On yourdemocracy website, we often rattle on (well I do) about the environment or whatever fancies our (my) tickle.
But behind the slapstick, the cartoons and the irony we're seriously committed to improve the world including the purpose of democracy, not through beliefs but through reason and if possible good science.

On the subject of the environment today, an opinionated piece by Gerard Henderson and a reader/letter writer of the Sydney Morning Herald attracted my attention:

"Global forest fund critics can't see the good for the politics
April 3, 2007
It is incredibly disappointing to see the wave of negative criticism that has met the Australian Government's announcement of a global fund for forest protection..."

Gus: Etc...
Here I will let you read the letter supporting a worthy cause that I've really poo-pooed already for several reasons (Saving a twig in the forest cut). First, it is performed by the Rattus team, thus there must be an ulterior motive to it — such as painting oneself green when one is not... My second major reason is that it calls for the utmost ability to juggle double governmental standards con brio to fiddle such trick. If one does not find the letter of Elizabeth Hart from Burnside (SA) slightly sad, that's okay.

Sure we're planting trees etc... But the sad part is that most trees that have been planted and are planted are not used by some of the industries we want, such as paper-mills. Not only that, we savage our old growth forests, calling them of no significant conservation values .. while the area protected shrinks under new management plans that do the opposite of what they're supposed to do. Apart from saving a few lots here and there, apart from the Carr government in New South Wales declaring more National Parks than dust particles on the rings of Saturn, the rest is slowly but surely being felled. Sure some (small amount in comparison) have been replanted... Mostly Radiata pine that has not much habitat value for native species.

We treat "our" forests like convenience stores. they should be regarded as treasures. Not only the ones that give pleasure to look at from a vantage point but all of them, because they are the lungs of the earth.

Sure, it is generous of the Australian Government to give money to stop the illegal logging in Indonesia... But in the end it's not a question of legality or not. Many more forests are cut "legally" than by "illegal" means. And here lies our problem as well. We (the west and the east) enjoy low prices on good from China or South-East Asia, and as populations increase everywhere, demand on timber will make sure that soon illegal logging areas will become legal logging areas... A stroke of the pen and a tree is you cupboard...

Beyond that, Gerard, who in the past has admitted knowing nothing about global warming and its impact on the environment, tells us that:
"Just when it appeared that colonialism was well and truly a past phenomenon, and that we are living in post-colonial times, along comes a bevy of experts from Britain intent on telling the Australian Government what to do on climate change and all that."

All this, due to a Mr Stern, playing the kettle calling the pot back... Doing what the Poms do, telling their "former" colonies to button up. One could nearly agree with Gerard Henderson if one did not know that for the past ten years, our Rattus team has done nothing, nada, zilch, zero and refused to do anything less on the subject of Global Warming... Comes along a former president candidate to these shores who pokes us in the eye and the chest, telling us to wake up to the problem. But the Rattus team is still dozing off — thinking it's not really a problem since we've got so much more coal to sell, this morning the temperature was freezing... and it will be bad "for the economy"... Not only that too, we had our own expert-scientists telling us about the incoming problem but most were told to shut up by the Rattuses. And of course in order of balance we need to hear in equal time, the crap from the paid "experts" by the oil companies —most have no idea what they talk about but can spin a tale like a rattus can spin a tail. Eventually someone had to tell Johnnee that his bowling action was crook. We can go and teach the poms how to pitch with brilliance, thus we've got to accept the message from Mr Stern with humility... Not only that it's not "his" message, it at least a good part of our own investigation, but since we (the Rattuses) did not want to know about it, has been regurgitated from someone whom our UnAustralian PM might listen to enough if only with reservation relating to the hip pocket.

Then Hendersonus tells us:
"The British would not take kindly to a succession of Australians turning up in London to tell them what to do about the environment. However, few critical voices are raised when the likes of Stern, or the US political activist Al Gore, jet in to tell us what we should do about climate change. Such advice would not be accepted by sceptical media with respect to foreign policy or defence.

There is no reason a different stance should be taken with respect to the environment."
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Gus: I despair here... Our glorious Clowner does exactly that day in day out... Giving advice or of all things threats — be it to Fiji, the Solomons or Indonesia, the UK, Europe, etc... Listen to him pontificating as if he was the full moon himself. And he does not shy at giving advice to the US on whatever he thinks they should do here and there, including punish the most dangerous guilty "terrorist" since sliced-cheese was invented by a swashbuckling Ghengis Khan... But due to voters tidal wave on the backlash, he's now happy with the outcome of Hicks trial where the guilty before the trial "terrorists" will be free to roam the street of Adelaide within nine months...

In terms of defence, the present Australian government is buying what the US wants us to buy... It's call the spirit of co-operation... Including the Aegis system that could fire Australian weapons on Aussie ships from American ships without us knowing bull-dust.

And here comes the sport thingy in which any proud Aussie will claim pride in order to teach a few things or two to the Poms... Yes, Gerard, the Rattus government needs a big kick up the backside for doing peanuts or so little in regard to global warming that the visit by the sternest of Mr Sterns is a relief for those of us who constantly try to raise awareness to the warming.

If I recall my calculation presented (not in detail but in results) on this site, going the way we're going about it, we'll hit an increase of NINE degrees by the year 2100. No more laughing about it...

From the NYT

The Climate Divide
Reports From Four Fronts in the War on Warming

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: April 3, 2007

Over the last few decades, as scientists have intensified their study of the human effects on climate and of the effects of climate change on humans, a common theme has emerged: in both respects, the world is a very unequal place.

In almost every instance, the people most at risk from climate change live in countries that have contributed the least to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to the recent warming of the planet.

Those most vulnerable countries also tend to be the poorest. And the countries that face the least harm — and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face — tend to be the richest.

From The Independent

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

 

 

In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?