Central America continues to reel under severe, multi-year drought. Guatemala has declared a state of emergency in 16 of the country’s 22-provinces. Experts believe the impact on agriculture could soon leave hundreds of thousands of families without food. As America’s west coast and southwest continue to be plagued by drought,
Continue readingTag: australia
The Disaffected Lib: The Green Devil – Australia’s One Man Environmental Wrecking Crew
Tony Abbott is a man going to war. His chosen target is Australia’s environment and, according to Foreign Policy, he means to do it in. Located at the bottom of the world, Tasmania is a bioregion so unique that it is listed as a World Heritage site by the United
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Chunder Down Under
Let’s get this unpleasantness out of the way. “Chunder” is an Australian colloquialism for vomit, puke. The latest chunder from Down Under comes to us via Tony Abbott’s chief business adviser, Maurice Newman. The chairman of the prime minister’s Business Advisory Council warns that Australia is dangerously unprepared for –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Joseph Stiglitz writes that while we should expect natural resources to result in broad-based prosperity, Australia (much like Canada) is now turning toward the U.S. model of instead directing as much shared wealth as possible toward the privileged few: There is something deeply
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Has Won
In Australia the amount of energy being produced by sustainable systems caused the price to fall so low it went in to the negative. This will not be the last time we see this. As more places adopt renewable energy into their power grids the old models of industry will
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Groupie from Down Under
Well he may be making a fool of himself on the world stage. Posing as a champion of democracy and Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare. Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Russian President Vladimir Putin is an “extreme nationalist” and an “imperialist” who is threatening global peace and security. And he doesn’t mind
Continue readingPostArctica: Keep Your Coins, I Want Change
by meek in Melbourne, Australia
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: New Zealand – Australia’s Climate Change Lifeboat
Australia is somewhat ahead of the global average for climate change temperature rise. The country just passed the 1C mark. There’s obviously plenty more heat on the way in the future, just as there is everywhere else from existing atmospheric greenhouse gases, not even counting the additional GHGs we’ll be
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Denialists Are Not Skeptics, Even When You Turn the Planet Upside Down.
Maybe the time has come when the onus of proof should shift off the shoulders of climate science and onto the shoulders of the denialist community. You say it’s all a hoax then prove it. You say what’s happening now is just natural variability, then prove it. You say that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sometimes the Low Numbers Matter Too
2013 was the hottest year in Australia’s recorded history. We know that the country is setting new records this year. Sometimes, though, there’s as much to be learned by looking at the coldest temperatures. The map below depicts last year’s Australian minimum temperatures.
Continue readingCanada-Australia climate axis—greatest threat to global security?
Prime Minister Harper once announced that the greatest threat to global security was terrorism. That was nonsense of course—every year, malaria kills approximately 660,000 people, mostly children, and AIDS 1,700,000 people. Terrorism is a trivial threat compared to the big killers. And the biggest of all, if we don’t act
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If This is Fact, We Need to Rethink Our Bitumen Policy, Pipelines Included.
Word is coming out of the discovery of a truly massive, shale oil field in Australia that’s expected to produce from 233 upwards to 400-billion barrels of crude oil. That’s crude oil, not bitumen. Even at the lowest range, 233-billion barrels considerably exceeds Canada’s 175-billion barrel petro-reserves, most of which
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Poisoning the Great Barrier Reef
Australia has become one of the most affluent countries in the world. It’s economic miracle is anchored to a much larger economic miracle to the north, in China. Australia has been reaping a vast fortune selling coal to China. How much coal? Enough to deposit about a million tons of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Lurks Down Under
By some accounts Australians have become the wealthiest people on earth, largely from flogging massive quantities to coal to China. Yet not all Australians are well off, especially not the first Australians, the aborigines. Asia Times brings to light the little town of Wilcannia, winner of the national Tidy Town
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – thwap highlights the cycle of austerity, stagnation and decline that’s marked the past few decades across much of the developed world. And Thomas Walkom recognizes that the economy is actually one of the Cons’ most glaring weaknesses – at least, if one thinks
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Australia Feels the Heat
Australians may have elected a climate change denier, Tony Abbott, as their prime minister but that’s not going to make their climate change problems go away. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation, better known as HSBC, has released a report that concludes Australia is rapidly moving up the ranks
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "Unequivocal"
Leaving no doubt; clear; unambiguous. The latest IPCC report concludes that mankind’s influence in driving climate change is beyond doubt, clear and unambiguous. Anthropogenic global warming is here, it’s here to stay and, unless we want a better future enough to change our ways, it’s going to get a hell
Continue readingAustralia—a win for Tony Abbott (and Richard Murdoch)
By all accounts Tony Abbott waged a highly effective campaign in leading his Liberal (conservative) Party to victory in the Australian election on Saturday. And it didn’t hurt that he faced a Labour Party splintered by internal bickering. But the biggest boost of all may very well have been the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
This and that for your Labour Day reading. – Jared Bernstein writes about the fight for fair wages in the U.S. fast food and retail industries. And Karen McVeigh notes that political decision-makers are starting to try to get in front of the parade of workers seeking a reasonable standard
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Simon Enoch nicely challenges the City of Regina’s blind faith in “risk transfer” by pointing out how that concept has typically been applied elsewhere: So what price should we put on such a risk transfer? This is where things can get dicey. How
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