sarren

Tonight, WA is cut off from the rest of Australia, due to floods and fire and now a cyclone up north

Here in Perth we're not impacted by the fires that are burning in all six states. (Fire Map). In NSW and Victoria the fires have been burning since November. But we're not complacent, our Go bags are packed. We've had a close call before, where we got the official text instruction to either evacuate or stay and defend. It was scary, but nothing like the people over east are facing now.

It's devastating. I don't even want to link to articles, it's too upsetting. The loss of human life is bad enough, the biodiversity loss is incalculable. We're mourning.


The only, only, positive thing about this horror is that our pentacostal Prime Minister has finally been forced to acknowledge that there is a link between the fires and climate change. This is the same guy who once brought a lump of coal to parliament in order to laud it. Basically, we're the worst Australia ranked worst of 57 countries on climate change policy

Guys, here's a way to screw the ACHA, call them - Reconciliation

This guy points out it can be shut down, but the Dems should damn well try everything.

In Australia Labor is the left wing party, and the Liberal National Party (the Liberals) is the right wing conservative party.

THANK EVERYTHING. Labor has won decisively

Eight years of Liberals nightmare over. I would have given up all hope for my state if they'd reelected that fuckwit as Premier again.

Even better, One Nation (which should really just call itself the Racist McRacist Party) looks like it's got nothing! Way to go, WA! One Nation and the Liberals screwed up doing a preferences deal - I don't think EITHER of their voting base were impressed with that *G*


So basically the Premier fucked over WA economy (which took talent cos we had a mining boom) and then planned to sell off state assets like Fremantle Port (FFS) and Western Power to reduce the debt. So there were massive protests about that, yay.

And then there was the the controversial Roe 8 project, which environmentalists have been fighting for years and finally the govt said fuck this shit and started tearing up the Beeliar Wetlands anyway, riding roughshod over regulations and not complying with their management plans. People have been chaining themselves to trees and getting arrested.

For those who don't follow Australian politics *g*, our PM just put the smackdown on the Leader of the Opposition, bigtime. This man is VILE. He's a right wing religious nut who believes women don't have the right to 'withhold' sex. Also, fairly importantly for our entire future, is actively working against effective climate change mitigation measures.

Gillard labels Abbott a misogynist 15 minutes of GOLD.

On a more depressing, but entirely unsurprising note, here's a (NSFW) article on “the political persecution of Australia’s first female prime minister” (NSFW images) It stops with me.

Most Australians believe gay marriage will happen - Galaxy poll

If she just said “I believe it is wrong” I could respect that, but Julia Gillard’s stance "I think that there are some important things from our past that need to continue to be part of our present and part of our future," makes me think so much less of her. To justify discrimination as “an important thing from our past that needs to be continued” is mindboggling.

"...we recognise the two fundamental realities we have to deal with: what's happened internationally, and most importantly, Mr Abbott's change in position, his backflip. We'll assess what has occurred over the period up to 2012 where we know that the world will have to deal with what it will do after the first Kyoto protocol period is finished."

WHU???

Transcript of The 7.30 Report with the Minister for Climate Change - How many times can you say 'Tony Abbott backflip' in one interview?


Because I am both a 'broken idealist' and a conspiracy theorist, I have to believe that KRudd honestly believed he could do all that stuff he said he would, and then he got the job and found out who really has the power.


**Quote from Kevin Rudd on the previous government's failure to act on climate change

Gah, I can't find another link to it. In the middle of this page somewhere near the cheery article about a mob murder in India, is a link to a pretty slideshow of the coronation of the Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the new Bhutanese king.

I do like Bhutan.

I don't talk about this much, because, frankly, I don't know enough and also the thought of being preachy makes me cringe, especially since I am not exactly living sustainably myself.

When it finally sank in just how screwed the world is, I decided to go back to uni to learn Stuff. This semester both my units have been about sustainability, and the more I learn the more I can't believe that most of us are going about our lives ignorant of such frightening facts like the world currently using 20% more resources than it actually has.

I went to a lecture by Carmen Lawrence a few weeks ago, who said that politicians only make short term, unscary decisions, because they reckon they have to cling to power in order to be able to enact any policies at all.

I am trying to keep faith with Rudd, but he's not making it easy. If Obama's for real, my god, what can't the world do?


President-elect Obama - "a new chapter of American leadership on climate change."