Two job ads on the same page in The Weekend Australian print edition today are a good summary of Australia’s climate confusion.

First, the ad for Climate Science Center Research Director:

CSIRO is committed to complementing its world-class science capabilities with outcome-focused research that will generate economic, environmental and social benefits for Australia in a global context.

Just opposite, an ad for Whitehaven Coal, which starts with:

Whitehaven Coal is the largest Australian producer of high efficiency, low emissions coal…

If you can say that without coughing up some coal dust, please move on to the next test:

The company is at an exciting stage in its evolution…

If this were not Australia, the “exciting stage” would be a death spiral.

But this is Australia, the world’s biggest net exporter of coal. It has nearly doubled its coal and coke exports over the last ten years.

Another fun fact about Australia: the word drought is no longer good enough to describe what it’s undergoing. The correct expression is now: super drought.