Deaf, Dumb and Stupid
Last night’s ABC Q & A program (10/02/20) was, IMHO, brilliant!
It highlighted the extent to which intelligent people are fully aware of the problems we face as a result of climate change, which is finally being openly recognised as being anthropogenic.
The speakers – whether the questioners or the panel – demonstrated that we have solutions which, if put in train, might give our grandchildren a hope of a future, and they showed acute awareness that much more could be done, and sooner, if we did not have a government paralysed by the fear of losing popular support in (to them) key areas of the political landscape.
I find it positively nauseating that a significant number of our elected leaders can allow their personal and political affiliations and financial interests to override their stated purpose of governing for the benefit of the country, that they can pervert the government’s policies to their own ends – and in so doing, breach their oath of office.
The fact that they are – through general ignorance – supported by an also significant number of the electorate is no excuse for ignoring the fact that their role is to lead – particularly in a situation like the current emergency.
First the drought.
Then the fires.
Now the floods.
Plus, I guess the coronavirus comes into the category of pestilence.
Maybe the locusts are lining up to complete the catalogue of disasters on a truly Biblical scale.
Did Josh Frydenberg take all these disasters into account in drawing up his budget? After all, following decades of warnings, he has no excuse for not realising that these eventualities were becoming increasingly likely – if not absolute certainties!
No country in the world can afford not to reduce emissions. The fact that some major culprits are lagging behind does not excuse the rest of us from facing up to the truth and actually makes it even more necessary for us to put our shoulders to the wheel.
The ABC is often criticised as being run by a bunch of lefties.
If being aware of problems adversely affecting people’s lives, and seeking to expose them and stimulate effective action, makes you a leftie – then thank goodness they are stepping up to the plate!
Most State and Territory governments are more advanced in their forward planning than is the Federal government.
Our present Prime Minister shows a complete lack of understanding of how to compromise and work with others for the benefit of all.
To fail to recognise an emergency and stand back, waiting to be asked to give a hand would be laughable – if it were not tragic.
When he, not exactly speedily, returned from Hawaii he seemed to feel that we had felt lost without him and would be relieved by his presence.
In truth, the fact of the matter was well summed up in the slogan he created – “Where the bloody hell are you?” in the context of his having gone AWOL! His very absence, when the bush fires were already blazing before he left, shows his inability to recognise that bearing high office means putting duty before personal matters.
When we are led by a person who sees his mission in life to be a leader – without the first idea of what the role of a leader is – then disaster is inevitable. And in the present circumstances, this is the last thing we need.
Is it possible to get the idea into his opinionated skull that time is of the essence and urgent action is the only priority?
Once more – this is my Resolution:
“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government.”
The clock is ticking.
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David Evans -
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paul walter
Return to home pageA few back bench lunatics in both houses who are increasingly willfully ignorant about Climate Change and who have blackmailed weak “Prime Ministers” into supporting them, instead of supporting the Australian population have passed their use by date. They have to be exposed as being the paid puppets of coal interests they are. Enough is more than enough in this case. morrison has to get rid of these spoon fed dills, their time is up. They have held this country to ransom long enough. If morrison can’t do it, the growing anger and resentment towards himself and his “protected species” perched like galahs on the back benches, and the (very (odd one or two in cabinet should be open targets. This rot started back in howards days, nothing has changed, they are still just a bunch of lying, scheming scamming corrupt inept responsibility dodging stooges to lobbyists. Big Stick Indeed.
Well Morrison’s office is stacked with ex coal or mining blokes (theyre all blokes, not a woman among them) or ex Newscorp journalists still no doubt with a hotline to Ruperts office. So if he chose them himself, what does that say about him? If he didnt choose them, what does that say about him too !!!
Brilliant, Rosemary, is the word. Everyone was so switched on, clear and articulate in their views. The ideas are out there and acting on them without waiting for Morrisson and his cronies to catch up.
And Paul Kelly’s song! Brilliant and true. Tears in the eyes.
I watched some of Q&A and listened to more later and I think there are several major concerns. One is we have a government in denial so we should not expect any radical framework changes in the near future, and possibly not before 2022. There is the economic problem and that means big business who are slow to move because to transition to new technologies is an expensive business. Then there’s the elephant in the room. Apart from one audience member who talked a little about his personal choices to reduce his carbon footprint and a brief discussion about our diet and the global cost of a heavy meat-based diet, there was zero focus on the “us” – the “we”. I saw mostly pretentious twats trying to inflate their ego by telling us how aware they are of the crisis we face and how they are ahead of the curve – or to protect the interests they represent.
What choices will individuals make to reduce their carbon footprint? The answer as far as I can see is as little as possible and what “we” will overwhelmingly do is take the government’s view – Australia contributes little to global emissions (a lie, but a convenient lie for a government in denial). I watched Business on the ABC and saw an interesting juxtaposition with two successive articles. One was promoting renewables – the second looking at JB HiFi’s recent sales success selling us bigger TV’s and more electric stuff. Therein is the conundrum.
“We” proclaim we want government to make the decisions and move on from fossil fuels. Great, for sure. But if the entire audience on Q&A went out to buy a new car tomorrow, 45% of them would buy an SUV or a dual-cab ute! How many people have ditched a perfectly good 55″ TV so they could upgrade to a new 75″ TV? “We” don’t want to change our choices – and nowhere do I see anything telling me that I am wrong thinking what “we” really want is more reliable, more abundant and cheaper power – so we can continue to use more and more of it. We rationalise these choices, manipulated as they are by marketeers, as that at the individual level we can’t do anything, but it is really that we don’t want to do anything to change our consumption. When China dumped cheap clothing in our market, it became easier to wear a shirt for a season and then throw it out. Jevons noted 300 years ago that as long as we could be supplied with cheap power, we would continue to find ways to use more power.
One panellist mentioned his kids attending a protest. Great. It is important to start a groundswell. But how many kids got dropped off at their protests, and get dropped off at school every day by their Mum in an SUV? We don’t see the perverse irony of this and in part it is because we are so obsessed with visible affluence that we want to keep up our over-consumption. The Earth ceased to be able to cope mid-20th century, but we keep blundering along doing what business wants us to do.
I would buy a non-fossil fuel driven car tomorrow if there were any to choose from which I could afford – and that means lots, because of economies of scales they would be affordable for those of us with limited resources. Without government support, we will be neither building nor importing them.
I know from my UK WWII experience that if government makes a good case for the need to change our habits, we will accept a significant degree of privation.
But when the government Pooh-poohs the idea that we have a climate emergency, people are not motivated to change.
What do we do with worn out clothing and Manchester which prevents their going to landfill? Lots of issues in relation to pollution have to be tackled at government level.
Why do we feel we are bound by the electoral cycle?
If we started to realise that we have the freedom to protest en masse and force change, then we might make progress faster.
Rosemary,
Labor wanted to make all government fleet purchases electric which would have opened up a large second-hand market in electric vehicles as they replace their fleet every few years, But no, Michaelia Screech and the temporary leader of the Nats both cried blue murder about stealing people’s weekends or tradies utes. These people are so bereft of ideas that all they are certain of is that if Labor suggests it, they oppose it.
@KL: I disagree. The problems were caused by the Greens because they have some wonderful policies that the COALIition misgovernment would covet if it knew the meaning of the word.
However, it must be the Greens fault because the Greens have not been power since 2013 when all these dramas commenced and so their policies did not become the national agenda, so it must all be the fault of the Greens.
And if it is not the Greens fault then it must be Labor’s fault because Labor took strong policies to the 2019 election and the misgovernment political spinmeisters assisted by the unquestioning MSM were able to hoodwink the general electorates into believing that Smirkie Sacked from Marketing was the real deal, knowing that it was a con.
Didn’t Ms Westacott campaign vigorously against Labor’s 50% target, as ‘economy wrecking’? Suddenly seen the light?
“mostly pretentious twats” says Ill fares the land @3.09pm after a peep at QandA last night.
I suppose we might all have some cynicism about anything at all in the present political scene. But it is quite clear that many, many people have “seen the light” (John Boyd @3.59 ) after the experience of these unprecedented fires.
There has been a huge uptake of domestic solar power in recent years. And after the ridicule aimed at SA state government after malfunction of the grid in a storm, we are finding our ancient coal-fired power stations are not so efficient any more. Our present government is spruiking renewable power as if it had invented it.
We are also understanding better the effects of burning fossil fuels. The transition should have happened a long ago, but the vested interests have continued to hold sway and have muddled the argument, but their time is limited. The times they are a’changing – and will change rapidly even more in the decade ahead.
I see where German car manufacturers will not make internal combustion engines after 1930. And London will ban the sale diesel and petrol engines after 2035.
Panel people on QandA all had interesting things to say which affect all of us, if only we could listen closely.
Well said Rosemary. That must have been the the most refreshing Q&A I have seen for a ages. Great not having the politician rhetoric. When will Scotty eat humble pie so we can get on with this. It’s a no brainer with no time to waste.
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It has been good that climate change was the feature of Q&A for the first two programs of the year. With the program on bushfires we learnt that LNP members have such open minds they suffer from brain drop. Also, that evidence is not required to formulate opinions. The second program skirted around the seriousness of the situation we are now in I felt. Sequestering CO2 is at no where near the scale possible to have any real effect. Basically we cannot rely on technology.
Four points which I think uphold my view.
Twenty percent of the Amazon Basin in Brazil no longer acts as a carbon sink.
Thwaites glacier grounding line is being undermined by water 2C above freezing.
Scientists are very concerned about the rate of permafrost thawing.
Oceans are warming.
Maybes:
Recent studies on clouds
The latest modelling of climate change show a large jump in what can be expected, scientists are still wondering about the accuracy. A fairly recent study found that past modelling has been quite accurate.
The risk factors are increasing.
We can hope that the LNP extreme right wing nut jobs destroy the party requiring an election at a much earlier date. While Labor is not great on climate policy they are more likely to act positively if enough pressure is placed on them.
But, we must transition away from coal very quickly and as humanely as possible. We don’t need stupid studies investigating the need for a coal power plant in Queensland … the evidence is already in, it was but a vote catching exercise.
The ABC is often criticised as being run by a bunch of lefties.
IPA propaganda, because in fact over half of the management has been placed there by the LibNats,
but why waste a good line?
I must be a true depressive.
The moment I saw Westacott I just flicked off same as I did today with Angus and his little friends on teev today in the reps. Can’t believe the intensity of some of whoppers the spinners come up with.
Btw, if folk are REALLY interested in that so called gas deal between Morrison and Gladdie Buried-
in- a- Rubbish-Can, try to get last night’s The Business for Stephen Long’s devastating expose revealing what an utterly disgusting rip off the the thing really is about.
I hadn’t realised that Stephen Long had actually written out last night’s segment on “The Business”
PLEASE READ this, THEN ask yourselves a few questions about media and how the country is run and so called trade deals even.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-12/coal-seam-gas-import-or-mining-will-not-guarantee-lower-prices/11954268?section=business
Would you believe I’ve been censored out at the Drum for mentioning any thing to do with the Stephen Long article?
And the crickets chirped…