Hopefully Key watches this…
Obama addresses a climate conference in LA by video:
“Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”
Obviously a relatively glib political speech, but the message is all there, along with some solid targets as well.
It's a shame that NZ doesn't have this kind of leadership.
An interesting press release by the petroleum exploration and production industry (PEPANZ) supports the the fact that the Govt is reviewing the ETS and is "calling on the Government to ensure that the Select Committee’s terms of reference are as wide as is possible and that good ideas and debate are not constrained by either time or ideology."
Bravo PEPANZ! How very nice of the petrol industry to show concern about the process not being constrained by ideology! Interesting choice of word constrained there too. To me at least that would imply constrained with regard to restrictive legislation to reduce carbon emissions, not a bipartisan meaning of a fair and just process relying on scientific evidence.
sexy coal?
National gives Energy portfolio to Gerry Brownlee who describes coal as sexy. Super.
I love the graph he shows in the video. It couldn't be more scientific! He then goes on to make a completely illogical comment (in relation to the graph) about renewable energy sources being non viable in the short term.
Good times ahead...
back, back, back we go
Check this article on the outcome of the National-Act agreement in relation to climate change. Disappointing stuff really. So now we go through the whole process again of "evaluating" the evidence and coming up with more effective policies.
Out of context, this sounds like a great idea - maybe the Labour initiated ETS was too radical, too complex. However, when you put it in the context of this highly politicised environment with parties such as ACT who deny climate change to an extreme degree and only have eyes for economic progress then it is truly a serious issue.
For example, we have organisations such as the NZ Climate Science Coalition who support the National-Act policy. However their leader, an ex-Admril, states that they are "...confident that once the Select Committee has an opportunity to hear all sides of the scientific debate on the man-made global warming hypothesis, it will conclude that climate variation is natural and cyclical..." Isn't that super! What's the point of spending all the money and going through the official process again if the outcome is going to be already determined!
It is unknown how much influence groups such as NZ Climate Science Coalition and the other few extreme climate change sceptics have on the political scene but would have to assume it is significant given the small size of NZ and the influence of organisations such as the Business Round Table. See this article for some of the connections.
Regardless of your personal opinions on the extent of man-made climate change this situation is at least worrying. I just hope the whole process of reinvestigation into climate change & the ETS is transparent and carried out with strong involvement of non-politicised scientists and thinkers. But alas it seems that the result is already determined.
India – moon or poverty?
With the recent confirmation of readiness of India's moon probe, I can't help but wonder if this is the best application of money and scientific minds in a country plagued by poverty and inequality.
Over one-third of India's population, or around 456 million people (World Bank estimates based on 2005 data), live below the new international poverty line. This is a crazy statistic that has not significantly changed even with all the new wealth in India and the rise of the middle class. In many parts of the country new developments coming from local, in some cases fundamental-capitalist-minded, ministers and leaders has increased poverty through actions such as destroying slums to make new hotels (see In Search of Gandhi's India documentary).
I'm certainly not attacking development, progression and the rise of science. These things are especially important in a country where religious and caste divides have a long history of causing problems. But what if these scientists and the funding sources behind them who created this moon mission were able to direct their focus to some of the problems here and now on earth, in their own backyard.
This mission as well seems to have quite a bit of the "I'm in the space race now too, look at me!" type sentiment. The scientific goals of moon mineral testing etc. are very particular and seem (to me at least) to be relatively insignificant in comparison to, for example, a Hubble telescope mission.
One obvious point here is why don't we level the same argument against all space missions? Against projects such as the LHC particle accelerator at CERN? This seems to be a valid argument - i.e. shouldn't we concentrate on fixing our problems here before exploring space? How valuable is knowing obscure details about a distant solar system if thousands are dying daily of starvation? Tough questions.
I agree with something the head of the British Royal Society said recently in relation to these issues. He stated basically that we need to be increasingly aware and considerate of what our money and best scientific minds focus on and put in place more initiatives (such as grants etc.) to get people working towards issues more fundamental for humanity, such as inequality and health.