Posts by Alfie
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Good news... the Herald has another journo who doesn't go all sucky when it comes to criticising the government. Karl Puschmann on the disappointment of the four "chosen" flags.
I guess this is what happens if you load your selection committee with middle management personnel instead of people with training, expertise and an informed opinion on what constitutes good design.
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And here's what we're up against -- the latest Herald-DigiPoll shows mainly confusion and/or apathy. Sure, the sample size is only 750 but a staggering 45% of respondents still "don't know"? WTF?
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Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to chris,
$26,000,000.00
I'm underwhelmed. Bastardisations of the classic silver fern, two with overlaid nods to colonialism, and a plagiarised variant of the Hundertwasser flag. What a gross waste of public money.
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Tracy Watkins sums up the public apathy towards Key's flag diversion.
With the flag referendum costing $26 million, the last thing he wants on his hands is a flop, a debate remembered more for running gags about some of the more infamous designs, like laser Kiwi, the "boom" flag and sheep in various poses.
It's not just that he will have failed in his bid to change the flag - it's that the result will also be viewed as a referendum on him and his Government.
If only that were true.
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Hard News: Everybody has one, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
All of them (Dotcom included) know how this Government works. That they chose to try and tell the NZ public was a public service in my mind.
+1
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The main point I took from Flannery's Guardian article was that we're too fixated on graphs showing average temperatures. Sure there's a steady upward trend, but that doesn't tell the full story. As he says, "...it’s the devastating extremes, rather than a shift in averages, that have the greatest impact."
Climate change trolls like Stamper convince themselves that rising average temperatures are merely minor fluctuations from the norm. But even the ugliest troll must find it hard to ignore the recorded and undeniable increase in extreme weather events we're experiencing worldwide.
While Australia has traditionally had bush fires, Flannery points to the increasing length of the bushfire "season" and of annual heatwaves lasting days longer than they did previously. Today NIWA is predicting further extremes in New Zealand.
Climate scientists are warning farmers to brace for a large-scale El Nino, with rainfall expected to drop by 15 per cent in some regions and increase by the same amount in others.
While we shouldn't expect denialists and trolls to view climate change through logical eyes any time soon, we're in trouble when governments like our own willingly choose to ignore the in-your-face reality of increasing weather extremes. Because it's those extremes which will ultimately have the most destructive affect on our planet.
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It's just as bad in the UK. The tory MP who illegally claimed over £2,000 in parliamentary expenses to have his manor house moat cleaned has just been given a life peerage by David Cameron. Labour politicians have started referring to him as Lord Moat.
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Pin the tail on the Ass
I see McCully was awarded an OPT* yesterday for singlehandedly destroying New Zealand's reputation for transparency and lack of corruption. Well done Muzza!Sadly... this is more or less true. I guess the Nats decided to sneak this gong through in a hurry, before the Auditor-General's enquiry blows the gaff on McCully's less than democratic actions.
* Order of the Ponytail
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Tim Flannery writing in the Guardian puts paid to the theory espoused by Tony Abbott that Australia's massive bushfires have absolutely no connection to global warming.
When, in late 2013, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott and his environment minister Greg Hunt argued that there is no link between the warming trend and extreme bushfires, they were arguing not only against science, but also contrary to common sense.
The link between extreme weather and climate change is a critical area for public understanding, because it’s the devastating extremes, rather than a shift in averages, that have the greatest impact. To deny the link also permits people to believe that climate change is something only for future generations to worry about. It is not.
While Key may be a clown, we should be thankful that at least we don't have to contend with an even more dangerous dickhead like Abbott.
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I'll miss her pieces. They provided a commonsense voice in an otherwise increasingly pro-government media landscape. Which TV programme is she involved with?
