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dear reader .....Just a note to alert you that you can read the comments - without being registered. We won't even know who you are... although you will be counted. But a heartfelt thanks, even if you are just looking at the cartoons ... To be able to comment you will have to register but no one would have to know who you are, except the administrator of the site. Please note that this site is archived in the National Library of Australia in perpetuity. Just click on "recent comments" or on "read more" in the line below the cartoons to access some of the most fascinating and pertinent information there is from Australia and around the globe.
Sure, we tend to bag Howard, his government and George Bush, but we do it for very good reasons. For example if you click the recent comment "the greenhouse effect" you get to discover a summary of the problem with a link to a proper scientific paper on the problem. By the time you read these lines you may have to click on "more'" (at the bottom of the "recent comment" line) and then scroll till you find the comment, possibly by then on "page 2" or 3, of the comment scrolls. Here on yourdemocracy we have not shied away from the issue of global warming - the greater challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. Terrorism and such will become little slideshows to the massive climatic shifts that we're going to endure. I became aware of the water problem in this country only a few years after I migrated. I have participated in many publications (in the shadows of great scientists and fascinating authors), in which this and other problems such as the decline of bio-diversity were put to the fore. I've had fierce arguments with some scientists who - short of funds - were only prepared to save the "significant" subspecies, while to me all subspecies were the keys to understanding evolution. Scientifically, I became aware of the major climatic equation around 1979 but it was not until 1994 that, with the possible threat of dying form CJD (having been experimentally injected with human growth hormones when a young adult), that I put pen to paper... I wrote frantically on many subjects, in layman's terms. I also had a solid knowledge of radioactivity, the nuclear decay cycles, and much other stuff involving engineering and strangely I also wrote some humorous novels. I also did cartoons. None of that was ever presented to publishers except one project close to my heart that was nearly published but was finally rejected because of my strong attack of the "religious" dogma. By 1994, I calculated the global warming from a different viewpoint. Energy mostly transfers when there is a "difference of potential" of some kind... Thus with various estimates in hand, I somehow worked out the amount of "solar-year energy" we were facing while burning fossil fuel. And how this could become a problem. I must admit my methodology was crude but "accurate" enough at the time, to let me know that with a few thousand years plus or minus, we were basically releasing back in the atmosphere the equivalent of 25,000 years of solar/photosynthesis/ decay/ accumulation/gasification/coalification per single year. Now, in 2007, the equivalent is around 35,000 years of such transformation per year AND GROWING. In fact I could have been wrong by a factor of up to ten in the worst of direction... In the last hundred years we may actually have burned the stored energy by the process of solar/photosynthesis/decay/ accumulation/gasification/coalification of up to 35 million years. That means that this enormous carbon release (35,000,000 to 100-under "natural" conditions) in whatever form, does not have time to be reabsorbed by the natural earth processes. We are heading towards a time on earth (before carbon was thus "sequestrated" by geological processes) when weather was lots warmer than it is now, albeit more equalised all over because the earth did not have the "northern and southern ocean fridges" due to continental mass position. Presently, the southern ocean weather - unstopped by land masses - act like a self defrosting refrigeration unit for the driest continent on earth, Antarctica... Back in that earlier time mentioned, sea levels were massive higher, possibly over 100 metres what they are now. By releasing an enormous amount of carbon back in the atmosphere, with the inability for the biosphere to absorb it back even in the oceans, we have opened the door of our fridges, north and south. For a while, we won't be (and we're not yet) feeling the full result of this, apart from a bit of melting here and there. But soon there will be a point at which, the fridges won't work any more... Average temperatures could start rising by about one degree per year... One of the major problems is that it is relatively easy to create "warm" and difficult to manufacture "cold". Even our most advanced technology in fridges and air conditioning make more heat "outside' that they create cold "inside"... The only solutions to our incoming problem are: a) stop fossil fuel burning NOW. b) reduce energy consumption MASSIVELY c) use only carbon neutral energy sources such as wind, solar, and d) reduce world population by natural attrition. Far fetched... ? "We ain't seen nofin' yet". I hope I am wrong...
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Sooner than we think...
From the NYT
Record High Temperatures in Europe in April
By JAMES KANTER
Published: April 30, 2007
PARIS, April 30 — The month of April was so warm and so dry across Western Europe that it rewrote the weather record books in country after country, national weather services said today, as hot air masses from Africa and the effects of a changing climate combined to drive up temperatures and drive away rain.
April 2007 was the eighth consecutive month of higher-than-normal temperatures in Germany, and the 13th straight month of unusually warm conditions in France.
“The sustained period of above-average temperatures across a number of countries is undoubtedly linked to global warming,” said Patrick Galois, a forecaster at Metéo France. May, June and July are also expected to be unseasonably warm, Mr. Galois said.
What is the alternative - if there is one?
G'day Gus,
The way that you and John write in this forum resonates with me.
I wish, oh dear I wish, that the belief of democracy still exists.
My service to my country now makes me realize that that is after all identified by the government of the day and the solemn oath is that I will serve my country means that the people who do not subscribe to the policies are committed anyway.
So we consider the dual-citizenship policy. To whom does Murdoch pledge his allegiance - Australia - America or occupied Palestine?
If this policy is allowed to exist – who solutes which flag? Do the Zionists believe that their dual citizenship will give them the benefits of that plus the obligations that may interfere with their business?
The Australian Jew who voluntarily went to occupied Palestine and performed in the exact manner as the WW 2 New Zealander “Lord Haw Haw” was he allowed “dual citizenship”? Why? Was that taking sides? Or was he sure of his support of the media barons?
The objective of the Zionists may win a battle, but I hope that their methods will eventually fail as have those who use power to overcome the resistance of the will of a people.
The alternative is that voting in Australia is as important as the “powers that be” will allow. We, the people, have no weapon against them and that only breeds rebellion. And who wins from that?
Cheers Gus.
God bless those who care for Australia. NE OUBLIE.
climate change limits...
Climate change is tracking towards levels which transcend the planetary boundaries that allowed the development of humans over the past three million years.
These limits have already been crossed in terms of the rise in greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, nitric oxide) and extensive loss of species. Given lag effects, looming threats include (A) ocean acidification (see Figure 1) and phosphorous flux, collapse of coral reefs and the marine food chain; (B) availability of freshwater; (C) conversion of natural forests to cropland, ie the Amazon; (D) ozone depletion; (E) atmospheric aerosol loading and (F) chemical pollution by metals, plastics, radioactive nuclei etc.
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read more at Unleashed
If you can't breathe, nothing else matters.
Just a note to alert you that you can read the comments - without being registered. We won't even know who you are... although you will be counted. But a heartfelt thanks, even if you just looking at the cartoons ... to be able to comment you will have to register but no one would have to know who you are, except the administrator of the site. Please note that this site is archived in the National Library of Australia in perpetuity.
Understanding and agreeing with your comments above, I have always believed in that which I am prepared to put into writing which, as any sneaky bastard will tell you, puts you at a disadvantage.
So, you have given me the right to be responsible – never before in Australia’s history to my knowledge – and to express my opinions whether or not they conflict with the current “Town Cryer” and the Powers that be.
It is my sincere fear that the foreign media and their Corporations are still active -even though our people have shaken off the Howard “New Order”.
My basic opposition to the current Foreign Media campaign to remove our elected federal government, and by the power of an unelected foreign Cartel, is using fear and blatant lies.
It is NOT about the jobs of our citizens – without media lies - the Labor party has made us the envy of all OECD nations. But the Foreign media ignores that. Time to save the world – time to save Australia.
Contemporarily, in this world controlled by financial greed, this nation, I am proud to say, is an example of “them against us” and “we” have prevailed – so far.
This is the closest that we have ever been to complete independence – forget your individual pros and cons, consider what you will gain by being able to vote for those who really control the future of our country.
You have it now, don’t lose it. NE OUBLIE.
biodiversity is our responsibility...
On this site, apart from exposing silly politics from silly politicians, we are also very concerned about the rate of extinction of species in which humans have played — and are playing — a destructive role.
I challenge any media organisation, including public media, to place, till the end of the year, a small advert (10 seconds for TV — 150 x 80 mm for press) at least once a day or in every edition, warming about the loss of bio-diversity on the planet and our responsibility to do something about it. That would go a long way to let the problem be known. At present there are people in some countries who think biodiversity is some kind of detergent or washing powder. We need the main stream media — private and public — to be far less lethargic on this subject...
Thank you.
The letter (e) represent our ethical duty. It also represents the existential philosophy — void of prejudicial religious overtones that often interfere with our relationship with nature. Our duty of care for species other than ourselves is not so much because we can benefit from them — or care less because they are in the way of our progress — but because THEY ARE THERE. They are travelling with us, at the same time, on this little planet we call Earth — Earth being (e) as well.