I’ve been listening to the debate on climate change, ad nauseum, for longer than I want.
And one thing is clear.
No one knows the real cause of climate change.
I’ll repeat that.
NO ONE knows the real cause of climate change.
Yet.
But no one can realistically dispute the fact that our climate is changing.
Certainly not me.
In the 17 years that I’ve been in the bush, a hot day has crept up from 38C to 43C.
There are many scientists who think it’s a natural cycle of the earth.
We’ve had climate change before.
The Ice Age put an end to dinosaurs.
For which I’m grateful.
I’d know I’d be rushing to cross to the other side of the street if confronted by one.
This was looooong before the industrial age was even a gleam in our eyes.
I’m not a climate change sceptic.
I’m a sceptic as to its cause.
Scientists have been wrong before.
A case in point.
When typhoid and diphtheria were raging around the world, it was presumed to be caused by ‘miasma’. Something in the air. It was thought to be unavoidable and the upper classes wore face masks on the street to protect themselves.
The real cause was the raw sewage thrown out windows, into the streets, rampaging along and over the top of the gutters. Spreading disease.
Underground sewage pipes fixed the problem immediately.
Until recently, peptic ulcers were universally treated as a dietary problem. Complicated by too much stress in your life. It was considered to be a lifestyle disease.
The treatment never cured one person.
In 1982, Australian researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren went against the tide, ignored the shouts and derisions that they are wrong. And proved peptic ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in your gut.
Antibiotics are a dream cure.
And so have the collective opinions of the public been completely wrong.
Not so long ago, in the 1980′s, a person with AIDS was a pariah.
She and her family were hounded out of Australia by the residents of her neighbourhood and parents from her local school.
“She’s a threat to the safety of our children”, they cried.
“If she bites my child, my child will die”, they screamed.
Eve and her family were given a safe haven in New Zealand.
Not one person acquired AIDS nor died from having contact with Eve, as was originally presumed.
The only death was Eve Van Grafhorst when she was 11 years old.
Sounds scandalous today, doesn’t it?
We’re now at that stage with climate change.
The science hasn’t caught up with the cause.
We don’t know the true cause, so we don’t have a cure.
We’re in a state of ignorance. And mild hysteria.
Much like some cancers.
No known cause. No reliable cure.
We’re shrouded in a universal ambience of menacing doom and gloom when cancer is discussed.
We have to learn more about climate change before we can presume that measures governments put in place will work.
There are many respected scientists around the world who do not believe the current hysteria about its cause.
Many point out that undisputable records exist that show the warming of the climate began 300 years ago.
Long before the mechanisation of the world as we know it today.
But these scientists are shouted down by everyone who has a barrow to push to prove that climate change is caused by the current crop of scurrilous citizenry – you and me – eschewing self-denial and frugality and shamefully choosing comfort and some luxury in our lives.
Listen to any interview about climate change.
When someone puts forward a differing view, the interviewer doesn’t ask:-
“…That’s interesting. Why do you think that way?”
What do they do instead?
They attack.
Like vultures.
They sink their interviewing talons into the face of the person with a differing view and start shredding them by chanting the prevailing world view that industry is to blame. Because you and I want things.
And then move on to condemn the intellect and integrity of the person with a differing view, without ever asking:-
“…Why do you think that way?”
And offering them an uninterrupted opportunity to answer.
When I was a child, I learned that people who attack you because you have a difference of opinion lack confidence and self-esteem.
It’s not possible – right now – to get an honest debate going on the subject.
Because another agenda is in place.
We’re told time is running out and we must hurry and do something before it’s too late.
So………
Many scientific research programs on climate change are funded by government agencies. And research grants are handed out to those scientists who will back up the government’s viewpoint on climate change.
No money is given to scientists to disprove the government’s stance.
And the government PR machine makes sure no one with a theory to disprove their intractable position will get a credible hearing.
It reminds me so much of the era of McCarthyism.
Dare to disagree or be different, and you’re condemned to a life of ostracism.
But what’s my real agenda here?
It’s the concept of punishment. When in doubt, wield a big stick.
It’s the willingness of all governments to punish their citizenry because they have no real answer or solution to the problem.
But they have a need – and they presume a requirement – to be seen to do something.
And the best way to do that is to exert authority.
And how do they do that?
By dispensing punishment.
“Punish The Polluters” is the mantra chanted over and over again.
“Make people pay for burning fossil fuels.”
“Make people pay for the harm they’re causing.”
That’s you and me.
Unless you only eat food that grows in the wild;
Never rid yourself of bodily wastes;
Live out in the open with no cover; or in caves or other forms of natural shelter;
Never use electricity, gas, coal or petrol;
Have no personal possessions that are manufactured;…..
…..You’re a consumer of resources.
Which makes you a polluter.
They want to punish you and me for:
Eating both animal and plant food.
Both take up land that needs to be cleared. They emit gases. And require the use of equipment to plant and/or nurture, feed, harvest and transport.
Using water to drink, cook and keep our bodies and clothes clean.
And – oops! – water the garden.
Our gardens provide habitat for dwindling wildlife and soothe the mind, soul and spirit when life becomes too stressed.
But the prevailing mantra is to make you and me feel guilty for ‘wasting water’ to keep the garden alive.
For wanting to be comfortably warm in winter on frosty, icy cold days and cool in summer on hot, windy, 43C days.
For wanting to travel from A to B in a car rather than ride a push bicycle for 70km up and down hills to my nearest regional centre.
For wanting to acquire goods and services that I absolutely need, some that I really want and others that I covertly desire, thereby adding to ‘pollution’ because makers have to make and service people have to travel.
Why are they punishing me – and you – for – to be honest – just being alive?
And the very people who shout the loudest about punishing the citizenry are the biggest abusers of comfort and wasters of resources.
Look at any politician – including the Greens – and you witness a scandalous waste of energy and resources.
First is food.
Barack Obama is visiting us in March 2010.
Do you think he’s going to be fed a restricted diet of two snags and a handful of chips? Washed down with mineral laden, chlorine purified city water?
Do you think every plate put on the dining table at The Lodge or Kirribilli House will be licked clean?
Do you think no animals will be chosen from afar – the best on the land – and transported to Sydney/Canberra to be sacrificed for this table?
What about the canteen in Parliament House?
Do you even for a minute think it resembles the high school slush served up and disguised as – food?
Do you think a parliamentarian ‘brown bags’ it?
Do you think they give a thought to their waste?
Take water.
Do you know how much water is wasted by Water Boards because they don’t fix their leaking pipes or harness storm water that roars its way straight into the ocean?
Billions of litres of water that could be harnessed and fed back into homes across the country without punishing you and me for using it.
The gardens at Parliament House, Kirribilli House and The Lodge haven’t been ripped out and concreted over to avoid water usage.
Have you ever walked into a government office in a major city that wasn’t air conditioned so it’s cool to cold in summer and warm to stifling in winter?
With regard to travel, I notice that all public officials have at least one car with a driver; they travel by plane whenever they can get away with it; and never use SKYPE or video conferencing.
It’s a must – and a given – that they always travel to meetings.
Especially the media hungry politicians like our prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who will travel anywhere in the world for a camera call.
Even the leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, never hesitates to hop on a plane to spread his message of punishing the masses for using/wasting energy.
Ditto for Al Gore.
His framework regarding climate change suits politicians, so he gets heard everywhere and travels by air to all conferences.
How do the conference attendees get there?
Air, car, train, bus. It’s all energy used to get there.
And then there’s the conference centre itself.
Air conditioned for cooling and heating.
Food prepared and served.
Conference agendas printed and distributed to all.
Electricity is consumed in zigawatts.
How much pollution is created and emitted just to hear Al Gore talk about how we should be restricting our levels of pollution?
And this is not a frugal man.
His monthly electricity bill for his mansion is more than you and I pay in a year.
I quote from Snopes.com
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, Tennessee, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service.
Lights, camera, action!
Regarding goods and services, governments world wide have reputations for consuming the lions’ share of goods and services they have no need for.
And waste prolifically.
Government buildings lit up like neon signs at night.
Paper, paper, everywhere!
Systems put in place that don’t work.
Systems put in place that aren’t needed.
Because it takes a gargantuan amount of effort and paper dossiers to build up public service empires so you can ruin reputations and discredit your enemy.
As witnessed every time you tune in to ‘Yes Minister’.
Or read the newspaper.
So why are you and I being punished for wanting to live a reasonable life?
Why is our lifestyle being threatened before we know beyond a doubt, that we’re the genuine and only cause?
Victor and I live a somewhat frugal life in our rural environment in the Central Tablelands of NSW.
Yet we’re also extremely comfortable.
And surrounded by luxury.
We share one car.
We fly nowhere.
But we do drive close to 60,000 kms per year to get from A to B in the bush.
We live and work in a modest 3 bedroom, 28 year old farmhouse with one bathroom.
No week-enders. We’re living the dream here.
We depend on rain water collected in our two water tanks for house water.
All meals are prepared and served here because we’re far from take-away – and also don’t like it.
My vegetable garden provides us with some of our fresh herbs and vegetables all year long.
We have no plasma TV, only one small screen, portable TV which, if turned on at all, is turned on for 2 hours at the most.
No dishwasher. No clothes dryer.
One Miele front loading washing machine.
One brand new air conditioner which has been on for 3 days so far this year.
Our modest brick house is insulated.
A slow combustion wood heater provides winter warmth. The wood is collected from fallen, seasoned timber on our property.
Energy efficient light bulbs occupy every lamp.
Office equipment is turned off at the end of the day.
And all lights turned off at night.
SKYPE is for telephone conferencing rather than travelling to meetings.
We are more than comfortable.
Our luxury comes from our lifestyle and our garden.
For 17 years, Victor and I have been developing a hectare of sumptuous garden, dug and planted by us, without the use of chemicals. It’s totally organic. And the 90+ species of birds that fly in and fly out each year are our best labourers when it comes to insect pests.
That we have an enviable country lifestyle is noticed.
And commented on.
By Rob Ingram in his Country Squire page in the February 2010 edition of Australian Country Style magazine.
I do not abuse my hard earned privileges that are an integral part of my lifestyle.
But governments abuse privilege every tick of the clock.
Who pays when the electricity authority puts up their power bills?
Who pays for politicians’ increased airfares when airlines raise tariffs because they’re ‘punished for being polluters’.
Ditto for petrol rises when politicians travel by car?
And all the other perks and trappings they enjoy as part of their privilege of office?
You. And me. Of course.
They don’t dig deep into their own pockets to come up with the extra charges. Or do without. Or cut back.
They just raise taxes.
Hiding behind the mantra of ‘punishing the polluters’.
Which, of course, is never them.
When all scientists with independent views can be heard equally, both pro and con, without fear of condemnation, then I’ll feel comfortable that a workable solution is imminent.
Until then, punishment of the masses seems to be the only hat trick governments know.
They’re experts in the ploy: when in doubt, always blame the innocent public.
Sometimes it does come back and bite them on their derrières.
For instance the news today that Dr Andrew Wakefield of the UK has been discredited.
He produced a research report that linked – without a doubt – the measles vaccine to autism. And was backed up by government and health authorities.
After almost 20 years, it was proved that his scientific research was flawed. And questions asked about what influence the source of funding for his research had on his outcome.
In the intervening years, measles vaccinations dropped dramatically and children were subjected to a very serious disease with side affects such as blindness and deafness.
Because the doubters who questioned the scientific research were ignored and/or shouted down.
But those doubters were watching and it became obvious to them that autism was not an outcome for those children who were vaccinated.
This Guerrilla From The Bush knows scientific research presented without questions asked and a balanced debate allowed, is a road to false conclusions based on hysteria.
Or hidden agendas.
And I have no patience with the calibre of people who hound the innocents when questions are asked.
Remember little Eve Van Grafhorst?
The same type of people who hounded Eve and her family out of Australia are now forcing their ideas about climate change on us, borne of ignorance, haste and hysteria.
Not of intelligent research and open debate with information presented in an informed and balanced manner.
This Guerrilla From The Bush has trained every one of my pet dogs to be good dog citizens since 1988.
The first thing I learned is punishment gets you nowhere.
Knowing what outcome I want to achieve, combined with the temperament and personality of each dog, determines the steps I take and the commands given.
And believe me when I say I’ve transformed some very difficult dogs into loving, stable companions.
Respect, trust, incentives and rewards always inspire my dogs to jump through hoops for me. They gobble up the TLC!
What do you respond to? The big stick? Or respect and trust?
Take care,
Carol
