A final Ēostre retrospective with the Bjorn-again one ...

Having found a winner, the shy and retiring "Anon", with due credit to Kez, the pond is now closing its contest to find the hamlet that hosted some remarkable works of art, including but not limited to ...

 

As the winner(s) correctly proposed, they could be sighted in the hamlet of Woolomin on the Nundle-Tamworth road ...

As a devotee of slide night travel snaps, the pond will likely feature many more sights noted on its recent Ēostre junket, but will stick them at the bottom so as not to interfere with the burden of ongoing coverage of the reptile hive mind.

Speaking of Ēostre, the pond has one final act of repentance and redemption to perform. 

The pond left many of the reptiles' holyday weekend offerings slide through to the keeper, but there was no way that the pond could let slip the uplifting message emanating from the Bjorn-again one...

It was only a three minute read, or so the reptiles said, and offered refuge from those satanic witches dressed in red ... Don’t expect the climate alarmists to recognise environmental progress, As we mark Earth Day, it’s tempting to believe the world is on the brink of environmental collapse. But this is misleading.

The reptiles captioned the alarmist Satanists thusly ... Activists from environmental movement Extinction Rebellion march against pesticides in Paris. Picture: AFP

And as usual, there was the magickal injunction, This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

Then the Bjorn-again one got right into it ...

As we mark Earth Day, it’s tempting to believe the world is on the brink of environmental collapse.
We are constantly inundated by dire predictions of climate catastrophe and warnings about the planet’s imminent destruction. But this is misleading.
Rather than spiralling into panic, we should take a moment to appreciate the remarkable progress we’ve made in improving the environment – and acknowledge that a key factor is prosperity.
When Earth Day was first marked 55 years ago, the world faced some grim environmental challenges. Rivers were catching fire and cities were choked with smog. Air and water pollution were rampant, especially in the industrialised West.
Today, outdoor air pollution has declined dramatically in rich countries.

Strange, there was the pond reading the Graudian recently ...

No matter, the reptiles had the matter in hand with their own snap, Outdoor air pollution has declined dramatically in rich countries, but not in poorer cities such as Kathmandu on April 7. Picture: AFP

Reassured, the pond returned to the Bjorn-again one ...

Over the past three decades, death risk from air pollution has spectacularly declined by over 70 per cent, while waterways have become cleaner and nations reforested.
Yet, in poorer countries, the picture is more complicated. That’s because as nations come out of poverty, industrialisation at first increases pollution, before nations become rich enough to tackle it. But even in the developing world, progress is being made. Look at China – once notorious for its severe pollution, it is now actively cleaning up its air and water.
For the seven billion people who don’t live in the rich world, outdoor air pollution became worse between 1990 and about 2015. But as especially sulphur emissions have peaked and started declining, deaths from outdoor air pollution in poor countries have actually slightly declined.

At this point the reptiles slipped in an AV distraction featuring a well known climate science denialist and serial dog botherer... presumably on the basis that in the hive mind, denialists should always travel in packs ... Sky News host Chris Kenny says Labor has been targeted by “nutters” making “wildly emotive claims” about climate change after the Albanese government fuelled climate alarmism. “Labor, which used to be highly amused by protesters turning up at Coalition events, used to encourage that sort of disruption. Well, now it’s getting the same treatment, and it’s usually from these climate alarmists,” Mr Kenny said. “Is it any wonder you get nutters making wildly emotive claims about climate change and getting so agitated about it when Labor itself fuels their climate alarmism.”

Ah, the old "alarmist" routine, and "wildly emotive claims", no doubt made by emotional silly billy women ... which explains why those wet hens at the Graudian featured stories such as A silent majority of the world's people wants stronger climate action. It's time to wake up.

The pond began to wonder just how many others joined the Bjorn-again one in his uplifting thoughts - if anyone's looking for a captain for Clive Palmer's Titanic, he'd be the first to steer towards the iceberg, telling the passengers the 'berg didn't stand a chance.

The pond could only come up with this motley crew, amongst them the reptiles at the lizard Oz ...

But that last item tipped the pond off. 

Nobody else of significance these days might pay the slightest attention to the Bjorn-again one, but Murdochians around the world still had plenty of time for their cunning denialist hero...

(Sorry, the pond doesn't link to News Corp)

Back to the good news ...

Moreover, when focusing on pictures of smoggy Asian megacities, we miss the much deadlier air pollution that takes place indoors for the world’s poorest people.
This overlooked problem stems from energy poverty where people are forced to rely on traditional biomass – wood, cardboard, and dung – to cook and keep warm.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 2.1 billion people live in homes that are many times more polluted than even the worst outside days in Delhi or Beijing, equivalent to each person smoking two packs of cigarettes daily.
Even today, indoor air pollution kills more than three million people each year.
Yet a spectacular Earth Day fact almost no one celebrates is that indoor air pollution for the non-rich world has more than halved since 1990.
That means more than four million lives are saved each year.

It wouldn't be a dinkum Bjorn-again one piece if it didn't involve some kind of meretricious, fraudulent abuse of data and percentages, and so it was right for the reptiles to caption the next snap thusly, taking the meaningless stat from the text ... Deaths from natural disasters including floods, such as those in the Cooper Creek, near Innamincka, have declined by a remarkable 98 per cent. Picture: SA Infrastructure and Transport

Doesn't everyone love the way that reptiles pluck figures from the ether? What disasters, where, which deaths, when, and so on and so forth ...

The Bjorn-again one continued his celebrations ...

How did this progress happen? Through prosperity, meaning fewer poor people rely on dung and cardboard to cook and keep warm; instead they use much cleaner and better energy sources such as natural gas and electricity.
Indeed, in many ways the greatest polluter is poverty. When people are struggling to survive, environmental concerns take a back seat. But as countries get richer, they can invest in cleaner technologies, regulate industries, and focus on improving public health. Prosperity doesn’t just lead to better living standards and nutrition and people becoming more resilient to environmental challenges – it also actively makes societies improve their environment.
There is a clear connection between a nation’s income and its environmental performance. The richer a country becomes, the better it handles its environment, as shown by Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index. A society that is focused on economic development cannot only lift people out of poverty but will also address pollution and invest in sustainable practices.

The reptiles slipped in another AV distraction, again featuring the dog botherer... Sky News host Chris Kenny slams the “emotive” and “fact-free” ABC for peddling climate alarmism. “If you're planning a trip to the Pacific, then you'd better hurry up, according to the ABC,” Mr Kenny said. “Apparently the island nations of the pacific, places many Australians and New Zealanders love to holiday in … well they're going through some sort of tough climate change chaos according to the United Nations and our own taxpayer funded ABC. “This is just emotive, alarmist and fact-free overreach.”

Bingo, the ABC and "climate alarmism" in one go, but how weird is it getting lately? Pretty weird ...

Keep on mocking Pacific island concerns, and the pond has a fair idea which camp they'll end up in ... but isn't that the reptile mission? To drive people into the arms of dictator Xi, so that they can all be given a good thrashing in due course ...

And so to the final deep thoughts of a truly deep Bjorn-again one offering, exuding hope and light and progress and prosperity and resilience ...

Unfortunately, Earth Day and its broader environmental movement often ignore practical solutions, instead favouring sensationalism. Many of the environmental predictions that gained widespread attention in the 1970s turned out to be alarmist and wrong.
We were told we would run out of most resources, that overpopulation would lead to global catastrophe, and that we would need to wear gas masks outside by the year 1985.
None of these predictions materialised, but they nonetheless fuelled a culture of fear and misallocation of resources.
We’re seeing this pattern repeat today, particularly when it comes to climate change. Yes, climate change is a real challenge, but we must keep it in perspective.
It is not the existential threat some would have us believe.
In fact, over the past century deaths from climate-related disasters – such as storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires – have declined by a remarkable 98 per cent. This is not because the environment has remained static, but because human innovation and adaptation have made us more resilient.
The reality is we are not on the precipice of doom. Instead of being scared by sensationalist rhetoric into spending trillions of dollars on poor climate policies, we should focus on practical, smart solutions that can make a real difference. In the case of climate change, this means investing in green energy innovation. When it comes to one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges, we should end indoor air pollution and save three million lives each year, mostly through prosperity and access to clean, cheap and reliable energy.
As we mark Earth Day, we shouldn’t panic but instead celebrate the immense environmental progress we’ve made – and will make, as long as prosperity continues.
Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and author of False Alarm and Best Things First.

And if you buy any of that codswallop, the pond has a remarkable 98 per cent degree of confidence that you'll buy anything.

You might have even bought the notion that King Donald I was a certifiable stable genius. Certifiable perhaps ... and speaking of China ...