Diversity and Relaxation, "less comfortable for some"

[tcpip]

The past week was quite diverse in its activities. I completed some Tetum translations for Accents Ireland, did some work on the T3 program website, completed a lengthy article on the development of storage technologies for the French peer-reviewed arts journal Organdi, wrote a review for RPG.net for the Rogue Mistress campaign book. Still on my agenda for today is an application as a sysadmin for VPAC. On a related topic I've decided to decline nominations for President, Vice-President and Ordinary Committee Member for Linux Users Victoria.

I have taken some R&R as a pleasant surprise; mainly playing the classic Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, but also with some tabletop gaming in the form of our retroAD&D game (now in Iceland for the "Hall of the Fire Giant King"). This was the final game of the current DM who has to leave our group, which is a shame as a player but certainly no loss as a DM. Last Saturday entertained ser_pounce and hathhalla with a feast and played Munchkin and Hacker. Rather rudely I won both games :-) Tonight I'm off to a new D&D group who have their game based in a (European) fantasy version of Australia.

Last Sunday the Melbourne Unitarian Church had another forum on climate change, this time with politicians from the major parties in attendence. The leader of the Democrats, Lyn Allison gave her spiel, for the Greens there was Adam Bandt, the Federal candidate for Melbourne and for the Australian Labor Party, there was Kelvin Thomson, member for Wills. The Liberal Party declined to attend, although Adam did remind those present of the utter ignorance of the current Prime Minister. To quote:

TONY JONES: Prime Minister, what do you think living in Australia would be like by the end of this century for your own grandchildren and for the grandchildren and great grandchildren of others, if the temperatures, the average mean temperatures, around the world do rise by somewhere between four and possibly even more than six degrees celsius?

JOHN HOWARD: Well, it would be less comfortable for some than it is now, but, Tony, I think it's very, very hard for us, in 2007, to try, with that kind of mathematical accuracy, with great respect to the scientists, to sort of extrapolate what things might be....

Comments

[uchuufuku.livejournal.com]

I agree, surely he can't be that misinformed.

I can deal with a world where our representatives are scumbags, but the thought that they really are that ignorant is a bit harder to swallow. (Then again, ignorance and a general distrust of science seems to be a running theme with the Liberals-- Abbott lobbying against RU-486 while not even understanding details of the current procedure springs to mind.)

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

You're saying that wilful corruption is somehow easier to swallow than ignorance? That's an odd way to look at it.

What I find disturbing is that no-one on the face of the planet would say they trust a politician - yet we still pay lip-service to democracy, pretending this shambles actually functions.

[uchuufuku.livejournal.com]

I wasn't being completely serious-- I meant more that we're used to corruption, but we assume they at least know better. But yes, good point.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

One of the points that Kelvin Thompson made was that the ALP was in the business of winning elections and as such they couldn't make environmental policy decisions that would lead them to lose elections. The obvious question raised was "well what if we need those policies to be introduced?"

And thus it comes back to the necessity of an informed electorate to make the right choices in a democracy. Howard's comments simply sow seeds of doubt where there is no doubt in the science. It is quite wicked of him.

[amazinggoatgirl.livejournal.com]

But if he thinks he can mold science to make it whatever he wants, why would he want to know about real science? I'm guessing he's ignorant because he's corrupt. He probably has a whole staff of people screening the information he's exposed to.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point and in nearly all cases I would agree. Indeed Hannah Arendt makes the same point in one of the essays in "Crises of the Republic".