Clarence Coast whistles in the dark over climate change

The Daily Examiner yesterday assured the world that coastal sand erosion caused by king tides and big swells was a case of "relax, it's nature in action".

The combination of king tides and big swells this year have stripped sand from beaches, exposing rocks that have been buried for decades, and eroded sand dunes.
Affected beaches include the Angourie and Brooms Head back beaches and Spookys....
At Spookys Beach a large rock shelf has been exposed for the second time this year, revealing hundreds of rocks that would usually be covered in metres of sand.
John's mother, Dianne Webber, said in 27 years she had only seen the rock shelf as exposed as it was in January a handful of times.
"The sand did come back a couple of months ago, but now it's gone again," she said.
Mrs Webber said the sand was always shifting and she had faith it would return.
Further down the coast at Brooms Head, Daphne Giese has also witnessed decades of sand movement and erosion.
Mrs Giese said the back beach had a lot of sand on it and other parts of the main beach continued to be eroded.
She said 40 years ago they used to take their kids camping between the Caretaker's Cottage and the Bluff.
"You can't even camp there now because it's gone," Mrs Giese said.
"With the weather being so unpredictable you never know what the future could bring.
"But right now it looks beautiful out there," she said looking out her window at the ocean.

Meanwhile The Sydney Morning Herald told us yesterday that:

OCEANS have heated up much more rapidly in the past four decades from global warming than scientists had thought.
An Australian and American research team found that between 1961 and 2003 the rate of warming of the upper ocean layers was about 50 per cent higher than was estimated in last year's report by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
A CSIRO scientist, Catia Domingues, of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, said her team's finding helped solve a big problem for climate researchers.
They had been unable to fully explain why sea levels had risen so rapidly in this period, but this could now be largely attributed to the expansion of the warming oceans. "For the first time we can provide a reasonable account of the processes causing the rate of global sea-level rise over the past four decades," Dr Domingues said.
Sea levels rose about 1.6 millimetres a year between 1961 and 2003.

It doesn't take a genius to see that although Clarence Coast ocean processes are 'natural', it doesn't rule out the possibility that an increase in the number and strength of very high tides and change in wave action due to climate change may have begun to be felt.

How we rate our Aussie politicians

Readers Digest has its fourth annual Most Trusted Poll up online.

Have a look at who rated below 50 - every politician on the 100 well-known people list and a few surprises.
I can understand Sol Trujillo an also ran at 95, Pell logged in at 75 and Keelty coming in at only 52, but Gleeson at 54? Is our High Court considered the realm of used car salesmen now?

51. Naomi Watts - Actor
52. Jessica Rowe - TV newsreader
52. Mick Keelty - Commissioner, Australian Federal Police
54. Andrew Symonds - Member of Australian cricket team
54. Murray Gleeson - Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia
56. Mick Fanning - World Champion surfer
57. Natalie Bassingthwaite - Actor, musician, TV host, So you think you can dance
58. Bert Newton - TV host
58. Karl Stefanovic - TV host, Today
60. Kerri-Anne Kennerley - TV Host, Mornings with Kerri-Anne
61. Bill Granger - Chef, TV Host and Author
62. Kevin Rudd - Prime Minister
63. Chris Lilley - Writer and comedian, Summer Heights High
64. Mel Gibson - Actor and director
65. Keith Urban - Musician
66. Jana Rawlinson (nee Pittman) - Olympic runner
67. Maxine McKew - Former journalist, Federal MP
67. Russell Crowe - Actor, businessman
69. Julia Gillard - Federal MP, Deputy Prime Minister
70. Greg Norman - Golfer
71. Lleyton Hewitt - Tennis player
72. Noel Pearson - Lawyer and activist
73. Therese Rein - Wife of Prime Minister, businesswoman
74. Janette Howard - Wife of former Prime Minister
75. Cardinal George Pell - Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
76. Peter Garrett - Federal MP, ex Midnight Oil musician
77. Lara Bingle - Model
78. Andrew Johns - Former rugby league player
79. The Chaser Boys - Comedians and satirists
80. Alan Jones - Radio presenter
81. Bob Brown - Federal senator, leader of the Australian Greens
82. Peter Holmes a Court - Businessman, owner South Sydney Rugby League Club
83. Glenn Stevens - Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia
84. Lachlan Murdoch - Businessman
85. Bob Hawke - Former Prime Minister
86. Rupert Murdoch - Media mogul
87. James Packer - Businessman
88. John Howard - Prime Minister
89. Kyle Sandilands - Radio personality, TV judge Australian Idol, TV Host, Big Brother
90. Malcolm Turnbull - Federal MP, Shadow Treasurer
91. Paul Keating - Former Prime Minister
92. Peter Costello - Federal MP, former treasurer
93. Brendan Nelson - Leader of the Opposition
94. Tony Abbott - Federal MP
95. Shane Warne - Former cricketer
95. Sol Trujillo - Telstra CEO
97. David Hicks - Confessed terrorism supporter
98. Ben Cousins - Suspended AFL player
99. Wayne Carey - Retired AFL player
100. Rodney Adler - Former director of telecommunications company One. Tel and insurance company HIH

"Moggy Musings" [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

A global warming musing:
A cat has a smaller ecological pawprint than the average human footprint. It rarely overeats, never forgets to turn out the lights, mostly walks everywhere it needs to go, and doesn't buy needless 'stuff' just to keep up with the Joneses.
A Good Dog musing:
In the last week of April Shep the German Shepherd barked out loud and strong until he woke the neighbours of an elderly woman who had fallen and broken her hip. Shep's feat was extra special because he wasn't the woman's dog.
100 cats and dogs musing:
100 cats, dogs, kittens and puppies are looking for homes as part of the worldwide 2008 Adoptathon on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 May at South Grafton Veterinary Clinic between 11am - 5pm (Sat) and 11am - 4pm (Sun).
All animals vet checked, immunised, de-sexed and microchipped.
A lost and frightened musing:
Kuin the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo is missing from her Grafton home. This rare bird went missing on Saturday 3 April 2008. If you see this 6 year-old female would you contact NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service or her owner on 0409 906637.
A You're My Hero musing:
Carts, the NSW police dog who died from wounds received on duty last year, was posthumously honoured with a bravery award by the German Shepherd Dog Council of Australia on 3 May 2008.
A tickled pink musing:
Early on the morning of 13 April 2008 North Coast Voices received its 10,000th visitor. Not bad for an obscure little blog which has only been up and running for 31 weeks. Of course we three amigos; Clarrie's faithful old hound, Roo's music-loving poodle and I take full credit for the entire effort.
Pets rule OK!

The Coalition revisits 1972-75 and thinks voters won't notice

The Federal Liberals and Nationals are nothing if not predictable.
Today in the Senate they revisited the tactics used to destabilise another duly-elected Labor federal government in the 1970s.
If anything was needed to confirm an intention to wreck and spoil, yesterday's Hansard offered ample proof.

The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008 was a case in point and, although Labor's Senator Faulkner made as much political capital as he could about the Coalition move to take this bill off the current agenda he was more right than wrong when he said:
"Today we see the true colours of the coalition. I particularly
want to concentrate on the decision of the opposition
to block the Commonwealth Electoral
Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures)
Bill 2008. To delay the bill by more than 12 months
reveals, on the one hand, all the opposition’s hypocrisy
and willingness to sacrifice the health of our democracy
on the alter of partisan politics. On the other hand,
the government is committed to a transparent and accountable
electoral system. To achieve this, we have
introduced the bill that I have mentioned. This bill contains
five urgent measures to address critical weaknesses
in the act’s current funding and disclosure regime.
These new measures include ensuring all donations
over $1,000 to political parties and candidates are
subject to proper public scrutiny and that donations are
reported in a more timely manner.
The bill also bans overseas and anonymous donations
and prevents political parties and candidates from
making a profit from public funding. These measures
are straightforward, they are positive, and they ought to
be uncontroversial. But the opposition, under Dr Nelson,
want to use their Senate majority to block these
necessary and urgent reforms to send them to a committee
until, at the earliest, the financial year after
next—in other words, to send this bill into legislative
limbo. They want one whole year—a minimum 12
months—to pretend to look at this simple bill. This
charade clearly shows their contempt for our electoral
system and their determination to turn their backs on
any effort to clean up the system. It proves that the opposition
clearly do not support transparency and accountability
of our electoral laws. This proves the opposition
do not want the Australian public to know who
gives how much money to which party.
The decision to block this bill raises two questions
for Dr Nelson. The first is: does Dr Nelson honestly
think that less accountability, less transparency, less
integrity benefits our democracy? The second is: what
do Dr Nelson and the opposition have to hide? Clearly,
the answer to the second question is a lot of money ..."

The blogosphere today: religious and ethnic sensitivity in action

There has been some mention across the blogosphere of Macleans.ca and Mark Steyne's legal problems with the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) under Section 7.1 of the BC Human Rights Code.
Andrew Coyne at Macleans has live blogged one day of evidence before the BC Human Rights Tribunal.
Having read the published excerpt from Steyne's book The future belongs to Islam which is the subject of the complaint, I am truly puzzled by all the subsequent and definitely belated hysteria.
Having then gone on to read the CIC 60 page Report on Macleans Journalism I have to confess that I am still at a loss.
The Congress may be in the process of attempting to carve out a political presence for itself in Canada, but it is going down a rather strange path to further this legitimate aim.
Quite frankly many opinion pieces by Australian newspaper journos would be more likely classed as 'hate' pieces than that excerpt from Steyne's book.
Perhaps CIC should try another tack and take a leaf out of SBS TV Salam Cafe's unique book instead and laugh at what presumably offends them.

Photograph Which way is up? found at Club Troppo's Missing Link.

Learn how to 'Sweet Talk Your Local Media', 23-25 June 2008

Click on lower left corner to enlarge

A chance for Clarence Valley local business, community groups and aspiring lobbyists to find out how to establish and maintain effective relationships with the media.

Workshops will be held at Grafton, Maclean and Yamba between 23-25 June and are run by a great local communicator, Debrah Novak.

Deb can be contacted for details by phoning 1300 783 396
or emailing info@womedia.com.au

Nicola Roxon has only herself to blame for that binge drinking hangover

The Federal Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, has only herself to blame for the hole she teeters on the edge of over the excessive use of that ill-defined, social (not scientific) term binge drinking.

Although to be fair, every frontbencher from the Prime Minister down appears to have been eager to blow the same moral dog whistle.

Although the draft revised Australian alcohol guidelines for low-risk drinking is littered with the term binge drinking (and cites at least one study where this is defined as more than 4 standard drinks per day), it is careful to acknowledge the difficulties in using such a term.

Intoxication
‘Intoxication’ is a widely used term with no consistent or formally agreed definition. It is usually taken to describe when a person’s blood alcohol concentration is elevated to a level at which they cannot function within their normal range of physical and mental abilities. Levels above about 0.05–0.08% are sometimes taken as a proxy measure of intoxication (see Section 3.3). In lay terms, intoxication is a subjective feeling, the experience of a substantial effect of alcohol on mood, brain function, and psychomotor function. However, there are
marked variations in the amount of alcohol different people need to consume in order to experience intoxication.
Binge-drinking
This term is avoided as far as possible in these guidelines because its meaning is ill-defined and unclear. It was formerly used to refer to an extended period (usually more than a day)devoted to drinking at levels leading to intoxication. However, more recently, it has been used to describe single-occasion drinking of a substantial amount, particularly by adolescents and young adults.

In Crikey yesterday, Geoff Munro takes the media to task and states; Despite Albrechtsen et al, the NHMRC draft did not employ the term binge drinking because medical scientists do not agree on how many drinks constitute a "binge", or the period of time in which they must be consumed to qualify as a binge.
Which makes me wonder if the pre-24 November 2007 draft differed in some respects from the archived community consultation draft now displayed on the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) website.

What is glaringly obvious is that a new government rushes to redefine social problems at its own peril.