Last one to leave, please…
- Author:
- Roger Hanney
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Earth Hour passed without anybody commenting on the irony of turning the lights out on Planet Earth to draw attention to the fact that we have already done that.
But didn’t it feel real? Wasn’t it great to hear the radio pundits extolling the virtues of a family in China and a single mother in Germany and a couple in America all doing the same thing for the planet at the same time, give or take a timezone.
And wouldn’t it have also been the perfect time for the Easter Bunny to sneak in under cover of darkness and lay all those chocolate eggs, like only a bunny can. Maybe the Planetary Feel Good Committee and the Easter Planners can get it together next year.
That would be fabulous. Then all the future generations who are going to inherit a completely whaled malaria-infested earthquake ravaged ball of dust and swamp where an ice cube costs $17.00 could stop tweeting for long enough to go find chocolate rabbit eggs in false darkness in tribute to the walking dead son of a ghost who so loved the world that he tricked a virgin into getting pregnant on their first date. Sounds likely.
Speaking of which, it’s been almost two decades since global warming went mainstream, and you know we’re taking it seriously because every year the crisis now gets an hour of its very own – like Hey Hey It’s Saturday and about as visionary.
Of course, that is as long as you own a light bulb to turn off. By the logic of Earth Hour, we should really blame the homeless for climate change because they didn’t do anything to cut their emissions… for a whole hour.
But don’t just blame the homeless – blame the politicians who don’t do anything because we let them continue to not do anything, apart from Tony Abbott. Even though his government spent ten years helping America prevent global action, he rides a bike. And Kevin Rudd, because even though he more or less works for the benefit of massive coalmining companies he doesn’t actually own one. Or Peter Garrett, because They made sure that portfolio was well-insulated from him.
Which may in fact mean……
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April 3rd, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
Rog, one of the reasons our response to climate change has descended into farces like “Earth Hour” is the hysterical hyperbole of so many of the alarmists.
“malaria-infested earthquake ravaged ball of dust and swamp…” No one will respond to that, except to switch off the wanker who’s claiming it, not the lights.
The other thing they don’t like is being mocked by smarty-pants know-it-alls. You may not like Hey Hey its Saturday, but many of the people who will have to make the positive, proactive choices that will save the planet, do
This is a fault with most of the writers in this publication who (I think) consider themselves left intellectuals, Rog, you just don’t have a clue how to communicate.
April 5th, 2010 @ 8:59 am
*hugs*
Actually more of a left over than a left intellectual. Prefer to leave the Leninist pigeonholing to people with throwback usernames like, gee, I don’t know… Red Symons, Red Brigade, Red Shirt, etc.
Of course that might not be your vintage – maybe you want Thaksin Shinawat reinstalled?
But if you want to focus on narrow views of climate change – and it seems you think that’s what I’m doing – then perhaps you’d like to just explain why you have this conviction that people “will make the positive, proactive choices that will save the planet”. The science is in. It has been known for at least 7 years that we have already steered the planetary ecosystem straight toward a mass extinction event that will be in full swing by the middle of this century. Yet nothing is being done – worse than that, the process is being accelerated.
So please just ignore the cynicism, sarcasm, and awfully effete attempt at humour, Dear Great Communicator, and tell us why this thing that is bordering on unstoppable will never really get started?
April 5th, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
Funny, I read the same story, but didn’t take offence like Red Shirt. I just couldn’t understand what Roger’s point was.
I think he thought Earth Hour was a useless joke.
I have read much the same sentiments about Earth Hour many times before, mostly in the Murdoch press. In The Australian this weekend also in an article by Bjorn Lomborg. The difference was that his was well reasoned, considered, didn’t use hyperbole.
But if I can read “alternative” opinion of a much higher quality and is actually understandable in Murdoch’s papers, why would I bother to try to do so here? What exactly are you now an alternative to, Alternative City Hub?
Sydney does need an outsiders’ viewpoint. But you are now in agreement with Fairfax and News Ltd on so many issues that you have stopped performing that role. Are their millions ad bucks pouring into your coffers? Why not?
Could it be the quality of the writing? Roger just come across as sounding confused in the first instance, and intemperate in the second.
Sorry, but this is typical of much that I now read in City Hub, which is plagued by undergraduate elitism and arrogance. I can’t stand that knowing, smug Possum paranoia, and your opinion pieces all sound like stuff I read at uni in the 80s. I’ve been picking up your paper for a long time now, but lately its been out of habit. One I can now easily break.
April 5th, 2010 @ 5:11 pm
Please, Margaret – be fair. We specialize in post-graduate elitism and arrogance. Get your smugs straight.
Here’s a thought exercise. The KKK want America to be white because they are racists. Environmentalists want America to be white so that it will better reflect the Sun’s rays and slow global warming. By your logic, racists and greenies want the same thing, therefore they are the same. Yes? No.
Fairfax and Murdoch make snide remarks about hollow climate change gestures because? Maybe because controversy, however contrived sells. Maybe because they have friends on the boards of companies whose bottom lines and future profits are threatened by genuine climate action. Or maybe, like some people who openly opine on climate change, because they haven’t actually read and understood the topic more deeply and don’t actually realize just what a cataclysmic event has been set in motion.
Maybe, conversely, people here make snide remarks about hollow gestures because we have actually read and understood the topic more deeply. Maybe we’re well aware of the fact that the money supporting the two main sides of politics flows from those same companies. Maybe it’s just because we write mainly for readers who have a darker sense of humour, or any sense of humour at all. Who knows?
Either way, if you do actually think that the Hub reads exactly like Fairfax and Murdoch, please spend your time flaming their comments sections instead. You can start off with a waffling half-informed complaint that they are no longer the gatekeepers of quality journalism that they once were in the good old days that never existed and that they need to stop sounding like clicheed bourgeois inner west lefty protest rags.
I’m sure they’ll care enough to respond.
April 6th, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
Roger your reply just proves my point about being confused. What a strange mish-mash of alarmist hysteria. Now I can add delusional as well. As it happens I do post on News Ltd and Fairfax sites (and others), sometimes quite sharply. But never in a thousand years would I accuse them of copying you.
But “inner west” explains a lot. That’s the increasingly mono-cultural, anglo ghettos now busy congratulating themselves that they’re “the new Paddington”. The gentrified seats getting ready to dump their Labor reps. Whose busy little renovators are turning once affordable housing into mini-MacMansions. Who can’t do or buy a single thing without first consulting Christian Lander’s guidebook. Roger, I won’t be back to this site, so save your typing fingers. It doesn’t appear to get much traffic.
Don’t you ever wonder why?
April 6th, 2010 @ 4:40 pm
Awesome. Then you won’t be offended by my response that your inane drivel deserves no reply more imaginative than, ‘you’re an idiot’. But you know you’ll be back, because your consistently out-of-touch whining has ‘needy’ written all through it.
April 7th, 2010 @ 10:35 am
Awesome all right Roger, was that supposed to be funny?. Best never apply for a paid job as a opinion writer or blogger mate. Most employers don’t like their writers driving readers away
April 11th, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
For the record. I pay Roger for his opinion.
Happy fall….
Lawrence
April 16th, 2010 @ 7:47 pm
More fool you, Lawrence Gibbons