Accept it. We did it – Climate Change

[The graph above shows the increases of CO2 in our atmosphere since the industrial revolution]

The Queensland Premier (Campbell Newman) and some National Party leader (Warren Truss) are climate change deniers. Despite the federal government’s Climate Commission acknowledgement that climate change is responsible for the very hot weather we’ve been having lately, these two are from the “well it’s open to debate” argument.

Climate change talk is not convenient Mr Newman. It’s necessary.

The evidence is here.

Nasa – Climate Change website 

Even if you don’t understand graphs, green house gasses and how ice cores are tested, it’s pretty easy to see that climate is changing at a rapid rate when you see glaciers floating off the coast of New Zealand. Sure, we know of a time before Antarctica existed and if memory serves me right that was back in the late cretaceous era when it was the only place on earth that had seasons. I’ll probably be dead before the impact of climate change are felt, or be too old to care, but you and I will have children and grandchildren who will inherit a pretty screwed up world.

I was watching morning TV last week and a viewer emailed in a rant about how Channel 7 was biased because they did not have an anti-climate change skeptic on the show to challenge the scientists. Um….it’s kind of like asking them why they don’t have a colour-denier to challenge someone who is pointing out that mint leaves are green.

Scientists are already in agreement that it’s happening and the only thing we can do is to limit the impact.

Yet still we sit like frogs in a frying pan.

What can I do?

Sometimes it’s easy to feel disheartened and overwhelmed by everything that’s happening, and that the only thing you can do is pray for a heaven that has a stable temperature of 25 degrees.

I don’t know. I suppose the answer is to lobby the government and do what we can as individuals. For starters, I’m going to limit my carbon footprint. I am as guilty as anyone else of destroying the earth and selling out. I felt guilty but I got sucked into things like buying plastic crap I don’t need, wrapping paper that is a complete waste of money and kills rainforests. I drive a hybrid, but what happened to my old car?

I have opted to go 100% green energy and by bills are lower than my coal consuming friends. I live close enough to a power plant to see the smog that’s pumped into the air. I know I can do more and I will do more.

As the old Cree saying goes “When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can’t eat money”

It’s science stoopid…

(Left: Delta Goodrem Right: Current Broadway cast of Annie. Bald guy is long term lymphoma survivor Anthony Warlow)

Delta Goodrem nearly died 10 years ago.

She’s still alive because she underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. There are so many people who are alive today, who would have died had they refused treatment for cancer. This includes the countless number of people living in your suburb who don’t talk about it and celebrities who do. (Just off the top of my head, I can name: Kylie Minogue, Anthony Warlow, Simon O’Donnell, that guy from Dexter, Ethan Zohn, the wicket keeper for Australia, some young guy who played in the World Cup).

When I went out for lunch today, I got talking to a guy about cancer therapies.  He said that he didn’t believe in chemotherapy but he did the power of positive thinking.   When asked what he would do if it were him, he explained that in his culture (Chinese) it was about the survival of the fittest.  I assumed he was a religious fundamentalist who had grown up without a science education, but it turns out he had an atheist upbringing in communist China.

 

I know for a fact that there are clinical trials coming out of China faster than any other country because of the sheer population of those undergoing treatment (and surviving). If you have read the book “The Emperor of Maladies”, you’ll realize a lot of the scientists at the forefront of research are “culturally” and ethnically Chinese. I have a Chinese friend who had cancer and when given the chance to live, she took the chemo and radiation and she’s still alive!

I can see how people can have two different opinions when it comes to wasabi. Some will take it, some won’t. But when it comes to proven life saving medical therapy, how can a take-away owner who has had no experience of cancer believe that his views are as valid as a scientist whose findings have been proven?

Sadly all too many people have a deep mistrust of science and would rather pay thousands for a bit of vitamin C therapy. I understand why people resort to alternative treatments once they’ve run out of mainstream cures, but I also believe that the people who sell hope are criminals. I know people who have wiped out their life savings, because money means nothing when you are dying, for the miracle and often painful “cure”.

Who is to blame for this deep mistrust people have of science and medicine? Makers of period dramas set in 19th Century England? Personal experience? The rise of new age nut jobs? Lack of critical thinking in our school curriculum?

I am disturbed by the number of people who think it is okay to be a skeptic about scientific facts. Science is not a belief system. It just is.

 

The political is personal, the personal is political

We all know the deeply embedded myth of “mateship” in Australian culture. When we were kids we had to learn about the ANZACS and the spirit of mateship. You know, not shooting your fellow soldier in the head. There were no cases of “friendly fire” (don’t you love the euphemism) back in the day of Simpson and his donkey. No sir, m’am.

At the same time we were learning about Australians at war, the girls in my class were engaged in another type of war. In the war waged by pre-pubescents, weapons were  phrases like:  “I don’t like you anymore”, “You can’t sit with us” and the cannon was the silent treatment. Notes were passed where you had to tick who you liked the best. Things got so bad that our teacher had to sit us down and teach us to be civil to each other.

Things got worse as we hit puberty but it was accepted that little girls were little bitches.

When I had a kid, he turned out to be a boy and one of the first things more experienced mothers often said to me was, “at least he’ll be easier to manage when he’s older. Boys are simpler.” What is it about our culture, hormones, biological drives that have created these moulds for boys and girls?

When I compare Alex’s, my partner, friendships to mine, mine do seem a lot more complex. He has never felt insecure in his friendship and wondered whether someone has culled him after not hearing from them for a long time. He’s never felt the need to second guess what his friends have said, he takes them at face value. He is also able to have close friendships with people who don’t even share the same values and beliefs. He’s never lost a friend because they’ve both liked the same person. Is it because I’m slightly neurotic and sensitive, and he’s not? Or is it because I’m a girl and have been socialized to behave a certain way? Or is it because my previously unfertilized eggs were screaming out for the perfect sperm, and I had to sideline the competition?  Or is it true what experienced mother’s say? Boys are simpler creatures?

Whatever the case, I’ve decided to this year not get involved in the politics of my personal life and focus on the politics that influence my personal life.

Single mums, Centrelink and Fantine

The federal government has a new law regarding single parent benefits. Single mums (and the majority are mums not dads) now have to go back to work when their youngest is 8 years old. The government said that this is because in the past payments went all the way up to 16 years old for some people and this is a way of making the system equitable.

Now we all know the stereotypes we have of single mothers. We still demonize them as whores who have multiple children to multiple men. They rip off our system and bring down our school ratings. They are uneducated and they are fallen women, unless of course they do something amazing like start a successful company or write a billion dollar book franchise (Hello. JK Rowling). Oh, and don’t forget their kids are the shitty kids at your school.

I’d like to address that last stereotype. The shittiest kids at my kid’s school (a rather privileged place) come from rather wealthy families where both parents are present. I mean by shitty, I don’t mean drug dealing in the sand pit, but you get my drift.

I was prompted to blog again when I read a news articles about single mums who are doing it tough. One of the stories was in my local paper and told of a woman with mental illness who has to survive on less than $500 a week. Now if you live somewhere other than where I live, you might think “Woahhh that’s so much money”. But given that rent for an apartment is at least $250 for an apartment in a not so great area, that leaves you about $250 for the rest of the week. That’s about $35 a day.  $35 a day may be enough in say a place like Laos, but it’s not much in Australia if you have to raise a kid.

There was also a news article about someone who has to sacrifice private school education now that there are welfare cuts. The single mum makes just over the threshold per fortnight, so is surviving on about $450 a week.

If you are reading from overseas, you might be thinking “WTF? Why are Australian welfare kids going to private school”. Well it’s because the policies of the Howard government made private schooling affordable to most people. They are mostly church schools that are heavily subsidized by the federal government. It’s much cheaper and convenient to give a lot of money to a private school than to make a school in the outer burbs really good. So there’s this divide we have now where people think they have to send their kids to private school to get a good education, which leaves public schools in non-high socio-eco areas with the dregs of society.  It has become the norm to send your kid to a private school if you value education and live outside the leafy suburbs where the “good” schools are.

Back to this issue of welfare cuts for single mums.

The thing that makes me feel a bit ill about the whole thing is that people are supposed to turn to charities like Anglicare for support. Why not just put more money into welfare rather than subsidize welfare agencies? Do you hear the people sing?

http://www.news.com.au/national/support-on-hand-for-single-parents-facing-welfare-cuts/story-fndo4dzn-1226550367030

What era are we living in?

People do not understand that the “riff raff” that you are trying to avoid, could be easily avoided if everyone had more. You are less likely to go to school with a prostitute’s kid if that prostitute had enough to live on. I could rant on and on, but this blog endeth here.

Until next time. You know you love me.

OzPoliChix XOXO