In which the pond unwisely decides on a Sunday meditation with the lizard Oz editorialist ...

How the memories linger … how things change in order that that they might stay the same ...

And what better way to track the reptile response to the current crisis than via the lizard editorialist?

Watch and marvel as the reptiles began the season by parroting Crikey's arsehat of the year …

Now the pond has already noted that there's no need for the pond to contemplate the shifty figure-altering, accounting deficient ways of that arsehole of the year, prime Angus beef.

That's already been done by others in Fact checking Angus Taylor: does Australia have a climate change record to be proud of?

There's no need to dally, but in these Adani times, the pond was in particular entranced by this one:

Taylor writes that Australia is “responsible for only 1.3 per cent of global emissions, so we can’t single-handedly have a meaningful impact without the co-operation of the largest emitters such as China and the US.” In the context of global emissions, there is much that Australia can, and does, do that has a meaningful impact. The 1.3% figure does not account for Australia’s contribution to global emissions from the fossil fuels we dig up and export. If this exported coal and gas was accounted for, one analysis suggests Australia would be responsible for almost 5% of the global carbon footprint from fossil fuel burning.

Of course the Labor party suffers from this delusion too - that somehow everything stops at the border -  and of course prime Angus beef joined with the likes of China, the US and India to fuck up the recent climate talks …

But the reptiles' bigger mistake was to think that this was just another chance to carry on the climate science wars …

Uh huh ...

...elsewhere in Taylor’s article, he says Australia’s exporting of LNG is helping countries cut emissions. Jotzo says: “If we are going to talk about impacts on global emissions of Australia’s energy exports, then we need to consider all fuels, including coal. Any exporting of coal will result in higher global emissions because it increases the availability and lowers the price of coal, and encourages the use of coal.” It is not clear that the availability of Australian LNG decreases emissions internationally.
While Taylor admits that LNG processing in Australia has pushed domestic emissions higher, he claims that “our LNG exports are dramatically reducing emissions in customer countries such as Japan, South Korea and China — the equivalent of up to 30 per cent of our emissions each year”. But Jotzo says this claim depends heavily on what the LNG displaces. He says the “lion’s share” of the exports will actually replace gas from other sources, rather than displacing coal generation. There is also a risk, he says, that increasing LNG exports also encourages countries to build more gas infrastructure, making it harder to move away from the fossil fuel. He adds: “It is not clear that the availability of Australian LNG decreases emissions internationally.”

But enough of the climate science wars because suddenly the reptile editorialist discovered that there was an actual bushfire in progress during the actual bushfire season …

Fuck, that's amazing, disarming, dissembling: "There is no one leader who is automatically in charge of co-ordinating resources and rescue efforts."

Might as well go to Hawaii and sip on a cocktail then … unless you want to be a reptile pretending that the wise SloMo has it already sorted ...

Well yes, because such a leader at least wouldn't be SloMo, who clearly didn't have a clue, currently is showing he doesn't have a clue, and shows no clue that he might acquire a clue in the future …

And so to this weekend's lizard Oz editorial, with the editorialist suddenly realising that beds were burning …

Note the discordant logic. Unrealistically ambitious climate change targets suddenly, almost miraculously are transformed into "The Prime Minister acknowledged on Thursday that climate change and the drought had extended Australia's fire season."

Oh so the unicorn of climate change is suddenly real, and it was wrong of the pond to run that piece of graffiti…

Now back to the lizard Oz editorialist doing a little back-burning …

Contemptible? Perhaps not doing a meeting when requested to contemplate future problems is contemptible, perhaps valuing a budget surplus over immediate needs is contemptible, but no amount of of transferring the blame game to others can shift the immediate idiocy on view …

You see, people remember, and the legacy endures …

And this was one of those Katrina moments … and the pond is mortified to admit that this is from another reptile site ...

Dear sweet long absent lord in the grip of unreality syndrome, and yet it went on …

And on and on, and that dreadful Constance fellow was in the mix ...

"I don't take these things personally"?

Well if the pond had forcibly attempted to shake someone's hand, and misattributed the reason, and then discover it was because his bloody house had just burned down, the pond would be mortified, and would take it very personally, and be abject, upset and apologetic, and maybe just every so often, whether in public or private life, these things should be taken personally …

The reptiles love to blather on endlessly about personal responsibility. Is there a better time than this?

But in all the fuss, the pond kinda lost count, and guessed that the lizard Oz editorialist might be feeling lucky, and so turned back to this final lizard Oz editorialist gobbet, which amazingly begins by making no mention of SloMo's real adventure, as recorded above, when out and about…and instead begins by sounding like a federal government press release ….

Who knows what the weekend will bring? Or the next week? Or the next month? Having been up close with bushfires, the pond hopes it goes well.

Here's hoping it doesn't provide more tabloid fodder for the Murdochian reptiles, who have been making out like shameless sensationalist headline bandits …

   

And yet along with the ruined and shattered lives, ruined and shattered towns and environments, lost hopes and dreams, and decimated creatures and landscapes, there will be an enduring question to be asked of the climate science criminals, hopefully some day waiting on their own Nuremberg trial …

And to that there can be only one young earth, creationist, climate science-denying, coal-loving, rapture-awaiting answer …