Apologies folks for missing out on a post earlier in the week. Family commitments got in the way but I'm here again today dispensing some wisdom for you all. You guys might not consider it wisdom I guess, but you're here aren't you so there must be something that is interesting and read-worthy. Isn't there?
Anyway, the topic for today is stuff that makes me shake my head in disagreement, disillusion and sometimes disgust. Not exactly light and witty holiday reading, but hey, that might come next week when I've had a chance to get some of this off my chest.
Firstly, this article tells of how former Prime Minister John Howard helped launch a book yesterday with the purpose of teaching school children to reject the notion of climate change. Howard lent his not inconsiderable weight to the arguments in the book by addressing the launch and telling all that he felt climate change was 'political propaganda' and science in our schools was being hyjacked by the mysterious 'left' (be alert AND alarmed people!).
Now whatever your thoughts on climate change are, surely you are asking the question, isn't this the man that went to the 2007 Federal Election with a policy to introduce an emissions trading scheme to help fight climate change? For instance:
“We have established a committee which recommended the introduction of an ETS. And work is well underway to introduce that by 2011. It will be the most comprehensive ETS anywhere in the world.”
So what has changed for the former PM to so drastically alter his position? Plain old political expediency I would guess now that the Coalition has moved into the climate change denier realm. Or is it just that former Prime Ministers will turn up to the opening of an envelope and have a say to maintain some sort of relevance? Definitely head shaker material for mine.
Next we have yesterday's release of stats showing that mining exploration is booming. Not exactly 'news' I know but take a look at these figures for the September 2011 quarter - Iron ore exploration up 9%, coal exploration up 12% and on-shore petroleum exploration up 33%.
And that's just for the quarter. As Peter Martin reveals, for the year to the September 2011 quarter, coal exploration jumped 167%, iron ore exploration 54% and on-shore petroleum exploration 18%. The ABS stats also show that total capital expenditure by resource companies stands at a record high of $232 billion.
Yep, the resource industry is booming beyond anything else seen before. But isn't this the industry that is meant to be dead in the water now that a carbon price and minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) are to be enacted in the next year or so? Didn't the industry itself through various media campaigns and the Federal Opposition decry both policies as killing the boom 'stone dead' and effectively killing our economy?
Why then, are resource companies investing in exploration and looking for new deposits at record levels if the industry is meant to be dead in just a few short years? Mining companies and billionaire mining executive aren't stupid people, but investing heavily in something that will no longer exist shortly, according to the campaigns and the opposition, would be a pretty stupid idea wouldn't it?
Of course it would. So the reality must be that the industry is going along very nicely thank you with future prospects better than ever before even with the incoming carbon price and MRRT. That means they are not the 'end of the world' at all as the campaigns and associated media reporting have told us. So yep, another bout of head shaking when I think back to the hysteria about both and the faux outrage of the likes of Twiggy Forrest and Tony Abbott.
There's just two recent examples anyway. The world is a madhouse it seems and there's no shortage of causes for disagreement, disillusionment and disgust.
It's a wonder my head stays on its shoulders with all the other reasons for head shaking that pop up on an almost daily basis. I feel like a laughing clown at the show sometimes. That's just a metaphor by the way. Don't be trying to shove a ball down my throat next time you see me.
Speaking of which, stay tuned for another instalment of Nah Seriously in the coming days. A Xmas break beckons but there's still some time for more musings in the days between.
Til then my friends,
EDM.
No comments:
Post a Comment