Mercurius comments on the green lobby and climate change sceptics

Senator Stephen Fielding's descent into the absurd has certainly produced a reaction, as Mecurius writing at Larvatus Prodeo demonstrates in a comment on Senator Fielding goes wobbly on climate change.

Heartfelt sentiments with which I concur.

43 Mercurius
Jun 9th, 2009 at 1:49 pm

Well, one thing the climate change delusionists have got right is that the “green lobby” has a vested interest in pursuing action on climate change.

I’ll declare my vested interests right now:
1) I have a vested interest in living in an Australia that doesn’t face an influx of 100 million Bangladeshis looking for somewhere new to live circa 2070.2) I have a vested interest in living in an Australia that isn’t adversely impacted by an ozone hole, depleted rainfall and depleted soils throughout our agricultural belt.3) I have a vested interest in living in an Australia that doesn’t face economic collapse through dependence on carbon-based fuels long after the point those fuels have ceased to be economically viable or recoverable.4) I have a vested interest in living in an Australia that can grow enough food and supply enough water to feed my grandchildren after I’m gone.

Yep, that’s me — I’m the selfish, vested-interested “green lobby”.
If only I could be more like those altruistic “sceptics” who ask for nothing more than to be left in peace to consume every last available skerrick of food, water, oil and clean air — and just every so often to be lavished with gentle praise and admiration for being such open-minded, enlightened beings.

My favourite quote this week on climate change

My favourite quote comes from SBS Dateline this week:

"GEORGE NEGUS: The sceptics are still out there - the people who believe that science could be wrong about this. Are they still getting in your ear?

LORD NICHOLAS STERN: No. They're totally marginal now. I mean, do they object to the laws of thermodynamics or gravitation? It is just absurd. The greenhouse gases are there, they're going up and greenhouse gases trap heat - that's been known since the 19th century. So it's really only in bar rooms, I think, that this kind of discussion takes place. I don't think anybody would regard that as serious anymore."

Does this mean that media tartlet Senator Steve Fielding has taken to frequenting pubs?

The Greens leader declares able to meet Forestry Tasmania's demand for full payment of court costs

Tonight Australian Senator Bob Brown has sent out an email which reads:

Dear Friend,
Just over a week ago I received a letter from Forestry Tasmania threatening me with bankruptcy (which would disqualify me from serving in the Senate) if I failed to pay $240,000 in legal costs by 29 June 2009.
The legal bill arose when the full bench of the Federal Court overturned Justice Marshall’s finding (in my favour), that logging of Wielangta Forest should stop because it threatened endangered species like the Swift Parrot, Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle and the Wielangta Stag Beetle.
After serious consideration, I made the letter public on Monday.
Following an overwhelming public response, I am pleased to tell you I will be able to pay the bill by the deadline.
Donations of up to $20,000, for which I am extremely grateful, have been reported on the news.
The unreported generous donations of $10, $20, $50, $100 and $500—given by more than a thousand Australians from across the country— have also been essential and these donors have my enormous gratitude.......

Well done, Australia.

So this is what passes for NSW regional news these days?

Snapshot from The Daily Examiner, Grafton NSW

It wasn't that many days past since The Daily Examiner editor Peter Chapman was sounding off about ABC North Coast Radio's limited news coverage.
In fact I commented upon his views in this recent post Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch.

Well, Mr. Chapman continues to exceed himself, with blatant advertisement masquerading as reporting turning up in the newspaper under his stewardship yet again on 11 June 2009 at page 6 of a 32 page issue.

So enchanted is the editor with this no-brainer form of faux news that the article is also on the newspapers website, where one can happily learn that the principal dealer is committed to taking Clarence Valley Auto well into the future and that he will look after the local community and offer the best possible deals I can on Ford and Hyundai, as well as the best service.

One cannot help wondering if all these not so stealthy advertisements are paid for or if they are freebies for friends.

What they are definitely not is news reporting.

In painful strains that left a sting.....

Typing is not activism picked up on this version of the Australian national anthem, by indigenous artist Adam Hill, in The Age at the beginning of June:

AUSFAILURE NATIONAL TANTRUM

Australians all let us remorse

For we are blind can't see

We've golden soil that we all spoil

Our home washes into sea

Our land abounds in racist gits

Of whom we really can't bear

In history's cage recompense the slaves

Do Australians really care?

In painful strains that left a sting

Do Australians really care?

I can almost hear Gert sigh with relief that this time she didn't get a mention.

OMG Frank Sartor wants NSW's top job?

This week the spectre of Frank Sartor running New South Wales raised its ugly head once more.
Sartor has the hide to push his - ahem- expertise in planning law and reform as an example of why he has the right fibre for the top job.
Sartor as NSW Planning Minister was bad enough - Sartor as NSW Premier determined to create new planning policy is the stuff of nightmares.
On the NSW North Coast we still have his large development consents languishing for lack of investment money or buyer interest while the same development companies push even more grand plans under the nose of the current minister.
Francesco, you left behind an utter mess last time you held the reins.
The mind boggles at what you would do with a second bite at the apple and before we have to again endure your overbearing arrogance it might be wise if everyone on the coast permanently crosses the nearest state border!

At last we have a new epoch........

Even with our communal love of labelling things and delight in buzz words, this term appears to have been around for the last eight years but doesn't seem to have really taken off.
Perhaps because in creating a new 'age', 'period' or 'epoch' it implies that global warming is here for a long, long time and (although realistic) that is a very uncomfortable thought for many.

Robert Cahalan, climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center speaking to Science Daily in May 2008:

"Over recent decades, however, we have moved into a human-dominated climate that some have termed the Anthropocene. The major change in Earth's climate is now really dominated by human activity, which has never happened before."

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica online:

Anthropocene Epoch
geologic time unofficial interval of geologic time characterized by the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere resulting from the onset of organized human industrial activity. Although the modern period of Earth's history is conventionally defined as residing within the Holocene Epoch (11,800 years ago to the present), some scientists have argued that the Holocene terminated in the relatively recent past. They contend that Earth currently resides in a climatic interval during which humans have exerted a dominant influence over climate. The onset of the Anthropocene Epoch, so-named by Dutch chemist Paul Crutzen, is said to be coincident with the creation of the steam engine by Scottish inventor James Watt in 1784.