Getting depressed watching television. Early yesterday our time the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2009 State of the Climate report drawing on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.
Last night on ABC television’s 7.30 Report the spokespeople on climate change for the Government and the Coalition waffled away about who was planning to spend how much on what and how well without giving the data the merest mention. If you need a reason to be depressed about our political system and missed the program live, catch up with it on the ABC website as Penny Wong and Greg Hunt avoid any discussion of the real issues.
And when you are finished with that, spare a moment to look at least at the summary of the NOAA report or to study these graphics that partly tell the story:
A blatant courting of popularity. Having noted that reality television is much more popular than political television I am stooping to expand the scope of the Crikey Election Indicators to encompass the next big ratings hit — Dancing with the Stars.
An honourable man. You can choose your own Brutus, Marc Anthony and Caesar in the current Australian political play called Kevin Rudd is an honourable man. I suppose it is one of those occasions where, if the cap fits, wear it.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Thank you, Richard, for providing me with the opportunity to publish and be read.
Latham is wrong about Rudd.
Others have leak motives, too:
Lindsay Tanner = age-old rivalry
Stephen Smith = fear of losing foreign affairs
John Faulkner = jaded and tired elder staesman
Penny Wong = humiliated over ETS and now on gay marriage
Craig Emerson = jealous ex-lover
Sure, Kevin is bitter that Julia knifed him.
But Mark came to bury Kevin, not to praise him, and Mark said:
“Yet Kevin says she was ambitious,
And Kevin is an honorable man.”
Julia said so yesterday.
I saw Wong and Hunt last night and wondered why there was no mention of this report. I assumed they were too ashamed given they don’t intend to do anything about it and thought it would simply give a free kick to the Greens. Thanks for the Shakespearian quote. I wondered why they were using that turn of phrase. It all makes sense now.
@ John I can’t believe any of those you mention would do so. Rudd yes.
Tamas Calderwood will surely refute these graphs although it will be most interesting to see how he does it.
For the past two days of global warming headlines Tamas has been mysteriously (and ominously) quiet. We can expect an outbreak anytime now.
Wikipedia: ‘The average annual temperature in Moscow is 5.4 °C …, but for the last two years (2007–2008) the annual temperature has averaged above 7 °C …. In contrast, during the first half of the 20th century, Moscow experienced light frost during the late summer months ….’
We know from the TV news in the last few days that Moscow (in ‘the late summer months’) is experiencing record temperatures, as well as the smoke from forest fires. ‘Moscow’s heat record was broken for the second time in a week on Thursday as temperatures soared to 37.7 degrees C … This beat Monday’s record of 37.5’ http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100729/159994984.html
As an inland capital, Moscow does of course experience great differences between winter and summer temperatures (in the winter, I understand, a lot of residents simply put their cars in storage due to snow and ice making motoring impossible … and we all know what happened to Napoleon’s army). All the same, it’s pretty convincing.