Living well is the best revenge

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’ . This past week I haven’t felt too positive and optimistic. I’ve been anguished about many things – including the deteriorating situation in Egypt [1] and Lebanon [2] and Jordan [3], the opposition to a tax levy to fund infrastructure reconstruction in Australia’s flood-affected areas [4], and the government’s slashing of programs aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions [5]. Of course I have no personal control over these things. English poet and clergyman George Herbert (1593-1633) (pictured) said (regarding the awful things happening in our world) ‘living well is the best revenge’ [6]. But what does ‘living well’ mean? Different things to different people, I reckon. I live a blessed life: I’m healthy. I love a wonderful woman. She loves me. I have beautiful children and grandchildren who are an endless source of love and pride. I have stimulating and rewarding work. I live in a comfortable house on picturesque land in a sublime landscape. I have enough money to do whatever I choose (within reason). I live a life of freedom in a truly democratic nation. And I consciously try to live as humbly, gently, respectfully, generously and decently as I can. This isn’t a complete list. But you get the drift. Every day of my life I count my blessings. Of which there are many. I realise, and cherish, that of the seven billion people alive today [7], I’m among the most privileged and fortunate. Which isn’t self-congratulatory. Just honest.

I hope you're right, Tim.

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. The Bureau of Meteorology has just released its Annual Australian Climate Statement 2010 [1]. It says 2010 was our coolest year since 2001. Question: what does this tell us about global warming? Answer: nothing – because weather’s short-term and climate’s long-term [2]. In fact the Bureau’s Statement says that the 10-year period ending in 2010 was our warmest on record. Atmospheric CO2 continues to rise. Inexorably so. In the year to November 2010 it rose from 385.99 to 388.59 ppm; and its rise isn’t slowing [3]. Further, governments – especially my country’s – aren’t doing much about it. At least that’s my take. I admit I’m no expert in this field. So I rely on the media and books. Though as a cup-half-empty man (Darling sister Sue wants me to change. I’d like to, but I don’t know how.), maybe I’ve invoked confirmation bias [4]. Anyway last Monday’s ABC Science Show was entirely devoted to eminent climate change expert (and former Australian of the Year) Tim Flannery (pictured) [5] giving a talk and then answering questions. Surprisingly, Flannery was upbeat about global warming and climate change mitigation processes and future outcomes. The program’s an hour long [6]. If you’re already positive and optimistic about these matters, don’t bother listening. But if you aren’t, it’s well worth an hour of your time. Almost certainly, once you’ve listened you’ll declare: ‘How positive and optimistic is that’.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium – comprising eight health-connected items. This week…

1. research showed regular sunscreen use significantly cuts melanoma risk [1]. It cuts the risk of squamous and basal cell cancers too.

2. research showed sunlight exposure cuts the risk of mature-onset diabetes – mediated via vitamin D [2]. But even weak sunscreen – e.g. for melanoma prevention – markedly lowers vitamin D production.

3. research showed daily low-dose aspirin reduces the all-cancers death rate by 34% (and the stomach and bowel cancer death rate by 54%) [3]. It protects against stroke and heart attack too.

4. research showed overweight and obesity are associated with an increased all-cause mortality; and to a lesser degree so is underweight [4]. All-cause mortality is lowest when the Body Mass Index [BMI] is normal or just below normal, i.e. 20.0-24.9.

5. research showed lap band surgery’s effective in people with a lower BMI than that presently deemed acceptable by the US FDA [5]. Thus the FDA’s considering lowering the minimum BMI from 40 to 35 (and from 35 to 30 for people with other health problems).

6. the 16th UN Climate Change Conference [COP16] began in Cancun, Mexico [6a, 6b]. The health connection? It’s obvious. But COP16’s a giant ho hum.

7. I saw this fascinating video about what sits on Oliver Sacks’s office desk [7]. The health connection? He’s a neurologist.

8. darling Indi began a duck egg business unit within Daylesford Organics [8]. The health connection? Indi has the flu. Get well soon, Indi. xxxxx

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

On ignoring a greenwash alphabet soup

Twelve days ago, Hepburn Wind celebrated the groundbreaking for its two community-owned wind turbines. Its website’s account of the event [1] is similar to its email to members, but lacks the following 84 words: The only disappointing aspect of the day was a protest organised by a group with the misleading name 'Australian Environment Foundation'. The group denies the existence of climate change and supports landscape guardian groups to target renewable energy projects, even supplying signs, banners and protesters. The protesters numbered around 20 and included few locals, and while Hepburn Wind supports the right of peaceful assembly, we believe there is no place in our community for abuse and intimidation – especially in the presence of children. The Castlemaine Independent, interviewing Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth [2], reported it well [3]. As I’ve written [4], AEF’s linked to the Institute of Public Affairs [5] and commingled with Timber Communities Australia [6]. Funded by Big Business [7, 8], IPA and TCA are climate change sceptics if not deniers. I can’t find out who’s behind Australian Landscape Guardians [9, 10] but I’ll bet it’s a greenwash organisation – as AEF is – and not a grassroots community one. It could be the brainchild of the nuclear energy industry [11]. Be this as it may, I respect the right of AEF, TCA, ALG or anyone else to protest. But not to be abusive and intimidatory in so doing. However it seems more of the same’s in store [12]. Ho hum.

Sustainable House Day 2010

Today’s Sustainable House Day 2010 [1]. It’s the tenth annual SHD since the first one in 2001. Australia-wide, today a record 270 sustainable houses are open to the public [2]. It’s been said the recent national election swing against the incumbent government reflected disenchantment with its poor performance on global warming [3]. Whilst a comprehensive global warming mitigation plan must include major government intervention, it’s known that individual action, especially regarding energy conservation, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a major degree [4]. SHD’s website says that each year the average Australian household contributes 13 tonnes of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere (i.e. enough to fill more than 700 balloons every day) whilst using an average of 73,000 buckets of water a year (i.e. enough for around 12 baths a day). The aim of SHD is to show Australians how housing can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and water too, by the use of appropriate design and equipment without compromising comfort and enjoyment. I live in a sustainable house, but it’s not part of SHD 2010. I wasn’t asked and I didn’t volunteer. It’s a privacy thing. Anyway, if you’re in Australia and you’ve nothing better to do today than help save the planet, visit a sustainable house [5]. Admission’s free.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. Queensland independent MP Bob Katter dismissed as ‘lightweight’ the positions held by esteemed climate change experts Sir Nicholas Stern and Ross Garnaut [1a]. Even allowing for possible left-wing bias, this account of the man who’s pivotal in determining our next government, is frightening [1b].

2. this koala (N.B. koalas aren’t bears) was lucky [2a]. Cedric the Tasmanian Devil was less lucky [2b]. Both animals’ plights were man made. Ho hum.

3. The Public Speaker began a 3-part series on ‘How to Be a Great Guest Speaker’ [3]. Good stuff.

4. treehugger.com reported that China uses 45 billion disposable chopstick pairs annually, i.e. 130 million a day. This needs 100 acres of forest each day. So China’s government’s pressing for increased use of disposable chopsticks. [4] Ho hum.

5. Nutrition Diva explained ‘How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs’ [5]. I’m more interested in how to make perfect soft-boiled ones.

6. someone called Paris Hilton was arrested in Las Vegas on charges of cocaine possession [6]. She’s a serial arrestee who in 2007 was jailed for a drink driving matter. Hopefully (but unlikely) she’ll get another jail term. If so, someone should lose the key. She’s a spoiled brat. The media should ignore her narcissistic antics.

7. darling San Francisco daughter [DSFD] sent a link to this hilarious YouTube clip (which needs a Google or YouTube account to view) [7]. As DSFD wrote, ‘hay hay hay!’

8. darling Artist as Family enjoyed more wonderful media coverage for the Food Forest [8]. Well deserved, AaF.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

List: 'Meet 10 of the World’s Most Famous Trees'

Today’s ‘List Friday’. Wikipedia says the Anne Frank tree was a 150-170-year-old horse-chestnut tree in Amsterdam’s city centre; and it’s mentioned three times in Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl [1]. For the past several years it’d been infested with moths and a fungus. In November 2007 the municipal authority condemned it as unsafe and declared it should be cut down. But the next day an injunction was issued to stop its removal. Despite subsequent remedial activity, 11 days ago – on 23 August – it was blown down by high winds that broke it off a metre above ground level [2, 3]. Though dead, its legacy lives on via several saplings that are thriving in various corners of the world – just as Anne Frank’s legacy lives on via her Diary, museum and garden. Also via the Anne Frank virtual tree [4]. Today’s list, appropriately enough, is from treehugger.com. It’s title’s self explanatory: ‘Meet 10 of the World’s Most Famous Trees’[5]. Posted on treehugger on 17 August, the slideshow it includes the Anne Frank tree which it says ‘still stands’. Me? I’ve seen only two of the 10: Pebble Beach’s Lone Cypress, and a Drive-Thru Californian Redwood. But I think every single tree in the world is famous – by using up CO2 and so doing its best to mitigate global warming and climate change.

A massively underwhelming experience

Last Thursday I started Bill McKibben’s new book Eaarth [1]. Its main premise is that due to global warming/climate change, the world we once knew has gone forever, and we have to adapt to our new world whilst tyring, however vainly, to minimise future global warming. It’s sobering stuff. Especially as yesterday there was a general election in Australia for the House of Representatives and half the Senate. And the approach of the two main parties to global warming and climate change is abysmal at best. Indeed Liberal leader Tony Abbott’s a climate change sceptic if not denier [2]. So no choice there. The Greens are better on that issue, but their Middle East policy’s awful [3]. As the Liberals are better on the Middle East than Labor, my House of Reps vote was down the ticket [4]. On my Senate ballot paper I put The Climate Sceptics last, Family First and the Shooters and Fishers down there somewhere, and a general scramble above that. Maybe mine’s a wasted vote. But no-one – I repeat, no-one – is giving global warming/climate change anything remotely like the undisputed top policy billing it deserves. In short, voting in this election was massively underwhelming. But be this as it may, not for a moment did I forget that in the global context, it’s a privilege to be able to vote. And that to a fair degree our parliamentarians are accountable to us voters.

You can fool me all of the time

On Saturday 17 July, the next Federal election was scheduled for Saturday 21 August. So today’s day 13 of the 36 day campaign period. And already I’m sick of it. It’s so predictable. And boring. The party leaders have no long-term vision, and no coordinated policy platform. They espouse only pap. And on the overriding issue of global warming and climate change they’re absent: the Government proposes a citizen’s talkfest [1], and the Opposition zilch because its leader’s a climate change denier [2]. How I yearn for politicians who are different. And innovative. Who inspire rather than aspire. I was about to write ‘like Barack Obama’. But the merest reflection reveals he’s a massive disappointment. A better candidate than President is Mr Obama. To find an inspirational elected political leader, maybe one must hark back to Abraham Lincoln. I’ve written [3] that Perhaps the most famous words Lincoln said in his life came at the end of his Gettysburg Address – regarding ‘government: of the people, by the people, for the people’ [4]. If only that was true today. Lincoln’s second most famous quote could be ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time…’ [5]. When it comes to politics, I’m foolable. For I don’t care. Even so, I doubt my ability to stay sane during the next 23 days until my fellow Australians and I vote. Unless I switch it all off. Literally. Which is what I’ve resolved to do. It’s the sanest decision I’ve made lately. Ho hum.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. and indeed yesterday marked four years that Hamas has illegally held Gilad Shalit incommunicado after kidnapping him [1]. And still the world tolerates the Hamas terrorists and denies Israel its legitimate right of self-defence against them. Shame.

2. the BMJ published research showing no association between the risk of early childhood cancers and mothers’ exposure to mobile phone base stations during pregnancy [2]. Hmmm. Interesting.

3. the Invasive Species Council told us that in the Concord woods made famous by Thoreau, weeds are responding to climate change faster than native plants [3]. Ho hum.

4. another warning was published about the hearing effects of listening to risk to MP3 players [4]. Not one study’s shown that listening to MP3 players improves hearing.

5. treehugger put out a ranked list of Australia’s most sustainable cities [5]. Does anyone care?

6. I came across this compendium of pet care and welfare topics [6]. I’ll read some when I have time.

7. I read this Grammar Girl piece about when to use ‘which’ versus ‘that’ [7]. It’s something that’s always puzzled me.

8. the Media Department of Daylesford Organics triumphed again [8]. Oh, that photograph!

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

GOM, SAD and Solar

It’s no coincidence I called myself a grumpy old man [GOM] in June [1], and I wrote of seasonal affective disorder [2] in July [3] and August [4]. For here in Tasmania the three winter months – June, July and August – are cold, dark and wet. Though feeding hay’s mandatory as is chainsawing a wattle that felled a fence last week, farm chores in winter are no fun. So it’s the perfect time to light the woodheater and curl up with a book. Last week I read Solar [5], the newest novel by acclaimed English writer Ian McEwan (pictured) [6]. I couldn’t wait to read a book marrying McEwan’s undoubted writing skills with the theme of global warming/climate change. But, sadly, my disappointment matched my expectancy. My major gripe was that the main character, Nobel Prize winning scientist Michael Beard, wasn’t likeable. And neither were the lesser characters. Also McEwan’s writing quality’s uneven; and big text chunks are irrelevant to the storyline. It needed, but didn’t get, a good edit. I doubt it’d have been published if penned by an obscure writer. I’ve whinged about mediocre books by other fantastic writers – John le Carré and Philip Roth [7, 8]. Solar joins this list. Whether it’s the halo effect, or because these writers are so famous and powerful that no publisher dares edit their work, it’s the readers who suffer. Or was it only that I read Solar in winter when I’m a GOM due to SAD? Ho hum.

P.S. Today’s the winter solstice. So from tomorrow, daylight hours will be longer.

Their smoke, my ersatz depression

You’d think it’d be common knowledge, even in this civilisational backwater called Tasmania, that fires put carbon into the air and so add to global warming and climate change. But that doesn’t stop Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited undertaking 200 planned burnoffs in Tasmania each autumn – ostensibly to germinate seeds in the ground after the chainsaws, excavators and skidders have done their work. These aren’t minor burns, mind. Their smoke plumes resemble nuclear mushroom clouds. The burns not only load the air with carbon, their particulates reduce visibility and, more importantly, aggravate lung diseases like asthma and emphysema. But does that stop the forces of darkness (pun intended)? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question. They even have a website, don’tcha know [1]. Recently some environmental activists highlighted Forestry Tasmania’s arrogant, woeful and arguably negligent disregard for the public and planetary good. Here’s the background [2, 3], and here’s their creative response [4]. Will it do any good? Oops, that’s another rhetorical question. I find it all so depressing. Which reminds me of this wonderful article in the 1 March New Yorker, titled ‘Head Case” Can psychiatry be a science? [5] The author writes that the US National Institute of Mental Health estimates over 17M Americans suffer from depression. And he quotes a psychologist who thinks this number’s ridiculous — not because people aren’t depressed, but because in most cases their depression’s not a mental illness but rather a sane response to a crazy world. Yessir.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal and the President of the Royal Society, said Australia should ‘step up’ on climate change [1]. Even that’s a no-brainer, it won’t make a skerrick of difference.

2. the Get-It-Done Guy published an interesting article titled ‘Writing Good E-mail Subject Lines [2]. Every person who writes an email would benefit from reading it.

3. an Annals of Internal Medicine paper concluded that a leg length discrepancy of only 1cm is enough to accelerate knee osteoarthritis [3]. The problem’s that a 1cm discrepancy’s almost impossible to detect clinically; and x-ray involves radiation exposure.

4. Meadow Lea margarine, made by Goodman Fielder is still GE-free. But Goodman Fielder’s in the process of being partially taken over by pro-GE multinational giant Cargill. [4a]. If you’d like to keep Meadow Lea GE-free, click this link: [4b].

5. Nutrition Diva wrote about how unhealthy microwave popcorn is [5]. Don’t fret. In the same article she gives us a recipe for healthier (and probably cheaper) homemade microwave popcorn.

6. when a New York chef offered cheese made from his wife’s breast milk, NYC’s Health Department said it’s not for public consumption [6]. I can’t fathom why not.

7. Australian scientists announced they’ve identified an early warning sign for Alzheimer's, evident in the brain years before the disease causes any cognitive decline [7]. That’s great. But currently there’s no proven prevention for Alzheimer’s.

8. darling Emily was promoted to co-manager of the Prince Bandroom [8]. Good for you, Em. I’m proud of you. Go, girl. xx

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

Earth Hour 2010: A warm and fuzzy failure

Earth Hour 2010 – that’s EH10, if you must – was last night. Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007. The idea’s to turn off all lights for an hour from 8:30 p.m. I didn’t turn mine off: First, on a practical level, my electricity’s solar, so turning off lights hardly lowers CO2 emissions. Second, on a symbolic level, my house can’t be seen from any public road or any neighbour’s house, so no-one but me (and Sergey and Larry via Google Earth) would know if I turned off my lights or not. And third, on an ideological level, my opinion hasn’t changed since I wrote this a year ago. Meanwhile the 15th UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, i.e. (forgive me) COP15, generated massive media hype but no real progress towards changing this graph. So apart from its feel-good effect – which though warm and fuzzy is of no practical import apart from swelling the coffers of its organiser WWF – on a bottom-line basis EH09 failed abjectly. EH10 will too. For though actions (and inactions) of individuals can do much to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and thus global warming and climate change, the necessary massive changes can only occur by the unified policies of all governments world-wide. But politicians need to be popular – because those in democracies want to be re-elected, and those in totalitarian regimes want not to be overthrown. So despite EH10 the CO2 graph will continue to rise – likely more steeply. Ho hum.

Wordsmith, electric cars and Better Place

I have a new friend. In the blogosphere. His blog’s Wordsmith. He’s Canadian. And he’s an interesting chap. Two of his latest four blog posts are about cars. Excluding F1, my latest one was on 5 February. So today I’m fixing that situation: This item in yesterday’s Age said Better Place’s third (after Israel and Denmark) large-scale charging network for electric cars will be in Australia, with a national roll-out by late 2012. Better Place predicts by 2020 10-20% of our national fleet will be electric, and by 2035 almost 100%. I don’t know, and can’t find out, if Better Place will generate its own electricity, or if it’ll use grid power. The latter raises the question as to whether a plug-in electric car using coal-fired electricity pollutes more or less than a fossil fuel powered car. Or even a fossil fuel (non plug-in) electric hybrid. Speaking of which I was disappointed to see here, also in yesterday’s Age, that only 1.1% of new cars in Australia in 2010 will be hybrids – little altered from 1% in 2009. And this 1.1% won’t rise much until petrol reaches A$2 a litre. Of course it’d rise sharply if our federal government showed some real concern about climate change and global warming, and introduced incentives to buy hybrid or electric cars. I doubt it’ll occur; but you never know. Meantime Better Place shouldn’t hurry to meet the late 2012 national roll-out target date. Charging stations sitting idle due to few customers could be its worst nightmare. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 663

Today’s ‘List Friday’. My country – Australia – has a reasonably democratic system of government, abundant resources, a high living standard, unconstrained mass media (well, apart from considerable constraints necessitated by the profit motive), a fairly strong civil society, and an acceptably efficient bureauracy. Given all this, it’s immensely disappointing to me as an Australian citizen, that my country ranks a quite lowly 50 of 163 countries in Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index 2010. The EPI scores are based on 25 performance indicators across ten policy categories covering environmental, public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators (and thus the EPI scores and ranks) gauge how close each country is to established environmental policy goals. I’m shocked by some of the countries scoring more than Australia’s 65.7, e.g. Mauritius, Colombia, Albania, Nepal. But of course it’s no surprise the USA scores 63.5 and ranks 61. Australia’s scores on the 25 indicators are here. The ‘Score (% proximity to target)’ column shows we’re brilliant (i.e. 100% or so) in some categories, but we’re pulled down by the ‘Climate Change’ category (27.64%) – which accounts for 25% of the EPI. So until my government pulls its proverbial finger out, my country will be a perennial environmental bridesmaid. And never a bride.

farmdoc's blog post number 646

Yahoo Answers! I’ve belittled it [1]. But when I sought the provenance of the aphorism ‘The more things change the more they stay the same’, Yahoo Answers! offered the best account [2]. (Its origin is French, dating from the nineteenth century.) Why did I search for it? Because Farmdoc’s Blog’s 2009 Australia Day post [3] is just as applicable today. If not more so. I continue to feel blessed I live in a free and democratic nation. But simultaneously I’m ashamed of its weak-kneed approach to the mankind’s greatest problem – due to its subservience to Big Business and especially the coal industry. Fie! The 2009 Australian of the Year – Mick Dodson – was well known, a celebrity even, but at least not a sportsman or entertainer. Which is a step in the right direction. His 2010 successor – 57-year-old Professor Patrick McGorry (pictured) – was, until his appointment last evening, not even well known. Which is a further step in the right direction. From Victoria, he’s a youth psychologist and an advocate for mentally ill young people [4]. I’m 110% in favour of his appointment. Talking of numbers, he was clear favourite to win, with betting agency Centrebet rating his odds at $1.36 – well ahead of his nearest rival at $3, with the third favourite a distant $9 [5]. This year’s the 50th anniversary of the first Australian of the Year [6]. Unless major global warming abatement happens soon, there mightn’t be an Australian of the Year in 2060. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 626

A day or two after COP15 ended last 18 December, prime minister Rudd said Australia will do ‘no more and no less’ than other nations to fight climate change. What an attitude. It makes me abhor Mr Rudd for his manifest mediocrity. He’s a middle-of-the-road man. Bland. Insipid. Gutless. Because of him, my country, which could be a leading nation in the fight against global warming and climate change, is destined to remain in the international ruck. Obscure. Undistinguished. Insignificant. I write these words having just read this article by Evan Osnos in the 21 & 28 December New Yorker. Titled ‘Green Giant: Beijing’s crash program for clean energy’, it’s an expose of China’s innovative and promising green energy program. Which is astounding. Exciting. Hopeful. The same day Mr Rudd announced his (and Australia’s) mediocrity, here’s what Thomas L Friedman wrote in the New York Times about Denmark’s green energy initiatives. Denmark’s population’s under 25% of Australia’s, yet the Danes’ initiatives put us to shame. They make me envious. Ashamed. Despondent. What’s the difference between China and Denmark (on one hand) and Australia (on the other)? Leadership quality, obviously. Also Denmark has no coal resource. And China sees the idiocy of burning coal; and its leadership’s not beholden to the coal industry. Trouble is, in this Australian election year prime minister Rudd’s subservience to the Australian coal industry won’t lessen, and neither will opposition leader Abbott’s. Thus will my nation be prevented from distinguishing itself in responding to the greatest challenge of our time. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 602

Yesterday was darling Kate and Brendon’s 10th wedding anniversary. To me, their wedding day seems…not like the proverbial yesterday, rather a few weeks or months ago. But when I think about what they’ve achieved in the last 10 years – farm, family, friendships, community and much much more – I remember that as you age, your perception of time speeds up. Even so, I can hardly believe I’m the father of a woman who’s been married ten years. On Kate and Brenno’s wedding day, the CO2 concentration in the air was 368 parts per million by volume. Today it’s 386. That increase is no misperception. It’s an incontrovertible hard scientific fact. Right now, COP15 is about halfway through. And so far I’ve heard no news to assuage my pessimism. Yesterday’s Walk Against Warming was intended to put pressure on those in Copenhagen to come up with the goods – though there’s no universal definition of ‘the goods’. Despite good turnouts at the Walk locations, I reckon the main outcome was some exercise and camaraderie for the walkers. Because to have impressed the apparatchiks in Copenhagen, millions of people needed to turn out in each country. And clearly this didn’t happen. So yesterday’s Walk was, predictably, what Thomas L Friedman has called a ‘green party’. Whereas what’s needed, he says, is a ‘green revolution’. I wonder what the air’s CO2 concentration will be on Kate and Brendon’s 20th anniversary.

farmdoc's blog post number 596

Today COP15 – the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference – opens in Copenhagen. Given this graph, it’s for sure the most important conference this year. Probably this decade. And maybe this century. My country produces only about 1% of my planet’s carbon emissions. But we’re the largest per capita carbon emitter. So we have a responsibility to lead at COP15 – not to follow. Despite whatever words prime minister Rudd and minister Wong may utter, it’s actions that count. So in the three days preceding COP15, what’s the highest profile event in Australia? Not a global warming/climate change demo. Oh, no. It’s the Sydney Telstra 500. A 3-day car racing carnival around a street circuit in Sydney’s Olympic precinct. Of course the racing cars aren’t zero-emission Formula Zero, but gas-guzzling V8 Supercars. To make matters worse, the event’s sponsored by the NSW government – which should know better. Damn it. And also Telstra. This week I was invited, and I agreed, to be a panellist in My Telstra Experience – an online group of Telstra customers who feed back to Telstra their telecommunications and media experiences. I’ll be telling Telstra what I think of motor racing. And especially its sponsorship of it. I’m only one person, but I’ll do what I can. Meantime COP15 runs until 18 December. I’m pessimistic about the outcome. I hope I’m wrong.