This purple tumour of a furnace is our future sleepy hobbits.
Rachel Stewart continues to be the only reason why you would regularly read the NZ Herald, and her latest blistering column on the damage Dairy farming is causing the environment is another must read, especially as Stewart’s views are now being echoed by the Huffington Post…
New Zealand is proud of its share of worldwide dairy export; it has 6 million of the world’s 271 million dairy cows, which is substantial given that the human population is only 4.5 million. The government and dairy industry congratulate themselves on their reputation, but the dark side of dairy is increasingly unsettling people. The environmentally damaging impacts of dairy and animal welfare concerns will soon make this a much less viable economic activity. New Zealand should take the lead in championing a real ‘green, clean’ agenda, rather than claiming this is currently the case while the opposite is true.
As TDB was noting yesterday, the continued increase in erratic and extreme weather caused by the pollution we are pumping into the environment is here, it’s now.
The culture of denial simply can’t gloss over the environment voters are seeing outside their windows each day now.
We know the weather is becoming more extreme, we can see it, we can feel it. Our bones are not lying to us, our politicians and the vested corporate interests in continuing with pollution are.
We are entering a phase more dangerous and more damaging to us as a species than at any other time in our short history on this planet. Our exponential population growth coupled with mass inequality, desperation and a huge carbon foot print now out of control is a bleak reality we don’t wish to contend with because we are too busy enjoying the latest gadget, app, or selfie posting.
What politician wants to pull away the things that so distract us to confront the looming reality?
We need a cultural, political and dare I say it, spiritual revolution to prepare and galvanise us for the adaptation we are going to need to adopt if our economy, society and culture are to survive the complex and environmentally damaged future we are plunging rapidly into.
Rachel Stewart is forcing that debate, very few others have the courage.
From Stewart “For a start, it’s time to stop getting caught up in the individual fights and realise that climate change is a mission that must be tackled on a World War II scale. All hands on deck.”
Yes, and let’s start by prosecuting world leaders who don’t take serious steps in international courts for crimes against humanity as happened after the end of World War II
We live in a totally corrupt, commercialized society which is run by banks, corporations and opportunists, for the short-term benefit of banks, corporations and opportunists. The general populace are just the ‘collateral damage’ that are required to make the system work for a few more years.
One of the many dismal aspects of that corruption and commercialization is the refusal of the media to mention reality, along with the refusal of government (central, regional and district) to mention reality or allow it to be mentioned. Effectively, we live in a fascist police state.
Another dismal aspect is the total refusal of government at any level to make any preparations whatsoever for the real future: their policies are all based on the totally absurd notion of a never-ending supply of liquid fuels and the totally absurd notion that pollution will have little effect over the coming decades. But that refusal to make any preparations whatsoever for the real future goes hand in hand with the policies of denial of reality and the subservience of government to banking and corporate interests.
I say government, but it make no difference which political party we refer to: all of them, including the Greens, are firmly locked into denial of reality, continually lie to the populace, and are very much part of the problem.
Arctic sea ice is at a record low and is failing to form normally in the midst of the freeze season:
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/#/extent
Antarctic sea ice is at a record low with several weeks of melt season left:
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/#/extent
Atmospheric CO2 is about 175 ppm above the long term average, and rising is spectacularly as a consequence of the absurd policies of governments worldwide:
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_800k.png
And ‘nobody’ cares.
What is worse, the current system will probably continue to function for at least another 3 and perhaps as much as 5 years.
http://energyskeptic.com/2017/we-all-fall-off-the-net-energy-cliff-in-2022-just-6-years-away/
Yes and more!
Rod Oram, business pimps and bank economist still plague our news and airwaves with economic forecast that are irrelevant and dangerous.
No govt elected from the current flock of well groomed and managed candidates will do anything to change that.
The lie that business creates jobs is a bullshit not revoked by any party.
For those who continue to be taken in with this employment myth, then think on how people met their community needs before business took over.
A different model is essential to the business/corporate fiasco.
Climate shift is a symptom of a lot more being wrong than emissions.
Let’s not mention that, in the same week, Perth had its COLDEST February day (maximum daytime temp) EVAH!; it was snowing in Tasmania with a 14 degree BELOW ZERO wind chill; and all of NZ’s southern ski fields received yet another coating of the magic fluffy white (cold) stuff in high ‘summer’.
But hey, feel free to close one eye, stand on one leg, and announce to the world your understanding is unbiased and perfectly in balance…
Climate Realist…..Do you understand what climate change is? The very things you bring up are part of CC, not a refutation of it.
100%.
Cherry picking deniers possibly not capable of a wider view.
Climate realist is an odd name for some one who dosnt understand cause and effect or he would have mentioned the storms being spun off from record temperatures in the North of WA over the last 2 weeks. And his assesment of the coldest temp dosnt ring well with me becuase i can walk outside where its fucken 40 degrees.
There are conceptual ideas and the real world. One lives in fantasy and the other lives in the real world
That’s why we need science to clarify the picture and sort the confusion held by many.
I say we fine polluters with an even and just hand and canceal subsidies of the worst offending sectors starting with debt then sacrifice 3 million diary cows to the gods and have a fucken bbq to celebrate our comming of age.
Dairy has to go.
Consumerism has to go.
Energy use has to fall drastically in all forms.
Population will and has to fall.
The longer we leave it the worse it will get and the smaller any surviving population will be.
Climate Change™ used to be Gorebull Warming™ yet when it didn’t warm they modified the name / sales pitch: besides, climate(s) have always changed and always will – ain’t nuffin’ new. And I noticed the recent hot weather on mainland Australia has mellowed out – however it is still snowing in Tasmania all weekend (link below).
http://www.bom.gov.au/tas/forecasts/mtwellington.shtml
Maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon but… four months into the cyclone season and nary a one. A few tropical lows have formed, then fallen apart, due to the lack of extra-warm sea water. No cyclones yet lots of snow ~ yep, summer times sure are a-changin’.
ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Wellington_(Tasmania)#cite_note-5
Not sure what you’re trying to prove so-called “Climate Realist” (aka Climate Denier?). A few out-of-context “facts” doesn’t disprove anything. Perhaps you might do better to look at the wealth of data from NASA and NOAA from the Greenland and Antarctic ice core samples; CO2 levels in the atmosphere; and rising temperatures.
The information is there and in great abundance. So trying to score a few points with flippant, out-of-context facts, isn’t going to change anything. (Except reveal you to be a climate change denier.)
Wonkypedia Frank? I discovered this site a few years ago and enjoyed it for its ability to fill in the blanks of NZ’s politricks beyond my circle. However, the alarmist Warmy claims rose to such a fevered pitch I had to join in to, how would one say, keep it on an even keel.
You want “facts”? Australia’s cold snap continues: 10˚ below ‘average’ in S.E. Oz: http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#T2_anom
Record-breaking summer cold in Antarctica: http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/data/view-data.php?action=view_image&product=surface/plot/TAC.GIF
30˚ below zero in the Arctic: http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
Imagine that ~ the Arctic Sea is still frozen solid: http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/
15 metres of snow in California and Nevada even though it was declared history decades ago: http://unofficialnetworks.com/2017/02/snowiest-ski-resorts-in-north-america
As a surfer and snowboarder, for five and four decades respectively, in numerous oceans and on a number of continents, I’ve learned the comings and goings of warm/cold cycles (with the help of local meteorologists who are always more than keen to talk shop with a fellow acolyte). It’s the sun, as they say, stupid.
http://www.climate4you.com/SnowCover.htm
Enjoy the brief spell of humid weather while it lasts…
Your left out one important one, so-called “Climate Realist”;
ref: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2016-was-the-hottest-year-on-record/
The links you refer to are weather-related. Which is different to climate. Need I explain this to you? Better still, check this out:
ref: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/weather_climate.html
Not sure why you’re beating the anti-climate change drum. We’re way past that. If you want to believe fairy tales of “conspiracies” and “hoaxes”, knock yerself out.
That is why many of us prefer the terms Climate Destabilisation, Climate Instability or Climate Chaos.
The equatorial-polar thermal gradient has been wrecked by overheating due to excessive generation of carbon dioxide, resulting in wild contortions of the jet streams and wild swings in weather.
Never let facts interfere with a ignorance-based perspective: just keep denying reality and pretending that overconsumption of fossil fuels does no harm, like a carefully trained chimpanzee.
+100… the “terms Climate Destabilisation, Climate Instability or Climate Chaos” are much more evocative and a far better marketing of the issue…maybe they need to become currency
people are confused by ideas that there could be another ‘Ice Age’ for example in Europe …when they are expecting a ‘hot house’ and death by heat…raging fires out of control etc eg I was confused on hearing about ice melt in one part of the Antarctic and ice extension /thickening in another part
…it creates a mixed message
….dare I say it?…maybe there needs to be a getting together of Climate Scientists with PR consultants, advertisers, educators ?
…so all messages are consistent
The most important bit.
“What to do?
For a start, it’s time to stop getting caught up in the individual fights and realise that climate change is a mission that must be tackled on a World War II scale. All hands on deck.
We must stop believing governmental and corporate lies about why we can’t economically do such things, or anything. Because, you know, the economy.
We need to wise up to the fact that continuing to compartmentalise our endless individual battles – pay equity, dirty dairying, transport, roading, autism funding, education, intersectional feminism, partisan politics – is a waste of precious energy.
Don’t get me wrong. All are beyond important but, ultimately, unless we tackle climate change and right now, there’ll be no human rights or environment to actually fight for.”
I have been banned by the Standard for 3 years for basically saying what Rachel Stewart is saying. Any chance someone could post this article by Rachel Stewart, with particular focus on on this bit.
“We need to wise up to the fact that continuing to compartmentalise our endless individual battles – pay equity, dirty dairying, transport, roading, autism funding, education, intersectional feminism, partisan politics – is a waste of precious energy.”
We need unity to save the world.
And therein lies the root of the predicament. Fuckwits, control freaks and servers of corporate interests and self-interest deem their own political philosophy more important than reality and decide what can be discussed and what cannot be discussed; in doing so they ensure there is no public debate and that humanity remains on course for absolute catastrophe.
Thank you TDB for not censoring truth-tellers, and for occasionally highlighting things that matter.
+100 …Go Paul
Paul: “What to do?”
I’ve been a gardener since childhood: a considerable time in human terms. I’ve seen over the years the effect on plants of the changing climate. I’m in no doubt about what’s happening.
I’ve also been interested in science for most of my life; at uni I read a great deal of literature on the topic of climate change, among other subjects. Over the last couple of decades I’ve listened to the increasing note of urgency from scientists when they’ve been interviewed on radio.
In the last few years, it seems to me that urgency has been replaced by resignation: it’s too late to prevent catastrophic change. A relative who has worked in a science unit agrees with me: that’s what the scientists they worked with were saying.
The time to take pointful action was long ago; perhaps in the 1950s, when – according to my my eldest brother – his lecturers had begun to talk about CFCs and the ozone layer over Antarctica.
The world did manage to deal with CFCs; that was the time at which further steps to attempt to slow climate change ought to have been taken. But it was all talk, no action. Now it’s too late.
It is not too ate to stop the man made carnage but nature will continue to respond for some centuries to what man has done.
I hear John Key was suggesting green vests with flowers on them for cows to wear, so they would fit the ‘clean green’ image the tourists come looking for. Perhaps that will be the next job for the new tourism minister to promote?
Never mind the burps and farts, they can be ignored.
Key is a fuckwit unqualified to enter a climate discussion.
+100…Key would have brought in the big corporate interests TPPA which would have been an absolute environmental disaster for New Zealand!
And never mind the humungous carbon footprint of every tourist who arrives in NZ, drives (or gets taken by road) to various sites, stays in an energy-wasting hotel, eats food with a massive carbon footprint etc.
After all, it only money that counts in the eyes of politicians. Oh, money and jobs, however low-paid, menial and self-destructive the jobs might be.
Got to keep the Ponzi scheme going just a little longer.
Yes, bizarrely even the Greens go on about our great tourism industry, trying to argue, this is environmentally friendlier than dairying. They never comment on all the air traffic and the gases emitted by them.
NZ does not need tourism. Neither does the world.
Dear Deniers and other “Climate Realists”,
Our environment, and the organisms that inhabit it, are inextricably linked. One effects the other, and this interaction is constant and dynamic. It has existed since life first evolved on this rocky planet. The environment shaped the life within, and the organisms in turn affected the environment in which they lived.
Climate change is the environment’s reaction to the imbalances created by Homo sapiens.
A new equilibrium will be the result, and this may or may not be something we can adapt to using technology. Indications are this equilibrium will involve considerably fewer species, as the pace of change will be too great for most organisms to evolve the necessary adaptions required to prosper.
Because of our dependance on other species (you will recall learning about food webs and ecosystems at school), it is therefore highly likely the numbers of Homo sapiens are about to decrease.
So, we are facing a climatically unstable, hostile, more lifeless environment, with fewer people desperately dependent on their technological abilities to survive.
Hopefully I have been able to join the dots for you.
THIS is the Brighter Future some of you voted for.
Good luck.
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