This morning Gus was going to write a neat pressing piece about neoconservative conspiracy in the general context of world domination through pipelines, little wars and interventionist policies, inscribed in the US fundamentalist dogmas, both geopolitical and religious, but this excursion will have to wait another day as in the Sydney Morning Herald (10/08/06) — the major rag for the city that sleeps between 11pm and 6am, according to the flying machines' curfew — our brave Miranda was on the nonsensical barricades of neoconservatism disguised as an anti-conservation piece (boy, the world of word usage is confusing) called "It's the end as he knows it"... Here she goes:

Al Gore's rant on the environment would be funny if it wasn't so alarmist, [http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/its-the-end-as-he-knows-it/2006/08/09/1154802957468.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|writes Miranda Devine].
AL GORE establishes his environmental credentials straight away in his global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

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He makes curious claims such as "Pacific nations have all had to evacuate to New Zealand" because the sea level has risen so much. Really?

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The apocalyptic way in which climate change is so often presented by green groups, the media and on government websites is a kind of "climate porn", according to a report, Warm Words, released this month by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank. "Sensationalism … serves to create a sense of distance from the issue."
It argues: "Alarmism might even become secretly thrilling - effectively a form of 'climate porn' rather than a constructive message. All of this serves to undermine the ability of this discourse to bring about action."
It is human nature when faced with a problem too large to solve to simply ignore it in the hope it will go away. Funnily enough, the other eco catastrophes so confidently predicted 30 years ago - acid rain, nuclear winter, species extinction, the population bomb - never did eventuate.
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End of blah blah...

Gus: There there, calm down, dearest miranda... no need to be excited... Yeah... we know that Al Gore can go with the wind... but you were travelling so well (I do not know what's in his doco so I cannot say if he's loopy)!!!... until that last paragraph, when you pissed in your own boots!

Yes, Miranda Pacific nations have all had to evacuate to New Zealand, and New Zealanders thus have had no choice but to invade Bondi Heights... Really.

Okay, just being serious for a moment here... it has been recorded on Tuvalu that sea levels have risen since the 1980s by about 8mm per year... Not much, so far but enough to see a small alarming trend especially when the island is not sinking according to the geopositioning bizos.

Another alarming trend, very old this one, is that the palaeo-record shows that it took a million years for the Dinosaurs to become extinct from the early signs of their demise. The catastrophic event which started their discomfiture did not kill them off instantly... and that one million years, give or take a couple of centuries, is puzzling serious scientists no end... This only to say that "Funnily enough, the other eco catastrophes so confidently predicted 30 years ago - acid rain, nuclear winter, species extinction, the population bomb - never did eventuate." is a bit thin as an argument.

First "acid rain" WAS becoming a major problem, especially in the 1970s, as sulphur dioxide was being released in the atmos, one could see that if nothing was done about it, things would go really bad... but bugger me, even in the US "due largely to EPA’s Acid Rain Program there has been a 33 percent decrease in emissions between 1983 and 2002, partly due to flue gas desulfurization." In other country even more stringent reductions have been implemented and the problem still exist but is not so "obvious".

Re the "nukular" winter, well what can I say... If it had not been for the Quakers, a lot of their friends, many unrelated anti-nuclear lobbies and many a major wake up call at international diplomatic and governmental level, you would be eating your morning porridge in a gruel bowl from the depth of a nuclear shelter in Tasmania. Yes. Miranda, many people devoted their life to expose the problem of nuclear war, the mother of a nuclear winter, which in the way we are travelling, could quickly become a nuclear summer inferno. Sure thus it has not happened. But the problem, and please make sure this enters your lovely head, is that the nuclear problem is still with us. The terms of the non-nuclear proliferation treaty still leaves about five times the power to destroy humanity, the planet and our own arses in the hands of a few idiots, who are humans like you and me and can, like you and me can, kill their mother-in-law in a fit of rage, called self-defence... You know what I mean... And on top of that we (not you and me — but your neoconservative corner shop in the USA, the rabid Rabbis, the North Koreans, the Indians, the Pakistanis and possibly the Iranians in their own time, although the proofs so far do not stack up) are at present INCREASING the numbers of nukes and at the rate Aussieland is mining the stuff, we should double this five-time ability to destroy ourselves within 10 years... The true problem will be when the USA or Israel start using this option in a limited fashion and the rest is the future of history.

Now in regard to species extinction, you definitely are living on planet Porkie. Unless you avoid reading all the scientific literature on the subject or eat your daily lunch on the other side of the monkey's enclosure at the zoo, an institution full of well kept specimens for all not to see that some species ARE going. You must also feel reverse-anthromorphically associated at the museum with the stuffed carcasses of animals that have long gone,

Ah... and the population explosion? Well I do not know if you know, living in your not-knowing cave, but countries such as China have had to implement draconian systems of law to stop people reproducing like rats? The one child policy is not there to amuse politicians. The Chinese government is a lot more clued about this issue than you are me-dear... And may I add here — going back to my Leo Strass driven neocon study of conspiracy that won't see the light of day today but maybe tomorrow (let's face it, it's a mammoth task) — that in neoconic terms, wars are "judged" necessary to realign the excess fodder and rekindle dwindling demand... (I may add here that the Kapitalist system is expanding population driven but this expansion can be se-sawed in order to create special "opportunities... too much of a long story to develop here)... In line with the yet-again-slowing economy in the USA, be frightened... new war fronts may open soon. And yes Miranda, the reasons given won't be that... Sure we'll have a concoction of morality driven drivel that the Murdoch press will fabricate like sausages full of sawdust... And you won't know s.....

 

While Aussie Tony cancelled his vacation plans in order to deal with the evolving and escalating Middle East conflict, Bush is doing what he does best. Like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned, Bush is once again playing at the Texas ranch and letting Rice hold down the fort.

Olbermann: Bush vacations as Middle East burns

 

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman