My politics are on the green side.

I’ve long been persuaded that without intelligent environmental management – including management at a global level – humanity is on a fast track to wreck the only habitat we have.

I believe climate change is a highly significant issue. To those who think it’s just a media beat-up, I very much hope you’re right – but I wouldn’t gamble the planet on a hunch. I’ve held that view for over 20 years and explained why previously.

Bob Brown: has helped to save some magnificent forests

Other environmental problems must also be tackled with seriousness barely seen so far on a large scale. Most modern agricultural practices are unsustainable. We’re progressively toxifying the global environment. The appalling loss of biodiversity is a tragedy and a disgrace to this generation.

We need politicians in power who understand these issues – and have a strong commitment to do a lot better.

In Australia, a national Greens Party came into being in the 1990s, led by the popular Tasmanian environmentalist Bob Brown.

From the outset, the Australian Greens embraced a commitment to ecological sustainability, social justice and to the peaceful resolution to conflict. Opposition to war is a key issue for many Greens supporters.

In June 2008, the Australian Greens issued a Policy Statement on International Relations. It’s the most recent policy statement I’ve found that mentions Afghanistan. The reference is brief, but leaves no room for ambiguity:

Too much political debate has been imprisoned inside one dimension for far too long.

Since the early 19th century, the major ideological fault line has been between ‘Socialism’ and ‘Capitalism’. Yet these terms are better understood as descriptors of polarity within a single system than entirely separate recipes for complete, well-functioning societies.

Our Common Future

Take Capitalism. A simplistic but commonly held belief is that a free market system works best with little state interference. Taxation and other forms of regulation are regularly portrayed as enemies of capitalism.

That’s may well be true in a village economy. However, it’s been clear from the outset of the industrial revolution that a successful advanced free-market economy requires very effective regulation. Good common infrastructure encourages enterprise to flourish. Advanced capitalism depends on a clear set of legally enforceable rules – rules that curtail absolute individual freedom, yet provide for a better functioning whole. These ‘socialist ideas’ are a prerequisite for capitalist success – and always have been.

Socialism is the other end of the theoretical polarity. In it’s purest form, it’s also known as ‘Communism’.

In the pre-modern world, there certainly were societies with no classes or castes, devoid of private property and without a competitive economic system. These societies were small in scale. Karl Marx referred to them as ‘Primitive Communism’.

A kindly beast, my fly is black
He rarely lies upon his back
And when he does, I note he’s dead
(Stuck in the butter on my bread)

'Flies'

Beware the fly with purple legs!
His buddies are the very dregs
They like to sit around and fart
Because they think it’s cool and smart

The fly who has bright orange wings
Is lots of fun and rarely stings
He likes to jest and wears a vest
(His mother told him, she knows best)

So please don’t crush a fly for fun
And put away that sticky bun
A fly that’s free is full of glee
And buzzes off soon after tea.

_________________

Cartoon by Ian Baker

For several years now, the USA has been spending $75 million per year in “pro-democracy aid to Iranian dissidents”. That’s what’s on the books. One can only guess at the real figure, because so much of the ‘intelligence’ budget of this bloated, bankrupt, parasitized imperial beast is impossible to scrutinize.

These days the United States of America (USA) might be better decribed as the PEI: the Parasitized Empire of Interference.

'US Spider' by Palestinian cartoonist Majed Badra; is the spider carrying a tick?

It would be most out of character if the PEI and MSM (Money-Serving Media) are on the side of the angels this time. Zionist agent Dennis Ross has just moved into the White House to advise Obama on ‘Iran policy’. Not a good sign…

In all the network TV cacophony about Iran in recent weeks, I’ve never once heard use of the elected Iranian President’s academic honorific. It’s a small point perhaps – but did you know that Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has a doctorate? Did you know that before becoming Mayor of Tehran in 2003, this man of humble origins gained a degree in civil engineering, followed by a doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning?

If you live in the USA, you probably do know that Ron Paul is Doctor Ron Paul. If you live in Australia, I bet you’ve heard of Dr Carmen Lawrence. The title of ‘doctor’ is still sufficiently uncommon among leading politicians to be worth noting… usually. But there’s nothing usual about the psy-op directed against Iran. You may have to wait until hell freezes over before any of the MSM tell you anything meaningful about Ahmadinejad’s pre-Presidential background.

In case anyone is inclined to relax for even a moment, I bring you the next great global health scare. It’s a world exclusive.

Mammoth Flu: you feel hot, even on cold days

This latest threat to human survival is like a real-life Jurassic Park scenario, with just enough plausibility to justify an elevated state of alarm!

Be very afraid – and if this turns into the BIG ONE, remember you got your first warning here…

The (as yet) slender factual basis for a Level 5 Alert is in this seemingly inoffensive article in yesterday’s Independent: Microbes found miles beneath Greenland ice given new life. I know, the storyline needs a bit more fleshing in. But I figure the mainstream hacks can do that.

Incidentally, if your dog ever digs up an unusually large bone, you might get it checked out by a paleontologist. You don’t know what might have chewed it last.

A beetle needs to own six boots
Or go barefoot instead
Some beetles gnaw away at roots
While others munch on bread.

Lophostemon grandifloris: a local beneficial beetle (Source: Ken Walker, Museum Victoria)

Though beetles ride on lizards’ backs
If given half the chance
They do resent surprise attacks
Preferring sweet romance.

In many ways, you’ll find your life
Is like the life of beetle
So if you ever take a wife
Don’t lose her in the treacle.

The basic idea behind “Carbon Capture and Storage” is enticing: remove carbon-dioxide emissions when coal is burnt and store them safely – so we can enjoy cheap, abundant fossil-fuel energy with no negative greenhouse impact. Fantastic!

The Greenpeace perspective on CCS

And there’s the problem… while a nice idea in principle, the proposal remains, in effect, a fantasy. It’s possible future technological breakthroughs will eventually make the fantasy reality. Such things have happened before. Even so, our boffins haven’t had 100% success in making science fiction come true.

Yes, we now have supersonic aircraft – even spacecraft – things Jules Verne and H.G. Wells could only dream about. But we still don’t have time machines. Some things are imaginable – but very hard, if not impossible, to achieve.

“Carbon Capture and Storage” is of that type. It’s clearly not easy. After all, the incentive to make it work is enormous. CCS would assure the coal industry a secure future in a world compelled reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, the coal industry worldwide – with all its vast resources – has failed to develop large scale, affordable CCS. The most optimistic estimates for when CCS may become a working reality stretch out decades in the future. By any standards, it’s a long shot.

The case for spending public monies on CCS research and development is therefore very slim. Why should the public fund research that’s so strongly in the coal industry’s own interests? Coal is big business, after all.

The best mainstream media reporting I’ve seen on the Rudd Government’s greenhouse policies has been by Kenneth Davidson in The Melbourne Age.

Veteran Australian economic journalist Kenneth Davidson, who has retained his critical faculties

Davidson has become increasingly sceptical of the Rudd Government’s proposals for an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). He’s helped document fatal rorts embedded in the proposal, such as huge give-aways to some of Australia’s worst polluters. In general, Mr Davidson favours a carbon tax, which he sees as simpler to implement and less amenable to cheating.

But Davidson has also moved towards embracing the more radical view that ‘economic instruments’ have been over-hyped in the quest to control greenhouse gas emissions.

He’s part of an international shift in thought towards advocating massive direct government investment to bring down the cost of emissions-friendly energy and activities.

As concern has intensified over global climate change, commentators have often compared the challenge facing humanity to a war.

Yet real ‘wars’ were not fought, in the past, primarily by the use of ‘economic instruments’. Churchill and his team didn’t set up an economic strategy conducive in the long-term to the production of armaments – then sit back and let economic forces win their war.

They commissioned armaments and deployed armed forces – borrowing, begging (even stealing!) as required to achieve their war goals. That’s how to do big things if you’re serious. It applies to almost anything, really.

Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong: Expert at the 3-Card Trick

A happy puggle

“In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology, Echidna… was called the ‘Mother of All Monsters‘”
(Source: Wikipedia)

_________

Because they wear a spikey coat
And rarely show their face
Echidnas have a monstrous name
(A source of some disgrace).

Not fair, because these monotremes
Cause neither strife nor tears.
The juniors, once they have hatched
Have quite delightful ears.

A wary puggle

When little, they’re called puggles
(That’s when they’re not too prickly).
The males have most unusual tools
Which make their wives feel tickly!

You’ll seldom find another beast
So pleasing, yet so spiny
Forget about the fearsome name
It’s cute and fun and tiny!

Yesterday Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched a new ‘Clean Coal’ Institute – backed with the injection of an initial $100 million in taxpayer funds.

James Wolfensohn: loves a challenge

The full title of Mr Rudd’s new initiative is the ‘Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute’. The Institute will have an advisory panel chaired by James Wolfensohn, formerly Head of the World Bank. It’s a nice touch; suitable employment for out-of-work investment bankers is hard to find these days. Wolfensohn’s last two much-feted public roles were ending world poverty and brokering a just deal for the Palestinians. ‘Clean coal’ gives him a go at the hat-trick.

Environmentalists and other nay-sayers have suggested the Government’s infatuation with ‘Clean Coal’ is merely a fig leaf for its pro-coal agenda. They claim ‘Clean Coal’ research is essentially a PR exercise that helps rationalize the continuing expansion of Australia’s coal production and exports at a time of escalating concern over climate change.

That’s an uncharitable view. Better to see the policy as a bold experiment in science fiction. Mr Rudd seems to be trying out the Improbability Drive described by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Real Games, Real Easy

$100 million is $5 per person for every man, woman and child in the country. Launching the new Institute is like forcing everyone in Australia to buy a Lottery ticket. It has about as much chance of paying out. Of course, the priesthood who will work on this obscure branch of improbable technology at public expense are all odds-on winners.