farmdoc's blog post number 553

Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Wikipedia says that though they’re best known from the writings of Lewis Carroll (1832-98), their names were first used by George Byrom (1692-1763). Whether the Tweedles are twins or brothers or unrelated, these days their names signify two people who are alike and never contradict each other. I was going to write that regarding global warming and climate change, prime minister Rudd and opposition leader Turnbull are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. But they’re not. Because they’re competing with each other to see who’ll give the biggest subsidies (aka kickbacks) to Australia’s big polluters under the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Messrs Rudd and Turnbull are men with children and without consciences. And the latter prevails. Clearly. Yesterday was International Day of Climate Action which, via 4,500 events in 181 countries, was the most widespread day of environmental action in our planet’s history. Its symbol is 350 – because 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit. It’s now over 384 ppm. And rising. Yesterday, ordinary people called for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis. Whether Messrs Rudd and Turnbull are the Tweedles or not, we’re wasting our time if we think they’ll provide it. (P.S. Here is the countdown to the United Nations Climate Change Conference [COP 15] in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.)