Monday, May 04, 2020

In which the pond looks at the Moore bump in reptile land ...


The pond had been wondering when the Michael Moore bump would hit the lizards of Oz hard, what with Bill McKibben already out and about in a rebuttal in the Rolling Stone here, written more in sorrow than anger …

Naturally the pond reckoned without the monomaniacal fervour of the dog botherer and his intense fear and loathing of an Islamic, who by any account, is a tad smarter than the dog man …


Please, don't worry, the dog botherer will succumb to the Moore bump in due course, but is it possible to imagine a face more shocking, challenging, and dare the pond say it, exuding pure evil?


Now this is a tad odd, because not so far away from the dog botherer, there was the Major explaining how good the bushfires were, because they kept - if the pond might put it crudely - the chinks out of town, and by the way, Kerry Stokes is a Commie chink lover …


Sadly the pond had to walk past the Major Mitchell enthusing about the positive effects of the bushfire, because the dog botherer was about to go full Moore bump ...


The pond always loves it when a cretin adopts a serious tone, and berates other cretins for their shallow comprehension … talking of an almost mystical complexity that the dog botherer alone seems to have mastered …

It's true that the pond was a tad alarmed by the implication in that line about "the lack of global warming during the 1960s and 70s." Never mind if it's true or not.

It seemed to hint that there might have been a growth in global warming in later times, no lack, but a surfeit, an abundance.

That's the kind of heresy that might see the dog botherer drummed out of the climate denialist league of gentlemen comprehenders …

Fortunately it was only a way for the dog botherer to cogently explain that we get caught coming and going, and there doesn't seem any point to doing anything about pollution. The dirtier the planet, the better we'll be off in responding to a global warming that doesn't exist ...


No wonder the pond feels hornswoggled and bamboozled whenever the dog botherer gets going, but there was one last pleasure to be had. 

It takes an exceptional skill to blather about people preferring cliches, deceptions and exaggerated simplicities in the very same sentence that began with "alarmists", that being the preferred form of deep thinking for dog botherers grappling with deep and complex issues …

Why it allows the pond to grapple with those same deep andy complex issues with an exaggerated complexity. What a fuckwit he is.

And so the Moore bump with the Caterist, another certified expert, famous for his ability to predict the movement of flood waters in quarries.


It's wonderful to see how the reptiles have fallen into line with Moore, though it does involve some convoluted distortions …because while a Caterist might cherry pick a line or two, it must be remembered that Satan is only a broken clock, and care has to be taken with the cherry picking ...

But the pond knew that this was the reptile piece du jour, because the Caterist had been blessed by a vision from the cult master ...


Talk about a tone setter, in that the pond didn't have the first clue what the symbolism might mean … but it does set the mood, because the pond never has the first clue about what the frequently cratering Caterist is banging on about ...


Now there are a host of studies that aren't so sanguine about fracking, but let's not go over old ground.

Let us instead celebrate the way the Caterist has stayed resolute in his rejection of Moore, and remains firm in his determined celebration of the laws of physics and the facts...

What joy then to remind people that the Caterist story about those bloody dams is available in pdf form at Media Watch here, with a splendid illustration at the top of the page …


And there were some remarkably self-congratulatory lines, beyond the valley of the delusional ...


Scientific observation? So that's how you cop a huge defamation payout? Well the pond won't worry about repeating the defamatory and decidedly unscientific observations - you have to read them to marvel at them - though the pond will note that some rigorous scientific observation could be found in these pars …

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve jumped the fence at the abandoned Wagners’ Quarry to examine the crude mound of clay and earth that held back the water for more than an hour. Starting at ground zero – the place where it collapsed – I walked the path of the torrent on its way to Grantham where it killed 12 people in half an hour. Friends grew tired of my obsession. They questioned – understandably – how the experts had got it wrong. If the commission had listened to the locals, however, instead of relying on computer modeling, it would have come to a very different conclusion. 
It feels somewhat surreal to watch Walter Sofronoff, QC, preside over the second flood inquiry, hearing the evidence ignored the first time around. The public hearings are being held in the Gatton Community Centre, five kilometres downstream from Grantham. It was the building where I first met Lisa in November 2013. She arrived in dark glasses with a cap pulled over her eyes, carrying an empty fruit carton stuffed with documents. More than one person had told me Lisa was bonkers. As she gave her evidence to the commission this week – lucid, perceptive and measured – it was clear she was anything but.

Oh sorry, as often happens with the Caterist, the pond got distracted, and we should return to the Caterist explaining in his scientific way that fracking is fucking marvellous … and that Moore is often wrong, but somehow strangely right ...


Yes, a pandemic changes everything, and soon we may cheerfully return to fucking the planet with wild abandon … can't get enough of that helpful dog botherer pollution.

And in the interim, please trust the Caterist, he knows everything about climate science and quarries … though how weird it must seem to some that values sometimes change in ways that even the Caterist didn't imagine …



Not to worry, that's just the way of handling the tipping point, as we at last head into the Caterist's last gobbet ...


Say what? The Caterist will generously allow windmills and solar to stay? By golly, a few heads are going to roll at the club for gentlemen climate scientist denialists ….

And so to a special treat. 

Now the pond has already noted how the Major Mitchell has carried on with the war on China, and the recovering reformed feminist the Oreo is also on hand to warn of the dangers of those Commie swine lurking up north …

  

Sadly the pond had to abandon these favourites, because Luke delivered a ripper worthy of a slater, and the reptiles thought it so important that, for at least a nanosecond, they put it at the head of the commentary section …


Why was the pond so pleased? Well Luke featured a demonic figure almost down there with Waleed ...


And his message was a poignant one.

Has there ever been a better country on earth than dinkum Australia for its treatment of its indigenous citizens? How kind and considerate we were to the Kanakas. Why even now it's way better to be a black on welfare than a suffering white.

Come to think of it, has there ever been a better thing for the world than western imperialism, bringing civilisation to the unwashed, the unkempt and the bigoted?

Did India get a good dose of hatred of homosexuality from the Poms? Did the United States show the world how it's done with its devotion to slavery and all that followed? What about King Leopold II in the Congo Free State?

Tut tut, all this is nothing, not when our Luke gets going on explaining how everyone else is racist, seemingly unaware of that mote in his own eye ...


Ah the Hebrew bible. The pond was wondering when Luke might get around to that. In such tricky moments, the pond often reverts to the Skeptic's Bible, and gobbets like these …


The pond compressed that as much as possible, to the point of having to click on the text to enlarge it for reading, and yet there's reams more at the source, including some examples from the New Testament ...


The pond apologises, it not being a meditative Sunday, but does offer the ameliorating circumstance of inhuman provocation ...


Indeed, there's nothing like the core principles in our very own Murdochian tradition …




And if the pond might add a personal note as a closer, when are we going to built a wall to keep those difficult, pesky Victorians out?

Why on the weekend, poor old Dan Tehan was forced to treat politics as a game of Vatican roulette, and announce, with a grunt and a gasp, "I withdraw"!

Luckily the immortal Rowe was on hand to celebrate his Onanistic ways … with more Rowe here ...

 


18 comments:

  1. I wonder if the Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre will speak/message the Editor about being awarded today's Lobbecke. I thought the Cult Master better illustrated what we think the Executive Director thought he was trying to say than the ED managed to do.

    Particularly when I came to this in the Executive Director's writing 'the palate (sic) of resources from which we can draw now includes wind and solar.'

    The Lobbecke has left me mystified by his choice of a filament bulb, unless that is intended as denial of the one useful thing Mr Turnbull did when he had ministerial power, in promoting low demand lights. Anyway, over to the augurs who contribute to these discussions, for (ho ho) enlightenment.

    Other Anonymous

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    1. Ah well, the reptiles can do anything now because the wingnuts are killing their competition:

      ABC loses $783m funding since 2014 when Coalition made its first cuts – report
      https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/04/abc-loses-793m-funding-since-2014-when-coalition-made-its-first-cuts-report

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  2. That Luke Slattery is one not to be trusted, DP. Why just look at the casual tie knot. With an undone top button, no less!

    He'll never get into the Gentlemen Climate Scientist Denialists' Club looking like that.

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    1. and, Mercurial - and - he cited Amartya Sen, with apparent approval.

      Other Anonymous

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  3. Firstly, the Doggy Bov showing his ignorance, his bias and prejudice, and his inability to think. As usual. So how's about this: "So the clear skies that Aly says have "given us a moment to consider what a healing world might look like" would lead to half a degree of warming. According to the science, it is reducing the invisible gases that matters."

    Have I mentioned the problems with "high decoupled" people before ? Namely that they are totally insulated from both context and consequence. Now Doggy Bov himself says: "The greenhouse gases that drive his [Waleed Aly's] dreaded global warming are invisible and often come from the very same sources as the particulate pollution (fossil fuels burned by cars, factories and power stations)." And a few other places as well, such as jetliners and home cooking in many of the poorer places in the total human environment.

    So, is he saying that we shouldn't stop these pollution sources because then we won't get those lovely particulate aerosols that will save us from "half a degree of warming" ?

    Is there anybody here who needs the context and consequence denying aspects of that idiocy actually explained to them ? Other than Doggy Bov, that is, but he patently can't have anything explained to him.

    Clearly, Goosebumps Cater is having another of his daymares (the nightmares you have when wide awake in daytime), so let us just consider this: The CSIRO report states that "Any trace of fracturing chemicals was gone within 40 days, leading the CSIRO to conclude that water-treatment methods were effective."

    But what happens in the time before 40 days, and what exactly are those "water treatment methods" ? Does all the crap just wash downstream and end up in somebody's dam or billabong or lake ? Obviously, this is of no concern to Cater because the omniscient ones of the CSIRO have spoken.

    However, consider this: "If shale gas (extraction) occurs in Australia to the extent that industry wants it, we're talking tens – or potentially hundreds – of millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. It would be a massive increase."
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/what-is-fracking-and-why-is-it-dividing-australia

    So what happens in those "40 days" may just be the least of our long term worries.

    Finally we get to Luke - though not of the Mathew, Mark and John variety. And he's terribly impressed by Hannah Arendt's view of the Homeric poems and how the Greeks (Trojans and Achaeans) "planted the seeds of human universality". Now if she, and he, had actually said that the Greeks had planted the seeds of racial privilege - just considering the state of helots and women - I might have agreed.

    The Romans were actually far less "racist" than the Greeks, and far less so than a lot of present day societies: "While slavery was a deeply stigmatized social status, the great majority of slaves were from European and Mediterranean populations; inherited physical characteristics were not relevant to slave status. Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against mixed race relationships in Antiquity."
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_in_ancient_Roman_history

    The status of women was nearly as low in Rome as in Greece, but not quite. Indeed the Roman takeup of 'Christianity' owes much to its acceptance by many wealthy or powerful Roman women, because it was the only religion that apparently considered women and men to be co-religionists who sat in the same area of the same church and received the same sermon (compare with Islam). Even though Paul (of Tarsus) ruled that they should remain silent during church services [ https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/14-34.htm ]

    Sufficient unto the day ...

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    1. GB - interesting that the climate commentators for Limited News cite each other on the broad proposition that ‘meteorology is an inexact science, so its models cannot be accepted’ - yet happily accept the conclusions of hydrologists, whose methods can be literally hit or miss, and whose data sets are tiny in comparison with those available to meteorologists.

      Of course, some of this just might be because every coal project has been able to find hydrological consultants (the company names become quite familiar, if you have to read environmental assessments) who will say, with a degree of certainty that their materials and methods do not justify, that project X will cause no significant harm to the groundwaters - indeed, in some circumstances, could improve some feature of groundwaters around the exploration lease.

      I learned about the difficulties for hydrology from a study in the south east of South Australia. Much of this area was under water, when whitefellas wanted to farm it. So - mid 19th century solution - drain it. Except, as is so often the way - it was overdrained. Which caused problems for the environment.

      Farmers in the area resisted any proposal to restore that environment, and had no trouble finding a consultancy to give them ‘scientific’ backing.

      Much of the case that the consultant hydrologists made was that the area had not had much water over it before it was drained - so its condition 120 years later wasn’t all that different. See - here were calculations that supposedly reconstructed the hydrology of around 1840, to show most of the area was more like a soggy paddock, after a bit of rain.

      My standard literature search did not turn up much in the way of earlier reports, but a good librarian, in the library of a government agency, did tell me that the workbooks of the engineers who were responsible for the drainage still existed, and might be consulted.

      Very different story - of coastal ketches sailing across supposed soggy paddocks to deliver heavy machinery, and stores, of navvies up to their armpits in water to start the drains. Response from the hydrologists - well, you know, those old-time engineers - mistook locations, not big on precision in those days, probably over-dramatised working conditions seeking a bonus for the navvies - a thousand and one rationalisations rather than admit that their retrospective modelling could be wrong by several meters of depth.

      As it happened, eventually nothing turned on the discussion of the science - the Liberals were in government, the local seats tended to vote Liberal - the farmers got what they thought they wanted, and could have saved their money for the hydrological consultancy.


      Other Anonymous.

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    2. As we have come to expect from Cater he doesn't tell "the whole truth":
      "However, protest group Lock the Gate Alliance criticised the study for only looking at only six of the thousands of CSG wells across Queensland.
      "Having gas industry-funded reports that only investigate a relatively tiny number of wells will do nothing to reassure them," Ms Hogan said.

      "It is deeply disappointing that the good name of CSIRO continues to be sullied by the gas industry through its funding of GISERA.

      "Let's be clear, GISERA is not an independent scientific body. Rather it is overseen by a collection of fracking executives who want to see gas wells pierce the country like a pin cushion."

      According to its website, GISERA is dedicated to researching the impacts of Australia's onshore gas industry. It is a collaboration between CSIRO, Commonwealth and state governments and industry established to undertake publicly reported independent research." https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6735997/csiro-report-fracking-has-little-to-no-impacts-on-air-water-soil/

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    3. Sadly, OA, it seems that it was ever, and will ever be, thus. And not limited to reptiles and wingnuts, unfortunately.

      It's fairly significantly due to the sheer number of scientists around these days. According to one report, in the USA alone there are 21.1 million people holding at least a bachelor's degree in science and about 15.5 million appear to actually be in the real science professions (ie not in 'social science' or in law or whatever)

      There's even 1 million science PhD holders. Australia doesn't have anywhere near that many of course, but we do have more than enough for the usual range of ethics and abilities to be in evidence.

      So basically, you can 'expert surf' until you find some that will say what you want said. And there is really no checks and balances on that, nor ever will be.

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    4. Sheesh, Joe, what's with this trying to introduce insights into the discussion? It's entirely against the reptile and the Caterist spirit ...

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    5. You can see, DP, that we all ignored that intrusion of reality into our well manicured world. It is sad, however, to see such shameless corruption of the CSIRO, though maybe we should just be thankful that it hasn't been completely privatised yet.

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  4. Contrary to Cater's idiocy, how about we (ie Australia) become world leaders in hydrogen technology. Preferably from 'renewables' of course, but anyway ...

    Government offers $300m to boost hydrogen investment under clean energy financing
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/04/government-offers-300m-hydrogen-investment-clean-energy-finance-corporation

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  5. If you can stomach a regular serve of reptile (not recommended if you want to avoid zoonotic diseases), you will notice some trends over time. If you hear "coal fired power" nowadays it is probably just a nod to the conservative base, but gas - the sponsors really think they have a chance to get some gas projects up.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/03/trouble-with-gas-the-coalition-is-betting-on-the-fossil-fuel-for-recovery-but-the-sums-dont-add-up

    A while ago it looked like gas would be an important transition fuel, but this is no longer the case, "there is little evidence that the Australian electricity grid will need more gas power. Last year, it provided about 9% of generation. The market operator assessment suggested this could fall to near zero in the second half of this decade before returning in a much smaller amount – less than a third of what it is now – in the 2030s if the grid was to run at lowest cost."

    Others hope to wet their beaks while we are all distracted by the Covid panic. Note the Twiggy Forrest connections.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/03/why-is-the-covid-commission-backing-a-fertiliser-plant-as-its-top-recovery-project

    Just with regard to the general badging of gas as a clean fuel

    https://www.edf.org/media/satellite-data-reveals-extreme-methane-emissions-permian-oil-gas-operations-shows-highest

    I wonder if the reptiles get confused about who they are attacking on a particular day? Qantas - highjacked by activists or Australian battler? Twiggy - traitor or benefactor? AGL – wind power bad, gas power good?

    A bit like cats, you don't know from the noise whether they are mating or fighting.

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    1. Very good re the cats, Bef. I think I can use that one :-)

      Otherwise, I can never quite work out whether the reptiles and wingnuts really do just have a bee in their bonnet whose buzzing drowns out all competing "thoughts", or whether it's just a 'loyalty badge' that they all have to wear or whether there's any moolah (or other suitable rewards) involved.

      Or maybe all three in varying proportions. Though I can't imagine anybody thinking that they'd actually have to bribe the likes of Doggy Bov or Cater; as OA's little rhyme the other day puts it: think what they'll do unbribed.

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    4. Third try – should have learned to type

      Feel free to repurpose the joke GB – I’ve endlessly reused the Emo Philips pushbike story you related some time ago, so quid pro quo.

      The Cater piece is so focused, and so obviously tiptoes around the renewables that are probably in the sponsor's portfolio, that it makes me think he has been given some dot points as well as a nice cheque.

      Dogger's ramble, by comparison, just goes over all the usual misinformation trawled up from some denialist website.

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    5. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again ! Yeah, the tactical success of forgiveness after versus permission before :-)

      I think Doggy Bov is a genuine 'convinced' advocate - he really, truly believes he is right and just can't understand why the rest of us insist on being so wrong when he has so clearly shown us the error of our ways. Cater is more your garden variety salesman: believes it for just as long as it takes to say it. Bur also with some genuine conviction, too.

      Also sprach die reptilien.

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    6. Ah, the cats! Who'd have guessed in these troubled times that even John Oliver would turn to cats for light relief?

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