That climate summit: Going through the motions
03 November 2021
CHRIS OVERLAND
ADELAIDE - It must be apparent by now to all world leaders that the Australian prime minister and his government are merely going through the motions of committing to the target of net zero emissions by 2050.
Their policy is a confection of aspirational statements backed by no credible analysis, no real plan and certainly no genuine commitment.
Their policy boils down to relying upon as yet unknown technologies to solve the problem and, of course, to piggy-back on the efforts of others.
They refuse to specify the cost of getting the recalcitrant National Party to sign up to the target despite literally years spent demanding that the proponents of major climate change initiatives specify the costs down to the cent.
Of course, none of this really matters now.
The huge emitters like China and India have no intention whatsoever of scaling back their emissions.
This is so because they are still determined to catch up with the Western world in terms of wealth and power, and energy generation is the key to this endeavour.
They are indifferent to the fate of the Pacific Island nations or, in fact, the world as a whole.
Unless and until the neoliberal juggernaut is at least slowed down significantly, if not stopped altogether, then talk about keeping the temperature rise at or below 1.5ºC is just so much hot air.
In that sense, Scott Morrison is in lock-step with most of the developed world, which has shown neither the will nor the capacity to mouth other than platitudes and weasel words about climate change.
Our grandchildren will despise us for our greed, stupidity and folly.
Many knuckles, too few chuckles? Way back, one fun aspect of Google searches was the metrics that Google proclaimed as a result of each search. There grew a sport of pairing words such that Google had not matched. For instance, a search of “out of Africa” just now yielded “about 43,700,000 results.”
So commonplace is what reads as “out of Africa” it is not noticed unless paired with extreme concept. Take an unrelated concept like ‘knuckles’, and lo, images are dragged from back of the mind.
Now Google yield with ‘knuckles’ is much less “About 583,000 results.”
While Google yield with ‘chuckles’ is even less “about 170,000 results.” This might be advanced to suggest “out of Africa” is hardly much of mirth.
It seems most folk use or understand the phrase "going through the motions" . So Google "going through the motions" yields “about 4,650,000 results.”
That 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow continues till 12 November 12. If from that conference, the trend in climate metrics continues, solar exposure will need remedy such as shading and screening (lotions being a shade of screening).
Google yield for "going through the lotions" is minuscule, “about 4,710 results” which goes some way to saying many the knuckles, too few of chuckles.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 09 November 2021 at 12:36 PM
Here's some more bad news:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/11/08/climate-change-lies-alan-kohler/
Posted by: Philip Fitzpatrick | 08 November 2021 at 09:55 AM
My dear William, I cannot be sure but believe it would have been in the late 1990s under Tony Blair's infamous 'Third Way' administration.
There is an interesting book by Feargal Cochrane, 'Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement', which was published by Cork University Press back in 1997:
http://www.ulsternation.org.uk/unionist_politics.htm
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 04 November 2021 at 12:35 PM
My Dear Bernard - Would you please enlighten me as to when Lord Banside made this statement, before or after his politically getting into bed arrangements with the late Martin McGuiness?
My late sister considered Paisley as having sold out for power. She found the title Lord Banside to be in poor taste, as a landowner of farmland stretching from the Banside at Maddydoo, Co Antrim, since the 1600s. Slantie.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 04 November 2021 at 08:36 AM
My Dear William - Baron Bannside PC once proclaimed that you cannot be an Ulsterman without being an Irishman.
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 03 November 2021 at 03:58 PM
Australia's Prime Minister is reported to have said, "What is needed now is for us to move on, that is what is important to the Australian people." Echo, it seems, of "Don't you worry about that."
So, all together now, Don't you worry about that, chat, Don't you worry about that, clap, Don't you worry about that, oi, oi, oi.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 03 November 2021 at 02:41 PM
Ach now Keith, McDonald's give Hamburgerology Certificates to their crews.
Designed not by the original McDonald brothers' founders, but by the fast-talking Ray Kroc.
I wonder if Morrison, Albanese and those of like ilk have obtained Motor Mouth Ossification Sprucking certificates.
None better than that late Ulster political hack the Rev Ian Paisley.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 03 November 2021 at 01:40 PM
Without science yet also with scant conscience?
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 03 November 2021 at 01:06 PM
Agreeing to ban or reduce methane is a bit of a mixed bag. While New Zealand taxes cattle on the methane they are reputed to produce, it is a sometimes overlooked fact of life that humans also produce methane and the number of humans in the world is increasing exponentially.
No one seems to want to politically recognise that fact of life for some reason.
Methane from garbage dumps and sewerage works also is hard to reduce, given the huge amounts that are currently produced. The easy way to get rid of methane is to burn it (I briefly mentioned an example of that aspect in my book 'Small Steps') but this simply produces more CO2.
Posted by: Paul Oates | 03 November 2021 at 12:41 PM
Headline from Aunty, 3 Nov 2021: 'Australia refuses to join global pledge led by US and EU to cut methane emissions'.
Methane has a global warming potential (GWP) 84 times greater than CO2 over a 20-year time frame.
While methane is not as persistent as CO2 and tails off to about GWP of 28 over a 100-years it is estimated to contribute around 25 percent of immediate global warming effect due to human activity.
Curtailing methane emissions would deliver quick wins. Gas must be held to account and agriculture needs to step up to the plate. We are all together in the same life boat.
_________
I notice that this morning that Albanese of the Labor Party agreed to back Morrison of the Coalition's position on methane. We are governed by men and women without principle or any ambition beyond their short-term electoral prospects. As Chris Overland has written, "Our grandchildren will despise us for our greed, stupidity and folly" - KJ
Posted by: Stephen Charteris | 03 November 2021 at 12:07 PM