Stilgherrian » global warming

And they still get a vote…

Stilgherrian — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:40:50 +0000

Global warming — no, I won’t cave into the Neo-Con’s re-branding of “climate change” — may be an important election issue. But, as with so many big issues, most voters wouldn’t have a clue.

Yesterday the Daily Telegraph asked people a multiple-choice question to see whether they knew what the Kyoto Protocol was. Nearly half got it right.

Respondents were asked to select a description of Kyoto from a set of multiple options: (a) A Korean car, (b) The treaty that ended WWII, (c) An agreement on carbon emissions and (d) A Japanese banquet dish.

Almost half of the people surveyed answered correctly… But close to half of those who answered correctly admitted guessing the response.

38% thought it was the treaty ending WWII.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Back when I was working for ABC Radio I did a vox pop the morning after a state cabinet re-shuffle, asking people to name any cabinet member, old or new. 80% didn’t know what a “cabinet” was, let alone any names.

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Global Warming: analysing the risk

Stilgherrian — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:21:06 +0000

Yesterday Crikey reminded me about this video. I’d seen it before, but it’s worth seeing it again — particularly during the election campaign — and showing it to as many people as possible.

The message is simple. Perhaps we can never be 100% sure that global warming is primarily caused by human activity. However the risk of this being the case and us doing nothing about it far outweighs the risk of changing our behaviour and then finding out it wasn’t necessary.

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Disconnected from Nature

Stilgherrian — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:31:12 +0000

I sometimes wonder whether the major cause of stress is the simple fact that us urban humans are too disconnected from Nature. We are mammals, after all. Like every other living thing on the planet, we must be connected to the natural rhythms of seasons and tides, storms and sunny days.

Last weekend we experienced a massive storm and I took a photo of a broken umbrella. Then over the subsequent days I started to notice how the world responded…

It was quiet for the whole long weekend. It took a couple of days for the storm to blow over, and people stayed indoors. No bird calls. Dogs and cats remained curled up, asleep.

When the sun eventually broke through, there was sudden activity.

It was still only 15C, but the sky was clear and bright and the warm-ish sun felt delightful on the skin. Out in the streets, it seemed like the birds were exploding with joy — thankful, presumably, that they’d survived the tempest. At Circular Quay, it was hard to tell the difference between the seagulls squabbling over food scraps and the primary school children having their lunch, so rowdy were both groups. The two young teachers looked tired.

But it wasn’t all bright. In Enmore’s Montague Gardens, a tree had been torn from the ground and lay where the wind had dumped it. After decades of life, this giant was slowly but inevitably dying, like a whale stranded on the beach. I stood in silence and watched it for a while.

We humans are clever things. Mammals rock, I proclaimed last week. And we do! But perhaps we spend too much time sealed in temperature-controlled boxes, forcing ourselves to stick to the working shifts laid down in the mechanical age of the factory — man serving machine.

Perhaps we should pay more attention to those natural rhythms — stay quiet and contemplative on the dark day of the storm, and smile and revel in the bright winter’s light when it’s over.

Perhaps we should all spend just 5 minutes each day silently watching Nature. And then, just as a special treat, 5 more.

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Quiet after the Storm

Stilgherrian — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:24:23 +0000

The worst storm in 40 years, someone said. An elderly couple dead after their car was washed off a bridge. A ship run aground.

Tattered umbrellas litter the streets like so many dead jellyfish. Like this one on Victoria Street, Potts Point last night, blood-red under the sodium lamps.

Stay at home, it may last a while, they’re telling us. Severe weather warning… flash flooding… hazardous winds… damaging surf… gale warning for coastal waters and closed waters. Yeah, I get the picture.

Right now there’s no real wind, though. There’s just the gentle sound of steady rain. And that always provides such a quiet, contemplative mood — even if it is only 13C outside. It’s perfect for cups of tea, re-stacking papers, reading… writing… apparently even relaxing is allowed on a long weekend.

Last night we all knew it was a bad storm, but we still went out. That’s amazing. Our trust in electric trains, the internal combustion engine and the electricity grid is such that mere Primal Nature in All Her Fury is no match.

Our salmon was perfectly grilled, the chilli sauce on our lamb was phenomenal. The wines, from both McLaren Vale and Victoria, were well-blended, subtle. Later, the performer was more than adequately entertaining. The front bar was rowdy but welcoming at the same time. There were smiles, laughter. And then a cheerful Pakistani lad drove me home in some sort of heated pod with chairs for a little over $20.

Outside, the stormed raged on. We were all but oblivious as our urban lives continued unabated.

Ah yes! I love being Homo sapiens! Mammals rock.

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Introducing: Intelligent Warming

Stilgherrian — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:25:13 +0000

The Truth about Global Climate Change… follow the link, all will be explained.

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25% Irrigated

Stilgherrian — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:45:27 +0000

Irrigated farms generate a quarter of Australia’s agricultural production, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The gross value of irrigated production was $9 billion in 2003-04. Irrigated horticulture made up 52% of that, followed by irrigated pastures (24%) and irrigated broadacre crops (24%).

So what happens when global warming dries out the canals? $12/kg bananas will be remembered as the _good_ times, and forget cheap wines from Mudgee.