If they believed in a God, they would be on their knees giving constant prayers of thanks for the continuing drought – because the prolonged misery of the drought in Western NSW and South Western Queensland gives some strength to the arguments being shouted across various forums by ‘ climate change ‘ advocates.
Rational discussion about this matter has virtually disappeared from our lives.
It is not climate change that is a looming threat to our way of life – it is ideologically driven lunacy. The Western democracies are facing threats to good governance and sensible democratic outcomes; rational discussions are becoming hard to find on any subject of substance.
Biological diversity and political hatred occupy most media reporting, which is rapidly becoming individual advocacy rather than objective reporting of facts.
This idiocy is driven by media and political elites who are wallowing in misleading and ideological campaigns.
Divisions have been created, labels are attached to persons – you are classed as a ‘ denier ‘ by a layer of social commentators if you express doubt or ask for irrefutable evidence of climate change in a forum where they have access to your comments.
Cranky Lizard is reminded of the mobs forming in dusty market places which are surrounded by phallic towers. Mobs form on both sides of the market place and the shouting at each other begins! Shouting and gesturing becomes more frantic, little mobs of foam-flecked faces spurt from the crowds; they make obscene gestures to the other mob across the market place – who reply in kind.
No one is listening, and everyone is right.
What utter nonsense?
There is irrefutable evidence that humans have polluted our oceans with plastic to the point where it is severe and visible. Fish and ocean mammals are dying because of this human rubbish; in large numbers.
Cranky Lizard notes that our global response to this is to provide a forum at the UN, a body created with serious intent and purpose, for hysterical teenagers to shout at adults.
And there can be no doubt that our global climate is affected by the growth of human populations and their associated activity – but – the strident claims that “ the science is settled “ sounds more like a religious slogan each time it is screeched in our Parliaments or spread like fungus riddled molasses across our television screens by zealots.
Fearful claims of oceans rising to swamp island nations writhe their grubby way around our media. No evidence exists of this. Coastal photography casts doubt on these claims. Presumably, the laws of physics still apply and that a body of water will find its level, regardless of the size of that body of water, having due regard for what Cranky Lizard calls centrifugal bumps in large ocean spaces!
Excess atmospheric levels of carbon-di-oxide are branded as the devil in this cocktail of claims and counterclaims and because of the noise and shouting it is challenging, if not impossible, to arrive at any sensible conclusion about carbon-di-oxide’s effect upon our World. A rational observation is that one volcano in Iceland can spew more tonnes of this gas into the atmosphere in a week than human activity can create in 24 months. So how do you equate that?
The whole rickety wagon rumbles on! Men who had Cranky Lizard’s respect, such as Sir David Attenborough have lowered themselves into the political crucible and level personal criticism at popularly elected Prime Ministers for supporting coal mining. Cranky Lizard does wonder what has happened to these people and their commonsense? What is the point of condemning politicians and large numbers of humans for mining coal without providing some suggested solutions to the problems?
And this, the whole madness of solutions…drags Cranky Lizard kicking and screaming into the realm of alternative power sources.
Wind generators, ugly excrescences visually polluting our landscapes produce almost nothing in terms of baseload power; they are entirely dependent upon nature – the wind – to blow always at determined levels: this obviously cannot happen, and therefore the whole wind machine circus seems to Cranky Lizard an expensive and offensive option to power generation. Solar power is terrific if you want to boil a billy of tea in the outback or burn ant's bums off with mirrors, but as a practical solution to providing baseload power for modern industrial cities, solar energy is an intellectual indulgence.
Cranky Lizard accepts, along with the majority of sensible members of our community, that some changes are occurring to our climate. There must be…billions of humans living on the planet make it so. But we are not facing Armageddon; there are sensible solutions to what is happening and addressing the way we manage our water in Australia is one of them. Each year, in an arc stretching from Townsville to Broome about 1 metre of rain falls onto the ground and it all runs North into the Torres strait or the Arafura Sea- this water could be diverted South.
Scaring the living daylights out of our children is cruel and pointless because we are not facing Armageddon. Explaining to them, in a calm and rational manner, the ways available to us to address these matters is the adult way to deal with the challenges we face.
Cranky Lizard does not pretend to have the answers to the global challenges of climate change – but Cranky Lizard states unequivocally; that how we are currently dealing with this is wrong, just plain wrong!
Alternative sources of energy for the human race are not wind energy and solar energy in isolation. Nuclear energy, perhaps nuclear fusion rather than nuclear fission may provide the power we need – nuclear fusion, which joins stable atoms rather than nuclear fission, which splits unstable atoms may well be a solution to be explored; and Cranky Lizard has no doubt that scientists are already doing this.
It seems, and it is, ludicrous, to expect Australians to punish themselves and retard their economy in the name of climate change and zero carbon emissions when vast nations to our North are releasing in one day what Australia may produce in six months. Comparisons such as this are stupid and only serve to increase the cynicism of people within our communities when commonsense tells them that self-flagellating discomfort is pointless.
Australia is a nation of uncommon wealth. We have plenty of water, it is underground and much has been wasted, but it is there and we can use it better – in fact – we must use it better. Our farmers and our scientists are some of the best in the world at producing food for ourselves and for our neighbours; our agricultural techniques are innovative and productive. We have begun to address a severe pollution problem – vast wastelands of plastic, which can be turned into roads, houses and building materials.
Cranky Lizard believes that scaring our children, shouting at each other over dusty market places, attaching labels to groups of people, pursuing niche politics and warm fuzzy dumb solutions to real problems are simply preventing us from dealing with a real challenge.
To reinforce the idea of media-driven frenzy in climate change reporting – Cranky Lizard refers you all to an article written in the Week-End Australian dated 28 September 2019, and written under the By-Line of Greg Roberts, a journalist for the Australian. The article has the headline “ The Great Forest Fire that Wasn't. “ It goes on to describe how the recent fires in Southern Queensland in the Lamington State Forest and the Binna Burra Lodge burn out were all part of a ferocious fire that destroyed centuries-old rain forest, part of the World Heritage and that this catastrophe was brought about by climate change. The only problem is, as The Australian pointed out… it didn’t happen! The reporting of the fire by other print and electronic media was basically and factually incorrect. You read the article for yourself and form your own opinion.
Cranky Lizard also knows that these words will induce hysteria in some who read them, will induce anger and hostility in others and there will be calls for Cranky Lizard’s skin. There will be those that will decide the statements and facts presented here – well, that is all fine, but instead of running about with your hair on fire, stop, think and deal with the problem; leave the hysteria and the politics out of it.
This is a matter too serious for local politics. This is a matter which demands clear thinking, rational discussion and the calm application of logic.
Enjoy your days; life is good and there is plenty of it about.