Vote 1 — responsible approach to climate change

The main question for me in the Australian Federal Election, with three weeks to go (thank god) is, "who now has the best climate change policy?" Of course the economy is important, but how can anyone not see that the economy is but a sub-system within a larger environment? A failing environment will ultimately cause a failing economy. Health, education — they are all up there for me — but they will nay amount to a hill-o-beans for our kids and grandkids, if we don't arrest the development of more extreme scenarios modelled in IPCC 4.

I predicted that this would be a green election, and thus it has turned out.

It's the 2020 emissions reductions targets, stupid.

John Howard has set targets for 2050, and so has Rudd. Only the Greens have set intermediary targets for 2020.

• reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2020 (80% by 2050)

Life is a long game. I see a big future for the Greens with policies like that. Howard still hasn't got it. Labor lost my interest when they re-nuanced Garrett's declaration that Labor would not wait for China to sign the Kyoto Protocol before signing.

I have a lot of respect for Garrett, politically, and as the activist musician of yesteryear — it's his call to diverge from his stated principles and stick to Labor's changing party line — but they lose my confidence. I'm pleased that The Greens and Labor have agreed to swap preferences.

Vote 1 The Greens in the Senate

The ideal outcome for me would be to see Labor throw this deceitful government out, with the help of the Greens, who go on to secure the balance of power in the Senate. The preference swap is one step towards this. Don't know who I'll vote for in the house, but it won't be Barry O'Farrell, not that I will make a dent in Bradfield. Wish I still lived in Wentworth, what with all that barristerial battering of the current member. I do like Turnbull for the most part, though, he just picked the wrong party, and approved the wrong pulp-mill in the wrong way.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Government splits climate change message

Today was the day that the Australian Government, notorious for dragging its feet on climate change, tabled its carbon trading system recommendations by the House of Representative’s Standing Committee on Science and Innovation. For a moment it looked like the Government was finally coming clean; The report begins with the statement “there is now compelling evidence that human activity is changing the global climate". There must be an election on. It appears Howard has minimised damage of his abrupt change from years of neglect, and encouraging activities that aggravate the problem.

But then the nutters of Flat-Earth Society of the Liberal Party broke ranks.

FOUR Coalition MPs have questioned the consensus that humans are causing climate change.

The four backbenchers have questioned the link between human activity and global warming, saying Mars, Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune are also warming up.

Nuclear physicist and West Australian MP Denis Jensen, former ministers and NSW backbenchers Jackie Kelly and Danna Vale, and Northern Territory MP Dave Tollner say the hypothesis of “anthropogenic" or human created global warming was based on theoretical models and unproven economic assumptions.

In a dissenting chapter to a parliamentary report, the four labelled as fanatics those who believe humans are causing climate change.

"The science related to anthropogenic global warming is not, despite the assurances of some, settled in the scientific community,'' they wrote.

"Another problem with the view that it is anthropogenic greenhouse gases that have caused warming is that warming has also been observed on Mars, Jupiter, Triton, Pluto, Neptune and others.

In this day and age, hey? My immediate instinct is that Howard is up to his old and mean tricks again. Mars, Jupiter.

MP Peter Garrett, Labor environment spokesman: "Mr Howard which planet are these backbenchers on?"

John Howard, Liberal Australian Prime Minister: "On the planet inhabited by people who hate the Australian coal industry."

Huh? Howard's nutters are equivalent to people who recognise that we have to cut our emissions? And he ties them, us, to alleged hatred of the coal industry. That's clever Johnny for you. But, he's not stupid either.

Peter Garrett: "Mr Prime Minister, do you agree with their views?"

John Howard: "No I don’t agree with their views,"

He's not going out of his way to censure them, though.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

John Howard 2.0 launched on stiff, clunky platform

Things have moved on since the Office of Prime Minister John Howard first launched their rather flat HTML website on December 3, 1998. Internet stocks boomed, bubbled and burst. Enron collapsed and then, 9/11. Everything changed — we perfected the art of no longer needing words to describe things. We had WMD, WoT, GWoT hit in quick succession. Now we have AWAs, SARS and GHGs to contend with. Even technology has caught ADHD and spawned the iPod and Web 2.0.

What's Web 2.0? Well, from an election media strategist's perspective, it's where you will catch the elusive 18-36 voting audience hanging out, after not finding them in the tv, radio, and print media audience studies. This new Technorati will be updating their FaceBook profile, fine-tuning their Google reader, catching up on their favourite Blogger's, or uploading YouTube video responses.

They tuned out to push media a while ago, and turned on the interactivity, personalisation, collaboration and immediacy offered by a slew of social networking sites, wikis, and other self-publishing platforms. The media is the message.They don't read or watch news any more, they pick out their highlights with Clipmarks to re-contextualise and recycle it, or bookmarking it at site like de.liscio.us, thereby voting for their preferred news in the great, big, Google on-going page-rank election. Web 2.0 turned the passive audiences of yore into a growing cast of a dynamic, interactive play, writ large.

Has the PM and his Office been taking notes? From JWH's debut on Web 2.0, apparently not...



However, it seems from their rapid YouTube video response, that Rudd and his Office has...



At the unofficial start of the election Rudd promised to play with Howard's mind. By luring him online with his FaceBook profile, Rudd just pwned Howard's arse and exposed him, once-more, as behind the times.

On consideration, maybe I am being a bit unfair to Howard. It's just that my broadband is so damned slow.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy