T'was

If these fires are spreading even though we’re meeting our carbon targets, that surely means we need more ambitious targets. 

Ages on

Remember when at the last election Bill Shorten couldn’t say exactly how much his climate change policies were going to cost?  Just said that not acting had costs too. As if!  We sure dodged a bullet there. 

From Quiggin

The most fundamental constant in Australian politics is that nothing is going to get better, and we shouldn't waste our time speculating about what would happen if it did.  Between Murdoch, Palmer and the electorate's I'm-all-right Jackism no remotely progressive policy can survive. The government is not going to bend: Morrison has learned from Trump and Johnson that what the electorate really want is a government that can look sincere as it tells them that nothing needs to change and all will be well. They're lying, of course, and we know they're lying, but if the alternative is facing reality then we prefer being lied to.  There's a bit of a fuss now, but he's got God in his pocket and it'll rain the day before the next election and that'll be enough to diffuse the anger.

Looking back

Just found this as 'Age letter 2016".  Did I put it up on site?  I'm too lazy to check.

"Let’s run over some of the cases where someone might shoot a policeman in the conduct of his duties and still have a good argument that there were mitigating circumstances.

1)    You’re his wife and he’s been beating you up for years.

2)    He’s been sexually abusing you since you were twelve.

3)    He’s Roger Rogerson and you’re Warren Lanfranchi and you see him coming.

None of these, admittedly, apply to Craig Minogue, but this law will still be on the books in a hundred years. Hard cases make bad law, and Murdoch-driven moral panics make very bad law."

Age binnacle

If the pollution from the fires takes a day off the life expectancy of everybody in Sydney, that’s the equivalent in terms of years of life lost to about 290 people dropping dead in the street. That’s a minimum figure – London’s five-day great smog in 1952 is estimated to have killed about 6,000. It’s becoming clear what Australia’s part is going to be in the great war on global warming; we’re the horrible example designed to scare other nations straight.  Good to see we’re still punching above our weight.  

Age - Not this one either

Q. How many National Party MPs does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. It’s not the moment to ask these questions when people are getting hurt bumping into sharp objects blundering around in the dark.

Bin L'Age

Fires

It’s plainly stupid to suggest that Scott Morrison has any responsibility for this year's horrific fires.  It’s perfectly reasonable, though, to suggest he and his policies are  going to be responsible for many of the much worse and more numerous fires we’re going to have in 2030, let alone 2050; not all of them, as it’s a worldwide problem, but perhaps 3% of them - 150, say. And when I say ‘Scott Morrison’, of course, I mean the people who voted for him. It’s mathematically impossible for a government to be stupider than the people who elected it.