Around the world…
First stop: the United States, where writer James Howard Kunstler has gone around the New York Auto Show and talked to punters about the end of cheap oil and alternatives to fossil fuels. His account of his walk-around is hilarious, including the following voxpops:
1) I’ll leave it to the scientists. I can’t see sticking a corn-cob in my carburetor.
2) I don’t believe global oil is short. Not within my lifetime. We have all this oil in reserve - hey, how many dinosaurs were there?
3) If we get enough Arab countries mad at us, they’d cut off our oil and we’d have to resort to our own supplies.
4) We have a lot of time. Maybe our children will have to worry.
Second stop: Aceh, from where a Wellingtonian, Cameron Burnell, will be photo- and text-blogging over the next few weeks. He’s just arrived and will be “evaluating and overseeing the tsunami relief effort of [aid agency] Caritas”. While here’s there, he’ll be taking and posting lots of fascinating photos (his day job is working as a photographer for the Wellingtonian newspaper). Hat-tip, Kakariki.
Third stop: Britain, where the Greens have accused all the major parties of ignoring climate change. Reports the Guardian:
Today the Greens - who have still to win their first Westminster seat - accused the government of ignoring their own scientific advisor’s warning that climate change would be a “bigger threat than terrorism”.
Caroline Lucas, Green MEP and “female principal speaker” said: “The government’s own scientific adviser has said that climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism, yet it has been entirely absent from the Westminster parties’ campaigns, because their policies and their records in office actively contribute to the problem.
“Well climate change is a weapon of mass destruction too. So where is his commitment to spend whatever it takes on climate change?”
Well, perhaps we in New Zealand should thank goodness for small mercies. Britain’s Labour Party, despite promising back in the mid-1990s to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2010, has actually overseen an increase in its country’s emissions since it came to power. Our Labour Party, however, deserves kudos for taking meaningful steps to curb carbon emissions. Sure, it could be doing more and sooner, but it has agreed to many Green initiatives aimed at mitigating climate change, including a carbon tax, more funding for public transport, signing up to Kyoto, and setting up an Energy Efficiency Authority.
