Insanity

To live where weather's wild and raw
You must be mad, or really poor.
But if there you must reside
You'd better take your bike inside,
And quickly shut the bloody door!?

Thanks Tess, nice to find you are still here after my sabbatical. And thanks for another wonderful prompt.

Choices

Are you one of those, like my deceased but loved friend Peter Cairns, who always seemed to think of the perfect rejoinder, right then, in real time, perfect and unanswerable? Well, I am not and I fear, never will be. So typically, I did not think of this one until after the event and by then it would have been impolite to bring it up and I would have revealed my self as a smart arse, a fact known to some but I try to limit its spread.
We were sitting having a drink with our friend Ethel on Boxing Day who had just been telling us the gruesome details of her husband's brachytherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Following that, the next subject raised was climate change, not by me, you will be surprised to know, but by another, less knowing of the host's attitudes to such 'Green conspiracies'. All chance of an exchange of ideas was dashed when the hostess declared; "I don't believe in climate change and neither does Bert!" I looked out the window at the yachts and took another sip of white wine, a cowardly intellectual retreat, when I should have said: "What a quaint thing to say! Saying you don’t believe in climate change is equivalent to saying you don't believe in prostate cancer, a well proven reality. However, you do have a choice to believe or not believe in its treatment, as you do with climate change.”

Typhoon Tony

I thought I had seen denial at its worst, when in the sixties, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Big Tobacco paraded expert after expert stating unequivocally that tobacco was not only not harmful, but was good for you. Now we have the same mob running interference for Big Energy, as we ramp up coal exports and load it in one of the most sensitive environments on the planet, the Great Barrie Reef!

This Sunday I will march for the first time in protest against our new government’s determination to defund and unwind most of the hard won carbon abatement programs created over the last six years.

I guess it had to happen, but when Abbott started calling Shorten “Electricity Bill”, implying falsely that Labor’s Carbon Pricing caused the huge rises in electricity prices suffered over the last few years, when it was mostly pushed up by infrastructure expenditure, the nick names started.

 

Christine Milne of the Greens was next in with “Typhoon Tony”, after it was suggested that extreme weather events would become more frequent and even more extreme as climate warmed, and repeal of the Carbon Price would exacerbate the problem. Now I would like to add two more.

 

“Hurricane Hunt”, our Minister for climate change denial and “Bushfire Bishop”, our deputy PM, mistress of the Death Stare and fellow climate change denier.  

As they said, when it was suggested by the Greens that climate change would cause more extreme bush fires, like those that raged through the Blue Mountains last month and that Typhoon Haiyan was a portent of worse to come, they were chided for ‘politicising misery’. But as one commentator asked; “If this is not the time to look at the implications of climate change, when should we?”

Action Man.

 

 

This is not a criticism of Tony Abbott’s attendance at fires as a member of his brigade, or his bike riding in events that raise money for charity. They show he is a ‘good bloke’. However, perhaps the fact that he still pursues those activities after becoming Prime Minister, our Chief CEO, could be an indication of his management style and it could be fair to wonder if he is ready for the big picture.

 

Denying that wild fires in Australia are influenced by Climate Change, while running around the bush with a fire hose, may be the clue that explains why he favours a policy of direct action over a cap and trade system to mitigate climate change. One would expect a Conservative to have more faith in a market driven system than one that must meddle and cherry pick its targets, needing a dedicated bureaucracy, charged with the task of deciding where, when and how much is to be give polluters not to pollute. One wonders why he doesn’t pay Philip Morris to stop making so many cigarettes!

One suspects that his direct action policy is really driven by his determination continue to negate every Labor initiative, regardless of merit. Let’s hope he lets go the ideology and starts to think things through. Tony’s scattergun approach to problem solving is also revealed by his ideas of buying up Indonesian fishing boats (since withdrawn) and his tree planting pledge (since withdrawn). Germaine Greer was right to ask: (paraphrased) “How can a government headed by a Rhodes Scholar be so stupid?”

So here we are, with apparently intelligent people, defending the indefensible, about to witness the repeal of the only mechanism experts agree has any chance of delivering lower emissions in a world that is burning up before our eyes, simply because Action Man wanted so desperately to become PM and stay there. If he continues to deny the science, let’s hope Tanya Plibersek gets her wish that he is indeed One Term Tony. With the whole world desperately needing leadership on the big issues of overpopulation and climate change, being a member of a fire brigade is not enough.

Dak Dak.

Dak Dak.

I know the pic is not of a V-Dub, but good reader, I hope you sill forgive me a repeat of the only car poem I have ever written and even that was in response to a comment from the delightfulGabrielle Bryden. The story behind the poem is Here.
Note: This is a copy of a previous post that was inundated with spam, so I destroyed it, along with the termites and rust, but managed to keep your lovely comments!

Tok Tok
Dakka dakka
Put-put Put-put,
Tok tok dakka dakka put!

Hear the clatter of a
Vee Dub
Vee Dub,
With the donkey in the back!

Now the engine’s in the
front-front
front-front.
Water cooled and full of grunt;

Changed forever is the
sound-sound
sound-sound,
Never more the ears astound!

Sounds like every other
car-car
car-car,
What a shame they went that far!

Tok Tok Dakka dakka
Put-put
Put-put
Tok tok dakka dakka put.
Paaah!

For more relevant poems and stories, go to Magpie Tales. You will not be disappointed!

Election Sept. 2013

Are we Aussies about to elect a Climate Change Denier to the top job, so he can give his Mining Magnate Mates free reign to pollute?

And, by the way, did anyone notice that CO2 just went through the 400 PPM barrier?

Pic of tornado courtesy Melbourne Herald Sun

If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

I had my hands around a large latte, taking in the aroma, coaxing warmth from the steaming mug. We were downstairs at Wyong Mall, watching the passing parade; blue rinse matrons with loot from the op shop, mothers and red nosed babies, rugged up but still cold, girls in uggs and coats, then one young man, shirtless in the bleak July air.

I turned to Barney the Barista, indicating with my head.
“What’s that all about?”
His glance was as confident as it was brief.
“New tatts.”

Note: I intend to take a break from blogging while I concentrate on my almost completed novel, but know I will be unable to resist the occasional look at what you are all doing. Meanwhile, I invite my cyber friends to drop me a line if you feel the urge. And meanwhile, please take a trip to the Magpie's Nest to read contributions from some fine poets and storytellers. XX

Ode to breast feeding.

 A mademoiselle from Le Havre
Was heard to say; ‘I was in love!
But my man departed
Now I’m broken hearted
But at least the baby won’t starve!’

This must have been a bit risqué in 1898, but we know from art going back many thousands of years that the female form has remained a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Take a look at what real Magpie poets have to say about this lovely Degas image.

Dysfunctional.

An organised kitchen it’s not… 
A cat on the stove that’s not hot. 
A pissoire at hand 
with nowhere to stand 
and a tank with a tap at the top! 

And that is just for starters!

The draughtsmanship is wonderful and the narrative intriguing. But to me, this kitchen is the Hell.
I don’t know how Tess manages to finds these, but they really are a challenge. Click on Magpie Tales to see what others had to say.

A no-brainer? Apparently not.

 Yesterday we had a guest to lunch, a smart lady, mid seventies and we talked about a range of issues after family histories had been updated. Then, out of the blue, with unmistakable incredulity: “You don’t really believe climate change is real!?”

I was silent for a moment waiting for the smile and when that did not come, I recognised this as an opportunity to try out the argument I had been nurturing for a while, that I considered a no-brainer, but I was wrong.

My argument goes as follows: “OK, let’s leave aside differences of opinion and consider this one question: ‘Is CO2 a greenhouse gas or not?’

My strategy was to follow the expected agreement with: ‘whatever other factors are operating, rising CO2 levels are lifting the basic temperature floor, so all other variables are being lifted with it. Then I had planned to say that CO2 rise is the one factor that is man-made, and is the only one we can, and therefore must fix.

But I didn’t get that far. I was totally blindsided by: “CO2 is plant food!”, followed by: “Anyway the planet is cooling. Haven’t you read Ian Plimer?”

I have read Ian Plimer, geologist, who makes a good case for climate change having natural causes and it does, but as I wrote in a previous post, that does not in any way detract from the argument that CO2 is causing climate change in a fundamental and dangerous way.

 My friend Jo realised there was potential for a real argument and steered the conversation to the other big human issue, that of overpopulation, so we chatted about that for a while until I could graciously leave to contemplate what had happened.

 Of course, once again, I was snookered by the unfortunate human habit of deciding an issue by intuition, then casting about for evidence in support, while avoiding evidence to the contrary. So for anyone who wants to see why Plimer is very wrong, here is a convincing rebuttal of Plimer’s arguments from none other than the Australian Government’s Dept of Climate Change.

But, as they say; ‘You can lead a horse to drink but you can’t make him water!’