Well that ended before it started ...
The day that Pearson starts berating Chairman Rupert and his voice-denying minions - not limited to, but especially Dame Slap - the pond will start taking him seriously ...
Until then, the pond is well over it, but was pleased when an esteemed correspondent wondered, and the pond quotes ...
I wonder what Lloydie would have to say about this:
"Surging SUV ownership means Australians are needlessly spending an extra $13bn a year to fuel their cars, and the trend is sending transport emissions into overdrive at the same time similar nations are reducing them."
Well yes and the pond has a particular loathing for RAM vehicles - vile, large, noisy, gas guzzling, and rather pathetic phallic symbols - the pond is told that the size of the muffler is in inverse proportion to the size of the cock - especially when sighted blocking off the back streets of Sydney's inner west ...
...Matt Saunders, an economist and co-author of the report, said the larger vehicles that have become popular in Australia recently don’t make sense for most people who buy them.
Tax rules have encouraged small business owners – not just tradespeople but also sole traders – into buying the larger vehicles and using them as both a work and personal vehicle, Saunders argued.
“Australians are often told that our collective preference for heavy, inefficient 4WD vehicles reflects our country’s vast distances and harsh outback terrain – a narrative that is reinforced relentlessly by the way these vehicles are marketed,” the report said.
“In reality, however, Australia is a highly urbanised country. The vast majority of vehicle use and fuel consumption occurs within our cities, and all of our major cities are connected by multi-lane highways.”
Is there anything more pathetic than what used to be called Toorak tractors?
But it seemed like a good way to begin noting the unholy panic the reptiles are in about the future of coal, co-joined at the hip by alarm about migrants ...
The pond did the migrant thing yesterday, with the usual inimitable groaning, and there is a good climate science discussion to be had about the growth fetish, and polluting the world, and RAMS ramming it home, but of course the reptiles can't go there, because that would mean the science is real ...
Instead out of all the muck below the fold, what did the pond spot?
As soon as the pond reads a reptile insisting the "PM must", the pond experiences an immediate desire proposing that it must look elsewhere ... and as for talk of Comrade Dan, that's the sort of futtocking stupidity that shoots itself in the foot before the scribbler even starts, because "Comrade Dan" is reserved for frivolous bloggers.
But then the entire US political mainstream is now polluted by the mango Mussolini's quest for a nickname for Ron DeSanctus, so why would the monkish Monk saying his rosary in his lizard Oz cell aim any higher?
And then lo, thar she blew, redemption to hand for the daily offering...
The lizard Oz editorialist! And still with that prophetic logo in play.
Nary a day goes by now that the pond doesn't get a chuckle at the sight of that red map and
The Shovel and it's reinterpretation...
But now the pond must rearrange its face and try to look serious, because it's lizard Oz editorialist climate science denialist day ...
Meanwhile, a long time ago the infallible Pope issued an encyclical ...
Sorry, it's hard, reading the lizard Oz editorialist on climate is a bit like watching that three parter about the government response to David Koresh and the Waco affair ...
On we go ...
The irony? The irony is that the lizard Oz editorialist would blather on about building a head of steam on climate action ...
Meanwhile, the reptiles keep on spreading their usual climate science denialism, doing the fear and loathing bit, and it reached a peak in the final gobbet, but before that, the pond should pay this tribute ...
Yes who should the reptiles turn to but the woman hailed as #4 among noted climate science deniers, always diligently working away to claim top spot ... aided and abetted by the lizard Oz ...
Now the pond isn't going to keep noting the footnotes - that (65) will lead to Archive Today here .
Suffice to say that the main point is that the reptiles love their #4 and would cheerfully promote her to #1 ...
There was nothing for it but to do one of the pond's notorious William Burroughs cut and paste exercises, with a warning for nearby women not to put an apple on their heads ...
It's the pond's lazy way of not bothering to have an argument that's been had a thousand times, and as usual, it relies on words to be found at DeSmog, beginning with a baleful portrait of a glaring Curry giving the camera a right old curry ...
And with that mug shot in place it was time for the cut and paste ...
But, billy goat, butt, de smog is spreading de news ...
Speaking of the mango Mussolini, as hapless Americans are still doing, there was this from the infallible Pope way back when ...
The pond was sorely tempted to throw in an infallible Pope along with the DeSmog clippings ... but first, back to the blather ...
But billy goat butt ...
And there was this delicious offering by the infallible Pope ...
Meanwhile, back at chairman Rupert's actual diner ...
But, billy goat butt ...
And at this point the pond realised there was only one more gobbet to go, and yet endless amounts to hand at DeSmog ...
So the pond doubled down ...
Was it only the other day that the pond ran this cartoon?
And yet here we are, with the lizard Oz editorialist, and with the lizard Oz business model still currying favour with climate science denialists and fossil feuls and dear, sweet, innocent, virginal Oz coal, cleaning up the planet in ways only reptiles can manage...
At the end there was one more gobbet to go ...
Oh so now she's the "president of Climate Forecast Applications Network"?
Well the pond is president of the blog for presiding over lizard Oz climate science denialist bullshit ... a land of saucy doubts and fear mongering, and denialism claiming the other mob is being political, when the politics have been going on for an eternity ...
This time you don't have to bother with the details ... it's front and centre ...
The default assumption in all the reptile blatherings is that the status quo is just hunky-dory and can just remain that way it, unchanged and unchanging, forever. If they were inclined to look at the real world they might observe us stumbling from disaster to disaster with no plan apart from plundering the next resource. Suppose change is forced on us in any case, just without any attempt to plan, with even less chance to move the screwedness dial back a few notches?
ReplyDeletehttps://ageoftransformation.org/usfossilfueleconomycollapse/
“All this implies that we are sleepwalking into a global energy crisis that will, without accelerating the clean transformation of the energy system, create severe economic and financial consequences by undercutting the fundamental energetic basis of global economic flows. This will compound accumulated vulnerabilities in the banking system linked to unsustainable forms of debt.”
A small version of this may be playing out now with the scheduled closures of coal-fired power units. We have had years to prepare for this but all the usual suspects have worked tirelessly to ensure as little as possible has happened. If it goes tits up they will blame renewables (it’s a bit like deciding the electorate rejected right-wing politics because it wasn’t far enough to the right).
"Fatalities from tornado the worst in 50 years, with more severe storms expected in the region on Sunday"
DeleteMississippi tornado: death toll of 25 highest in the state in 21st century
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/25/tornado-deaths-mississippi-alabama-rolling-fork
The sooner that the 'shale oil' economy dies, the better.
“The default assumption in all the reptile blatherings is that the status quo is just hunky-dory and can just remain that way, unchanged and unchanging, forever.”
DeleteJust another thought. Looking at all the marching up and rattling, wouldn’t you think reducing our dependence on imported oil products by electrifying everything makes more sense than having a handful of subs cruising distant seas?
Renewable systems are more distributed, eliminating single points of failure in the case of an attack.
I suppose the Bro would propose coal powered road transport.
Apologies if I appear even less coherent than usual. I’m out and about and struggling to edit text on the mobile phone.
DeleteNow our ever so reasonable and rational J Curry has this to say: "Well, climate has always varied. Sometimes they're extreme events that may be getting on [sic]. No, an asteroid or comet or something like that, but the ocean volcanic eruptions, there's all sorts of many sources of natural variability on all time scales. So when you see the climate changing, you can't immediately assume that it's all caused by humans." And nobody did assume it was all caused by humans, but there was some science done in 1896 by Svante Arrhenius that gave us the first scientifically founded analysis. Right, so ok Judith, which of those many possible causes you've spruiked is it ? I don't recall any recent asteroid or comet impacts, do you ? Yeah, there've been some ocean (and land) volcanic eruptions, but they've mostly been over and done with quickly and in any case they can't explain climate change that occurred before they did.
DeleteAnd even Krakatoa (1883) only affected the weather - not the climate - for just a few years and was gone before Arrhenius did his work. So just tell us, Judith, if it isn't all or even just primarily anthropogenic, then which of these other 'natural' causes it is with at least a centuries long time scale. We are all very eager to know.
Then, in response to record-breaking heat waves in Western Europe, Judith has this to say: "Does it make more sense to provide air conditioning or to limit CO2 emissions. I vote for more air conditioning in these susceptible regions." And of course, nobody has to go and work outside in a heat-wave, do they: no houses to build, rubbish to collect, lawns to mow, wheat to be harvested, cows to be watered and fed and milked - no absolutely nothing like that, is there. And if it ever came to that, people who need to go outside will just have to carry strap-on, solar powered air conditioners on their backs - and the cows too. But hey, at least we can construct large scale solar energy collectors above the wheat.
PS Bef: we used to have an awful lot of coal powered railways before we ever got diesel power both on the railways and the roads. And heaps of coal powered ships doing international trade too.
DeleteBefuddled - with his remarkable knowledge of history (well, his story) I am surprised the Bro did not mention that much of very early, self-propelled, road transport was driven with coal. And, there were those contraptions that generated big bags of gas from coke, to drive cars when wartime rationing limited private supply of petrol.
DeleteOne thing I have never fully understood is that, in the very early days of 'automobiles'. - around the beginnings of the 20th century - when electric cars were easier to start and drive, and more reliable - cars running on various versions of 'petrol' came to dominate sales to private users.
Quite interesting how transitions take place GB. They often start slowly because a great deal of reorganisation might have to take place to accommodate the new technology. The thing is, once the new infrastructure is in place and old infrastructure is removed or in decay, it’s almost impossible to go back.
DeleteI suppose we could extend all this back to the introduction of farming, wheeled transport or fire - this fire thing will never work according to the ancient Doggie Botherer!
Good question Chad
Deletehttps://www.hotcars.com/why-henry-ford-wife-drove-electric-car-in-1930s/
I’ve read some things about steam vehicles that seem too convenient to be true. Steam vehicles needed frequent access to fresh water which usually came from horse troughs. A livestock epidemic (foot and mouth) resulted in the closing of those watering points.
Similarly, alcohol was a common fuel for both internal combustion and steam cars in the early days. Alcohol was often made at home in rural areas until prohibition came along, so you can add conspiracy to wowserism if you wish.
I think it might then, as it is now, be a question of range - though some of the early electrics could travel 200 miles or more on a fully charged battery setup. But where would they be able to recharge, and how long would it take, if they wanted to go further.
Deletehttps://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/05/a-brief-look-at-electric-vehicles-from-the-dawn-of-the-automobile-age/#:~
Befuddled and GB - thank you both for the historical gems. I had not known of Mrs Henry Ford driving an electric car, but that is part of the joy of coming to this site each day.
DeleteJust thinking about Judith and her list of non-anthropogenic climate altering phenomena:
Delete"New research by Australian scientists suggests 40% slowdown in just three decades could alter world’s climate for centuries".
Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/melting-antarctic-ice-predicted-to-cause-rapid-slowdown-of-deep-ocean-current-by-2050
You couldn't possibly ascribe that to human intervention, could you - that's gotta be 'natural', right ?
By far and away the best history of The Voice, I've heard or read. Even Johnny Howard and the conservative Constitutional Law heads want it. At one time even the beetrooter changed his mind!
ReplyDeleteAnd 'slow drawl' Noel's voice, will even be able to be understood by Bob Katter.
"Noel Pearson on the road to a 'Voice to Parliament'
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/2022-boyer-lecture-two-noel-pearson-1993-boyer-jeanie-bell/102098924
Can't find a transcript due to pesky ABC cuts! Anyone?
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/a-rightful-but-not-separate-place/14099472
DeleteThis, by any chance?
From the summary of the 2nd lecture:
DeleteIn his second lecture, Noel Pearson reflects on the words of 1968 Boyer lecturer W.E.H. Stanner who said that Aboriginal people seek, 'a decent union of their lives with ours but on terms that let them preserve their own identity'.
Pearson traces the long process that led to the final proposal for a Voice to parliament enshrined in the constitution.
He identifies a speech by John Howard in 2007, which Pearson says offered 'the core rationale for constitutional recognition', and began the 15-year process to a referendum.
There's a lot of Pearson's lectures here, Anon, with transcripts for the 2022 Boyers ...
Deletehttps://capeyorkpartnership.org.au/category/speeches/
Lecture two and little Johnny are here ...
https://capeyorkpartnership.org.au/noel-pearson-boyer-lecture-two/
One of those classic Popes set me to thinking about the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. We have had its report since October 2020.
ReplyDeleteIts opening statements include comments such as ‘As the events of the 2019-2020 bushfire season show, what was unprecedented is now our future.’
Of course, the commission could make such statements because there were no submissions from the polymath reptile writers, to explain how everything was wholly precedented, and leave it to the market. So we must allow for such lacunae in the material before the commission.
The report did make simple, ‘doable’ recommendations. Many of them were about co-ordinating existing services, particularly communications, across the three levels of government. One proposed ‘an agreed common core set of climate trajectories and timelines.’
For actual machinery, it proposed ‘a modest’ national aerial firefighting capability, with work on refining needs assessment and management.
Proposals continued into reviews by all levels of government of bushfire mitigation strategies, particularly with methods of fuel reduction. State and local governments should consider natural disaster risk in land-use planning, but there should be a national building code for reducing risk to buildings areas prone to any kind of natural hazards.
Now - as one who did make a submission to the inquiry, I can say that I have been pleased to attend two workshops on indigenous fire practice. The main one involved some difficulty, because it had to be done against the indifference of our local fire authority. Well, indifference verging on actual obstruction, because the presenters might want to light the odd demonstration fire.
Here in the electorate of the current leader of the National Party, we have had no comment, nor communication, on any of the recommendations, from that Federal member - name is Littleproud, if anyone else is interested.
To be fair to that local member - nothing from the state - LNP - member either, nor from the local council, which is pretty much the branch meeting where local LNP stalwarts gather, because there is not much of a party organisation otherwise.
But, of course, it is important to be agitated about the peril to us all from those dreadful people to the north of us. How much natural disaster response could we set up for a fraction of one ‘Virginia’?
As I find myself saying frequently to my life-partner, Chad: welcome to the human race.
DeleteOne question though: do we have any knowledge of what, if any, changes have occurred in the Australian landscape in time by repeated "indigenous fire practice" over near to 60,000 years.
GB - an American researcher (Hi Jersey Mike) named Stephen Pyne (yes, yes, nominative determinism is still fun) has written extensively on the effect of indigenous fire on our continent. One of his shorter, and more entertaining, writings can be retrieved at -
Deletehttp://geography.fullerton.edu/taylor/enst595t/Pyne_JAH.pdf
You might like to dip into more of his work - search with 'Stephen Pyne' and 'fire' should see you well supplied.
Interestingly, some of the really good evidence for reconstructing the history of indigenous fire practice across the continent came from drilling on the Great Barrier Reef, to retrieve cores to try to test theories that large populations of Crown of Thorns starfish had been common occurrences going into geological time. Some of the spicules in their bodies are persistent, and readily recognised. Samples from those cores were made available to other ecologists, some of whom reconstructed the fire history from a combination of pollen deposits and persistent plant structures produced by burning bush.
Apology - I should have added - 'The essential story is that indigenous fire practice was a significant factor in converting forest vegetation across Australia from something resembling northern hemisphere conifer forests - but here made up of the Araucarias, Casuarinas, early species of Callitris and suchlike - to fireweeds - particularly the Eucalypts, and many of the Acacias.'
DeleteAh yes, that did elicit a faint tinkle of memory, thanks: changing the tree population to those tolerant of, or dependent on, fire. Also the thought that some more or less forested areas transformed more into savannah.
Delete"What Comes After Neoliberalism? “we’ve just about won the battle of ideas. Reality has been a helpful ally…Neoliberalism has been a splendid success for the 1%, an abject failure for everyone else"
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1640742612775714816
"Namely, the kind of economist who uses mathematical models to demonstrate the best way to do anything:" Just can't get away from those partial differential equations, can we.
Delete