• Australian politicians mock climate change as temperatures soar to record 47C
    45 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Australians are no strangers to hot weather. But for the past week large parts of the continent have suffered a heatwave of unusual length and intensity. Temperature records were beaten in cities and rural towns around the country. Shops across Sydney ran out of fans, and New South Wales energy minister Don Harwin urged people to beat the heat by going to the movies. More than 40,000 homes in South Australia experienced blackouts as electricity networks struggled to cope with the increased demand placed on the grid by air conditioners. But in the far-western Sydney suburb of Penrith – 60km from the coast – options for getting out of the heat are few. Penrith has the dubious honour of being Sydney’s hottest suburb, with summer daytime temperatures four or five degrees higher than in the inner city. During last week’s heatwave, the suburb sweltered through an [B]unheard-of 46.9°C[/B] – a record for the city. “Penrith has had about 12 days above 40 degrees this summer, which is clearly unusual,” says Karl Braganza, climate monitoring manager at the Bureau of Meteorology. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the Australian government’s response to this steadily unfolding public health and safety crisis would include some acknowledgement of the elephant in the room – climate change. That’s certainly the opinion of the Bureau of Meteorology, which warned in its state of the climate report, published in late 2016, that “the duration, frequency and intensity of extreme heat events have increased across large parts of Australia”, and that “Australian temperatures are projected to continue increasing”. Conservative governments in Britain, Germany and elsewhere have taken steps to reduce their nations’ carbon emissions, often suffering politically as a result. But no such political courage seems to exist in Australia. Instead, absurdity reigns. [B]At the height of the heatwave last week, treasurer Scott Morrison, one of the most powerful politicians in the country, brandished a lump of coal at parliamentary question time, declaring coal to be the future of Australian energy. “This is coal. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be scared!” [/B]Morrison proclaimed to the laughter of his government colleagues. They passed the lump of coal around among themselves as Morrison claimed the opposition Labor party, which has proposed ambitious renewable energy targets, are suffering from “coalphobia”. It was reminiscent of the stunt pulled in 2015 by US Republican senator James Inhofe, who infamously threw a snowball on the floor of Congress as “evidence” that global warming is a myth.[/QUOTE] [url]https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/19/australia-new-normal-47c-climate-change[/url] RIP Earth.
Not to worry, the melting ice caps should cool things down.
why are these people so fucking retarded
[QUOTE=Saturn V;51849506]why are these people so fucking retarded[/QUOTE] Because they think weather and climate are the same thing.
I'm pretty sure 5-10 years ago people were saying "We're going to see the effects of global warming in the next decade" Well it's been a decade you fucknuts, now it's happening.
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;51849556]I'm pretty sure 5-10 years ago people were saying "We're going to see the effects of global warming in the next decade" Well it's been a decade you fucknuts, now it's happening.[/QUOTE] apparently being told its the hottest year, year after year isnt enough for them, or being told the ice caps are completely melted, or that its above freezing in the north pole durring its 3 month SOLID NIGHT cycle.
Welp. We had a good run
[QUOTE=Cabbage;51849711]Welp. We had a good run[/QUOTE] No we didn't.
Man, this is the thing that always bothered me about Australia, the general political apathy. No one really cares who's in power anymore, people care more about getting their democracy sausage than they do about who runs the country.
It's been alarmingly hot in other areas of the world as well. Here in Michigan it was close to 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend. Typically this time of the year we're still scraping ice off of our windshields and suffocating ourselves in scarves. Things are not okay.
[QUOTE=grr164;51849845]It's been alarmingly hot in other areas of the world as well. Here in Michigan it was close to 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend. Typically this time of the year we're still scraping ice off of our windshields and suffocating ourselves in scarves. Things are not okay.[/QUOTE] It's around 15°C in Toronto right now when the average temperature this time of year is -4°C and the warmest is usually -0.9°C. It feels great to not be living in a freezer this early on.
[QUOTE=grr164;51849845]It's been alarmingly hot in other areas of the world as well. Here in Michigan it was close to 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend. Typically this time of the year we're still scraping ice off of our windshields and suffocating ourselves in scarves. Things are not okay.[/QUOTE] Same here in Illinois, it was in the 60s yesterday. Felt like late spring/early summer rather than the dead of winter.
It's the middle of Feburary in the northen hemisphere but it feels like the middle of April. I guess it could just be a coincidence but I remember winter slowly getting warmer and happening later and I'll trust the scientists who actually get paid for and have researched climate science for years over people whose job and education requires them to write and pass/veto legislation.
[QUOTE=The golden;51850033]Money and greed. Basically what is going to destroy our species.[/QUOTE] That's only temporary. Eventually wanting to save the ecosystem would become the "greedy" thing to do once there are not enough able-bodied people left alive to support your lavish lifestyle.
It's felt like early summer here (South Carolina) for the past week and a half- sunshine, warmer weather and little-to-no rain. Honestly feels like we're skipping over spring straight into early summer at this rate.
Stop calling it a heatwave when it happens consistently every year. That is only justifying the moronic belief that things aren't warming up.
Doesn't Australia have the most to lose from rising sea levels? Man, there's some real schadenfreude in this for some people.
For Americans that is 116 degrees in Freedom Units. Which is absolutely absurd. [QUOTE=grr164;51849845]It's been alarmingly hot in other areas of the world as well. Here in Michigan it was close to 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend. Typically this time of the year we're still scraping ice off of our windshields and suffocating ourselves in scarves. Things are not okay.[/QUOTE] It's already 80 here in Florida and muggy. Our two months of winter are over and it's a tragedy.
I just realized that I don't think I have ever heard anything positive from any Australian politicians whatsoever. Maybe that's just the news not covering the good ones, but the ones they cover are usually those approving of destruction of the Great Barrier Reef or some other bullshit. It has been an unusually short winter where I live as well.
[QUOTE=Black;51850495]I just realized that I don't think I have ever heard anything positive from any Australian politicians whatsoever. Maybe that's just the news not covering the good ones, but the ones they cover are usually those approving of destruction of the Great Barrier Reef or some other bullshit. It has been an unusually short winter where I live as well.[/QUOTE] The Australian media is pretty shit, last time I checked.
This title hurts me. Just because x weather is occurring at place y does not mean that climate change is z. Anyone who uses local weather in reference to climate change comes across at best as misinformed and at best pandering to some group. For the record, I firmly believe climate change is real, a serious threat to social stability in the near (my or my children's lifetime) term globally, and is strongly related to human activities.
[QUOTE=Black;51850495]I just realized that I don't think I have ever heard anything positive from any Australian politicians whatsoever. Maybe that's just the news not covering the good ones, but the ones they cover are usually those approving of destruction of the Great Barrier Reef or some other bullshit. It has been an unusually short winter where I live as well.[/QUOTE] The opposition is currently performing very strongly, and have a raft of good proposals that if seen through will really help Australia economically and environmentally. But you'll never see a right wing voter in Australia even countenance the idea that our left party are sound economic managers, despite all the evidence proving it to be so. There's a blind hatred there - the same one that hears the word 'privilege' or 'class' and immediately raises pitchforks in the air at this 'leftist liberal wankery'. Australian politics is a sideshow right now, noone treats it seriously and it never gets anything worthwhile done. Last election our current govt went to the polls with one major policy - a massive tax cut for companies, including large corporations who already pay no tax in Australia due to exploiting legal loopholes, and another policy which is just to bust unionisation. Not because unions are corrupt, but because the opposition gets the majority of its funding through unions and the liberal party is going through a massive funding crisis right now, and want to level the playing field by cracking down on unions, instead of you know, reforming their party to encourage membership. Despite the opposition having a huge policy suite full of some really great ideas for moving Australia in at least some sort of fucking direction they just went for the clean guy in the suit. And then polling shows the majority of Australians ended up regretting it like immediately seriously cannot wait for the next election to kick these fuckers out of government. Its like when stephen harper was in power in Canada
Saying that climate change is real by standing outside and sweating is no different from saying it isn't real by making a snowball.
[QUOTE=Humin;51850744]Saying that climate change is real by standing outside and sweating is no different from saying it isn't real by making a snowball.[/QUOTE] Yeah? But these pages upon pages upon pages of climate research data? Or are you going to tell me that it's a global conspiracy and all climate scientists in the world are paid off and have an agenda?
[QUOTE=Medevila;51849526][t]https://i.imgur.com/ojvUhm6.png[/t][/QUOTE] The government doesn't even get much money out of the mining industry. They just throw taxpayer money and tax breaks at the mining companies in return for sweet fuck all. Most mining companies operating in Australia pay less yearly tax than the average Australian family, receive millions from the government and then just take their profits and shovel them straight into the pockets of billionaires who are mostly foreign and will never even contribute to the Australian economy with their fortunes. It makes not a single lick of sense.
I think everyone who doesn't understand that climate change is one of the greatest long term threats to humans and is in some position of government, should be forced out of their position.
[QUOTE=Saturn V;51849506]why are these people so fucking retarded[/QUOTE] They aren't. They know, they just don't care because they know they'll be dead/on their way out by the time the effects start affecting our daily life
Weather here has been a bit weird. We had snow inland of south qld. You're not supposed to have snow there.
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;51850530]The Australian media is pretty shit, last time I checked.[/QUOTE] Rupert Murdhoc is the chairman for the largest media corp in Australia (His father founded it) he's also the current CEO of Fox News as a side fact You could say he has a lot of control over the media
Gina Reinhart owns the rest of the newpapers. She's the richest woman in the world and richest Australian. Or she was until the iron ore price crashed.
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