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology recorded 408kmh winds at Barrow Island during a cyclone in 1996.
Was this typhoon the deadliest?
No. The Philippines government has revised the expected toll from 10,000 to less than 3000. Typhoon Uring, which hit the Philippines in 1991, killed at least 5000.
The world's 35 deadliest typhoons have killed between 12,000 people and the 500,000 feared dead in a Bangladesh cyclone in 1970.
Did this typhoon pass over unusually warm seas?
No. Sea temperatures in Haiyan's path were around the 25-year average, according to US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.
Are the Philippines experiencing more cyclones or typhoons?
No. The Philippines is in a typhoon hotspot, but atmospheric physicist Gerry Bagtasa of the University of the Philippines says there were more in the northwest Pacific in the 1960s.
A 2009 study in Geophysical Research Letters found "no net change" in the number of cyclones making landfall in the Philippines.
Is the world experiencing more or worse cyclones or typhoons?
No. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conceded in September there is "low confidence that any reported long-term (centennial) increases in tropical cyclone activity are robust" and "confidence in large-scale changes in the intensity of extreme extratropical cyclones since 1900 is low".
Do real experts say humans have caused worse or more cyclones or typhoons?
No. Again, the IPCC admits: "Globally, there is low confidence in attribution of changes in tropical cyclone activity to human influence."
This was a massive typhoon which caused a terrible loss of life by smashing into a poor country rather than a rich one.
But there is no global warming signal here. Nor could Abbott do anything to make cyclones less likely. He has as much influence over a cyclone as King Canute had over the tides.
But tell that to the Greens. For them such facts do not matter. To them, ignorance is a virtue and fear a weapon.
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