blog action day 2007

mood: inceptive.
state i'm in: unified.
tune: benjamin diamond "little scare"


today is international 'blog action day', an annual date when all blogs on the net are encouraged to unite with a single theme. the theme for blog action day this year is the environment, and making a positive change to it. so here is my contribution.

in light of the fact that this week marks the commencement of the australian federal election campaign proper, i shall use this occasion to illuminate something that has really pissed me off lately, a discrepancy that sorely needs addressing. that discrepancy is the needs of the our world and the complete lack of effort our current government goes to in attempting to help slow down or reverse the damage being done to our world.


last year, former US presidential candidate al gore's film 'an inconvenient truth' was released to much critical acclaim. whilst since release, it has attracted some legal scorn in british courts, notably that over half a dozen of the statements made were not entirely correct, or based on scientific theories that have yet to be proven as concrete (concrete in the scientific sense, that is), the film has been found to be based largely on a rock solid premise that the current trend in global climate change is of direct and indirect consequence of human activity. the same court has given approval for the film to be aired as compulsory viewing in british schools.

the ultimate vindication for mr gore's work however, must be the shared awarding of the 2007 nobel peace prize to himself and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change". the nobel committee describes mr gore as "probably the single individual who has done most" to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be taken to tackle climate change.

of course our very own prime minister john howard, until recently himself a 'climate change sceptic', disagrees with the nobel committee. after all, what would they know, right. his description of 'an inconvenient truth' is that is just the work of a "peeved politician" and dismissed it outright. his and his party's criticisms of mr gore and his work and achievements continued in a similarly arrogant fashion.

astonishing as his dismissiveness of australian of the year and environmentalist tim flannery was, that he would discredit a nobel laureate's achievements, and the committee that upholds the belief that those laureates' achievements are of insurmountable significance to humankind, is a disgrace. as scott wrote in a response further down this page, "he should understand or at least embody empathy towards the mechanics and symbolism of the nobel prizes." but he and his government, deplorably, do not. it is utterly disrespectful and an embarrassment. shame on this arrogant government.


so how might this discrepancy be rectified? well, kevin07 is a step in the right direction for one.

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image: http://blogactionday.org/