[Edit - play nice] ‘Most peculiar Mama’ who certainly lives up to the name she chooses to hide behind. A Liberal campaign worker spreading a bit of disinformation in the grand tradition of both major parties perhaps? David Reid makes a good point. In Higgins Hamilton is a Crash Through or Crash long shot. If the electorate is ready to accept the climate crisis for what it is he might well win provoking some desperate scrambling in the major parties to green up their policies. How great would that be? More likely however is that the good folk of Higgins will opt for more of the same. Kelly O’Dwyer on the advice of her minders is avoiding any involvement with the climate debate. She is a local and the faceless ones have obviously decided that an unrelenting focus on tried and true local issues, law and order, trains on time and how about that dirty Yarra river can’t we clean it up? is what will carry the day. O’Dwyer would not participate in last night’s church hall climate debate for the candidates, has refused to fill in a questionnaire shedding some light on her views on climate change and was heavily constrained by her minders in her answers to the questions of a local community climate action group. Shame on her but this tactic might just get her a seat in the Big House under the Hill. Clive Hamilton spoke well, clearly and responsibly when he got the chance in the somewhat anarchic church hall climate debate. He would of course make an excellent and responsible MHR for the Higgins electorate but perhaps would have a better chance of getting up as a Senator for the ACT as Reid suggests. Anyway good luck Clive what a great thing it would be if you get in for Higgins.

I’ll be voting greens in my own electorate; Tangney - the seat of Dr Dennis Jensen (Engineer). Thanks to him, I now know that water vapour is the biggest greenhouse gas and therefore Climate Change is wrong. And with that kind of logic, I’m not sure whether he is more dangerous building bridges or influencing policy.

However, I think the Greens made a mistake parachuting him into a seat where he doesn’t live. They should have nominated a local candidate or at least someone who lives in Melbourne. Anyway I hope the Greens nominate Clive for the Senate in the ACT where he would have a good chance of winning. This by-election will give him some useful campaign experience.

There are greenies who don’t like this worldview, only because they are instinctively anti-human.

This is the catastrophic mess that catastrophism has landed us in. Extremism paralyses politics.

We all know that social democratic governments can barely find the loo, which is why they piss our money up against the wall most of the time. We know they can’t forge coherent policy for next week, let alone decades ahead. (Yes, other forms of government are worse- they drink the place dry, wreck the joint and in the morning blame the Greens, poor parenting or imperialism). Every major policy is shambolic: deserts are irrigated, farm runoff kills lakes and reefs, filthy brown coal is Brumbied off to India, pleasant suburban cities sprawl into nightmares, public transport disappears up its own cancellation, fish stocks are massacred, Redgums fall while we bitch about the Amazon, Victoria burns in a fiasco of incompetence and evasion…

As always, we Meliorists just peck away and rejoice in small gains, many of which are later lost because the forces of barbarism (aka short term profit) are relentless.

We know that capitalism is both unchallenged, voracious and underwritten by the taxpayer. It corrupts everything it touches. The GFC was just the latest paroxysm of greed. Corporate managerialism has colonised every institution, including the state, converting public bodies into conduits for private gain. All social democracy can do is try to mitigate the worst excesses.

So here’s the political problem- along comes a “scientifically verified” catastrophe, anthropogenic global warming. What is to be done?

It’s clear that most people either don’t believe the Armageddon scenario or can’t imagine it- it hardly matters which. Screaming or patronising just makes things worse. Many flee to the comforting arms of Uncle Plimer or the ample breasts of Sen. Boswell. Others follow the Pied Viper into the gibbering wastes of O’Connor. Most hedge their bets. Climate scepticism is rising, not falling, driven not least by the hellfire demagoguery of climate priests.

Meanwhile, the mainstream politicians do exactly what you’d expect: (i) pretend to do something (ii) actually do something which is all show and no substance (wind farms for instance- a cruel burden on the weak and a climatic joke) (iii) accommodate entrenched sectional interests, which exacerbates (i) and (ii).
We then move to (iv) if and when the crisis galvanises the polity into hurling money at “solutions”, which allows capitalist enterprises to suck out lots of public money for whatever technical fix seems momentarily plausible, such as carbon sequestration, wave power or whatever.

There are many excellent reasons for getting rid of fossil fuels apart from carbon emissions. If the state or “free enterprise” were serious, they would have spent brazillions on R and D. It’s now too late, if you believe the catastrophists. Farting around with solar, hot rocks or the rickety contraption of “carbon trading” will make no difference to the climate in the next decade. Neither will Hopenhagen.

So what do we do, bed down with Prince Charles? No need, thank Christ. First, admit the strengths and weaknesses of AGW theory. There is no simple correlation between atmospheric CO2 and climate. Ten years of stable global temperature shows that. Some scientists now talk of a 10 to 30 year plateau. Whatever. Houston, we may have a problem. There’s no short-term fix so (a) get started on basic research now on all renewables- except wind. Wind is a proven failure. It can never provide baseload power and does much harm besides. (b) scrap MRET. Politicians claim that $22bn will be spent on this- all on wind. An appalling waste. (c) convert brown coal generators to gas immediately. (d) improve energy efficiency/reduce demand. We did it with water.
So there’s a lot that can be done to reduce CO2 without bankrupting the country or relying on quasi-fascism to “suspend” democracy as some fanatics are now suggesting.

Psychologically, we have to rid ourselves of the Armageddon complex. It inflames both Savonarolas and Deniers. The world isn’t going to end in 2017, and if it is we should just finish the grog and sing “Over the Sea to Skye”…

Fortunately, we have the possibility of the election of Clive Hamilton to the seat of Higgins. If this happens, it will be one of the few electoral wins based on the candidate’s knowledge of the subject - any subject! - in recent years. We will enlist a cabinet/caucus from the present Greens members and those from either side of politics who agree that the climate is not a side-show, but the main event.

We are now on a war footing. It will take commitment, sacrifice, co-operation, selflessness, and a radical change of our way of life, but we both commit ourselves to this challenge. We will sending your parliamentary reps. back to their constituencies after they have undertaken a crash course on the seriousness of the threat - they will provide seminars for you so that our plans are crystal-clear to all……….

Well I can dream, can’t I?

evamary

If being in parliament/govt is about making a difference, we are being poorly served by both major parties at present…and into the foreseeable future. Can anyone think of anything really significant that they (either side) have achieved, apart from still being there?

The competitors of the Gas Industry are coal, nuclear and hydro. If you ever find that your companions are attacking coal, nuclear and hydro in the same gig as yourself, check if there is a big shadow walking alongside. Greenies should be wary of support from Gas, lest they become its henchmen.

As a non-twit, I’m looking forward to attending any real-life debates between Clive and Kelly.

These days I’m sure someone will Twit the highlights out to the Twitter-sphere.

Barry 09: not sure if you’re accusing me or someone else of blaming Greens for the fires- in fact I’m defending them. Environmentalism had nothing to do with Black Saturday.

Tom: “if you’re not with us…”- Point is Tom, as I’ve said about the Exceptionally Reverend Hamilton, ferocious (and fatuous) overstatement just alienates people. The rubbish bin of history is stuffed with the wreckage of movements convinced of their righteousness and the sin/stupidity of the masses: Calvinism,Trotskyist sects, Frau Schicklgruber’s little boy, Neocons like Mark Steyn, global banker-wankers, Wilson Tuckey….

Liberal candidates twitter account :
http://twitter.com/KellyODwyer

Whatever the outcome of the Higgins election, thank you Clive.

Martin
http://twitter.com/2010_Election

I’m not going to bother checking up myself about Adelaide’s water because this is a distraction from the big picture. (It might be something to do with most of Adelaide’s water not coming from it’s water storage, and thus an almost full storage from rain does not solve the problem of far too little water in the river from whence most of their water comes.)

Kelly promises that she will, or example, work hard for “stronger law enforcement to curb alcohol fuelled violence”. How is she going to do this as a Federal politician when this is a State issue? To me this shows she has got the big picture wrong.

Clive making one mistake (if it was wrong) is minor in comparison because his big picture about climate change is correct.

And the voters of Higgins will make up their own minds.

Whats next, will the Greens select a candidate whos written articles supporting the Pacific Solution?!

Clive, do the honourable thing and don’t contest this election, you are already costing the Greens votes!

Of course, so why do you and the Crikey moderators allow Clive to publish deliberate untruths and his own words that directly contradict his earlier positions without clarification?

Why do you not challenge Clive?

These issues are very relevant for the voters of Higgins.

Are you saying they don’t matter?

I find it amazing, that the ALP can waffle on about caring for the planet, but allow the clearing of football fields of trees per day. Waffle on about getting rid of nuclear weapons while we sell uranium to countries that we don’t know who the Leaders will be in a years time, let alone 5 or 10! The contradictions make me just shake my head in disbelief.

Sometimes I think I must’ve misheard, or live on another planet, perhaps another country? The handling or ‘mis-handling’ of the current numbers of asylum seekers is a case in point. How different is the ‘Indonesian solution’ to the ‘Pacific solution’? It’s just a case of geography in my view. We all know about Indonesia’s ‘proud record’ re human rights - don’t we? There’s Afghanis walking around with black eyes, bruised faces etc(as we speak) as they claim to have been bashed by Indonesian ‘workers’ in a detention centre. Indonesia rejected these claims initially, until they saw video evidence? Rudd should’ve said enough and brought them to Australia. In fact, he should’ve nipped the racist BS in the bud by using the media via An Address to the Nation, and told the Australian people the facts about those coming by boat as opposed to the 96% who arrive by plane etc.Instead he shamefully allowed the Coalition and the media to carry on, just to show the racists he was tough! If we stopped killing people in their own countries(Iraq & Afghanistan), those traumatized citizens who’ve witnessed this, and lost too many family members, wouldn’t be forced to flee. What do we do to help prevent the trauma in Sri Lanka for example? Call those who want their independence and/or justice for minority groups, terrorists?

I also support the campaign to stop the retail sector from ‘sexing’ up their ads to sell kids’ clothes. Bras for 8 and 9 yr olds; and obscene messages on toddler T-shirts for example, aren’t funny. I have grandkids and I find this practice most disturbing indeed. They’re only babies/kids for such a short time and then zap it’s gone! Clive has spoken out against this hideous practice and I applaud him for taking a stand.

Good for you Clive. I don’t live in Victoria, but good luck!

Perhaps you should find out who is doing the moderation before you accuse Clive.

This is a Crikey published article, and not a Blog belonging to Clive. I strongly suspect (but don’t know) that it is Crikey who are moderating.

And whilst I’m all for free speech, I also think that Crikey owe it to their readers to keep these discussions polite and to the point.