Copenhagen Cop Out

Before I begin I must confess to being a climate change skeptic and worse than that, according to climate change believers, I neither care about the alleged threat nor do I care to listen to reasonable arguments hoisted to support the cataclysmic prophecy of a 2 degree increase in the temperature.

However, I don't see anything at all wrong with being good stewards of the environment over which we have dominion. I'm not against caring for the environment with reasonable measures but I am against the hysteria of fear campaigns. The last one was the fabricated terrorist threat, but don't get me started on that.

So it is that I read with interest Clover Moore's article on her attendance at a meeting of 80 mayors at the Copenhagen climate change festival. These mayors represent roughly 700 million people from across the globe and they call themselves the C40 group. In a short space of time the mayors have apparently reached "extraordinary consensus on what needs to be done" to combat climate change. David Miller who is chair of C40 and the mayor of Toronto, Canada said in his closing speech at the conference, “Mayors from cities all over the world gathered here in Copenhagen to show that we are on the frontline of climate change. While climate change demands global action, we have shown that we are not waiting for others to act."

The Climate Summit for Mayors sounds like where the real action is happening in Copenhagen. So what's happening at the main event? At the international level? With all those world leaders and environment ministers? Absolutely nothing. They can't even agree on what to have for lunch.

Australia's Prime Minister,Kevin Rudd is an environmental champion and is urging the leaders of the world to action. Using strong emotive language and references to clear consciences and the future for our children and grandchildren, he called on the summit to reach a "grand bargain" on climate change. But even as he delivered this plea the mood is souring and hopes are dimming in Copenhagen. Although trying to remain positive, Mr Rudd said, "I fear a triumph of inaction over action."

Bottom line? We have a useless committee meeting going on in Copenhagen. I am mystified as to why the C40 group of mayors has achieved consensus and are already taking action while the main event is fizzling into embarrassing torpor.

The truth of the matter is that no matter what they say, nations always act, and have always acted in their own national interests and where mega amounts of money are involved, compromise is asphyxiated.

Sources:
MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITOR (Sydney Morning Herald)
December 18, 2009
climatesummitformayors.dk

Schoolies Outrage Over the Top

In this nation of virtual alcoholics, the moral outrage spewing from the media about the behaviour of teenagers on the Gold Coast during 'schoolies' week is an absolute joke.

The event gets talked about and heavily publicized every year so naturally it prospers in the fertilizer of notoriety.It looks like such fun, doesn't it? Makes you wish you were a teenager again so you could spend a whole week drunk and dancing. Throw in the absence of parents and a bit of sex and you are in Heaven. No wonder non school leavers, go to schoolies as well. No wonder it's such a popular event. Thousands of teenagers just having fun.

I want to be a part of that fun. I want to get so drunk that I spend an hour vomiting. I want be smashed so the next day I can't remember what I did the night before. It will be great when someone tells me how I humiliated myself by not being able to stand up. At least they might be able to help me explain the injuries I sustained. I want to spend the night with some girl who is too intoxicated to remember the word 'no.' That would be awesome. I want the alcohol to take away my inhibitions so I can show everyone my penis, and then I can abuse the policemen who try to get me to pull my pants up. Yeah, I'd love to give the cops the finger and abuse them for trying to interfere with my fun.

I want to be so rotten that I fall over and hit my head on the footpath. If I bleed a lot, I'll get loads of sympathy and have a great story to tell in the accident and emergency department at the hospital.If I drink enough, I might even fall into a coma. How cool would that be? Better still, if I drown in alcohol and then go swimming, I could drown in the ocean. Unreal!

I'm not a wowser, and I do drink alcohol in moderation, but none of the above is what I would call a good time. I can actually enjoy myself without alcohol. That was my idea of a fun when I was 16 but Jesus rescued me from that dead end self destructive way of life when I was young. Who is going to rescue our young people before they make the biggest mistake of their lives, or die, or kill someone else? If you think I'm exaggerating, check out the statistics.

Or just laugh it off, and have another drink. That's the Australian way.

twenty ten not two thousand and ten

Next year is 2010. Twenty ten, not two thousand and ten. Twenty ten. We must get this right. We must commence the second decade of the twenty first century by saying the year correctly. This is upsetting me a lot. Every time I hear someone say two thousand and ten, I feel my blood pressure surge. I am not very far from violence.Seriously.

Think back about a hundred years. In 1909, were people saying that the next year was going to be one thousand nine hundred and ten? No they weren't. They said nineteen ten.

So, next year is twenty ten. That's logical right? Stop saying it the wrong way. You too Prime Minister Rudd. You talked about the twenty twenty summit so why are you saying two thousand and ten. It's wrong. Stop it.

Which is the correct way to say the year 2010?
	twenty ten
	two thousand and ten
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