Friday 15 November 2013

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?”

7 comments:

  1. Dear Stafford.

    I hear you and will pray the world listens.

    I still have not heard how Arian is in the Phillipines after the devastating Haiyan. And worry how much longer do we bicker and debate before the world really turns on us…

    Take care Stafford.

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  2. Stafford- I am in total agreement with you - it's amazing to me how the "powers that be" only give lip service to a horrendous problem....but the way I look at it- we're doomed to extinction and once we are gone our lovely planet and the animals who live amongst us will once again thrive- if you have time you can see my post from a few days ago:
    http://katheworsley.blogspot.com/2013/11/eric-alders-mpp-and-poetry-jam-november.html
    Big hugs- keep up the fine writing!

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  3. good on you Staffo :) good to see over 60,000 people rallying for action on climate change - pity the media is pretty much ignoring the rallies - unbelievable! I couldn't get to one as there were none around here but I would have loved to have been in Brisbane. Tony Abbott is even worse than I imagined, and that is saying something as I have a good imagination ;) epic fail

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  4. According to the us meteorological surveys's study of satelite photos, there were a hundred sixty million more square miles at the poles last year than two years ago. There is concern that if the small steps that have been taken produce such huge results, there is considerable danger of doing too much and driving us from global warming into another Ice age.

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    1. Hello Donald, I too read these statements and then wonder why we are so concerned for loss of habitat for polar bears, which we are told, will become extinct because there will soon be too little ice in the Arctic Ocean to support them. Of course these statements are mutually exclusive, so we can't have it both ways.
      We are also told we are due for the next ice age, so we had better start following China's lead and cut population because, hotter or colder, food will become scarcer than it already is, with currently maybe half the world's people ill nourished. Food for thought.

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    2. I don't know about Australia, but in the US, the politicians seem to be so busy giving the appearance of accomplishing something they don't take time to find out what is really happening before they take action. As a result their solutions are frequently worse than the problem they were trying to fix. It seems to me that it would be better to make sure we actually know what the problem is before attempting to solve it.

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  5. Stafford, any work you can do to make these blind politicians realize the terrible disaster forthcoming because of climate change can only insure your sainthood. Keep the good fight going!

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