It's not the rich, stupid!

The Self-Attribution Fallacy

George Monbiot

"On Sunday evening I witnessed a remarkable thing: a debate on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral between Stuart Fraser, chairman of the Corporation of the City of London, another official from the Corporation, the turbulent priest Father William Taylor, John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network and the people of Occupy London. It had something of the flavour of the Putney debates of 1647. For the first time in decades – and all credit to the Corporation officials for turning up – financial power was obliged to answer directly to the people.


It felt like history being made. The undeserving rich are now in the frame, and the rest of us want our money back".

If the world is not watching certainly Melburnians were!

The City Square was awash with demonstrators, police and then on-lookers who filled the outskirts of the Square spilling onto Swanston Street. Office workers were coming out of the offices in droves to view what was happening in their City Square. And it was a disturbing scene of force and counter force...hardly very edifying for the world's most liveable city!

Protesting is an essential counterbalance to feelings of inequity and social justice and our inability to deal with such events is likely to lead to civil disobedience borne of frustration that may have consequences beyond what we would have hoped. We live on a wire and if we stretch it too tight it is likely to break!

Abbott doesn't have to answer any questions...as no-one asks them!

Climate Spectator

Pricing in Abbott's carbon extremism
Giles Parkinson

How, exactly, do you assess the impact of the Opposition threats to rescind the carbon pricing legislation? As yet another tortured step in the evolution of the carbon market? Or just a really good couple of days for whiteboard manufacturers?

With each day that passes, the conservative Coalition in Australia more and more resembles the Tea Party reactionaries in the US, promoting policies that defy the science, are economically illiterate, are based on a distant technological past, and might as well have been orchestrated by Alan Jones, the NSW radio shock jock and Coalition puppeteer – or Rush Limbaugh, his US equivalent.
Scarily though, the prospect that this strategy might actually succeed threatens to add billions of dollars to the cost of energy in the country, and to the cost of carbon abatement. Sovereign risk has never been a greater threat. Read on........

What a lot of ABC and Fairfax dribble!

Of late I have been struck by the media portrayal of Julia Gillard in particular but also its thirst for the sensational! If its not bad enough having Andrew Bolt taking over the pages of the The Age it was last night on 7.30 Alan Jones being interviewed. Needless to say I turned off just as I have turned of RN Breakfast with Kelly and Grattan pontificating on whatever seems to be a way of pricking the Government bubble with flim-flam commentary that would make Tweedle Dum and Dee look insightful! 

Today The Age's report on the Queen's welcome by the PM takes the proverbial cake...all of it! The Age reported that "William Hanson, a British etiquette and protocol expert, told radio 3AW (Sic Fairfax) that Ms Gillard should have curtsied and worn a hat as a sign of respect for the Queen. Not doing so was "churlish", he said. "She is your Prime Minister, she is representing the people but ... the Queen tops her, the Queen is the top of the tree, so as a sign of respect, whatever her opinion on the monarchy is, she should have curtsied," Mr Hanson said.

We have a price on carbon...and not a drop of blood spilt!

The Age 12 October 2011

Tony Abbott's "pledge in blood" to repeal the carbon tax legislation if the Coalition wins office has been scoffed at by Finance Minister Penny Wong. "It's a bit dramatic isn't it really, it's like something out of a Boy's Own manual," Senator Wong told ABC television. Abbott's comment was not only 'dramatic' but also desperate and should send a message to us all of his preparedness to do whatever it takes to win power. Ironically it was the the other Tony Abbott that supported Howard's pricing of carbon!

If only.....

Is Abbott starting to feel the heat!

Climate Spectator

Rob Burgess

Now that the 18 bills constituting the government's Clean Energy Futures package have entered the gladiatorial pit we call the House of Representatives, the frailty of Tony Abbott's political future is becoming more clear. 

While he stands with shield and sword ready in that sandy arena, Malcolm Turnbull sits high in the Emperor's box eating grapes and wondering, "shall I speak or shan't I?" His late scratching from the parliamentary debate yesterday was a delay in any open hostility against the man who deposed him, but it does not rule it out. 

Turnbull will, at some point, stretch out one arm, his thumb hovering in a horizontal position, before surveying the chanting crowd and turning said appendage up or down. Whether or not he speaks on the carbon package, he is not a man to be silenced outside the chamber. A Turnbull verdict could come at any time. Read more.....

Whose written the longest suicide note?

Tony Abbott accuses PM Gillard of writing the longest suicide note in introducing a price on carbon! I would have thought it was a long term insurance policy to reduce the risk of the planet dying! Abbott is surely is the one who is suicidal in his approach to climate change.

Eucy oil the go!

I used to live in Wedderbun and at weekends heading to Melbourne was a delight as we passed through Inglewood and the eucy factory that spilled out the wonderful scent! And now it might do more than just smell good!


Climate Spectator

The other eucalyptus oil
Finally, some good news. GE announced this week that it has joined a consortium including Virgin Australia to research and develop commercial biofuel for the aviation industry. The group – which also includes Renewable Oil Corporation, the Future Farm Industries CRC, and Canadian biofuels company Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation – will focus on pyrolytic conversion of biomass from mallee eucalypt trees and plans to have a pilot production plant operating in Australia by 2012. For GE, the development of renewable biofuels is a good fit for its sustainable transport portfolio, which includes the development of fuel efficient jet engines. “Innovation and creativity will play enormous roles as part of the transition to a low carbon future," said Ben Waters, Director of ecomagination, GE Australia and New Zealand. "We already invest a huge amount in the development of more efficient and alternative energy sources in the aviation industry and beyond, and we hope to bring a huge amount of knowledge to this partnership.”

Scuttling the solar solution!

Why the Right won't eat their greens

Climate Spectator

Silex Systems CEO Michael Goldsworthy could hardly contain his frustration this week after announcing the closure of Australia’s only solar cells manufacturing facility – at a cost of 30 jobs at the company’s Homebush plant in Sydney.

The solar cells division was already struggling against the price and volume of overseas producers, and the rising Australian dollar, but Goldsworthy has no doubt that the killer blow came in the policy vacuum on the future of solar tariffs, particularly in NSW, where the industry has been brought to a standstill. It has made it impossible for his company to make forward investment decisions. All of Australia’s clean energy developers, indeed the entire energy industry, understands this problem well.

And further on....

Like Ayres, and many others, Goldsworthy says there appears to be animosity towards green technology.

“We have got better sun than any other country, but there seems to be a philosophical opposition at the moment to solar power,” he told Climate Spectator. “It is just inconceivable – we have Coalition governments being elected in NSW, Victoria, and WA leading the charge to scale back any support for renewables, And we know the federal Coalition is less disposed to renewables and the whole climate change issue.”

Who won?